'The Wine of England'

: The Reputation of Cider in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century English Texts

Abstract

Abstract: The reputation of cider has fluctuated widely over the centuries but was at its peak from the1660s to the1760s. Despite that period of heightened cultural significance when it was often likened to fine wine, its overall historical importance has been under-acknowledged since, due in large part to a subsequent loss of status as a finer drink. This sidelining of cider’s cultural significance has been reflected in the relative lack of academic research on its history, despite a recent expansion of interest in intoxicants and intoxication in early modern England. Where scholarly attention has been acute, it has focused on the 1664 text known as Evelyn’s Pomona, and a small selection of texts that immediately preceded it in the 1650s. These focused purely on cider making for the first time, and to an extent have ‘skewed’ modern general perceptions of cider history - that little went before. To some extent writers of the later seventeenth century themselves fell into this error once cider had become well-established in public consciousness, not appreciating the extent to which the first part of the century laid down the ground for cider’s success.
This thesis will look at the reputation and desirability of cider: what it represented to the early modern maker and how it was viewed by the consumer. Its particular focus will be on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to outline how and why cider enjoyed a heyday after 1660. Already an established commodity in the sixteenth century, its reputation was affected by the writers who took up cider as a vehicle for their interests during a period of agricultural slump and Civil War, and then during consumer expansion and the introduction of new luxuries. In an age of novel imported intoxicants, cider was re-fashioned and re-interpreted, and its relative success was closely linked with developing education and communication of ideas.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Mark Hailwood (Supervisor) & Richard G Stone (Supervisor)