By Grace Hills
St Peter’s Church on Hough Lane in Bramley has been awarded funding from the Coronation Orchard scheme, through Leeds City Council, to plant an orchard in a section of the church yard.
And members of the community are celebrating with a community apple juicing day.
The people of Bramley are warmly welcomed to The Great Bramley Apple Day on Sunday 13th October from 12pm-2pm outside St Peter’s Church to make apple juice using a traditional apple scratter and press.
Alongside the juicing there will be apple-related crafts and games and people will have a chance to see the plans for the orchard and have their say.
The Rev Julia Wilkins, the Rector of Bramley, said: “We have an ideal space for creating a community orchard and we hope it will become a haven for biodiversity.”
The scheme, which is funded by the Coronation Living Heritage Fund, will see thousands of trees planted to mark the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III, celebrating His Majesty’s passion for the environment.
The fund will enable local authorities to create green spaces and connect communities with nature as a permanent reminder of the Coronation, while helping meet the government’s targets to treble tree planting rates by the end of this Parliament and ensure that 16.5% of land area is under tree cover by 2050.
The Church of England’s vision for is for local churches to be carbon neutral by 2030 and is encouraging churches to plant trees and think about how to use the land around its buildings to benefit the environment, nature and community.
The projects funded by the Coronation Living Heritage Fund will be creating new community orchards and micro woodlands in urban areas. Leeds has received funding for 7 new orchards.
Grace Hills, a member of the St Peter’s congregation and a keen community gardener, said: “We’re hoping that lots of people will join us at the apple day and the tree planting.
“This orchard is for the Bramley community, you don’t have to be a churchgoer to get involved. We’ll need lots of volunteers to help plant, water and prune the trees, so if you are interested in learning about fruit trees and helping with the community orchard, please come along.”
Leeds City Council are collaborating with local fruit tree specialists, Fruit Works to deliver the work and to plant fruit trees to create orchards, with the successful community groups who received the funding, including Armley, Wortley, Chapeltown, Crossgates and Great Preston.
Look out for further details on St Peter’s Church social media pages to get involved with planting the orchard in January 2025.
- Check out WLD’s what’s on section for more local events.
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