IT’S certainly not your average wedding present.

But green couple Richard and Anna-Marie Byrne asked their guests for fruit trees when they married in 2004.

They then set about planting them in the allotments at the back of their house in Fartown for everyone to enjoy.

And now they hope to bring in community groups and schools to enjoy the site.

There are some 40 trees ranging from apple to cherry and almonds at the two acre orchard at Dewhurst Road.

Yesterday, green-fingered pupils from Longley School went to the orchard to help clear up the site.

With help from Manfred Denhe, vocational skills technician at the school, they built steps and cleared away brambles and debris.

Tool manufacturer, Fiskars, donated gardening gear to help the pupils with their work.

Richard, 37, said: “The plan is that as the orchard develops it will be something that everybody in Huddersfield can use.

“The trees will take a long time to grow – it’ll be another five years for a substantial yield of apples and pears.

“The plan is that it will be developed as an open space for people to come to and enjoy.”

Richard’s wife Anna-Marie works in renewable energy and the couple are both green-living.

Richard said: “Both my wife and I have a passion for growing and eating local produce.

“We were given permission to convert the disused allotment site into an orchard four years ago by the council.”

Richard takes his son Joseph, two, down to the site to see how it is coming along.

The father-of-one runs an after-school club for local children with disabilities.

In the future, he hopes to be able to bring his group to the orchard, and invite other community groups to the green space.

Richard said: “The site when we got it was beautiful already. “It was full of wildlife and plants and trees.

“We have been careful to be sensitive to the local wildlife that’s already there.

“We’re not being heavy-handed with it, but it needs quite a bit of work doing to it still.

“At it’s current stage the site isn’t something where you would bring groups of young children because a lot of it needs cleaning out.

“When it’s finished we would like to see it having disabled access so everyone can visit.”

Mr Denhe will take children from Longley School to the site for workshops about health safety, vocational skills and gardening.

He said: “We had a discussion with the children about what needed doing and asked them if they wanted to take part and they all voted yes.”