The Apple Orphanage is temporarily closed ahead of a planned move across the road into its orchard.

The Lynague-based company have plans currently being considered by the planning department to erect purpose-built premises, but in the meantime they no longer have storage or space to run the fruit exchange.

Charlotte Traynor, joint owner with partner Will Faulds, said: ’Without this space we have no area viably accessible to the public to run the Fruit Exchange (where 95% of our crops come from), so for the time being we are temporarily closed to the public for all drop offs.’

She went on: ’This was a move we have been planning for a number of years but it has been delayed because of Covid-19. In the meantime we are planning to erect a temporary building to resolve the lack of storage.

’As apple season is upon us (and early!) time is of the essence. Without a solution to these issues we will not be able to generate the stock that supports staff for the remainder of the year.

’Our consultation with planning began back in April and we’re hoping things will run smoothly so we can reopen and run the fruit exchange for the second half of apple season.

’Overall these developments will improve our processing efficiency and crucially improve the safety and accessibility of this new site for our exchange patrons and customers.

’As a community driven business it is extremely important to us that we cater suitably to the needs of our growing customer base. Community has always been at the heart of our business; while not a part of our current offering, having good infrastructure in our orchard opens up the possibility of offering much-requested horticultural talks and demonstrations for community groups and schools.’

’We will be making further announcements as we progress with the application and will update with our reopening dates and times.’