The Mysterious Case of Annie Elizabeth

Lois Pryce has a mystery growing in her garden.

On the banks of the River Thames stands an enormous old apple tree, producing fruit unlike any she has seen before. For years, Lois has wondered what it is. So she sends off a handful of clues - apples, leaves and a twig - to the experts at the National Fruit Collection.

The answer comes back - Annie Elizabeth.

It sounds more like a person than an apple. So who was Annie Elizabeth, and why did someone give her name to a tree?

Lois sets off on the trail, entering the eccentric world of Britain’s apple detectives. Her search leads from thousands of trees in the orchards of Kent to a house in Leicestershire with a remarkable survivor in its garden. Along the way there are Victorian records to decipher, an unlikely marriage, a missing baptism, a child who seems to vanish from the records - and one tantalising name that keeps leading Lois deeper into the past.

Eventually, armed with a map and one last lead, Lois finds herself on her hands and knees in an overgrown churchyard, tearing ivy from a gravestone that has been hidden for decades.

What emerges is a Victorian family mystery of love, respectability, scandal, grief and an extraordinary living connection between a little girl born more than 160 years ago and the apple tree still growing in Lois’s garden today.

Blending present-day detective work with specially created Victorian drama, The Mysterious Case of Annie Elizabeth asks how a name can survive long after almost everything else has been forgotten.

Writer & Presenter: Lois Pryce Producer: Louise Orchard Sound Design: Rowan Bishop Original Music: James Aplin

A 2 Degrees West production for BBC Radio 4