Apple Afternoon at New Ferry Butterfly Park

A tasty display of apple varieties next to our apple information board

Sunday 8th October was a warm October day - perfect weather for all things appley. Volunteers at New Ferry Butterfly Park organized an afternoon to celebrate locally grown apples. Thank you to everyone who visited.

John has been coming to Apple Days since he was about 4 years old!

The first Apple Day was organised on 21st October 1990 by Common Ground to celebrate apples and orchards. Many traditional orchards were being dug up and the country became reliant on imported apples despite about 3,000 apple varieties having been grown in the UK. The aim was to bring the wide variety of local apples to the attention of the public.

A selection of apples to take home

Many groups joined in the annual celebration and Wirral Wildlife began organising Apple Days. As far as I know the first Wirral Wildlife Apple Day was held on 19th October 1996 at Bob’s Orchard in Eastham.

Using the traditional wooden apple press to make juice

Later it moved to Brimstage Hall and then we added a second day at Eastham Country Park. In the last Apple Day before Covid (Wirral Wildlife’s 22nd Apple Day) we had 28 varieties of apples from orchards at Brimstage, Willaston and Upton Hall School. We also had enough apples to juice using our traditional wooden press. The Mersey Morris Men danced and the Tree Wardens sold apple goodies like pies and jam.

Checking the apple juicing equipment

This year we decided to reinstate a smaller version – an Apple Afternoon at New Ferry Butterfly Park. John Bateman collected apples and manned the apple press so that visitors could taste freshly pressed juice. We had 21 varieties of apples picked from Brimstage and Upton Hall School orchards plus two varieties from the NFBP committee chairman’s garden. What wonderful names these old varieties have – some dating back to the 17th century. Some varieties like Peasgood’s Nonsuch are named after the person who raised them. Others like Lord Lambourne are named after a person. Catshead is named because of its shape, Red Love for the colour of its skin and flesh and Bee Bench after the tradition of taking bee hives to orchards to pollinate the flowers. A full list of our varieties is given below.

The peeling machine in action

Our apple peeling machine is always popular – who can create the longest piece of unbroken peel? This year the longest was 266 cm. Common Ground used to run a national competition and one year someone from our Apple Day won the under 16 competition with a piece 269 cm long. Maybe someone will break this record next year.

Can you peel a whole apple without breaking the peel?

So watch our Event listings for 2024 and put the Apple afternoon onto your calendar.


Apple varieties on display:

Annie Elizabeth
Arthur Barnes
Ashmead’s Kernel
Bee bench
Bramley
Burr Knott
Catshead
Court Pendu Plat
Crawley Beauty
Egremont Russett
Golden Noble
Grenadier
James Grieve
Lord Derby
Lord Lambourne
Peasgood’s nonsuch
Phil’s cooker
Red Love
Redsleeves
Ribston Pippin
Withington Welter
Worcester Pearmain