02nd June, 2026
Barny Butterfield, of Sandford Orchards near Crediton has been honoured with the Royal Bath and West Society’s Special Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Cider Industry. The award recognises not just the remarkable success of Mr Butterfield’s own cider-making business, but also his work in identifying and preserving rare and threatened varieties of cider apples.
Starting in 2002, when he made just 200 gallons of cider, Mr Butterfield has grown his business to the extent that this year he will make over 2 million litres, in the process giving a huge boost to demand for top quality cider fruit and the Devon orchards that supply it.
In his citation for the award, the well-known cider author and judge James Crowden, stressed the wider benefits of the success of the Sandford Orchards business and of Mr Butterfield’s fascination with old and rare Devon cider apples.
“In 1955, one quarter of all the cider made in England came from the Whiteways Devon Cyder Company at Whimple, not far from where Barny is based. Since then it is sad to have to report that 95 per cent of Devon cider orchards have been grubbed out or allowed to fall over. But Barny has tried hard to rectify that.
“Working in partnership with the University of Bristol, the Royal Horticultural Society, the National Trust and the Duchy of Cornwall, Barny was able to obtain a £30,000 Defra grant for research into the DNA of Devon cider apples.
“In the course of the study, a total of over 10,000 samples were collected from 112 orchards, with several hundred individual trees of interest identified, not just in Devon, but in Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
“And the work bore fruit, quite literally, when Barny was responsible for identifying and saving, through the trees being re-planted, an orchard at Leonard Moor near Tiverton Parkway station, which provided the apples – ‘the rarest apples on the planet’ – for the ciders that won every class at the 2024 Devon County Show, including the overall and reserve champion.
“Barny’s latest initiative is a bid to UNESCO to have cider pressing using straw, in the traditional way, recognised as an intrinsic rural skill.”
