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Looking south from Worcester Beacon

Cider & Perry Trail

Notes Perry is made from (perry) pears, cider from apples. Pictures on this page taken during the Big Apple variation of Cider Cycling Route, October 2003 and 2004. Elsewhere, a few pictures from 2007 Big Apple cycle ride.

This page covers mainly Herefordshire and Worcestershire, plus a fair bit of Gloucestershire.

Also See

Exploring Cider and Perry

Juice flowing off press at Gregg's PitThe Cider Cycling Route starting from Ledbury is a good one to follow, especially in the spring (blossom) or autumn (harvest and cider production). The leaflet is well worth getting and we've also made a GPX file available of the shorter route (17 miles) - see Cycling page. Also watch out for Big Apple related bike rides and see Producers info below for places en route.

There is also now a Cider Cycling Route based around Pembridge. Unfortunately, no details available on the web. Obtain the leaflet from a Herefordshire Tourist Information Centre.

Cider Route web site has a good section on the cycle trail, perry, interesting facts, history etc, as well as info on the larger Herefordshire car route.

Bosbury Cider Festival 2006 did have a page on Cider in Herefordshire, but dead at Feb 08?

Visit the Cider Museum in Hereford.

The Real Cider and Perry Page is a good source, but check the notes for updates. CAMRA has a cider and perry sub-group, APPLE, and from 2003 decided to celebrate October as Cider & Perry Month. Real enthusiasts might want to join in the discussion group run by ukcider - their main site has a 'Cider Pub Guide' for many parts of the country.

Ragmans Lane Farm (Forest of Dean) runs a Cider and Apple Juice Weekend in October (look under Courses on the web site). They sell their apple juice locally.

There is a Three Counties Cider and Perry Association. Also a Three Counties Perry Presidium, which has a fairly comprehensive list of perry producers.

The Three Counties Showground has the National Collection of Perry Pear Trees - "the most comprehensive collection of perry pear trees in the country, many of them rare".

More of an apple and pear focus

Just one table of apple varieties, Big Apple 04Big Apple Weekends celebrating blossom and harvest are centred around Much Marcle, October and Putley, May: see Events page. At Nov 06, the Food Programme Big Apple Weekend feature from 19th October 2003 still has its info page but the audio download appears to be gone (had interviews with people from Dragon Orchard, Gregg's Pit and more). Apple pictures (right and below) are from The Feast of Apples display and tasting event, 2004.

The Food Programme also did a Pears and Perry feature in October 2006.

Marcher Apple Network promotes the revival of old apple and pear varieties in the Southern Marches, and has set up a cider apple and perry pear sub-group.

Gloucestershire Orchard Group conserves, promote and celebrates traditional orchards in the county, and has details on local varieties of apple, pear, plum and nut trees.

Ribston PippinEngland in Particular, a web site by Common Ground, has a good Orchards section arranged by county - Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire. Includes contact details for cider and perry producers.

Short article in The Guardian, 22/1/04, on the revival of local varieties, naming Holme Lacey Pear alongside others with slightly rude names!

Monty Don, Gardeners World presenter and (ex) Observer writer, lives in Herefordshire and is interested in local varieties. See October 04 article of some relevance.

Going outside the three counties area, there's a developing cider scene in Wales. See Welsh Perry and Cider Society web site.

Cider and Perry Related Info

While cider production is very much a Herefordshire thing, it does occur in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire to some degree.

Malvern Hills is a variety of perry pear, apparently a favourite of Gwatkins (see Producers). Worcester Black Pear is a culinary variety but well known - pears are part of the city coat of arms.

Perry pears at Alnwyn Farm, near Greggs PitThe CAMRA cider page says that "perry is traditionally a speciality of the Three Counties and Welsh Borders, as perry pears were said to only thrive ‘in sight of May Hill’ ".

Taynton, a few miles south of Newent, is the home of the Taynton Squash Perry Pear, which according to the linked history page was highly rated in the 17th and 18th centuries.

There's a fun article on Lambourn Valley Cider Co's web site (they're in Berkshire!) about farmer and cider maker Ray Hartland based near Tewkesbury.

Pear varieties have some wonderful names, one of which has now achieved fame via Wallace and Gromit's Curse of the WereRabbit. This features Stinking Bishop, a cheese made on a Dymock farm (actually it's a bit north east of there) and named after the pear of the perry cider in which it is soaked. Apparently the pear itself is named after Frederick Bishop, who was "famed for his drunken temper and was known as "a stinker". He was born in the mid-19th century, and his grave is in the middle of the churchyard of Colwall Parish church, near the Malvern Hills." (Jane Garratt, great grand-daughter, Shipley, W. Yorks in Telegraph letter 3/10/05). We have since discovered that others of his descendants still live in the area.

Extracted from Ciderlore: Cider in the Three Counties:

William Pitt the Elder (MP for Bath, so with a West Country connection) coined the phrase "An Englishman's home is his castle" while arguing against the Cider Tax (Excise men would have had to enter people's homes to determine if cider was being brewed). Imposed in 1763 to fund the Seven Year War at 4 shillings a hogshead, the tax was relaxed three years later after huge public opposition. (Other sources say that these protests, which included burning effigies of the then prime minister and harassment of tax collectors, inspired rebellion in the American colonies to subsequent taxes under the Stamp Act .)

C.W. Radcliffe Cooke, son of Robert Cooke of Hellens at Much Marcle, was MP for Hereford but known in the House of Commons as the 'MP for cider' due to his interest in the subject. He also published the book Cider and Perry in 1889.

There are implications (pp21-22) that not all local ciders are always 100% vegetarian. We'll leave it to you to delve into this further!

Pomonas

Yellow IngestrePomonas are illustrated surveys or guides to apple varieties. The first (known) covering Herefordshire dates from 1811, with a two volume one produced by Woolhope Naturalists Field Club in 1885, a time when local orchards were neglected and under threat. Bulmers produced their own as part of centenary celebrations (mid 1990s).

This Herefordshire Pomona, a guide to apples and pear varieties grown in the county, first produced in the late nineteenth century, now has a 21st century treatment in a CD-ROM The Apples and Pears of The Herefordshire Pomona, with all the colour plates from The Herefordshire Pomona, corresponding section drawings and descriptions of the fruits plus further text. See Marcher Apple Network for details

Other Publications

New May 2007 is another CD-ROM from Marcher Apple Network, Vintage Fruit.. Brings together material from a range of difficult to get publications, Pomona Herefordiensis, The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits, Perry Pears, Cider Apples and their Characters, and Bulmer’s Pomona.

Ciderlore: Cider in the Three Counties from Logaston Press, ISBN 1904396100, published November 2003. A wide ranging look at how cider and perry has been made and drunk in Herefordshire and also Worcs and Glos. Buy from Amazon.co.uk.

Cider - The Forgotten Miracle is an investigation into the history of farmhouse cider, although based around Somerset. Published by Cyder Press Two, Oct. '99 - buy from Amazon.co.uk.

Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale "all the details you'd need to make your own cider as a complete beginner" - buy from Amazon.co.uk.

Farmyard Cider and Scrumpy Bossiney Books (West Country specialist publisher), March 1999. Buy from CountryBookshop.

A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset Dovecote Press, May '01. Not available at Dec 06, even on publishers site.

Pomona Britannica: The Complete Plates at Amazon.co.uk.

The New Book of Apples: The definitive guide to over 2000 varieties, Ebury Press, 2002. Amazon.co.uk.

Cider and Perry Producers

Those with a * below are on the Ledbury Cider Cycling Route - see above. For more, UKCider web site has a regional producers section, with separate pages for Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. UKCider also has a useful Cider Pub guide for Hereford and Worcestershire - as it's a wiki you can update it if things have changed.

Aston Manor, claiming to be the third largest UK cider producer, has its orchards around Bishops Frome and Storridge "on the Hereford side of the Malvern Hills". They also grow hops.

Brook Farm Cider, Wigmore, Herefordshire.

Broome Farm has a guest house as well as working cider farm, at Peterstow, just west of Ross. They run a small 'Ross-on-Wye' cider festival in the late summer (see Events page).

Butford Farm Cider, from an organic small holding near Bodenham specialising in cider, perry, pork and eggs.

Clives Fruit Farm, near Upton, is better known for its single variety apple (and perry) juices, but does make some cider and perry too.

Day’s Cottage Pure Apple Juice is made with apples from traditional, mature orchards in Gloucestershire. Cider and perry too. Outside MalvernTrail's core area (as it is based near Gloucester) but worth a mention.

Building the 'cheese'* Dragon Orchard, Putley. Crop sharing scheme.

Dunkertons is listed on Places around the area page (in Pembridge) - organic producers.

* Gregg's Pit Cider & Perry, Much Marcle, is an award winning, small scale producer of craft cider and perry.

Gwatkin Cider at Abbey Dore. Perry and single variety ciders. Phone 01981 550258.

Henney's Cider (ex Cheyney Lodge), Tan House Court, Much Cowarne. Produces Frome Valley Cider.

Jus makes single variety apple juice on a small scale, but worth checking out. Glebe Farm, Aylton. Phone 01531 670749.

Knights Cider produce Malvern Gold and Malvern Oak. Crumpton Oaks Farm, Storridge, WR13 5HP. Phone 01684 568887.

* Ledbury Cider and Perry is part of Old Kennels Farm. Not a lot about cider on the web site (which can be slow to load - large graphics), really only about their holiday cottages. A shame, because they make great cider (only available from the farm shop) and the cottages are actually better than the photos!

Red juice at Lyne Down!* Lyne Down Cider and Perry, near Much Marcle. Phone 01531 660543.

Minchew's Real Cyder & Perry is based at Tewkesbury, sourcing fruit (apple and pears) locally. Perry varieties include Moorcroft / Malvern Hills, possibly Stinking Bishop (as seen on Great British Menu, May 07).

Munsley Cider & Apple Juice. A small producer with local availability.

Newtons produce cider, including bottle fermented, and perry. Newton Court Cidery, Leominster, HR6 0PF, phone 01568 611721.

Norbury Black Bull Cider Storridge, Worcestershire, WR13 5HD. Phone 01886 832206.

Oliver's Cider and Perry, Stanksbridge, Ocle Pychard. There's a holiday cottage available.

Orchard Cider and Perry is a bit out of the area - near Chepstow.

Ross on Wye Cider and Perry - see Broome Farm above.

* Westons, Much Marcle, is a relatively large operation using modern equipment, with products available nationally. Guided tours.

And other cider places

Orchard Hive and Vine is a specialist retailer in Leominster which also sells online.

The Hop Pocket Wine Company stocks a wide range of local cider and perries, as well as apple and pear juice, local wine and beer. Bishops Frome, phone 01531 640592.

Little Verzon’s Fruit Farm, on the Hereford Road west of Ledbury, has a tea room and farm shop selling cider and perry. Phone 01531 670816.

Shortwood Farm listed under on the Sustainable visits page has cider related activities for visitors.

The Ciderstore launched in October 2006. Based in Stroud, Glos, it claims to be the UK's first specialist cider retailer.

Other places on the (Ledbury) Cider Cycling Route