The East Anglian counties and Lincolnshire offer ideal climatic and soil conditions for growing fruit. Initially orchard produce was just sold locally but with the arrival of the railways and improved road transport in the nineteenth century fruit growers had easier access to London and to new markets in the Midlands, North and further afield. As a result, during this period orchards increased in number and size across the region.
The region also became the home to many tree nurseries, who collectively introduced hundreds of new orchard fruit varieties to the UK market. We are therefore very generously provided-for here in eastern England when it comes to our locally raised varieties. Some of the more notable nurseries included Laxton’s Bros. of Bedford, Rivers Nursery of Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire, and Seabrook’s Nursery at Boreham, Essex.
Every orchard fruit variety has its own history, which tells us where it was bred or discovered, allowing us to pinpoint where it came from, and in many cases who raised or discovered it too.
Since 2003 EEAOP has recovered thirty fruit varieties once considered ‘lost’, or which had not been well recorded in the past, and today the search for many more named local varieties from the past goes on.
Select a county below and discover its unique varieties both lost and found, find growers and producers, local community orchards and orchards to visit.
