once had an allotment site I was working, that was previously worked for thirty years by a well know gardner- and on this allotment was a lone apple tree,
In all the time I had the allotment I never realy took any notice of the tree, it flowered and fruited and they all dropped to the ground, so I used to gather them up in bagfulls and give them away, without ever trying one myself as they were a sort of patchy red and green colour and didnt look very sweet.
To cut a long story short- I eventually gave up the allotment, and about a year later I was talking to another old allotment holder- who asked me about the apple tree- he said do you know what you had there- so I said no, and he said it was one of the rarest apple trees in existance-it was called Reverent Wilkes, after an old clergyman in the 1800 era and as far as he knew there were only two in exsistance it was almost extinct= I was kicking myself afterwards
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