As harvest time arrives, here are the top destinations for apple harvests, tastings and other core activities.

The interesting history of Apple Day in the United Kingdom

Photo: Day of The Year

Apple Day is an annual celebration of apples and orchards, held in October. It is celebrated mainly in the United Kingdom. It traditionally falls on 21 October, the date of the first such event in 1990, but events are held throughout the month. It is commonly a weekend event, usually taking place on the Saturday and Sunday closest to 30 October.

Apple Day events can be large or small, from apple games in a garden to large village fairs with cookery demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and the sale of many hundreds of apple varieties.

Apple Day was initiated by Common Ground on 21 October 1990 at an event in Covent Garden, London, and has been celebrated in each subsequent year. By 2000 the day was celebrated in more than 600 events around the United Kingdom. Common Ground describe the day as a way of celebrating and demonstrating that variety and richness matter to a locality and that it is possible to effect change in your place. Common Ground has used the apple as a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity we should not let slip away. In linking particular apples with their place of origin, they hope that orchards will be recognized and conserved for their contribution to local distinctiveness, including the rich diversity of wild life they support.

"Apple Day" is the title of a song by UK songwriter Phil Baggaley, formerly of songwriting duo Phil and John, and founder of Gold Records. The song was sung by the now defunct Harbour Lights on the album "Leaving Safe Anchorage". The song refers to the Cromford Apple Day - and likens the converting of old bruised apples into cider to spiritual renewal and invites the listener to participate with the words "I meet you down at apple day, come and bring the fruit that's fallen, we'll turn it into something new .."

Apple Day is celebrated by the villagers in the radio soap-opera The Archers.

1. The Big Apple Harvest Time, Much Marcle, Herefordshire

Photo: Calendar Customs

The Big Apple is a relatively recent institution dating back some thirty years, celebrating the long tradition of the apple harvest in Herefordshire, and is one of the best established festivals of its kind. Held in October, various events are organised including cider and apple tastings and the Feast of Apples at Hellens, a nearby historic house, where folks can take along apples from their own trees to have the variety identified (a bit like Antiques Roadshow for orchard enthusiasts) or buy them from a wide variety on offer. We found the tasting table was very interesting, where you can sample cooked apples of many named varieties to see which one you like best. Cider making demonstrations are given at orchards in the area as well as the opportunity to make your own cider & perry; apple dishes are widely available including teas at Much Marcle Memorial Hall from 2pm.

Pop into the Much Marcle Memorial Hall for a cup of apple tea, and stay at the Seven Stars in nearby Ledbury, a cosy pub with comfortable rooms.

2. Rosemoor Apple Weekend, Devonshire

Full flavour: apple pressing at the Rosemoor Festival in Devon. Photograph: RHS/Guy Harrop

This is the 30th anniversary of Rosemoor’s Apple Festival, held on 3 October, when the RHS-owned garden brings together tastings, talks, demonstrations and guided walks – all of which are apple-themed. A team of experts will also be on hand to help identify any of your homegrown unknown apple varieties, while the Taste of Autumn Food Fair will ensure there’s no chance of visitors going hungry

Originally conceived by Orchards Live, the Rosemoor Apple Weekend is run by RHS as their biggest annual celebration of orchard fruit. If you want to find an apple variety your best chance is to find it here. Experts are on hand to help with identification. As well as fantastic apple displays and the opportunity to taste, there are many stalls, talks and guided walks round the Rosemoor Orchard, cookery demos and children’s activities. Come and say ‘Hello’ to Orchards Live.

3. Apple Day at Day’s Cottage, Gloucestershire

Photo: Gloucestershire Orchard Trust

Come and celebrate traditional orchards, their fruits and their biodiversity.

Apples, juice, cider, perry, orchard honey and trees for sale. Juice and home made cakes in cosy yurt. Apple games, Spoon carving demonstration, beekeeper demo, orchard information and live music. Bring a bag of your own apples to juice up at the main farm 300m up the road – save plastic and bring your own containers.

The juice is made with apples from traditional, mature orchards in Gloucestershire. The fruit comes only from unsprayed orchards and dozens of varieties are used, some unique to the county, such as Taynton Codlin, Flower of the West and Underleaves.

These give flavours unobtainable from modern commercial fruit, and can be enjoyed as unusual single varieties or as carefully blended juices. No additives or preservatives are used and the juice of over 1kg of fresh fruit fills each 75cl bottle. No sprays, chemicals or artificial fertilisers are used in our orchards, thus preserving their rich and varied wildlife. The traditional ciders and perry are fermented and matured in oak barrels. Once again, only old varieties are used, including Morgan Sweet and Foxwhelp apples and Brown Bess and Blakeney Red pears.

Day’s Cottage Apple Juice is a family run business, based on the family farm, and reviving a long tradition of cider and perry making in Gloucestershire.

Day’s Cottage Apple Juice was awarded BEST DRINK PRODUCT 2016 at the Cotswold Life Food and Drinks awards. This adds to our collection of awards : Best non-alcoholic drinks Producer 2012 by Taste of Gloucestershire as well as receiving awards from the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust for our work and exceptional commitment to traditional orchards and their wildlife.

In previous generations every farm had its orchards, and most had their stone cider presses; we have merely brought these traditional methods up to date and are making totally pure juice, ciders and perry, the only process being that of pasteurisation.

4. Apple Day Weekend at the Newt, Somerset

Photo: The Newt in Somerset

Home to 65 acres of legacy orchards, including 70 varieties of apple, the Newt – a working estate with a luxurious hotel in an elegant Georgian farmhouse – celebrates its harvest with an activity-packed Apple Day Weekend (23-24 October). Tractor tours, talks, apple-themed games and menus are all on offer, with live music and DJs to get the party going – and the chance for visitors to bring their own apples to be pressed. Alongside the juices, there will be the chance to try the Newt’s new Ice Cyder, made from dessert apples that have been pressed, frozen and slowly thawed to create a rich, concentrated flavour. Apple Day is free for members of the Newt.

The gardens at The Newt have been shaped over the last 200 years by successive enthusiasts, including Margaret Hobhouse who elevated the gardens to a Victorian ideal, introducing colour, a greenhouse and many trees of beech, oak, pine, walnut and cedar. Renowned garden designer Penelope Hobhouse gave Margaret’s vision a new lease of life in the 1970s, followed by Nori and Sandra Pope, whose experiments with colour delighted and inspired thousands of visitors in the mid-1980s. The latest incarnation has been created by Italo-French architect Patrice Taravella, who believes a garden should be both beautiful and useful. Influenced by thousands of years of horticultural history and mixing ornamental and productive elements, the gardens are a feast for the eyes and the stomach. At their core sits the Parabola, a walled garden concealing an apple tree maze; and at the edges, diverse woodland provides a sheltered habitat for native wildlife.

5. Harvest Time at Killerton, Devon

Photo: Devon Live

Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public. The National Trust displays the house as a comfortable home. On display in the house is a collection of 18th- to 20th-century costumes, originally known as the Paulise de Bush collection, shown in period rooms.

The estate covers some 2590 hectares (25.9 km2, 6400 acres). Included in the Estate is a steep wooded hillside with the remains of an Iron Age Hill fort on top of it, also known as Dolbury, which has also yielded evidence of Roman occupation, thought to be a possible fort or marching camp within the Hill fort.

Killerton House itself and the Bear's Hut summerhouse in the grounds are Grade II* listed buildings. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Now is the perfect time to visit this glorious Devonshire estate, famous for the rolling gardens that surround the elegant 17th-century house, kept as it would have been in the 1920s and 30s. Outside, visitors can stroll through the orchards – home to more than 100 varieties of apple, including the curiously named Slack-ma-Girdle and Hangy Down – and pick up some of the estate’s own cider in the shop or sample it in the café. Stay at Killerton Park Cottage, a delightful National Trust-owned house on the estate, sleeping up to five.

6. Apple Harvest at Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton

Photo: Visit Birmingham

The legacy of a family's passion for Victorian art and design, Wightwick Manor (pronounced "Wittick") is a Victorian manor house located on Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Owned by the National Trust since 1937, the Manor and its grounds are open to the public. It is one of only a few surviving examples of a house built and furnished under the influence of the Aesthetic movement and Arts and Crafts movement. The house is in a grand version of the half-timbered vernacular style, of which the most famous original example is Little Moreton Hall over 40 miles to the north, in Cheshire (also National Trust).

The house is a notable example of the influence of William Morris, with original Morris wallpapers and fabrics, De Morgan tiles, Kempe glass and Pre-Raphaelite works of art, including works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Evelyn De Morgan, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, John Everett Millais, Elizabeth Siddal and Leonard Shuffrey.

There are more than 50 varieties of apple to be found in Wightwick’s orchards, with many dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. On Apple Harvest weekend (23-24 October) visitors can taste and buy freshly picked eaters, cookers and cider apples and take a stroll through the orchard, as well as seeing Wightwick’s extraordinary multi-variety apple tree, created by grafting 12 different varieties on to one tree.

7. Apple Week, Llanerchaeron, Mid-Wales

Photo: botanicgarden.wales

The graceful Georgian villa in Llanerchaeron is surrounded by walled gardens that are home to ancient espaliered apple trees that burst with fruit from September onwards. Apple Week is held today (3 October, as well as 6-10 October) and is ideal for families. There are trails and self-led activities for children, including the chance to create apple bird feeders, along with displays of the different varieties of apples grown in the orchards. There are also bags of fruit to buy and take home. Combine country pleasures with a stay at the seaside, try the lovely Harbourmaster Cottage in Aberaeron.

The Bardsey Island apple might be a survivor from a monastic orchard. The old tree against Plas Bach house dates from the late 19th century. The apple is at its best around mid-September, so might have been chosen by Lord Newborough for its adaptability: as well as being a good eating apple, it cooks well to form a light puree which would certainly have made a good sauce for eating with roasted wildfowl.

The Diamond apple has a great depth of flavour, ripens early and does not keep, so is a great one for juicing. It is reputed to have been bred from seeds salvaged from fruit which floated ashore after the wreck of the American packet ship Diamond off Barmouth in 1825. It has been recently rescued by Ian Sturrock – 2006.

The Cox Cymraeg (Welsh Cox) escaped extinction a couple of times and is now propagated in North Wales close to the place it was originally grown. It’s very much like the normal Cox’s Orange Pippin but has several superior features, amongst them being that it’s disease resistant and that it needs only one other pollinator, making it easy to grow.

8. The Orchard Garden, Newby Hall, North Yorkshire

Photo: Historic Houses

Newby Hall near Ripon is aThis is a gorgeous Georgian home set in 25 acres of award-winning gardens, dating back to the 20s dating back to the early 1920s. Wander among the apple trees in the unique Orchard Garden, full of quince and apple trees including crab apples too (‘Red Sentinel’), many of which are at their most beautiful in autumn. Make a weekend of it with a night at the nearby Crown Inn, a comfy pub in the village of Roeclfiffe.

The management of the Gardens has been taken over by Mrs Lucinda Compton alongside Mark Jackson, Head Gardener. Along with the dedicated team and invaluable volunteer help we are all enthusiastic about both maintaining the high standard of the garden and also taking it forward to even higher levels.

You will see lots of interesting plants as well as renovation of existing areas, combined with new developments and themes. We are very fortunate to have inherited such a solid garden design, and to be honest there is no need or desire on our part to change the near perfect balance of the garden layout. Instead we can concentrate on growing and grouping good plants, to create a beautiful garden.

What is clear, is that it is both a privilege and honour to be involved in the magnificence of Newby Hall Gardens.

9. Heritage Orchard Days, Brogdale, Kent

Photo: Brogdale Collections

For three weekends in August, September and October – Brogdale Collections is holding Heritage Orchard Days to help save the Charity’s heritage orchards.

Each day visitors will be able to enjoy orchard walks, fruit displays, juice tastings, a family apple trail, cider sales and more. Included in the ticket price, for the first time, visitors will also be able to harvest their own apples and enjoy the use of Brogdale’s lovely picnic field.

With very few events taking place at the moment, these Orchard Days are a great opportunity to spend time outside with the family while enjoying some fresh Kent fruit. Visitors will also be helping raise essential funds to save these unique orchards.

10. North Perrott Fruit Farm, Crewkerne, Somerset

Photo: Somerset Local Food

Jonathan is a third-generation fruit farmer who attended Writtle Agricultural College in the 1980's and worked in Kent for 6 years before returning home to manage the family farm in 1991. He married Anwen in 1994 and have twin girls, both now at university. They now farm in partnership with Jonathan running the farm and Anwen responsible for the farm shop.

North Perrott Fruit Farm's principal crops are apples & pears for sale to supermarkets, all grown on land that has been in the family since the mid 18th century. Other crops include cider apples for the Shepton Cider Mill, fodder crops for neighbouring dairy farmers and there is a small solar park on land not suitable for growing apples. The first commercial orchards were planted by Jonathan's grandfather in 1930 and in 1950 he consolidated some of his estate to build an extensive storage and packing facility on the farm. Britain joining the EEC in 1973 was generally bad news for English fruit growers and particularly bad for Jonathan's father, as the stores and grader were all needing replacement and modernisation. The sensible option was to join a co-operative but being in Somerset, the farm was rather out on a limb compared with other counties more closely associated with growing dessert fruit. He chose to join Wye Fruit Ltd in 1975, not as the closest co-operative but as what he felt was best organised and with the best leadership for the future. Looking back, it was probably the best decision he ever made and is the sole reason the farm is still growing dessert fruit today. Much has changed in the last 88 years but growing apples and pears is still the main focus and with a farm shop established in 1970, we are very much a traditional family business.

In the last ten years the variety profile has changed away from traditional varieties such as Cox's Orange Pippin, Egremont Russet and Bramley in favour of Gala, Junami and Early Windsor with Conference as the major pear variety. Apples that don't make the stringent quality for class one are pressed on the farm and made into 30 apple juices, all from named varieties. Apple juice is sold in the farm shop and via wholesale distribution, all over the South West and the now redundant 1950's farm buildings are mostly let as light industrial units.

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