England’s second most deprived borough is not where you might expect to find an award-winning orchard. And yet here is the Meadow Park community orchard, in Knowsley, growing beneath twin leviathan multi-storey buildings.
The orchard was the brainchild of the Knowsley town councillor, Neil Joseph and it became a reality after a generous headteacher released a parcel of land for the project in 2020. Guiding me around the orchard, Neil introduces the trees as if they were friends: Ashmead’s kernel, red pippin, Doyenné du Comice and the delightful slack-ma-girdle. As we pause by a quince, he relates his childhood memories of Edward Lear’s nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussycat, composed only a mile away at Knowsley Hall. Such grand estates feel a long way from this area, formerly known as Cantril Farm, which once had a reputation for crime and deprivation.
