As apple pickers gather in the harvest from orchards wreathed in autumn mist, the National Trust is spending £536,000 to save a fast-disappearing feature of the landscape.

More than 60 per cent of England’s traditional orchards have vanished since the 1950s. In some areas the decline has been greater. Kent, once the “Garden of England”, has lost 92 per cent and Devon, a bastion of West Country scrumpy — the traditional still, cloudy cider — 89 per cent.

The trust, alarmed at the rapid decline, is trying to restore 30 of its traditional orchards and to save apple varieties with such names as Hoary Morning, Slap-Ma-Girdle and Pig Snout. A traditional orchard is defined as one where five or more fruit trees grow no more than 20m apart. They are much less closely packed than commercial orchards.

One encouraging sign is that interest in cider and traditional drinks is on the increase. Growing demand for non-alcoholic cloudy apple juice has helped to make the current harvest season one of the busiest in years.

The project has already borne fruit at the Golden Cap estate near Bridport, Dorset, where an ancient cider press is being restored and apples are being gathered to turn into scrumpy.

Because many small orchards were close to an estate’s main house, they have been replaced by swimming pools and paddocks by owners with no time to maintain them and no use for their produce. The few large cider producers no longer buy apples in small quantities as they are not costeffective to collect.

Kate Merry, the trust’s orchard project manager, said: “There are 2,300 different varieties of English apple and we are in danger of losing them without even knowing it.

“In the old days farm workers were paid in cider, so every farmhouse would have had a little cider orchard. Orchards are part of our culture. But they need to be managed, otherwise they quickly become overgrown and the trees die. Fruit trees have a relatively short life span and if they aren’t replaced it does not take long for a small orchard to vanish.”

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