Rivers Nursery

A friend of mine had to spend a couple of nights in hospital and I volunteered as the taxi driver :) 

On the second afternoon he had 3 family members visiting in the afternoon so after dropping off my charge off rather than wait outside and read I grabbed my headphones and went to explore.

Thomas Rivers Hospital is private (he was referred by the NHS, and it was rather nice, especially after having visited Dad in hospital) and is in the small village of High Wych which is bordering on Sawbridgeworth.

There seemed to be a path that looked interesting and I came out into a rather large field. It was full of wild flowers and there were butterflies

There were a few apple trees  dotted about 

And then I went through an opening into an orchard! 

I got summoned back to the hospital for chauffeuring duties. 

Rivers Nursery dates back to 1725 when it was established by John Rivers but it was Thomas Rivers who is the most important name in its history. He corresponded with Darwin and was a pioneer of fruit cultivation under glass, developed many fruit and rose varieties and helped restock the Californian orange industry.

He introduced the early Rivers Plum extending the fruit growing season and authored many books on fruit and rose cultivation.

At its height at end of the 19th century there was 400 acres under cultivation what we see today is 1% 

Today it remains an important site for both flora and fauna (I saw a Jersey Tiger Moth, sorry RR ;) ) 

You can see a list of the cultivars etc on the excellent Rivers Heritage Site and Orchard website. When you see the number of   cultivars on such a relatively small site e.g. 83 Apple, and how few we now eat ..... I believe that the fruit is picked by the society and used to finance the upkeep. And can I say how indebted we are to such organisations

I'd have liked to explore more !