The Concise Household Encyclopedia states, "Some people eat this apple raw in order to cleanse the palate, but Bramley's seedling is essentially the fruit for tart, pie, or dumpling.

[5] Most of the stock of Bramley's Seedling commercially available is slightly different in its growth habit and other characteristics from the original tree, probably because of one or more chance mutations that occurred unnoticed over the years.

Plants cloned from the still-surviving (then 180-year-old) tree by tissue culture in 1990 have proved to be much more compact and free-branching than the widely available commercial stock.

[7] The first Bramley's Seedling tree grew from pips planted by Mary Ann Brailsford in her garden when she was a young girl in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, UK in 1809.

On 6 December 1876, the Bramley was highly commended at the Royal Horticultural Society's Fruit Committee exhibition.

As a young man Henry Merryweather worked as a gardener on the nearby Norwood Park Estate in Nottingham, and when John Ralph Starkey bought the hall, gardens and pasture in 1880, he turned to Henry Merryweather for advice about which apples and fruit he should be planting on his acreage.

[12] The Bramley is cultivated almost exclusively in the British Isles, though also produced by a few United States farms,[13] and can be found in Canada, Australia[14] and Japan.

[15] At the 2009 bi-centenary, a special display was presented at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show by the great-granddaughter of Henry Merryweather.

[20] Bramley apples from County Armagh in Northern Ireland have Protected Geographical Indication status within the European Union.

Whole Bramley apples, cored and filled with dried fruit, baked, and served with custard is an inexpensive and traditional British dessert.

In pies and crumbles, the fruit is simply covered with the topping and baked; the moisture in the apples is sufficient to soften them while cooking.