Land > Wolvercote Community Orchard
History
Oxford Preservation Trust acquired the land now occupied by the Wolvercote Community Orchard in 1934. The plot was threatened with development and the Trust, with the aid of a £500 donation from one of its members was able to step in and ensure its preservation.
The Donation from Philip Leslie Agnew, a publisher and graduate of New College, was in memory of his son, Ewan Siegfried Agnew. Ewan, born in 1894, also a student at New College, enlisted for war service in 1914 and served in Egypt and in France, where he was decorated. He died in 1930.
The Trust’s purchase of this plot, and its dedication to Ewan Agnew, are commemorated by a plaque, installed in 1940 on the wall around the orchard created by Eric Gill.
Eric Gill (1882-1940) was a renowned sculptor, wood-engraver, typographer and draughtsman of the Arts and Crafts movement. His work, shaped by his commitment to social reform and to the integration of art and religion, was widely influential across disciplines.
The Orchard
The Wolvercote Community Orchard was created at the suggestion of Tim Metcalfe, of the Wolvercote Tree Group, after he came across a Common Ground leaflet on orchards. He approached the Tree Group with the project, and suggested the land adjacent to his allotment as a suitable plot. The Group embraced the idea, supported by the Forest of Oxford and by Oxford Preservation Trust, who agreed to lease the land for a rent of a basket of apples a year. After some intensive work clearing the neglected plot, the orchard was first planted in 1994.
The aim of the Tree Group is to use the community orchard to reintroduce rare or forgotten species of apple trees, in particular local varieties. Today, the orchard boasts over 30 varieties of apple, along with some pear, quince and plum trees (including Grenadier, Leathercote Fiesta, Falstaff, Winston, St Julien Gage, Cambridge Gage, Eynsham Dumpling, Pitmaster Pine, Flower of Kent, Blenheim Orange, Ashmead Kernel, Meechers Prolific, Vranga, Tom Putt, Oxford Conquest, Hanweel Scouring, Marston Duchess, Julien de Chretien, Rev Wilks, Orleans Reinette, Ellison’s Orange, Tydeman’s Early, Discovery, Victoria Plum, Warwickshire Drooper, Early Victoria, Gladstone, Lord Derby, Ribstone Pippin, Lane’s Prince Albert, Charles Ross &Josephine de Malins)
An annual ‘Apple Day’ held in the Orchard celebrates the rich diversity of fruit planted there.
Ralph Austen
On Apple Day 1995, the orchard was dedicated to Ralph Austen, a seventeenth century Oxford nurseryman who had promoted the idea of community orchards.
A highly respected, well-read, self-taught botanist with an active interest in politics, religion and local industry, Ralph Austen started a nursery in the 1650s, and went into the silk and cider trades—building Oxford’s first cider factory.
He died in 1676, leaving no heirs to carry on his businesses or promote his ideals. He was buried in his parish church, St Peter-le-Bailey, on the site of Bonn Square. No memorial for Austen appears in the rebuilt church, but his name is now remembered in a fitting fashion at the orchard.
A Treatise of Fruit Trees, Ralph Austen’s book on orchards, was published in 1653. This presented his philosophy, akin in many ways to today’s environmentalism.
He believed that growing fruit trees would encourage self-sufficiency and charitable acts, and help bring about God’s kingdom on earth.
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