There was an enthusiastic attendance of around 30 people at the first ever meeting of Eye & Dunsden Community Orchard. Guest speaker Gillian Coombs of Cross Lanes Fruit Farm in Mapledurham described the orchard year, highlighting some of the many opportunities for community involvement. David Woodward and Sara Granshaw outlined their research into community orchards, citing many intriguing possibilities from apple bobbing to village picnics, wassailing by Morris Men and natural play areas for children. Dunsden WI kindly provided refreshments.

A vote was taken and there was unanimous agreement that creating a community orchard was an excellent idea. A date for a second meeting has been tentatively fixed for Monday March 5 at 8pm in Dunsden Village Hall. It is hoped this meeting will form a working party to make further progress with the planned orchard.

You can get full details of the plan by viewing the PDF slides from the meeting