Wirral Tree Wardens
Orchard News
see Wirral Pomona, for details of the Heritage Open Days and associated work events at Brimstage Orchard
Please avoid visiting the orchard at present, apart from when there's an apple day, Heritage Open Day or associated clearing-up event. While there are changes being implemented in the organisation of volunteers, we have public liability and volunteer insurance which is limited to these occasions.
Neither the Wirral Tree Warden Network, Wirral Pomona or the Estate accept any liability for any mishaps to unauthorised visitors.
Risks include uneven ground, wasps, poisonous weeds, bees, and many more unlisted. Some of the trees have had branches fall when we have been working in the orchard.
we are always learning about Brimstage:
The owner of one of the businesses in the Hall told us, in early Autumn, 2022, of a visitor they'd had. She was apparently one of the last people to live in the hall and said that in the orchard, at one stage, had contained a graveyard.
We'll have to check that.....
The traditional orchard was planned for fruit to be ready at different times and some varieties that keep well into the next year.
in the order of readiness for picking, we have:
plums
James Grieve apples
wild crab apples
Damsons
Grenadier apples
Denbigh Plum
Williams' Bon Chrétien pear
Worcester Pearmain apples
Redsleeves apples
Greensleeves apples
Withington Welter apples
Lord Derby apples
Annie Elizabeth apples
Red Partridge pears
Bramley apples
Cox's apples
Rival apples
Burr Knot apples
Court Pendu Plat apples
Comice pears
Conference pears
Malus Baccata
Egremont Russet apples
Crawley Beauty apples
Orchard Work, Autumn/Winter, 2023
The immediate work is to clear rides through the orchard for easier access for beekeepers, yoga groups and volunteers. The grass and meadow herbs have been allowed to grow long, flower and set seed, but will be mown in time for late summer pruning. We have lots of twigs, branches and grass cuttings to move and stack.
We also have trees which we have successfully cleft grafted in previous years, where we have to remove the growth from the interstock material, and some of the trees from the original planting which are declining because they are on unsuitable rootstocks, on shallow ground over spoil material from the buildings which were on the site, or had mower damage which had provided lesions for cankering to take hold. Mostly the six trees in the middle of the orchard show a combination of all three defects. We will have to consider how best to replace them. The affected trees are Redsleeves and Greensleeves varieties, which are neither heritage nor local varieties.
on 7th January, 2017, we learned that Leverhulme Estates, the owners of the land where we manage a demonstration orchard had applied for planning permission which includes the creation of a car park in the orchard.
Thankfully several readers of this website drew our attention to the application and we have had assistance from Tree Wardens, supporters, friends and from regional, national and local expert organisations. This helped us to draw up our case for retaining the management of the orchard and improving it further in line with the original intentions.
This includes its continuing to be a traditionally managed orchard, largely of heritage varieties of fruit trees with local origins or with strong associations with this area, but also improving public access and its role as an asset to the Brimstage Complex “at the heart of the Wirral.”
We now have satisfactory informal agreements with Leverhulme Estates.
Activity Days at Brimstage:
Dave learns to scythe, ready to clear under the trees at Brimstage, Roger shows off his enjoyment of the high standard of refreshments and service for volunteers and Marg prepares to climb an orchard ladder - some kind of high-level magic trick?
Pruning and harvesting plums is around early August at Brimstage. These are some pictures from July 2017, as you can see we had a good time. We managed to clear beneath most of the trees and remove any rotten fruit. In 2018, despite the heavy rain and dry spells, most trees look healthy and full of fruit
Justine involved the orchard in a wild-dyeing project: raising funds for Tree Sisters, celebrating Earth Day and adding to the Fashion Revolution! and also making use of the prunings from our apple trees to give a natural peach-colour to a cotton T shirt. Her project uses natural materials to re-wild old garments: read more at http://naturalfabricdyeing.com/fashion-revolution-rewild-wirral-pt-1/ and http://naturalfabricdyeing.com/fashion-revolution-re-wild-wirral-pt-2/
In 2018, Brimstage was included in Wirral Festival of Firsts, inspiring images and words on the theme of Green Spaces in Wirral. These were exhibited around Wirral and encourage visitors to look around and appreciate! The picture below was a prize winner, taken by Almudena at a Blossom Day. The images on the right were at an earlier event, which included the rewilding the wardrobe project and the wishing flags project.