“Lost” varieties re-discovered

MAN was founded in 1993 largely as a reaction to the decline of traditional orchards and consequent loss of varieties, our main objective was to re-discover and keep in cultivation old varieties of top fruit- particularly those associated with Wales and the Welsh Marches. At our first presentation at the Malvern Autumn Fruit Show in 1995, we mounted a display of unknown apple varieties seeking help in their identification from visitors. This evoked lots of interest but only one name. We also displayed a poster of “WANTED” apples.

Since 1993 more than 30 varieties of old dessert and cooking apples have been re-found. Most are listed in ‘Orchard Gleanings’ in Apples and Pears (2014) though a few have been authenticated since, notably Bringewood Pippin, Round Winter Nonesuch, and Spring Grove Codlin.  We show examples of the fruit for comparison with details from reference works (see Accreditation).

There are three chief ways ‘lost’ varieties have been re-found

• – Local campaigns have been launched by enthusiasts to find a particular apple once grown in their district. In this way Brithmawr was found in Glamorgan by Muriel Beck and friends, and Chatley Kernel in Worcestershire by Peter Weekes. These finds, and the dramatic rescue of Newland Sack by John Aldridge are documented in early MAN newsletters.
• – More often ‘lost’ varieties have surfaced by visitors bringing in unknown apples for identification at Apple Day events. It was an exciting moment at Church Stretton Apple Fair in 2004 when Tom Adams took out of his rucksack 3 small specimens of Gipsy King. By the time we had checked them with Hogg’s description the queue of visitors clutching bags of unknown apples snaked through the hall, and to avoid further disruption the show organiser despatched us to a quiet room in another part of the building. The debut of Barcelona Pearmain, brought to Malvern Show by Mary Troughton in 2007, was another ‘red letter’ event, her old tree was still bearing prolifically.
• – The third way of discovering old varieties is by arranging visits to traditional orchards. Pig Aderyn and Pren Glas were found on a visit to an old estate in St. Dogmaels; Pig yr Wydd and Marged Nicolas came to light as a result of a survey of farm orchards around Llansadwrn commissioned by the Countryside Council for Wales. When we looked around the farm orchard in Shropshire which was home to Gipsy King two other old varieties were refound: the Bringewood Pippin and Round Winter Nonesuch. Such lucky breaks more than compensate for the hours spent trying to trace elusive apples like Ten Commandments. In many cases we have arrived just in time as the ancient decrepit trees, with hollow trunks ravaged by beetles and woodpeckers, might not have survived the next great storm.

Identification can be a lengthy process and involve taking scions from an old tree and grafting young ones that can be grown on and studied in one of our museum orchards. It took over 10 years to determine that the large conical yellow green apple with its gentle red flush was indeed Spring Grove Codlin.  We had strong suspicions because the source tree was found as a very old tree growing in the grounds of Elton Hall, the first home of Thomas Andrew knight after his marriage.

Confirmation that they are indeed lost varieties means that whatever name they may have been known by is not correct.  Usually they also have no matching DNA entry in any database; there are exceptions, for instance when we found that the variety held at the National Fruit Collection as Bringewood Pippin was actually Sweeney Nonpareil!