October 21 is Apple Day. An annual celebration of all things apple, this year the nationwide frivolities have a pressing message to convey, with the recent news that two traditional apple-growing areas are in serious decline.
Apple orchards have declined in Britain by 63% since 1950 (with some areas particularly badly hit, such as Devon which lost 89% of its orchards between 1946-2003 and Kent which lost 92% during the same period).
Initiated by Common Ground in 1990, Apple Day 2010 includes hundreds of local events across Britain, including a longest peel competition (www.commonground.org.uk/appleday/a-peel.html) and performances from the Apple Day poet laureate (www.commonground.org.uk/appleday/a-crowden.html) For more information, or for information on how to get involved in local happenings in your area, go to www.commonground.org.uk/appleday
-
'A bluff, honest man in the trappings of greatness': The extraordinary story of the Foundling Hospital, and the sailor who saved the abandoned children of LondonA remarkable charitable endeavour to save abandoned children on the streets of London has a touching legacy in the form of the The Foundling Museum in the very centre of London. John Goodall tells its story; photographs by Will Pryce.
-
The elegant country home of a motor racing daredevil who drove round the world in a 1936 Bentley and crashed a Range Rover into his own front porchPeasemore House, with its collection of barns, workshops, stables and more, is an ideal home from which to plan an adventure — something that was a passion of its present owners. Penny Churchill explains more.
