Proposal
By reviving these orchards, both through research and by actively planting heritage varieties of fruit trees around the town centre and down the lanes this project could provide a direct link to a forgotten way of life as well as bring biodiversity, attractiveness and connection to nature right at the centre of town.
The Moray Council Development Appraisal of 2013 clearly outlines how the Orchards were lost. “The P
arking seems always to have been a problem in the town centre – one of the town guides of the late 1930s directed visitors to parking which was available at the Market Cross for the price of 6d.
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Opportunities were seized upon to improve the situation when word had arrived from the Regional Council that its administration was proposing to impose controlled parking, and with it a regime of parking charges across the town centre. The Forres councillors moved quickly into action, seizing the opportunity to acquire pockets of unused land and gardens in the backlands at notional cost in order to create a series of car parks close to the High Street. The arrangements involved establishing some new roads to give convenient access to these areas, causing some disturbance to the existing street pattern and the established urban grain”. (4)
It is evident by walking down the lanes how these new car parks physically changed the layout of the ‘backlands’ of Forres, however, no detail is given of the lost way of life: the traditions; the skill sets in harvesting and food production; the heritage crops; what changes led to the orchards becoming dispensable and how people responded to their removal.We envisage a town centre enlivened by visual connections to the rural past in the form of heritage fruit varieties such as Greengages, Medlars and Damsons individually planted in tubs or grouped on small plots of land around the lanes.
We envision a Heritage Orchard accessible to the public, in the garden of Achernack House to provide connection to our rural past. that people can visit to complement the Apple and Victoria plumb trees that are still there. We envision that community groups of all ages would be involved in the planting, maintaining, harvesting, food production and food sharing from these mini orchards, perhaps developing new traditions. We envision that some information boards would be on display to explain the history of the orchards and that visitors would be encouraged to take the ‘Orchard trail’ around the Heritage Quarter, especially at blossom time.
