Morwellham Orchard

The orchard was planted on 15th November 2007 by representatives of the National Trust, Tamar Valley AONB, and Tamar Grow Local CIC. Many of these varieties were initially saved and cultivated by Mary Martin and James Evans, and the National Trust has grafted these trees to establish orchards at both Cotehele and Morwellham Quay. The orchard will first and foremost be an orchard collection of local historic varieties, reflecting this important part of the history of the Tamar Valley, and also provide training opportunities. The varieties have also been selected mainly for the production of apple juice and cider, which will be sold through the retail and catering outlets at Morwellham Quay.

We will be providing a list of trees planted in the Morwellham Collection in due course. The planting arrangement for the orchard consists of an edge planting of trees with MM106 rootstocks, whilst the rest of the trees have M25 rootstocks. The M25 rootstock trees form the bulk of the planting but will require time to train up to become fully productive standard trees (9 to 10 years). The purpose of the MM106 edge is to act as a ‘quick win’ producing smaller semi-vigorous trees, which will to fruit 3 to 4 years from now.

The understorey design and management will need some consideration. Although not actually described as such, traditional orchard management techniques employed in the Tamar Valley are comparable to agroforestry systems. Variations on the theme included top fruit under grazed by sheep, under planted with cut flowers (daffodils, anemones etc.), and/or under planted with soft fruit – particularly strawberries. Many orchards were also grazed by sheep through much of the year.

Photo credit - Apples by Stephen Russell,