Gardeners at Nottinghamshire’s Clumber Park are leading a project to preserve heritage apple varieties for the future, saving them from falling into the history books.
The gardening team is sharing cuttings from trees cultivated in the National Trust’s Grade I listed park with apple tree collectors and orchards nationwide, ensuring that the genetics are kept alive.
The Walled Kitchen Garden houses a National Collection of older apple varieties specific to Midlands counties, and by sharing the cuttings, the project is conserving those rarer apples.
“The preservation of heritage varieties of apples is really important; otherwise, there is the danger they could die out forever,” said Dale Iles, Senior Gardener at Clumber Park. “Many heritage varieties have fallen out of favour with supermarkets. They buy apples that travel easily, are less likely to bruise, and have a longer shelf life, which means that they often buy from overseas. Heritage apples cultivated locally are often more flavoursome, but they aren’t as commercial.”
Clumber Park is home to 114 varieties, including Nottinghamshire’s own Bramley Apple.
It’s also home to the Flower of Kent apple, grown on a tree cloned from the very same tree at Woolsthorpe Manor that is associated with Isaac Newton and his theory of gravity. The collection also includes lesser-known apple varieties, such as Sisson’s Worksop Newton, which originated in an orchard that has long since disappeared but was once just a short distance from Clumber Park.
It’s heritage varieties like this, and local apples such as the Askham Pippin and Markham Pippin, that, while tasty, aren’t suited to modern food production. It’s up to specialist collections like Clumber Park’s to keep the tastes of the past alive.
While Clumber has shared cuttings with other collectors before, this year, the cuttings are being shared with collectors to grow in areas beyond the Midlands. Apples prefer to grow in cooler climates and don’t always thrive in the milder winters that the Midlands are more commonly experiencing. By sharing cuttings to grow in different environments, it safeguards their future.
“As they say, ‘you can’t keep all your eggs in one basket’,” said Dale. “The varieties need to go far and wide for a better sense of survival.”
“The heritage varieties in our care have developed and adapted for the microclimate in this area, but if changes occur in the climate or the environment and stop the apples from thriving, then their future is at risk. Our role as horticulturists is to work with other organisations to safeguard the future of these varieties, or they will be lost.”
Each year, the small team of gardeners, supported by an army of 84 keen volunteers, takes care of Clumber Park’s orchards and its Walled Kitchen Garden. They host the annual Apple Day celebrations in autumn and Blossom Week in spring, where they champion the old heritage varieties and raise awareness of their importance. The park is also home to a National Collection of rhubarb.
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