A short history of the Denby Dale Pies.

The village of Denby Dale has had historical links to the art of making pies for more than 200 years.

The first recorded making of a pie in the village was in 1788 to celebrate the recovery of King George III from mental illness. Since that time nine other pies have been baked, usually to coincide with a special event or to raise money for a local cause. Indeed the second pie, the Victory Pie, was made in 1815 to celebrate the victory of the Duke of Wellington over Napoleon Boneparte at the Battle of Waterloo. The pie, by today’s standards was relatively small and was said to contain “two sheep, twenty fowls and a half a peck of flour for the crust.”

Pie number three was baked in August 1846 and was a much bigger pie, baked to celebrate the end of 31 years of hardship for the poorer classes with the Repeal of the Corn Laws.

Two pies were made in 1887, the first in August, a pie eight feet in diameter weighing nearly one and a half tons, for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Poor hygiene controls, reports of a brace of gamey grouse and what looked like a skinned fox all amounted to a pie that was unfit for human consumption. In fact, the remains of the pie were paraded through the streets in funeral style and buried in quick lime.

In September 1887 the fifth pie, named the Resurrection Pie was baked and did not include any game. Indeed game was never used again in a Denby Dale Pie.

Thirty-two years passed before the Denby Dalers decided to make another pie. Before the National Health Service, hospitals depended very much on voluntary contributions and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary urgently required funds to improve its services, which was the major factor in the decision to bake the seventh pie in August 1928. Because this was to be the biggest pie to date, a new tin was built measuring 16ft. long, 5ft. wide and 15 inches deep.

After a 36-year gap the decision was again taken to bake the biggest ever Denby Dale Pie with a view to raising funds to build a new community hall in the village. So it was on September 5^th 1964 that pie number eight, The Village Hall Pie, was baked in yet another new tin, measuring 18ft. long, 6ft. wide and 18 inches deep.

Many people thought that the baking of the pie should also commemorate a national event and after much thought, arrived at the perfect answer. Four Royal babies were expected in the same year for the first time in 200 years. The babies were, Prince Edward, Lady Helen Windsor, Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones and James Ogilvy.

1988 saw the baking of the ninth pie, The Denby Dale Bicentenary Pie, 200 years after the first recorded pie. It was baked in a tin measuring 20ft. long, 7ft. wide and 18 inches deep, so again it was just a little bit bigger than the last one.

The year 2000 saw the making of the tenth record breaking Denby Dale Pie, weighing 12 tonnes and measuring 40ft. long. As well as obviously celebrating the New Millennium, The Millennium Pie coincided with The Queen Mothers 100th birthday and the 150^th. Anniversary of the Penistone Railway Line, which gave Denby Dale its most famous landmark to date, the viaduct.

It would seem that as well as something to celebrate, the inspiration to bake a Denby Dale Pie, arises from the interest of each successive older generation of Denby Dalers wanting to provide the “pie experience” and all that it entails, to the younger generation. Maybe in the hope that they too will be inspired in years to come, to pass that experience on to the next generation, who knows?