NAILSEA
PEOPLE
Nailsea Apple Day
9th annual at Ring O'Bells public house
October 2019
A bumper crop of fruit and people gathered at the Ring O'Bells on Saturday, October 12, for the annual Nailsea Apple Day.
Transition Town Nailsea sponsored the event hosted by the St Mary’s Grove pub and supported by Nailsea Cider.
Apple days happen all over the UK and they are a great autumn festival that brings the community together to celebrate the apple harvest and sustainable living.
This year was Nailsea’s ninth Apple Day and it was a lovely family-orientated afternoon for the young and not-so-young - even the sun came out (even if it didn't dry up all the rain)!
Lots of people learned what their right arms were for when they tried their hand as pressing apples, tasting fresh apple juice and get to know more about the cider making process.
Children’s Hospice South West provided lots of the apples and manned a stall to tell about the work they do supporting children with life-limiting conditions and their families.
There was lots of different apple cakes on sale organised by TTN and Simply Green shopkeeped Bethan Walker joined in the fun making apple juice and manning a stall.
With a garden barbecue, music by The Cider House Rounders, The Happy Band, Barley Rye and The Acorns Youth Group the celebration was topped off in the evening with the Somerset Paddies.
There were two enegetic performances by the Mendip Morris Dancers waving white handerchiefs and banging batons accompanied by two talented fiddle players.
For anyone interested in finding out more about the Transition movement go to the website by clicking HERE or email transitionnailsea@gmail.com.
Nailsea’s history is steeped in coal, glassmaking and cider-making.
The famous Coate’s Cider was made in Nailsea, and before this nearly all the local farms made cider because they could pay their staff a proportion of their wages with the stuff.
Nailsea Cider is a small scale production outfit with an orchard near West End.
They also use apples from trees in gardens around Nailsea especially from windfalls.
For find out more go to its website by clicking HERE.
CIDER RULES: Bristol Post senior reporter Heather Pickstock came to Nailsea Apple Day with a bag full of fruit from her Wraxall garden. There was some confusion as Miss Pickstock expected her apples to be turned into cider asap ready to serve at the Mermaid Bar at her Cornwall holiday home (more HERE). Sorry Hev, you were told it takes a few weeks and the chances are when the fermenting process it done it could taste like vinegar, oh dear
INDOORS AND OUT: The musicians and stalls were set up in the Ring O'Bells function room while the choir and dancers performed on the patio and the children played in the pub garden and on the bouncy castle. The pub team manned the barbecue and people queued with their apples to take turns on the press