Apples and the new year

Let’s travel back in time three hundred years or more, to the East End Farm, near the hamlet of Nowhere. 

East End farm has a few sheep and goats, some vegetables and several apple orchards.

 

Tonight the orchards are surrounded by farm workers and villagers from Nowhere, all singing and banging pots and pans. Children hang pieces of toast soaked in cider from the tree branches. 

For tonight, January 5th, is the wassail, the twelfth night of Christmas.

 

Apples grow all across the county of Somerset, and are especially important to Nowhere and its bigger neighbour, Nailsea. Every farm brews cider, which they give to the farm hands as part of their wages. 

(Centuries later, cider would be brewed and sold in large factories. Nailsea hosted  Coates factory for over 150 years. These days, the Thatcher family brews cider at Sandford, ten miles to the southwest.)  

Back in Nowhere, apple trees are a sign of a healthy farm. Wise famers celebrate the good health of their orchards with a wassail.

Their people visit the apple trees by the light of burning torches.  Singing songs to them and making a lot of noise to ward off evil spirits. Hopefully, this should be enough to ensure a good harvest in the next year. 

The oldest tree in the orchard is given the greatest respect, and he is called the ‘Apple Tree Man’. [Image: Neil Ingram]

 The Apple Tree Man decides how many apples will grow in the next year. Farmers keep the Apple tree Man happy by pouring cider over his roots. 

There are several old folk tales told in Somerset about the Apple Tree Man. The next story is a modern retelling of one of these old tales.

 

 

Notes on the story

The Apple Tree Man of Nowhere