If an apple a day keeps the doctor away then medics in the Marlborough area will be in for a lean time in October after the town stages its first apple day.

It is part of a national campaign to get more people eating English fruit, and apple day on October 17 will also mark the official launch of a community orchard in Marlborough.

Organiser Philippa Davenport said the plan is to create small pockets of fruit trees on any available land. The first tree will be planted in the Priory Gardens on apple day.

Ms Davenport, of Silverless Street, a writer with the Financial Times and author of a number of books including The Apple Source Book, is keen to get children involved in apple day.

She is asking people in the town to save pips from apples they eat between now and October so that children can plant their own apple trees and see what new varieties they can produce.

In the town hall there will be a variety of apple based attractions including a display of at least 60 varieties of English apples grown in Gloucestershire by Sarah Juniper whose father, Dr Barrie Juniper, will talk about the history of apples and how they followed the silk route across Asia and Europe to England.

Ms Davenport and other cookery writers will talk about using apples in the kitchen and there will be a talk on growing and pruning apples by specialist Lee Walker.