FAMILIES flocked to a very successful Apple Day at one of ‘Basildon’s best kept secrets’.

Langdon Nature Reserve held a special open day at their community orchard, along Lower Dunton Road, Basildon, where residents were invited to bring along their home grown fruit for identification as well as enjoy a whole host of fun activities on offer.

Chris Curran, volunteer at the reserve, said the event on Sunday went very well and looks forward to hosting it again next year.

He said: “We considered the day to be a success. There were two main points to the day from our perspective.

“We wanted to introduce families and communities to the work that we were doing in regards to planting a new community orchard.

“Secondly, this area in Essex has a long history in fruit trees that are specific to Essex. These are disappearing.

“In people’s gardens there will be examples of these hanging on. People were asked to bring in apples and pears who had no idea what variety they were and an expert helped identify them.

“This was successful.”

“Where the old varieties are rare we will be preserving them.”

He said the range of activities on offer proved very popular amongst visitors.

The volunteer continued: ““We had demonstrating in traditional skills such as hurdle making and those such things. We had some lambs from the trust’s flock of sheep, tractor rides, face painting, jewellery making, a bbq and a bar.

“We had planned this event to be an annual event which we do on the last Sunday of September and we are hoping that next year it will grow.”