Celebration Picnic The National Trust has purchased 24 acres of land located on the left hand side of the Burwell Road (click here to download a map) as you leave Reach and has offered to lease a proportion of the land to the Parish Council for a peppercorn rent so that various community projects can be undertaken. It is intended that all initial funding will be raised from donations and grants and that subsequently the area will be self-funding. There will be no cost to Reach villagers via the precept.

Projects identified and agreed to by the Parish Council are:

Community Orchard
Coppice (including Renewable Living Willow)
Cricket Pitch
Horticulture Therapy
Menage
Small Observatory

The total area required for the above is approximately 12 acres and the cost for ALL the projects - in total is approximately £75,000.

Any land within the 24 acres not needed by the village would be used either for grazing (sheep or cattle) by a local grazier or as a hay meadow thereby retaining its agricultural use.

A name for the area needs to be decided upon. Currently “Reche Fields” is favoured but villagers are encouraged to come up with further suggestions.

As regards timing, a tenant farmer will grow a final wheat crop off the land during 2012 and sow a grass seed mix under the wheat crop. Once the wheat is harvested in September 2012, a good grass cover should already be established.

If you wish to have further details of this project, the latest Working Document can be downloaded by clicking on the link.

Avenue of Lime Trees

Nick Acklam has suggested that we plant an Avenue of 60 lime trees on the Swaffham Road to celebrate the 60 years of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - see the map below.

Over time such an avenue will create a striking and attractive entrance to the village, mirroring to a degree the line of lime trees on the Burwell Road and bringing wildlife benefit to the area.

The avenue will be planted on grass verges owned by Cambridgeshire County Council - and they have given their approval. Underground utilities have also been located and will not interfere with our planting.

We will be planting native small-leaved lime trees - Tilia Cordata Greenspire. The small-leaved lime is widely grown as an ornamental and was frequently used to form avenues in 17th and early 18th century landscape planning. It grows well on chalk soils, produces a rich scent in the summer months which is very attractive to bees but does not generate significant quantities of honey dew.

We will be planting a tree for each year of the Queen’s reign - so 60 in total. There is not enough room to plant an avenue of sixty trees (at 10 metre centres) so we will extend one line of planting - on the verge closest to the Devil’s Dyke - to accommodate the full sixty and in the process providing a green link between the village and the Prospects Trust.

Funding is currently being sought to procure the trees, stakes, ties, mulch etc via The Big Tree Plant.

Planting will take place in October - and we will need as many of you as possible to come along and help. We plan to close the road for the time that it takes and provide sustenance whilst the hard work is done.

We will keep you informed of progress.

If you want a printer friendly version of our Avenue of Limes project please click on the link.