Who Are Growing Newbury Green?
Growing Newbury Green was formed in 2012 after founder member Jeremy Gorbold suggested growing fruit trees on open spaces and parks in Newbury. With the agreement of Newbury Town Council we planted our first orchard at Barn Crescent that year and kept going from there! We now have over 60 apple trees in several sites around the town and awaiting our first major harvest any year now.
Alongside that we branched (sorry) out to filling shopping trolleys with herbs and lettuces and displaying them around town to publicise the Newbury In Bloom competition and in 2018 had a larger raised bed sited on Lock Island by the canal to try out a more substantial planting of crops - have a look at the photos further down this page.
We want to make more free food available in the town - it'll be local, fresh and an asset to the community over the coming years. Please join us on this growing journey.
Barn Crescent 10th Anniversary 2022
On Sunday 13th March we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the planting of our first orchard at Barn Crescent, followed by some hard work plating a new edible hedge – including raspberries, hazelnuts, blackberries and other goodies. Here are photos of the event:
Councillor Jeff Beck, who as mayor planted some of the first trees in 2012, with celebratory local cider. On the right, our Founder, Jeremy Gorbold - who originally had the idea of community planting that the group developed - along with daughter Josie and GnG coordinator Tony Hammond - all were also at the 2012 planting. This started a decade long partnership with Newbury Town Council and local residents at each site as we created new orchards. See the Our Projects page to find out more.
The full planting and pruning team to the left, on the right the new edible hedge area - not too much to see yet with the young fruit bushes!
We would like to thank Waitrose for their generous donation of £400. This will help fund our plans for 2022 and also replacing diseased trees. Unfortunately some of our trees have developed canker and although we have cut out what we can, some will need to be replaced.
If you would like to get involved with any of these projects then get in touch – details are on the contact page.
Also coordinator Tony Hammond received this year's Newbury Town Council Civic Award for Environmental Contribution, for the work done over that past 10 years. Here's a photo from the event in the Town Hall on March 16th, with Mayor Billy Drummond overseeing the award ceremony.
Ceinwen Lally and Judy Cooper, the founders of our companion project Newbury Apple Day were also nominated.
This is as much an award for the whole group for our dedication over a decade to developing and maintaining the orchards
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New micro orchard for 2022 Roebuts Close
We planted a micro orchard of 6 trees at Roebuts Close, Newbury on 12th Feb on the green space at one end of this road in southern Newbury. Residents were overwhelming in their support for this project and several came out to help with the planting. Photos of the event can be found in the Gallery section.
Wassail 2022
At last! With no Covid restrictions we finally had our first in person Wassail on Saturday 8th January at the Barn Crecent orchard. Despite the rain we had 25 revellers joining in. Here's some photos of the procession, cider pouring and our local singing group "Sing the World" performing an arrangement of an old Wassail song.
