The village Remembrance ceremony on 14th November was well attended and wreaths were laid on behalf of Landkey Parish Council, St Paul's Church and the Cornish family, whose relation is listed among those names of the fallen from the First World War on the war memorial. Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 14th November 2021.
The village Remembrance ceremony on 14th November was well attended and wreaths were laid on behalf of Landkey Parish Council, St Paul's Church and the Cornish family, whose relation is listed among those names of the fallen from the First World War on the war memorial. Image courtesy of Charles Waldron 14th November 2021.
A portion of the £35000 awarded to Landkey by the Millennium Commission in 1999 (see History page) was set aside for the planting of a mazzard orchard. The mazzard is a type of cherry which is indigenous to Landkey and which grew in profusion in orchards around the village in the 19th century.
At the time of the First World War, over 100 acres of orchards were recorded in Landkey, most of which were of mazzards. As the 20th century progressed, mazzards gradually fell out of fashion due to the substantial amount of labour required to protect the fruit from being stolen by birds and then to harvest the crop. The trend after 1918 was for populations to move away from rural areas to work in better-paid jobs in towns, making labour for orchards more expensive than it had been. By the 1990s, barely three acres of mazzards remain in Landkey.
To address this decline, a Landkey Orchards Committee had been set up in the early 1990s and had earmarked sites around the village where mazzard orchards might be reintroduced. When funding was later secured from the Millennium Commission, it was a logical step to propose the establishment of a mazzard orchard on the Millennium Green.
A batch of 65 mazzard saplings was sourced from Greenhayes Nursery at Cullompton and was planted in 1999 on a 2-acre section of the Green. Each of the five varieties which were planted, being Dun, Hannaford, Green Stem Black, Small Black and Bottler, are marked by plaques mounted on stones which border the path which passes through the orchard.
Images about mazzards (click to enlarge)
Mazzard trees in blossom on the Millennium Green, April 2011.
Mazzard fruit, July 2010.
Mazzard variety "Dun"
Mazzard variety "Hannaford"
Mazzard variety "Green Stem Black"
Mazzard variety "Small Black"
Mazzard variety "Bottler"
An image from the early 20th century showing "Harry Harris" prpearing to shoot mazzard-stealing birds.Landkey archive
An image of the Beer Family harvesting mazzards in 1937Landkey archive