Bitterly cold gusts of wind sweep over the rolling north Devon hills on a bracing morning earlier this spring – but nothing can chill the spirits of the hardy band I’ve joined to help return ancient blossoming cherry trees to this beautiful corner of Britain. The volunteers are part of a wider project to bring back blossom across the country and restore lost nature.
“Where are the trees, where are the spades?” they cry as they trudge Wellington boot-clad to the meeting point for the great planting at Arlington Court by the Exmoor national park, just eight minutes’ drive from Barnstaple. The aristrocratic Chichester family lived at the country mansion for 500 years in glorious solitude but today it’s run by the National Trust.
And even on a freezing cold day Arlington Court attracts hundreds of visitors. While they enjoy the house and grounds, fields of snowdrops just emerging, I and the other volunteers were far from the madding crowd and getting down to planting four different varieties of Mazzard cherry trees.
