An old pear

I spent the afternoon collecting fruit from two old patches of orchards within the Rothschild water pumping station that forms part of the nature reserve. Thames Water, who now own and operate the site, have agreed that we can restore one of the orchards by saving the old trees and planting more trees of traditional local fruit varieties. My collection today, from a range of pears, apples and plums, will be taken to a local expert to see if we have any particularly rare or interesting varieties. The one illustrated is an old type of pear, with round fruit, and probably quite close to the original wild pear, Pyrus communis. The fruit is so tart and dry it is virtually inedible, but may have been used to make perry.