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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.
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
Summary
Number of trees: 69
Age of trees: newly planted
Crops grown: apple, pear, plum, gage, cherry
Area: Wigmore
Access: anytime
Size: 0.72ha
Incremental ID: ID: BEDF0436
History
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
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
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
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 Cherry (Prunus) Strawberry Heart ( Feb 2025) Colt?
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
Dead: Laxton’s Royalty MM106
Maintenance and pruning
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
Further research ideas for this location
compare different rootstocks and their performance, MM111 vs MM106
Label the trees
find more volunteers
explore collaboration with the nearby allotment (use of composting toilet, water access, mulch)
Do you want to help care for this orchard?
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.
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