Cider


It is now known that the Malus silvestris (apple tree) grew wild in Britain around 4000BC, and archaeologists working on the Windmill Hill site in Wiltshire, have discovered evidence which indicates that its fruit were eaten as food, but these would have been wild fruits, as no archaeological evidence to support any deliberate attempt to cultivate the trees this early has so far been discovered. In fact the first evidence found for deliberate cultivation dates from the period of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, when, after army veterans were offered settlements of land on which to grow fruits, probably as an inducement to stay, orchards spread across the country. In Europe, cider making was already well established by the beginning of the 9th century, and the Normans, who invaded England in 1066, had a strong tradition of apple growing and cider making. After the Conquest they would have been responsible for a marked change in the practice of apple growing in England, introducing a number of new varieties of apple, the first recorded of which were the Pearmain, which was particularly valued for cider making, and the Costard, which although now no longer grown, is preserved in the word costermonger, who was originally a seller of Costard apples.

By the early 13th Century, the production of cider in England had grown to become an important industry, with records confirming many Monasteries of that period regularly sold cider to the public. They also show that labourers in some monastic orchards in medieval England received a daily allowance of cider as part of their wages. Cider has long been regarded as the traditional drink of Devon, and records confirm it has been made here since has at least the 13th Century. In the year 1285-6 the bailiff's account for the Exminster manor of the Earl of Devon shows cider making of sufficient scale as to generate a regular source of revenue.

The Black Death, and the Wars of the Roses in the late Middle Ages, resulted in a sharp decline in fruit cultivation in England, but in 1553, this trend was reversed when Henry VIII instigated a vigorous program to reverse this decline, importing large quantities of apple trees from France, and throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, large numbers of new orchards were planted, with the bulk of these being used for cider making. John Hooker, the Exeter historian, writing around 1600, refers to the abundance of fruit in Devon and the careful management of orchards and apple gardens. Greater care was also taken in the 17th Century; both with regard to the varieties of apple planted, and to the quality of the cider made, which clearly did not match the quality of the product made in Normandy where they used specially selected fruits. The Foxwhelp, which appeared in the mid 17th Century, soon became popular and was used in the finest ciders.

In Devon to the production of cider seems to have been further increased at this time if the statement of Westcote in his View of Devonshire, written in 1630, can be relied on. He relates that "of late years there had been an enlargement of Devon orchards", particularly for the making of cider which he goes on to describe as being "a drink both pleasant and healthy, much desired of seamen for long southern voyages as more fit to make beverage than beer, and much cheaper and easier to be had than wine." Not all agreed on the quality of the cider produced around this period, the author D Marshall, in his book, "The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire" published in 1796, laments the poor quality of much of the cider then produced, saying "A palate accustomed to sweet cider would judge the rough cider of the farm houses to be a mixture of vinegar and water, with a portion of dissolved alum to give it a roughness." This may in some part be partly due to a decline in the quality of the fruit crop because of canker and also because of poor orchard management.











Recipes:

Literature:

It is not until the medieval period (circa 1000 AD to 1500 AD) that documentary records refer to orchards and even then, there are very few. The national Access to Archives (A2A) website lists documents from County Record Offices across England. A2A is a selection of documents, not the totality, and the catalogue depends on what the individual cataloguers considered important, so if they didn't catalogue the word orchard or cider it will not appear. Nevertheless A2A contains a large and representative sample of English documents. The National Archives (TNA) has a more comprehensive catalogue (over 10 million entries) of documents that have become part of the national collection. The two catalogues together therefore gives a big sample of documents, but certainly not the totality.

It maybe that in the medieval period cider was called wine by some because searching the two databases for cider reveals surprisingly few references before 1450, so few in fact they are worth listing (plus a few brought to my attention by James Crowden from other sources)


  • Staffs, 1200, a house called Pressurhus with outbuildings including a cider press (molendina ad poma) (    D948/3/80 Reproduced Courtesy of Staffordshire Record Office)


  • Hampshire, 1270, a quitclaim which included 1 tun of cider and a quarter of corn per annum with use of lands for one life time


  • 1275 Sale of cider Battle Abbey, Sussex    [1]


  • 1275 Cider made in Yorkshire    [2]


  • Warwickshire, 1276, 20s for payment for cider at Wootton Wawen,


  • 1291, cisera in Shaftesbury Abbey accounts (Dorset VCH)


  • 1297; church's tithes of corn and cider for the rector of Combe in Tynhide Devon (C241/32/283)


  • 1301, Shapwick, Somset, cider produced on the demesne (VCH, Somerset, Vol 8).


  • 1305, Westonzoyland, Somset, 35 qtrs of cider apples (VCH, Somerset Vol 8).


  • 1313 Meare Abbey Somerset, garden produced apples for cider (VCH Somerset Vol 9).


  • 1340, tithes of cider in parish of Beaminster (Dorset VCH)


  • Cornwall, 1341, purchase of cider in a list of victuals bought


  • Sussex, 1349, expenses for buying and carriage of cider (cisere) to Shoreham, (TNA)


  • Devon, 1358, sale of cider at Sampford Peverell


  • Devon, 1383, reference to cider (sicer), collecting apples in a garden, carrying to presser, hiring a presser to make two casks of cider, milling apples and carrying home two casks of cider.


  • Devon, 1451, reference to cider at Kingskerswell Manor


  • Ed IV (1461-1483); “A vessel named the Mavye of Reyle, brought into Poole as part of its cargo 1 pipe of ‘sidre’ valued at 3s 4d and Stephen Cressyn, a foreigner, paid thereon 1/2d in customs duty and 2d in subsidy.” (VCH Dorset)


  • Gloucestershire, 1475 to 1485, reference to cider mill at Rodley (TNA)

The 1349 reference is an instruction to Roger Daber, Reeve of Surrey and Sussex, to take to Shoreham, 52 barrels and 1 pip of cider, which is to be collected from the surrounding area. From Shoreham it must be hauled to the docks, loaded on boats and taken to Calais. The cost of the cider was £34 6s 8d, with each barrel costing13s 4d[3]. The cost of bringing it to Shoreham was 47s 2d, of keeping it in store in Shoreham from 1 Feb 1349 to 1 April 1st (59 days) 34s 7d, taking it by boat to Calais 115s 11d plus two recorders at port for 15days at 6d per day. The whole cost was £44 19s 4d.

51 barrels (dol) 1 pip (2 barrels = 1 pipe) of cider (cisere); TNA document of 1349

These references show cider was made and sold in England in the medieval period, and transported for unlike beer it could be kept.. The price was between 2.5d – 4d a gallon, cheap in comparison to wages, which were about 1d to 4d a day at this time. There are many more references to beer than cider however (74 compared to only 2 for cider in TNA), partly because beer was regulated by the state and the manor, but this in itself shows how much more important it was than cider. Why was cider less important than beer? Was it a matter of taste, of economics, regulation or technology. Price (as today) may have had something to do with it, beer is cheaper to make and this was reflected in the medieval price, about 0.75d to 1.5d a gallon depending on quality and area, while cider was slightly more..

Here is an explanation from Jim Franklin, orcharder in the Teme Valley:

“Before 1900, cider was so important, so important through the Teme valley, in Devon, in Somerset, is was a complete way of life. It was paid as wages, it was drunk because the water was so foul and it was used for medicinal purposes. It was taken on ships to stop scurvy, I mean it was a complete product in its own right. Previously to, I suppose, to the 1200s there’s reasonable records that they called it wine, it wasn’t called cider and that’s probably where the origin came, cider went one way and wine went another way but I cannot see really what’s the difference, between an apple being made into wine or an apple being made into cider, it’s just that it picked up this name and I don’t know exactly what the origins of this name is but I think it’s supposed to mean “strong drink” but maybe it was because it was so plentiful that it was quite a dangerous product. And it was, unless it was used properly, a lot of people were drunk for most of their life, which is probably the best way to go through life anyway.”

The first reference to cider in Herefordshire I have found dates to 1400. It comes from a Court Roll for Holme Lacy held by Hereford Record Office (AF72/10). In it Gyllam Fiensley was unjustly accused (according to the court who fined his accusers) of entering the house of Agathe Fulfodys and taking her bread and drinking her cider (spelt 'sizeram'). It suggests cider was common fare of the medieval peasant in Herefordshire.

It may be that cider didn't compete well with beer, though the trees are easier to grow than barley, crushing the apples, without the investment of cider mills and presses probably took more work. More could go wrong with it than beer and its harder on the stomach if drunk in quantities. Moreover beer was taxed and regulated by the lord, so was probably more acceptable to the authorities.

Medieval References to Orchards Top of Page

There are many more medieval (i.e. before 1500 AD) references to orchards in the A2A (262 records) and TNA (35 records) databases than for cider. Some of these may have been for plums or cherries, only occasionally apple or pear orchards are mentioned specifically[4]

The documents reveal that orchards are found all over the country. There are more 15th century references than 14th and more 14th century than 13th, but this may of course only mean there were more documents not more orchards. From the 16th century onwards however there are a huge number of references to orchards. It seems likely that this is a reflection of the true situation, i.e. there were more orchards not just more records, perhaps because cider was becoming popular.

Orchards were called pomerium or occasionally orto. It is possible that some medieval ‘gardens’ were actually orchards, there are for example one or two references to ‘a garden called orchard’[5], and 'fruit from the garden' but there are many more references to ‘a garden and orchard’[6], showing that there was a distinction.

Orchards are often associated with monasteries. There are several 13th century references to the Canterbury Priory’s orchard, another to Kyrkested’s, a 1427 reference to Dunster Priory’s orchard, a 1239 reference to an orchard let from the abbot of the convent of Coventry, a 1405 and 1429 reference to the orchard of the Priory and convent of St Oswalds at Wotton, Gloucester, another to the Priory of St James, Bristol, and another1203 orchard reference to Stowe Priory in Staffs.

Many medieval orchards are recorded as part of burgage plots within towns, such as Stivichal, Bridgenorth, Chester, Torpurley (Cheshire), Bristol, Castor, Arksey, Tavistock and others. There are several references to orchards belonging to castles (e.g. ‘Lythirpul’ 1310 and 1368) and halls and manors (e.g. Baddersley Clinton 1434). The death of a landlord often led to an Inquisition Post Mortem which included a list of what belonged to the manor. A published study of IPM documents shows that most manors had gardens, that the largest and most profitable yielded £5 per annum, but the vast majority were worth less than 10 shillings and some yielded no profit at all. Few orchards as oppose to gardens are recorded in IPMs and these are mostly south of a line from the Wash to the Severn, though it may mean that officials simply didn't record them in the north. Gardens and orchards were probably mainly used to supply the lord's dinner table, not for profit17. It is possible that orchards were considered normal accoutrements to a manor, an Inquisition Post Mortem of 1303 specifically mentions that the capital messuage of the manor of Hunmanby, East Yorkshire has no dovecote, orchard or herbarium. Moreover several ‘chief’ messuages have orchards (e.g. 1250 Stivichal). Orchards also belonged to more ordinary holdings though, they formed part of leased tenements along with the arable, meadow and pasture e.g. a 1279 quit claim for one messuage with an orchard standing on it at Beltinge in Godmersham. Some were apparently parts of smaller properties, e.g. in 1317 at Little Addington, Northants a gift included one virgate[7] with a hovel and an orchard.

Few orchards are named[8], they are mostly described in the typical medieval way in relation to other peoples land, e.g. ‘the orchard between those of Thomas de Streta and Gunild Taillur … extending as far as the other Forinsec orchards’ (1250, Totnes), or ‘ … between the land of Roger le Parker and the orchard of the said Thomas’ (1413 Nantwich).

The earliest references to orchards are 12th and early 13th century, but there may well be earlier references not listed, documents get scarcer the further back you go. A 12th century grant records land from a demesne ‘as far back as Roberts Orchard’ in Northants. An 1180 or 1220 (not clear) mentions a house with orchard and garden in Gloucester; a 1200 document mentions an orchard at Hole of Parke, Devon near a hollow way, a 1203 document refers to the Priory’s orchard at Stowe in Staffs, a 1216 document mentions manor of Marneys Orchard in Cornwall. There are a few other early 13th century documents.

None of the documents mention the size but this implies they were small, for they would have been mentioned separately if they were significant. One orchard is called ‘The Big Orchard (Huntingfield, Lincs, 14th – 16th). There are occasional references to new orchards, such as in 1359 Bagots Bromley, ‘and a house built there with orchard and garden in Le Thornyhall enclosed by hedges and ditches’; and in 1332 in Lincs ‘from the way under the new orchard … also a selion lying under the old orchard’.

Most of the documents don’t describe the orchard, but there are snippets of information. In 1385 an accounting document relating to Harpford Manor, Devon includes the cost of hiring men for hedging and cutting down and uprooting thorns, to hedge fields and the orchard. In Okeover, Derby a late 13th century document lists an orchard and hedge. A 1286 document of a controversy involving the abbot of Kyrkested orders Gerard le Breton to build a stone wall in the dyke between the orchard and grange of the abbot and his own tofts. A 1405 document records the sale of all trees and underwood in the orchard and grove of the manor of Foscote, Northants (TNA). A 1322 document of West Yorkshire states ‘the orchard between the garden of TT and Matilda’s messuage on which orchard all Matilda’s sheep run’. A 1476 record relating to an orchard in Chudleigh, Devon mentions the water courses and springs in Tempell Orchard. A 1227 reference to St Gregory’s Priory in Canterbury also says it has a watercourse through it. This orchard must bring a basket of fruit to the Cathedral refectory each year showing it was an orchard of dessert fruit. A 1376 document relating to Mayfield, East Sussex states that if John Turner builds on his land or makes an orchard he must give a heriot (payment on entry to property) to the lord of the manor.

There are only seven orchard references before 1500 for Herefordshire. The earliest by far is a 1292 plea recorded at Hereford in the Eyre Rolls against a conviction for cutting down apple trees19. The next dates to 1413 when the lord of Pencombe Court granted Walter Wilke and his wife a messuage 30a of land, Pole Orchard, Knakkers Croft and le Brodecroft in Pencombe for their lives for a yearly rent of 10s[9]. There was an influential family called Orchard in Hereford recorded in documents in 1403 (TNA) and 1435 when a John Orchard was a witness at Lower Bullingham. Kings Orchard (Hereford) was recorded as a place name by 1413. An Inquisition Post Mortem of Eton Tregoz between Hereford and Ross dated to 1420 mentions an orchard in the assets of the lord. A rent roll for Dorstone dated 1428 lists a perry orchard and a field called Castle Orchard showing that pears were grown and used for perry at this late medieval date18. A deed dated 1 December 1445 in the Hill Court Estate papers of the Trafford family lists a messuage and orchard adjoining next Walfeldstyle being12d rent.

The earliest record for cider I have found yet for Herefordshire is the 1400 Holme Lacy one mentioned above followed by TNA (C115-96-6933-35) 1445-1465 bailiff accounts for Eton Tregoz manor that refers to pressed fruit, "5s [received] from pressed fruit of the garden of the manor there to be sold this year". Presumably pressed fruit implies cider or perry.

We can assume from the above that orchards were known and reasonably common in England, including Herefordshire, in the medieval period, particularly in monasteries, manor houses, towns and castles. But most were for dessert fruit not cider. They were small, often hedged or fenced in, to keep animals in or out, often placed near the house. Some at least had sheep on them. There must have been some cider orchards, scattered across England with, possibly, more in Devon, but they were not common.

In 1588 Julian de Paulmier published his treatise on cider in Caen, France. This was one of the first books on how to grow apples, store and mill them and make and keep cider. It reads (in the translation by Harold Bulmer) surprisingly modern and Paulmier like most later writers, praises the health giving qualities of cider. His book shows orchards and cider were well established in France in the 16th century.

In England too, from the late 16th century onwards orchards appear very regularly in the holdings of small and large farmers alike. It seems likely these were cider orchards and they were there to produce cider both for drinking on the farm and selling out of county. By the mid 17th century the Herefordian John Beale wrote:

“Very few of our cottagers, yea, very few of our wealthiest yeomen, drink anything else (but cider) in the family save on very special festivals”[10]

Manor records suggest that orchards were small, one to two acres, and many people had them. Most of the cider apples grown were different to those of today. They would have been small, and high in tannin and like today very varied, some types restricted to just one or two orchards.

The extract above is typical. It dates to the late 16th century from Herefordshire. Margaret Griffiths a widow holds one 'free' messuage (she is a free tenant as opposed to a customary tenant, therefore of slightly higher status and usually paying a lower rent) with an orchard (pomar) and pays 23s in rent. She rents for one year to Thomas Thacter one and a half acres, which is included in the rent.


Sources:

Witheridge Historical Archive: Apples and Cider - A Topographical Dictionary of Englad, Samuel Lewis, Updated 3/7/2006: http://www.witheridge-historical-archive.com/apples.htm

The Beginning of Orchards by Rebecca Roseff, 2007: http://www.archiveofciderpomology.co.uk/Origins_of_cider.htm#Medieval_References_to_Cider

The Science of Cidermaking: Part 2: Fruit and Cultivation: http://www.cider.org.uk/frameset.htm