Wigmore Valley PArk Peace Garden orchard

Tucked away on the northern edge of Wigmore Valley Park, this orchardwas planted by the Peace Garden Initiative in 2021 to commemorate lives lost during the coronavirus pandemic. On it's way to become a national fruit collection, it contains historic Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire varieties of apple, pear plum and cherry.

Summary

History

Wigmore Valley Park Pace Garden orchard was planted in 2021 by the Peace Garden Initiative to commemorate lives lost during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Experts from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project carefully selected the varieties, with the aim of the orchard in time becoming a National Plant Collection. National collections are an important way to conserve cultivated plants. To deserve collection status, Wigmore Valley Park orchard contains many of the known varieties of apple, pear and plum and cherry from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Watch a video about the Peace Garden Project's planting of the orchard at Wigmore Valley Park

Youtube video about the Peace Garden Project and the planting in December 2021 of this orchard in Wigmore Valley Park.
Trying out the final guard design. 
69 x 3 (207) posts and guards installed by volunteers in October 2022. 
Testing the best way to install fencing while still allowing the guard to be opened for maintenance. 
Beautiful concentric circles of 69 different trees on the planting plan design.  
67 trees are logged in Arbortrack, Luton Council's tree maintenance software - where are the missing 2? 
69 tree locations have been physically tagged. This is the actual number of trees on this site and will make future identification much easier. For ease of tagging, we used this structure: Outer perimeter (green on map), Central circle (red on map), Eastern circle (blue on map), Western intersection (yellow on map)

Types of crop and known cultivars at this orchard

The orchard contains apples, pears, plums and cherries from historical Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire varieties. 

Luton Orchards worked with Barnfield College, Luton Council and the Peace Garden Initiative to tag the 'planting stations'. As the orginal planting tags wear off over quickly, this will make it easier to identify the planted tree cultivars. 

As a result, an almost complete and extensive tagged list of cultivars for all 68 trees exists, including rootstock information. 

Mostly planted in 2021

OP= outer perimeter (green on map)
CC= central circle (red on map)
EC = eastern circle (blue on map)
WI = western intersection (yellow on map)

Tag   Location Type Cultivar Rootstock

0881 OP Apple (Malus) Lane's Prince Albert MM106

0882 OP Apple (Malus) New Hawthornden MM106

0883 OP Apple (Malus) S.T. Wright MM106

0884 OP Apple (Malus) Cox’s Orange Pippin MM106

0885 OP Apple (Malus) Bazeley MM111?

0886 OP Apple (Malus) Bedfordshire Foundling MM106

0887 OP Cherry (Prunus) Bigarreau Napoleon Colt

0888 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton's Exquisite   MM106

0889 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Reward MM106

0890 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Rearguard MM106

0891 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Fortune MM111

0892 OP Pear (Pyrus) Forelle Quince A

0893 OP Apple (Malus) Balls Pippin MM106

0894 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton's Favourite MM106

0895 OP Apple (Malus) Staward’s Seedling MM106

0896 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Triumph MM106

0897 OP Pear (Pyrus) Beurre Bedford Quince A

0898 OP Apple (Malus) Grenadier MM106

0899 OP Pear (Pyrus) Laxton’s Foremost Quince A

0900 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Leader MM106

0901 OP Apple (Malus) Rivers St Martin MM106

0902 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Pioneer MM106

0903 OP Apple (Malus) Fairie Queen MM106

0904 OP Apple (Malus) Warner's King MM106

0905 OP Apple (Malus) Laxton's Victory

0906 OP Apple (Malus) Beauty of Bedford MM106

0907 OP Apple (Malus) Crawley Beauty OR Goblin

0908 OP Apple (Malus) Hitchin Pippin MM106

0909 OP Plum (Prunus) Marjorie's Seedling

0910 OP Apple (Malus) Rivers Early Peach MM106

0920 OP Plum (Prunus) Aylesbury Prune (damson) St Julien A

0921 CC Apple (Malus) Court Pendu Plat MM111

0922 CC Cherry (Prunus) Cassia Colt

0923 CC Apple (Malus) Bedford Pippin MM106

0924 CC Plum (Prunus) Bountiful St Julien A

0925 CC Apple (Malus) Bushey Grove MM106

0926 CC Apple (Malus) Red Claygate MM111

0927 CC Apple (Malus) Lord Lambourne MM106

0928 CC Apple (Malus) Prince Edward MM106

0929 CC Apple (Malus) Thomas Rivers MM106

0930 CC Pear (Pyrus) Rousselet De Stuttgardt Quince A

0931 CC Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Royalty MM106

0932 CC Pear (Pyrus) Black Worcester Quince A

0933 CC Apple (Malus) Owen Thomas MM106

0934 CC BLANK

0935 CC Apple (Malus) Pam’s Delight MM106

0940 EC BLANK

0941 EC Apple (Malus) Gavin MM106

0942 EC Pear (Pyrus) Marguerite Marillat Quince A

0943 EC Apple (Malus) Langley Pippin MM106

0944 EC Apple (Malus) Laxton’s Pearmain MM106

0945 EC Apple (Malus) Redcoat Grieve MM106

0946 EC Apple (Malus) Laxton's Herald MM106

0947 EC BLANK

0948 EC Apple (Malus) River's Nonsuch MM106

0949 EC Apple (Malus) Laxton's Peerless MM106

0960 WI BLANK

0961 WI Prunus Cambridge Gage St Julien A

0962 WI Apple (Malus) Laxton's Advance MM106

0963 WI Apple (Malus) Aldenham Blenheim MM106

0964 WI Apple (Malus) Duchess of Bedford MM106

0965 WI Apple (Malus) Ballard Beauty MM106

0966 WI Apple (Malus) Laxton's Epicure

0967 WI Apple (Malus) Laxton's Early Crimson MM106

0968 WI Apple (Malus) Dawn MM106

0969 WI Apple (Malus) September Beauty MM106

0970 WI BLANK

0971 WI Cherry (Prunus August Heart Colt

0972 WI Apple (Malus) Hormead Permain MM111

UNASSIGNED CULTIVARS

0947 or 0940? Outer perimeter Apple (Malus) Crimson Newton Wonder

Unassigned Outer perimeter Prunus (cherry) GOBLIN Colt

unassinged Western intersection? Apple (Malus Hambling's Seedling

unassinged Western intersection? Apple (Malus) Strawberry Heart

unassinged Central circle Apple (Malus Brownlees Russet

unassinged Central circle Apple (Malus Laxton's Superb

unassinged Eastern circle Apple (Malus Voyager

unassinged Eastern circle Apple (Malus) Young's Pinello

Maintenance and pruning

Extensive deer damage in winter 2023/24 kicked an ad-hoc programme of maintenance into action. 

With funding from the Peace Garden Initiative, and the help of Luton Council Conservation Volunteers and Barnfield College, we've started to improve the guards. 

Works need to be finished by January 2025, because late winter is the time when the trees are most in danger of being nibbled by deer. 

Posts and guard crushed - was it a vehicle in the park? You can still see track marks in the background. 
This young tree has succumbed to nibbling. 
The shock in 2023: Deer damage - ringbarking - which will easily kill a young tree. The soft wood is sweet and tasty - especially attractive in January/February when nothing much else to eat is around. It turned out that the deer were able to get their heads through the deer fencing. This had not been a problem in the previous season - maybe the deer needed a year to discover the trees?
Tagging as a first step towards longer-term maintenance and getting to know the site. Installing the tags on the stakes. 
Students recorded the tag against any remaining labels.
Paper records of tags and remaining labels 
A pen-written 'backup' of the tag number is written on the pole. 
Important: letting passers-by know what's going on. 
An anthill in the guard - good for biodiversity but in this case bad for the tree as the soil will rot the bark and breach the graft line. 
Students raking hay to be used as mulch. 
A teacher testing the scythe (no students allowed!) 
Students and teachers from Barnfield College's Skills for Life department. After a good morning's work in June 2024. 
2024: After testing different types of guard, we've settled on improving on the existing fencing with plastic mesh. 
2024: a better guarded tree (hopefully!)
8 May 2024 - Owen Thomas (?) in blossom. 

Further research ideas for this location

Do you want to help care for this orchard? 

Luton's orchards need your help. If you'd like to find out more about how to volunteer at this or any orchard, we would love to hear from you. Sign up for our mailing list or send us a message.