Funds are available to preserve and enhance traditional orchards

A seminar in Wisbech this week looks at how Government stewardship schemes can help safeguard apple growing in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The seminar is due to be held at traditional orchard Willock Farm, in Wisbech St Mary, on Thursday 11 May.

Farmer David Wheatley has nine hectares of traditional fruit trees - an orchard that is about 100 years old.

The new funding to cultivate fruit trees is available under the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme - a strand of the Environmental Stewardship initiative - launched in March last year.

Magnet for sightseers

This scheme aims to conserve wildlife and enhance landscape quality and character.

Dr Nigel Russell, an adviser for the Rural Development Service in the East of England, said: "At this time of year when apple trees are in full blossom, traditional orchards offer a spectacle that is hard to beat.

"In the early and mid 20th century, the orchards around Wisbech were a magnet for sightseers, who visited as part of organised 'blossom tours'.