Challis Family Butchers

Pies from over the border again this week: from Challis Family Butchers on Sizewell Road, Leiston, Established 1895. Before we could sample these new pies, we had 4 churches and a pub to visit. Our starting point and pie munching location, was the Village hall of Buxton. We crossed the road to the church of St. Andrew, examining the exterior for scratch dials, of which we found none. Then a quick look inside before heading north, over the Bure Valley Railway line to Oxnead. Passing over a stream we had a game of Poohsticks, the Walk Master and Josie being joint winners - the Pie Master coming last. Passing large gates to our left, to Oxnead Hall, we then admired the front of the hall before visiting Oxnead church, tucked away behind the hall, dedicated to St. Michael, also without a scratch dial. After a little confusion, we continued north, our walk all the more interesting when the footpath passed through a rapeseed field – the plants engulfing us. Arriving at All Saints church, Skeyton, we spotted a prominent scratch dial on the porch. Here we had lunch, we then left the locked church and headed south down a lane to the Skeyton Goat, for pints of Timothy Taylor's "Landlord". Visiting our fourth church: St. Andrew's, Lamas, with a single scratch dial on a buttress. This church was locked, so we took the opportunity to sit on the seat by the river, and while taking in the view, a swan visited. A barn owl was spotted hunting in the distance then a brace of ducks flew by. We then had a very picturesque walk back to the car, passing by Buxton mill. No King Canape today, so no canapés and straight into the pork pies. Cutting them released no aroma. The interior was dark pink and had good texture; there was a very small amount of jelly tucked around the edge. The crust was crisp and tasty but the filling somewhat of a disappointment, lacking flavour. Perhaps they were served too cold, as I had a slice of pie the previous day in Leiston and I was impressed with the flavour then. Well on this occasion they scored 7.16666 with a standard deviation of 0.81650. Just as we were to tuck into our Scottish Shortbreads, the rain came. We hastily packed up and took our cups of tea to the shelter under the veranda of the pavilion, and had our shortbreads there. So Challis butchers have a normalised score of 7.

J. & D. Papworth Farms

This week, the clocks went forward, but it didn’t deter the pie munchers from jumping out of their beds an hour early to munch pies. Walsingham was the chosen location to sample pies from J. & D. Papworth Farms, last sampled on the 16^th November, 2008. We parked in the large car park of the Chapel of Reconciliation, next to Slipper chapel at Walsingham, where mass was being celebrated outside – it being Palm Sunday. As we walked along the road, we spotted a drove of hares; about a dozen in number, not boxing but leaping about full of March madness. We then headed east, passing the enlarged water treatment works. Lunch was taken at the church of St. Mary the virgin, Great Snoring. No scratch dials were found, so we set off on the two-mile hike to the pub, mostly by road, the grass banks being adorned with white violets. At the end of Water Lane, the stream under the bridge provided the facilities for a game of Pooh sticks. The Pie Master won the challenge by a large margin - as Josie's stick had sunk! A short walk past East Barsham Hall brought us to the White Horse for pints of Adnams in good condition. Passing “Toad Hall”, we made our way up the hill to the parish church of East Barsham of All Saints, a much-mutilated church with a north entrance and no scratch dial. It’s font however reminded the Pie Master of a traditional water tower, with service shaft and supporting legs. On to the church of North Barsham, All Saints with black chickens in the grounds. Returning to the cars for Tortillas with sour cream and chive dip and Moroccan style houmous. A selection of small and large pies from J. & D. Papworth Farms’ North Walsham shop, were supplied by Josie – Josie hadn’t realised it was early closing on Wednesday, when she was working there and these were all that were left. The good looking pies released a little “roast pork” aroma and revealed a nicely textured dark pink filling, with no jelly. These pies were very tasty, the pastry too. However, many thought the crust was too thick. The pies scored a 7.68182 with a standard deviation of 0.56003. Ricky’s Shortbread was then consumed. So a normalised score of 7.5 for J. & D. Papworth Farms.

G. Morris & Sons' Mega pie

A Mega pie from G. Morris & Sons this week, weighing in at a mighty 1 lb 12oz – we’ve already had their pies this year, on the 11th January, but not on this scale! We headed to the pie tasting ground of Castle Acre with the intention of avoiding the rain, but we were to be wrong footed, three times on this outing. The Walk Master & Weather Wizard had planned a walk in the west to avoid the rain that was predicted to come from the east, on Saturday evening, but the weather front was now coming in from the west. However, we set off from the remains of the castle in good weather, along the Nar Valley Way in a northeasterly direction. Passing fields of happy outdoor reared pie filling, we arrived in West Lexham. Here we headed to the church of St. Nicholas where after a fruitless search for a scratch dial, we had lunch – the boys in the porch and girls sitting outside in the sun. After lunch we retraced our footsteps south, then has a game of Poohsticks as we crossed the River Nar. A second crossing of the Nar provided a return match of Poohsticks before we eventually arrived at Newton-by-Castle-Acre. We were once again wrong footed: choosing to visit the church before the boozer. St. Mary and All Saints church was interesting but dial-less, we then headed to the George and Dragon just before 15:00, where were refused service as they were about to close! Soberly we made our way back towards the cars, passing the porky pie filling again, when we picked up the Nar Valley Way. Our third mistake was when we elected to head into Castle Acre for a pint of Directors in the Albert Victor, before sampling our pie. We left the pub and the wet weather had arrived! We moved the cars under the shelter of some nearby trees for the tasting... Tea by Liz and Smoked Salmon crescents prepared us for the mega pie. Slicing revealed the marbled pink interior with no jelly and not releasing much aroma. However the munching was good - the pastry tasty and crisp, the filling satisfying and even more so with a dab of mustard, giving the pie a healthy score of spot on 8.5, with a small standard deviation of 0.53452. Ricky’s posh Scottish Shortbread was then consumed. So G. Morris’ mega pie, not quite beating the first pie of the month.

The 1 lb 15 oz Mega pie from G. Morris & Sons