Ground Work: Writings on Places and People by Tim Dee – review

Last summer I attended the funeral of the eye surgeon and musician Andrew Tullo, in Oswestry, Shropshire. At the door of the church two mourners gave out sprigs of apple blossom. When I asked why, I learned of the community orchard that Andrew had helped create in a crescent of abandoned ground between a disused railway line and the B5069. The Cambrian Railways Orchard Project combines orchard, camp fire, party venue, beekeeping and conservation, and it is beloved by the townsfolk that care for it.

It is typical of the kind of community scheme inspired by the lobby group and charity Common Ground, which was founded in 1983 by Sue Clifford, Angela King and the writer Roger Deakin“to seek imaginative ways to engage people with their local environment”.