SCOG was recently invited by The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust to visit the large traditional orchard at Priory Field, Ketton - one of the largest and oldest traditional orchards in Rutland. We have now agreed with John Bristow, the Site Manager, to help manage the 24 apple trees. They need to be formally identified but seem to be mainly Bramley apples - possibly about 100 years old. They were originally planted as an orchard by Mr Burrows of Ketton, who planted many of the fine specimen trees in Ketton. There is also a very healthy population of mistletoe on the trees which could be encouraged to expand.
So the plan for the next few years will be to identify the trees, cut and stack some of the fallen trees, protect the tree bark from the grazing sheep, and plant a row of rare local variety trees on M25 rootstock that has just been purchased.
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