Red Longdon is thought to have originated in the Forest of Dean in the Wye Valley where it was propagated by local farmers as early as the 1400s. The fruit is turbinate or pyriform, the skin is green or yellowish green with a strong red or red-orange flush spreading from the eye, with russet around the stem and more around the eye spreading to the cheeks. Otherwise inedible, fruit was pressed for its juice and transformed into an alcoholic beverage, records of which exist since the early 1500s mentioned in John Gerard’s ‘The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes’ (sic) published in 1597.
We first learned of this variety from our friend Drew Henry (dec.) co-founder of Henry of Harcourt Cidery. We have named it Henry's Red Longdon both in memory of Drew and to acknowledge his care to always say of it that, while he had checked it thoroughly in Australia and the UK, there was no index tree in existance against which comparisons could be made and measured including by DNA testing.
Reference accessed 4/6/21
Indicative image accessed 4/6/21
