About

Museum orchards

In total, Hereford Cider Museum Trust owns nearly 125 acres of land in Breinton and Yarpole in Herefordshire, because of the generosity of members of the Bulmer family. This includes some 80 acres of orchards in Breinton, just west of Hereford. They are currently not open to the public, but we are developing a programme of events around their use in the future.

Why are orchards in the care of a museum?

The Museum manages land as part of its purpose to advance education for the public benefit in the history of the cider and perry industry. Owning and managing orchards allows the Museum to demonstrate the process of cidermaking from fruit growing through to consumption and to showcase the multiple additional values that orchards provide.

John Teiser, the Museum’s volunteer Conservator of Fruit, oversees work to collect, propagate and research the varieties of cider apples in the orchards. Through FruitID, leaf samples from all but 2 of the current 179 apple varieties have been DNA fingerprinted by Niab East Malling to ensure the validity of the Museum’s fruit collection.

Photos © E.Pimblett

Read more about our Orchards in The Herefordshire Naturalist Download

Orchard names

The Pippin Orchards

In 2020 the Gillian Bulmer Charitable Trust (known as the Pippin Trust) wound up and transferred to the Museum of Cider some newly planted orchards (Pippin North and Pippin South) containing a carefully conserved collection of mainly cider apple varieties, three trees of each. There is also a small old orchard (Pippin Old) which is a traditional farmhouse orchard containing a range of fruits.

Becket’s Orchard

In 2021 Gillian’s cousin, Susan Bulmer, gifted the Museum of Cider Beckets Orchard, a large, very old, bush orchard with a small area of woodland (Becket’s Wood) planted where the land had proved too wet for fruit trees to thrive.

17 Acre and Cottage Orchards

In 2022 the Museum of Cider acquired two orchards, Cottage Orchard and 17 Acre Orchard, from a Bulmer family trust. These traditional orchards connect Becket’s to the south with the Pippin orchards to the north. Extensive replanting of dead trees has been required in these orchards, leaving standing deadwood where possible to encourage biodiversity.

Phillip’s Orchard, Cow Meadow and Phillip’s New Meadow

On the death of former Museum Trustee Gillian Bulmer in 2021, the Museum received Phillips Orchard, its most productive orchard. The organic apples harvested here go to make Westons Cider. The Museum also received neighbouring meadows in Lower Breinton with moderately species-rich grassland. To maintain some consistency with old tithe maps, these fields were given the names Cow Meadow and Phillips New Meadow. Cow Meadow contains an old drover’s pond which has recently been restored.

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