Highbury Orchard Community is a people-focused project that brings volunteers together to work the land at Highbury, in a variety of ways. The overall aim is to get people involved in restoring and maintaining historical activities that made the estate, but which have largely been lost to time, budget cuts, and technological progress.

Highbury is Joe Chamberlain’s grand house, plus a former care home, several decrepit gardens, and 25 acres of formerly agricultural land that’s now a public park. That land was saved from urbanisation 100 years partly through the hobbies of some very wealthy people. We are trying to keep it inact as an agricultural and amenity space.

The land and what lives on it is our main interest, partly because most of the buildings have been destroyed. But much of the landscape remains in a condition not too far from what it was 100 years ago or more. The continued existence of Highbury’s landscape gives us an opportunity to restore some of site-specific activities (as distinct from buildings or other objects). Activities like laying and maintaining field boundaries, hedgerows and woodlots; growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and ornamental plants; keeping animals, including bees, and perhaps even restoring parts of the land to grazing or paddocks. These formerly common activities shaped the landscape, sustained it, and can be brought back into practice by people with a passion for the land, sustainability, heritage, or just getting stuck in!

The Highbury Community Orchard is being developed at the former model farm that was also the site of an orchard. This is a much larger site, some 50×100 metres, with room for a small orchard, bee hives, vegetable garden and perhaps an eventual restoration of farm buildings and other things. The initial aim is to plant an orchard with cuttings from the Chamberlain-era apple and pear trees in the Four Seasons project garden. In the medium-to- long term, links between this space and Four Seasons could be very good. We are working to get resources to help develop the orchard. We need a large group of volunteers to prepare and maintain the plants and site. This is a multi-year project that needs steady input of gentle labour.