Gooseberries were so popular in the nineteenth century that hundreds of gooseberry societies were formed. The Cheshire Gooseberry Project is researching these.
The gooseberry shows of Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and other manufacturing counties, were conducted properly; and an annual account of them, forming a little volume, was printed and published at Manchester. The prizes given on these occasions were adapted to the manners of the homely competitors, & were often a pair of sugar tongs, a copper tea kettle, a cream jug, or even a corner cupboard.

There were hundreds of varieties of gooseberries in the nineteenth century. Thomas Capper bred a red variety called Top Sawyer which produced a gooseberry with a record weight of 26dwts 17grs. Several old books refer to this variety:

• The farmer’s encyclopædia, and dictionary of rural affairs By Cuthbert William Johnson recommends Capper’s Top Sawyer as a red variety of gooseberry.

• In the fruit catalogue of the RHS there are nearly two hundred kinds, and about 150 of them are the large Lancashire gooseberries. Their names are indicative of their humble origin. Examples are “Jolly Miner”, “Jolly Painter,” “Lancashire lad,” “Pastime,” “Top Sawyer,” and so on.

• An Encyclopædia of Gardening: Comprising the Theory and Practice of … By John Claudius Loudon. This records that in 1819, the largest gooseberry produced was a Top Sawyer weighing 26dwts 17grs.

• The New American Orchardist, Or an Account of the Most Valuable Varieties of … By William Kenrick

Weights/Mass of Gooseberries were recorded in dwts (a pennyweight) and grs (grains). A grain was the weight of a grain seed from the middle of an ear of barley. A grain now is equal to 64.79891 milligrams. I dwt is equal to 24 grains. So Capper’s Top Sawyer gooseberry weighing 26 dwt 17 grs is big!