The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us and so, almost, is Apple Day. October 21 will see people bobbing, baking, peeling and eating the great British apple, but the impact of the day has spread much further as we’ve become aware of the importance of orchards and how close we are to losing them.

It may sound like an ancient rural custom, but the first Apple Day was held as recently as 1990 in the old fruit market at London’s Covent Garden. It brought together fruit-growers, beekeepers, naturalists and artists in a celebration not just of apples, but of the richness and diversity of the landscape. James Ravilious’s beautiful photographs of West Country orchards set the scene, and there were displays of more than 100 apple varieties.

Organised by the environmental charity Common Ground, the day caught the imagination of the thousands who attended, and similar events sprung up around Britain. Last year saw more than 600 celebrations - in schools and community centres, National Trust properties and other attractions. The key to its success, says co-director Sue Clifford, is that Apple Day has become a genuine community event - reinvented by towns and villages to suit local circumstances. This is exactly what Common Ground intended.

Local distinctiveness is the principle on which the charity was founded by Sue Clifford and Angela King in the early Eighties, to restore a sense of the importance of everyday places. “We were concerned that the commonplace and the local were not receiving nearly the attention they should,” says Ms Clifford, a former lecturer in landscape and natural resource planning at University College London.

“The focus was on endangered species and spectacular landscapes. We wanted to help build confidence in people to speak out for the everyday landscape; for the things we take for granted that suddenly become precious when they’re under threat”.

Common Ground is not just about nature, buildings or local history, but “a whole weighing up of what makes a place”, says Ms Clifford. It’s about bringing people together from different walks of life, to discover their “common ground” and what matters to them. The arts are an integral part of this, she says. “We knew we were talking about values, and that the people we should be working with were painters and poets and composers.”

Orchards are one of many unsung treasures Common Ground has promoted and a model of “how wonderfully people and nature can work together”, says Ms Clifford. “They had no champions, they seemed to be invisible to tree officers and landscapers.” Along with the “amazing revelation” that there are more than 6,000 apple varieties, many of which grow only in one area, was the alarming discovery that most counties had lost at least 75 per cent of their old orchards to intensive farming and building development.

The Save Our Orchards campaign was launched and Common Ground appointed its first community orchard officer, Dan Keech, whose magnificent work on conservation, The Common Ground Book of Orchards, was published last year. So far, more than 100 community orchards have been created and the total continues to rise as word spreads and new funding is raised.

“People are very animated about orchards and what they’re doing,” says Mr Keech, who believes some people have a tendency to “over-scientise” the countryside. Orchards get everyone working together, whether they have formal training or not, because they consider them intrinsic to their landscape. Each orchard is unique, with its own distinct traditions. Cider presses in Somerset are made from wood, while those in Devon and Cornwall are granite. Somerset’s limestone not only gives rise to a distinctive flora, but has also created local skills and customs. “Knowledge of place in its widest sense is important in developing skills in caring for orchards,” he says.

Margaret Miller, head of Gartmore primary school near Stirling, was one of the first to take up the challenge. The village school now has 20 apple trees in its grounds, planted and cared for by the children, and has started another orchard at Cashel, a hillside site owned by the Royal Scottish Forest Society on the shore of Loch Lomond.

The children have been involved from the start. At Cashel, they chose the site - sheltered by a row of trees and with good drainage - and discovered an old sheepfold, which they use to protect the young trees and as an information display. They planted a hedgerow to attract insects and wildlife and selected 20 Scottish varieties: 10 eaters and 10 cookers, some with local connections, such as Stirling Castle and the Cambusnethan Pippin, named after a nearby monastery. Others have equally evocative names such as Bloody Ploughman, Lord Rosebery and Lass O’Gowrie.

Each pupil is allocated a tree and teaches the younger ones how to look after it. They do all the work - feeding, mulching, pruning and weeding. The trees are kept to a manageable height and pruned to give arching branches. This year they have fruited better than ever before and every child will have apples to take home. Their aim is to supply the village shop. Mrs Miller is constantly surprised how one small tree can teach so much. The orchards are monitored throughout the year, giving plenty of scope for science and maths and providing a rich source of artistic inspiration. The pupils are frequently invited to talk to other schools and have compiled an Apple Day pack of their favourite activities, available from the school (see resources box).

You don’t have to be a primary school in rural Scotland to reap the benefits of an orchard. La Sainte Union, a voluntary aided secondary school in Camden, north London, which moved to its present site in 1864, has the original convent orchard in its grounds. The apple, pear and quince trees that supplied the kitchens for years had become badly neglected, but a major restoration programme was started three years ago, led by head of media studies Nancy O’Brien, with a pound;6,000 grant from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. Trees that had almost stopped fruiting are now laden with rosy apples.

A wildlife corridor between the orchard and neighbouring back gardens provides a natural setting for Year 10‘s willow sculptures. Other students have taken part in a Poetry Society workshop led by poet and ecologist Mario Petrucci, and published poems about the changing seasons and the orchard’s atmosphere of calm. The Year 12 and 13 media group researched and developed an internet project on healthy eating and designed a poster campaign to promote fruit in primary schools.

Throughout the project, Ms O’Brien has developed her own orchard skills, with courses on planting and pruning. And this summer, an Earthwatch Fellowship took her to the Boston Harbour Islands, a north American national park, where she joined scientists investigating the impact of visitors on its delicate ecosystems. A bonus was the discovery that many of the islands had orchards and that a school on Thompson Island, where the project was based, was also restoring an orchard.

Among the many achievements of Hedingham comprehensive school in rural north Essex is that each pupil can claim to have planted a tree. One in particular gives Sue Trim, head of the rural resource centre, special pleasure - a large black poplar at the school’s entrance, planted 10 years ago at the start of a project with the Forestry Authority to protect this endangered species. Since then, the school has grown more than 300 trees, all from hardwood cuttings, and has won awards for conservation. The rural studies centre is also home to rare breeds of poultry and rabbits, and the base for thriving GCSE and GNVQ land and environment courses.

In 1997, the school embarked on another practical way of studying biodiversity. Disused land was turned into an orchard of 30 types of apple tree, all with Essex origins, such as Chelmsford Wonder and Braintree seedling and the better-known Discovery. The Frances Ripper orchard, named after the governor who provided the initial funding, is on a sunny terrace with beautiful views across the valley to the Norman keep at Castle Hedingham. It’s used throughout the school for science investigations and practical environmental studies, art, music and English. It’s also popular with local residents, who attend a healthy living club at the school and share their memories of apple-picking when they were young.

Trevor Rogers, educational adviser for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society and former head of Coulby Newham comprehensive in Middlesbrough, is encouraging schools in Yorkshire to plant northern varieties of apples and pears. “Growing food is a big issue in schools and there’s a nice link between growing your own food and learning about horticulture,” he says. Worsborough school in Barnsley is one of eight schools to have received between pound;80 and pound;100 through a scheme supported by Learning through Landscapes in Barnsley with funding from the Shell Better Britain Campaign and Volvo Environmental Projects. Members of the Northern Fruit Group and Yorkshire Gardens Trust act as mentors - nine more schools are on the waiting list - passing on their planting and pruning skills, and making sure the trees are looked after properly.

Schools have been quick to see the potential of orchards, says Dan Keech. They may have only a few trees in pots, but they “put out tap roots” to other sorts of knowledge and understanding about land use. Now working at the Countryside Agency on a project on local produce and consumer choice, he describes taking Russett apples into schools. At first the pupils were put off by their rough skins, but when they tasted them they realised how sweet and delicious they were. This month many pupils will be making the same discoveries, with the added satisfaction of having grown the fruit themselves.

Apple Day is being marked by a series of events taking place around Britain. For a full list, check the Common Ground website: www.commonground.org.uk and the National Trust website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk