Any schoolchild who has heard of Sir Isaac Newton is almost certain to know one thing about him: he was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, and put into it the universal law of gravity.

There appears to be some truth to this, but Newton remained entirely unhurt. He seems to have told several people that he first thought of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree in 1666, and that anecdote was included in notes made by John Conduitt in 1726, the year of Newton’s death. The claim that the apple hit him is a later fillip.

The sole apple tree in Newton’s garden at Woolsthorpe Manor became associated specifically with the event, and justifiably so. Newton was a student at Cambridge at the time, but the university was closed from 1665-7 because of a resurgence of the plague, and he had returned to Woolsthorpe, where he enjoyed a year and a bit of great discoveries. The tree, a rare flower of Kent variety, was blown down in 1816, but part of it was successfully replanted, and can be seen today. The Manor is well worth visiting.

Does this count as a folk tale? Well, sort of, because the edges of the definition are blurry. We wouldn’t typically include something this far from its centre on the Lincolnshire Folk Tales map. However, when the most commonly known story about one of the most famous scientific geniuses ever to live is in fact partially made up, surely that is grounds for an exception to be made, and this is perhaps the most well known and widely believed unverifiable anecdote that originates in Lincolnshire.

Words and images by RORY WATERMAN