The Orchard Project on Simon Field Farm is known as The Old English Fruit Company. It was created by the owner who is passionate about traditional English fruits tastes, textures and aromas.

Having grown up on a working orchard where, childhood memories of her parents Autumn task was climbing ladders up old gnarled trees to gather in the season's juicy crop.

Where basket upon basket was carried to the outhouse. Mum "Russ" was always busy preparing, weighing and selling fruit to local people and children from the nearby school.

Winters where the huge walk in loft was an oasis of mesh trays storing all types of  apples, pears and other fruits of all varieties just dormant until they were needed. Row upon row of Russets, Pippins, Williams and Conference, which all exuded a distinctive woody but pleasant sweet smell of rain on spring blossom all neatly and individually wrapped in newspaper to preserve them and wrapped with love.

Downstairs the shelves of neatly arranged Kilner jars in the pantry of preserved pears, apples and damsons, all consumed with great enjoyment over the dark winter months either in a tasty pie or or with a tin of delicious Carnation cream generously poured over the bowl of scrumptious and nutritious fruit, after a tea of  free range boiled eggs on a Sunday evening.

The newly created orchards are dedicated solely to the restoration and celebration of a time gone by and to safeguard the heritage of some wonderful fruit that would never be seen in a supermarket today, resulting in them becoming rarer as each year that passes.

We work closely with other Orchard projects and specialist growers around England Scotland and Ireland helping to preserve lesser known fruit trees  who are also passionate about conserving and creating new orchards that will last for decades to come.

We will be offering training, talks and workshops to promote the heritage of these wonderful trees. we run celebration events such as Apple Days, Bee husbandry sessions and working in partnership with the honey bees from the farms own beehives, whose work is very important to the trees cross pollination, we also offer visitors the opportunity to don on a bee suit and visit the farms Apiary.

There are many fruit trees with local origin on the farm, Bolingbroke Beauty, Ellisons Orange, Herrings Pippin and Alfords very own Philadelphia. There is also an area dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton with apple trees which are a direct descendants of the very apple tree that Sir Isaac Newton sat under when he discovered the Theory of Gravity which Newton called his "Years of Wonder".

Over on the eastern side of the meadow there is the newly planted Nut Wood which has been planted with over 50 nut bearing young trees. These trees have been planted

as part of the Woodland Trust's initiative, "Plant A Tree For Those Who Fell", these trees commemorate fallen servicemen during World War One and eight taller Beech trees have been planted in a V for Victory, each representing an Anderby resident who went to war and never returned. In those days Anderby was a very small community and to lose eight people would have been a huge impact on the hamlet and local farming. The Nut Wood at Simon Field Farm is a legacy in honour of those brave people. It is hoped to find relatives of the servicemen and seek permission to name each tree in their memory. When the Nut Wood is more mature, seating will be placed under the beech trees and this will provide a tranquil and scenic place to sit and quietly reflect.However this will be a few years in the future as the whips of trees are only just getting established.

The orchards and meadow are a haven for wildlife and the trees have become a good habitat for a number of unusual birds. During 2016 we followed the development on the bird box web cam of 5 Siskins. A regular visitor to the Plum orchard was a buzzard who was named Bobby, Marsh Harriers were very prominent and there were regular evening forage trips along the dyke side by the Barn Owls nesting on the farm, a pleasure to watch on a summers evening as the sun sets over the fields behind.

The creation of a traditional orchard is a biodiversity rich environment because the trees share as they age, physical characteristics will appear on the native trees by developing fissured bark, rot holes caused by pruning wounds and inevitably dead wood, all of these create rich food sources and habitats for other wildlife to use. As mosses, fungi and lichens develop, mammals, insects and birds thrive and by creating an orchard of native fruit and nut trees. Plus the various bug hotels we have placed around the land. Simon Field Farm and The Old English Fruit Company are leaving a valuable legacy for generations to come.

                                                           Waes Hael!

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