{"id":1061,"date":"2019-10-18T14:49:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T14:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2019-10-18T14:46:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T14:46:03","slug":"apples-in-the-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2019\/10\/18\/apples-in-the-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Apples in the Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of year again when it seems there are apples everywhere. People lucky enough to have fruit trees in their back garden leave out boxes of the fruit begging passers-by to \u201cHelp yourself\u201d! Whole village communities club together their surplus apples to make cider. The roadsides are littered with them the autumn winds blow the hedgerows; and as Monday 21 October is Apple Day 2019, we thought we would celebrate the wonderful fruit that keeps the Doctor away by having a look at a few mentions in the archives!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\u201cHe Looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-colour, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains, his hands clammy with the sweet juice of apples, his hat sprinkled with pips, and everywhere about him the sweet atmosphere of cider which at its first return each season has such an indescribable fascination for those who have been born and bred among the orchards.\u201d<\/em>
\nThomas Hardy – The Woodlanders<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"
D-BOC\/889\/Box8a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This document is an inventory of all the varieties of apples and pears planted at Mr. Bond’s premises, Corfe Castle. It is interesting to note that No.4 is listed as \u2018Name lost<\/em>\u2019, meaning that even in the 1760\u2019s some named varieties of apple had disappeared. It also gives specific instructions as to where the apples are located in the orchard; \u2018\u2026next to the Withy Bed\u2026<\/em>\u2019 or \u2018\u2026next the potato garden\u2026<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"
D-PPY\/C\/5\/4\/2\/2<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Poole pottery archive is one of several business archives held here at Dorset History Centre. This is a design for the “Lucullus”, range in lime green and grey blue, originally designed by Robert Jefferson, with a design motif of blackberry and apple. Other designs in this particular range include a cockerel, sweetcorn, eggs, prawn and scallops, peapods and leaves, peapods and cauliflowers, marrows, mushrooms.\u00a0 This design is from the 1960\u2019s but the whole archive covers the years 1855 \u2013 2010, with a wide variety of designs! These original hand-painted designs really reflect the fashions of contemporary homeware through the ages!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

In the Crichel Estate archives there are a variety of very old documents. One in particular caught our eye<\/a>. It is a lease dated 25 Sep 1447 for Didlington Manor in Chalbury and is written in Latin, and the document details that as part of the rental due, the tenant, Edward Bysshop had to give:<\/p>\n

\u201c8 marks and a third of all apples and pears growing annually in all the closes between Roger Towker\u2019s close and Brokforlong<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"
D-DPA\/1\/SHI\/56<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Artisan food and drink is very popular these days and cider making particularly has always been a thriving interest in this part of the world. Photos are a wonderful snapshot of the lives of people and their environments, and the Dorset Photographic Archive<\/a> has various examples of cider makers, with the two here being from Shillingstone and Whitchurch Canonicorum.<\/p>\n

\"\"
D-DPA\/1\/WCC\/7<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

—<\/p>\n

Finally, the Poole Borough Archive has various petty sessions records. In particular we find one for the conviction of the wonderfully named Benjamin Billows<\/a>. Billows was convicted on 8 August 1822, of stealing a quantity of apples from the orchard of John Foot, and was fined a total of 20 shillings, which equates to nearly \u00a360 in modern money!<\/p>\n

To misquote a famous film… “How do you like those apples?!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of year again when it seems there are apples everywhere. People lucky enough to have fruit trees in their back garden leave out boxes of the fruit begging passers-by to \u201cHelp yourself\u201d! Whole village communities club together their surplus apples to make cider. The roadsides are littered with them the autumn winds… Read more Apples in the Archives<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[116,82,117],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}