In 1990 when much of the land was sold for development there were some parcels of land containing fruit trees which had been subject to neglect since the decline of the nurseries. Retrospective articles appeared in the local paper by Kenneth Cook and others on Rivers Nursery and its eminence and other articles in Hertfordshire Countryside Magazine.
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With the support of East Herts District Council, now leaseholder of part of the site, Diana Richards and Susan Clark, Rural Enterprise Project Officer, team up to establish the Rivers Nursery Site as a community facility – a Community Orchard.
Support and finance is gained from local and national government bodies: MAFF (Now DEFRA), Countryside Management Service, Sawbridgeworth Town Council, East Herts District Council as well as bodies such as Common Ground, Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust, Rural Action, Agenda 21.
A Rivers Nursery Site Management Plan is drawn up by Susan Clark.
There is on-going contact with local press to gain community involvement and support.Volunteers become involved clearing the ground for a beech hedge.Research into methods of restoration and the environmental benefits of community orchard sites is carried out.
East Herts District Council financial support is gained for laying a new beech hedge to mark and protect orchard site.Wassailing at Rivers Nursery Orchard begins; this traditional ceremony of wishing the trees a good fruit bearing season continues annually.
A Newsletter is produced for Friends of Pishiobury Park and Rivers Nursery Orchard to disseminate what had been achieved at the Rivers site.
Contact with Brogdale Horticultural Trust is established; information on Rivers varieties held in the national collection is obtained. Seminar held on ‘Orchards for All’ sponsored by Hertfordshire Orchard Initiative.
First Apple Day at Church House, Sawbridgeworth, takes place.
Award of £1000 as runner-up for Heritage Category in Ford Conservation Awards.
Family Art Day in Rivers Nursery is led by local artist Mary Bishop.
Animated Guided Walk is presented by Harlow College Performing Arts students.
A Rivers Archive is collected.
Visit to Kew to look in Kew Archives for correspondence with the Rivers family growers:
Kew sends photocopies of relevant letters.
An Orchard House is constructed at Audley End to the specifications of Thomas Rivers’ design of 1856.
Chief surveyor of East Herts District Council reports on current status of the land: the land is owned by East Herts District Council at the moment, the extra land parcel after the Hospital was built having been turned over by the developers to the Council for public use. However, if the Friends of the Rivers Nursery Orchard or others do anything to contravene the Green Belt Law, the developers have the right to take the land back.
In 2009 the developers have the option to buy back the land from East Herts for £1.
The Friends of Rivers Nursery Orchard apply to East Herts District Council for a Major Arts Award. The grant application was successful and there follows a Year-long Arts Project
Celebrating Rivers Nursery Orchard: A Year of Verse and Music 2002 - 2003
Project Activity:
Nine poets are specially commissioned for the Project.
The children at Sawbridgeworth’s two primary schools, Reedings and Mandeville, are involved.
A poetry competition is launched on the theme of fruit and orchards which, thanks to our web page, draws entries from all over the country and from Australia, France and Italy.
The commissioned poetry is linked with other arts. Music is commissioned for three poems; a group designs an installation in the Orchard using fruit as material; an anthology of the verse is produced with a cover design depicting two of the major fruits developed by the Rivers fruit breeders.
The East Herts and West Essex Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers begin the process of weaving a tapestry, with fleece dyed by natural sources – bark, fruit, fungi and flowers – from the Orchard with the dye colour set by wood ash from the Wassail bonfire.
This tapestry, like the verse anthology, will be an enduring outcome of the Arts Project.
The poems and music are placed as performances within the cycle of the growing year– the October harvest festival, Apple Day, held in Church House, Sawbridgeworth; the January Wassail event in the Orchard; the May Fair blossom time festival on the Fair Green in Sawbridgeworth; the Summer Concert at Audley End, Saffron Walden, where a glasshouse to the 1856 design of Thomas Rivers has been constructed
Visit to the Lindley Library, Royal Horticultural Society to look at the Rivers materials and the portrait of Thomas Rivers
Visit to Orchard of Herts High Sheriff, Lady Lyell
Willow Weaving in the Orchard.
Unveiling of Tapestry started during Arts Project to commemorate 10 years of restoration work at Rivers Orchard on Open Evening 19 May, 2005.
Varieties of apples in the orchard are identified by experts from the RHS and East of England Apples & Orchards Project.
The Rivers Nursery Orchard is written up for the Hertfordshire Garden Trust and a copy of the article is placed in the Hertfordshire Local Studies Archive.
Visit to John Innes Centre Library, Norwich for research on Rivers materials.
First Display of 1879 Ordnance Survey Maps of local area acquired to show the whole of the Rivers Nursery land in the 19th century.
The Rural Enterprise Project was reorganized, consultant's post for Friends of Rivers Orchard ceased and Diane Richards retires from public life and steps down from the group.A number of remaining volunteers regroup, ratify a Constitution and have set their sights firmly through specific aims on saving the Orchard for the Community and ensuring its further development.
A new name is chosen to reflect the goal, the Rivers Nursery Site and Orchard Group (RNSOG).
Butterfly studies continued annually.
Mosses and Lichens survey carried out.
New action plan developed to map out what needs to be done to secure future of the site.
Annual General Meeting of EEAOP held in Sawbridgeworth.
Honey from newly colonised beehive available to taste.
First single variety Rivers Laxton Superb Apple Juice sold on Apple Day.
Collaborative work on lost Hertforshire fruit varieties done with historic orchard at St Elizabeth's Much Hadham.
Rivers Promotion at Audley End Apple Day.
Oral History Project well underway.
Interviews draw out excellent storytellers.
Numerous pieces of historical material donated to the Archives.
Town Action Plan sponsored by the Town Council has section on the community views about future of the orchard.
The Rivers Display at Sawbridgeworth May Fayre is very well attended.
Oral History Recordings played back to visitors.
School Art Project conducted in the orchard exhibited for the first time by Leventhorpe School students.
Final stages of background work to prepare for this new Rivers Nursery Site Website.
Local History section of BBC Essex Website conduct interview with Dennis Todhunter and follow up with visit and interviews in the orchard.
Item published on BBC website at end of June.
Our new look website is launched.
Report on fruit identification and mapping completed.
New Book on History of the site published by Rivers Nursery Site & Orchard Group.