Apple Festival keeps on Growing

With even more events planned this year Southwell’s annual Bramley Apple Festival continues to grow from strength tp strength.

A bumper crop of activities will celebrate the Bramley Apple on Saturday 25th October, when the festival is officially opened by Newark MP Robert Jenrick and the Acting Dean of Southwell Minster Nigel Coates.

Valued support from Veolio EnviroGrant as well as regular sponsors of the Festival including Nottinghamshire County Council, Southwell Town Council, Kenwood and the NFU, is enabling the Festival to grow again this year.

The events planned range from a Special Bramley race at Southwell Racecourse on 23rd October followed on the Saturday by apple-themed activities at the National Trust’s Southwell Workhouse to the popular Festival of Food and Drink with cookery demonstrations and 30 stalls representing the best of local produce in historic Southwell Minster. A large display of different varieties of apples from John Hempsall’s exceptional Heritage Orchard can be seen in the Minster and John will again be selling a wide selection of special varieties of apples which are locally grown.

New this year is an invitation to come and see the newly refurbished Archbishop’s Palace and Education Centre with apple related children’s craft and cookery demonstrations during the day.

Each year, members of the Nottinghamshire Federation of Womens Institutes make a special contribution to the Festival with their Annual Apple Pie Competition which is taking place as usual in the Bramley Centre, Southwell’s local library. In addition, the WI’s own Apple Day stalls can be visited for this year in The Core at the Bramley Centre.

The Bramley Centre is also hosting the annual Bramley Apple Painting Competition and Exhibition and will be the location on the evening of Friday 24th October for prize giving ceremonies for the Painting Competition as well as the Poetry Competition. An open air painting session in August was well supported and has helped to generate more entries for the painting competition.

There will be activities for children in the library and games and competitions for all ages in the Core at the Bramley Centre. The prize giving ceremony for the WI competitions will take place in the Bramley Centre on the Saturday afternoon and visitors can also witness the crowning of this year’s Bramley Apple King and Queen.

Visitors are invited to celebrate all things apple with events at The Workhouse by having a go at creating the longest apple peel and hearing stories from The Workhouse Storytellers.

Back in the town visitors can stroll through the streets to admire the many apple-themed window displays. There will also be performances of music and dance by the Lord Conyers Morris Men and the Minster School Ceilidh Band.

Says Roger Merryweather: “We would especially like to thank our sponsors Veolia EnviroGrant. The EnviroGrant scheme is a community based fund run by Veolia. This fund is open to not-for-profit community groups based in Nottinghamshire, who wish to undertake community and environmental projects within the county. Application forms are available from www.veolia.co.uk/nottinghamshire.”

For more information about the Southwell Bramley Apple Festival 2014, contact the Tourist Information Centre, 01636 819038 or visit www.visitsouthwell.com