Wiltshire Apples?
April 23, 2008 by fruitforum
I am researching the feasibility of planting a community orchard in North Wiltshire.
Orchards are not a typical landscape feature within the region which until quite recently was used primarily for dairy farming. Anecdotal evidence is that most farms had an orchard and that many of these have been grubbed up.
Does anyone know about this? I am also interested in fruit varieties which would do well in our area and if anyone can help I do have quite precise details about the site-micro-climate, aspect, soil and geology.
Are there any varieties which are typical for the region?
Brita von Schoenaich
Roundway Magnum Bonum is an old Wiltshire apple that you might consider if you are interested in historic varieties. It is large, prominently ribbed, slightly flushed with a little russet and a remarkable and distinct pear-like taste. Ready for eating by late October, it will store to January. Being a large apple it was often described as culinary, but then the flavour is lost and it is much better eaten fresh.
Raised by Mr Joy, head gardener at Roundway Park, near Devizes, it was first brought to public notice in 1864 at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society in London, when the Fruit and Vegetable Committee awarded it a First Class Certificate (FCC). The receipt of a FCC would have resulted in recognition outside Wiltshire, although it does not seem to have been widely popular. But during the 1920s and 1930s it received a new lease of life from Edward Bunyard, the famous fruit gourmet and owner of the Bunyard Nursery near Maidstone in Kent. The Nursery catalogue of 1926-7 promotes Roundway Magnum Bonum as a fruit that ‘is but little known, but deserves to be placed high amongst the best flavoured sorts, and must not be judged from an unpromising exterior.’
If there any any trees remaining in Wiltshire probably they will be these 1920-1930s plantings. It would be fun perhaps to try the old variety again?