Survey report
The survey of Newburgh’s orchards, which covered 836 trees in 69 locations, was conducted in September 2003. The survey was a team effort between Newburgh Orchard Group (NOG) members and consultant Crispin Hayes - but without the overwhelming support of the townsfolk of Newburgh, it would not have been a success.
We recorded information about each of the trees and locations, together with contact information about the orchard keepers. We recorded the location of each tree on a large scale map of Newburgh. We took digital photos of most of the trees and some of the fruit. We noted down our observations, comments from the keepers of the orchards about their trees and interesting anecdotes about the orchards.
Although Newburgh is renowned for its pears and plums, we were surprised to find that apple trees were the most plentiful. But there are a lot more old apple and plum trees than young ones. Most trees did not have disease and appeared fairly sound, but many were in need of some pruning. We recorded some unusual varieties of fruit such as the Lindorsii pear and Guthrie's Taybank plum. Newburgh has a great opportunity to use these and other unusual varieties to raise the awareness of what a unique town it is.
More recently, we have continued the survey into gardens which were not included in the original survey, and we now know that there are over 1000 fruit trees in Newburgh.
