by Peter and Lenore Greensides
Our gardening in April tends to be 'licking back into shape', clearing the last dead herbaceous stalks, grass cutting, recutting edges, and looking forward to May's explosion of growth and fruit blossom. One of the greatest pleasures of the gardening year is the sight and scent of apple blossom, and it is a sight which is becoming increasingly common again in the Wolds and North Yorkshire. If you plan a day out between May 1st and 20th, then try to include a trip to an apple orchard, when the blossom should be at its peak.
The apple is a surprisingly hardy fruit, even growing in Siberia, and when this is combined with Yorkshire thrift, it should come as news to no-one that many interesting varieties have their beginnings in the county. Before the days of careful agricultural science, these were not on the whole known or listed beyond their locality, but once the early nurserymen got to work, word spread.
There were already established varieties that had been introduced many years before, coming with the Romans, the Normans, and the monks and then the gardeners of grand houses in Yorkshire as elsewhere in Britain. But there were also valued varieties growing in farm and garden orchards, whose fame was often local, but which were known for their flavour, or their keeping quality, and slips from these were taken and grafted onto ordinary rootstock.
It soon became clear that some varieties needed gentler and earlier springs than others, as they blossomed early. Late frosts and insects that rely on warmth together determined that it was the later-flowering sorts that were more likely to thrive in the north, and Court-Pendu-Plat first recorded in 1613 but older, is still recommended for that reason. Two other apples still grown in Yorkshire are White Joaneting, dating from before 1600, and another dessert apple Nonpareil, which tradition says was imported from France in the 16th Century
We have to assume that rearing and selection of suitable varieties for the northern climate continued throughout the 1600s, as by 1700 there seem to have been quite a range competing for favour as good keepers, well flavoured, prolific or good cookers, with different qualities being looked for between eaters and cookers, whereas on the Continent, the emphasis was on the all-purpose fruit.
In the Eighteenth Century, York, Leeds, Doncaster and Pontefract all had plant nurseries, which developed priced catalogues, and used the new canal system for transportation. There was also a nursery at Sheffield. They all carried stock of the sought-after fruit trees, and kept a close eye on rivals, competing to supply the latest imports. Often, men who were trained in these nurseries went on to work in London nurseries, where they were highly thought of. They also had established links with the owners and gardening advisors of the Yorkshire grand houses, whose walled gardens and orchards were soon providing stock plants themselves, from which cuttings and grafting material were taken for exchange.
Deliberate hybridisation was in its infancy then, with the first man-made hybrid plant (a dianthus) in Europe reared by Thomas Fairchild around 1716. There had been fruit trees raised from pips saved from favoured varieties, such as the Ribston Pippin, from Ribston Hall, near Knaresborough. The story is that Sir Henry Goodricke brought pips back from Rouen, France, around 1688 from an apple he liked. One of these germinated and grew to maturity, producing a well-flavoured apple that kept well. The original tree survived until it blew down in a storm in 1810, struggling on and fruiting until it finally expired in 1835.But open-pollinated crosses are haphazard affairs, and while the quality of the Ribston Pippin was recognised, its parentage could never be known, unlike that of its daughter, the Cox's Orange Pippin. Other Yorkshire varieties from the C18th include Yorkshire Greening (syn Goosesauce) Pre 1759, Acklam Russet 1768 Warner's King Late 1700s, Sykehouse Russet 1780 Hunt House Pre 1800. Legend has it that Hunt House or Hunthouse was taken by Captain Cook when he sailed out from Whitby, to ward off scurvy amongst his crew, but no-one gives a documentary source for this, so further research is needed!
The presence of gardeners such as Thomas Knowlton in the Wolds and North Yorkshire guaranteed that the gardens of the local aristocracy and squirarchy would contain coveted varieties of fruit as well as flowers. Knowlton came up to work for the Earl of Burlington at Londesborough in 1726 and stayed as head gardener until he died. He still travelled to other important gardens and kept up his professional contacts. He was heavily involved in Burton Constable's gardens and contributed to Dalton Hall. There was also an increasing awareness of the affect of differing soils on plant varieties. The extent of interest in 'local' varieties can be seen in this extract of a letter to J Grimston from Nat. Maister, Winestead 25th Janu 1759 'Harry [Maister] told me some time ago you wanted some cuttings of Apple trees; I have sent some packed up in a mat; those with the ticket with I notch are non-pareils from some dwarf trees; those wth II notches are non-pareils from a large standard, both exceeding good. No III we call here, the Winestead Pippin; No IIII we call the Yorkshire Greening. These 2 last are excellent bakers, keep a long time, especially the first of the two,and have no ill smell in a house; we have no Golden Pippins here that are good, the trees are very oldand quite run out. The rest of our Apples are of the Common sorts, that I don't send any cuttings of them, but if you chuse to have any, I will send some.'
Sigstons Nurseries opened in 1733 in Beverley, and was typical of many such springing up in the expanding towns, offering named varieties to lesser mortals, and which were often planted in town gardens, but the real growth of our own Yorkshire varieties came in the Nineteenth Century, with Flower of the Town Pre 1831, Cockpit 1831, Fillingham Pippin 1835, Bess Pool Pre 1850, Hornsea Herring C1855, Green Balsam Pre 1872, Dogs Snout pre-1875, Nancy Jackson Pre 1875, Sharleston Pippin , Pre 1888. Fillingham Pippin was raised from seed or cuttings from America by Mr Fillingham of Swanland. It's a good crisp sharp eater, and, unusually, it can be propagated from cuttings. At one time in Hornsea for some tenants it was a condition of the lease that a Hornsea Herring had to be planted and tended.
Two Yorkshire examples from the 20th century are Helmsley Market Pre 1930 (bought on Helmsley Market) and the more recent Grandpa Buxton 1990s (found at Copthewick). And perhaps if we all tasted some of those apples which have sprung up in the hedgerows alongside busy trunk roads, thanks to the many apple cores thrown from car windows, there would be more serendipitous finds, as well as the intentional crosses produced by horticultural experts.
People are sometimes puzzled because an apple they know of is not on the National Apple Register, held at Brogdale, but this is simply because it is a 'local' variety, and has not been presented for registration, or is not sufficiently distinctive to be entered, or is possibly an apple known in several areas by different local names. But it is important to keep these old varieties going- they provide the genetic diversity that is endangered when a handful of the most commercial varieties come to dominate the markets, not just regionally, but internationally. These old apples may not be the most regular fruits, the most bland, the prettiest, or the toughest travellers, but they offer an astonishing range of flavours and textures. Many are available again, from specialist nurseries, and on small rootstocks, so why not treat your garden to a bit of Yorkshire history, and plant one or two of the varieties mentioned above.
And if you have any apple trees of unknown variety, and think they are old, then why not take them along to the next Apple Day event in October (3 apples from the same tree) and get them identified? We did last year, and found we had not an old Yorkshire variety, but Gascoynes Scarlet, a Kentish variety from 1871, which is happy on chalk, and that probably explains its presence in our rather chalky garden.
In the meantime, choose a sunny day, and go out and feast the eyes and nose on that blossom! An apple orchard in full flower is quite an experience. Collections of heritage Yorkshire varieties can be seen at:
There are still some old Yorkshire apples 'lost' within Yorkshire, although some are growing elsewhere. If you know the location of any of these please let us know at 'Around the Wolds and North Yorkshire' magazine!
Arram White: Burton Lemon: Church Apple: Clark's Pippin: Cow's Snout: Craggie's (or Craggys) Seedling: George 11: Green Bearer: Green Chisel: Green Sweet: Hammerhead: Long Apple: Lundy Seedling: Nelson Codlin: Sugar Apple: Templar: White Pippin: Winestead Pippin.
Article reproduced by kind of permission of 'Around the Wolds and North Yorkshire' magazine.
Copyright 2006 'Around the Wolds and North Yorkshire'.