VILLAGERS in Bere Ferrers have gathered together to help restore an orchard which was recently destroyed by a cruel act of vandalism.

The 30 tree orchard, belonging to Bere Ferrers parish councillor Brian Lamb, was vandalised on the night of the storm on October 11 and 12 after someone wielding a chainsaw slashed and cut down the trees.

Just after the crime took place, sergeant Penny Channing said: ‘The orchard was almost completely decimated with a chainsaw. It is a despicable, cowardly crime to attack someone’s property meaninglessly.’

Mr Lamb is a member of the Tamar and Tavy Apple group and has carefully tended the special, local varieties of apple trees for many years.

While the police are busy following up leads into who may be responsible, a number of villagers came together on Sunday (October 28) to form a work party to try to salvage what they could of the orchard.

They gathered up the broken branches and set about preparing the trees for regeneration.

Rosie Hinge, who was part of the working party said: ‘Some will need to be grafted to new stems and some will recover by careful pollarding. In the end, these fine apple trees should be able to grow again and Brian will once more be able to look out onto a thriving orchard.

‘Despite this misfortune, this strong show of support from the villagers will make sure that Brian has something to smile about!’

Cllr Brian Lamb was overwhelmed with the response from the community. He said: ‘It was absolutely heart- warming. There was an unbelievable response from the local community who all told me how horrified they were of the mindless criminality of the destruction of an ancient orchard.

‘Some of those trees were over 100 years old — some of the oldest apple trees in Devon.

‘It will take a long time to restore them fully but the fact that people came to demonstrate their support was absolutely fantastic. A very sincere thank you to everyone who got involved. It seemed as though the whole village has got behind it.’

Police are still appealing for information relating to this incident. If anyone saw or heard anything suspicious on that night, they can contact the police in confidence by calling 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.