Quince, cider and a bake-off: Norton Priory celebrates the harvest

There are few better places to welcome autumn than Norton Priory. Tucked away in Runcorn, the museum and gardens sit on the site of a priory founded in 1134, and this weekend its orchards take centre stage for the annual Autumn Orchard Festival.

Taking place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October and included in general admission, the festival celebrates the harvest from Norton Priory's extensive orchards. Among them is something genuinely special: the National Collection of Tree Quince, the only one of its kind in the UK.

Visitors can browse an artisan market inside the museum building, stocked with gifts and treats from local suppliers alongside produce from the priory's own orchards and its Walled Garden. A pop-up bar in the medieval Undercroft will be serving mulled cider and other seasonal drinks, with local bands providing live music.

New for 2026 is the Norton Priory Bake-Off, held at the Walled Garden, where homemade apple and quince cakes will compete for the title of Best Bake. Expect fierce competition and, with luck, generous tasting. Quince, with its golden skin and heady perfume, is an underrated autumn fruit, and there are few better places to get acquainted with it than among the trees of the national collection.

The festival is also a fine excuse to explore one of the North West's most remarkable heritage sites. Norton Priory became a mitred abbey in 1391 and is described as the most excavated monastic site in Europe; it was the first monastic site in Britain to be excavated using modern techniques, with thousands of artefacts unearthed during digs in the 1970s and 1980s.

The star of the museum, which reopened in August 2016 after a major redevelopment backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is a twice life-size statue of St Christopher. Dated to around 1375 to 1400 and carved from local red sandstone, it is internationally recognised as an outstanding piece of medieval colossal sculpture.

The autumn fun continues later in the month too, with a Jack-o'-Lanterns Light Trail lighting up the grounds and woodland on 26 and 27 October.

Norton Priory Museum & Gardens is in Runcorn. Opening times, tickets and full event details are at nortonpriory.org.