The search for a long-lost award-winning apple

A search is on to find an award-winning dessert apple that one producer fears has almost disappeared from the culinary landscape.

Mrs Wilmot's Pippin was grown in Derbyshire in the late 1800s and won a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) award of merit for its flavour in 1921.

The light red-skinned apple was cultivated by Mary Wilmot in Langley Mill, and producer Barry Lewis believes it would upset the apple cart if the local legacy was lost.

Lewis, who produces apples, chutney and cider from his orchard in Wessington, fears the apple could now become a lost variety and wants anyone who thinks they might have a tree bearing the fruit to contact him.

"It's one of only around half a dozen Derbyshire varieties, so it's really important that we try and preserve it.

"It's almost disappeared off the face of the Earth," Lewis said.

Mary Wilmot, who was married to masonry business owner William, grew the fruit in a small orchard beside Bailey Brook in Langley Mill.

She died in 1900, but years later her husband submitted the apple to the RHS Fruit and Vegetable Committee and requested the fruit be named after his late wife.

The judge described finding "a good crop of fine fruit" grown from a "very much overcrowded and poor grass orchard" in the October 1921 edition of the Gardeners' Chronicle.

"It was quite large and it's supposed to have this lovely flavour and nice acidity.

"It looked set to become a really big thing, but for whatever reason, it didn't become as big as hoped," Lewis said.

Within a couple of years, the orchard became the site of Langley Mill's bus depot and Mrs Wilmot's Pippin disappeared from the national records in 1946.

In 1992, Amber Valley Groundwork Trust worked to revive the apple and located a tree in a garden in Codnor.

Cuttings were taken and sent to Brogdale National Fruit Collection in Kent but they no longer have a sample.

"Our trees are repropagated about every 30 years, most recently in 2021," explained Gill Gardiner from the Brogdale Collections Charity.

"They are grown on dwarfing root stocks to keep them small, so we can fit them all in, and it is possible Mrs Wilmot's did not survive the process."

However, Lewis is confident the local propagating that took place as part of the project by Groundwork, means there is a Mrs Wilmot's Pippin apple tree somewhere in Amber Valley.

Langley Mill Primary School has submitted a sample of their apple tree that Lewis said he hoped would be a positive match.

The former leader of Derbyshire County Council said he was determined to preserve the apple - one of only a handful of varieties in Derbyshire.

"I would love to make some products from it and really ensure that it's got a future.

"If it's meant to be as flavourful as it was, according to the RHS, then it's going to be something quite special," he added.

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