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Brogdale’s Apple Collection is catalogued and illustrated here. The evening of February 1st was bitterly cold with sub-zero temperatures and a north-easterly gale blowing. This resulted in a smaller audience than usual turning up at Lynsted with Kingsdown Society’s talk on the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Greenstreet Methodist Hall. Those who did brave the elements were rewarded by an informative and entertaining account of the developing history of the fruit collection by senior guide, Peter Griffiths. The collection of fruit and fruit trials at Brogdale was started a long while ago but has only been open to the public since the 1950s. It is a unique collection of fruit with the majority of species being apples. Despite the fact that it was mid-winter, Peter had managed to collect examples of many different apples, some picked from the trees that day, of various sizes and shapes, to illustrate his talk. Some of the apples were familiar (e.g. Cox’s. Orange Pippin, Bramley’s Seedling, Granny Smith etc.) Others were strangely coloured or very small or possessed unusual names such as Patte du Loup (claw of the wolf - so called because each apple had a circular scar on it). We were surprised to learn that, in Victorian times, the apple was quite a status symbol with heads of households competing to serve their guests the latest, new variety of apple! This encouraged the development of many new types and there are now 2300 different varieties of apples growing at Brogdale. Global warming will continue to create a demand for further varieties that thrive in warmer, drier conditions. As well as the history of the apple collection, examples of quince (as mentioned in the ‘Owl and the Pussycat’!) and medlars were also passed around the audience who were treated to several, amusing anecdotal stories of their history. At the end off his talk Peter produced bags of apples and bottles of apple juice for us to sample and buy. We are indeed fortunate to live just three miles from this historic collection of fruit and I, for one, will look around with wider eyes when I next visit Brogdale. Norma Baxter |
