Alison Steadman, Carol Ann Duffy and Richard Briers muck in on the Airplot
Down on the parcel of land Greenpeace has bought on the site of the proposed third Heathrow runway, a new element is being added to the Airplot. Typically for this time of year, it's a bit chilly and a bit muddy, but that makes it perfect for what we've got planned today, which is planting an apple orchard.
With the help of people like actress Alison Steadman, poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and former Heathrow writer-in-residence Alain de Botton, we're planting yet more roots into the land we own on behalf of tens of thousands of people around the world, a right spanner in the works for advocates of bigger airports at Heathrow and elsewhere.
The Sipson field is crowded: Alison and Carol Ann rubbing shoulders with Richard Briers, returning after helping us set up the allotment earlier in the year, and politicians of all hues. Trees have been adopted by various groups who oppose plans for a third runway, including Labour and Conservative MPs (David Cameron and Oliver Letwin have lent their names to the Tory one), while the Lib Dem and Green parties have trees of their own. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is there to reaffirm his party's stand against a bigger Heathrow and local Labour MP John McDonnell is also on hand for some tree-planting duties.
Thirteen trees in all will be planted and dedicated, including one for all you 57,000-plus Airplotters out there, as well as the massive coalition of scientists, local councils, celebrities, and campaigning groups (including fellow apple enthusiasts the Woodland Trust) who think we need to rein in our binge-flying. One has also been accepted by Reverend Tafue of Tuvalu, the Pacific nation which is already feeling the effects of climate change.
Alain de Botton can't be there in person today but a plaque bearing his name does stand in front of a Langley pippin tree. During his week-long stint as Heathrow's writer-in-residence earlier this year, he documented life in the various terminals and although he says that "I love airports and air travel", he also recognises that "if our society is to tolerate them, we're going to have to learn to fly a lot less."
Meanwhile, Carol Ann Duffy has predicted the demise of the third runway in her poem Mrs Scrooge as the Ghost of Christmas Past visits the orchards of Sipson. You can read it on the Guardian website.
Yet the orchard is more than just a physical block to the third runway plans, it's also firmly rooted (if you'll pardon the pun) in the history of the Heathrow area. In the mid-1800s, Richard Cox bred the Cox's orange pippin just a mile away from the current airport and he's buried in the graveyard in Harmondsworth, one of the villages under threat from the runway plans. His legacy is seen in supermarkets around the country, as the Cox's orange pippin accounts for more than half of all UK-grown dessert apples.
The Heathrow area was also, until relatively recently, an important source of food for London. Until the 1960s, market gardens proliferated and produce was sent in to the old Covent Garden market for sale to city-dwellers.
Orchard plans don't just stop at the Airplot fence though. In the coming weeks, Greenpeace supporter networks around the country will hold their own tree planting events in solidarity with Sipson - find out if there's one happening in your area. And of course if you haven't already, you can become a beneficial owner of the land (and accompanying apple trees) yourself.
Follow the day live here:
