On Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Sacha wrote:

The man who used to own this house - Edward Hyams - was one of the
first to try growing vines for modern wine making in England. In
fact, he grew them here where our greenhouses are now. I don't
think he was terribly successful though he did write one of his many
books on the subject!

And he is mentioned by writers on English viticulture since. My
first book on the subject was written by Gillian Pearkes in 1969 and
she mentions Edward Hyams.

And her brother is now our vicar. Strange coincidences, eh?

A small world, as they say. But he must be getting on in years, as must
she - if she is still alive.

David

--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

wrote:
In article ,
Rusty Hinge wrote:
Actually, a fair number of vines intended for German vinyards have made
it over here, as the climate is (allegedly) very similar.

I used to know someone who planted a vinyard in East Anglia using a new
variety of early-ripening grapes - this was about twenty-five years ago...

Have they ripened yet?

I didn't ask him. It was someone I knew, not a friend...

--
Rusty

On Thu, 30 Sep 2010 Sacha wrote:

And he is mentioned by writers on English viticulture since. My
first book on the subject was written by Gillian Pearkes in 1969 and
mentions Edward Hyams.

And her brother is now our vicar. Strange coincidences, eh?

A small world, as they say. But he must be getting on in years, as
must she - if she is still alive.

I'd guess he's in his 60s and no, she's not still alive. I think she
died in 1993 and was born in about 1945, so she died young having
founded Yearlstone in 1976.

I didn't realise she was younger than me! It means that her book was
published when she was only 24 and she had apparently been growing vines
at that time at Dulverton for some years, as well as doing that survey
on existing English vineyards. Did she do the latter, perhaps, as part
of a university thesis?

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

Sacha wrote:

And one year older than I. Apparently - and I had to go Googlling for
this - she planted her first vineyard when she was 18. Not bad, eh?

I had my first vinyard when I was ten - I didn't plant it: when we moved
into a new and much bigger house and garden I was allotted a patch and a
potting-shed. On the patch (which I later found had hosted a greenhouse)
and weaving through the laurel hedge I discovered a vine - probably
Black Hamburg - and one of my first actions when the crop was good
enough (I was about thirteen then) was to make a quantity of wine.

It was surprisingly good for a non-winemolishing grape.

--
Rusty

Sacha wrote:
On 2010-10-02 21:09:16 +0100, Rusty Hinge
said:

I had my first vinyard when I was ten - I didn't plant it: when we
moved into a new and much bigger house and garden I was allotted a
patch and a potting-shed. On the patch (which I later found had hosted
a greenhouse) and weaving through the laurel hedge I discovered a vine
- probably Black Hamburg - and one of my first actions when the crop
was good enough (I was about thirteen then) was to make a quantity of
wine.

It was surprisingly good for a non-winemolishing grape.

Sigh...and so young, too.........

'Sallright - I haven't growed up innit.

--
Rusty