On Wednesday 26 October the National Trust will be hosting a day of pressing and juicing Somerset heritage apple varieties from the orchard at Coleridge Cottage in Somerset.
Visitors to the Apple Day at Coleridge Cottage will be able to sample the juice that inspired some of the most influential poetry of its time and are being encouraged to bring their own containers so they can take some to enjoy at home.
The cottage was home to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a romantic poet who moved to Nether Stowey on New Year’s Eve, 1796. It was during his time here in Somerset that Coleridge wrote his finest works, including ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, ‘Kubla Khan’, ‘Frost at Midnight’, ‘Christabel’ and ‘This Lime Tree Bower my Prison’. Working with William Wordsworth on their collection of poetry Lyrical Ballads, it was here in the wild west Somerset landscape that the literary movement of Romanticism was born.
Charlotte Hall, Visitor Experience Officer at Coleridge Cottage, comments: “The cottage was gifted to the National Trust in 1909 and since then it has been deliberately kept ‘natural’, in keeping with the spirit of the cottage as Coleridge would have known it. It is therefore only fitting that we use nature to celebrate Coleridge’s birthday, so this October the cottage will be planting a Porlock Pippin tree in the orchard on their own Apple Day. This significant tree has been cultivated in Porlock and kindly donated to the Cottage.”
As well as taking part in the Apple Day, visitors can explore the wildflower garden, and rooms of the cottage which have been recreated as though Coleridge and his young family had just stepped out of the door.
Find out more about the cottage and when to visit HERE
Photo credits to National Trust Images:
John Millar – cottage
Paul Harris – apple press
James Dobson – apples
