- Exploring Cider and Perry, plus a little on orchards, apples and pears in general.
- Related Info – quotes, pomonas, books.
- Cider and Perry Producers, plus other interests on the Cider Cycling Route.
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. On the old MalvernTrail site, a few pictures from 2007 Big Apple cycle ride.
This page covers mainly Herefordshire and Worcestershire, plus a fair bit of Gloucestershire.
Also See
- Food and Drink for local real ale brewers, vineyards.
- Events page for more cider (and real ale) festivals.
Exploring Cider and Perry
The 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 – available from Come Cycling Ledbury. We’ve also got a GPX file of the shorter route (17 miles) – see Cycling page. Watch out for Big Apple related bike rides and see Producers info below for places en route.
Three ‘Cider Circuits’ routes (new 2020/21) from Visit Herefordshire are suitable for the keen cyclist – the West’s figure-of-8 can be broken into 2 shorter rides.
Visit the Cider Museum in Hereford. Or check out their Archive of Cider Pomology – orcharding and cider making.
Online info: the Real Cider website has pages on history, further web links and other resources. CAMRA has an interest in cider and perry and may still have Cider & Perry Month celebrations. Also check out the Cider Workshop website, connected with a Google Group for craft cider and perry makers and enthusiasts.
Ragmans Lane Farm (Forest of Dean) runs a Cider and Apple Juice Weekend in October (look under Courses on the website). They sell their apple juice locally.
There is a Three Counties Cider and Perry Association.
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
Big Apple Weekends celebrating blossom and harvest are centred around Much Marcle in October, Putley for May: see Events page. Apple pictures (right and below) are from The Feast of Apples display and tasting event, 2004.
Colwall Orchard Group works to restore, promote and celebrate traditional orchards.
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.
The Food Programme 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.
Short article in The Guardian, Jan ’04, on the revival of local varieties, naming Holme Lacey Pear alongside others with slightly rude names!
Monty Don, the Gardeners World presenter, 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. On the other hand, perry (basically cider made from particular types of pears) is a Three Counties thing, perhaps with a Gloucestershire bias. Perry pear varieties have some wonderful names, and there can be confusion between them, with varieties taking different names and the same name applying to different varieties in different parts of the Three Counties area.
Malvern Hills is a variety of perry pear, apparently a favourite of Gwatkins (see Producers). From various accounts, this is in fact the variety also known as Moorcroft, believed to have originated from Moorcroft Farm in Colwall, and also under the now more famous name of Stinking Bishop, which has transferred its name to a cheese soaked in the perry of that ilk. The pear was once widely grown throughout the Three Counties.
Our previous entry on this said: One pear variety 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.
Worcester Black Pear is a culinary variety but well known – pears are part of the city coat of arms.
The 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 a previous local website’s history page, was highly rated in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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
Pomonas 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’s shop CD page for details.
Other Publications
Vintage Fruit is another CD-ROM from Marcher Apple Network, May 2007. 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.
Cider – The Forgotten Miracle is an investigation into the history of farmhouse cider, although based around Somerset. Published by Cyder Press Two, Oct. ’99
Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale “all the details you’d need to make your own cider as a complete beginner”. Or Craft Cider Making from Good Life Press, Oct ’08.
Farmyard Cider and Scrumpy Bossiney Books (West Country specialist publisher), March 1999.
Pomona Britannica: The Complete Plates.
The New Book of Apples: The definitive guide to over 2000 varieties, Ebury Press, 2002.
Cider and Perry Producers
Plus a retailer or two. Those with a * below are on the Ledbury Cider Cycling Route – see above.
Aston Manor, the “number one independent UK cider producer”, has orchards around Bishops Frome and Storridge. Also took over Knights Cider and its Malvern Gold and Malvern Oak brands.
Avenue Cottage, near Lyne Down, doesn’t have a website, but worth visiting during the Big Apple weekend event in October. At 2023 the focus is on their sparkling perry.
Barbourne Cider Use produce from Worcestershire orchards. Based in Worcester (19 York Place), with local stockists listed on their website.
Bartestree Cider Company founded 2013, in Herefordshire, somewhere near the village hall? A few local outlets.
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.
Celtic Marches cider and perry produced at Bishops Frome.
Clives Fruit Farm, near Upton, is better known for its single variety apple (and perry) juices, but does make some cider and perry too.
* Dragon Orchard, Putley has a crop sharing scheme.
* Gregg’s Pit Cider & Perry, Much Marcle, is an award winning, small scale producer of craft cider and perry. One of our favourites.
Henney’s Cider (ex Cheyney Lodge), Tan House Court, Much Cowarne. Produces Frome Valley Cider.
Little Pomona Small scale ‘natural’ production in Herefordshire.
* Lyne Down Cider and Perry, near Much Marcle. Facebook page. Adjacent photo taken there quite a few years ago.
Minchew’s Real Cyder & Perry is based at Tewkesbury, sourcing fruit (apple and pears) locally. Perry varieties include Moorcroft / Malvern Hills, aka Stinking Bishop.
Munsley Cider & Apple Juice. A small producer with local availability.
Norbury Black Bull Cider Co, Storridge, Worcestershire, WR13 5HD. Phone 01886 832206. Facebook page.
Oliver’s Cider and Perry, Moorhouse Farm, Ocle Pychard.
Once Upon a Tree (connected with Dragons Orchard) is a significant local cider and perry producer, with online availability (with sister vineyard Sixteen Ridges).
Ross on Wye Cider and Perry – see Broome Farm above.
Jus has relaunched as Skittery, October 2023, with single variety ciders added alongside the long-running single variety apple juice. Small scale, but worth checking out. Glebe Farm, Aylton. Phone 01531 670749.
Snails Bank Cider produces premium Herefordshire cider, with interesting fruit blends. Based near Bishops Frome? Order a box online.
* Westons, Much Marcle, is a relatively large operation using modern equipment, with products available nationally. Guided tours.
Woodredding Cider A little way off the main Much Marcle centred trail. We haven’t visited yet. Woodredding Farm, Yatton, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 7RG.
Outside MalvernTrail’s core area
Colcombe House Founded 2015, premium ‘artisan’ cider from Hampton Bishop, Herefordshire.
Day’s Cottage Pure Apple Juice is made with apples from traditional, mature orchards in Gloucestershire. Cider and perry too. Based near Gloucester.
Dunkertons is listed on Places around the area page, in Pembridge – organic producers. Production has moved to Cheltenham (2017).
Newtons produce cider, including bottle fermented, and perry. Newton Court Cider, Leominster, HR6 0PF, phone 01568 611721.
More places on the (Ledbury) Cider Cycling Route
- Straw House, Putley.
- St Mary’s, Kempley (Old Church). Open 1st March to 31st October, 10am to 6pm, managed by English Heritage (free entrance). Wall paintings, interesting timbers.
- Hellens, Much Marcle.
- St Bartholomews, Much Marcle, with its famous hollow yew tree, impressive tombs in the church.
