Gloucestershire Orchard Group

Conserves, promotes and celebrates traditional orchards in Gloucestershire

PLUMS of GLOUCESTERSHIRE

The table below includes plums, damsons and pruins either recorded as being from Gloucestershire or are only recorded from Gloucestershire and are presumed to be indigenous.

UPDATE: 27/7/2007 The lastest list of Gloucestershire Plums is now available! Download (PDF, 8MB)

  variety in existence

Variety name			Synonyms	Description
Blaisdon Red Plum				Originated in the village of Blaisdon. Was used for jam-making until the jam factories made use of freezing.
Bristol Plum				A rare variety found round Rodley and adjoining riverside areas.
Damson Plum				This variety looks a bit like a Blaisdon, but with a slender stem. The only known site in Gloucestershire is the New Grounds, Slimbridge, where the tree was planted in the early 1900s.
Dymock Red Plum				From the village of its name and still quite common. Shaped like a miniature peach.
Frampton Magnum Plum			Frampton Plum	From Frampton Cotterell and was used to sustain local coal miners.
Groves Late Victoria Plum				Like a Victoria but is ready 10 days later.
Jacob Plum				Now known from one old tree at Rodley. Was previously used as a rootstock for grafting other varieties on to. It has a distinctive striated bark.
Johnnie Moor Plum				An old variety from Cheltenham. It is now lost.
Michaelmas Damson				A small damson which looks exactly like a Sweet Damson - but with a bitter flavour.
Old Pruin				Like an elongated damson. As well as eating it was used for dying cloth.
Rodley Blackjack				Small plum from Rodley, frequently used as a rootstock for grafting other varieties on to.
Rowell's Pruin				From the Arlingham peninsula. An underrated variety with a flavour between plum and damson.
Shit Smock				Known from Chaxhill and Longhope areas. Small and greenish like a grape. Overindulgence could probably have dire consequences - hence its name.
Smith's Pruin				Like an Old Pruin but a bit bigger, a bit rounder, a bit later and a heavier cropper. Was found in the Chaxhill area and is now lost.
Sweet Damson				Looks like a Michaelmas damson but is ready much earlier and is pleasant to eat.
Victor Christian Plum				A large blue-black plum and a light cropper.

14 varieties in existence

Text © 1999, Charles Martell.
Photographs © 2004, J A Bailey.