Amazing Apple Afternoon at the Butterfly Park

Sunday 13th October was a warm October day - perfect weather for the second New Ferry Butterfly Park Apple Afternoon to celebrate locally grown apples.

Even more people came this year - thank you to everyone who visited and our volunteers who make it possible to hold such an event.

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.

At our event, John Bateman collected apples and manned the apple press so that visitors could taste freshly pressed juice. Many people took some juice away with them.

Mincing up the apples ready for juicing

John Bateman supervising the juice making

We had 28 varieties of apples picked from orchards at Brimstage, Upton Hall School and Ness Gardens. plus varieties from some of our volunteer’s gardens. What wonderful names these old varieties have - some dating back to the 17th century. Some like Lord Derby and Millicent Barnes are named after people. Catshead is named because of its shape. Red Love for the colour of its skin and flesh. A full list of the varieties we had for display and tasting is given below.

Local apple varieties on display at the Butterfly Park

Our apple peeling machine is always popular - who can create the longest piece of unbroken peel? This year the longest was 205cm. 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. No one has beaten this yet. Maybe at our 2025 Apple Afternoon?

Can you peel a whole apple without breaking the peel?

Wirral Wildlife has been holding Apple Days for many years and one little boy has always come to join in.

John, a fan of Wirral Wildlife's Apple Days,
taken at Eastham Country Park in 2016.

Over the years John has grown taller, although I have only grown older!

John at this year's Apple Afternoon!

Linda Higginbottom

New Ferry Butterfly Park Volunteer Coordinator

Apples on display:

Annie Elizabeth

Arthur Barnes

Blenheim Orange

Bramley

Catshead

Chiver’s Delight

Cox’s Orange Pippin

Crawley Beauty

Eccleston Pippin

Egremont Russett

Ellinson’s Orange

Fiesta

Golden Noble

Greensleeves

James Grieve

Jupiter

Lord Derby

Lord Lambourne

Malus Royalty

Millicent Barnes

Red Falstaff

Ribston Pippin

Peasgood’s Nonsuch

Red Love

Spartan

St Edmund’s Pippin

Tydesley Late

Withington Welter

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

Apple Days Revisited

Display of apple varieties at Apple Day

This year should have been the 23rd Apple Day organised by Wirral Wildlife. As it has had to be cancelled I thought I would look at the history of our Apple Days and what has been achieved.

Apple Day was initiated on October 21st 1990 by Common Ground at an event in Covent Garden, London. They had noticed a decline in local orchards and apple varieties and wanted to create a ‘calendar event’ to remind everyone about the relevance of local apples and orchards.

As far as I know the first Wirral Wildlife Apple Day was held on 19th October 1996 at Bob’s Orchard in Eastham. The original organiser was John McGee and, when he moved to live in the south of England, Frank Cottrell took over until 2010. My first personal records date back to 2005 when I was organising some children’s activities. Common Ground had a competition to see how long a continuous piece of apple peel could be produced using a knife or a mechanical peeler. I set up a mechanical peeler for the children to use and measured the peel taken off the apple. The secret was to have as round an apple as possible, not necessarily an enormous apple. In 2006 someone from our Brimstage Apple Day won the national Under 16 Competition with peel 269 cm long and in 2008 we had another winner from Eastham Country Park with a peel 240cm long.

The Longest Apple Peel competition

The Longest Apple Peel competition

The Longest Apple Peel competition

We used to hold two Apple Days – on the Saturday at Brimstage Hall and on the Sunday at Eastham Country Park. As our days attracted more and more people and got very busy for a small band of volunteers, in 2012 we moved to one event only at Eastham Country Park. The original Apple Days were held around October 21st but we noticed local apples were ripening earlier. We moved Apple Day to the first weekend in October and then since 2015 we have held it on the last Sunday in September.

Home made apple pie at Brimstage Hall

Apples on display at Brimstage Hall

We have always had on display (and for tasting) as many locally grown apples as possible and in 2018 hit a peak of 28 varieties.

Apple varieties at Eastham Country Park

Apple varieties at Eastham Country Park

These come from the trees in Brimstage Hall Orchard, Willaston Community Orchard, Upton Hall Orchard and others from people’s gardens.

Apple trees at Brimstage Hall orchard

A closer look at the fruit on an apple tree

The wooden apple press is popular with everyone and children love to help squash the chopped apples, mash them up and then turn the handle on the press. The resulting juice looks a bit brown but I bet it is the tastiest apple juice around.

Chopping up apples ready to be pressed into juice

Crushing the apples with a big stick!

Crushing the apples

Mincing up the crushed apples

Turning the handle on the apple press

The tastiest apple juice

As well as the apple peeler we have other things for the children to do like making badges, writing apple poems, colouring and wordsearch.

Making pollinator mobiles

Coloured in apple shapes and apple poems hung on the tree

Coloured in apple shapes

Making badges

For the last few years Lena and her team have brought home made apple products like cake, crumble and apple butter to sell.

Home made cake, crumble, jam and apple butter

Another highlight is the presence of Mersey Morris Men who dance for us come rain or shine. Although last year the pouring rain meant it was a bit of a squeeze inside the visitor centre!

The Mersey Morris Men

Music from the Mersey Morris Men

Volunteers wanted for the Mersey Morris Men

The Mersey Morris Men performing in the courtyard at Eastham Country Park

The Mersey Morris Men performing indoors on a rainy Apple Day at Eastham Country Park

Our aim has been to highlight the range and taste of locally grown apples as opposed to the limited range available at the supermarket. We hope to convince everyone of the value of ancient orchards and new community orchards for both people and wildlife.

Volunteer Press Gangs at Butterfly Park

I was once asked by an officer the Cheshire Wildlife Trust did I allow volunteers to take rest breaks, as if I was running press gangs! Well one recent weekend we had two press gangs. Firstly on Saturday Dave Elwand and the Wirral Tree Wardens and then on Sunday a press gang imported from Liverpool John Moores University Conservation Society.

We were making use of the fallen apples from New Ferry Butterfly Park as well as apple donations from Burton Walled Garden, Upton Hall School Orchard, Brimstage Orchard and private gardens. Approximately 3.5 gallons of apple juice was produced with a mix of dessert and cooking apples for a sweet apple juice for Wirral Pomona to ferment into a cider. For fresh apple juice to drink crab apples were added to the mix to take away the sweetness. Some students asked why they should not eat the crab apples. I said “Take a bite and you will soon realize why!” A wincing face is a sure test it is a crab. With the team of eager students quartering, scratting and pressing apples it did not take much time at all to fill the press and they were all excited to see the juice rush out of the press as the apple mash was squashed.

After making the apple juice the students enjoyed sampling the juice alongside the BBQ put on for them. In fact the juice, BBQ, homemade cakes and tea gave some of the students’ energy to work on Embankment Coppice until 5pm in the afternoon, the longest a student group has ever stayed. We hope to entice them back again with an après task cider sometimes soon. Look after your volunteers and they will come back again, no press gangs required.

Paul Loughnane

Apple Day

Apple Day was celebrated on September 30th at Eastham Country Park.

Local apples were on display with a record 32 varieties picked from orchards at Brimstage Hall, Upton Hall School and Willaston and some from our volunteers.

Apples ready to be tasted.

The traditional apple press was used to make delicious juice and children are always keen to help....

.......and to taste it.

Slightly less strenuous is seeing how long a piece of peel you can get from an apple using our peeling machine. 

Children also coloured in apple pictures and wrote poems to glue on our wooden tree.

We know that the group held an Apple Day in 1996 and every year since then.

Recently we have been lucky enough to have Mersey Morris Men with us.

A day to truly celebrate the British apple.