Study reveals that despite the loss of orchards, the memory of blossoming trees is preserved in place and street names.

A study by the National Trust has found that despite the dramatic loss of orchards and flowering trees across England and Wales, the memory of these once-abundant landscapes is preserved in place names. The research, part of the charity’s “blossom week” celebrations, reveals that the proportion of place names related to blossom has doubled in the past century, even though over half of traditional orchards have disappeared.

The study discovered that 6% of the 912,000 place and street names surveyed in England and Wales are linked to blossom, such as terms like “orchard,” “apple,” “bloom,” and “grove.” This is double the 3% recorded in 1900. However, the same period has seen a significant decline in orchards, with 56% of them lost since 1900, leaving only about 4,000 hectares (9,926 acres) of orchards in existence today.

Interestingly, the study revealed that more than half of today’s orchard-related place names are located near former orchards that have been lost since 1900, rather than near existing ones. This phenomenon, dubbed “fossil blossom,” suggests that these names serve as cultural imprints, preserving memories of lost orchards and potentially guiding efforts to restore blossom-rich landscapes.

Professor Matthew Heard from the National Trust noted that while blossom has largely disappeared from the countryside, our connection to it remains strong. The study also observed a trend toward more generic orchard-related terms in place names today, reflecting both the historic significance of these sites and the loss of local varieties of fruit trees.

In Wales, the study highlighted a decline in the use of Welsh language terms for blossom-related places. In 1900, 74% of blossom-related names in Wales were in Welsh, but by 2023 this had fallen to 31%. The National Trust aims to bring back blossoming trees through various initiatives, including the planting of four million trees as part of a broader ambition to establish 20 million trees by 2030 across the UK.