Private Project

Welcome to the Orchard of England

Known historically as the Orchard of England, Herefordshire is apple country. Sat in the middle is the ancient market town of Leominster, where people have been growing, picking, eating, stealing, throwing, pressing, cooking, and honouring apples for many generations. This heritage film brings together a wide-ranging and eccentric cast of local people – farmers, Travellers, former apple-pickers, clergymen, wassailers, cider makers, fruit sellers – to explore the deep relationship between the people of this area and its historic crop. Part portrait of a fading way of life, part celebration of how a living culture continues to manifest itself, the film raises deep questions about human nature. Expect games, pies, dancing, petty crime, and varieties of apple beyond your most delirious dreams. Prepare to honour the apple.

This film was made possible with the support of the UK's National Lottery Heritage Fund, Leominster Town Council and Leominster Cultural Consortium.

  • Hilary Lyon
    Concept
  • Louis Norris
    Director
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?, The Breakup Album of the Year, Sisters, Scene from the Men's Toilets at a Ceilidh
  • Hilary Lyon
    Producer
  • Louis Norris
    Producer
  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Producer
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?
  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Production Design
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?
  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Choreographer
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?
  • Louis Norris
    Editor
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?, The Breakup Album of the Year, Sisters, Scene from the Men's Toilets at a Ceilidh
  • Louis Norris
    Director of Photography
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?, The Breakup Album of the Year, Sisters, Scene from the Men's Toilets at a Ceilidh
  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Assistant Director
    What Shall We Do With These Buildings?
  • Hilary Lyon
    Interviewer
  • Alice Wheeler-Jones
    Key Cast
  • Felicity Norman
    Key Cast
  • Gareth Pugh
    Key Cast
  • Russell Sutcliffe
    Key Cast
  • Barbara Jones
    Key Cast
  • Pat Robinson
    Key Cast
  • Raymond Treasure
    Key Cast
  • Doreen Johnson
    Key Cast
  • Roberta Jancey
    Key Cast
  • Michael Jancey
    Key Cast
  • Stephanie Dunn
    Key Cast
  • Hilary Kay Cudbill
    Key Cast
  • Jacqueline Cole
    Key Cast
  • Simon Hoskins
    Key Cast
  • Martin Harris
    Key Cast
  • Robert Robinson
    Key Cast
  • Paul Stephens
    Key Cast
  • Gill Bullock
    Key Cast
  • Mark Pugh
    Key Cast
  • Leominster Priory Bellringers
    Key Cast
  • Leominster Priory Choir
    Key Cast
  • Anna Joseph
    Key Cast
  • Agnes Joseph
    Key Cast
  • Ancy Alexkutty
    Key Cast
  • Claire Mee
    Key Cast
  • Trish Marsh
    Key Cast
  • Leominster Town Councillors
    Key Cast
  • Pete Blench
    Key Cast
  • Anthony Wallis
    Key Cast
  • Father Guy Cole
    Key Cast
  • Father Jonathan Roberts
    Key Cast
  • Mark Woodall
    Key Cast
  • Gillian Talbot
    Key Cast
  • About Face Theatre
    Key Cast
  • Stacey Webb
    Key Cast
  • Lauren Walne
    Key Cast
  • Jade Millward
    Key Cast
  • Richard Woodall
    Key Cast
  • Tom Fleming
    Key Cast
  • Jack Butler
    Key Cast
  • Tim Dowse
    Key Cast
  • David Cooke
    Key Cast
  • Mark Parry
    Key Cast
  • Clive Lawson Parry
    Key Cast
  • Pam Wright
    Key Cast
  • Malcolm Mason
    Key Cast
  • Terry Collier
    Key Cast
  • Charlotte Tuck-Vanderstraete
    Key Cast
  • Martha Davies
    Key Cast
  • Elin Chedgzoy
    Key Cast
  • Hephzibah Cole
    Key Cast
  • Jill Hanna
    Key Cast
  • Leominster Priory Junior Choir
    Key Cast
  • Leominster Morris
    Key Cast
  • Joshua Dyer
    Key Cast
  • Adam Glyn-Jones
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    43 minutes 4 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 11, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Borderlines Film Festival
    Tenbury Wells
    United Kingdom
    February 28, 2025
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Louis Norris

Louis is a filmmaker, researcher, and editor whose work explores how people shape—and are shaped by—the built environment. His films have been shown at PÖFF, the London Short Film Festival and the BFI Future Film Festival. He has collaborated with academic institutions and arts organisations on research-based films as a freelance filmmaker, including Dancing the Fine Print (University of Cambridge) and an interview-based study on international students’ perceptions of London (LSE). He has worked in cinema programming (The Garden Cinema, London), digital art (ZINC, Marseille), and projection design in the UK and Iceland. He works part time at the Institute of Art and Ideas, editing talks and debates on topics ranging from particle physics to psychedelics.

This film is Louis’ third collaboration with choreographer and community artist Jonathan Ben-Shaul. Together, they run 'Moving House', a production company and arts organisation, specialising in short documentaries about the ways people relate to the places they live. In 2021 they made their first film in Kharkiv (Ukraine) - the award-winning ‘What Shall We Do With These Buildings?’ - about the legacy of Soviet architecture in the city, which was screened at festivals worldwide. In the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion, they spent much of 2022 organising fundraising screenings. In 2023 they were commissioned to make a community arts film in Basildon (UK), taking over a disused cinema in the town centre and mounting a multi-projector installation which screened over several days. They have just completed post-production on their latest project, ‘Welcome to the Orchard of England’, a heritage film about the history and continued significance of apples in Leominster, Herefordshire.

FILMOGRAPHY

Welcome to the Orchard of England / Louis Norris / 2025 / 45’ / Documentary
Commissioned by Leominster Priory, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund

What Will Become of Basildon? / Louis Norris, Jonathan Ben-Shaul / 2023 / 47’ / Documentary
Produced by Moving House, commissioned by Creative Basildon with Arts Council England funding

Dancing the Fine Print / Louis Norris, Ranjini Nair / 2023 / 3’ / Documentary
Short research film about Indian Classical Dance, funded by Cambridge University Creative Encounters

The Breakup Album of the Year / Louis Norris / 2022 / 7’ / Fiction
BFI Future Film Festival 2023: Official Selection

What Shall We Do With These Buildings? / Jonathan Ben-Shaul / 2022 / 27’ / Documentary
Shot, edited and co-produced. Official Selection: PÖFF Shorts, The Norwegian Short Film Festival, Lublin Film Festival, Lund Architecture Film Festival. Audience Award: Arquiteturas Film Festival

Angel / Louis Norris, oh!t / 2022 / 30' / Experimental
Live AV performance at Iklectik, London; commissioned by electronic music producer oh!t

Sisters / Louis Norris, Tanya Ronder, Hector Norris / 2020 / 14' / Fiction
London Short Film Festival 2021: Official Selection

Scene From The Men’s Toilets at a Ceilidh / Louis Norris / 2018 / 10’ / Fiction
30+ screenings, mainly at queer film festivals, and 400k views on YouTube

Not A Love Poem / Louis Norris / 2016 / 11’ / Fiction
8 screenings, mainly at student film festivals

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Statement from producer Hilary Lyon on why the film was commissioned:

Apples and cider making have been a prominent part of the local economy in Herefordshire for the last four hundred years, and orchards form an important part of the landscape, linked with local traditions, language, buildings, culture and biodiversity. One of the purposes of the film is to provoke conversations about apple heritage between generations. So many of the older generation worked in the industry in this area that they do not consider it interesting, so they don’t discuss it. They would be surprised to find that most children do not know what the word ‘scrumping’ means.

Our apple inheritance is important. Apples have been core to the lives of ordinary people in this area for generations. We should celebrate it, and consider how it can inspire our future. Part of the Priory Futures Project is about finding out what aspects of local heritage are relevant and interesting to local people. There have been many films made over the years that describe cider-making or wassailing, but rarely the ordinary experiences of picking, selling, scrumping, and eating apples. The film sheds light on the experiences and views of ordinary people, and captures a passion for apples and all that they represent that should be shared.