Each year in October the Fruiterers visit the Lord Mayor of London for a ceremony of some antiquity. This usually occurs at the Mansion House, which is his official residence while in office.

The Company, as befits its name, presents the incumbent with several bushels of fruit. As this is in excess of personal requirements, the recipient is quite content for the Fruiterers to distribute the majority to the needy of the City, principally those that live in the hostels adjacent to the square mile.

Monday 26 October was the allotted date when the Master, accompanied by several liverymen, the clerk, beadle and honorary fruit porter, were received by the Lord Mayor Nicholas Anstee and Mrs Anstee.

After the presentation and brief speeches on the day the Master and Anstee shared a cup together.

VISIT TO THE SUPREME COURT

In early October the Fruiterers were, thanks to the help of past Master Don Cryan, provided with the opportunity to visit the Supreme Court.

This bastion of the democratic process replaced the House of Lords as the highest court in the UK exactly a year before, so it is still in its early days. The group were given a tour of the building and then sat in on a hearing. At the conclusion of the visit, Baroness Hale, one of the twelve Supreme Court Justices, spent time explaining the work of the court and then led an interesting question and answer session.

Lady Hale had been the principal speaker at the Fruiterers’ Banquet in February 2008 - just prior to the time of the relocation of the court to its new home, which is the old Middlesex Guildhall, opposite the Houses of Parliament on Parliament Square.

MASTER’S COMMENT By Steve Bodger

The National Fruit Show is held every October on the Kent Showground at Detling. It is not a huge affair, but one that is impressive nevertheless. The prime part of the show is the hall in which the displays of English-grown fruit are found; mostly top fruit, as befits the time of year, but some soft fruit as well and even some Kentish cobnuts. The quality of the fruit is outstanding - display after display of shiny, perfectly-formed apples, and boxes of juicy ripe pears are all so tempting. In fact it is very difficult to resist the impulse to grab an apple from the middle of a display and go round the corner to eat it! This really shows English fruit at its very best.

It was a delight for me to attend the show and to meet a good number of fellow liverymen there. Not all were growers; some are nurserymen, some wholesalers and some on the scientific research side. Those readers who are in the world of fruit, but who have become bound to offices or market stalls, should take a day out next year and visit the show. At the very least you will enjoy it and you will certainly meet old friends from around the industry, as well as seeing how well fruit is grown in this country.

I had the great pleasure of attending the Fruit Show dinner, held in The Turkey Mill hotel - a very lively evening, with a rising hum of conversation as the pace of networking built up. I had the honour at the dinner of presenting one of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers’ major awards. The Fruit Culture Award is given to recognise someone who has made a substantial contribution to the transfer of technology in the fruit industry through communication. There can be no better example than this year’s winner of the award, Tim Biddlecombe. Tim graduated from Wye College some 35 years ago (as an aside, what a shame it is that Wye College is no more. It was a powerhouse of education in agriculture and horticulture). He started working on pear and raspberry trials at Brogdale and rose through his career to become managing director of FAST. His broad range of practical expertise is unusual in this modern world of increased specialisation. His great gift is to be able to understand both the world of the esoteric scientific research and the practical husbandry and cultivation skills of the fruit grower.

As I have learned from my own association with East Malling, fruit growing to maximise quality and yield is a highly technical business. Typing this on my Apple Mac, I can reflect that there has probably been more technical development behind growing an apple than there is in producing a computer! Tim’s life’s work has been in bringing both scientist and grower across that bridge between research and farming. He is, indeed a very worthy winner of a very important award.

Topics