Save our cider: apple growers and producers call on government to protect traditional ‘native wine of England’

Traditional orchards are often havens for rare birds and insects. Photograph: Redvers Cider

They are a symbol of the bucolic English countryside and a staple of the West Country landscape, but since the second world war, 90% of traditional orchards have disappeared.

Defined as a collection of five or more fruit trees planted in permanent grassland and managed in a non-intensive way, traditional orchards have suffered from neglect, been razed for development and converted to intensive bush orchards or alternative crops.