Name/TitleApple Grader

About this objectAn apple grader of fairly common type, known as a "cutlass".

The machine was used by the donor at his fruit farm, for a period of only 3 to 4 years until he ceased apple growing. Since he only had a relatively small number of trees, the grader was operated using only one side, the other being against a wall.

It was obtained from another fruit farm where is was used for 3 years. Two people would feed the machine, placing an apple in each cup manually, and four were employed on packing, taking the apples from the sprung trays, wrapping them in tissue, and putting them in boxes.

It is unlikely that the machine would have been hand-cranked. The grader has fittings for a "return belt" at the lower end (namely two rollers) but the belt itself is missing. At neither of the above farms was the belt in use, but the idea of it was to lay rotten fruit on it, which would then be taken down the wooden shoot and dropped into a separate box. There are a number of rough stands, made out of old wooden boxes, which were use for supporting the apple boxes which were being emptied or filled. Adjustment of the weights into which the apples were sorted is by means of bags of lead shot, and small pockets into which coins were inserted to increase tension. The lighter apples were graded into the first compartments and the heavier into the latter.

Hannah White, Research Volunteer:
An apple grader is used to sort or ‘grade’ apples so that they can be organised by size, type, and condition before passing onto the buyers or wholesalers.

We know apples were gathered in Europe in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, but these would not have borne much of a resemblance to the fruit we think of as apples today. Archaeology suggests that they were smaller, more in line with the Malus sylvestris breed: what we think of today as a crab apple. This scientific name translates as ‘forest apple’, and far from the sweeter taste we enjoy, we can imagine that they would have tasted very acidic.

Specially cultivated apple varieties spread across Europe to France, arriving in England at around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. Between 1455-1485, the War of the Roses, repeated droughts and the Black Death led to a decline in the production of both apples and pears in England. Henry VIII successfully managed to reverse the decline when he instructed the fruiterer, Richard Harris, to establish the first large scale orchards at Teynham in Kent.

The domesticated apples that we eat today come from central Asia, and sweeter tasting fruit nearer to what we would recognise appeared in the Middle East around 4,000 years ago. It was the development of a process known as ‘grafting’ that allowed the growing of trees with especially flavourful fruit helping to increase disease free larger yields. The varieties passed to Europe and were adopted by the Victorians who were always enthusiastic horticulturalists keen to create new varieties.

The country’s earliest record of fruit orchards appears in the foundation charter of Castle Acre Priory of about 1089, and the earliest mention of a named apple variety in England is recorded in a 13th century document from the Broadland parish of Runham, when a tenant farmer paid his annual rent with, “200 pearmains, and four hogsheads of wine, made of pearmains”.

Large-scale commercial orchards arrived with the coming of the railways in the 19th century. These were concentrated in two areas of the county, in the west, centred on the town of Wisbech, and in the east, on the Broadland Rivers of the Waveney, Bure and Ant. Gaymers Cider Works in Banhmam, and later Attleborough, was also a large consumer of Norfolk apples. At one point Suffolk had around 6,000 traditional orchards-virtually every farm and country house would have had one-but as land has been sold, they have gradually disappeared.

Medium and MaterialsWood, iron, and canvass.

Object numberSTMEA:A.4250

Copyright LicenceAttribution - Non-commercial (cc)