Witchhill was formerly in our Conservation Potato section. It was perhaps originally Snowdrop reputedly produced by Mr Cole somewhere in the English Midlands. The stock was diverse to the point that it may have been a mixture of seed produced varieties. Messrs Dobbies of Edinburgh may have selected an attractive, first early, white fleshed version to fit the “Snowdrop” name and from this selection Alex Brown of Witchhill, Fraserburgh possibly reselected or bred Witchhill. This is only one version of events. Witchhill is the selection available in the National Collection. The variety is important historically because Snowdrop was the first variety to be identified as having immunity to the devastating Wart Disease and many subsequent immune varieties have Snowdrop in their breeding. It interested friends who had worked on the National Collection. It was very good to eat and, totally cleaned of all virus, possibly for the first time in its history, it turned out to be extremely vigorous and high yielding. All the more remarkable is the fact that it is one of the first earlies bred in Europe.