The Lost Orchards of Otley

Otley (in West Yorkshire) has a few road names (such as Orchard Street) which suggest that the town once had orchards. However, there is nothing else to indicate that the town once had very substantial areas of orchards. These can best be seen on the 1851 map:

The nine largest orchards as highlighted below cover a total area of some 160,000 square yards (33 acres).

In 1851 the estimated population of Otley was only 3,700. This suggests there was some 43 square yards of orchard for each person then living in the town.

Clearly the lost orchards of Otley must once have been very important to the local economy.

This gently sloping south-facing triangular orchard took its name from Summer Cross Cottages that were built in the early part of the 19th centaury on the site of the former Busk House. Then located to the east of Otley and covering an area of about 5 acres, the Summercross Orchard was a significant example of the Otley orchards:

Today the Summer Cross Cottages forms the rear part of the Summercross pub building and the orchard has long gone, being largely covered by housing. However, the odd remnant apple and pear tree are still growing in a few of the gardens.

The only substantive evidence remaining of the Summercross Orchard is the beer garden of the pub (which was the top corner of the orchard). Within the beer garden there is still a fine fruiting Winter Windsor pear tree (which is a very old English variety) and until quite recently there was at least one more such tree. There is also a much smaller remnant apple tree that has defied identification by experts.

Additionally, the East Busk Lane boundary wall of the beer garden is unique relic of the Otley Orchards: a 33m long stretch of ripening wall.

The southern end of this substantial structure rises to 2.8m above the current pavement level and is 0.45 m wide at its base, tapering to 0.35 m wide at the top. It appears that an original 1.2 m high stone boundary wall to the Summercross Orchard was converted into a ripening wall by increasing its height using larger stones, adding a brick lining (with stone headers) on the inner south facing side and topping the structure with wide capping stones:

Photographic evidence (a c1889 photograph in Otley museum taken from the front of the pub compared with a current photograph taken from the same viewpoint) shows that there was clearly an entrance into the Summercross Orchard at the end of the remaining length of ripening wall and, beyond that entrance, the high ripening wall appears to continue down the side East Busk Lane (possibly for a total length of 250 m). The remaining wall is a landmark structure which forms the boundary of the Otley Conservation Area at this point.

The beer garden of the Summercross is the best remaining physical evidence of the lost orchards of Otley.

As such the warming wall and the remaining healthy pear tree should be preserved as important evidence of Otley’s Heritage.

The Surnmercross Orchard is a part of Otley’s community history. On the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map it is depicted as an established orchard. This suggests that it had supplied the demands of the local shops and market for a number of years previously.

The old map reveals that Otley was a significant tree fruit growing area (note where the trees are depicted in rows) not only important to the local economy, but also an indicator of the fertility of the valley-bottom land. Otley’s orchard history is preserved in street names such as Plum Garth, Orchard Street and Orchard Gate.

The standard top fruit trees would have been either interplanted with soft-fruit bushes or used for pasture, e.g. geese. Bees would have been kept for pollination and honey.

Otley’s orchards will have been attractive landscape features at blossom time and harvest. A number of features of the Summercross Orchard survive in 2007.

(1) The rear of the current premises consists of two C 18th century cottages.

(2) The orchard occupied the triangular site bordered by Ings Lane and East Busk Lane and extended into the field between the boundary of the existing housing and Stephen H Smith’s Nursery. Most of the land slopes gently from East Busk Lane to the south. This allows for drainage of the soil and maximum exposure to the sun for ripening. The soil is a rich loam, as the gardeners on the Ings Lane Allotments, originally part of this orchard, can testify. Because the site is slightly elevated it avoids being in a frost pocket

The water supply came from a well, depicted on the 1851 map.

(3) The high wall bordering East Busk Lane (shown on the 1851 map as a thick line) is a ripening wall. This wall is positioned at the top of the slope and curved to expose the maximum area to the sun. On the S side it is lined with brick, which retains the heat, is dryer than stone and easier in which to insert nails for affixing the trained fruit trees. Two vine ties remain. It has a flat top to allow the gardener to walk along it for ease of pruning, training and picking. 60 years ago, as children, my friends and I used to climb on top of the wall and ‘scrump’ the plums. I recollect that there was a blue plum, possibly Kirke’s Blue, but the other trained trees at this time had died. Unfortunately I do not recollect any labels. It could be productive to investigate along the base of the wall with a metal detector.

The lower part of this wall is of different stone from the upper and appears to be of the same date as the cottages.

The curvature of the ripening wall has apparently determined the bend in East Busk Lane, as it predates all the other houses.

The front garden walls of Somerville Terrace, which was the first encroachment into the orchard early in the C20th, are lined with brick and could be a survival from a boundary wall.

(4) There are now few surviving trees; I estimate about 40 - 50 have been felled in the last 60 years. The pears were grown as standards and the apples appear to be half standards or standards.

There are two trees, an apple and a pear, remaining in the Summercross garden, although I recollect two more pears and several apples. One of these pears was destroyed by the bonfire only a couple of years ago. The surviving apple appears to be well over 100 years old, is in a decayed condition and may not survive much longer. The variety has not positively been identified, although the fruit has been sent off in the past for investigation by experts at the National Fruit Collections in Kent. It is possibly Peasgood’s Nonsuch, although in 2007 identifiers from the Northern Fruit Group could not establish its identity positively. It may yet be discovered to be a ‘lost’ cultivar. Ideally arrangements should be made to have grafts taken from it. The pear tree is a Winter Windsor, first recorded in the C 17th, an old stewing variety preserved by bottling, possibly in wine, perry or home-made lemonade. In April, when ills covered in white blossom and at harvest time when the pears turn bright yellow, this tree is handsome. Pear trees survive much longer than apples and this Winter Windsor could merit a preservation order. Another Winter Windsor (half broken off in a gale) survives in a local private garden - I know of one other old Winter Windsor in the North, in a private orchard near Marston Moor.

Other varieties surviving in local private gardens are:

Apples: Bramley’s Seedling (late culinary); Keswick Codlin (early/mid-season); Lord Grosvenor (early codlin-type); Cellini (mid-season, dual purpose); Queen (mid-season culinary); an unknown variety (possibly a cider apple).

Pears: an unknown excellent dessert (possibly Marechal de Coeui).

Recent losses include a Striped Beefing apple (which had reached the end of its life but was grafted) and several old pear varieties, recently including a healthy Beurre Diel.

All these cultivars are early Victorian or older. The apples are all culinary varieties. At this period each variety was known for a particular purpose. They were used for savouries such as chutneys and mincemeat as well as dessert. Fruit unfit for market went into the cider/perry press or fed to livestock such as geese.

(5) Several factors account for the demise of the economic viability of local orchards and market gardens, not least being the development of the railway in 1865 to bring in provisions. The loss of horse transport also meant the loss of horse manure.