Situated behind Stonehill Barn is the Old Orchard. Although there are not many trees any more, this was once a great orchard, hence the name. Now it is the site of our new duck pond which we opened last year and the pond is really starting to mature as the plants take root. Earlier this year we moved the Ducks and Geese from their old enclosure and now then can run freely in their new home. Our chicken coop is now in place and we hope to take delivery of our first batch of hens soon.

Many of you will be familiar with the Old Orchard as we open it up fur use during our annual Fun Day, but we are gradually turining it back into an orchard by planting more trees.

Currently there are only two old pear trees in the orchard which still bear fruit, but every January new trees are planted and slowly we are building this back into an orchard. Rather than plant the entire orchard in one go, we have adopted the slower approach to produce a more balanced orchard with trees of varying ages.

To give these new trees the best start and to ensure that we continue to harvest fruit from the old pear trees we hold our annual Wassail event, a tradition that has gone on for centuries in Britain. Wassail (from the Old English "Waes Hael" meaning "be well") is a hot spiced punch drink, and every January the fruit trees are 'blessed' by sprinkling them in the juice, placing toast in the tree and making lots of noise! The toast is to attract the Robins who are the guardians of the orchard and the noise is to ward of evil spirits.