(slightly out of ) FOCUS GROUP
Rupert Robinson (top left) mediates at a group research session in the 1920's
Teme Valley Times Feb/March 2009
In an item entitled "I Remember" a local recalls helping with the Cider making
in the 1930's: "The Rose and Crown (at Burford, Tenbury) featured very much in
our lives. It was here that I learned to help with the Cider making even if it
meant being stung by intoxicated wasps. The horse-powered press had been
replaced by a power one (which Robinsons still use to make their Cider today) but the system was still the
same, my job being to fill the sacks with the mashed apples and fold them ready
for the press. Mr Robinson promised me and my mother that he would send me a
case of champagne perry for my 21st birthday, some 14 years ahead. I forgot
about this but not Mr Robinson! He was as good as his word and I received a
case, as promised, delivered to the guardroom when I was doing my national
service in the RAF."
Shropshire Star October 11th 2008
In a review of the Temeside Inn at Little Hereford: "...We were soon studying
the menu and enjoying a drink. Enjoyment was definitely the word, for I had a
bottle of Tenbury's very own Robinsons Vintage Cider. Dry and incredibly
refreshing, it was certainly a cider for savouring. It was the Cider that helped
me choose my meal. The steaks sounded good but with the Cider, well I had to go
for the chicken with bacon in a stilton sauce. And that was an excellent
choice." And The Temeside, by the way, is an excellent choice as well!
Foodie Magazine March-April 2008
In an article on the ideal St George's Day dishes prepared by Gary Rhodes and
others Robinsons Cider is recommended as "A true taste of Ye Olde England: an
authentic country cider that has real finesse. They don't make huge quantities
but what they do make is one of the best ciders you will find anywhere." The
menu included stilton and broccoli soup, toad in the hole with onion gravy and
bread and butter pudding. Proper food.
Childhood reminiscences from the autobiography of Mike Sargent
In his book "My old man the Gasman" published by Excellent Press in 1998 Sarge
recalls an episode in the 1950s when his father and despairing uncle had sent a
colleague on a mission..."Your father gave Kelly ten shillings to fetch four
quarts of cider from the Rose & Crown. He gave him ten shillings, a note, and
him with a throat as dry as a bone he gave him ten shillings over half an hour
ago and it does not take half an hour to go to the Rose & Crown and back. Mike,
take your bike and go and see if you can find the little b*****d. He's got the
gas works carrier bike'.... I pedalled on until I saw the Rose & Crown and the
gas works carrier bike leaning against the front porch and I knew I'd found
Kelly.
Now Robinsons Cider was renowned for its flavour and Kelly was there savouring
that flavour ever so slowly in the back room bar. He was swallowing down that
liquid so tenderly, just like my father did when he had already swallowed a pint
all at once, so I knew that Kelly had quenched his thirst and was treating the
drink like a great lady who was queen of the ball and then someone shouted up
from the cellar: 'Six quarts, you wanted six quarts'.
And there were others in the room who were crowding the bar and shouting down at
whoever it was below because there are only a certain number of hours in the day
and then a man came up with a wooden crate all wet with cider.... The barman
gave Kelly his change.... Kelly laughed and said 'I had to try it before he
filled them and then I had one while I was waiting' which seemed to Kelly the
most logical thing".
