In the Autumn of 2016, towards the end of Strumpshaw Coffee Break’s first year, we invited people to an Apple Day under an auspicious title: Bring apples, taste apples, swap apples, identify apples; and a slightly overinflated sense of our ability: Have you ever wanted to know what your apples are? Fortunately Jenny Williams, a founder of our community-based Coffee Break, was the brain behind this inaugural apple day with a stack of information, contacts and an introduction to Blofield Community Orchard, still nurtured under the knowledgeable and gentle leadership of Richard Codling.
But Jenny was more than just the brains: she was passionate about community, she had a love of old English varieties of apples and wanted others to discover them. Fast forward five years and another person who longed to have a community orchard, Sheila Ashford, then Chairperson of the Parish Council, managed to find some Parish Council land, the old Stone Pit, that the Council approved for use as a community orchard. This felt a fitting transition for a place that had once freely supplied Strumpshaw residents with stones. Sadly, Jenny’s life was shortened by Parkinsons, so there seemed no better way of honouring her input to our community than naming Strumpshaw’s community orchard ‘Jenny’s Orchard’.
Bring on Bob and Dani from The Shoulder of Mutton…
We are delighted to announce that we are taking the lead with Strumpshaw Community Orchard.
With this in mind, if anyone would like to help us keep on top of looking after the orchard, please call 01603 926530 or pop in & confirm with Bob. We tend to meet a few hours a year to maintain the area.