Save our cider: apple growers and producers call on government to protect traditional ‘native wine of England’

Nine in ten traditional orchards in England have been lost since the second world war. Farmers and cider makers are now fighting for their survival

They are a symbol of the bucolic English countryside and a staple of the West Country landscape, but since the second world war, 90% of traditional orchards have disappeared.

Defined as a collection of five or more fruit trees planted in permanent grassland and managed in a non-intensive way, traditional orchards have suffered from neglect, been razed for development and converted to intensive bush orchards or alternative crops.