National Lottery Press Release

CLENT HILLS ORCHARDS CELEBRATES AFTER RECEIVING £11K OF NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING

TO EMPOWER THE COMMUNITY TO LIVE A HEALTHIER AND HAPPIER LIFE

Local social enterprise, Clent Hills Orchards, is celebrating after being awarded £11,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work empowering communities across Worcestershire to grow their own fruit and rescue apples that would otherwise go to waste.

The organisation, which works across the Clent Hills area including Belbroughton, Hagley, and Clent, will use the money to fund apple pressing equipment and provide free training to volunteers on how to prune, graft and care for local orchards. The funding will enable the enterprise to expand its educational workshops and work with more parish councils, schools, and community groups to restore traditional orchards and promote biodiversity.

Founded in early 2025 by qualified arborist and orchard specialist Lawrence Weston, Clent Hills Orchards offers a range of services to the local community including orchard management, tree planting, pruning, and propagation. The organisation works with local authorities, community groups, schools and private individuals, offering everything from contract work for large-scale projects to engaging public workshops – ensuring the unique needs of each community are met.

Founder of Clent Hills Orchards, Lawrence Weston, commented: "We're so excited to announce this funding - it's a huge step forward for what we've been working on. Building sustainable and biodiverse communities is something which is a passion of mine, and this National Lottery funding means we can reach so many more people. We want to reconnect communities with nature and where food comes from, while rescuing fruit that would otherwise rot on the ground. Every apple pressed is one saved from waste."

Since launching, Clent Hills Orchards has already hosted a series of successful apple pressing events across the county, transforming surplus fruit into locally-produced apple juice. Each variety - sourced from Clent, Hagley and Wychbold - contains a blend of different apple varieties from the local area. All profits from sales are reinvested to continue educating local people and providing free workshops to support the community with growing their own fruit.

Mia Charlton, Volunteer at Clent Hills Orchard, added: "Taking part in the apple pressing workshop opened my eyes to how much fruit goes to waste in our community. Learning to care for our local orchard has brought our village together and we're already planning next year's harvest."

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, 'It starts with community', which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030. As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality.

To find out more visit: www.clenthillsorchards.co.uk or follow on Instagram @clenthillsorchards.