Charles is an expert on local varieties
Our village of Dymock is possibly unique in having three types of fruit varieties named after it:
The Dymock Red Apple, the Dymock Red Pear and the Dymock Red Plum. This is evidence that Dymock lies at the heart of a renown fruit growing – and cider making area. And it seems to have been a distilling area of some note. Apart from our own historic ‘distilling house’ there is another known site in the village where distilling was known to have taken place. Further, a ‘John Cater distiller’ of the parish of Dymock died in 1696. A very early record for the craft of distilling in this country.
The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens monitors and approves the ‘NCCPG Gloucestershire Apple Collection’ which is situated at Hunts Court Farm. There are 186 known indigenous Gloucestershire apple varieties recorded. 106 of these have been located, propagated and planted on the farm here. Two or more specimens of each variety are grown to form a gene bank of genetic biodiversity for distribution of grafting material to farmers and growers in the county.
Charles has spent many years studying and collating the apples, pears and plums of Gloucestershire. As a result, a work on each fruit family has been published online, and are available to download.
The Pear, Apple and plum books have been updated with more detail and published, and are available to purchase on our shop page.