Coombe Abbey Nonpareil Apple

    In past centuries, England had hundreds of different varieties of apple, all with slightly different shapes, colour and flavour. One of these was actually named after Coombe Abbey, the Craven ancestral home in Warwickshire, where it was first identified and grown.

    Its name , the Coombe Abbey Nonpareil, means "incomparable" or "unrivalled". It was described in a book called The Botanic Garden; representations of hardy ornamental flowering plants cultivated in Great Britain; with their names, classes [&c.]. [With] The floral register [and] The fruitist, Volumes 10-11  Benjamin Maund 1824 .

    We are told that this apple is not only delicious but will keep in the right conditions until March of the following year.

   Credit for developing this variety from the earlier "Nonpareil" is given in the book to John Oliver, a gardener who was said in 1824 to have been working at Coombe Abbey for upwards of forty years.

So he could be the gardener portrayed in Elizabeth Craven's novel The Witch and the Maid of Honour, which is set at Coombe Abbey.

    Has anybody today got any idea of whether the variety has survived? It is distinct from the older types "Nonpareil" and "Scarlet Nonpareil".

Coombe Abbey 18th-century print.

Elizabeth Craven was very keen on horticulture, and many of her letters refer to the fruit trees she planted and cultivated. At her cottage in Fulham she planted vines, and at Benham she planted some Golden Pippin apple trees whose blossoms she loved to enjoy in May.   

To find out more about her, read:-