"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" (British old proverb)

While British summer fruit harvests are having a bumper year, apple growers are watching their crops closely in case the drought in parts of the UK worsens. The British eat their way through 50 billion apples each year, and it's the nation's love affair with the fruit that has made it so popular today, writes horticulturalist Chris Beardshaw.

APPLE FACTS:

• Britain once produced the most apple varieties in the world
• 50 billion apples consumed in UK each year
• 70% of apples sold in UK are imported
• 2300 varieties preserved in National Fruit Collection
• Thomas Andrew Knight created first hybrid apples
• 45% of apples grown in UK are used to make cider

For centuries the apple has captivated us, but it's tricky to cultivate because apples are promiscuous by design. They have a more complex genetic make-up than any other fruit.

Some of the world's best-loved apples, like the Braeburn and the Bramley, were discovered growing as chance seedlings, gifts from nature that just happened to taste good. The Granny Smith was discovered growing out of a rubbish heap in Australia.

The Bramley, one of Britain's most prosperous and time-honoured apples, was planted 200 years ago in Nottinghamshire. That first tree was grown from a pip by a young woman, Mary Ann Brailsford, between

1809 and 1815. Since then every single Bramley apple ever eaten and tree planted has originated from i it. 

That's a lot, with the Bramley apple industry is worth £50m today.

The pip most probably came from an apple on a tree at the bottom of her garden. The seedling produced such fine apples that in 1837 a local nurseryman asked the next occupier of the house, Matthew Bramley, for his permission to graft scions from the tree. Bramley agreed as long as the apples bore his name. Ms Brailsford never knew the fame her apples achieved.

Mary Ann Brailsford near the original Bramley which she planted  

This original Bramley tree still stands today and the proud custodian is Nancy Harrison. Aged 90, she has spent many years admiring the tree. She grew up next door and such was her enthusiasm for it she bought her neighbour's house when the opportunity arose - and with it her beloved tree.

"I paid £500 for the house," she says. "We knew it was a wonderful apple because there's nothing cooks like it, we always loved it. We've never climbed the tree or anything, nobody's been allowed to damage the Bramley at all."

Nancy Harrison near the original Bramley apple tree

The 1944 fruit census tells us by that time there were already more than two million Bramley trees in existence.

Never forget: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"