HUNDREDS of people arrived with trugs full of their harvested fruit for Swan Barn Farm’s annual community apple pressing day on Saturday.

The home-grown fruit was added to the National Trust’s own apples grown in orchards around the farm in Haslemere, all pressed to produce fresh apple juice.

While some joined in with chopping apples ready for the scratter machine that pulps the fruit, others used the traditional press.

Everyone was able to take away gallons of juice which can be made into cider.

Sarah Fisk, assistant ranger at the Black Down Estate, said: “We were really pleased to see so many new and familiar faces join us on Saturday for our annual community apple pressing day.

“The day was a great success, made possible by the help of more than 400 people from the local community.

“We managed to press over 2,000 kilos of apples.”

The historic machinery is now housed under the Orchard House at Swan Barn Farm, which was officially opened last year by Jane Cecil, the trust’s general manager for the South Downs.

It was hand built by the ranger team at Black Down and Swan Barn Farm, made from coppiced sweet chestnut and timber from the surrounding National Trust estates, all processed on site, including thousands of shingles for the roof.

The building of the Orchard House crowned a ten- year orchard restoration project, trees pruned and replanted, and the orchards grazed with Jacob sheep.

Rare varieties include “Cornish Gillyflower”, a russet apple with an intensely flavoured yellow perfumed flesh, “Greensleeves” which produces a bountiful crop with a sweet and tangy flavour, and “Knobby Russet” which looks more like a potato, but inside is finely-textured and has a crisp, full flavour.

The team produce gallons of artisan cider each year, which is sold at events such as the Winter Wassail on January 27 and a Countryside Crafts Day in the summer.

Proceeds fund further conservation work.