Yorkshire Millennium Orchard aims to preserve endangered varieties.
Yorkshire Post – Sat April 4th, 2007
Apples have been a key ingredient in Women’s Institute cookbooks for years – and members in Yorkshire have come up with a recipe to ensure that English varieties of the fruit are preserved for centuries.
The East Yorkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes joined forces with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to create a Millennium Orchard with almost 50 different species at Beverley parks.
The first trees were planted in 2000 and committee members are beginning to see the fruits of their labour.
Some of the trees have already begun fruiting, and organisers believe that apples will be dropping from all of them in the next five years.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s countryside access officer, Chris Toohie, said: “It’s believed to be the largest non-commercial orchard of northern varieties in England, so it’s definitely a significant project.
“The site has gone from being a field to being an actual reserve now. We’ve got 110 trees and there are 47 different varieties.”
Committee secretary Joan Helliwell, of Howden WI, was among the first group of volunteers who planted trees on the site.
She said: “It was a farmer’s field, and we had to plant a windbreak with about 1,500 trees before the apple trees were put in.
“It was very hard ground. It was hard going, but it was worth the effort.
“It’s a slow process, but we all hope we’ll live long enough to see it prosper.
“We had a few apples last year, and this year we’re hoping for some more.”
Members of the Northern Fruit Group advised the committee on which British apple species to protect and helped with planting, pruning and management.
Among the varieties thriving on the site are Yorkshire Beauty, Yorkshire Aromatic, Keswick Codling, Galloway Pippin, Stirling Castle, Cockpit and Dogsnout.
Another significant species is the Bloody Ploughman, which dates back to about 1880 and is named after a ploughman who was shot by a gamekeeper when caught stealing apples.
Mr Toohie said the committee was scouring the county for more varieties that can be added to the orchard.
He said: “We’ve just grafted two local, rare varieties – the Arram White and the Beverley Pippin. We’ve preserved and protected these trees.
“The Fillingham Pippin and the Hornsea Herring are local varieties to the East Riding and they are quite rare. We grafted them a few years ago.”
Mr Toohie said projects like the Millennium Orchard were vital for the preservation of English apple species, adding that they might eventually give shoppers more choice at the supermarket.
He said: “I think the problem nationally is that there are a lot of orchards on farms which are being neglected, and a lot are being removed for development. With the flood of imports we have seen, older varieties have not really been profitable.”
However, supermarkets have shown a greater interest in offering more English varities on the shelves, Mr Toohie said.
He added: “We just need to apply a bit more pressure. We are campaigning for these older varieties as best we can.”
The orchard is part of a major scheme to recreate a traditional parkland landscape around Beverley – in medieval times, the town was surrounded by an 80-hectare deer park.
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