We are cleft, bud and rind grafting some heritage and local varieties onto some of the tree stumps at Brimstage and Lees Lane. These are trees which were of varieties which were not suitable when first planted or where the graft has failed. In a few cases, the trees have had bad cankering or other fungral/bacterial infections and we have cut out the affected parts. Where we can, we are grafting on varieties that have a Cheshire origin.

There are many other varieties that do well here and have been grown for over 150 years. But they might be of French, Lake District, Marches or Midlands origin. We have a quandry - are these more of a heritage variety than one that was bred in Cheshire in 1952? Some of the rarities that grow in Preston or Ulverston, as examples, are known to be over 300 years old. Some of the varieties which have been grown in orchards in the North West for 500 years have French origins, so are these local varieties?

So we are replacing non-local recent varieties like Greensleeves apple & Red Partridge pear when they fail with Cheshire apples like Wareham's Russet and Minshull Crab, old classics like Ashmeads Kernel and Scotch Bridget. We are fortunate to be able to get scions of rare pears with a pre-Tudor heritage like Green Chisel and Butter Pear.

We demonstrate grafting onto specially grown stocks at various sites in Wirral and Cheshire, and these are some of the varieties we've been given to use as scions: