James Crowden - Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life

James Crowden is an author and poet living in Somerset, England. For twenty years James worked as a shepherd, sheep shearer, cider maker and forester. He is the author of several collections of poetry and nonfiction, including Ciderland (2008), which won the Andr Simon Food and Drink Award.

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W riting Cider Country has been yet another wonderful voyage into the magical world of cider and cider apples where orchards and cider farms are constant companions. Research is always interesting, and I am very grateful to those who gave freely of their time and expertise, in particular Andrew Lea and Liz Copas both of whom worked at Long Ashton. Then Elizabeth Pimblett, the Director of the Museum of Cider in Hereford, and Sally Mansell the archivist. Thanks also to all the librarians and archivists at the Royal Society who, back in 2008, let me see the original material from John Evelyns Sylva and Pomona from the 1660s.

Thanks to all the cider makers: Julian and Matilda Temperley, Burrow Hill and Somerset Cider Brandy Company; Kingsbury Episcopi; Alex Hill of Vigo and Bollhayes Cider, Clayhidon Tom Oliver of Ocle Pychard; James Marsden of Greggs Pitt; Much Marcle, Mike and Albert Johnson of Ross on Wye Cider, Peterstow; Paul Stephens of Newton Court Cider, Leominster; Norman and Ann Stanier, Dragon Orchard, Putley; Nick Poole of West Milton Cider, Powerstock; Joe Heley of Secret Orchard, Nettlecombe; Polly and Matt Hilton of Find and Foster, Huxham Barns; Vernon Shutler of Countryman Cider Felldownhead, Milton Abbot; George Perry of Perrys Cider, Dowlish Wake; Louisa Sheppy of Sheppys Cider, Bradford on Tone. And a very wide range of other cidery contacts: John Cluett, ex-truck driver and squeezebox player from Shaftesbury. Sue Clifford and Angela King, old Common Ground, also from Shaftesbury. Anthony Gibson of Langport. Historian and classicist Bijan Omrani of Shute and Eddie Smith at Westminster School. Richard Watkins of Barrington for supplying me with old cider books. Michael Pidd the Director at the Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield for permission to use the Samuel Hartlib material. Archaeologists Peter Addyman in York and Tom Greeves of Tavistock; Sigrun Appleby/Hlmsteinsdttir from Reykjavk and Smi Smundur Gumundsson from Hella in Iceland; Oake Parish Council for details about Heathfield Rectory and early days of Taunton Cider. Julia Coutanche of Jersey Heritage Trust in St Helier for all her help over the years investigating Jersey Cider. Prof Jo Story of University of Leicester for referencing details of Charlemagnes edicts in Capitulare de Villis.

I am also grateful to The Museum of Cornish Life, Helston to be able to use the photographs of cider making in the Lizard. And to Cornish pomologists James Evans and Mary Martin, Chris Groves from National Trust, Robert Dunning, Somerset County Historian, Tom Jaine, Allaleigh and Prospect Books and Sara Hudston for the tip-off about Nart Sagas. Also, my excellent agent Jessica Woollard of David Higham who definitely likes good cider and my eagle-eyed editor Grace Pengelly at HarperCollins who keeps me up to scratch. And finally, Carla my wife for helping sample so many excellent ciders and perries along the way.

Cider: The Forgotten Miracle

Ciderland

The Frozen River

Atherton, Ian, Ambition and Failure in Stuart England, The career of John First Viscount Scudamore, Manchester University Press, 1999

Austen, Ralph, A Treatise of Fruit Trees, with A Spiritual use of an Orchard. Henry Hall, Oxford, 1657

Baring Gould, Sabine, A Book of Devon, Methuen, 1899

Barty-King, Hugh, A tradition of English Wine Making, Oxford Illustrated Press, 1977

Beale, John Herefordshire Orchards, a Pattern for all England, written inan Epistolary Address to Samuel Hartlib, Esq. London. 1656; reprinted in Dublin 1724.

Bellamy, D, Nature Delineated Vol 1 and 2 London 1739

Bellamy, Liz, The Language of Fruit, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019

Brown, Pete, The Apple Orchard, Particular Books, 2016

Browning, Frank, Apples, North Point Press, New York 1998

Cell, Gillian T, Newfoundland Discovered, English Attempts at Colonisation 1610-1630, The Hakluyt Society, London, 1982

Chapman, Jim The Cider Industry and the Glass Bottle, Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology Journal for 2012 pages 36-40

CIVC Comit Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne, Champagne, Epernay, 2007

Common Ground, Apple Games & Customs, Common Ground, 2005

Common Ground The Apple Source Book Common Ground, 1991

Common Ground, Orchards, A Guide to Local Conservation, Common Ground, 1989

Common Ground, The Common Ground Book of Orchards, 2000

Colarusso, John, Nart Sagas: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Circassians and Abkhazians Princeton University, 2016

Copas, Liz, A Somerset Pomona, Dovecote Press Wimborne, 2001

Copas, Liz, Cider Apples The New Pomona, 2013

Crowden, James, Cider: The Forgotten Miracle, Cyder Press 2, Somerton, 1999

Crowden, James, Ciderland, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2008

Crowden, James Dorset Man, Agre Books Dorset, 2005

Crowden James, Dorset Women, Agre Books, Dorset, 2006

Crowe, William, Lewesdon Hill, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1788, reprinted Flagon Press, 2007

Cunliffe, Barry, The Scythians, OUP, 2019

Customs and Excise, HM, Cider and Wine Production Notice 162, 2002

Defoe, Daniel, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-1727

Digby, Sir Kenelm, The Closet of the eminently learned Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, London 1669 reprinted Prospect Books, 1997

Di Palma, Vittoria, Drinking Cider in Paradise:science, improvement, and the politics of fruit trees, Chapter 10 of A Pleasing Sinne: Drink and Conviviality in Seventeenth-century England edited by Adam Smyth Cambridge, 2004

Dovaz, Michel, Lencyclopdie des vins de Champagne, Julliard, 1983

Elville, EM, English Table Glass, Country Life, 1951

Evelyn, John, Sylva with Pomona, and Aphorisms concerning CIDER Royal Society, 1664

E.T The Art & Mystery of Vintners and Wine Coopers, 1675

Fiennes, Celia, The Journeys of Celia Fiennes,