CAMRA has supported the interests of cider and perry producers since the early years of the campaign. Since 1995 there has been an Apple and Pear Liaison Executive (APPLE- aka. Always Paralytically Pissed Late in the Evening). These now rare drinks are realistically only available outside their native areas at a handful of pubs, mostly CAMRA friendly pubs and of course our Beer and Cider Festivals.
CAMRA has now set October aside as Cider & Perry Month. Look out on this web site for announcements of local activities taking place.
From left to right: Chris Hooper, Simon Stevenson, and Martin Plummer.
We still have only one pub in the Richmond and Hounslow Branch area that always has at least one cider and/or perry available that is The Magpie and Crown, Brentford High Street. On the weekend nearest Halloween last year a cider making demonstration was held at the Red Lion, Linkfield Road, Isleworth. Unfortunately due to the iminent sale of the leese of this wonderful pub and the uncertainlty about the plans of the next landlord/lady we will not be making any cider there this year. Last years cider was made from fruit supplied by the regulars and topped up with cider apples from Somerset. All those who donated apples received a share certificate and were invited to a special tasting The Red Lion has always had a small selection of cider and perry at its regular Beer Festivals and we can but hope this will continue to be the case.
"So what has Richmond and Hounslow Branch and all the Greater London Branches got to do with cider" I hear all the under 60 year olds call... A lot is the short answer.
The area we now know as Greater London and its neighbouring areas were once covered with mixed fruit orchards supplying the ever increasing city and locals alike with fresh fruit for a large part of the year. A quick search on the excellent website at www.streetmap.co.uk reveals an astonishing history of road and area names related to orchards and their produce: Orchard (229), Cherry (115), Apple (61), Pear (41 of which 31 specify peartree), Perry (44) also Peri- (9) and Plum (10). Many of these roads are modern but the surveyors love their maps and see the old orchards.
Most, if not all, old orchards were mixed; producing fruit and nuts from a range of tree types with either pasture for grazing animals or other fruits and flowers grown under and between the spreading boughs. Curiously, the delicious little strawberries we now know as alpine strawberries where introduced to the country by a plant collector who bought them back from a trip to the Crimean coast, before the war.
Once upon a time the area we know as Brentford was orchard after orchard from Old Brentford (approximately the High Street) up to Ealing. Major landmarks are a result of these old sites. The story has it that the market stalls of Old Brentford caused such disruption to traffic that a piece of orchard was grubbed up to make way for an actual market place, which still exists today although most of it is occupied by the County Court building. Many of the old trees still survive in the back gardens of Brentford. Another lost orchard is the land between Kneller School and the Chertsey Road which was removed to make way for the schools sports fields in the early 1960s. Several other schools in the area are sited on old orchards.
There is no doubt that cider was made from all these apples and drunk in the local hostelries and, as was usual at the time, made up part of the wages of the casual labour working as pickers and packers.
There are several varieties of apples but only one pear (Merton Pride) listed as originating in Middlesex and Greater London areas, these include; Hounslow Wonder, numerous varieties raised at the John Innes Institute all prefixed with Merton (Beauty, Charm, Delight, Joy, Knave, Prolific, etc). There is also one Sir Issac Newton would not have liked, it is named after a Reverend W.Wilks and was raised in Chelsea its fruit can weigh over 21lbs, that's nearly 10kg in new money.
In Twickenham between the years 1845 and 1930 there stood a house on Popes Grove called Orchard Lodge, the extent of the orchard associated with it is not known by me, but will exist on an old parish map. This would make an interesting bit of research for someone with a bit of time on their hands. Any volunteers?
This may sound all doom and gloom, but there is some good news, Dukes Meadows in Chiswick has recently planted an orchard and in Ealing there are two community orchards at Blondin Park and Horsenden Hill. All of these are mixed orchards in order to provide the greatest possible biodiversity in limited areas. This mixing of trees, shrubs, wild flowers, etc lead to a proliferation of insect, bird and animal life. Not all of these will be beneficial but the result of this system is that there will be a natural predator there as part of the food web. Selective planting of sacrificial trees and shrubs can help to preserve the most lucrative harvest produce. The closer it is to what nature herself would produce, generally the better for all concerned.
Farmers Markets are the best source or locally grown produce. The recent proliferation of farmers markets started in September and October in 1997 when the Bath City Council held 3 trial markets one of which was aimed to support Apple Day which is every year on October the 21st. Apple Day was started in 1990 by an organisation called Common Ground (www.commonground.org.uk) this has grown into a nationwide day of events of all kinds celebrating our heritage with particular emphasis on apples and pears, but covering a huge range of interests.
Wassailing is a custom perpetuated since pre-christian times whereby the trees are given a bit of a wake-up call any time between Christmas and Twelfth Night 17th January in the old calendar. It takes various forms throughout the country but generally the oldest tree in an orchard, taken as the king of the trees, is ritually beaten with sticks to wake him up and drive away malignant entities. Lots of noise is made, drums, cymbals, dustbin lids, etc and even shotgun are fired through the bare branches. Libations of cider are liberally dispensed on the tree, the ground and in the mouths of the wassailers. Exhortations are given to the tree to produce lots of fruit and be healthy itself and share its health with everyone concerned. There is more than circumstantial evidence that it works; there is real science behind this tradition. Wassail comes from the Anglo Saxon wes hal or was haile meaning "be whole" or good health or be fortunate. Many other traditions exist regarding apples, but the human condition being what it is here is a couple of useful ones.
On Samhain (All Hallows Eve) a young girl could identify her true love by pealing an apple cleanly in one strip and throw it over her left shoulder reciting:
I pare this pippin round and round,
My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain,
I fling this unbroken paring o'er my head,
My sweetheart's letter on the ground is read.
If it is done properly the young man's initial letter will be formed by the peel. Further to this it is said that after finding the initial of your truelove, if you cut the apple in half and count the seeds, it will foretell how many children you would have from the union.
Also, you can tell if your partner's love is true by calling an apple pip by the person's name and placing in the fire. If it bursts with the heat you can be sure love is true, but if it burns silently all is not well. The chant for this one goes;
If you love me pop and fly,
If you hate me lay and die.
There is much more information about cider and perry available on the CAMRA web-site. www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.asp?WCI=ShowCat&CatId=9
If you want to know who and where cider is made and for sale I recommend this site; www.homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/makers.htm#bycounty
Wasssail,
Simon Stevenson
Cider and Perry Representative.
External links of interest to Cider and Perry drinkers:
Updated: 5th Feb 2008 |
