Leek is lucky to have no less than five community orchards across the town but while the trees are now thriving there is still limited public awareness of their existence.
The young fruit trees were planted, with care, by council contractors during the lockdown in January 2021, mostly on areas of land surrounded by residential housing. There was, however, no plan for future management or community engagement and the trees were effectively left to their own devices for the first few years.
Moorlands Climate Action stepped in, offering to take over the management of the orchards from 2024 onwards. A new council agreed, and MCA volunteers now regularly maintain the trees. The January 2026 Wassailing event, organised by Moorlands Climate Action, is designed to stimulate wider community involvement – including alerting residents to the fact that their local orchards yield free fruit just a short stroll away.
The location of the five orchards is shown on the maps above. Three are in the West End of Leek, one is at the top of Brough Park and another by Haregate Community Centre. Each orchard has a mixture of plum, apple, crab apple, pear and hazel trees.
During the first spring that MCA looked after the orchards, each tree was given a 60cm cardboard mulch mat covered with bark chippings to prevent grass and weed growth around the trunk - and to protect the tree bark from contractors’ strimmers!
The future yearly plan for the orchards is:
Spring: Check for winter damage and remove any broken branches.
Summer: Thin fruit where necessary and prune any stone fruit trees, e.g. the plums.
Autumn: Encourage local harvesting of fruit by communities.
Winter: Plant any replacement trees needed and carry out winter pruning.
Hold a community Wassail event to “awaken the trees” before spring.
MCA hopes that each nearby community will become involved in the care and management of their local orchard. Anyone who would like to get involved will be very welcome, and can contact us here: