• Frank Farr

Cider in Budleigh

Eighty-eight–year-old Frank Farr is a familiar face in East Budleigh. Apart from 1939-45, when he was in the army, he has lived and worked in the village all his life. Over the years, Frank has jotted down memories of what village life was like during the past century, and over the coming months he will be writing about his recollections for your Journal:

There were three large cider presses known as pounds in East Budleigh.

From October to November the farmers and their men would have long poles to spike the apples down. The apples were put into sacks and stood round the trunks of the trees to be taken to the press.

The last year’s cask would be washed out with cider and scoured with a chain. The apples were pulped by a hand pulper or a horse going round and round.
Oat straw was used as it was claimed to have a high sugar content in it. It would be pressed down and the sides paired round with a hay knife. When the juice was squeezed out the press would be taken to pieces and set up again to squeeze out more.

The late Colonel Maunsell had the most hygienic press. Instead of straw sterilised horse mats, everything was washed down and then pulped. Col Maunsell had a standing order with Messrs Perriams – the Fortnum and Mason of Budleigh Salterton – for all empty spirit casks.

When the cider stopped working in a four-and-a-half gallon cask, about a pint was drawn off and went in a bottle of spirit of whatever was in the cask before.

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