The Elusive Hitchin Pippin Apple
Several years ago Michael Clark, Hon Warden of Tewin Orchard Nature Reserve, asked the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale for grafts of all the Hertfordshire apple cultivars to plant in the orchard at Tewin. The was part of the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trusts continuing propagation programme on the nature reserve.
Unfortunately, although they could provide nearly all the types from their collection, one of the Hertfordshire varieties, the Hitchin Pippin, was listed as ‘false’. This means that when the original two examples of each fruit variety came to their national collection, (mostly from the RHS Gardens at Wisley in 1970), the Hitchin variety was mixed up, lost or later identified as something else. No other source of graft material was known and it was thought that this old English apple variety had been lost for all time.
Unfortunately, although they could provide nearly all the types from their collection, one of the Hertfordshire varieties, the Hitchin Pippin, was listed as ‘false’. This means that when the original two examples of each fruit variety came to their national collection, (mostly from the RHS Gardens at Wisley in 1970), the Hitchin variety was mixed up, lost or later identified as something else. No other source of graft material was known and it was thought that this old English apple variety had been lost for all time.
Appeals in the local press in North Hertfordshire resulted in very helpful responses, but the gardens Michael Clark visited and the fruits he examined could not be confirmed as containing a Hitchin Pippin. It began to look as though this old established Hertfordshire dessert apple really had been allowed to disappear without trace.
Only one old tree in Hitchin seemed to answer the description of the Hitchin Pippin given in Taylor’s 1936 ‘Apples of England’, but there were no other trees to compare the fruit growing there with other specimens. The tree was in a garden on the south side of Hitchin town. Twice Brogdale had examples of the apples to measure and examine, but on both occasions they were uncertain of the identity. The variety called Queen was suggested, but there are many features which make this impossible. In appearance it is like Ellison’s Orange, but earlier, rather ‘dry’ in comparison, and without the faint aniseed flavour.
During one of our lectures on the work of the Herts. Orchard Group, Sheila and Michael Wadsworth of Hitchin reported that they thought that they may have a Hitchin Pippin tree. Michael Clark went to examine the fruit and he was at last able to contrast a similar dessert apple tree with the other from Hitchin. He found that fruit from both trees matched.
Since that first visit blossom colour, flowering time and leaf appearance as well as the fruit have been compared and found to be the same. There are always variations in the appearance of fruit, even across the same tree, but these two trees appear to be of the same origin and with features such as knobbled stems on fruit in many examples. Apples vary depending on the amount of light each side of the tree receives, the effects disease may have played on their development and the local soil factors.
An apple collected by a member of the Herts. Orchard Initiative team (at Oxhey, near Watford) is very similar, with an even shorter stem which was very knobbled, but this may just be another variation between trees and fruits. A third tree may therefore exist and it certainly shares the characteristics of the other Hitchin Pippins. The apple appeared to have already become scarce by the 1920’s and was described in the contemporary books as an ‘early King of the Pippins’.
Hertfordshire Orchard Initiative is keen to propagate the trees so they can be widely enjoyed again and not just confined to Hertfordshire. They do not appear to have been widely promoted, but the old nursery catalogues of Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, Thomas Laxton of Bedford and George Paul of Cheshunt may yield information as a result of future research. Their flavour and appearance makes them one of the best early eating apples and one day it is hoped to market them in large numbers.
Only one old tree in Hitchin seemed to answer the description of the Hitchin Pippin given in Taylor’s 1936 ‘Apples of England’, but there were no other trees to compare the fruit growing there with other specimens. The tree was in a garden on the south side of Hitchin town. Twice Brogdale had examples of the apples to measure and examine, but on both occasions they were uncertain of the identity. The variety called Queen was suggested, but there are many features which make this impossible. In appearance it is like Ellison’s Orange, but earlier, rather ‘dry’ in comparison, and without the faint aniseed flavour.
During one of our lectures on the work of the Herts. Orchard Group, Sheila and Michael Wadsworth of Hitchin reported that they thought that they may have a Hitchin Pippin tree. Michael Clark went to examine the fruit and he was at last able to contrast a similar dessert apple tree with the other from Hitchin. He found that fruit from both trees matched.
Since that first visit blossom colour, flowering time and leaf appearance as well as the fruit have been compared and found to be the same. There are always variations in the appearance of fruit, even across the same tree, but these two trees appear to be of the same origin and with features such as knobbled stems on fruit in many examples. Apples vary depending on the amount of light each side of the tree receives, the effects disease may have played on their development and the local soil factors.
An apple collected by a member of the Herts. Orchard Initiative team (at Oxhey, near Watford) is very similar, with an even shorter stem which was very knobbled, but this may just be another variation between trees and fruits. A third tree may therefore exist and it certainly shares the characteristics of the other Hitchin Pippins. The apple appeared to have already become scarce by the 1920’s and was described in the contemporary books as an ‘early King of the Pippins’.
Hertfordshire Orchard Initiative is keen to propagate the trees so they can be widely enjoyed again and not just confined to Hertfordshire. They do not appear to have been widely promoted, but the old nursery catalogues of Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, Thomas Laxton of Bedford and George Paul of Cheshunt may yield information as a result of future research. Their flavour and appearance makes them one of the best early eating apples and one day it is hoped to market them in large numbers.
