The ‘Beefing’ Apples Story, 1900 – Today

Welcome to the first chapter of the story of the ‘Beefing’ group of apples. In this chapter I’ll be finding out which members of this fine old group of apples are still known and grown today and where they might be available to see, taste and buy to eat or grow. I’ll also be discussing the different name-variants that have been applied to these apples since the start of the twentieth century.

Please note: this is one part of one chapter of a much longer series of articles exploring the story of Norfolk Biffins and ‘Beefing’ Apples. Please see the main Table of Contents page for links to the other chapters in this story.

The ‘Beefing’ Apples Today

The UK’s authoritative source for apple variety and/or cultivar names is the National Fruit Collection, based at Brogdale Collections in Kent, and The N.F.C.’s online database¹This invaluable resource is primarily a catalogue of the trees held in the (N.F.C.) but It also contains additional information about fruit varieties and cultivars that can be found in various local orchard collections, and supplementary details from the National Apple Register of the United Kingdom (1971) by Muriel W. G. Smith, which is in turn a compilation of information contained in various print sources that were published between 1853 and 1968. currently contains information on three apples labelled with the ‘Beefing’ suffix: ‘Norfolk Beefing‘, ‘Striped Beefing‘ and ‘Herefordshire Beefing‘.

Together these three varieties form what I’ll be referring to as the “‘Beefing’ group of apples”, or the “‘Beefing’ apples” for short.

One more historical ‘Beefing’ variety²I’ll generally be referring to the ‘Beefing’ apples, collectively, as varieties, rather than cultivars (cultivated varieties). Of the four canonical ‘Beefing’ apples, only one seems likely to have been a deliberately bred cultivar, rather than a found seedling variety or a sport of another member of the group, and that can’t be stated with certainty. – the ‘Red Fleshed Beefing’ or ‘Beefing, Red Within’ – could also be considered canonical, in the sense that it always stood alone, and was never suggested to have been a synonym of the ‘Norfolk Beefing’ or another apple variety. It seems to have been fairly widely available in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but has sadly been lost since then.

Further ‘Beefing’ apple varieties – ‘Red Beefing’, ‘Yellow Beefing’, ‘Yorkshire Beefing’ and ‘Lincolnshire Beefing’, to name a few – have been recorded in historical orchard lists and published in pomological manuals in the past, but they have long since been re-identified as synonyms of other apples – usually of ‘Norfolk Beefing’, or of completely different, non-‘Beefing’ varieties – or have gradually disappeared from the pomological records.

The fact that three varieties of ‘Beefing’ apples are still grown today – when so many other heritage apples have been lost since they were last recorded – is a testament to their virtues and qualities as both long-keepers and excellent cookers.

Here are the National Fruit Collection Database reference photos of the three current ‘Beefing’ apples:

As you can see from the photos, the three ‘Beefing’ apples in the National Fruit Collection do appear to be quite similar in terms of their size and general characteristics³It is worth bearing in mind that depending on when these photos were taken, some of these fruits may not have been at their peak of ripeness, so they should probably be taken as a general guide to the appearance of the apples rather than an absolute template.. But although these apples may look rather similar, we do know that they are definitely distinct from one another, rather than the same variety, listed under different names.

This is because the custodians of the N.F.C. have undertaken a programme of genetic testing⁴The latest iteration involves ever-more detailed genetic methodology and testing which is re-writing the ‘known’ pedigrees of a great many apples – more on that in another blog post at another time. of the trees in the collection, in order to check for duplicates. This has led to the deaccession, or de-listing, of a number of varieties that were shown to be identical to pre-existing accessions⁵This is really the continuation of a process that has been going on since the early nineteenth century. Identifying duplicate apple varieties was one of the principal projects of the Horticultural Society of London when it was first formed in 1802 and continued to be a core project of the organisation for many decades to come..

Therefore, if a variety of apple is currently listed in the N.F.C. database, and its information page carries a fingerprint icon (see below) it means that, in the words of the explanatory pop-up:

“A genetic fingerprint has been generated for this material, using microsatellite (SSR) markers (Defra project GC0140: Fingerprinting the National Fruit Collections, East Malling Research)⁶The full report is available on ResearchGate.net..”

All three ‘Beefing’ apple entries in the N.F.C. database are marked with the fingerprint icon, which means that the ‘Beefing’ trees in the National Fruit Collection have been tested and found to be genetically distinct not only from one another, but from all other apples in the National Fruit Collection as well.

The inclusion of the three current ‘Beefing’ apples in the Collection is hugely important, because as well as safeguarding the varieties for the future, their inclusion allows orchardists and fruit tree enthusiasts to purchase scion material from Brogdale, in order to graft it onto suitable rootstock⁷edit 23.08.24: Following a 2024 business reorganisation, scions are no longer available from Grow at Brogdale. grafted trees from growfruittrees.co.uk – a Kent-based nursery with access to the trees in the N.F.C. – in order to grow new trees and increase the overall stock of ‘Beefing’ apples across the country. Each new tree created and grown in this manner will be a genetic clone of the reference tree in the National Collection, which means that there will be more of the ‘official’ strain of the three ‘Beefing’ apple varieties available for onward propagation⁸Technically, under the terms of the N.F.C.’s original scion sale agreement the recipient wasn’t allowed to use the scion material for commercial purposes, so you wouldn’t have been allowed to sell your own grafted trees, but I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to give away scion material to fellow enthusiasts. and, of course, their apples can become more widely available for cooking with and eating.

This is exactly what I did in 2023, purchasing scions from the N.F.C. and grafting all three varieties onto M9 dwarfing rootstocks. I then planted them in 2024, to grow on as cordon-trained trees on my allotment⁹I also have another ‘Norfolk Beefing’ tree that came from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project, and so is presumably a grafted clone of a tree in their collection. Which could, of course, in turn be a clone of the ‘official’ tree in the N.F.C. – or vica-versa, as the N.F.C. tree wasn’t added to the collection until the year 2000 – or another parent tree. I’d have to ask the East of England orchardists to see if they knew..

As well as the National Fruit Collection, there are a few other places that sell grafted trees of the three ‘Beefing’ apples, although two of the three varieties do seem to be rather hard to find. Here’s what I know about the current commercial availability of all three:

‘Norfolk Beefing’

Most 20th and 21st century sources I’ve come across seem to suggest that ‘Norfolk Beefing’ has become an apple fondly remembered rather than widely grown. Mentions in local- or historical-themed recipe collections, or works of general gastronomy – such as Mary Norwak’s East Anglian Recipes (1978), Jane Grigson’s Food With the Famous (1979), Ruth Ward’s A Harvest of Apples (1988), Laura Mason’s From Norfolk Knobs to Fidget Pie : Food From the Midlands and East Anglia (2007), and Monica Askay and Tom Williamson’s Orchard Recipes from Eastern England (2020) – either refer to the ‘Norfolk Beefing’ as a rare, heritage apple variety that’s largely local to Norfolk, or mention it in connection with the Norfolk Biffin dried apple sweetmeat, the making of which is a nostalgic labour of love, rather than an easy recipe idea for the weekend.

‘Norfolk Beefing’ is certainly not an apple that has commercial appeal by today’s supermarket-demand-driven standards, so you’re unlikely to find them for sale anywhere other than at farmer’s markets, specialist greengrocers, delicatessens or farm shops. Even then you’re either going to have to know where to look, or strike it very lucky indeed¹⁰I was indeed very lucky a couple of years back, when our local organic deli had a tray of them in stock, which is what kick-started this whole research odyssey. They didn’t get any in in 2023, but last year they had some, and I attempted to make Norfolk Biffins from them. Sadly, I say “attempted” quite deliberately….

If you would like to grow your own crop of ‘Norfolk Beefing’ apples then you do have a few more options, as a number of specialist fruit nurseries here in the U.K. seem to list them in their catalogues, or will graft a tree to order.

It’s worth bearing in mind that by all accounts, ‘Norfolk Beefing’ is a strong, vigorous tree, so you’ll need a fair bit of room to allow it to grow to its full potential. Or, like me, you could try grafting it to, or buying it already growing on, a dwarfing M27 or semi-dwarfing M9 rootstock, and hope that the size-limiting properties of the rootstock can help to curb a bit of the ‘Beefing’ exuberance, whilst still encouraging fruit production.

Here are some particularly fine examples of ‘Norfolk Beefing’ apples, grown in their native county by the esteemed East of England Apples and Orchards Project¹¹Come to think of it, that could very well be the scion-parent tree of my own ‘Norfolk Beefing’, as I think Jo Green sourced it from the East of England Apples and Orchards folks., who do sell grafted trees via their website.

Those apples look rather fantastic to me. I do hope that when my new trees start producing fruit they’ll look just as good.

‘Striped Beefing’

The photo above, which I’ve also borrowed from the marvellous East of England Apples and Orchards Project website, shows an apple that is distinctly different from both ‘Norfolk Beefing’ and ‘Herefordshire Beefing’, and is also very similar to the National Fruit Collection reference photo. A handsome, green and red apple with a pronounced stripe; who wouldn’t want to grow a lovely-looking cooker like that in their heritage apple orchard?

Sadly, not all that many orchardists seem to agree; I don’t remember finding a ‘Striped Beefing’ in any of the many orchards I’ve visited in the past few years. You can still buy ‘Striped Beefing’ trees from a few specialist nurseries and other suppliers, including the East of England Apples and Orchards Project, but stocks are likely to be limited, so you’ll have to be quick to order when they do go on sale.

I suspect that the best way to try the apples before you buy would be to find a farm shop in Norfolk that has access to a ‘Striped Beefing’ tree. Or, again, you could try to graft and grow your own, as I have done, and then patiently wait for it to bear fruit.

‘Herefordshire Beefing’

Here, via the Tweet that sparked my earlier investigations and all that followed, and courtesy of the fine folks at Welsh Mountain Cider, is the modern ‘Herefordshire Beefing’, in it’s synonym guise of ‘Hereford Beefing’:

The third member of the ‘Beefing’ group of apples is still grown here and there, but its popularity has waned to the point where, outside of the National Fruit Collection, you’ll probably only find it being grown by heritage orchard enthusiasts, such as Welsh Mountain Cider, or the marvellous Marcher Apple Network, or me.

From this single photo it’s hard to see quite how distinct from the ‘Norfolk Beefing’ the ‘Herefordshire Beefing’ actually is, but it does seem to have more pronounced lenticels – the light-coloured dots across its skin – so perhaps that’s the main point of differentiation?

Again, if you want to add a ‘Herefordshire Beefing’ tree or two to your orchard, you’ll have to hunt around for a specialist nursery that sells them. You could start with Welsh Mountain Cider, as they do sell grafted trees as well as their excellent cider, or you could try a few specialist fruit nurseries, such as Keepers Nursery, who will graft up a tree for you if you order well in advance.

I think that’s a fair summary of the current state-of-play of the ‘Beefing’ apples. Next, it’s time to take a look at their relatively recent history, with an emphasis on the first of those two principal questions that I’m seeking to address in the course of this series: what name should we call these apples by?

‘Beefing’ Apples in 20th and 21st Century Sources

As previously mentioned, the National Fruit Collection database makes it clear that ‘Beefing’ is the official – or as the database puts it, the “preferred” – name-variant suffix for all three of the current members of the ‘Beefing’ group of apples. This certainly hasn’t always been the case though, as I discovered when I explored the history of the ‘Herefordshire Beefing’ in that earlier blog post. In fact, the ‘Beefing’ group apples have been gifted a wide array of name-variants during their long and storied history.

Over the course of the rest of this series, I’m going to explore the nomenclature of ‘Beefing’ apples in each of the different historical periods covered by the main chapters. In each chapter I’ll be taking a look at the more common synonyms used during the era in question and trying to establish how the main name-variants might have come about. Hopefully I’ll also be able to answer the thorny question of which name-variant came first.

I’ll begin that process with a look at as many published works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as I can currently access.

20th and 21st Century Source Material

Instances of the ‘Beefing’ Group of apples in English language sources¹²Non-English language sources will be examined in a later chapter. published 1900 – today are listed below. To skip the list and continue with the main narrative please click here.

Key:
— = a primary name-variant, according to the source in question.
-s- = a synonym name-variant of the primary above it.
-t- = a translated name-variant of the primary above it.
(+) = a change or update since the previous edition of the source.

1901 – Bridgeman, Thomas – Fruit Gardening
— Norfolk Beaufin

1905 – Ragan, W. H. – Nomenclature of the Apple
— Beaufin
-s- Beaufin Norfolk
-s- Norfolk Beaufin
-s- Norfolk Beefing
-s- Cathead Beaufin
-s- Read’s Baker
— Striped Beaufin
-s- Striped Beefing
— Herefordshire Beefing

1909 – Woburn Fruit Farm, exhibiting at the Ridgmont Apple Show
— Norfolk Beefing

1909-10 – Dickson’s of Chester, Nursery Catalogue
— Norfolk Beefing

1915 – Great Britain Board of Agriculture & Fisheries – Leaflet No. 283, ‘Storage and Disposal of Apples and Pears’
— Norfolk Beefing

1916 – Assam (India) Department of Agriculture – Annual report on the Agricultural Experiments and Demonstrations in Assam
— Norfolk Beefing
-s- Norfolk Bearer

1920 – Bunyard, Edward A. – A Handbook of Hardy Fruits More Commonly Grown in Great Britain
— Norfolk Beefing
-t- Schoener von Norfolk
-s- Catshead Beaufin
-s- Red Beefing
-s- Taliesin
-s- Winter Beefin
— Striped Beefing
-t- Beaufin Strié
-t- Gestreifter Beaufin
— Norfolk Beauty (c.1902)
— Norfolk Dumpling (origin undiscovered, culinary)

1922 – Cassel Nursery, Mantua, Ohio – catalogue
— Beefin

1923 – The Gardener’s Chronicle Series 3 Vol 23 dated April 21
— Norfolk Beefing

1935 – Chittenden, F. J. (ed.) – Apples and Pears, Varieties and Cultivation
— Norfolk Beefing
— Herefordshire Beefing
-s- Hereford Beaufin
— Striped Beefing

1935 – Goude, H. exhibiting at Norwich Fruit Show
— Norfolk “beefing” or “biffin”

1936 – Taylor, H. V. – The Apples of England 1st edition
— Norfolk Beaufin (& “Beaufin Group”)
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing
— Herefordshire Beefing

1939 – Cheema, G. S. and Karmarkar, D. V. – ‘The Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables’, Tropical Agriculturist 1939-04 Vol 92
— Norfolk Biffin

1946 – Taylor, H. V. – The Apples of England 3rd edition
— Norfolk Beaufin (& “Beaufin Group”)
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing
— Herefordshire Beefing

1963 – Witham Fogg, H. G. – Fruit Growing
— Norfolk Beefing

1971 – Smith, Muriel W. G. – National Apple Register of the United Kingdom
— Herefordshire Beefing
-s- Hereford Beaufin
-s- Hereford Beefing
-s- Herefordshire
-s- Herefordshire Beaufin
— Norfolk Beefing
-s- Beaufin Millemont
-s- Cat’s Head
-s- Catshead
-s- Cat’s Head Beaufin
-s- Catshead Beefing
-s- Norfolk Bearer
-s- Norfolk Beauffin
-s- Norfolk Beau-fin
-s- Norfolk Beauffin
-s- Norfolk Beaufin
-s- Norfolk Beaufing
-s- Norfolk Beefin
-s- Norfolk Biffin
-s- Norfolk Coleman
-s- Ramsden
-s- Ramsden’s
-s- Ramsdens
-s- Read’s Baker
-s- Red Beefing
-s- Reed’s Baker
-s- Reeds Baker
-s- Schoener von Norfolk
-s- Schöner von Norfolk
-s- Taliesin
-s- Taliesman
-s- Tallesin
-s- Winter Beefing
-s- Winter Coleman
-s- Winter Colman
— Striped Beefing
-s- Beaufin Strié
-s- Beaufin Strièe
-s- Bofen polosatyi
-s- Gestreifter Beaufin
-s- Gestreifter Feiner Beaufin
-s- Gestreifter feiner Stutzerapfel
-s- Striped Beaufin

1976 – Swain, Bill – The Commonsense of Gardening
— Norfolk Beefing
-s- Beef Apple

1978 – Norwak, Mary – East Anglian Recipes
— Biffin

1979 – Grigson, Jane – Food With the Famous
— “Norfolk Biffins (Beefans, Beefings)”

1983 – Bultitude, John – Apples, A Guide to the Identification of International Varieties
— Herefordshire Beefing
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing

1984 – Hills, Lawrence D. – The Good Fruit Guide
— Norfolk Beefing (see Catshead)

1988 – Ward, Ruth – A Harvest of Apples
— Norfolk Biffin or Beefing

1991 – Clifford, Sue & King, Angela + contributors – The Apple Source Book
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing

1993 – Morgan, Joan & Richards, Alison – The Book of Apples, and
1993 – Morgan, Joan & Richards, Alison – The New Book of Apples (same book, US edition)
— Herefordshire Beefing
— Norfolk Beefing
— Norfolk Coleman¹³Usually accepted as a synonym of ‘Winter Coleman’ and both as synonyms of ‘Norfolk Beefing’. But Morgan & Richards say the ‘Winter Coleman’ accession in the N.F.C. is not identical to the other two, which is interesting…
— Striped Beefing

1996 – Readman, Joanna Fruity Stories
— Norfolk Beefing

1996 – Strong, Roy – The Laskett – The Story of a Garden
— Norfolk Beefing

1998 – Wilson, C. Anne – The Country House Kitchen Garden 1600 – 1950
— Norfolk Beefing

2006 – Juniper, Barrie & Mabberley, David J. – The Story of the Apple
— Norfolk Beefin

2007 – Clifford, Sue & King, Angela – The Apple Source Book
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing

2008 – Stocks, Christopher – Forgotten Fruits
— Norfolk Beefing
— Striped Beefing

2010 – Hunter, Jane McMorland – For the Love of an Orchard
— Norfolk Biffin

2015 – Reiss, Marcia – Apples
— Norfolk Beefing
-s- Norfolk Biffin

2019 – Ball, Caroline – Heritage Apples
— Herefordshire Beefing
-s- Beefing
— Norfolk Beefing
-s- Norfolk Colman
-s- Winter Colman
— Striped Beefing

2020 – Askay, Monica & Williamson, Tom – Orchard Recipes from Eastern England
— Norfolk Beefing

2021 – Barnes, Gerry and Williamson, Tom – The Orchards of Eastern England: History, Ecology and Place
— Beefing
— Norfolk Beaufin (c.1896)
— Norfolk Beefing (Chevallier, c. 1728-1738)
— Norfolk Biffen (c.1831)
— Striped Beaufin (c. 1896)

2022 – Barnes, Gerry and Williamson, Tom – English Orchards: A Landscape History
— Norfolk Beefing

2023 – Crosby, Joanna – Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century
— Norfolk Beefing

‘Beefing’ Apple Name-Variants in 20th and 21st Century Sources

The list above will inevitably contain a few gaps and missing sources, because the vast majority of relevant publications from the twentieth century are still under copyright and so haven’t yet been digitised and made freely accessible online. Most of the references above are therefore from the print books that I’ve been able to acquire for my own collection.

However, I think this is still a large enough sample to be able to conclude that – in line with the N.F.C. database, and with just a few exceptions – the ‘Beefing’ suffix has been used as the preferred name-variant in the huge majority of printed works in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Likewise, ‘Beefing’ is the preferred name-variant in most online pomology databases, such as FruitID, OrangePippin and Pomiferous – logically enough, as these online sources presumably draw on the earlier printed works for their information – as well as on the websites of specialist fruit nurseries.

Obviously, none of the sources above will get me any closer to identifying an original name-variant for the ‘Beefing’ apples, but it does set the stage for further investigations. And the long list of synonyms in Muriel W. G. Smith’s National Apple Register of the United Kingdom (1971) alone opens up numerous lines of intriguing enquiry as to how some of the less obvious name-variants – ‘Taliesin’, ‘Ramsden’, ‘Cat’s Head’ – came to be applied to ‘Norfolk Beefing’.

‘Beefing’ Apple Origin Stories in 20th and 21st Century Sources

As far as addressing my second main question – can I pin down the place of origin of the ‘Beefing’ apples? – goes, most twentieth and twenty-first century publications tend to repeat whatever assertions have been made by whichever earlier writers they’ve used as their own source of information.

This often seems to be one of Dr. Robert Hogg’s key nineteenth century works: British Pomology (1851), various editions of The Fruit Manual (1860 – 1884), or The Herefordshire Pomona (1876), which was mostly compiled and edited by Dr. Henry Graves Bull, with technical editorial input from Hogg. I’ll be discussing these sources and the ‘Beefing’ origin stories that they contain in later chapters, so I won’t go into detail just yet.

For example, four of the more commonly referred-to sources of the period are H. V. Taylor’s Apples of England (three editions, 1936 – 1946), the aforementioned National Apple Register of the United Kingdom by Muriel W. G. Smith, John Bultitude’s Apples (1983), and The Book of Apples (1993) by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards.

Taylor does indeed cite Hogg, or Hogg and Bull, as the source of his own descriptions of all three ‘Beefing’ apples, adding that ‘Hereford Beefing’ is “no longer listed by nursery firms”, and ‘Norfolk Beefing’ is “still grown in Norfolk”.

Smith and Bultitude both provide minimal details of the provenance of any of the ‘Beefing’ apples and sadly neither of them say which of their cited sources the details are taken from. Smith tells us that ‘Herefordshire Beefing’ was “known in the late 1700s”, ‘Norfolk Beefing’ was “recorded 1807”, and ‘Striped Beefing’ was “found in garden of William Crowe, Lakenham, Norwich, by George Lindley”. This last detail was probably taken from Lindley’s Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden (1831), which was also quoted by Hogg, but, as I’ll explain in a later chapter, isn’t an accurate interpretation of the original source. Bultitude seems to have used Smith as his main source, as he repeats Smith almost word-for-word.

Morgan and Richards also provide background information on all three ‘Beefing’ apples; their descriptions of ‘Herefordshire Beefing’ and ‘Striped Beefing’ seem to once again take their basic details from Smith’s National Register, but there is one extremely interesting clue to the origin of ‘Norfolk Beefing’ included in the relevant entry:

“UK, arose Norfolk. Known late C18th, but ‘Beefing’ was cited in fruit tree list in notebook of 1698 belonging to Walpole family, Wolverton & Mannington estates, Norwich, Norfolk.”

This particular reference, which has been cited and quoted elsewhere since the publication of The Book of Apples, is hugely intriguing and has lead me on quite a chase. Again though, I’ll be talking about it in much more detail in a later chapter, so I’ll say no more at this stage.

‘Beefing’ Apples, Chapter One: Summary

As things stand, the three extant members of the ‘Beefing’ group of apples are: ‘Norfolk Beefing’, ‘Striped Beefing’, and ‘Herefordshire Beefing’. All three varieties still exist today, in the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent, and are available, to varying degrees, from specialist fruit nurseries.

Currently, ‘Beefing’ is by far the most common name-variant suffix by which each variety is listed or mentioned – apart from one or two uses of ‘Beaufin’, the occasional dropped ‘g’ of a ‘Norfolk Beefin’, or a slightly shorter ‘Hereford Beefing’ – in the majority of published sources, and this has been the case since the early years of the twentieth century.

The main reason for this consistency of naming is most likely that these are the preferred name-variants of the varieties as recorded by the National Fruit Collection, and the authority of that source, more than likely combined with the relative lack of popularity of all three varieties, means that there hasn’t been much cause or call for dissent or discussion, although the N.F.C. database also lists a great many synonyms which have been applied to the three ‘Beefing’ apples over the years.

As yet I’m no closer to pinning down the origins of the ‘Beefing’ apples, but as I start to explore earlier source material those stories will gradually be revealed. One tantalising lead has already been uncovered, via The Book of Apples (1993) by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards: the suggestion that a ‘Beefing’ apple may have been mentioned in estate records from either Mannington Hall or Wolverton Hall, both of which are in the ‘Beefing’ county of Norfolk, as early as 1698.

So, there we have it: today there are three fine old cooking apple varieties, all relatively rare nowadays, but still available if you know where to look for them. And all three, along with a lost sibling or two, possessed of rather fascinating back-stories, the details of which I’ll be exploring in the rest of this series.

In the Next Chapter

I’ll take a look at the ‘Beefing’ apples in the second half of the nineteenth century; a time when the question as to the correct name -variant of one of them in particular was hotly debated in pomological circles.

I’ll also be discussing one of the United Kingdom’s most influential Victorian-era pomologists and his involvement in the stories of all three of the currently available ‘Beefing’ apples.

˃˃ Click here to read the next chapter: The ‘Beefing’ Apples Story, 1850 – 1899.

˃˃ Click here to return to the main Table of Contents and explore the rest of the series.

Comments, Questions, Suggestions?

If you have any feedback or queries about any of the content in these articles, please feel free to get in touch by one of these two methods:

• Post a Comment: each chapter has its own comments section, and the comment form can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page. I do check and reply to comments fairly regularly, and all feedback is much appreciated.
• Send an Email: details are on the contact info page of the site. I usually check and respond to emails at the weekend, so please accept my apologies if there’s a delay in replying.

Footnotes

• 1
  This invaluable resource is primarily a catalogue of the trees held in the (N.F.C.) but It also contains additional information about fruit varieties and cultivars that can be found in various local orchard collections, and supplementary details from the National Apple Register of the United Kingdom (1971) by Muriel W. G. Smith, which is in turn a compilation of information contained in various print sources that were published between 1853 and 1968. ↩︎
• 2
  I’ll generally be referring to the ‘Beefing’ apples, collectively, as varieties, rather than cultivars (cultivated varieties). Of the four canonical ‘Beefing’ apples, only one seems likely to have been a deliberately bred cultivar, rather than a found seedling variety or a sport of another member of the group, and that can’t be stated with certainty. ↩︎
• 3
  It is worth bearing in mind that depending on when these photos were taken, some of these fruits may not have been at their peak of ripeness, so they should probably be taken as a general guide to the appearance of the apples rather than an absolute template. ↩︎
• 4
  The latest iteration involves ever-more detailed genetic methodology and testing which is re-writing the ‘known’ pedigrees of a great many apples – more on that in another blog post at another time. ↩︎
• 5
  This is really the continuation of a process that has been going on since the early nineteenth century. Identifying duplicate apple varieties was one of the principal projects of the Horticultural Society of London when it was first formed in 1802 and continued to be a core project of the organisation for many decades to come. ↩︎
• 6
  The full report is available on ResearchGate.net. ↩︎
• 7
  edit 23.08.24: Following a 2024 business reorganisation, scions are no longer available from Grow at Brogdale. ↩︎
• 8
  Technically, under the terms of the N.F.C.’s original scion sale agreement the recipient wasn’t allowed to use the scion material for commercial purposes, so you wouldn’t have been allowed to sell your own grafted trees, but I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to give away scion material to fellow enthusiasts. ↩︎
• 9
  I also have another ‘Norfolk Beefing’ tree that came from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project, and so is presumably a grafted clone of a tree in their collection. Which could, of course, in turn be a clone of the ‘official’ tree in the N.F.C. – or vica-versa, as the N.F.C. tree wasn’t added to the collection until the year 2000 – or another parent tree. I’d have to ask the East of England orchardists to see if they knew. ↩︎
• 10
  I was indeed very lucky a couple of years back, when our local organic deli had a tray of them in stock, which is what kick-started this whole research odyssey. They didn’t get any in in 2023, but last year they had some, and I attempted to make Norfolk Biffins from them. Sadly, I say “attempted” quite deliberately… ↩︎
• 11
  Come to think of it, that could very well be the scion-parent tree of my own ‘Norfolk Beefing’, as I think Jo Green sourced it from the East of England Apples and Orchards folks. ↩︎
• 12
  Non-English language sources will be examined in a later chapter. ↩︎
• 13
  Usually accepted as a synonym of ‘Winter Coleman’ and both as synonyms of ‘Norfolk Beefing’. But Morgan & Richards say the ‘Winter Coleman’ accession in the N.F.C. is not identical to the other two, which is interesting… ↩︎