How it all started
The idea for a Community Orchard in Baslow arose from a Parish Council meeting in March 2012 and was enthusiastically supported by a group of volunteers from the village. The intention was to produce an attractive area for use by people of all ages from across the village and, at the same time, produce a lasting memorial of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. A piece of land, owned by the Parish Council was felt to be relatively underused and not in good condition, so there was an opportunity to improve the environment too.
Public meetings supported the idea in principle and felt that the orchard would help to preserve some traditional and local varieties of apple trees, it would help bring the community together by offering a focal point for activities during the year and could also be used as an asset by the local school if a ‘story circle’ was incorporated in it. Preliminary plans were developed and further refined to accomodate some concerns raised by residents very local to the area. The Parish Council approved the final proposals in October 2012 and have asked that the day to day management of the orchard is passed to a separate group although they will retain ownership of the land and overall responsibility for it.
Once the proposals had been approved by the council, and the planting carried out, responsibility for the management of the orchard was passed to a community-based group to manage, in accordance with a management plan agreed with the council.
The community-based group is the “Baslow Community Orchard Group” and for legal reasons is constituted as a company limited by guarantee. Residents of Baslow are welcomed to join the group, and the group will hold general meetings from time. The group will register as a charity. A copy of the group’s Articles of Association is available here.