Ye Olde Pork Pie, Melton Mowbray

I spent Tuesday morning in the rather delightful Leicestershire market town of Melton Mowbray. I could not have picked a better day; though the air was cold enough to give a bite, the sky was blue and not a cloud dared venture cross it. The market there is one of the oldest in England, dating to before 1077 while a royal decree in the 1300s made Tuesday its appointed slot, much to my benefit. I was able to buy two punnets of sweet raspberries for a pound, which were delicious. I then made my way to Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe (the website of which is simply porkpie.co.uk) wherefrom I purchased a piece of Stilton cheese, for which the town is famous, and a large porkpie topped with chutney and Stilton. Few would describe me as a foodie but heading to Melton Mowbray and not tasting the local delicacies would have been a scandal, like going to Rome for the day and dining on fish & chips. The famous pork pie shop dates to 1851, so I was a little puzzled by its obsession with early modern spelling (‘ye’, ‘olde’, ‘shoppe’); it is probably designed to please Americans. At fifteen and a half pounds for the said cheese and pie, I assured myself that that I should sup that evening like any gentleman.

Sure enough, the pork pie was the best I had ever eaten, though it was too large for one sitting and I felt unpleasantly full only halfway through. The remains returned home with me and sit now in the fridge awaiting this day’s lunchtime at the chapel.

The people of Melton Mowbray would, of course, say their cheeses and pies are the best in the world. As the self-appointed Rural Capital of Food (which is its urban equivalent?) it has every right to that claim. Although other cheeses and pies can fill well enough our bellies and assuage our hunger, there was something rather nice about going to the ‘capital’.

There are many wonderful aspects of the Christian faith and two thousand years of Christian history from which to draw and learn, in addition to another 1800 years of Hebrew testimony. There is a wealth of music, literature, sermons and art. It behoves each one of us, however, to always go back to scripture, the capital of our knowledge and the sufficient and unrivalled revelation of the mind of God. The source is always purer than the overflow.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

A.