An attempt to trace the origins
of Scotch Bridget apple
For
more than 200 years Scotch Bridget has been grown extensively in the NW of
England and in parts of the West Midlands, but is seen infrequently east of the
Pennines. It is a dual- purpose, triploid apple, “the best for making fruit
mincemeat” and it thrives in high rainfall areas of Lancashire and Cumbria.
My good friend and NFG/SLOG
colleague Hilary Wilson has in her possession some fascinating information provided by Lyth
Valley historian Desmond Holmes about its early presence in the Furness
district of Lancashire and in Westmorland. In 1781 “Britchet” apple is
mentioned in an Account Book of a Daniel Dickinson, tenant farmer from the
Witherslack area, a few miles from Grange- over-Sands. At that time Daniel had
an established orchard with fourteen other apple varieties recorded. Fruit was
sold at Kendal market and in 1780, 3 panniers of apples fetched 5 shillings.
One “Brichart” apple was planted at a “New Orchard at Grange” on the 11th
of January 1812 and on March 13th, 1815, at Grange- over- Sands,four
“Bricharts” were “planted on the common near widow Postlethwaite’s (!).” Twelve
other apple varieties were also planted. Hilary has carried out much work in
this area over the years and says that even today, the apple is always referred
to as “Bridget” rather than Scotch Bridget.
Mr Sowman, horticultural superintendent for Lancashire from
1911, mentioned Scotch Bridget in his talk on apples in Preston in 1923. He
surmised that the apple “dated back probably 100 years and it would be of
interest to find out how the Scotch and Irish names came to be combined in this
description”. He was very dismissive of the qualities of Scotch Bridget
compared with Proctor’s Seedling, concluding that the former “was not so
vigorous in growth, was more wasteful in peeling and cankered badly!”
PRESTON GUARDIAN- DECEMBER 1917
In the local archives, I came across an
interesting article written by the Preston Guardian gardening correspondent in
1913. He claimed that Scotch Bridget was made known by the late Mr Troughton of
Walton-le- Dale, Preston “and is now catalogued by nurserymen”. (The Troughtons
were involved in the local nursery trade prior to the 1860’s until the 1920’s
–they raised apple varieties Gold Medal c.1882 and possibly Troughtons in 1842).The
article continues… “I have never heard who the raiser was. It was not raised in
Scotland- at any rate I never saw the name in any collection grown there. Any
schoolboy raised in Preston will recognise Scotch Bridget when he sees it….!”
I have
discovered two c19 N.W. catalogues which include Scotch Bridget. The apple was
offered by J & J Gaitskell of Holmrook, near Whitehaven and by The
Knowefield Nurseries of Little & Ballantyne , Carlisle in their 1874 lists. 140 apple varieties appear in the
Carlisle catalogue and their qualities described, with the exception of only
one or two varieties, including Scotch Bridget. Does this imply that it was a
recent acquisition?
There may well
be revealing historic documentation about the presence of Scotch Bridget in Scotland.
Dr Hogg (The Fruit Manual, 1875) does not mention a Scottish link, describing
the fruit as “an excellent culinary apple, much grown in the neighbourhood of
Lancaster”. However, Taylor (The Apples
of England, 1948) writes that the variety is “a well-known and much appreciated
cooking apple in Scotland and the North of England”. In his “Apples in
Scotland” booklet (2001), John Butterworth mentions its presence at several
Scottish locations- however the majority of plantings appear to be recent ones.
John lists the places of origin of many old Scottish apple varieties e.g. Carse of Gowrie and Clydesdale, but the entry
for Scotch Bridget is “Scotland”, age unknown. The late Forbes W. Robertson,
distinguished authority on garden history in Scotland, wrote detailed, informative
accounts about fruit growing. In an article entitled “A History of Apples in
Scottish Orchards” he lists hundreds of varieties of apples grown in the Carse
of Gowrie (early c19), in Clydesdale (1819), at the Experimental Garden of the
Caledonian Horticultural Society (1840’s) and other Scottish locations.
There is no record of Scotch Bridget. However our writer did receive
information from the Scottish National Trust, namely that Scotch Bridget was in
a list of Scottish apples “recorded in the c19 or earlier…still commercially
available”. Further investigation is needed here!
A recent visit
to the Manchester Museum herbarium with ecologist Sam Bolton proved to be a
rewarding experience. Many boxes of papers, donated in 1910 by the widow of Leo
Grindon, eminent Victorian botanist, have yet to be fully catalogued, but Sam
had been informed that amongst a huge amount of written material, there were
documents relating to fruit growing. I noted a letter written to Leo Grindon on
the 21st of April 1885 from the Mosley Hotel, Manchester, in which
the correspondent listed the qualities and location of many apples grown in the
N.W. For instance “Nelson’s Glory has been grown over 23oz within four miles of
the Manchester Exchange; Mere de Menage is grown very much about Liverpool and Scotch
Bridget is a fine and free fruiting apple, raised near Preston."
In 1894, a “Lancashire”
Scotch Bridget was exhibited from Preston and until recently the variety was
present in the Brogdale collection. It is listed in The Book of Apples (1993)
and Dr Joan Morgan writes that it is impossible to know whether it is the same
as Scotch Bridget, as at accession, no descriptions were given. However the
Lancashire version was observed to ripen later than its counterpart and to have
longer keeping qualities. (M. Crawford, Directory of Apple Cultivars, 1994).
At the 1883
National Apple Congress held in Chiswick, Scotch Bridget apples were exhibited
from Lancashire and Westmorland, but apparently not from Scotland.
Intriguingly, there appear to be two sorts! It was observed that “good examples
of the old Scotch Bridget were shown, under the name of White Calville.”
According to Lytham exhibitor Mr Maries, his White Calville trees were very old
and grafted onto crab rootstock. In the accompanying list of “Varieties of
Apples suited to Lancashire” selected by Mr Maries and Mr Hathaway of Ormskirk, Scotch Bridget (White Calville) and
a “Livesey’s Scotch Bridget” appear together!
The Livesey family had a nursery in Leyland during the c19 and like the aforementioned
Troughton establishment raised new varieties of fruit; Livesey’s Codlin and
Livesey’s Imperial apples originated from their Golden Hill location.
In conclusion,
at this stage attempts to discover the precise origin of Scotch Bridget apple have
been largely unsuccessful. I visited an old orchard near Poulton-le-Fylde a
number of years ago. The lady of the house informed me that her late father had
two Scotch Bridget trees in the garden and he always referred to one of them as
Lancashire Scotch Bridget. Unfortunately only one tree remained.
I did of course take grafting material!
