A COMMUNITY apple pressing day has taken place in the south Shropshire village of Clunton.

A group of volunteers, who call themselves the Clunton Scrumpers, juiced the apples of people within a 10 mile radius who wanted to make good use of a bumper harvest.

"We had another community pressing day about three weeks ago and this is our second because there has been such a demand," said Noel Shepherdson.

"It's because there has been a bumper year and more and more people have asked us to juice their apples."

Some of the juice was put into bottles ready to go through a pastuiser which heats it up to 70 degrees for around 20 minutes to kill off the natural yeasts which ferment the apples.

Other juice is left to ferment to produce cider.

As this is a community venture and not a commercial one only a small charge is made for juicing.

"In the village there must be 200 plus trees and seven or eight apple orchards," said Mr Shepherdson.

"Some years ago there were some grants available to plants trees to try to get back to the traditional use of the old orchards and get them functioning again.

"We will juice the apples of anyone within a 10 mile radius and have now been doing this for 10 years."

The process begins with mashing the apples. The mash is put into a press which sees clean juice coming out which is then put into a barrel or container.

Anyone interested in joining the project should call Mr or Mrs Shepherdson on 01588 660309.