The Mid Kent Downs Project covers 29 parishes in the central area of the AONB, between Lenham and Boxley, from the A20 in the south to the M2 in the north. It was initiated in 2001 due to a need highlighted by the ‘Mid Kent Downs Advisory Group’ – a group consisting of local parish councillors, borough councillors and other interested parties which continues to meet four times a year in Wormshill. The Mid Kent Downs Project is currently supported by Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council and Swale Borough Council.

The Project provides an advisory service on landscape and wildlife issues and helps community groups and parish councils to access grant money to conserve local environments, with an overall aim to ‘Link People, Land and Nature’. For example it has assisted development of Local Nature Reserves, Community Orchard and Community Woodland schemes. It works extensively with partners including English Nature, Kent Wildlife Trust, the Rail Link Countryside Initiative and the Borough and County Councils to ensure a landscape-scale approach to conservation, coordinating large aswell as small-scale projects. For example, the project has been instrumental in the restoration of Boxley Warren near Maidstone, part of the Wouldham to Detling Escarpment SSSI.

The Mid Kent Downs ‘Landscape Enhancement Grant Scheme’ offers help to landowners and community groups for small-scale works to restore and enhance local landscape features. The grant scheme has been running for four years and has supported an exciting range of projects from hedgerow and tree-planting through to chalk grassland restoration, planting of traditionally managed orchards and pond-creation.

Additionally, the project develops interpretive schemes to explain the importance of conservation in the area and has carried out colourful community consultation events, encouraging participation and community-empowerment wherever possible.

Mid Kent Downs Orchards Project
‘Orchards for Everyone’

Deep in the Mid Kent Downs the old orchards are characterised by tall, spreading, wide spaced trees, with sheep grazing beneath often sad forlorn limbs left to succumb to the rigours of disease and a slow death by misadventure. The traditional orchard stands majestic but with limited future direction.

 The Mid Kent Downs Orchards Project seeks to address this and build a sustainable future for these important orchards which are such a vital and much loved feature of this part of Kent. Traditional orchards close to village centres have been identified for restoration. Discussions are taking place with parish representatives, members of the local communities and landowners. Watch the traditional orchard near you, if you live in Sheldwich, Selling, Milstead, Stockbury, Bredhurst or Harrietsham we may need your help. Join us in this journey of discovery, become a custodian and save our heritage.

This project proposes a holistic approach to the regeneration of the landscape and rural economy. It will focus on restoration/creation of community orchard sites, it will develop management plans and sustainable end-uses for the fruit, help to conserve and enhance our environment, save on food mileage and support our rural countryside.

The regeneration of the traditional orchard will include:

• planting, restoring and managing orchards using traditional varieties and techniques.
• providing advice to landowners through the development of guidance notes and community workshop training.
• celebrating local heritage through a variety of events and activities to enjoy the horticultural and social tradition of the area.

Look out for family learning days, biodiversity surveys, historical fruit maps and a schools fruit juice project, as well as interpretive art, leaflets and entertainment. The project will culminate in a ‘Festival of Fruit’ complemented by master classes to bring orchard fruit into the local restaurants, pubs and schools. The project will forge links between existing and new initiatives’ nationwide and support collaborative schemes as well as producing a fruit related register.

The Mid Kent Downs Orchards Project has been drawn together using Heritage Lottery Fund, LEADER+ and Sustainable Rural Development funding, by the Mid Kent Downs Project, a countryside management project which sits with the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Unit to restore and create four community orchards out of these traditional orchards. The orchards project will run for two years from September 2006 working with communities to restore and promote traditionally managed orchards as an important part of the heritage of the Mid Kent Downs landscape.

The Mid Kent Downs Orchards Project is supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, Leader + ( part funded by the EAGGF of the EU, DEFRA and SEEDA) Kent Downs AONB Sustainable Development Fund, Kent County Council,  Maidstone Borough Council and Swale Borough Council. The project is managed by the Mid Kent Downs Project accommodated by Kent Downs AONB Unit.