In 1827, a publican in a small Worcestershire town found a plum tree growing wild in a wood and decided to see what it produced. By 1870, over 900 tons of the Pershore plums were leaving the same town for market every single harvest. Most of Britain has never heard either half of that story.
Pershore sits in the Vale of Evesham, a stretch of Worcestershire known nationally for fruit growing, and the plum that carries the town’s name was, for the best part of a century, one of the most commercially important varieties in the entire English fruit industry. That’s not a claim made lightly. It’s backed by tonnage figures, a dedicated freight train, and an industry that shaped the town’s economy for generations before most of Britain stopped paying attention to where its plums actually came from.
What’s left today is a smaller, quieter version of that story: pick-your-own farms working the same varieties, a town-wide festival every August, and a fruit that deserves better than the “nice local jam” reputation it’s mostly settled into.
Region: Worcestershire, the Vale of Evesham, the town of Pershore
Best for: food history, late-summer pick-your-own visits, a genuinely under-told piece of English fruit-growing history
Getting there: Pershore railway station sits on the Cotswold Line between Worcester and Oxford, with the town centre a short walk from the station
Time needed: two to three hours for the town itself, a full day if combining with pick-your-own farms nearby
Pershore Plums: The Fruit a Publican Found Growing Wild
The story starts in 1827, in Tiddesley Wood, a stretch of ancient woodland just outside Pershore. A local publican, walking the wood, came across a plum tree growing wild that produced fruit unlike anything being cultivated in the area’s orchards at the time: pale yellow-gold, sweet, and well suited to both eating fresh and cooking. That tree became the source of what growers named the Yellow Egg Pershore Plum, and within a few decades it had gone from a chance discovery in an unremarkable wood to the variety that would define an entire region’s fruit industry.
It’s worth pausing on how unlikely that origin actually is. Most commercially significant fruit varieties in English history come from deliberate breeding programmes, careful grafting, and sustained horticultural effort. The Yellow Egg Pershore Plum came from someone noticing a wild tree was producing something worth paying attention to, and having the sense to propagate it rather than walk past.
From Tiddesley Wood to the Mainstay of English Plum Farming
Once growers realised what they had, the Vale of Evesham’s soil and climate did the rest. The variety spread from Pershore across the surrounding orchards through the mid-19th century, and by the century’s later decades the Pershore Plum had become the mainstay of English plum farming in the region, grown at a scale that made the Vale of Evesham synonymous with plums the way Kent had become synonymous with hops.
By 1870, the numbers had become genuinely significant. Over 900 tons of Pershore plums were being sent to market during a single harvest, moved out of a relatively small Worcestershire town toward buyers across the country. That volume needed proper transport infrastructure to actually get the fruit to market while it was still saleable, and the railway answered that need directly: a train was informally known as “The Pershore Plum” during the First World War era, running loaded with the harvest, carrying the fruit to markets across Britain faster than road transport of the period could have managed.
What Makes a Pershore Plum: Yellow Egg, Purple Pershore, Pershore Emblem
The original Yellow Egg variety wasn’t the last word in Pershore’s plum story. Purple Pershore followed as a related cultivar, and more recently, in 2000, a local grower named Ged Witts found a new variety growing on his own allotment, since named the Pershore Emblem in recognition of where it was found. It’s a smaller echo of the original 1827 story, another Pershore plum variety discovered rather than deliberately bred, found by someone paying attention to what was growing on their own patch of ground.
Pershore Emblem and Purple Pershore plums are typically picked early to mid-August, ahead of many other English plum varieties, which is part of why the town’s festival timing sits where it does on the calendar. The Yellow Egg’s distinctive pale colour, sweeter than most cooking plums but firm enough to hold its shape, made it particularly suited to jam-making and preserving, which is exactly the trade that kept demand for the variety strong even as fresh-eating tastes shifted toward other fruit over the 20th century.
That distinction between eating and cooking fruit mattered enormously to Victorian and Edwardian buyers in a way it doesn’t quite register with a modern supermarket shopper. A plum that held its shape through boiling, didn’t collapse into mush, and carried enough natural sugar to need less added during preserving was worth more to a jam maker than a softer, sweeter dessert variety, even if it wasn’t the fruit anyone reached for to eat straight from the tree. Pershore’s plums earned their reputation doing exactly that job, at a scale few other English growing regions could match.
The Wider Vale of Evesham Fruit Trade
Pershore’s plum industry didn’t grow in isolation. The wider Vale of Evesham built its national reputation on fruit and market gardening more broadly through the same period; asparagus, plums, and soft fruit all moved out of the region toward Birmingham, London, and beyond as the rail network made fast delivery practical. Pershore’s specific contribution was scale and consistency in one variety, at a moment when British food buyers wanted exactly that kind of dependable supply rather than small, inconsistent local harvests.
Picking Season: When and Where
Plum picking around Pershore generally runs from July into September, with the earlier varieties, Pershore Emblem and Purple Pershore, ready from early to mid-August. The exact timing shifts year to year with the weather, which is worth knowing before planning a trip specifically around picking your own rather than simply visiting the town.
Two working farms in the immediate area offer pick-your-own access during the season: Walsgrove Farm, on the A44 a few miles north of Pershore, and Clive’s Fruit Farm, both running through the July to September window. Hours and exact picking availability shift with how the crop is doing in a given year, so it’s worth confirming directly with either farm before travelling specifically for it rather than assuming a fixed schedule.
The Pershore Plum Festival
Pershore marks its own fruit-growing history properly once a year. The 2026 Pershore Plum Festival runs from Saturday 29 to Monday 31 August, spreading across the town centre with a farmers market on Broad Street, a funfair, live music and boat trips on the river, built specifically around celebrating the harvest at the point in the season when it’s actually happening.
It’s the clearest way to see the town’s relationship with its namesake fruit in person, stalls selling plum jams, chutneys and baked goods alongside the practical business of a working farmers market, rather than a purely nostalgic heritage event disconnected from what’s still actually grown in the surrounding orchards.
Where to Buy and Pick Your Own
Beyond the Festival itself, Pershore’s Broad Street shops and the wider town centre carry plum-based products through the season, jams and preserves made from local fruit rather than imported stock. For picking your own, Walsgrove Farm and Clive’s Fruit Farm remain the two established options in the immediate area, both worth a call ahead during the height of the season to confirm what’s actually ready.
Where to Stay: The Angel Inn Hotel, 9 High Street, Pershore, overlooks the town’s central market square, with a refurbished restaurant and bar serving locally sourced produce, a fitting base for a visit built around the town’s own harvest.
Getting There
Pershore railway station sits on the Cotswold Line, connecting Worcester and Oxford, with regular services making the town straightforward to reach without a car. The station is a short walk from the town centre, and Walsgrove Farm and Clive’s Fruit Farm are both within a short drive for anyone wanting to combine the town visit with actual picking.
Practical Tips
- Visit early to mid August for the best chance of picking Pershore Emblem or Purple Pershore plums at their peak.
- Call ahead to Walsgrove Farm or Clive’s Fruit Farm to confirm current picking availability before travelling specifically for it; hours shift with the crop.
- Time a visit around the Pershore Plum Festival, 29 to 31 August 2026, for the fullest sense of the town’s connection to its harvest.
- Bring your own containers if pick-your-own farms don’t guarantee supply, check with the farm directly when booking or arriving.
- Pershore railway station on the Cotswold Line is the easiest way to reach the town without driving.
- Try plum-based preserves from Broad Street’s shops even outside picking season; many are made from the previous season’s harvest.
Responsible Visiting
Pick-your-own farms are working businesses, not open access land. Stick to marked rows, follow any instructions given by farm staff, and pay for what you pick rather than treating a visit as a free sampling trip. Tiddesley Wood, the site of the original 1827 discovery, is a working and protected woodland; treat it with the same care you’d give any ancient woodland site.
Reader Q&A
When is the best time to visit Pershore for plum picking? Early to mid August generally offers the best access to Pershore Emblem and Purple Pershore varieties, though exact timing shifts with the season; confirm with a local farm before travelling.
Is the original Yellow Egg Pershore Plum still grown today? Yes, though not at the scale of its 19th-century peak. It remains part of the region’s fruit-growing heritage alongside newer varieties like Pershore Emblem.
What’s the difference between Pershore Emblem and Purple Pershore? Pershore Emblem was discovered on a local allotment in 2000 by grower Ged Witts, while Purple Pershore is an older cultivar related to the original Yellow Egg variety; both are typically picked early to mid-August.
Is the Pershore Plum Festival free to attend? The town-wide festival includes a free farmers’ market and general festival atmosphere on Broad Street, though individual stalls, the funfair and boat trips carry their own costs.
Can you visit Pershore for the fruit-growing history without a car? Yes, Pershore railway station on the Cotswold Line puts the town centre and its history within easy reach, though visiting the pick-your-own farms themselves is easier with your own transport.
A publican finding a wild plum tree in 1827 doesn’t sound like the start of a national food industry, but it was. Nine hundred tons a year at its Victorian peak, a train named after the fruit itself, and a harvest that still comes in every August almost exactly where it always has, in the same Worcestershire soil that made it possible in the first place.
Read more about Kent’s growing wine country, Norfolk’s brief and briny samphire season, or browse our full Food category for more of England’s overlooked harvests.
