Including all known Perry Pears of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
The national distribution of the specialised group of pears known as perry pears is very largely confined to the three counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Most of the varieties originate from the parishes around May Hill on the border of Gloucestershire with Herefordshire and because of the difficulty in deciding which varieties are indigenous to the county, all known varieties from the three counties are included.
The standard reference work 'Perry Pears' was published in 1963 by Long Ashton Research Station as a result of field work undertaken by Ray Williams and Gillian Faulkner. This work is extensively referred to in this section on pears.
The author has carried out a further survey during the 1990s while helping to establish the National Perry Pear Collection at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern. During this survey a number of varieties mentioned but not described in 'Perry Pears' have finally come to light and are described here. In addition a number of varieties "new to science" have been discovered along with a small number of Gloucestershire dessert pears not previously recorded.
See also: list of pears in the Hartpury collection 1, list of pears in the Hartpury collection 2, National Collection of Perry Pears
Status codes
- Not endangered - more than 20 sites currently known
- Endangered, 10 to 20 sites
- Critical, 10 sites or fewer
