The Grounded Orchardist

The Cubbington pear was a wild pear in a hedgerow of a field just outside of Cubbington, Warwickshire.

It was voted tree of the year in 2015. It was the second largest pear tree in the UK but more importantly, it was 250 years old and was still bearing fruit! Imagine the wildlife that it fed and sheltered.

Then came HS2 and they felled the tree to make a service road…to get to HS2. They could have gone around it but nope, they felled it. People protested and an awareness was raised but still, the tree came down.

I went to middle school for a short time in Cubbington and I heard that grafting material had been taken from this tree to keep it growing. These were then grafted by Paul Labous and his students at Shuttleworth College. I tried to get one but I was a bit late to the party and they had all gone.

Then, on one of our apple days I met #bonkersbusway and we were talking and they mentioned the Cubbington pear. I mentioned I had gone to school there and they said they had a spare pear for me. 😃

I’m very excited to say, I took ownership of one of these trees a couple of days ago and it will be planted in Le Manoirs orchard. I keep trying to learn about the history of our fruit and now I will have my own little piece in there! 🙂

As for the original tree, they didn’t stump grind it so it is reshooting from the stump, let’s hope it can go on to live another 250 years. Although this does not take away from the fact it was destroyed in the first place! The years it will take to get to that point again are lost, there is no middle ground while we wait.

A big thank you to @bonkersbusway so called because their local council want to put a bus route straight through their old traditional orchard, even though the route could go around it…sound familiar?! 🤔 Its a thriving habitat for all sorts of flora and fauna and they are doing their best to stop this from happening.

What I don’t understand, is it is very well known about how mature trees help sustain life. That could be wildlife (flora and fauna) or the fact they drink so much water they can help stop flooding, not to mention oxygen creation. You cannot simply replace a mature tree with a few small ones, the impact is lost for a great many years. We should really be keeping our mature trees with fruiting or otherwise!