FENLAND ORCHARD WETLAND GARDEN – CP Learning Trust

Case Study – CP Learning Trust: Fenland Orchard Wetland Garden

June 2025

The CP Learning Trust is a social charity working with deprived communities, especially those with low learning attainment, to raise aspirations and skills and give adults in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area a ‘second chance’.

As part of funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fund for Nature, they are developing a heritage wetland garden and causeway as part of the broader Fenland Orchard project near Wisbech. The wider project is transforming a former agricultural field into a rich ecological and community space, educating visitors, planting heritage fruit tree stocks and creating habitat. The wetland creation element of the project aims to recreate a historically accurate wetland environment using local expertise and sustainable practices.

The proposed wetland area will be another addition to their community space, which already contains the heritage orchard, hedgerows, an allotment, educational and wellbeing spaces. The visual elements have been designed to recreate what the area would have looked like in the Fens hundreds of years ago.

The project has encountered many challenges, such as not having a mains electricity supply or running water on site and having to overcome geological challenges. These have included knowing where, how wide and how deep to dig so the right growing materials can be chosen for successful wetland creation, whether natural materials will suffice or whether an artificial liner will be needed. Getting the balance right can be the difference between having a permanent wetland and having a wetland that is only wet for three months of the year. The CP Learning Trust have spent the first part of the project visiting similar local sites and consulting with experts to research and gain valuable knowledge, to make informed decisions and ensure the project is a success.

The CP Learning Trust received £5,000 in grant funding for development of the wetland garden. The funding will also contribute to a creation of a causeway, and initial stages of the project have seen the team acquire knowledge from similar organisations, leading them to decide to use recycled materials for the build, saving on costs. They are still planning to use traditional wooden posts to create the framework of the causeway. These will be produced with the expertise from the on-site workshop, using hand tools that would have been common as far back as the Bronze Age.

The strong, existing relationships held by the CP Learning Trust have enhanced their project plans, such as benefitting from a long-term loan of a wind turbine from the College of West Anglia.

The grant funding outcome seeks to meet three objectives:

1. To be an aesthetically appealing place for the community to enjoy.
   To educate visitors about what life was like in the Bronze Age or Victorian times.
   To increase the biodiversity of the area.

Andrew Callaghan from the CP Learning Trust said: “Two and a half years ago, the site was an agricultural field. We didn’t even have worms in the soil. Now, we’ve got various different bird life, mice, voles, deer, pheasants and partridge, as well as a healthy invertebrate population.”

Fenland Orchard has always relied on volunteers, and the wetland project is no different. The intention is that they will attract two sets of volunteers: those who will support with the dig and planting and others who will focus on ecology and maintaining the wetland area.

The response to date has been overwhelmingly positive. The orchard has unsurprisingly attracted a lot of attention, giving the project team plenty of scope to promote the new wetland area, including bringing on board a filmmaker to create the story of the wetland garden.

The intention is to break ground for the wetland garden in late spring/early summer and be operational by early autumn. Its completion will see an enhanced community space, increased ecological diversity and an educational resource for children and adults alike.