Survival of the fattest

RHS Journals

The Garden  
August 2008

Survival of the fattest 

Simon Garbutt explores the history of competitive gooseberry growing, and finds the 'sport' still alive and kicking.

The 19th century was the heyday of competitive gooseberry growing, with great advances in their cultivation during the first quarter of the century. From the mid 18th century to the early 19th century, prizewinning berries were around a third of the weight of those being produced just 25 to 30 years later. In the first chapter of On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin cited the ‘steadily increasing size of the common gooseberry’ as an instance of selection by man, rather than by nature.

In 1822 JC Loudon ( An Encyclopaedia of Gardening ) wrote ‘In Lancashire, and some parts of the adjoining counties, almost every cottager who has a garden, cultivates the gooseberry, with a view to prizes given at what are called gooseberry-prize meetings.’ The annual Manchester Gooseberry Book recorded the names and weights of the winning cultivars, at meetings across northern England, from Nottingham to Carlisle: there were 136 such meetings in 1819.

In 1862, while researching his book Variation Under Domestication , Darwin wrote to the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener asking for verification of the record gooseberry weights: ‘The fruit of the wild Gooseberry is said to weigh about 5 dwts.*, and from various records I find that towards the close of the last century the fruit had doubled in weight; … in 1845, "London" reached the astonishing weight of 36 dwts. 16 grs., or 880 grains. … Will any one have the kindness to inform me whether it is authentically known that the weight of 36 dwts. 16 grs., has, since the year 1845, been ever excelled?’ In fact this record was to stand for 126 years! *Pennyweights (1dwt = 24 grains; there are 240 dwts in a troy pound).

Although 19th century sources generally refer to show cultivars as ‘Lancashire’ or sometimes ‘Manchester’ sorts, at the height of the craze there were gooseberry societies and shows throughout northern England and the north Midlands, from Nottinghamshire to Carlisle, and from North Wales to Yorkshire. The heartland seems to have been around Manchester, and it is possible that the competitive growing of gooseberries arose in the newly industrialised areas of the northwest, as workers who had recently moved from countryside to town (or from rural occupations to industrial ones such as weaving) took up hobbies that kept them in touch with their rural roots. 

Cultivars

The Horticultural Society of London (which became the RHS) trialled 70 gooseberry cultivars in the early 1800s but did not include many of the show kinds. According to Charles McIntosh’s Book of the Garden (1853) this was because they were ‘below the standard of merit in regard to flavour, notwithstanding their great size’. On the other hand, G Lindley’s A Guide to the Orchard and Fruit Garden (1831) listed 200 of the best show cultivars and their record weights, plus more than 500 other garden cultivars. By the end of the 19th century there may have been as many as 2000 gooseberry cultivars, according to Richard Mabey in Flora Britannica (1996).

Some old cultural techniques

Part of the skill in raising a record gooseberry is keeping it in good condition on the plant (called a ‘tree’, because it is grown on a single stalk, or ‘leg’, not as a bush) until the eve of the show. Growers sometimes used to pick a large rhubarb leaf and put it over the gooseberry tree to shelter it from extreme weather: a hot spell might ripen the berry too early, after which it might burst or cease to grow; too much rain might also cause it to burst – or rot.

Charles McIntosh also recorded some of the ‘curious expedients’ used by Lancashire growers to produce record berries, including ‘suckling’ – mulching with ‘rich and stimulating manure’ – which he thought inferior to feeding with liquid manure ‘extending to the farthest ramifications of the roots, that the spongiolets might pump it into the system of the plant.’ He describes using portable screens of ‘coarse paper, thin canvass, or the like’ to shade the bushes while the fruit was swelling, so it did not ripen too rapidly. To increase the weight, some gardeners would submerge the tip of each berry, as it was growing, in a shallow vessel of water, which seems like an extremely risky strategy.

Gooseberry societies today

There are eight societies in the Mid-Cheshire Gooseberry Shows Association, some named after their village, others after the pub where they meet. Originally, most societies only admitted members from their own village, or parish, or from within a certain district or radius around their venue; some have now relaxed their admission conditions because of declining interest. Crown of Peover (in Lower Peover), Goostrey, Holmes Chapel and Lower Withington all meet on the last Saturday in July; Allostock (also known by its former name of Drovers), Marton, Parkgate (Over Peover) and Swettenham Club meet on the first Saturday in August.

There is one other Cheshire society, Swettenham Victoria, which does not belong to the association, and one in Yorkshire, at Egton Bridge, near Whitby. Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Show is possibly the oldest society in the country, with records going back to 1800. It holds its show on the first Tuesday in August, and because it admits members from any part of the country it has more exhibitors than any of the Cheshire groups. 

View photos of some 2008 gooseberry shows

Cheshire gooseberry show contact details

Mid-Cheshire Gooseberry Shows Association: John Edgerton (Secretary) 01606 41731

Collections of Show Gooseberry cultivars

Walled Garden, Tatton Park , Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 6QN. Gardens open Tues–Sun plus Mondays in August 
10am–6pm (last entry 5pm). Tel: 01625 374435.

The Walled Garden, Norton Priory , Runcorn, Cheshire WA7 1SX. Open daily April–Oct, 1.30–4.30pm. Tel: 01928 569895.

Rode Hall Gardens , Church Lane, Scholar Green, Cheshire ST7 3QP. Open 1 April–30 Sept Tue–Thur & Bank Hols 2–5pm (Free entry for RHS Members) Tel: 01270 882961/873237.

NCCPG National Plant Collections of Gooseberry cultivars

Brogdale Horticultural Trust , Brogdale Farm, Brogdale Rd, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8XZ (Tel: 01795 535286). Open Easter–end of Oct 10am–5pm daily; Nov–Easter 10am–4.30pm daily.

Rougham Hall Nurseries , Ipswich Rd, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP30 9LZ (Tel: 01359 270577). (130 cultivars, grown as wall-trained cordons) Open 10–4 daily.

 

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