St James Village Orchard - The Orchard In 2025
This is a community orchard made out of a corner triangle of open agricultural land. It lies on the edge of the Suffolk village of St James South Elmham, where there once was a Pleasure Ground.
The land up there is the same as where we lived from when I was fifteen, on the high plateau of Suffolk. We lived on one side of the disused aerodrome, and the orchard is on the other.
The gate’s at one point and two straight roads run along two sides, but they are quiet roads – it’s not a populated part. Two houses can be seen over the hedges: there steep pitched roofs are pointing into the vast sky.
Over the last 14 years, the trees have begun to mature, and the size of the crop continues to increase. Now a nationally recognised and award-winning site, the St James Village Orchard is popular as an amenity with residents and an increasing number of visitors from the surrounding area and beyond. It is used for village events, hosting our Jubilee Strawberry Tea and subsequent village Summer Tea in the Orchard events, and by external organisations including art groups and schools. Local naturalists and wildlife organisations take great interest in the birds that it attracts and its rich variety of plants. The orchard is a reference point for other organisations, including the National Trust’s Orchard Network, and the committee hosts visits for other orchard initiatives and provides presentations and material to support them. The original orchard web site, containing extensive information about the orchard’s development and useful material for those considering similar ventures, was frequently and widely accessed. The material from that has been updated, expanded and transferred to this, our home village website.
Finally, and not least, the increasing crop of fruit and nuts from the growing trees are a tasty source of great interest for jam and preserves, a variety of fruit juices, or just for eating.