Jesmond Community Orchard has received funding from the Tree Council to plant 18 new trees in St Andrew’s Cemetery.

The end of lockdown permitting, a group of year four children from West Jesmond primary school will plant the trees on December 3rd as part of National Tree Week, said Fiona Clarke, 73, chair of the community orchard.

The staff of Newcastle Council’s bereavement services will dig the holes before the big day to ensure the trees aren’t planted where anybody is buried.

The trees will be delivered from Tom and Joe’s Wylam nursery, and will be planted in a private ceremony to guarantee the children’s safety The volunteers of Jesmond Community Orchard will come and make sure the trees have been planted properly and put tree guards after the students leave.

The plan has been in place since June 2020, when the Jesmond Community Orchard Committee applied to the Tree Council to plant new trees in St Andrews Cemetery.

“Over the last few years, there were quite a lot of trees been cut down by the city council because they were old and diseased, dangerous for the public,” Clarke said. Some of the original trees had been in the cemetery since the 1850s when the cemetery was laid out.

However, the council hadn’t had enough money to plant new trees to replace them. “We want to enhance the whole area of the cemetery and to create more biodiversity,” Clarke added.

In July, students from West Jesmond Primary School did a survey to help to identify where to put the trees with the guidance of Clarke and Tim Cook, 60, a teacher at West Jesmond Primary School.

“Generally, the children have a very matter-of-fact attitude towards the cemetery and their understanding of its contents seems to add a frisson that they quite enjoy,” Cook said.

The city council approved the result of the survey and marked the places where the trees would go.

They helped to choose which sort of trees to request, including oak trees, beech trees and some wild fruit trees like Malus and Pyrus, which will grow big in the future. The council also promised to offer £725 to buy the trees and put tree guards to protect them while they are growing.

St Andrew’s Cemetery manager Mark Lamb, who is also director of bereavement services, hopes this is the first of many new tree plantings.

“He is very keen on improving the biodiversity of this area, so he is collaborating as much as he can, but obviously, at the moment, they haven’t got much money,” said Clarke.

At present, the plan is for the trees to take their new home in just under two weeks.

“But we are not totally confident it will take place the day after the lockdown ends,” said Clarke. “It is possible that we might postpone the planting until the next year in the hope that the lockdown rules will be changed.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected at 4pm on November 21st to clarify the source of the funding for this project.