Ignored by the wealthy

Gooseberries were the Cinderella of the kitchen garden on the grand estates, but were keenly cultivated by cottage gardeners of the time. In particular, handloom weavers (already renowned for breeding potatoes and florists' flowers) turned their attention to gooseberries, where there was a lot of scope for boosting berry weight. This was their all-consuming passion, achieved by identifying the ideal growing conditions, and nurturing new and established varieties.

Gooseberry societies from 1700s

In Cheshire, Lancashire, parts of Yorkshire and the Midlands, gooseberry societies were formed by the weavers with the aim of holding annual shows. The first gooseberry register (of 1786) listed most of the shows along with the weights of the winning berries recorded in pennyweights (dwts) and grains. Winning weights (of 10dwt) were around twice that of wild berries. By 1825, the weights had crept up to 32dwts and by the 1850s a record-breaking berry weighed in at 37 pennyweights 7 grains (2oz, and 7 1/2 times the weight of a wild berry), not to be beaten until 1978 with 37dwt 15 grains (usually written as 37.15). The record now stands at 39.19, which was achieved in 1993 by Kelvin Archer with 'Montrose', resulting in his entry in the Guinness Book of Records.