Future is uncertain for original Bramley tree

NO GUARANTEES NEW OWNERS WOULD PROTECT LANDMARK BIRTHPLACE OF WORLD-FAMOUS APPLE

- By LOUIS CORBETT

The original Bramley apple tree was grown from a pip more than 200 years ago by Mary Ann Brailsford in Southwell

THE future of one of Nottingham-shire's most famous trees is uncertain after the property where it survives was put on the market.

The original Bramley apple tree stands in the garden of a house in Church Street, Southwell. The house has been owned by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) since 2018 for student accommodation but is now for sale with an asking price of £400,000.

Over the years, NTU has looked after it and now says it will try to find a “responsible custodian” to care for the ailing tree, which has honey fungus.

However, with the house going on to the open market and with the tree being in a private garden, it is unclear how simple this will be. There is no tree protection order.

The apple tree is more than 200 years old and was planted from seed by Mary Ann Brailsford in the early 1800s. Almost 50 years later, 17-year-old Henry Merryweather stumbled across the apples - and the new variety of Bramleys was discovered.

Henry Merryweather's great-granddaughter Celia Stevens, 85, says: "They fail to recognise what it has done over the years. It has helped feed troops, bring tourists over, and people just think it's a cooking apple.

"We are very fortunate to have anything of this nature. My great-grandfather found this apple, bred it, and it became one of the most celebrated culinary apples ever produced.