Clarkes Lane Orchard

History

In 2000, while living in a rented cottage on Great Common, Ilketshall St Andrew, in the somewhat unvisited country known as ‘The Saints’ in northeast Suffolk, I bought a small parcel of land tucked into a corner of fields and common land in the north of that parish.

Some fields had been put up for sale after the death of one of the two Cottam brothers, who along with a sister owned Birchams Farm and its adjacent fields. Myself and two couples talked ourselves into collectively bidding for one of the lots over drinks at the regular weekend bar nights at the village hall. After a nervous wait for our postal bid to be assessed against the others, we received the news that we had been successful, and the haggling over how to divide up the land began. I insisted that I only needed, and could afford, a small piece of land and therefore should have the triangle at the top end of the top field.

And so it was in August 2000 that I ended up with 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) of gently rising south-facing medium-clay loam land with hedges and a pond on Clarkes Lane, Ilketshall St Andrew.

Due to ancient and convoluted grazing rights on the cluster of commons in St Andrew and neighbouring St John, I knew that I had some ‘goings’ on the nearby Blacksmiths Common but suspected it wouldn’t be huge; when the newly-formed Ilketshall St Andrew and St John Land Management Company calculated this, I was informed that I indeed had “rights of 1/4 equivalent head of cattle”, though how best I could capitalise on this I wasn’t sure.

That winter I set about planting fruit trees towards the northern end of the field as it narrows towards the pond. These were mostly ‘half-standard’ apple trees on semi-dwarfing (MM106) rootstock, which would still produce trees eventually of 3-5m width and height; also some pear and plum trees on rootstock of equivalent vigour (Quince A and St Julien A respectively). The rest of the land I asked my farming neighbour Phillip Springall to plough, so that I could cultivate it in order to grow vegetables. By October 2000 I invited an advisor from the Soil Association to visit and in February 2001 began the two-year process of conversion of the land to organic status.

Around this time it was brought to my attention that an odd peninsula-like extension of Shipmeadow Common to the north, in the classic manner described by Oliver Rackham in his book The History of the Countryside, funnelled into the lane alongside my field and across the ideal place to site my entrance. Therefore I thought it best to move it further down the road and set about cutting down and digging out the hedge, and with the help of a friend digging and levelling a small parking area, topped off with some crushed concrete and brick rubble. Initially I put in a narrow wooden bridge, but after one or two incidents I didn’t dare bring my vehicle over it; this was later replaced with an earth ramp covered with more rubble over a traditional clay pipe laid in the ditch.

In the summer of 2001 I became homeless when my landlady sold the cottage, but by late August I had moved into a tiny caravan whose origin I can’t remember, which I sited on the field. The land sits towards the top of a slight rise bordering a large field to the west, therefore the location is somewhat exposed; and so I planted a shelter belt of ash and cherry trees on that edge.

After going through the first winter with a paraffin stove, a stranger called and asked if I would like him to make me a small wood burner from an old gas container, and which I duly paid him for. The weather that winter was very windy and I moved the caravan to the meagre shelter of a clump of small elms which grow on the edge of the large round pond in the neighbouring field. Being relatively high-sided and balanced on two small wheels the caravan still needed extra stabilising, so I tied a rope over the top and secured it to a pole struck into the ground at a 45-degree angle. More ‘half-standard’ fruit trees were planted at the top of the field.

I was enjoying living on the land, and purchased a lorry container to house my belongings and sited it at the bottom of the field. However, someone didn’t like this and so Waveney District Council paid a visit, and I was asked to apply for a two-year temporary planning permission and to paint the lorry container a shade of dark green. The application being successful, I continued living there and developing a vegetable and fruit growing smallholding, graduating to a larger (13-foot caravan), whilst also working part-time at the pioneering agroforestry site of Wakelyns Farm.

I began to transform the field and make it more sheltered by planting into and thickening up the west side hedge; also in the winter of 2004-05 planting a hazel hedge along the entire southern boundary. Suckers of the local damson and large sloe/bullace, as well as elm suckers and seedlings of hawthorn, dogwood, etc. were added into these hedges too.

After struggling against the weeds, I concluded that growing vegetables on a large scale without mechanical assistance was too difficult, and over the three winters 2004-05 to 2006-07 I bought in many more dwarf rootstock apple, pear and plum trees to be planted in close-set rows in the wide area in the middle of the field. Dwarf rootstock cherry, peach and apricot trees were also planted between vegetable beds at the bottom of the field.

The early planted trees were bought from such places as Ranworth Trees, who had a diverse range of sometimes unusual varieties, but no longer exists. Eddie Krutysza of Hattens Farm Nurseries in Metfield and Simpsons of Fordham supplied others. The later, larger plantings were sourced from the last of these as well as Frank P. Matthews in Tenbury Wells, Keepers Nursery of Maidstone, and Walcot Organic Nursery of Pershore. Other unusual and difficult to find fruit and nut trees I sourced from the Agroforestry Research Trust at Dartington.

I followed advice on which trees to plant for a range of ripening times, as well as for pest and disease resistance under organic growing conditions. Other single trees I planted because I already knew I liked that variety or because I liked the description of its flavour in a catalogue or book. What I ended up with was about 40 apple varieties, some as single albeit large specimens; and about 10 pear varieties, some as single very tall specimens. Also about six plum and gage varieties; a couple each of apricot and peach; and seven or eight cherry varieties including in the ash-and-cherry shelter belt.

All this planting involved the digging of several hundred substantial holes, breaking up the subsoil and adding a little compost, backfilling and firming down. 250 naturally wonky sweet chestnut stakes were purchased from Keith Potter of Copdock, south of Ipswich, who arrived with an overloaded trailer, stressed-out and swearing after a long journey and difficulty in finding the destination. The stakes were used, as per the recommendation, to support the dwarf rootstock trees in rows on account of their weak root growth. These were ‘planted’ along with each tree and knocked in with a heavy metal post driver. I was aided in this by a strong, and crucially, tall friend named Kevin Beckett. However, over the years I have removed them all because mostly the trees were growing straight enough; after 15 years many had survived, tending to become subject to rot only at ground level, such is the durability of sweet chestnut wood. As a bonus they have subsequently proved useful for other tasks, including much later as posts to attach wires for supporting grapevines.

Almost as soon as the trees were safely planted, we began to experience several prolonged dry spells in spring, running into early summer. While long droughts are not unprecedented in East Anglia, it does seem that there have been more since the turn of the century, and I remember a couple of extremely dry years in the 1990s. Luckily, at this time of year there is moisture not far down in the soil, particularly in the clay soil the orchard sits on. However, there is no doubt that average temperatures are increasing around the globe due in large part to the rapid growth in carbon dioxide levels. This being said, I don’t think every bit of bad weather can be blamed on the warming climate.

Meanwhile, in January 2006 I moved to the relatively more comfortable surroundings of an ex-military wooden bungalow relocated to the end of the village street in Topcroft, south Norfolk. In summer it was idyllic, but due to its position next to the Beck, and hence liable to flooding, it was raised on bricks, which allowed the air to circulate underneath and therefore was freezing cold in winter.

I continued to plant fruit trees in that winter and the next, but the time of living on site had ended, apart from a couple of summers, and therefore the orchard became a place which I visited. However, during these few years the basic layout of the orchard had been established.

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