Our orchard is full of species of apple and pears relevant to the Worcestershire area and it relates to the apple presses and Perry Mill that are on site as exhibits. The Perry Mill was constructed in the 1790’s at Hunt End in Redditch and was still in use until the late 1930’s. This important piece of agricultural history was rescued from demolition and brought to Avoncroft. Unfortunately our orchard has become waterlogged causing problems to the trees and we want to rectify this problem area by constructing drainage ditches, which would feed into a newly created wildlife pond. The area around the pond would be planted out with wildflowers, grasses and bog plants which we hope would attract a whole array of insects from beetles to damsel flies and butterflies. Avoncroft's education service has a proven record of excellence. As a five times winner of the Sandford Award for Heritage Education, we have years of experience in offering relevant, inspirational and fun activities in a taught environment. The creation of a wildlife pond would help benefit and develop the Education Programme for schools as well as being a great exhibit for visitors to the museum. Interpretation boards would give information on the wildlife that can be found in such an area and it also provides the opportunity to run special events such as ‘mini beast’ hunts and enable people to really engage, understand, appreciate and respect Britain’s wildlife. The creation of a new wildlife pond would not only bring about an exciting venture and important new habitat but also offers new educational opportunities whilst at the same time enabling the problem we are currently experiencing with the orchard to be not only resolved but to be sustained. This would then allow the orchard planted with local species of apple and pear trees to recover or in some circumstances, be replanted successfully. The project would be managed by our Director and newly appointed Gardener (funded by a Heritage Lottery Grant) with specialist advice sought where appropriate. Work, where possible, would be undertaken by volunteers. Costings: Costs involved: Drainage Ditches – equipment hire £1,400 - drainage Materials £1,200 Hard Landscaping – pond lining, border stones, fencing etc £1,300 Planting – bog plants, wild flowers, grasses etc £500 Interpretation Boards – information on what species might be found in the area £400 Aids to encourage wildlife to the area – bird boxes for the orchard, a bird feeding station near to the new pond etc £200 TOTAL PROJECT COST £5,000 OTHER RELATED COSTINGS: The restoration of the orchard – the apple and pear trees themselves – will need to be funded but this will only be done once the problem causing the deterioration in the trees (ie the poor drainage) has been resolved. There is a charity who supported the initial creation of the orchard who, it is hoped, would help with the funding of the new planting and tree surgery when we are in a position to do so.