From George Moss’s book of memories of Weaverham. Copyright C.C. Publishing ( Chester )

On the origin of the Wareham Russet.

“There was a very special apple tree in my Great-grandfather Forster’s ( see Note ) garden behind the smithy. It was a Russet, but the apples it produced were far sweeter and the skin of a deeper hue than the usual Russet tree, consequently the old man was plagued by gangs of lads from “Back
‘Town”, Weaverham, coming to scrump apples from his favourite tree. Old Abraham Youd, who was living in the thatched cottage, halfway along High Street, was a master at budding and grafting fruit trees, and Sammy “Happy Days” Woodward decided he could produce and grow, in his market garden, a fair number of freshly grown Russet trees from the original in the old smithy garden. This new variety of apple tree was advertised in Sammy’s seed catalogue under the name “Wareham Russet” and became a great success and as the years went by hardly a local garden was without one of them. So between the three men, the “Wareham Russet” had come into being and, along with the trees, the lads who had been so fond of the apples came to be known as “Wareham Russets” themselves.
The name has become a popular title for villagers, long after the demise of the three men who conjured it up, all those years ago. Naturally in those days it was necessary to be born Back o’ Town, Wareham, to be a true Russet.”

Note: This is presumably Thomas Forster ( Blacksmith ) who was 50 in the 1841 census and born in Burtonwood, so his date of birth was 1791. George Moss notes that Thomas was 22 when he moved to Weaverham (in 1813).

Thomas Forster was 60 in the 1851 census, so this places the origin of the Russet to between 1813 and 1851.