Isle of Wight Orchard - Afton Park Apples

At the Orchard we have 150 mature apple trees, mainly Cox's Orange and Bramley, but also James Grieve, Discovery, Spartan and Blenhiem Orange. We are also planting traditional apple varieties more in keeping with our Isle of Wight location. These include Isle of Wight Pippin, Sir John Thornycroft, Howgate Wonder and the Isle of Wight Russet.

The apple is our most ancient and traditional fruit, it has been a part of our culture for hundreds of years, from Isaac Newton and William Tell to apple dunking and toffee apples. But over the past 30 years thousands of acres of apple trees have been destroyed as growers have succumbed to pressure from foreign imports.

Apples do well Isle of Wight with plenty of sunshine and few frosts, and we sell apples and our Apple Juice direct from the Orchard. Our Apple Juice is stocked locally by shops and cafes. In 2007 the juice won Gold at the National Great Taste Awards and in 1999 we entered the National Fruit Show and won 3rd place.

The Orchard was planted by Les Smith in 1970 and there were originally over 1000 trees on dwarf root stock covering 7 acres. But with no one willing to take it on as a commercial venture most of the trees were pulled out in 1995.

The Orchard becomes the centre of attention each year on the Isle of Wight during the Apple Days Festival in September.