VICTORIAN technology received a 21st-century boost with help from a Swindon car dealership.

Pebley Beach loaned the Richard Jefferies Museum an electric Hyundai to power an 1890 apple press.

The old machine has been brought to the Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon each September since 2017 to squeeze fruit grown in the grounds of the farm where the celebrated nature writer grew up.

The scratter is owned by Wanborough-based business Hatch Heritage Engineering and would originally have been powered by steam.

In recent years, it has been powered by a petrol engine, but the museum's staff were keen to explore more sustainable alternatives for fuel and so they asked Pebley Beach if they could use an Ioniq 5's battery instead.

All in all, 320 litres of apple juice was pressed over the weekend, which will be now allowed to ferment and turned into cider.

Museum director Mike Pringle said: "The scratter is exactly the type of machine that would have been used to press fruit in Richard Jefferies' day.

"While we are keen to celebrate Jefferies' Victorian heritage, we want to find sustainable ways of running the museum. We also tried running the scratter using a coal alternative made of olive stones."

Pebley's customer services manager Harry Threlfall said: "The Ioniq 5 is basically a battery on wheels, and its vehicle-to-load power outlet means anything with a three-pin plug can be run using the car's battery.

"We used about five per cent of the Ioniq's battery capacity to power the scratter, so it was very effective.

"Pebley Beach has been at the forefront of helping Swindon motorists make the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, and we were delighted to be able to help the museum."

Richard Jefferies was born at Coate Farm in 1848 and wrote the novel Bevis: the Story of a Boy – which is said to have inspired Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn – about his fantasised childhood.

Jefferies wrote about nature and the countryside and is believed to have coined the phrase 'wildlife'. A hugely popular writer in his day, he died in Sussex in 1887, aged 38, of tuberculosis.

The Richard Jefferies Museum is owned by Swindon Borough Council and run by the Richard Jefferies Museum Trust.

It can be found next door to the Sun Inn on Marlborough Road. For more information, visit www.richardjefferies.org