An approach that is bearing fruit

The organisations on a mission to preserve and promote Britain's rich apple heritage

- GABRIEL STONE

THE UBIQUITOUS apple may technically trace its origins back to Central Asia but it’s a species that has put down particularly deep roots in Britain. A brief rummage through our idiomatic and literary treasure boxes makes clear how completely this fruit has permeated not just the nation’s landscape but its culture.

We litter everyday conversations with ‘bad apples’ who ‘upset the apple cart’, while the healthy-eating lobby was surely founded on ‘an apple a day’. Nor can English writers resist its allure, whether directly or in metaphor. Housman, Clare, Betjeman, Blake, Coleridge and, of course, Shakespeare are just some of the great names to reach for an apple. And let’s not forget Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee’s wistful memoir of a rapidly eroding rural way of life.

Inevitably, orchards suffered their share of this erosion. Once a key source of income for farms, many were replaced either by more profitable crops or bulldozed for housing. In 1970, the UK still boasted 62,200 hectares of orchard, according to MAFF (now Defra). By 1997 this had collapsed to just 22,400 hectares. In a bid to halt further decline, several organisations, such as Common Ground, The Northern Fruit Group and the Marcher Apple Network, sprang up. Their regional focus may vary but each shares a mission to preserve and promote this cultural cornerstone, safeguarding the enormous genetic diversity found in British apple breeds for the benefit of future generations.

So many of the most exciting, unrecorded gems lie hidden behind garden walls. Countless readers of