Mapping British orchards

The London-based People's Trust for Endangered Species is mapping its Traditional Orchard Survey, an ongoing project to identify orchards in the United Kingdom.

Another group maps community orchards in England and Scotland.

The People's Trust survey has identified more than 50,000 fruit and nut orchards in England, Scotland, and Wales. 

The total includes abandoned and marginal orchards.

Zooming in on the map eventually resolves to individual orchards. 

Selecting an orchard's pin displays information about the orchard, including what is grows, if that is known. 

There is no way to filter the map by fruit, and but the survey on which the map is based is currently missing from the website available online. 

(Update: Thanks, see comments!)

HoweverAlso, the website provides two other maps:

• one searchable by variety name
• a map of more than a thousand community orchards that includes a location search

Community Orchards

Meanwhile, the Orchard Project, also based in London, has mapped the urban orchards it has supported since 2009, when the group began its work.

There are more than 500 of them in England and Scotland.

This map is searchable, but (as far as I can tell) only by orchard name.

The Project has a page of guides and advice on everything from selecting apple varieties to the nuts and bolts of a community cider pressing.

The Orchard Project also has a lively Twitter account.

Habitat

The People's Trust values traditional orchards as wildlife havens for such endangered species as the noble chafer beetle (Gnorimus nobilis). Per the Trust:

Traditional Orchards are defined, for priority habitat purposes, as groups of fruit and nut trees planted on vigorous rootstocks at low densities in permanent grassland; and managed in a low intensity way.

The Trust's website includes several guides for orchard biodiversity and FruitFinder, a searchable database that identifies traditional apple varieties (and other fruits and nuts) by UK region and use.

Another web pages include links to resources for identifying apple varieties.

Apples are not, per se, the focus of the Trust. But the pomacious fruit is nearly everywhere on the group's website.

It is testament to the way that the cultivation of apples has, over time, influenced and become part of ecosystems and human societies, all evolving together.

Update: This post has been revised to reflect information provided in comments, which may also be of interest.

Maps

• traditional orchards
• varieties
• community orchards
• urban community orchards