British Pie Week 2016

Hurrah! The biggest date in pie’s calendar is here - it’s British Pie Week 2016!

Yes, this is an excellent excuse to continuously eat pies for a full week, but it also gives us the perfect opportunity to recognise and cherish Britain’s wonderful pie heritage.

And if it’s pie history you’re looking for, or piestory (sorry in advance), then you need look no further than Denby Dale, the UK’s pie village, where we’ve been pie-mad since 1788.

To celebrate this year’s British Pie Week, we’ve got seven very special features coming for you all throughout next week - starting on Monday.

So, keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram over the coming days to see what we’ve got in store - we just can’t wait!

British Pie Week 2016: March 7th - 13th. Head to the British Pie Week website to find out more.

Denby Dale: World Record Breakers

September 3rd 1988. A day that made history in Denby Dale.

200 years on from the very first pie, the BBC Radio One Roadshow pitched up in the village to broadcast live from the bicentenary celebrations, with the sun shining down on West Yorkshire after a week’s torrid rain.

A total of over 90,000 people were served their £1 slice of pie during the two-day event, the 1988 creation being Denby Dale’s biggest yet.

20ft long, the pie weighed in at just over 9 tonnes, including 3000kgs of English beef, 3000kgs of potatoes and 700kgs of onions.

Each of the Denby Dale pies seeks to go one step better than the last, with The Denby Dale Bicentenary Pie being just that little bit bigger than 1964’s, The Village Hall Pie, which was comparatively smaller at just 18ft long and 18 inches deep.

With over 170 servers, the pie created on that momentous day went into the Guiness World Records as the World’s largest ever Meat and Potato Pie, officially making Denby Dale a world-record breaking village.

This is just one of the 9 famous pies. Discover the full Denby Dale story here.

VIDEO: Watch The Parade From The 8th Pie of 1964

It’s not like Denby Dale to miss the opportunity to create a gigantic pie to mark an occasion of national importance, and 1964 was no different.

Four Royal births in the same year saw an 18ft long, 7-ton pie baked in Denby Dale, the parade of which was met with a fantastic turnout from the village, the crowds lining the street to get a look at the breathtakingly large bake.

Unfortunately, the event was marred by tragedy after four of the main organisers were killed whilst travelling back from London, where they had been filming a programme about the pie for ITV.

Watch the parade from the cutting of the gigantic pie below, as Denby Dale played host to over 30,000 people, who all wanted their own slice of history.