“Traditional” Orchards - in variety.

Paul Read ISA 21 May 2007

Apple “Catshead”
 LAND MARKS IN ORCHARD HISTORY OR PURE GUESSWORK?

• The Romans – Decio and Verdocchio

• The Saxons – Saxon names for fruit

• The Vikings – trading in apples?

• The Normans – cider, perry?

• Yeoman England – herbals, pippins, codlings and biffins, Home Farm, Thrandeston, Suffolk.

• The big gap we don’t know much about between 1600 and 1750 – the mixture as before!

• The County Agricultural Reports - Young to Cobbett – still using the old names.

• The commercial & collecting Victorians – the naming of clones, Bramley Seedling, Mere de
Menage, Uvedale St Germain, Beurres, Reinettes, and Dukes

• Victorian and Edwardian gardeners and their pesticide sprays – nicotine, arsenic and copper.

• Industrial fruit varieties – 1980 – 1935 - Laxton and Seabrook, cling or free.

• Land for housing, the suburbs and post-war planning acts – the first big losses?

• Modern fruit growing – 1000’s to the acre.

• And now….what is left?

 What is a “traditional” orchard?
• DEFRA has a definition for “Traditional”:-

• Single unbranched trunks to 1.5m+

• Grass below, grazed by sheep, cattle and pigs, occasionally, or could be.

• Spacing 5-10m, or more, between trees, no more that 50 per acre.

• BUT …………………

• Unfortunately many traditional orchards are not like this now.

• Many didn’t start, or finish, like this

• Many local variations (species & cultivar, spacing, rootstocks - or none at all, tree form,
pruning techniques - or none at all, etc)

• Some species crop were never like this e.g. cobnuts, damsons, some plums.

• DEFRA has now realized that there is considerable local variety.

•
 What is a “traditional” orchard?
• DEFRA’s original definition has been inflexible:
Tall single trunks,
Trees grafted to vigorous roostocks,
Grass below that is or could be grazed,
Need for traditional pruning…..etc.

• Preferable would be:

Any local variation on land specifically used for top
fruit,

Managed in a traditional, often local, manner,

Without the use of “traditional” spraying regimes.

 2005 Review of priority habitats: Traditional Orchards: a
proposed new priority type.

No full definition but assumed to be cultivated, or once cultivated, tree top

fruits.

Implies just one type of “traditional” orchard

Concentrates on the “incidental” inhabitants of the habitat and less on the

trees themselves?

Little or no recognition of the tree species,

Ignores crop, cultivar, clone biodiversity,

Recognition of epiphytes, and the fungi unsophistictaed. (Does not

recognize, yet, that species AND CULTIVARS are often very different as
habitats, especially for epiphytes, saprophytes and wood feeders)

And any cultural, landscape or historic significance.

Varietal & Clonal
differences.
IDENTITYING
APPLES
 Often a marked difference between orchard fruit
originating in Suffolk, and those grown in Suffolk.

Fruit cultivars of Suffolk origin

• Apples
• Red Miller’s Seedling, Suffolk Pink (1990 Braiseworth sport of Laxton’s Fortune), St Edmund’s
Russet (pre1875), Honey Pippin, Clopton Red (1946, Justin Brooke), Maxton, Maclean’s
Favourite (1820), Lord Stradbroke, Catherine, Lady Henniker (Thornham Hall, 1845)

• Plums
• Green Gage (C1700), Coe’s Golden Drop(pre1800), Coe’s Late Violet (C1800).

• “Lost” varieties
• Apples, Beauty of Livermere (1896), Bradbury (1934), Emerline (1900), Livermere Favourite
(1996)

• And yet another apple called Ruby (1899).

 Locally grown tradtional cultivars.

• Locally selected or locally bred cultivars, are rarely cultivated in

Suffolk (or Norfolk and Cambridge).

• Locally successful, and, in the past, commonly grown cultivars, in

Suffolk:

Apples: Mere de Menage, Catshead, Golden Noble, Dr Harvey, George

Cave, Bramley’s Seedling, Adam’s Pearmain, Reinette Rouge Etoilee.

Plums: Yellow Egg, Shepherd’s Bullace, Cambridge Gage, Purple

Pershore. And several Cherry Plums.

Pears: Beurre Hardy, Conference, Concorde.

Apples, A selection
of Upper
Plums, Waveney
Valley
Pears, orchard fruit

Damsons and Bullace,

Cherry plums,
Cherries,
Cobnuts,
Filberts,
Quince,
Medlar,
Figs,
Walnuts,
Apricots,
Peaches.
 “Traditional” Rootstocks
• Apples: “Crab”, seedling apples, Doucin, Paradise (dwarfing)
• Plums and Gages: St Julien A, Brompton, Myrobalan, Mussel etc
• Cherries: Mazzard = wild cherry seedlings (Gean),
• Pears: “Wild Pear” seedlings & suckers, Quince suckers from large cultivars e.g Portugal

• Some fruit on their own roots, e.g. Damsons, several Plums, Bullace, Morellos, a few Apple
cvs, some cobnuts.

Large growing MODERN rootstocks (watershed was between WW2 and 1950)

• Apples: M25, MM111, M2

• Cherries: F1/2
• Plums and Gages: Mariana,
• Pears: Quince A (semi-vigorous)

MODERN dwarfing rootstocks (watershed was just post-1950)

• Apple: Paradise, M26/27, MM106,

• Pears and Quince: Quince C,
• Plum: Pixie,
• Cherries; Tabel, Colt, Gisela.
ORCHARDS AS A HABITAT
• Very little investigated until recently, especially the ground flora.
• Saproxylic species,
• Wood boring beetles, wasps, clearwing moths etc
• Red-rot fauna, e.g. Noble chafer
• Deadwood species,
• Grassland habitat doesn’t usually fit a National Vegetation
classification.
• Rich source of ancient garden cultivars; snowdrops, various Stars
of Bethlehem, Victorian daffodils etc etc.
• Sometimes high nutrient soils.
• Lesser spotted woodpecker
• Epiphytes: lichens in the west, mosses and liverworts in the east!!
• Often good snake country, and newts. Often associated ponds.
• Nesting birds, e.g. Turtle Doves
• Some argument about whether orchards are Wood Pasture.
 Gnorimus nobilis, NOBLE CHAFER Pre-1980

http://www.ptes.org/work/baps/noble-chafer.html

And Ceratonia nobilis,

ROSE CHAFER
especially in Essex
 Robin Stevenson has studied the bryophytes growing in East
Anglian orchards;

• Antitrichia curtipendula
A single patch c. 10 cm in diameter on a Bramley apple tree in an orchard planted in 1976, White Engine Hall, Leverington,
TF431103, N.G. Hodgetts, 12.2.2006, conf. G.P. Rothero, BBSUK. This species has never been recorded in Cambridgeshire, and
it was apparently lost from most of its rather few recorded sites in central and eastern England by the end of the 19 th cent ury.
This is the most remarkable example yet of the increase in epiphytic species following the reduction in SO 2 pollution in recent
decades.

• Leucodon sciuroides
Base of apple tree in old orchard N. of Rummers Lane, Wisbech St Mary, TF 416075, C. R. Stevenson, 12 & 19.5.2004. Although
L. sciuroides is known on stone substrates in a few places in the county, this is the first record as an epiphyte since E. W.
Jones found it at two sites in 1933: on the base of a tree at Barrington and on an oak near Stetchworth.

• Pylaisia polyantha
Fruiting plants on apple trees in old orchard N. of Rummers Lane, Wisbech St Mary, TF 414074, 415074 and 417074, C. R.
Stevenson, 12 & 19.5.2004, BBSUK, conf. G. P. Rothero. The first vice -county records of an uncommon epiphyte.

• Sanionia uncinata
Apple tree in old orchard N. of Rummers Lane, Wisbech St Mary, TF 415074, C. R. Stevenson, 12.5.2004, BBSUK, conf. G. P.
Rothero. Apple tree in orchard planted c .1916, S.W. fringe of Wisbech, TF 447076, C. R. Stevenson, 30.12.2004. The first vice-
county records of an epiphyte which may be spreading in eastern England .
 Life & Death of an orchard.
Horses are quicker – but even sheep can
reach 1.4m, and some can climb! In
winter all stock will bark apple and plum
trees unless the bark is old and rough.
Pear bark is less palatable.

Trunks need to be at least 1.6m before the

first branch and protected when young.
 ORCHARD TYPES
• Orchards in England vary in character (a lot), in
terms of:
– Landscape, very varied in terms of tree sizes and forms
– Use (i.e. why is the orchard there?)
– Habitat (is it one, or a number, grassland, woodpasture,
woodland, unique)
– Wildlife (and where is it concentrated? On, in, under,
around the trees?)
– and Crop biodiversity (and does it matter? Are pears
different from apples, and Bramley’s from Cox?).
 Habitat at risk
Historical data gathered from
England show that over the whole
country orchard area has declined
by 57% since 1950. This estimate of
loss was made by comparing the
agricultural census figure of 108,555
ha of orchards in 1950 with the
current Ordnance Survey figure of
47,000 ha. As part of English
Nature’s current study of traditional
orchards, assessments of loss have
been made for several objectively
chosen sample areas in England
and show that there have been
much greater declines in traditional
orchards and that severe declines
have been continuing over the last
20 years.

Problem?
No distinction between “traditional”
and current “commercial”.

Local survey example:

Cambridgeshire
1997/98-2003
-10%, but of all orchards
 Where do the crops come from?

• Apples Kazahkstan area: M alus sieversii = pumila

• Cider apples The same/or maybe: M . orientalis/pumila hybrids

• Crab apples Worldwide: many M alus species and hybrids

• Pears Iran & Iraq: Pyrus communis (not cordata or

pyraster)

• Plums Europe to C.Asia: Prunus domestica,

• origin probably spinosa x cerasifera?
– Gages Europe: P. domestica, or probably another hybrid.
– Damsons Europe: P. institia damascena
– Bullace Europe: P. institia
– Cherry Plum Caucasia: P. cerasifera (also the Myrabolan, but not the Mirabelle)

• Cherries Europe: Prunus avium & cerasus, and hybrids (Duke cherries)
• Cobs & Filberts Europe & ME: Corylus maxima, colurna (& hybrids but rarely avellana),

• Walnuts Kirghizia: Juglans regia

• Figs Middle East/Turkey?: Ficus carica

• Apricots C, Asia or China?: Prunus armeniacus

• Peaches & Nectarines China: Prunus persica

 M alus pumila
(sieversi,
domestica etc)

Apple “forest”
Kirghizia
• Malus pumila, a seedling from the wild in Kazakhstan,
grown in Norfolk.
• Could be any English apple?
• Looks a bit like Chivers Delight!
 But in general
• Large growing trees – scions grafted on vigorous rootstocks, or on
their own roots. (but NOT ALWAYS).

• Apples were originally annually pruned (but most other crops weren’t).

• Local tree forms, standards, half-standards, and confusing local

terminologies.

• No longer sprayed.
 Fen and clay fen edge orchards:
many commercial orchards, once
many large “half-standard” apple
trees, plums more common in the
west, especially in Hunts.

Norfolk and Suffolk Claylands:

many small old mixed farm
orchards, only a few commercial
orchards. Travelling cider makers.

S Suffolk: Early apples, plums and

even apricots (once figs) on warm
chalk. Sandlings: small
farm orchards but
no other
information????

Essex: smallholdings & orchards,

very mixed, often with nuts, some
small farm orchards. Several
breeder/nurserymen influenced the
varieties grown e.g Seabrooks and
Rivers
 Reasons for being there
• COMMERCIAL, often of few cultivars…and recent spraying reduces wildlife value (by how
much is unknown). e, g. Aspalls, Braiseworth

• MARKET GARDEN, part of mixed production, for sale locally. High Easter

• INSTITUTIONAL, to feed the inmates (e.g.Gressenhall Workhouse & Girton College).

• NURSERY, as “mother trees”, or to show the customers,

• FARM-HOUSE, to feed the family and farm workers (some as an additional crop similar to a
market garden now very rare in East Anglia).

• CIDER, very uncommon, and unspecialized, in East Anglia (but travelling cider makers until
WW2).

• COUNTRY HOUSE, for the table, and display.

• GARDEN, for all sorts of reasons.

• etc
 Commercial
• More interesting if management has lapsed (or at least spraying has lapsed!).

• Spraying regimes still extensive:

“Nearly all commercial orchards pursue an aggressive program of chemical sprays to
maintain high fruit quality, tree health, and high yields. This is STILL almost entirely some
form of “calender-based” spray regime using chemicals no longer available to gardeners.
A “trend” in orchard management is the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which
reduces needless spraying when pests are not present, or more likely, are being controlled
by natural predators.
…………..(Spraying for insect pests must never be done during flowering because it kills
pollinators………..Nor should bee-attractive plants be allowed to establish in the orchard
floor if insecticides are used……….).
……………………….. Apples are difficult to grow organically, though a few orchards have
done so with commercial success, using disease-resistant cultivars and the very best
cultural controls. (The latest tool in the organic repertoire is to spray a light coating of
kaolin clay, which forms a physical barrier to some pests, and also helps prevent apple sun
scald).
Ref: USFDA (almost certainly true in Europe too)

• In UK modern commercial plantings are up a density of 4,000 “trees” per ha.

• Difficult to establish the wildlife value of commercial orchards.

Reticence to discuss spraying regimes. Considerable ad hoc pest control.
 At least some COMMERCIAL
ORCHARDS still exist that use
“nearly” traditional methods.
Heath Fruit Farm, Bluntisham
Apples Plums
Howage Wonder Avalon
Greensleeves Yellow Egg
Perfection Early Laxton
Laxton's Early Crimson Early Rivers Prolific National Fruit Collection Brogdale Kent
Discovery Laxton's President
Bramley's Seedling Laxton's Cropper
Cox - various clones Czar Crapes Fruit Farm Aldham Essex
Worcester Pearmain Victoria
Laxton Superb Coe's Golden drop Over 295 cvs of apples
Lord Derby Belle de Louvain
George Cave Pond's Seedling
And 50 plums, 50 pears and 5 quince
Denniston's Superb Grows quince and medlars commercially.
Pears Pinhead Damson (local from hedge?)
Pitmaston Duchess Burbank
Laxton's Superb Oullin's Golden Gage
Doyenne du Comice Early Transparent Gage
Williams Greengage
Conference Count Althann's Gage
Concorde Jefferson
Red Windsor Marjories Seedling
Beurre Hardy Wallis's Wonder
Rivers' Princess Excalibur
Purple Pershore
 Commercial
Cambridgeshire, fen edge
“half standard”
Bramley’s Seedling

Probably the largest apples trees

in England. About 70 years old.
 Rare and local
varieties at Crapes
Fruit Farm, Aldham,
Essex
 Plums,
Purple Pershore, Czar
&
Victoria
PEARS
Many of the wild pear rootstocks have
grown out and are now fruiting.

Louise Bonne of Jersey.

(the original crop)
 COOKING APPLES:
Monarch, Blenheim Orange and Crimson Bramley
NUTS:
Cosford, Kent Cob,
and Walnuts
AND BADGERS!
and roe deer
and hares
and woodmice
and bank vole
and grass snake
& GCN..
 Institutional
• Workhouses

• Hospitals

• Colleges

• Schools

• Prisons

• etc
Old workhouse orchard
at Gressenhall Rural Live
Museum, Norfolk
 GIRTON COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE.
OLD ORCHARD

1999 (planted pre-1890)

After ivy
removed

Pear,
Pitmaston
Duchess
Apples: Crimson Bramley, Norfolk Beefing, Northern Greening, Peasgood
Nonsuch, Warner’s King, Blemheim Orange….and others.
Girton College
Old Orchard

Pear: Fondant d’Automne?

Quince: Apple
Pear: Pitmaston Duchess
 Nurseries, Collections, Gene
Banks and Museums.
• Keepers Nursery, Kent

• Deacons Nursery, Isle of Wight

• Crown Nursery, Ufford, Suffolk

• National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent

• DEFUNCT NURSERIES
– River’s Nursery, Sawbridgeworth, Herts. (“Mother” orchard - under threat)
– Seabrook’s Nursery, Essex. (4,000 acres – all gone)
– Brooke’s Clopton, Suffolk (fragments left as gardens)
– Allgrove’s Nursery, Langley, Bucks. (remnants under threat)
Tewin Orchard, Hertfordshire Wildlfe Trust

Rivers’ Nursery Orchard

Sawbridgeworth Herts

Royal Horticultural
Society Fruit Group
 Crab apple “Red Flesh”

Cider apple collection

The National Fruit Collection

Brogdale Horticultural Trust, Commercial cherry collection
Faversham, Kent

New nut collection Apple “Charles Eyre”

The National Fruit Collection
Annual Apple Festival 2004
The National Fruit Collection
Annual Plum Festival 2004
Apple “Knobby Russet”,

will it ever catch on?

Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, Surrey
The FRUIT FIELD
 Skansen,
Stockholm,
Sweden
Farm-house

Farmhouse
type orchard
Woodhall,
Thrandeston,
Suffolk.
GRAFTING
 Pears, and a
cherry plum
planted in 1856

Dairy Farm, Thrandeston, Suffolk

 Cider & Perry
• In East Anglia cider was made from a mixture of
cookers and eaters (often very carefully selected and
mixed). No special cultivars were grown.

• Travelling cider-makers visted farms that had no

apple press of their own.

• Many pubs also made their own from local windfalls

or their own orchard.

• No perry recorded (?).

The National Fruit Collection,
Cider Festival 2004
 Country house orchards,
villages, gardens and incidental
trees,
• Garden trees, especially large houses, had small orchards, now almost entirely gone.

• Semi-wild, feral, wildings, escapes etc.

• The original sources of new cultivars. Ribston Pippin, Captain Palmer, Pershore Purple,
Yellow Egg, Burrell’s Red, Blaisdon Red… etc etc etc.

• Wortham Ling, Suffolk, seedling apples – and crab apples, M alus sylvestris.

• 28 “varieties” of plum from the hedges of Ashwell, Herts (Will Fletcher, 2006).
 Winkfield, Suffolk,
Wortham Ling, Suffolk,
Malus sylvestris
Feral apple trees.
Crab apple
 The Recruitment Issue
RESTORATION – considered to be worth it!

RECREATION – is it worth it? HLS will fund it? So do we know

how? And how long will it take?

• No traditional spraying regime. Probably no modern one either!

• Is grazing integral?

• Traditional cultivars – wanted today? 2,500 British apples varieties? 250 plums, 180 pears,,,
etc…? Only by “collectors”!

• Traditional rootstocks (not much tradition to clonal rootstocks! So where do we get them?)

• And many traditional orchard cultivars were on their own roots! (including most of the current
noble chafer orchards).

• Follow the original creation sequence? What is the “English grass orchard”?

• Profitable – almost certainly not!

 Restoring an old
country house
orchard

After the
hurrican of 1987.

BEFORE
RESTORATION.

Palgrave,
Suffolk
Restoring an
old orchard,
Palgrave,
Suffolk.

AFTER
A new “traditional” orchard planted 2007, Suffolk.
Ancient Tree Forum visit to “traditional” orchards (mostly Plum
“Blaisdon Red”, on their own roots) in the Forest of Dean 2007

Noble chafer habitat

And there are other traditions!

Villandry, Loire, France

THE END