Gloucestershire - orchards

"75% of Gloucestershire's orchards have been lost in the last 50 years, mainly through agricultural changes, foreign competition and supermarket pressures. Despite this decline, Gloucestershire still has areas where orchards form strong traditional landscape character. The Berkeley Vale and Dymock areas contain a noticeable number of orchards with many local varieties ... There are 157 recorded Gloucestershire apple varieties of which only 86 are still known to be in existence. There are also dozens of varieties of pear local to the county. Many of the varieties have names that reflect their origins within the county such as Chaxhill Red, Arlington Pippin, Severnbank, Gillyflower of Gloucester and Blakeney Red, a perry pear".
Gloucestershire County Council.

Since the mid-1990s years Gloucestershire County Council has offered grants for orchard restoration and has supported the planting of over 2,500 fruit trees. They have also been developing a six hectare orchard of Gloucestershire varieties of apple, perry pears and other fruit at the Ebworth Centre, National Trust land between Stroud and Birdlip. Ebworth will also act as a future Orchard Interpretation Centre, a gene bank and place where grafts of the lesser known local varieties can be obtained.

The poet Leonard Clark described his memories of Gloucestershire orchards in 'Apple Trees'

The plum and perry pear orchards on both sides of the Severn south of Gloucester, around Waterend, Elton, Bollow and Chexhill are beautiful at blossom-time in early April.

Visit Blaisdon Plum Day on the Sunday before August Bank Holiday Monday in the garden of the Red Hart, Blaisdon, where you will be able to enjoy the very local fruit, the Blaisdon Red plum. Contact Joyce Tilley on +44(0)1452 830160.

The Orchard Pig or Gloucester Old Spot was traditionally raised on windfall apples and whey in the Severn Valley, where it originated. Contact the Gloucester Old Spots Pig Breeders' Club, Richard Lutwyche, secretary +44(0)1285 860229.

Perry is made from pear juice and is an alcholic drink which has been made for thousands of years. It reached its height of popularity in England between the mid 17th and mid 18th century aided by the difficulties of importing wine from France. Single pear perries are customary owing to problems in blending. Small and unpalatable, perry fruits generally make a lighter and more delicate drink than cider and at its best, perry is a rival to wine. Not before time, perry production is undergowing a revival in the region, both commercially and on a domestic scale. Regional perry pear varieties have been planted at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern. Four old perry pears have recently been found by expert Charles Martell - Hellens Green, Walter Lugg, Stony Way and Fords Green Huffcap and will be added to the collection.

With huge majestic trees which can last for three centuries, perry pears are wonderful monuments in the landscape around Newent and Dymock - but as part of the farmed landscape they are fast disappearing. This is to be deplored. Local perry makers reckon that perry pear trees grow best in the red sandstone soils found on the Herefordshire-Gloucestershire border, within sight of May Hill. Gloucestershire pears are a muddle of local names that change from place to place - the county is said to be home to some 100 perry pear varieties known by well over 200 different names, some of which hint at the effects of consumption: Bloody Bastard, Merrylegs and Lightning Pear (reputed to go straight through).

Wild cherries dot the woods and hedgerows with white blossom in April / May in the Wye Valley.

Man-made Eden: Historic Orchards of Somerset and Gloucestershire - a new book by James Russell explores history of orchards in teh counties. Why is Glastonbury known as Avalon, the Isle of Apples? What made Redstreak Cyder the most popular drink of the seventeenth century? Who was Dr Ashmead, cultivator of the connoisseur’s favourite apple, Ashmead’s Kernel? How did a Somerset vicar come to make cider for Queen Victoria? This rich, wide-ranging book takes a long historic look at changing fashions and fortunes – asking why thirteenth-century monks and Edwardian landowners planted orchards, and why post-war governments paid farmers to destroy them. The author looks at the current work that has raosed awareness of the importance of traditional orchards, and asks: what can we do to make our orchards as profitable as they were in centuries past? James Russell has written for the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, Countryman Magazine, BBC History Magazine, British Heritage, Somerset Life, the Bristol and Bath Magazines, Venue and many other publications. Man-made Eden: Historic Orchards of Somerset and Gloucestershire by James Russell, Recliffe Press Ltd, October 2007. Hardback £15. ISBN 978-1-904537-75-5