Fruit trees and courtyards are to be incorporated into the new Ballymore development of Brentford High Street to reflect the town's past as a bustling market garden.

Brentford was once home to a plant nursery that exported fruit trees and seeds to as far away as Australia.

The town boasted a bustling market garden around the site that is ongoing redevelopment, growing fruit and vegetables and transporting them into the city in willow baskets via the waterways.

Hugh Ronalds, Brentford's illustrious nurseryman and horticulturalist, grew some 300 varieties of apples on his six sites, even charting many varieties in a book published in the early 1830s, called Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis.

Under the new development's landscape design, fruit trees are set to make a reappearance, featuring in the domestic courtyards.

Developers Ballymore say they want the development, known as The Brentford Project, to be distinctively local.

"We're trying to bring out the history of the site through its stories," says landscape architect Huw Morgan.

Morgan is working with landscape architect Grant Associates to introduce echoes of the past into the development's new landscaped squares, lanes and other open spaces.

The site sits between the high street and the the Brent and Thames rivers, and the architects behind the development's masterplan, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Glenn Howells Architects and Maccreanor Lavington, are restoring access to the waterfront, which has long been hidden from public view.

They are also introducing a series of pedestrian lanes leading to the water that take their lead from the area's historic industrial yards.

Willow trees growing along the waterfront historically provided the raw material for the area's numerous basket-makers, whose wares were used to transport fruit and vegetables to the capital.

"The painter JMW Turner went to school in Brentford and made pencil sketches of the pollarded willows on the Thames," explains Morgan.

Willows have already been incorporated into the waterside square beside the development's café, Rye by the Water, and will be reintroduced to their natural waterfront setting under the broader landscaping design.

The new lanes and yards echo history in their more intimate scale and are designed to welcome people into the development, encouraging them to explore the 4.79 hectare site's open spaces, waterfront, independent cafes and shops.

"When you walk along the high street, there is a lack of recognition of how close to the water you are, so the design opens up access and views," says Morgan.