The Three Counties Cider & Perry Association announces winning recipients of the 2025 Jean Nowell Bursary initiative.
In 2020 the TCCPA launched their Jean Nowell Bursary, in honour of the legacy of the late Jean Nowell and was delighted to be relaunching the bursary in 2025 after a brief hiatus.
A pioneering craft cider maker and artist, Jean Nowell (1930 – 2017), generously taught others and influenced a generation. Jean’s cider making adventures began when she retired to Lyne Down Farm, Herefordshire, in 1984, and restored old equipment found there. Jean used traditional apple and pear varieties discovered in her orchards, saying ‘1500 gallons is worth making an effort to improve the quality and preserve the tradition of farmhouse cider…if small makers’ cider is decent it …keeps the big firms interested in promoting quality ciders.’
Jean set up the Putley Big Apple cider trials for makers and was a key member of the now Three Counties Cider and Perry Association. Her son Max said, ‘she never stopped working for the good of the craft cider world as a whole’. Many respected makers today were mentored by her and it is in this spirit of support that the TCCPA have set up a bursary in her honour.
The aim of the Jean Nowell Bursary is to provide opportunities for people to be able to access a small amount of funding to support their progress, education and development. The individual bursaries are each worth up to £250 and up to 4 bursaries are available each year. Applicants can apply for more than one bursary if the proposal is of great enough merit.
Announcing the 2025 Recipients of the TCCPA Jean Nowell Bursary
Richard Toft, development manager at Pershore College WCG and on the judging panel for this year’s awards says:
“The judging panel were impressed with this year’s range and diversity of proposals and will look forward to hearing from all the awardees on their progress. The total awards this year amount to £1978 which includes the total reserve funds from awards carried over from 2024 that were not awarded.”
Five candidates were successful this year and they are:
Phil Kester of 99PINES, resident perry maker at Hartpury Orchard Centre, the home of the National Perry Pear Centre
The judging team was impressed by Phil’s devotion to continuing the work of the National Perry Centre and Collection. The TCCPA are delighted to assist a project that will help to promote draught Perry sales, an invaluable asset to The Hartpury Orchard Centre, as well as the stands promoting Perry at Malvern Shows and other events.
Phil Kester says:
“2024 was an exciting year for 99PINES as we moved premises from a private garage, into the National Perry Centre at Hartpury. As a volunteer based community interest company we’re proud to be one of the makers in the country that focuses exclusively on perry. With access to the National Perry Collections at Hartpury and Malvern we are building our knowledge of rare single varieties, with 21 varieties pressed in 2024. These will be used to promote perry, the national collections and associated regional heritage.
The Jean Nowell Bursary provides 99PINES with the funds to improve our bar set-up at Hartpury, specifically an in-line cooling unit and 250L bag-in-box system ease filling of kegs. This will enable us to show off perry as it should be served .. Chilled!
We are honoured and thrilled to have received the bursary, and are grateful to TCCPA for supporting our work at Hartpury. We look forward to working more with the TCCPA and serving its members with perfectly chilled perry!”
Stoneleigh Community Orchard Group CIC have also been awarded a bursary that will assist in the efficiency and increased production of Craft Cider and Perry from their cider apple orchard. They are extremely passionate about the promotion of real cider and in reaching an audience outside of the traditional growing areas.
John Churchley, of Stoneleigh Community Orchard says:
“Our operation is limited by the cramped conditions we have to process the cider. The bursary will allow us to buy a hydraulic press which should improve the throughput of apples compared to our existing mechanical press. It will also give us more resilience since if either of the presses should break down in the future, we have a spare.”
Hiranthi Cook of Cidentro Cider House is embarking on a journey to develop spirit based drinks made from cider and orchard fruits. The TCCPA are thrilled to be financially supporting this project with a bursary and we anticipate that the wider membership will be able to benefit from the knowledge gained at events like CraftCon in future years.
Hiranthi Cook, says:
“I was absolutely delighted to be told that I was one of the recipients of the highly coveted Jean Nowell Bursary for 2025.
Inspired by the memory of the late Jean Nowell – a highly respected and talented cider maker from Herefordshire, the bursary aims to assist aspiring craft cider makers in their progress and development. Thank you to the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association for awarding this to me, I hope to put it to good use!
In my endeavour to explore all aspects of cider making I intend to use this bursary to learn about distillation techniques and how this can be used for cider. The money received from the bursary will go towards training courses and cider distilling trials, after which I hope to be able to produce a cider distillate to make drinks such as cider brandy and other cider spirits to complement our range of traditional apple ciders.”
Three Wells Cider Company have been awarded a bursary to assist in the costs of writing content on their website about the wider craft cider movement that the TCCPA feel will help promote the virtues of the drink we all love so much.
Adam Wells, co-founder of Three Wells Cider says:
“Though we never had the pleasure of meeting Jean ourselves, the legacy she left cider and perry has had a huge impact on our own journey, especially in the form of so many of the makers she mentored who have gone on to inspire all three of us. Receiving this bursary is a huge honour, through which we hope in a very small way to be a part of the ongoing story of cider and perry in which Jean played such a central role.
Our first vintage is well on its way in tank, and with the help of the Jean Nowell Bursary we’re in the process of building the website and branding through which we hope to bring both Three Wells Cider, and the world of aspirational cider more broadly, to life.”
Ben Fleet of Slow Cultures has been awarded a bursary to help develop cider amongst a range of fermented foods. The judges were impressed by the concept of cider within a portfolio of products based around regenerative farming and artisan foods.
Ben Fleet, says:
“After many years of working in the brewing industry I’m excited to start on my cider journey. I have access to old orchards with traditional apple and pear varieties and with assistance through this bursary I can’t wait to start creating!
I want to create something delicious but also focuses on soil health, protecting and restoring it. I will also focus on slow and alternative fermentations for other food and beverages to compliment the cider and perry!”
2026
The next round of applications for the Jean Nowell Bursary will open early in 2026 with judging being completed for announcement at Craftcon that year.
Unsuccessful candidates from 2025 are welcome to reapply and the TCCPA look forward to seeing a range of projects submitted next year as the Bursary progresses.
