THE WYKEN PIPPIN PUBLIC HOUSE

Customers at the Wyken Pippin public house in Coventry were yesterday enjoying meals in the new £23,000 licensed restaurant. Nine month's work by builders has transformed the old rooms of the public house into a restaurant, which will seat 93 people. Reconstruction work cost £18,000 and furnishings another £5,000 in part of Phipps brewery's drive to establish four licensed restaurants in their public houses in Coventry. The modern-styled interior is dominated by a 17ft-long fibre-glass mural, which depicts the discovery in the 18th century of the apple from which the house takes its name. Doors lead from the restaurant out to a terrace on which diners will be able to take coffee during spells of good  weather. The Wyken Pippin is the first public house, which the brewery is developing in Coventry and plans are being made to develop the Phoenix at Whoberly on similar lines. A staff of eighteen will work in the new restaurant.

Taken from the Coventry Evening Telegraph, 1966

The Wyken Pippin

How many people know the Wyken Pippin? No not the public house  the apple tree. Reading a book "The Apples of England" by H.V. Taylor, I was fascinated to learn that the Wyken Pippin is not merely the name of a public house but of an apple tree which had its origin from seed saved from an apple which Lord Craven ate on his travels from France to Holland, and which was planted at Wyken, near Coventry. It was, apparently, introduced about 1720, and  the original tree was still in existence in 1827. It is co-parent with Cox's Orange Pippin of the famous Laxton's Superb. It is described as "a valuable and delicious dessert apple of the first quality." Are there still Wyken Pippins growing at Wyken? There ought to be.

Taken from Warwickshire Notebook, Coventry Standard 9th November 1956

Wyken Hunt Ends in Isle of Wight

BOSSES at Severn Trent Water got the pip when they couldn't  find a Warwickshire apple species to plant in a new orchard at the Finham sewage treatment works in Coventry. Despite trying 25 nurseries ¥-from Coventry and Warwickshire to the apple growing region of Somerset - their search proved fruitless until someone suggested they try a nursery on the Isle of Wight. Sure enough, the nursery came up trumps, providing 10 Wyken Pippins, also known as Warwickshire Pippins, which were raised from seedlings at Wyken in the 18th century. Delighted Seven Trent bosses are now watching the trees flourish at Finham. They have already produced the first apples of the summer. District manager Jim Robinson said:  "Having decided to plant an orchard on the works, we felt it important to protect and preserve indigenous species for the future, particularly as local varieties of fruit trees appear to be disappearing fast in  Warwickshire. We proved the point when we started our search locally for native saplings and drew a blank" The lack of local species of apple available is not surprising, according to Bob Sherman, gardens curator  at Ryton Organic Gardens near Coventry. He said, "The problem is there are only a limited number of people specialising in unusual varieties." "They were lucky to find anyone really. A couple of years  ago, Wykens were very difficult to come by but there has been a renewed interest in the past few years." Seven Trent's orchard is one of the natural features being developed at the 100-acre sire, which treats about  25 million gallons of sewage a day from the Coventry area. A wildlife garden, incorporating a pond and a teasel garden designed to attract gold finches, has recently been added to the existing nature trail around the works.

Taken from The Coventry Evening Telegraph, 1998

Wyken Pippin Wins A New Lifespan

By Fiona Scott

Environment reporter,

TWO HUNDRED saplings of an endangered species of apple tree are being saved for the next millennium thanks to Coventry schoolchildren, the city'' Groundwork Trust and generous city people. The Wyken Pippin, a small dessert apple is believed to have been introduced to Britain by Lord Craven who planted the seed of a Continental apple in the village of Wyken. An alternative theory is that it came to Britain from Holland in the early 1700's and cross-bred with Cox's Orange Pippins. But whatever the correct story about its arrival in Coventry, the tree  looked set to disappear completely as fewer and fewer of the old variety were planted and properly raised. One of the best-known remaining stocks of the tree was in the Kingsway orchard off Binley Road, which was partly  flattened to make way for Coventry's North South Road. Only a few Wyken Pippins remain there. Bob Keith, executive director of environmental organisation Groundwork Coventry said, "At first it looked like we might have been too late to save the pippin and the other old fruit trees. The only remaining trees were so old and so badly damaged that taking cuttings that would develop into new young trees was always going to be difficult" So he appealed for people living in Coventry and Warwickshire to check their gardens, orchards and farms for Wyken Pippins - and was surprised when more than 40 answered. Groundwork staff visited every caller to check the trees and drew up a short-list of healthy ones - from Kingsway orchard, Sunnie farm near Brandon, Binley Vicarage and Four Pounds Avenue allotments. Then a class of pupils from Bishop Ullathorne RC School in Coventry spent a day collecting cuttings from the most promising sites and grafting them on to new apple tree rootstock. More than 200 trees were potted up in one day and are now being looked after by staff at Warwick University. They will stay there for about one year before being planted out across the city for the millennium. Mr Keith said, "The trees cannot be grown from pips because there is no guarantee the seedlings will be genetically true to the tree the apples have come from - they could have been pollinated by a different variety." Amazingly, more than 90 per cent of the grafts seem to have worked. The children will be keeping their fingers crossed over the school holidays, but thanks to the support of the university it looks like we might be able to mark the millennium by saving part of the regions historic past."

 Taken from Coventry Evening Telegraph, 1999

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