AKA Sussex Forge, this is an under-rated, if slightly small, multipurpose apple.

It arose at either Forge Farm or near old iron forges around East Grinstead. Robert Hogg described it in 1851, but by then it was well known. The variety is known as the “Cottagers' Apple” and was widely grown in north Sussex and Surrey in the nineteenth century. It is still found around East Grinstead.

“A very old variety extensively cultivated throughout Sussex, where it is one of the most popular apples for dessert and cooking. This old variety still has many supporters,” wrote H.V. Taylor in 1948.

The medium-sized apple is pale golden yellow and sometimes flushed orange. It has a distinctive pleasant aroma (perhaps more so in Cumbria than its native Sussex?).