Do you have apple trees in your garden or allotment? Could you help with the search for the Beauty of Bitterne? Learn about apple varieties!

Refreshments will be served from 6pm and the talk will commence at 6:30pm and finish at 7:15pm to allow for questions at the end.

Mac Ince of the Sholing Valleys Study Centre will explore local Sotonians and their horticultural pursuits; the story of the Beauty of Bitterne; the pomological treasures discovered within the University’s Archives and Special Collections and the Sholing Valleys Apple Day.

Find out how the Apple Day started at Sholing Valleys, which led to a relationship with Chris Bird of Sparsholt College, and a joint hunt for the Beauty of Bitterne (a super rare local apple variety)! What did they uncover in the pomological treasures within the University of Southampton’s Archives and Special Collections? Do you have apple trees in your garden or allotment? Could you help them on their search? The talk will explore apple varieties connected with Southampton and the local region. We will discover local Sotonians and their horticultural pursuits.

You will learn about the horticultural variety that is in danger of being lost, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape and ecology.

The printed collections at the University of Southampton include seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth-century guides to the development and successful propagation of fruit plants, instructions on cider making (including recommendations for the best apple varieties to use) and recipes for culinary delights such as apple tansy. You will learn how to properly conduct an apple wassail, eighteenth-century style!

There will be an opportunity to learn about the work of the Sholing Valleys Study Centre, including their annual Apple Day, encouraging local people to connect with the landscape and each other through apple pressing.

The department will also be hosting Behind Closed Doors: Exploring Archives and Special Collections and the Earth, Sea, Sky Exhibition for Heritage Open Day on the same day and on Tuesday 15th September. Email archives@soton.ac.uk for more information.

Description supplied by the event organiser.