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Black and white background of an orchard with artwork of golden apples across the top

The Big Give Christmas Challenge

Double your gift

A magical part of Gloucestershire has been lost – this Christmas, you can help it blossom again.

Thanks to the Big Give Christmas Challenge, any donation you make online between Tuesday 2 - Tuesday 9 December 2025 will be DOUBLED – so your generosity can go twice as far for our lost orchards.

Gloucestershire has lost more than 70% of it’s orchards over the past 50 years (Gloucestershire Orchard Trust). Changes in agriculture and within the fruit industry has had a massive impact on traditional orchard habitats and the wildlife that rely on them. What was once a familiar and traditional part of the Gloucestershire landscape is now increasingly rare.

Request a reminder on 2 December

Hedgehog nesting in pile of dead leaves

Hedgehog_Jon Hawkins_Surrey_Hills_Photography

Get your gift doubled

Restore the lost magic

Just imagine it: a Gloucestershire stitched together by blossom and miles of hedgerow once again. Orchards thriving from the Forest of Dean to the Wyre Forest, where bats sweep low between the trees as the sun sets and the air is alive with bird song. Where the cracks, hollows and dead wood of these amazing trees provide a home for rare invertebrates, delicate insects and vital pollinators, and where voles, hedgehogs and field mice gorge on fallen fruit.

Double your gift

Why are traditional orchards so magical?

Bechstein's bat
Homes for wildlife

Branches grow old and create space for nature

Cracks and hollows provide homes for insects, nesting birds and rare bats like Bechstein’s and barbastelle
Lesser spotted woodpecker
Nesting and foraging

Protecting our smallest and rarest woodpecker

The lesser spotted woodpecker relies on the dead and rotting wood that orchards produce for nesting and foraging.
A peacock butterfly
Important for pollinators

Blossom provides pollen and nectar

Blossom sustains a huge range of vital pollinators including hoverflies and vulnerable bee species
Rose Chafer
Saving endangered species

Noble chafer beetle

Decaying wood makes the perfect home for the noble chafer beetle, currently at risk of extinction
Hazel dormouse
Natural highways

Safe routes for dormice

Rich in honeysuckle, hawthorn and brambles, hedgerows connect orchards, creating safe passage for the scurrying hazel dormouse
Fieldfare
Food for wildlife

Fruit is a vital food source

Fallen fruit is a rich source of food for hedgehogs, wood mice, voles and birds like fieldfares, helping them fatten up for winter

DONATE AND DOUBLE YOUR DONATION