APPLE juice fresh from the press will be the top attraction when Colwall celebrates its favourite fruit on Saturday, October 17.

The event is organised by Colwall Orchard Group and will take place in its community orchard off Old Church Road.

Anyone with spare apples is welcome to bring them along from 1.30pm and join the group's volunteers in scratting and pressing them to make apple juice.

Helen Stace, event organiser, said: “Fresh apple juice has a fantastic fresh zingy flavour, which varies according to the varieties being pressed. We generally make a mixed juice, but will do some single-variety pressings if we get enough of any one sort."

Also on the day there will be the chance to try your hand at willow weaving with Royal Horticultural Society award-winning willow sculpture artist Victoria Westaway, to create an apple sculpture for the community orchard.

Tim Dixon, chairman of the group said: "Before the supermarkets, people knew all their local varieties and how to store them and when and how best to use them.

"They managed to keep themselves stocked with apples over a long season and one former apple worker in our village recalls that his mother took great pride in being apple to bake an apple pie every week of the year.”

The group will be displaying a selection of Colwall-grown varieties on the day, and experts will be on hand to identify samples, which have to include at least three undamaged apples, picked from the sunny side of the tree, with a spray of mature leaves and a new shoot of leaves.

Mrs Stace said: "Do come along to celebrate our apple heritage in the lovely setting of Colwall’s community orchard. We will be offering cider, tea, coffee and cakes as well as selling apple juice and our range of preserves, and everyone is welcome to look around the orchard."