Media Centre

News and Media Releases

Here you can download Common Ground media releases.

For any additional information contact Common Ground or Sue Clifford +44(0)1747 850820
or e-mail info [at] commonground.org.uk

2008

March 2008 : Common Ground publishes COMMUNITY ORCHARDS HANDBOOK - 21st  May (Word doc)

September 2008 : APPLE DAY October 21st initiated by Common Ground in 1990 - a challenge to everyone to join in the creation of a new calendar custom. (Word doc)

October 2008 : TREE DRESSING DAY MEDIA NOTES for December 2008 (Word doc)

October 2008 : A podcast of Sue Clifford talking about Apple Day with BBC Countryfile Magazine (Cavan Scott) http://www.bbccountryfile.com/podcast/CF_podcast_10_oct2008.mp3

December 2008 : Results of Longest of the Longest Peel Competition Apple Day 2008 (Word doc)

2007

19 December: POETIC JUSTICE (Guardian newspaper)

An interview with Sue Clifford and Angela King was published in the Guardian newspaper. It can be read online:
www.guardian.co.uk

28 November: TREE DRESSING DAY (Online)

Tree Dressing Day (1st weekend in December), introduced by Common Ground in 1990, draws on many traditions from across the world in which young and old, professional and amateur, all cultures and places, city and country can share; and in which the seeds of the social and public celebration of trees becomes an easy first step to long-term shared commitment and care.

26 September : APPLE DAY COMES OF AGE (Word doc, 428KB)

Apple Day (October 21st) will be 18 years old this year, happily coinciding with a bumper crop. Using the apple as a symbol of the physical and genetic diversity that we must not let slip away, Apple Day offers everyone a part on the world stage to reverse the negative aspects of homogenisation, globalisation, climate change and even more importantly to reinvent a good relationship with nature in our everyday surroundings. Apple Day gives us a chance to see, taste and take away some of the wonderful array of apple varieties - such as the Bedfordshire Foundling, Breedon Pippin, Bottlestopper, Wayside, or Cornish Aromatic - we can grow so well. Once we have tasted them, cooked with them, we can ask for them to be sold more widely.

7 September: THE APPLE SOURCE BOOK (Word doc, 500KB)

The Apple Source Book, to be published on October 4th, is a 300-page celebration of nearly 3,000 varieties of apple we can grow in these islands, with their distinctive flavours, uses, places of origin, stories and associated customs. Recipes from 52 chefs, food writers and gardeners are complemented by a wealth of useful information about apple identification, orchards, wild life, specialist nurseries, suppliers of fruit, blossom routes, Community Orchards as well as ideas for Apple Day, wassailing, juice pressing, cider making and a 40 page county by county gazetteer of where varieties originated. Taking the apple as a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity that we should not let slip away, The Apple Source Book demonstrates how anyone can make a difference.

August : APPLE DAY - OCTOBER 21ST(Word doc, 40KB)

On October 21st it will be 18 years since Common Ground held the first Apple Day in London’s Covent Garden, to draw attention to the plight of our orchards and to the versatility of our favourite home-grown fruit. The preceding All Fruits Eve offers the moment to chorus a thank you to pear, plum, damson, quince, cherry, elder, hazel, walnut, medlar and more.

22 June : SOUVENIRS IN PARTICULAR (Word doc, 32KB)

Common Ground today publishes a 24 page pamphlet arguing for locally distinctive souvenirs. Souvenirs in Particular is a call for action to designers, makers, educational, cultural, heritage and tourism agencies and tourists too, to create a new climate of expectation for the things we take home from places we have visited.

2006

14 September: APPLE DAY - OCTOBER 21ST(Word doc, 708KB)

October 21st 2006 will be the 17th Apple Day. Common Ground held the first in 1990 in Covent Garden, an annual event that has grown into a national celebration of the 2,000 eaters and cookers and the hundreds more cider apples we can grow in this country as well as the orchards they come from.

22 May : ENGLAND IN PARTICULAR (Word doc, 716KB)

Common Ground's new book, published by Hodder and Stoughton, is about the extraordinary richness of our everyday surroundings. 528 pages, 600 essays.

Organised from A-Z the essays include Alleys. Ancient Trees. Bus Shelters. Boundary Stones. Cakes. Carnivals. Dags. Diwali. Exmoor Ponies. Floods. Ganseys. Gates. Greetings. Half Year Birds. Hill Forts. Hound Trailing. Islands. Kerbstones. Landslips. Lighthouses. Midsummer Day. Northumbrian Smallpipes. ’Obby’Osses. Orchards. Pele Towers. Prefabs. Quarries. Round Towered Churches. Sand Dunes. Starlings. Stiles. Springs. Tar Barrel Rolling. Terraced Houses. Tides. Unlucky Words. Watercress Beds. White Horses. Wrestling. Xanadu. Yew. Zawns ranging through history, geography, ecology, archaeology, buildings, customs, foods, legends.

Read MORE
Buy a copy from Amazon.co.uk

3 May : MAY DAY MAY DAY
- A CALL FOR HELP (Word doc, 232KB)

Common Ground's new poster shows a glimpse of the rich range of local distinctiveness we stand to lose if we do not answer this call for help.

Read MORE
or BUY a copy from our PUBLICATIONS PAGES

26 April : MARKETS & MARKET PLACES (Word doc, 224KB)

Markets as a focus for local distinctiveness, good fresh food, social vibrancy and commercial diversity are called for today in a new 24 page free pamphlet.

2005

16 November : PRODUCING THE GOODS (Word doc, 28K)

24 May : APPLE DAY, APPLE GAMES & CUSTOMS (Word doc, 437K)

October 21st 2005 will be the 16th Apple Day since its inception in 1990. First launched in 1994, Apple Games & Customs is a valuable source book for people who wish to know more about the importance of the apple in our everyday lives and culture, and especially for organisers of Apple Day.

Pre - 2005

21 June 2004 : THE GOLD HILL LOAF (PDF doc, 400K)

A new loaf for Shaftesbury will be trialed at the Gold Hill Fair on Saturday July 3rd by Smith’s the Bakers who have been baking in Dorset for over 100 years. Good bread is Peter Smith’s trademark. Challenged by Common Ground to produce a special loaf for Shaftesbury, Peter Smith has created a loaf that is deeply indented to resemble the cobbles on Gold Hill, allowing it to be torn easily for eating.

24 June 2003 : A GOOD BAG (Word doc, 309K)

A new reusable organic cotton shopping bag for Shaftesbury, Dorset, launched.

12 March 2003 : THE CORRUGATED IRON CLUB (PDF doc, 47K)

The Corrugated Iron Club is part of Common Ground’s campaign for Local Distinctiveness, linked to its new Building Site on the web-site www.england-in-particular.info

28 November 2000 : THE COMMON GROUND BOOK OF ORCHARDS (Word doc, 22K)

Common Ground celebrates orchards as our best relations with nature in this unique and sumptuous book. It explores how orchards continue to shape local culture from custom to kitchen and urges us to value old orchards of tall trees for their delicate ecology and local distinctiveness.

1 August 2000 : THE WATER MARKET (Word doc, 335K)

The first ever WATER MARKET will be held in Blandford Forum on Friday August 18th in the Market Place and Corn Exchange. This will be a pioneering national event to celebrate water and rivers and things connected with them, combined with the latest in domestic water conservation devices for the house and garden.

15 September 1999 : NAMING OF BRIDGE AND BROOK (PDF doc, 2104K)

The launch of a country-wide challenge to put the names of rivers and streams in a simple, particular and appropriate way, on the bridges which cross them.