Recent News
.....
.....
.....
LEICESTERSHIRE APPLES NEWS 2010
................. 2013..... 2012..... 2011..... 2010..... 2009FUTURE EVENTS
LEICESTERSHIRE HERITAGE APPLES: TALK
6 Sept 2011; Burbage Gardening Club. Details later.
LEICESTERSHIRE HERITAGE APPLES: TALK BY MEL WILSON
11 Jan 2011. 11am. Salvation Army, Ladysmith Rd, South Wigston, Leics.
* ..... * ..... * ..... * .....*
APPLE EVENING 'OPEN HOUSE'
Private venue, north Leicestershire, 28 Oct 10, hosted by Mel Wilson. Sampled cider, juiced some different apples and pears, tasted leicestershire apples and apple cake, talked about apple recipes and preserves.
LEICESTERSHIRE HERITAGE APPLES: TALK BY MEL WILSON
Northampton Museum, 30 Sep 2010.
CROSS'S PIPPIN
Mel and an assistant have done a postcard drop in Hugglescote, where "Cross's Pippin" originated, asking for information, in an attempt to trace a tree of this lost variety. If you can supply information about Cross's Pippin, or know where a tree is growing, please get in touch.
BROCK'S HILL APPLE DAY, OADBY
Another excellent Apple Day organised by Helen Gregory. LHAP were there, Sunday 10 Oct 2010, along with other apple enthusiasts, including Mark Shirley of Rockinghamforest Cider, who brought a selection of ciders and perry, along with a display of traditional English cider apples and perry pears. Details here.
....
....
SAPCOTE APPLE FEST
25 Sept 2010 (Saturday), 10.30am - 4.00pm; Nigel and Alison Deacon of Leicestershire Heritage Apples were there. This was an event organised by the Sapcote Bloom Group , held in the new Pavilion. Local apples were on sale, as were lots of apple-based snacks, cakes, and other treats. We learned of a few ancient apple trees growing nearby, and these will be investigated.
....
....
MORE ARTICLES, SEPT 2010 and OCT 2010
LHAP has articles in "Leicestershire Life" and "Great Food Leicestershire & Rutland".
....
The article can be read online at www.greatbritishlife.co.uk
The second of these magazines (below) has just been launched by Matthew Wright, and if you're interested in good food, locally sourced, you should pay the site a visit. Click on the (rather fuzzy) double page spread below.
LEICESTERSHIRE SWEETINGS
We have found an old tree with these apples which we think may be Sweetings, and another equally early apple coloured red instead of yellow. Pictures are shown below. We have grafted trees of this variety and should have some specimens of fruit in a year or two.
....
....
My father remembers these apples from about fifty years ago; his grandfather used to have a tree. The fruit were very small, mainly yellowish, sweet, and very early.
There is a reference to these apples in 'Google Books'.
.....It is remarked I think justly that the early sweet Bough is worthy of particular attention as being an excellent sweet apple and as far as my knowledge extends quite the best of the early varieties There are two kinds of this Bough; the smaller kind is raised and much preferred in the county of Dutchess as being much the richest and most valuable and quite as early both excellent eating apples. The latter kind I have never seen in the western counties. The early Leicester Sweeting is also an apple of equal value but about two weeks later. This is an excellent bearer and will keep well to October.
("Hamburg", 1836, in "Railway Locomotives and Cars, Vol. 5, 1836, American Railroad Journal, repr.)
John Palsgrave, linguist and translator for Henry VIII, describes Sweetings as " a particular kind of apple of a luscious flavour " (1530).
The term seems to be applied to a variety of small sweet apples. There are American nurseries selling apples described as "Sweetings"; they are small, yellow, and usually early in the season.
- UPDATE, 11 Aug 2010
Mel has found an ancient tree, known to be 'Sweetings', containing fruit. Here is a picture:
....
Mel has also pointed out that the Leicester reference above may be Leicester, Massachussets, but I'll leave it online for now.
APPLES WE ARE STILL SEEKING:
Leicestershire varieties: Cross's Seedling, St. Cecilia, Ashby Seedling, Lady Leicester, "Nineteen". All of the other known Leicestershire apples have now been found and grafted.
STONEY STANTON OPEN GARDENS, 17-18 Jul 10
Leicestershire Heritage Apples was at Stoney Stanton over the weekend, represented by Nigel and Alison Deacon. Again, several people were keen in obtaining trees of Leicestershire varieties.
....
MELTON SHOW, 27 JUN 10
Leicestershire Heritage Apples was at the Melton Show. A number of people expressed interest in Leicestershire cultivars.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Long article today about Leicestershire Heritage Apples Project in Leicester Mercury. To read it, go to the online version of the paper, 4 May 2010. The text mentions 'Mel Deacon'; it should of course be Mel Wilson!
....
LANGTON'S NONESUCH
We now have scion wood for this long-lost variety, missing from England since the 1920s. Trees have been grafted and are growing well.
FOXTON'S PRIDE
I was interested to hear about Seedy Sunday ( a seed exchange afternoon ) at Foxton, Leics, which included a local person giving away apple trees grown from pips.
A short report appeared in the Leicester Mercury on 6 Mar 2010 . See our comments in Problems in identifying local apple .
Other news- Mel has found another interesting seedling on the Leics - Northants border, with a third of its apples still on the tree on 6 Mar. They are intensely sweet with a very tough skin. They may be useful; two trees have been grafted. (8 Mar 10)
GRAFTING UPDATE
Mel is in the middle of grafting a large selection of rare Leicestershire apples including Sweetings, Belvoir Seedling, Leicester-Burton Pippin, Annie Elizabeth, Dumeller's Seedling, Barnack Orange and Barnack Beauty, and various contenders for 'Foxton's Delight'.. Also being grafted are some local unique seedlings discovered recently.
Nigel has grafted more redfleshed apples and heritage varieties from other areas including Blackjack (Norfolk), Sops in Wine (Suffolk), Metton Roy (Norfolk), Hidden Rose (American), and some more local seedlings, from Seagrave, High Cross and elsewhere. Also grafted is the mystery Asian Pear (onto Quince C, both directly and using comice interscions). If there is enough scion wood, some direct grafts to wild pear will be tried too......ND, 22 Feb 10
MORE LEICESTERSHIRE APPLES
Mel has traced the following apples in old references:
- LADY LEICESTER
Know to be in existence in 1872; it was recorded in 'The Orchardist', J. Scott, London, c1873. If anyone has a copy of this record we would be grateful for further details.
ASHBY SEEDLING
A medium size apple, with an intermediate shape, rectangular, convex. Skin yellow and red; late season. First recorded in 1831; in existence in 1872. Recorded in The Orchardist, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, British Pomology by Hogg, no. 412.
Again, any information on this (or the location of any trees) - will be gratefully received. .....ND, 21 Feb 10
NORFOLK SMALLHOLDERS GRAFTING COURSE
.
.
Nigel and Alison Deacon gave their grafting course to the Norfolk Smallholders' Training Group, Sunday 14th Feb, Stratton Strawless Village Hall. Each student departed with at least two grafted trees.
The session included a lunchtime tasting session of late winter dessert apples, including some redfleshed varieties "Hidden Rose" and "Burford's Redflesh". The course was given a write-up in the Norfolk Smallholders' magazine, "Harrowing Times".
This was a repeat visit by LHAP to Stratton Strawless after a similar course in 2009.
GRAFTING, 2010
Scions are being collected and will be grafted shortly. Collected so far: various apples from old trees in Foxton, including those which are contenders for being the long-lost "Foxton's Pride", and some promising unique seedlings from Foxton and from other parts of the county.
Scions from outside Leicestershire which we have been given include Sops in Wine, an ancient redfleshed apple of spectacular appearance, and two late apples, Blackjack and Metton Roy, both from Norfolk. The Witney Pear, a giant pre-commercial Asian cooking pear found on the outskirts of Witney, will also be propagated.
|
Some rooted pieces of the ancient Stoney Stanton apple tree have been planted. It was rather precarious getting these because the tree is on the edge of a quarry; it's the sole remnant of an orchard which slid into the quarry in 1953. The lake below is about three hundred feet deep, and quarrying operations finished well over a century ago, but ground movement continues. The tree has a good crop three years out of four, and the apples are late winter keepers. |
Nigel Deacon / Mel Wilson
Please contact us if you would like to assist.
