As we skip from Spring into Summer, we’re thinking about spending more time outdoors. The Spring blossom has reminded us of the public art plan we have been working on with Lead Artist Christopher Tipping. Located in Ebbsfleet, Alkerden Major Urban Park will be the largest of the public parks in the Eastern Quarry housing development, which is now called Whitecliffe.

The public art plan is currently going through the planning process, but we felt it was timely to invite Christopher to share some of his research in this month’s guest blog. Over to you Christopher……

CHERRY BLOSSOM + CHALK DUST is central to my concept for the public art plan. It also chimes with the National Trust’s brilliant scheme to plant some 20 million blossoming trees within communities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030, as part of their work to tackle climate crisis. Wouldn’t it be great for the Alkerden Major Urban Park to be a significant part of this brilliant endeavour?

The origins of the Alkerden chalk landscape lie in a fine white ‘marine snow’ of microscopic calcareous organisms & marine plankton falling gently through the water column onto the sea floor, to form a blanket hundreds of metres thick. Over a period of 79 million years, ending with the demise of the dinosaurs, the Chalk Escarpment – of which Swanscombe and the North Downs is part – became what is now considered to be the largest geological feature in the UK.

Alkerden Manor Farm in Swanscombe, a keystone and anchor for the new park, was once surrounded by orchards, hop plantations and fields of soft fruit such as blackcurrants, strawberries, and gooseberries. Many locals in recent history recalling picking fruit there.

Kent is particularly known for its blossom. The National Fruit Collection, found at Brogdale, nr Faversham, Kent. Hever Castle, Penshurst Place, Leeds Castle all pride themselves on spectacular shows of spring blossom

Swanscombe was also once covered in blossom. Springtime must have been wonderful.

It is a powerful social memory jogger and a solid foundation upon which to build a new landscape. Community consultation and engagement reminds us of that heritage, however displaced or derelict still really matters. My contextual and creative response to the park is based on an appreciation and un-picking of Swanscombe and its surrounding landscape. Everything is linked, either through geography, geology or social and industrial history. This is what blows the finer detail into a new place and provides the foundations and scaffold on which to build a resonant and meaningful recreational landscape within Alkerden Major Urban Park.

Looking forward to the near future, we may be walking and looking at blackthorn, flowering cherry, hawthorn, magnolia, apple, and other ornamental flowering plants and trees scattered thickly throughout the park, so evocative of a bygone agrarian and productive landscape. So beautiful. Each Spring people come from all over to see and experience blossom time. Resonant of so much gone before, though palpably not all quite as beautiful.

The huge chalk quarries were excavated in the very midst of the community and hewn from these same orchards, fruiting fields and well-kept allotments, accompanied by the behemoth cement works covering all before them in a fine white dust.

‘…they say this: The cement dust comes over in billowing grey clouds, descends like a fog, coating pavements and cars and smothering gardens and fields. We have heard the same story, not only from housewives, but also from the staff of four local hospitals, shopkeepers, café, and public house proprietors, who all complain bitterly about the unceasing struggle to keep food and premises free from cement dust. It creeps into food and crockery cupboards, smothers vegetables, flowers and trees in the gardens, ruins paintwork and soft furnishings, fills gutters and clogs the drains, and spoils the housewives’ family wash. It is accompanied by a vile sulphurous smell, and at night windows have to be kept closed—but still the dust and smell penetrate’. Hansard: CEMENT DUST NUISANCE, NORTH-WEST KENT HC Deb 13 November 1962 vol 667 cc339-48339

Regeneration and development at Ebbsfleet is creating new communities who understand the value of a biologically diverse landscape and especially the power of trees, including flowering trees to our lives. Trees are a powerful weapon against global warming and climate crisis, with some blossoming trees especially good at capturing carbon. We now consciously make space for nature within our urban spaces – and more importantly within our communities and families.

The Major Urban Park could become such a focussed space for blossom, community fruit production and a regional and perhaps national draw for visitors. Imagine if the Alkerden Farm Barn become an anchor point for this, a vibrant community and heritage archive, seed bank and gardening hub. New communities moving into the area could be invited to become involved in tree planting and tree adoption schemes such as the Woodland Trust Free Trees for Schools and Communities scheme. There are some great tips from the RHS on community gardening too. Perhaps each new household moving into the area are gifted a blossom tree to be planted within the park. Imagine if the new schools on site could each have a small community orchard. Working with developers, this concept could be embraced into landscapes and planting strategies outside the park and into the surrounding streets and urban spaces. Imagine Springtime in Alkerden………well maintained planting, a bountiful spring display and annual celebratory events.

Links and further reading:

Kent Orchards for Everyone

How marine snow cools the planet – University of Sydney March 2019

Collingwood Ingram – aka – Cherry Ingram, 1880 – 1981 was the authority on Cherry Trees and was known as ‘the Englishman who saved Japan’s Cherry Trees.’ He was brought up in Westgate-on-Sea and then lived at Benenden, Kent where he amassed the most comprehensive collection of Cherry Trees in the world. 

Growing fruit trees on chalk soils – ‘I hadn’t realised that some varieties are also better able to cope with alkaline soil, but after some recent discussion (Jan 2011) on the Forest Gardening Yahoo group I found out that there are some. The following varieties have been reported to do well on chalk soils: Barnack Beauty, Barnack Beauty Sport, Barnack Orange, Charles Ross, Crawley Beauty, Gascoyne’s Scarlet, Hyslop (crab), Miller’s Seedling, Red Charles Ross, Red Miller’s Seedling, Saint Everard.

‘Community orchards and traditional orchards are now used by people as a place to amble through and for picnicking. If you have a neglected orchard particularly if it is in a public area accessible by the local community, consider managing your orchard for community benefit. It may be necessary to create a path through the orchard to encourage people to walk through as they wish. Encouraging an orchard to be used by the community makes people aware of orchards and their importance in in the landscape, providing fresh local fruit and providing a haven for wildlife and for people.’ KentDowns.org