Hunt for the
Shaugh Red
How a simple apple has sparked a blossoming community project
S
haugh Prior community orchard, now growing in the grounds of the village hall, was initially the brainchild of local resident Peter Burkill. Though only tiny, it’s playing an important role in the work to preserve Peter Burkhill traditional local apple varieties and enhancing a sense of community and ownership in the village. Peter said: ‘Some five years ago I read a report that Bickleigh Vale - adjacent to Shaugh Prior - was, in the early 1800s, burgeoning in apple orchards.
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‘These orchards were for cider, with the “Shaugh Red” apple being the main cultivar. This apple was not one I’d heard of and it set me thinking that here was an apple that was once part of our local heritage.’ Peter wanted to find out more about the Shaugh Red, specifically was it still grown and if so, was it used for cider making? He contacted local people, particularly farmers, and read widely on local apples and orchards. ‘Both approaches drew a blank,’ he said. ‘Farmers and land owners still have orchards varying in size from a tree or two to many trees, but outside the commercial orchards, no-one know what apple cultivars they were.’ Around the same time, Shaugh Prior Village Hall committee agreed that as apples were part of the area’s heritage, they should be celebrated and in 2017 the decision was taken to turn some rough land next to the hall into an orchard. Around half a dozen cultivars were chosen for the orchard by Peter Davies, the local National Trust ranger and Shaugh Prior’s tree warden. He said he had been delighted to get involved in the orchard project and had sourced six different varieties of apples, mainly traditional Tamar Valley species, which would be able to thrive in the mild, damp environment on the edge of the moor. The trees planted were Devonshire Buckland, Longkeeper, Lucombe’s Pine, Plympton Pippin, Star of Devon and Mrs Bull’s. He explained that at the moment, the trees look as though they have been very widely spaced, but this was intentional, to give the root systems the opportunity to spread. ‘It’s only a small orchard but it will still have wildlife value, it will provide a home for lichens, and some species which are quite specific to certain orchards - and it also
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