Follaton Arboretum Orchard – Totnes, Devon – October 2022

Follaton Arboretum Orchard – Totnes

As part of our normal holiday in October time, we always like to include a community orchard.

Totnes, Devon is always a place we have passed through for years. Apart from visiting Martin Crawford at Agroforestry we have never visited any community orchards in the area.

We made contact with Paul Bradbury, who advised us about the Follaton Arboretum Orchard, also the Follaton Town Cemetery Orchard and the Bridgetown Orchard. All of these were in the Totnes area of Devon. We decided to miss the Cemetery Orchard and Bridgetown Orchard out, as the trees were spaced far apart, and not easy to locate.

Very easy to find this orchard. When you enter the Totnes Jobcentre / South Hams Council carpark. Park in the very first part of the carpark on the right, and you will see the sign posts for the Follaton Arboretum Orchard on the left. The car park in October 2022 was free parking.

 

When you enter the Arboretum area, you will find the pathway very steep uphill and windy. Part the way up the orchard is on the right. It is on a steep bank, so you will need good feet and boots.

It does not look particularly well looked after, as the grass has never been cut. Maybe being left for wild flowers and wildlife. Not good for walking over. I would have thought maybe a walkway strip should have been cut through the orchard.

But this time of year was excellent to see the changing colours of the tree foliage.

 

 

A few new trees had been planted, with tall tree shelters. So I suspect there are deers about.

The new trees seemed to be tagged up in a temporary way. But none of the older trees had any tags on, and there was no tree variety location map.