Apples galore! Searching for heritage varieties

Mac Ince is talking about Southampton's apple history at Hartley Library on Monday 14 September, from 18:00 to 19:30. He's with the Sholing Valleys Study Centre, and the whole thing is part of the city's Heritage Open Days.

The talk centres on the Beauty of Bitterne, a super-rare local apple variety. Ince traces the stories of Southampton people and their horticultural pursuits, and the Beauty of Bitterne is the thread that ties them together. Its story led the Study Centre into a partnership with Chris Bird of Sparsholt College, and the two went on a joint hunt for the tree. That search sits at the heart of the evening.

Ince also draws on the pomological treasures held in the University of Southampton's Archives and Special Collections. He'll be talking through seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth-century guides to fruit propagation and cider-making, and recipes like apple tansy. There's a practical side to it too: you'll learn how to conduct an apple wassail in the eighteenth-century style. The Sholing Valleys Study Centre runs an annual Apple Day that encourages people to connect with the landscape through apple pressing, so this fits right into that.

It's in the Library Conference Room at Hartley Library, University of Southampton, Highfield, SO17 1BJ — meet at the Library main reception. Refreshments are from 18:00, and the session runs until 19:30. Numbers are limited to 25 people.