The Big Apple means New York to some, but to others it means Herefordshire's annual celebration of one of its most traditional food crops.

This year, the Big Apple takes place in Much Marcle and neighbouring parishes over the weekend of 9th and 10th October. Events include cider tasting, orchard walks, cookery demonstrations, apple teas and much more. For more information, telephone 01531 670544.

Much Marcle has more to offer than apples, of course. The best known of its attractions is Hellens, a magnificent Tudor house on the site of an earlier building (c1290). For opening times, call 01531 660504.

St Bartholomew's Church is also well known, though mainly for the massive yew tree which stands next to it. Over 1000 years old, with a hollow trunk big enough to host a party (a small party, admittedly) it has caught the imagination of many visitors and features in several books, most notably Thomas Pakenham's Meetings With Remarkable Trees and Archie Miles' Silva. A copy of the former is on display in the church.

St Bart's contains some of the finest monuments in Herefordshire, including a painted wooden effigy of Walter de Helyon, who is believed to have lived at Hellens in the 1350s. Carved from a solid block of oak, Walter is a rare treasure, as fewer than one hundred wooden monumental effigies exist in England and Wales. There is one other in Herefordshire, at Clifford.

Directions

Walk along the driveway to Hellens. At the entrance to the house turn right on a farm track. Leave it just before it bends left and go down a short grassy track to a stile. Follow a fenced and hedged path to another stile, then start to bear left towards the far left corner of a field.

Cross a stile and proceed along an overgrown path by the edge of a young wood. Rejoin the farm track at the far side. Follow it as far as a very sickly ash tree and then go diagonally across a field to meet Hall Wood near its far corner. Well, that's the right of way, but it is usually cropped over, so most walkers continue along the field edge, turning left when they come to Hall Wood.

When you reach the far end of the wood continue a few paces further to a bridge, then roughly follow the woodland edge to find access to a maize field. The right of way goes diagonally right but it has been cropped over and is impossible. So turn right and struggle along the overgrown, over-cropped field edge.

A stile gives access to a lane at Hallwood Green. Turn right, and ignore a path by a phone box, staying on the lane. Turn left at the end of the lane on a track. When it turns right, cross a stile ahead (hidden behind trees) and turn right by a field edge. Cross another stile in the corner and walk through a wood to a field.

Go diagonally left (ignoring the fingerpost) to a gate into Yewtree Coppice. Turn right through the wood then continue along a field edge to a road. Turn right on the grass verge. After passing two cottages cross to a footpath. Walk across five fields, ignoring branching paths, to meet a lane. Turn right into Much Marcle.

A cobbled path on the left gives access to the church. Leave the churchyard through the rear gate and walk to the far right corner of a field to meet the A449.

Cross to a pair of footpaths opposite. Take the left-hand path, which runs across two beet fields to a junction. Keep straight on, along a good field-edge path which leads to a lane.

Cross to a path almost opposite. Walk across a field, aiming to pass about 50m to the right of a solitary oak tree. When you draw level with the oak you will see a stile in the bottom corner of the field.

Cross the stile to a lane and take a track opposite. Follow it uphill until you come to a waymarked junction. Turn right to follow the line of a former hedge (three oak trees are all that remain) to a lane. Turn left and go straight on at a crossroads, soon passing Westons Cider Mill.

Take the second footpath on the right, almost opposite the lane to Rushall and Kynaston. The path is easily followed back to Much Marcle.