Planted in the orchard in 2009 this apple has two stories to its origin. One says it was found by an innkeeper, growing in the thatch of the Hardinge Arms, Kings Newton, Derbyshire. Another says it was raised by Mr Taylor of King’s Newton, as a cross between Dumelow’s Seedling (Wellington) and Blenheim Orange. It was introduced by Pearson & Co around 1887 when it received a first-class certificate from the RHS.
This is a late culinary apple cooks to a creamy puree and makes a good baked apple, but equally, can be enjoyed as a dessert apple later in the season. The fruit is large with pale green-yellow skin, flushed with brownish-red to very bright red. Popular in the North as it is very hardy and resistant to disease. It has heavy crops (1840 lbs of fruit were once recorded from one tree), but can be biennial. Ripe from mid-October but in the right conditions can be stored until March.