John Thompson (1941-2015) planted the WTG seed. His life’s mission was to create beautiful tree-lined spaces for the benefit of local communities and wildlife. He proposed the Wolvercote Commoners Committee appoint a Tree Warden. Peter Adams put his hand up and the WTG was born in 1993.
The founder members of the group were Peter Adams (Chair), Jo Malden, Nick Burrows, Tim Metcalfe, Mary Franklin and Lorna Logan. Helen Coyte joined soon after to represent Upper Wolvercote and John Thompson formally joined the committee when he moved to Wolvercote in 2007.
Wolvercote Community Orchard
The Community Orchard was one of the earliest projects, started in 1994 on an unused strip of allotments owned by the Oxford Preservation Trust, opposite the historic Trout Inn. The idea to create an orchard came from one of our founders members, Tim Metcalfe, after reading a Common Ground leaflet on English orchards and the decline of many English apple varieties. With this in mind our initial aim was to create an orchard in the village where you could find many of these forgotten, local varieties.
From Tiny Seeds
The first 20 trees were planted with the help of children from the Wolvercote Wildlife Watch Group. Since that time we have gradually added more varieties as well as plums, pears, cherries and quince. Local apple varieties such as Bampton Fairing, Winter Greening and Annual Sweeting were planted to join the collection and it was not long before we discovered Fred Wastie from Eynsham who developed an impressive number of apple varieties in the early part of the last centrury. Many of these were added to the orchard including St Peggy, Peggy’s Pride and Red Army which were apparently named after his wife. See the Community Orchard page for full details of the current plantings.
The Well
When we first took over the land, we found an old, dilapidated and disused well in the middle of the plot. After rebuilding, it has become a fine central focus for the orchard, very useful in the dry summer months. It is flamboyantly dressed for the very special occasion of our annual autumn Apple Day celebrations.
Ralph Austen
Celebrated by a plaque on the cover, the well is dedicated to Ralph Austen, a seventeenth-century nurseryman. A self-taught botanist, his philosophy was akin to today’s naturalists and environmentalists. He believed that growing fruit trees would encourage self-sufficiency and charitable deeds within a community. Sent to Oxford to plant and study apple trees by Oliver Cromwell, he went on to build the City’s first cider factory. In 1653 he published a book in which he suggested: “every gentleman should go down from Oxford and plant an apple tree in his village to alleviate the starving and the poor”. Sadly he died with no children to carry on his ideals and the only plaque to commemorate him is now in our Community Orchard.
