project progress and results- England
The traditional orchard survey began in 2006. Since then we have achieved an enormous amount. From a project proposal outlined on a sheet of paper, we have spent time poring over aerial photographs, recruiting volunteers, organising training days and collecting survey data.
View our results to date at the bottom of this page.
With the help of over 600 volunteers across the country over 7000 of these have been surveyed and nearly 800 orchard owner questionnaires returned. We have even found a noble chafer population in Kent where it has not been recorded for over 60 years.
The map that we have produced is being put to good use throughout the country. For example, in Gloucestershire it is being used to target owners for Environmental Stewardship schemes and in Devon, new markets are being found for people to sell their fruit.
Ground-truthing work by volunteers is still in progress. If you have any local knowledge that you could share with us to improve the accuracy of the inventory in your local area, we would be very grateful to receive it.
The dataset will continue to be updated regularly as new information comes to us from volunteers, orchard owners, orchard groups, and record centres among other sources.
We are very grateful to all the volunteer surveyors who have helped us to achieve so much.
project updates
- winter 12 newsletter
- summer 11 newsletter
- winter 10 newsletter
- spring/summer 10 newsletter
- summer 09 newsletter
- winter 08/09 newsletter
- summer 08 newsletter
- winter 07/08 newsletter
project results
- Click to view our Google map of traditional orchards of England OR click to view more detailed maps on the MAGIC website.
- The data set is also available to download from the Natural England website (requires registration).






