Gloucestershire Orchard Trust

Painswick Community Orchard Group would like to thank Gloucestershire Orchard Trust for all their help and advice. The Trust conserves and promotes traditional orchards in Gloucestershire.  

Apples

Perry Pears

Plums

Damsons

Cherries

Nuts

If you would like more information visit the Trusts' Website for a wealth of information on:

Local Varieties (Charles Martell's online books)

Sources of Rare Heritage Fruit Trees

Training, Events and Juicing at The Two Orchard Centres (Brookthorpe and Hartpury, both near Gloucester)

Community Orchards

School Orchards

Advice and Information

Events (including wassailing!)

Juice  Cider  Perry

Online Orchard Marketplace

Grant Aid

Wildlife

Surveys (National and Local)

Identification

Walks and Talks

How To Join

And Much More!

make a weekend of it...

We have had a few enquiries about the Painswick wassail from 'out of county' which is very exciting for our humble gathering! The more the merrier we say and why not make a weekend of it? Painswick is the most enchanting of Cotswold villages, with winding lanes, cosy stone cottages, beautiful views, fine dining and cider of course! So come and stay in St. Anne's B&B in Gloucester Street, an 18th Century wool merchants house in the heart of the village.

Greg and Iris are the most delightful hosts and look forward to welcoming you to 'Cider with Rosie' country! 01452 812879 email: greg.iris@btinternet.com

Here’s to thee, old apple tree…

We are really excited that the fantastic Foodie Bugle has featured our article about wassailing...

Toasting a tree’s good health and banging saucepan lids to ward away evil spirits, it might sound peculiar, but this is the ancient custom of wassailing, and it’s taken quite seriously around here!

Wassailing has been practiced for centuries, the tradition pre-dates Christianity. The word “vas heil” is believed to originate from the Norse language, and translated into the Old English “waes hael“ meaning “good health.”

The custom is mainly celebrated in the cider counties of south east and south west England; Kent, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire to ensure a good harvest the following year. It takes place each year after dark on Old Twelfth Night, which falls on the 17^th January, later than we celebrate today.

Traditionally the whole village would take part and would gather with fire lit torches, walking to one or many orchards swinging pitchers of cider, blowing horns and banging saucepan lids noisily to warn away evil spirits and wake the trees from their slumber. The custom varies from village to village but usually a song is performed, such as this example from ‘England In Particular’ by Sue Clifford and Angela King;

Here’s to thee, old apple tree

Whence thou may’st bud and whence though may’st blow,

And whence thou may’st bear apples enow.

Hats full, Caps full, Bushel, Bushel, Bushel Sacks full,

And my pockets full too!

Huzzah!

A king or queen leads the wassail, choosing the orchard’s most bountiful tree and placing in the forked trunk some bread soaked in cider, a gift to the robin, believed to be the guardian of the orchard. Cider, mulled with sugar and cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg spices, is poured over the trees roots to encourage growth, as well as drunk by the revelers, often in specially crafted wassail cups or bowls. In Gloucestershire, it was tradition to drink ‘Lamb’s Wool’ a mixture of hot ale, sugar, roasted apples with cream or eggs floating in it!

“Never to be forgotten, that first long secret drink of golden fire, juice of those valleys and of that time, wine of wild orchards, of russet summer, of plump red apples, and Rosie's burning cheeks. Never to be forgotten, or ever tasted again.”

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

Nowadays wassailing is making a return to the countryside with local community groups and cider producers reviving this ancient custom. Painswick Community Orchard Group, in Gloucestershire, held their first wassail in 2012 with many curious villagers joining in:

“We founded the group after finding a map of the village dating back to the 1800’s” said Iris McCormick, owner of the local B&B, “It showed how almost every other field was an orchard and we were shocked to realise how few, if any were still here today. It was important to us to bring this wonderful tradition back so that future generations can enjoy it and value our orchard heritage.”

According to a Mintel Oxygen Report (Feb: 2012) cider has seen a 67% increase in sales between 2006 and 2011. This has resulted in growth for local cider producers and seen an increase in small-scale artisan cider producers entering the market. But times are hard, and this year the country suffered the worst harvest for 15 years, with many trees failing to fruit. 

Take part in the Painswick Wassail on Saturday 12th January from 5pm. 

Painswick Orchard Group Wassail

Wassailing and an evening of Music, Mummers and Midwinter Mayhem to banish the winter blues on Saturday 12^th January 2013.

Bring your pans, drums and whistles and join us on a procession to the orchard to wassail Painswick’s fruit trees after their Winter slumber. Afterwards, at the Church Rooms, there will be live music from “Out to Lunch” and guest DJ’s.  

A warming, frugal supper (all under £2) and a cider bar to brighten the mid winter blues.  5-6pm Wassailing and then from 6.30pm on music and food.  Admission £2.50 – Kids go free.

Ring 812879 for more information.

Painswick Goodwill Evening 5 - 9pm on Friday 30th November

Come and join us for a warming glass of mulled apple juice at the Goodwill Evening.  The Red Lion House (opposite Hamptons), home to apple corp founders Nick and Karensa, will be open house.  A vessel of mulled apple, roast chestnuts and apple fritters all by a warm fire.  We will have information about the Orchard Group and seasonal orchard based goodies for sale.

thank you for coming to apple day!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to Painswick Apple Day 2012! Despite this years shortage of apples Greg managed to do a couple of pressings on our great oak press! 

We hope you enjoyed the music from 'out to lunch' and the field kitchen food run by Nick Simonin and his band of wonderful volunteers. The pork and apple stew was absolutely delicious. 

We would like to thank everyone who entered the baking competition, especially the children who put a lot of thought and effort into their entries. Founder of The Foodie Bugle, Silvana de Soissons was a fantastic and enthusiastic judge and Thyme at Southrop donated a most amazing prize ~ thank you. 

The children ate toffee apples and got thoroughly wet bobbing for apples!

Lovely Iris - co-founder of Painswick Orchard Group with another batch of apples to make into yummy fritters! 

Thank you to everyone who volunteered and to St. Mary's Church for kindly allowing us to hold apple day in the beautiful churchyard. 

Pictures were taken by Anne-Marie Randall and Emma Bradshaw. 

If you would like to be kept up to date with news and information about Painswick Orchard Group, then fill in your email address on the right hand side to receive email updates. 

Autumn Fruit Baking Competition

Autumn Fruit Baking Competition At

PAINSWICK APPLE DAY

In St. Mary’s Churchyard, Painswick

Sunday SEPTEMBER 30^th 2012 12.30 -4pm

Come and take part in our Apple Day Bake Off. There are three classes:

1. Best fruit in a jar (eg. Jam, pickle, jelly)

2. Best Fruit bake (eg. Cake, pie, tart)

3. Children’s Fruit Based Open category

All entries must be brought to the tea tent between 12.30 – 1pm for judging at 2pm. We are delighted to welcome guest judge Silvana de Soissons, founder of The Foodie Bugle www.thefoodiebugle.com

Enquiries 812879. £1 entry. For terms and conditions www.painswickcommunityorchard.com

Prizes include an amazing baking course at food school ‘Thyme at Southrop Manor’

Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of these terms and conditions is a condition of entry
2. One entry per person per class
3. All entries must be hand made by the entrant
4. Entries must be brought to the tea tent in person for registration between 12.30 & 1pm
5. Judging will take place at 2pm 
6. Entries will sold in the tea tent for everyone to enjoy later in the afternoon
7. Winning entries will be announced at around 3pm
8. Children's open class is for children aged under 16 on 30th September 2012
9. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative
10. The judges decision is final
11. Winners will be invited to have their photographs taken for future promotion

the NEW 2012 Apple Day poster...

We are really excited to share with you this preview of our new Apple Day 2012 poster, designed exclusively by local artist and printmaker Andy Lovell. Andy was born in East London and studied illustration at Liverpool University. With work inspired by the natural world, many of Andy's screenprints and lithographs feature local scenes such as the Slad Valley. We are really grateful for his beautiful design, surely collectable for the future? 

2012 BIG APPLE DAY

Sunday 30^th September 

12.30-4pm 

St Mary’s Churchyard, Painswick 

(or Church Rooms if wet)

We look forward to welcoming you at the Big Apple Day. Please do bring along as many apples and pears as you can carry! Due to the shortage of fruit this year we need as many people as possible to join in our communal pressing on our magnificent oak press (and remember to bring a container to take some juice home in). 

If you can’t come along on the day and have fruit you would like to donate then please ring Greg on 812879 for collection or queries about fruit picking.

Enjoy a delicious lunch of seasonal stews, apple fritters and calvados cream with Painswick apple and pear juice, cider, apple brandy and mead to drink. There will be live music to entertain you and fun for all the family (apple bobbing, apple carving and games) as well as lots of stalls. 

You will also have the opportunity to meet the experts: tree pruning, cider-making, beekeeping and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

Perhaps you have a fruit tree in your garden you would like to have identified? If you bring along three of your own apples or pears (ordinary rather than perfect specimens please) together with leaves and stem, one of our experts will do their best to identify it. 

We are also in the process of creating a map of all current fruit trees in Painswick. You can help us by pinpointing your own trees or any communal trees you know of. You can do this either on the Big Apple Day itself or at other times in the Painswick Library where the map will be held. This map is based on an original orchard survey of Painswick c.1839, copies of which will be on sale at the Big Apple Day.

Calling all cooking enthusiasts to enter our Autumn Fruit-Cooking Competition! This is open to all with fabulous fruity prizes for adults and children under 12. It is divided into two categories: best fruit in a jar (jam/ pickle/chutney) and best fruit bake (cake/pie/tart). Entries on the (Big Apple) day please, £1 per entry. 

We would also be very grateful for any donations to our home-produce stall. Any enquiries please phone Iris on 812879. All proceeds raised go to World Vision Lideta (Ethiopia) and the Painswick Community Orchard Group.

  www.painswickcommunityorchard.co.uk

The Big Apple Day 2012

The 2012 BIG Apple event will take place on Sunday, 30th September and we are looking for volunteers to join us to make the day as big a success as it was last year.

If you would like to get involved then come along and find out more at the Shire's Bar (behind the Falcon Inn), New Street, Painswick on Friday 10th August at 7.30pm.

There are many aspects to plan from apple picking and pressing to food and music...

Any queries please contact Greg or Iris on 01452 812879.

Croft School Children Create New Orchard...

Painswick Community Orchard Group is celebrating after planting its first orchard in Painswick, thanks to funding from the Friends of the Croft School. 

On a wet and windy Wednesday (22nd February) 150 children at the School, pulled on their wellies and planted seven apple trees in their school grounds, one for each year group in the school and created their first school orchard. 

"The orchard is a wonderful addition to the school grounds," said Croft School headmistress, Ceris Towler. 

"The children are delighted that they have their own tree and have been bringing their parents to see them. As new classes join the school, we will add to the orchard and the trees will grow as they do through the school."

After the trees were planted John Rhodes, dressed up as a 'green man' and wassailed the trees to encourage good growth for the year ahead. 

"The orchard group will visit the school each autumn and bring our traditional oak press to make apple juice with the children" Said Emma Bradshaw of Painswick Orchard Group. "In the future the children will be able to drink their own school juice with their lunch!"

According to research published in 2011 by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, traditional orchard habitat has declined by 67% in the county, how fantastic that a school is helping to play its part in reversing this decline.  

The trees that were planted were all local varieties...

Ampney Red

A dessert apple from Ampney Crucis, it was recorded as a common variety in 1939 but now it is thought only one old tree survives in the village

Lodgemore Nonpareil

Raised by Mr Cook of Lodgemore, Stroud and introduced by Mr Clissold, a nurseryman who subsequently rented the garden where it had been started.  He propagated and sold it under the name of ‘Clissold’s Seedling’ A pleasant dessert apple, first grown in 1808

Puckrup Pippin

A dessert variety with a juicy, super acid drop flavour from Puckrup, near Tewkesbury

Rheads Reinette

A really nice dessert apple. Raised from seed by William Rhead (1852-1955) at either Elton Farm, Elton or Peglars Farm, Flaxley

Siddington Russet 

First discovered in 1923, grown and sold by John Jefferies & Sons nurseries in Siddington near Cirencester

The Croft School Orchard...

On Wednesday, 22nd February the children of The Croft School, Painswick will be planting seven apple trees, for each of the seven year groups at the school and creating a brand new orchard in Painswick.

Over the years the children will watch their orchard grow, pick the apples and press them to make apple juice. The creation of a new orchard will also encourage wildlife such as the lesser spotted woodpecker, noble chafer beetle and mistletoe to visit the school grounds, and help reverse the decline of traditional orchards in Gloucestershire.

"Orchards have declined by 67% in Gloucestershire over the past 30 years!"

State of the Natural Environment Report 2011 

The trees the children will be planting are local varieties;

Ampney Red

A dessert apple from Ampney Crucis, it was recorded as a common variety in 1939 but now it is thought only one old tree survives in the village

Lodgemore Nonpareil

Raised by Mr Cook of Lodgemore, Stroud and introduced by Mr Clissold, a nurseryman who subsequently rented the garden where it had been started.  He propagated and sold it under the name of ‘Clissold’s Seedling’ A pleasant dessert apple, first grown in 1808

Puckrup Pippin

A dessert variety with a juicy, super acid drop flavour from Puckrup, near Tewkesbury

Rheads Reinette

A really nice dessert apple. Raised from seed by William Rhead (1852-1955) at either Elton Farm, Elton or Peglars Farm, Flaxley

Siddington Russet 

First discovered in 1923, grown and sold by John Jefferies & Sons nurseries in Siddington near Cirencester

Once the children plant the trees they will be wassail them to encourage their strong and quick growth. The orchard creation has been funded by the Friends of the Croft School with the help from Painswick Orchard Group. 

Wassail...

A procession of fifty people, noisily walked through the village and down to the orchard on Saturday, 21st January for the first Painswick Wassail. The villagers taking part carried lanterns and banged drums to wake the trees up from their winter slumber. In the orchard a large fire roared, whilst the 'Green Man' John Rhodes, wassailed the largest and most bountiful tree in the orchard, toasting it with cider and hanging bread on it's branches. On one of the coldest nights of the year, the mummers arrived and performed a traditional play about St. George and everyone warmed themselves up with a warming stew. 

Coming to an orchard near you...

The Apple Core presents...

WASSAILING

in Painswick

at 6pm, Saturday 14th January 2012

• Join in a lantern lit procession from The Painswick Centre, at the heart of the village, down Beech Lane to the Orchard. 
• Wear fancy dress, a woodland animal perhaps and bring drums, whistles, pots and pans to bang and scare away any evil spirits! 
• There will be a traditional ceremony followed by a mummers play & music
• Delicious food for sale and sample some of the new seasons cider made by the members of the Painswick Community Orchard Group. 

further enquiries 01453 812879/813779

What is wassailing?

The Wassail Queen drinks to the health of the tree, picture by Bill Bradshaw taken from the Guardian website

Wassailing is the tradition of drinking and singing to the health of your trees and is a very local custom. This is an extract taken from the book 'England in Particular' by Sue Clifford and Angela King, Common Ground RRP. £30.

"The word 'Wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon waes-haeil - to be healthy, so wassailing apple trees was a way of encouraging a good crop in the following season. It usually took place after dark on Old Twelfth Night, 17 January, but could also occur on other days around Christmas and the New Year.

Often farm workers and villagers carrying lanterns, a pail and pitcher full of cider, shotguns and horns, walk to their local orchard, which is sometimes lit by bonfires, and gather around the largest or most prolific tree. This tree is known as the Apple Tree man and is feted as the guardian of the orchard. Cider or beer is poured on its roots and pieces of soaked toast or cake put in branches for the robins - guardians of the spirits of the trees. Often the tips of the lowest branches are drawn down and dipped into the pail of cider.

The wassailers fill their earthenware cups with cider and toss it into the branches. They then refill their cups and drink and sing to the tree. To drive away evil spirits and wake up the sleeping trees, cow horns are blown, trays and buckets beaten and shotguns fired into the upper branches - as much noise as possible is made.

The wassail bowl went round from house to house in the evenings during the Twelve Days of Christmas and often in the last days of Advent. A mixture of hot ale, sugar and roasted apples, sometimes with eggs and thick cream floating on it, was known as Lamb's Wool in Gloucestershire, and was also drunk on St Catherine's Day, 25th November. The bowl was made from turned ash or maple, often elaborately carved and kept for the purpose."

Gloucestershire Wassail Song...

Wassail, wassail all over the town!

Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;

Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;

With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee!

Drink to thee, drink to thee, 

With the wassailing-bowl we'll drink to thee!

So here is to Cherry and to his right cheek!

Pray God send our master a good piece of beef,

And a good piece of beef that may we all see;

With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee!

And here is to Dobbin and to his right eye!

Pray God send our master a good Christmas pie,

A good Christmas pie that may we all see;

With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee!

So here is to Broad Mary and to her broad horn!

May God send our master a good crop of corn,

And a good crop of corn that may we all see;

With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee!

And here is to Fillpail and to her left ear!

Pray God send our master a happy New Year,

And a happy New Year as e'er he did see;

With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee!

And here is to Colly and to her long tail!

Pray God send our master he never may fail

A bowl of strong beer! I pray you draw near,

And our jolly wassail it's then you shall hear.

Come butler, come fill us a bowl of the best

Then we hope that your soul in heaven may rest

But if you do draw us a bowl of the small

Then down shall go butler, bowl and all.

Be here any maids? I suppose here be some; 

Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone! 

Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,  

And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.

Then here's to the maid in the lily-white smock 

Who tripped to the door and slipped back the lock; 

Who tripped to the door and pulled back the pin,  

For to let these jolly wassailers in. 

Wassail! Wassail all over the town! 

Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown; 

Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree; 

With the wassailing-bowl, we'll drink to thee! 

Drink to thee, drink to thee,  

With the wassailing-bowl we'll drink to thee.

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