Woolly says – It had been a bit of a week both for Alfie the Dog and Jo’s bank balance. Following a bad landing when descending from the bed, the Barking boy was more of a whimpering woofer, a trip to the vet ensued with x-rays under anaesthetic and pain relief administered and the conclusion that he had pulled a muscle in his hind leg and would be on bed rest for a week. He didn’t seem happy about this conclusion and it did put a slight dent in the weeks blogging activities but with my quick thinking and the need to buy food and pistachio’s Jo and I decided that we could fit a quick visit in, to the Hereford Cider Museum while furry paws snoozed away back at base.

Hereford is famous for its cider across the world with names like Strongbow, Bulmer’s and Woodpecker having been part of our lives for where over a century, we are literally surrounded by cider producers in the area. The orchard where the tipi’s stand was once a cider orchard were the practice of the farmer making the brew which was given in lieu of money to the farm labourers was once a way of life.

The temperance societies felt that the ‘intelligence of the working class was being adversely affected by drink’ with the consumption of their daily 3 litres and in 1831 the practice was abolished and all workers were paid in actual money. I wouldn’t mind being paid in pistachios or marshmallows so failed to see the problem.

Having paid for our tickets and received a map Jo followed me into the first exhibition area which gave us lots of information of apple spices and how they were harvested before moving into an area which housed a huge apple crusher which would have been pulled round by a horse before being bagged and placed into the press to form a ‘cheese’, I got slightly confused at this point as I had thought we were on apples not cheese but apparently there is a cross over!

A travelling cidermakers press looked ready for work, once it would have gone from farm to farm allowing the farmers to press their crop and get the cider ready for the workforce to enjoy.

A number of display cabinets provided us with cider cups and glass wear along with some of the memorabilia created from advertising over the years.

The boardroom was a wood panelled area where the owners of Bulmer’s Cider would have once made all of their important decisions, lined with pictures of the family that had run the cider mill for so many years, the last one as recently as 1993.

A small office next door displayed an ancient typewriter which would have taken a huge amount of effort to use in comparison to the laptops of today.

Next door was the Pomona Gallery (Pomona’s are books illustrating cider fruit) with it’s amazing prints of hundreds of different varieties of apples and pears, each plate was incredibly detailed and looked as though you could almost pick up the fruit and sample it for yourself.

Being cider apples, they wouldn’t have tasted very nice although I would have liked to see his furry face if he had tried.

Woolly says – Down into the cellar we went, 7 acres of underground tunnels full to bursting with bottles.

The champagne cider bottles are stored upside down so that the yeast will drop to the cork, row after row after row stretched before my eyes, as each bottle is turned 45 degrees each day it must be an all-consuming job.

Once the brewing time had elapsed the neck of the bottles were frozen and the yeast removed ready for consumption.

We wandered past row after row of upturned bottles before eventually arriving at the Cooper’s shop where the barrels would have been constructed out of oak to contain the liquid gold. When the former factory was operational the barrels would have held up to 500 galloons each, which is small measures compared to the 1.65 million gallon containers used in this day and age.

The engine room seemed very small to carry all of its responsibility and the 1929 Bramford engine looked as good as when it would have first been put into place.

The bottling area provided a range of machines that would have bottled and corked the cider ready to send out to the public bars and shops through all manner of odd-looking machines.

Finding ourselves back at the start a lovely lady offered us some samples to try, Jo who doesn’t like cider opted for the plain apple juice while I took a small sip and savoured the taste of the liquid gold before being forcibly removed for hiccupping too much!

Just an update on Alfie the Dog who is continuing to make excellent progress although he is now getting a bit fed up of not going for a walk which hopefully will change in the next few days as his leg mends, he is however most happy with the amount of fuss he is receiving so it’s not all bad.