Richard Cox and
the Cox's Orange Pippin

The following comes from a leaflet produced by Common Ground and Colne Valley Groundwork Trust (Now Thames Valley Groundwork) in 1992.

The most famous apple in the world was raised in Colnbrook by Richard Cox, a retired brewer from Bermondsey, who moved to The Lawns, Colnbrook End, to pursue his hobby of horticulture. He lived there with his wife, two maid servants, a boy servant and three gardeners in two acres of land in the vicinity of Rodney Way and Daventry Close on the north side of the old Bath Road (now the High Street).

In about 1825 Richard Cox planted two seeds from a Ribston Pippin which he is thought to have pollinated with a Blenheim Orange. Some years later, when the trees had fruited, he realised they had potential. These were later to be known as the Cox's Orange Pippin and Cox's Pomona. In 1836 he supplied some grafts to R. Small & Son, the local nurseryman (then located behind Nursery Cottage on the south side of the High Street) who sold the first trees in 1840. The varieties remained nationally unknown until Charles Turner of the Royal Nurseries, Slough, started to promote them in 1850. The original Cox's Orange Pippin tree is thought to have blown down in a gale in 1911, but two sixty year old trees were seen still standing in the garden in 1933, presumably direct grafts from the original.

An Important Fruit
A Village in an Orchard
An Orchard in a Village
Caring for the Orchard
Celebrate - Apple Day, October 21st
Location
Names and Offspring