“In orchards, we and nature together have created an exuberant and a secret landscape – a treasury of genetic diversity and a repository of culture. They are a wise way of sharing the land – a positive gift to those who follow.”

- The Common Ground Community Orchards Handbook

Welcome to this web site dedicated to St Laurence Orchard in Eastwood, Essex. It has been created and developed on behalf of Growing Together, a horticultural and community development project based in Southend on Sea, in order to provide an in-depth study of the history and wild-life of the orchard. As well as detailing and recording the rich heritage of this project, and its role in increasing local biodiversity, we will also be promoting and celebrating it's importance as part of the local distinctiveness of South East Essex that continues still to the present day through festivals, art, photography, film making, mapping and other projects of cultural significance.