Wassailing the Cider Orchard

"No, we're not bird scaring and we're not drunk either…" Herefordshire folk revive the ancient custom of 'wassailing the orchard' to improve the cider apple crop.

Wassailing the orchard dates back to Anglo-Saxon times and varies in content from region to region. Here in Herefordshire we see a winter ceremony in which people make noise to banish evil spirits and rub salt into the branches of the trees. The following year reporter Peter Brown revisits the same Herefordshire orchard to discover if all that hard work in driving out the spirits has made for a better crop.