(This webpage was first published on 31st January 2025 and was launched on 4th April 2025.

Red-coloured text indicates where preparations are ongoing and information is incomplete.)

Volunteers with Chichester Community Wardens and Transition Town Chichester invite you to get to know Chichester’s first modern community orchard – why it’s there, what it’s doing, who looks after it and how you can use it.

Find us in the green space outside Chichester Festival Theatre's Cafe on the Park (approximate What3Words location ///flags.leave.weedy ) between 10am and 3pm, where we will be offering free activities, mini-tours and information to share our love of these wildlife-rich, productive communal spaces and encouraging you to explore other community orchards near you. 

• Displays and conversation that showcase community orchards:

The history of this orchard; other local orchards; how you too could start (or rejuvenate) a community orchard.

TTC volunteers and Sophie, Chichester District Council's Tree Project Officer, will be on hand to offer a useful mix of enthusiasm and pragmatism about how an orchard gets planted, and what happens next.

• Mini tours of the orchard:

See how the different sizes and types of tree grow and how the harvest is shaping up. What fruit is expected to be ready when, and how can it be used? Discover the different characteristics, and origins, of heritage apples. 

• Bioblitz - finding, identifying and recording life in the orchard

How do we know what lives in, or visits the orchard? What can we find? Why does it matter? Take part in Sussex Wildlife Trust's mini BioBlitz in and around the orchard to learn, or practise, how to conduct basic surveying for a range of species (including birds, insects, and plants). These are techniques we can use at home, or in our own local community orchards, to extend our fascination with, and understanding of, the natural life around us.

Equipment provided. If you have a smartphone, iNaturalist (nature identification recording) is a useful apps to have installed.

• ... and more ... as the day approaches, we will have a better idea of things we may be able to add. There may be apple juice from the 2024 orchard harvest, recipes, music, or even something we haven't even thought of yet! We look forward to meeting you.



Do let us know if you volunteer at another community orchard and would like to be involved in some way.

Our Venue

Chichester's first community orchard, of apples, pears and plums and including rare heritage Sussex varieties, was planted in Oaklands Park in 2011 as a result of a project by Transition Town Chichester (TTC). Volunteers from TTC continue to manage it. In 2022, Chichester Festival Theatre created a wildflower meadow in the orchard to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Find the orchard east of Chichester Festival Theatre, PO19 6AP (Map below - if approaching the theatre from the Northgate car park, head right to find the orchard behind the theatre; if looking at the theatre entrance doors, follow the line of the building around to the left to reach the orchard).

Refreshments may be purchased from the cafe at Chichester Festival Theatre where toilet facilities are also available. (The cafe offers a 50p discount on hot drinks if you use your own cup.)

Accessibility

... information to follow ...