Landkey Village

What’s here:
The top woodland was planted when the Green was established. What’s here may look as if it has been there for many decades, but like the rest of the Green is only a quarter of a century old. Varieties planted included quick-growing (and sometimes unstable) poplar and willow which came to suppress some of the slower-growing trees, particularly oak. Ash did well until the arrival of die-back disease, so the ash were removed, followed by most of the poplar and willow.

There are in a way three parts of the wood: the original trees which form a canopy, an understorey of shrubs and other plants that flourish in partial shade, and a belt of newer planting on the lower southern edge.

What to look out for:
The canopy is made up of a few remaining poplar, willow and ash with oak, chestnuts (mostly sweet), alder, birch, field maple and rowan. Underneath there are hazel and holly. The newer planting includes field maple, sycamore and buckthorn. There are now snowdrops, bluebells, primrose and foxgloves growing on the floor of the wood with honeysuckle introduced recently.

The woodland produces cover for birds and nesting sites thanks to the boxes. In the Spring you are likely to see great and blue tits plus goldfinches and siskins feeding in the trees and using the nest boxes. (A full list of birds seen on the Green is being prepared.)

Longer term aims:
Nature will be encouraged by the modest increase in the woodland’s size and the sensitive management of the woodland floor to provides a more cover and variety.

What’s here:
The Plan for the Millennium Green which was agreed in 1999 included an area of wildflower meadow. But the efforts to establish one ran into difficulties. In 2000, with trustees being aware of their obligations to encourage Nature, it was decided to have another try on the western side of the Green. Over the last few years there is yet more evidence of the value of the establishment of small nature-friendly areas such as on the Green or in gardens. Wildflowers are good for pollinating insects, needed in the food chain. Advice has been kindly offered by RHS Rosemoor who showed that conversion of a former pasture into a valuable and lovely meadow is possible but takes time and effort.

What’s happening:
There are four key management tasks at different times of the year In the SPRING the meadow is mown and wildflower sown on the barest areas. Then during late SPRING and SUMMER the wildflowers grow up amongst the grasses. Small plug-grown wildflowers are planted out. Well after the flowers have seeded in late SUMMER the grass is cut back and later taken away, like a hay crop. Over the years this practice reduces the fertility for grasses making it easier for wildflowers. This is why, in the AUTUMN, strips are scarified (surface turf removed), for sowing with seed of yellow rattle, a plant which is semi-parasitic on grasses enabling wild flowers to flourish with more vigour. 

What to look out for:
The flowers and pollinators change as the season progresses - a full list of what might be seen over the whole year is provided elsewhere. For flowers early on, alongside daisies, (common and ox-eye) and dandelions look out for yellow rattle. Later plants such as bird’sfoot trefoil, cornflower,common knapweed, poppy, red clover and ribwort plantain provide a wider range of colours.

Longer term plans:
The work described above will be needed every year and may be extended to parts of the apple orchard if more voluntary help is available. The acquisition of a scarifier will ease the burden!

What’s here?
The Green is surrounded by old hedges and new beech hedges were planted in 2000 to demarcate it from the football field. There is also a hedge bank dividing the top part of the Green in two, -the part to the west (now including woodland and meadow) was known as West Close, and that to the east (now the orchard) was East Close. The term ‘close’ means enclosed land, not open common land.

The line is known from the tithe map (c1840) and this, combined with the names, could mean that the hedge bank is even older, telling us a little about Landkey’s agricultural history. Think of ploughmen and oxen with primitive ploughs centuries ago, and feel grateful to be spared that hard labour!

What to see:
The hedge bank has been planted with berry-bearing shrubs, mostly hawthorn but also spindle, guilder rose and dog rose which provide winter feed for birds. While the plants grow up there are not many berries or birds, but you may see blackbirds, song thrushes and redwings feeding. Below the arch the hedge bank is mostly covered in snowberries, with blackthorn (sloe) near the football field.

Future Plans:
As the hedge on the top bank develops there may be hedge laying at some stage to make it thicker and friendlier for hedgehogs and nesting birds.

What to see:
There are sixty mazzard trees, plus half a dozen apple trees (at the top). Mazzards are an ancient cherry variety with small black fruit, closely linked to Landkey (see below). The apples are all Devon varieties (see below). From mid to late April the mazzard trees are covered in white blossom, with fruit following in July. By looking at the trees near ground level it is possible to see a bulge where there is the union between graft and rootstock.

Mazzard Orchard Story:
The Mazzard Orchard, with large trees producing white blossom and small black cherries, is more special than many realise. In ancient times mazzard trees were domesticated from wild cherry (prunus avium) trees, and were grown around the country. From medieval and Tudor times different cherries (prunus cerasus) were introduced, and with them the word ‘cherry’. While most parts of the country replaced mazzards with the new ‘cherries’, mazzards continued to be grown in North Devon until the twentieth century, when most orchards disappeared. Around 1990, when a Save our Orchards campaign was established in North Devon, one of its first objectives was ‘saving the North Devon mazzard’, by then reduced to a few ancient trees east of Barnstaple, particularly in Landkey, Goodleigh and Atherington. A few new trees had been produced in the 1970s by Fred Harris of Westacott Nurseries, but most remaining trees were very ancient. The future for this distinctive North Devon fruit seemed bleak.

In the late 1990s Campaign enthusiasts collected grafting material of different varieties and Kevin Croucher of Thornhayes Nurseries produced new trees. Dick Joy, Chairman of Landkey Parish Council, was keen to see a number of young trees planted in the village. The new National Lottery with its funding of Millennium projects provided the opportunity to establish a new mazzard orchard, and a funding application was successful. In December 1999 Landkey had its first new mazzard orchard of over sixty trees, (on Colt rootstock) on the new Millennium Green.

It took a decade for trees to grow and start looking like an orchard. In early years most fruit was eaten by birds. 2015 will be remembered in Landkey as the year of the mazzards’ return. The large trees on the Millennium Green fruited in such quantity that birds were defeated and there was a big crop for humans to pick and enjoy. For the first time it has been possible to compare the different varieties of the fruit on the Green, -Bottler, Dun, Greenstem Black, Hannaford and Small Black. There is some doubt about nomenclature: when it comes to defining varieties there is always more work to be done!

Apple Orchard:
Listener, Limberlimb and Stockbearer are all varieties associated with Landkey and were planted on the Green. To mark the 70th Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's reign a Devonshire Quarrendon was planted in 2022. To continue the support for wildlife recovery the top section of the orchard, where the apple trees grow, is left uncut with some wildflower planting as well.

Places where land and water meet are important to many forms of wildlife....

What’s here:
The ditch beneath the hedge to the north of the Tarka Trail path has interesting origins. It is the remains of a leat, a channel of water, which took water from a weir on the stream to Castle Mill beyond the village hall where it powered the sawmill wheel. The weir and mill have gone, and the rest of the leat is buried beneath the football field and village car park. However, the old leat is identifiable as a surface drain, collecting water from the fields above it which is piped under the path and in to the stream. Nevertheless it provides the only home on the Green for damp-loving reptiles, insects and plants.

What to look out for:
In the early part of the year there is frogspawn and tadpoles. In midsummer there are damsel flies and dragonflies darting about above a leat full of vegetation including hemlock, marsh marigold and water mint.

Longer term aims:
The lack of constantly flowing water means silt is not carried away and over time builds up in the leat requiring clearance every decade or so, last done in 2024. This cycle in itself provides interesting ecological variety and will be maintained. In the longer term nature would benefit if the leat could be widened and water flow sustained, but this would be a significant project.