Details for: PI 541151, Pyrus communis L., 'Blakeney Red'

There is no published history of this fruit. It may possibly derive its name and origin from the parish of Blakeney in the Forest of Dean. Description: Fruit above medium size, of a regular pyriform shape. Skin smooth, yellowish green on the shaded side, and a bright crimson on the side towards the sun, covered more or less with a very thin russet, and numerous very small spots. Eye small and open, with upright calyx segments, set in a depression. Stalk slender, an inch and a quarter long, set in a narrow cavity. Flesh soft, moderately juicy, and very sweet, with a slight Jargonelle flavour, with very little astringency, but with a slightly bitter after-taste. This coarse, showy pear, has, perhaps for these reasons, become lately very popular. It is saleable as a pot fruit for the manufacturing districts, but it is really a very worthless variety in the Orchard, and the sooner the large number of young trees planted within the last ten years, are grafted with varieties of higher merit, the better. The Perry made from its juice is rough and coarse in flavour, 'abominable trash,' and fit only for the most ordinary purposes, when nothing better can be got. --Robert Hogg. 1886. The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits.