The old apple tree

A Kidlington Orange' or a Hall's Watlington Seedling'? Or an apple tree you suspect is more than 50 years old?

If so, then you have a contribution to make to the history of orchards in Oxfordshire and modern efforts to re-discover some of 23 lost local varieties.

Each variety name brings with it an intriguing story, often of fruit growing dynasties like the Wasties of Eynsham and Long Hanborough, who incorporated Fred' or Peggy' into the names of many of their apples, after family members.

Other names, such as Hanwell Souring', an early 19th century cooker from the Banbury region still grown today, are vividly descriptive of the fruit itself - in this case a sharp, crisp, greenish flesh.

Assessing the age of a tree can be difficult, but useful clues are available for one found recently in another of Oxfordshire's traditional apple-growing districts, the countryside near Abingdon.

Claimed to be the oldest apple tree so far recorded in Oxfordshire, it is thought to have been planted about 1822 and, since the conventional wisdom is that apple trees only live for around 50 years, it looks likely, at 184, to upset the fruit establishment's proverbial cart.

Its claim to longevity lies not just in a rather lived-in look - its trunk is hollow, its bark very definitely dead, and it bears the scorch marks of a lightning strike -- but in the fortunate circumstance of having had only two careful owners over the last century.

The first, a professional gardener, inherited the tree, then said to be approaching 100 years old, when he bought the house with its small private orchard in 1912. His grand-daughter, now 88, has lived there almost all her life and cherished the tree throughout. Amazingly, it still blossoms each spring and shows a respectable crop of russet-skinned apples.

Derek Tolman and his wife Julie, who run Bernwode Plants on the Bucks/Oxon border, grow many old apple varieties for sale, and investigate what remains of local orchards, in the hope of restoring stock apparently lost. "We're really keen to encourage people to leave old trees alone, rather than cutting them down because they're getting untidy " said Derek, "and we've had several requests over the last three or four years to graft new ones from customers' scionwood. Because of our longstanding interest, we were called in to look at this lady's tree near Abingdon, which is in a garden with three others that are 50 years old and one that's a hundred. It's about 18ft tall, though it had another ten feet on top of that once, and draws all its nourishment through a thread of wood three inches across. It needs treatment this year if it's going to survive, because it's leaning and supported by a prop just a third of the way up - if you imagine a see-saw, 90% of the weight is up in the air, so it could rip the bottom part right out of the ground, particularly if the dead bark rots.

"It's got to have support higher up -and in two dimensions, to protect it from wind either side. The height and weight need reducing too - but the question is who's going to pay for it? We're looking for sponsors on the owner's behalf."

"We won't be able to identify the variety until the fruit's mature. Obviously it will be something that was around in the 1820s, but it's not at all an easy business because although there are some detailed descriptions in the literature of what old varieties looked like, they vary according to the climate each year or even which side of the tree they grow on.

"When we're called in to see an old tree locally, we have to rely partly on people's memories of what things were called - and you often get synonyms, so two differently-named apples turn out after research to be the same one. Computers make the comparisons easier, and also DNA profiling."

Some of the Tolmans' research, recorded on their database of 13,000 known varieties worldwide, has found its way into a catalogue of trees for sale which would be my choice for Desert Island ( or should that be Dessert Island?) book apart-from-the-Bible-and-Shakespeare. Hoary Morning', Joybells', Oaken Pin', and Kentish Fillbasket' - the names themselves are deliciously evocative of English village life, and the tales of dedicated enthusiasts and mysterious re-introductions from the antipodes, with the unique characteristics of each fruit lovingly described, make for a beguiling read.

The current revival of interest in old apples nationally - life beyond Braeburns', as Julie Tolman calls it - is part of the general movement towards local, fresh and flavoursome food reflected in flourishing Farmers' Markets.

"People forgot what a rich selection of apple varieties there used to be, and how important our orchards and nut groves once were" said Derek. "At one time local markets would have had one sort of apple one week, and another the next, as each ripened. There was a 90% reduction in apple trees between World War 2 and the 1980s - old orchards were grubbed up in the 50s and 60s and people started buying French Golden Delicious'. But now people are beginning to want things British for a change, and to see what the past has to offer."

(If you want to take this curiosity about the past to extremes, the Tolmans actually sell a Roman apple, Decio', though it's more of an ornament than a fruit for eating. Dating back to 450 A.D., it was named after the Roman general Ezio, who is supposed to have taken it with him when he went to fight Attila the Hun.) Another indication of growing interest in old varieties is increasing support for Apple Days, initiated by the charity Common Ground' which also encourages the planting of community orchards. Waterperry Gardens and Wolvercote Community Orchard will both be holding Apple Days in the autumn, when the public will have the chance to taste less well-known apples and apple juices.

Meanwhile, it might be worth looking again at any really ancient fruit trees in your garden, particularly those with a known history - the Tolmans would be glad to hear about them.

Bernwode Plants, Kingswood Lane, Ludgershall, Bucks. 01844 237415 Apple Days: Wolvercote Community Orchard Sun. Oct. 8, 2pm onwards (Godstow Rd, Oxford, opposite The Trout') Waterperry Gardens Oct. 14th/15th.

9am - 5.30 pm (Waterperry, nr Wheatley)