July - Summer Update 2025
A little update on the Redruth Orchard Project and how to get involved if you're local.
The Redruth Orchard Project is driven by volunteers and community activism, and we thank everyone for their contributions - it really is dependent on all of us who have participated and still do. The whole emphasis is on the fact that these are community spaces, for everyone, on our doorstep and that having our green spaces as productive, as well as spaces to enjoy, play and relax, is helping us all build more sustainable communities.
Add to this the fact that local people acquire the knowledge of what is growing where and the skills for how to care for the trees & can make use of and celebrate them, make these orchards all the more special.
There are 3 x community orchards in Redruth:
// Trenoweth Community Orchard //
A regular group of locals and orchard enthusiasts have met every Sunday at Trenoweth Community Orchard for the past couple of years, starting off with a huge area of bramble/scrub to tackle, it now consists of a (mostly) healthy bunch of fruit trees interspersed with retained bramble patches which act as shelter for the young trees and also offer habitat for a host of wildlife; a small fruit tree nursery managed by volunteers and areas of fruiting shrubs and more unusual plants & trees such as Sorbus domestica (Tree sorb tree) grown from seed. First trees planted in 2023.
// Trefusis Park Orchard //
A group of volunteers meet to look after this orchard less regularly than at Trenoweth, but no less committed to caring for it. We'd like to develop this group to be more regular, if you live in Redruth and would like to get involved please join us. Planted in 2025 and older trees planted by Cormac around 2018.
Next meeting on Tuesday 5th August at 1030-12 and Thursday 14th August at 1030-12. All welcome.
// East End Park Orchard //
A new orchard planted thanks to the recent Shared Prosperity Funding. Planted by students from a local primary school and members of the local community, working with Redruth Town Council Facilities Team. Planted in 2025.
// Funding & volunteering //
We secured some vital funding last year via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This allowed us to employ some community orchard freelancers on short term, p/t contracts to help strengthen and extend what has already been achieved by the community and voluntarily through ROC. This funding was essential in stepping up our work, enabling us to plant support shrubs and perennials to ensure the existing trees were able to fare better with improved pollinators & other useful plants. It also allowed us to organise group visits for volunteers to other orchards in the area to practice pruning older trees, preparing local people to look after the orchard trees as they grow. Numerous community engagement activities were delivered working with community groups and local organisations and survey results show that more people recognise the community orchards as the community assets they are.
Largely though, this continues to be a voluntary run, volunteer-led project, where local people are empowered to be actively involved in decision making for developing the orchards. It's only through empowering people that these orchards are really going to thrive.
The success and health of the trees at Trenoweth really is down to the dedication of local people. We work closely with Redruth Town Council, Cormac and Cornwall Council incl. Forest for Cornwall who have all been hugely supportive with woodchip drop offs, planting permissions, soil analysis & underground service checks. Obviously the work we do helps the council achieve their corporate goals - including working with the community and meeting biodiversity & sustainability aims.
Any support you can offer by promoting our work in Redruth, or further afield, encouraging people to get involved or through donations will help us to ensure these orchards grow well for a fruitful future and mean as many people as possible have the skills and knowledge to look after the trees now and in future years.
From the Redruth Orchard Project team.
Surveys:
Many thanks to Dr Colin French, local Environmental Consultant, who surveyed Redruth’s Trenoweth Community Orchard this month and produced this report for us. We are hugely grateful!
Colin idenitifed a designated rare and/or under threat species of Arum growing in the orchard called Late Cuckoo Pint (Arum italicum subsp. neglectum). This plant is “Nationally Scarce, a Cornwall Red Data Book species, on the Cornwall Rare PlantRegister and an Important Plant Area species.”
See the report below for more results.