Tiz the zider! Tiz the zider!

Cider is an ancient and powerful drink, and its production is not the prerogative of Somerset, though the county has long been famed for it.

The word has come down to us from the Hebrew 'sheker', the Greek 'sikera' and the Latin 'sicera', all signifying strong drink. In Wycliffe's fourteenth century Bible translation the passage (Luke 1,15) which appears in the Authorised Version as "He ... shall drink neither wine nor strong drink" is rendered "He schal not drynke Wyn and sydir".

For centuries cider has been the poor man's wine, and a 1750 visitor to Taunton wrote: "The men of Somerset are more strongly attached to cider even than those of Herefordshire. Their orchards might well be styled their temples and apple trees their idols of worship".

In former days there were few farm labourers who did not go off to work in the fields without carrying with them a half-gallon wooden barrel or stone jar known as a firkin, filled with cider. These cider containers for the personal 'pack' were also known as 'wooden bottles'.

Huge quantities of cider were drunk at harvest time in the days when the immense physical labour that went with harvesting made it a specially thirst-creating job.

It used to be considered nothing for a man to drink a gallon or two of cider a day, and one Mendip farmer boasted that he could 'zink a barrel by a hoop', in a day, meaning by this that he would drink all the cider in a barrel between one hoop iron and another!

Way back in the 'Eighties a Puxton farmer declared that he gave his farm hands 36 pints of cider a day between them, and even then they would go to the inn for more.

"But that is nothing," he added. "I had a man from Banwell work for me who drank 16 pints of cider in a day - and walked home afterwards."

The parish records of Biddisham mention that in 1751 at Su Waterman's funeral the five bearers drank 'twenty-five quarts of Sider'.

There are not so many orchard 'temples' in Somerset as there were. In latter years a great many orchards have become sadly neglected, their trees old and bent, some fallen. Many of them have been cleared away and the land put to the plough or wholly to grazing. Farmhouse cider-making has gone into a decline, but the industry has not.

Cider-making factory concerns have been cultivating a future for cider, but one welcomed by the rich man's palette. With their publicity campaigns have gone a revival of the ancient custom of wassailing the apple trees in January, with a wassail queen to douse the roots of trees with cider to encourage a good crop, and labourers firing shot-guns over the trees to drive away bad spirits.

The area around Banwell River was long noted for the quality of its cider-making and the show successes of farmhouse cider makers. Mr Sam Davis of Ebdon Farm used to make at least 20,000 gallons a year, and Mr Stan Redman of Ebdon Bow made a similar quantity and had big show successes, but eventually modified his output to "a drop for the haymakers". Many of the farmers who kept their orchards ultimately became suppliers to the cider factories, who for their part have also developed cultivation in a big way.

Thousands of gallons of cider made in the district used to be delivered to public houses in Weston and round about. There were also those who used to hawk their apples and cider around the streets.

Who remembers now black bowler-hatted bewhiskered Mr Stuckey, who used to drive in from Puxton in his horse and cart with his tubs of Morgan Sweets, Tom Putts, and little barrels of cider for 'regulars'?

Cider apples have fascinating names. One autumn day when I stopped to talk to Mr F R Cook, of Ebdon Farm, who was directing the harvesting of his cider apples, he said those in the particular field included Morgan Sweets, Bittersweet, Bramley, Dabinett, and White Georges. Mr Redman's orchards included Kingston Black, Hangdown and Jersey varieties. Many of the cider apple names date back hundreds of years and are parochial in origin.

The varieties includes Cat's Head, Sheeps Nose, Brown Snout, Foxwhelp, Lady's Finger, Bishop's Thumb, Ironside, Twist Body and Merry Legs. There are also Brown Sweet, Cap of Liberty, Cheery Permain, Neverblight, French Blanche, White Norman, Knotted Kernal and Slack-ma-Girdle. Such names have the glow of an orchard of ripe apples.

A pioneer in cider research was the remarkable former squire of Butleigh, Robert Grenville. He built a steam car which is now in Bristol Museum, owned a fleet of steam rollers, conducted all kinds of engineering research at workshops in the grounds of Butleigh Court, bred trout and put forward the idea of stocking Blagdon Lake with them, and in cider research started the work that led to the founding of the Long Ashton Research Station in 1903.

He was convinced there was a greater future for cider than was represented by the rough farmhouse product, and the Ministry of Agriculture was led to become interested in what was being done at Long Ashton. The Long Ashton station started a cider tasting day held each year in May, and from the 24 cider 'tasters; who attended the first one in 1905, the number grew to 3,000 thirty-odd years later!

I once visited that much-loved personality, Clifford Cook at Rolston Court Farm, a former chairman of Axbridge District Council.

The smell of cider-making permeated the farmyard and house, and Mr Cook told me that the press at work must be more than 100 years old. He had great show successes in his years as a big cider maker when he used to make up to 22,000 gallons annually. His apples included Kingston Blacks, Hangdowns, White Georges and Morgan Sweets.

"It was my wife's cheese-making that started me off entering for cider-making contests," he told me. "She used to win prizes with her cheese and teased me about not achieving anything with my cider."

There is an amusing legend that recalls a time when the Banwell River was intoxicated with cider. The story is linked with two or three farming families in the Ebdon-Wick St Lawrence area in the last century, including a Mr Gould, formerly of Bangfield Farm. It was said that "they became smitten with conversion," so much so that they dragged their barrels of cider to river and rhyne banks, stove them in and let the cider flow away. This act is said to have followed a 'tent meeting' held by a Chicago revivalist at Wick St Lawrence. He called himself 'the modern Elijah'.

For years afterwards there were stories going around the district about intoxicated cows yielding 'rough' and sweet milk, of ducks and geese blissfully drowning themselves, of fish giving themselves up to anglers using neither hook nor net, and of village lads developing a great passion for swimming.

There is also the story of 'Samuel Gill's Cider Sale' which took place at Banwell getting on 100 years ago.

Farmer Gill, of Poplar Farm, West Wick, was quite a character. He did a bit of auctioneering as a sideline, was prominently identified with local affairs, and was said to be as familiar a feature of the countryside as the 'Bishop's Pepper Pot' on Banwell Hill. This was a reference to the observation tower bishop Law had built on Banwell Hill.

Farmer Gill, above all, had a reputation for keeping a 'drop o' good stuff' in his cellar.

On a Mayday he decided to auction about 5,000 gallons of his store, and scarcely a farmer in the district was missing when the sale began.

A large tent was put up, and a substantial feast of beef, ham, mutton, and cheese provided. Generous went the rounds, and when the company was well filled the bidding began. 'Tenpence a gallon', 'Shilling', 'One and a penny' - up rattle the bids until the last cask was gone.

But while Farmer Gill had disposed of his cider he had infinite trouble in getting rid of his guests. Some lapsed into deep slumber under the trestle tables, others just curled up in the field, and some staggered off raising lusty choruses.

Planks, ladders, wheelbarrows and farm carts were borrowed to remove 'the afflicted', and as the procession trailed off down the road more than one of the overcome was brought round by being precipitated into the roadside ditch by unsteady 'bearers'.

This article, edited by Jill Bailey, was originally published on August 29, 1980
 
A big thanks to the Weston Mercury
 
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