Man-Made Eden: Historic Orchards of Somerset and Gloucestershire

by Russell, James

• ISBN13: 9781904537755
• ISBN10: 1904537758
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-15
• Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Ltd

Summary

"The West Country is famed for its orchards, but why are they here? As the campaign to save and celebrate English orchards gathers momentum, this book explores their fascinating and - until now - neglected history. Why is Glastonbury known as Avalon, the Isle of Apples? What made Redstreak Cyder the most popular drink of the seventeenth century?" "What was Dr Ashmead, cultivator of the connoisseur's favourite apple, Ashmead's Kernel? How did a Somerset vicar come to make cider for Queen Victoria?" "This rich, wide-ranging book takes a long historical look at changing fashions and fortunes - asking why thirteenth-century monks and Edwardian landowners planted orchards, and why post-war governments paid farmers to destroy them." "The author argues that Apple Day (October 21) should be made our national autumn holiday. He examines the role of Common Ground, the National Trust and other organisations in preserving and restoring orchards, and asks: what can we do to make our orchards as profitable as they were in centuries past?"--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Forbidden Fruit	p. 7
Avalon	p. 19
Scudamore's Crab	p. 33
Dr Ashmead's Kernel	p. 48
Under the Greenwood Tree	p. 61
Lord Sudeley's Fruit Farm	p. 76
The Apple Factory	p. 89
Paradise Grubbed	p. 103
Wassail	p. 114
Paradise Regained?	p. 131
Bibliography	p. 149
Contacts	p. 152
Index	p. 154
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.