A LYTH valley village could be teeming with fruit in years to come as plans for a community orchard begin to blossom, reports Lisa Fascarelli.

A steering group with designs on a small plot of land in the centre of Crosthwaite has been testing the fruity idea with villagers and local organisations.

The brainchild of Peter Cartmell, chairman of the Westmorland Damson Association, it was originally envisaged that the orchard would only bear damsons. But the group decided that the project was too taxing to take on single-handedly and enlisted the help of parishioners.

Douglas Blair, vice chairman of the Westmorland Damson Association is heading the community orchard steering group. He said: "The Damson Association thought it was too much to take on alone. We decided if we got the rest of the village involved there would be more helpers and so we held a meeting and invited everybody.

"It was decided that if it was to be a community orchard we should plant other fruit-bearing trees as well. People wanted to see apple, pear, damson and decorative trees like mountain ash and oak planted."

He explained that Crosthwaite and Lyth parish council had offered the group the one-acre plot of land on the Starnthwaite road for a small rent but stressed that plans for the community orchard were still in the formative stages.

"This is all still in the consultation phase and our first job is to organise a general meeting to gauge local interest and find out how viable the idea is. We need to decide how the orchard would be managed, who it would belong to and what we would do when it eventually bears fruit these are things that all still need to be explored."

The steering group, which also consists of two local mothers, Helen Wilson and Helen Smith, has taken advice from head forester at Sizergh Castle Brian Fereday

and Hilary Wilson of the Northern Fruit Group.

Mr Fereday has surveyed the site, drawn up a planting plan for between 50-70 trees and come up with ideas to protect the orchard from deer and sheep.

Although those who get involved with plans for the green community space would not see the fruits of their labour for several years damsons take about ten years to bear pickable fruit Mr Blair is keen to provide something for future generations: "If this all happens we wouldn't start planting until 2003 and would not see the fruit for years. But it would be nice to have a community orchard. I think trees are very important to the future of the land and for the benefit of future generations."

January 16, 2003 11:00