Pat Gorman

This week we returned to Horsey to see the seals and to sample a new pie: A Pat Gorman “Unique award winning hand made pork pie” purchased from Aldi. It was our intention to repeat the walk we did earlier in the year, on the 24^th January, however on reaching Horsey Corner, we found that the footpath from Brograve drainage mill to Horsey Mere was closed, so we retraced our path a little and then headed south to All Saints church. We had a look inside and a good look around the exterior, finding no scratch dials to add to our collection. We set off south east along a track, and then by a road passing the pub we turned south into a field. We did this part of the walk in the opposite direction last time, at the field corner we then turned left onto a boggy field towards Horsey drainage mill. Here we had our sandwiches, with an olive entrée, kindly provided by Manola. Now it was full steam ahead to the “Nelson’s Head” by road and permissive path. After being shepparded by the landlady, we enjoyed pints of Woodforde’s Wherry and Nelson’s Revenge in excellent condition. Refreshed, we headed for the coast to see the seals with their pups. There were no Seal Wardens about when we arrived, and the 355 seal pups had taken liberties in the absence of authority - plonking themselves well over the blue polypropylene rope boundary!

We returned to the cars parked at Horsey Gap to sample this weeks delicacies: Manola did us proud with Scottish Lochmuir™ Smoked Salmon mini terrine slices, that were very yummy and M&S Spicy Red Houmous and Olive crackers. To refresh the pallet a cheese course: lightly smoked Polish cheese made from mountain ewes’ milk with Scottish oatcakes. Now the pie: The good-looking glossy pie was low on aroma when cut, but revealed a promising dark pink filling, nicely jellied. The munching revealed the crust to be good and the filling to be flavoursome. This pie tasted far better without the addition of any mustard. The pie munchers were impressed and it came in with a spot on score of 8 despite some one giving it a 6, hence a rather high standard deviation of 1.18322. Just in case we had not replaced the calories burnt off on our 5 mile walk, the Walk Master produced Highland Shortbreads!

Cookie's at last!

At last we made it to Cookie's! Arriving at Salthouse green, someone thought it a good idea to book a table for 16:30 - in the past we always booked by phone when we were a couple of miles or so away. The Führer and Staci went and caught the "Coast Hopper" while the remaining six of us moved off in an eastwardly direction, then south through the churchyard of St. Nicholas. We had explored this large church many times previously, so just passed it by and continued up Bard Hill. We continued west over Gallows Hill along Pinfold Lane to go over Silverland Hill and Warborough Hill, coming into Kelling, by the school. Here we saw a smart wooden sculpture, depicting Kelling Beach – part of the Salthouse Sculpture Trail, before our final accent of Muckleburgh Hill. So much for Norfolk being flat! Here we had lunch among the grazing cows - Norfolk Highland Cattle? We would have been at an altitude of over 200 feet above sea level! After lunch we descended the hill, passing through woods and eventually emerging on to the shingle bank, that we walked along, back to Salthouse. Reaching the cars at 15:10, we had no tea to go with Don's dips; that were to be this week's canapés, so we went to the Dun Cow for pints of Wherry. Don made enquiries at Cookie’s and established that they could accommodate us sooner than booked. But the Führer and Staci both had their mobile phones switched off! So a search party was sent out and located them in Cley next the Sea, at a bus stop. A variety of fishy food was ordered, the Royal Salads being popular. The Pie Master & mawther plumped for the Crab and Salmon Royals.

Frank Spurgon

Following last week's quality pies, it was going to be a hard act to follow so I thought we'd sample pies from Frank Spurgon, last munched back in May last year, when they returned a respectable score of 7.5. The Walk Master had devised a 6 mile appetising walk from Cromer to East Runton via Incleborough Hill. Parking in a side street we made our way south west, taking in some of the Norfolk Coast Path and many blackberries! The walk now became a fungus foray, first collecting Parasol mushrooms, then a crop of Shaggy Parasols. A little later we came to a solitary Shaggy Ink Cap before collecting several chanteralls, our collection was completed with a Brown Birch Boletus. We then ascended Incleborough Hill for lunch at 259 feet above sea level! No wonder King Canape was a little breathless. We made our way down into East Runton to the Fishing Boat for reasonably priced pints of Sundew and Wherry, which we consumed in the garden. We made our way to West Runton Gap to walk along the beach, the tide being out. Coming up the cliff at Cromer, we returned to the cars for tea and Waitrose Guacamole with spicy crackers, followed by Panadas – spicy beef pies from Sardinia that Ana brought back. Then the lovely pies from Frank Spurgeon, these had a very crisp crust and a dark filling with jelly. Nicely textured and spiced the eight participating munchers all enjoyed the pies giving them a score of 8.3125 with a standard deviation of 0.37201 – slightly up on last week’s pie. So Frank Surgeon gets a rounded up, normalised score of 8.5. Shortbread was the final fourth course this week.

Hutsons Butchers of Southwold

More foreign southern delights this week – a large pie from over the border: Hutsons Butcher in Southwold, our first sampling of a pie from them. They have been in the business for over 300 years, making it the oldest shop in town. First we needed to get ourselves ready for pie consumption: Parking at Hardingham War Memorial Hall, we headed a little way north by road before turning down Policemans Loke, passing a picturesque wisteria draped cottage. We were heading towards St. George’s Mount but before that we came to Old Hall Farm, Hardingham, where they were weighing sheep. There was a beautiful, crazy, brown sheep dog with surplus energy in a pen beside the sheep. On reaching the mount and Hardingham church, the Walk Master decided the slight detour to the church was not necessary as it had been visited recently and we had its faint scratch dial photographed. We headed west along Church Road before picking up footpaths south to Hingham. Now the wind got up, crossing open fields spotting many hares. Arriving at Hingham, we had lunch in the lee of St. Andrew’s church after first purveying the shop windows of Harrods. After lunch we noted a large scratch dial high on a buttress and very high up on another, what looked like a later sundial base carved into the masonry. We then went to the "White Hart", visited seven weeks ago, for pints of a beer masquerading as Woodefords Wherry, we begged to differ, and Green King St. Edmunds. Unfortunately Boris and Charlie were not in residence this time, so we retired to the salubrious lounge where we watched a heavy shower come and go as we took our refreshments – what a Weather Wizard we have in our Walk Master! Extricating ourselves from the comfy chairs, we had two miles to go to the pie, heading north beside the pub we noted several interesting houses before we zigzagged our way back to the cars by footpath. Our first course was large prawns with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. The large neat looking pie looked good and when cut released a small amount of aroma similar to pork brawn. The dark pink filling had jelly round the base. Munching was a very pleasant experience with crisp tasty pastry and a good tasty, meaty filling enhanced with the application of a little mustard. The pie came in with a score of 8.1875, helped by a score of 7 from the Führer. We all agreed this was a good pie, the standard deviation was surprisingly high a 0.84251 . Next the traditional Scottish Shortbreads and then a bag of "Munchers", purchased to appease the pie munchers when the Pie Master had procured a potentially poor pork pie three weeks ago, but then failed to bring them. Another good walk, a good pie with a normalised score of 8 for Hutsons Butchers, and we avoided the rain – not bad for a bank holiday weekend.

Roll mouse over picture to see uncut pie

Crestwood "Crispy Bake" Pork Pies

This week the Pie Master had forgotten to purchase pork pies! Late Saturday afternoon, Josie realised we had no pies to munch, so the Pie Master hopped on his bike and hossed down to the Local Aldi in the rain. We had sampled their Crestwood “crispy bake” pies back in 2006, on the 16^th July, when they scored a mere 5 out of ten, hopefully they’d improved. We headed over the border into the wilds of Suffolk for this week's sampling, passing a procession of Bubble cars coming in the opposite direction, along Herringfleet Road. Parking at Somerleyton railway station, we headed back up Station Road to then walk through Wadding Wood and then by footpath to Blundeston Road and the picturesque parish church of St. Mary, Somerleyton. Finding no scratch dials, we continued along Blundeston Road, accompanied at one point by a low flying Douglas DC-3 'Dakota', before we returned to footpaths. Then walking along a short stretch of road we passed a 1652 barn. Lunch was taken at 3¼ miles, in the church porch of St. Margaret, the parish church of Herringfleet, in front of it's Norman doorway. We found no scratch dials on this church, any having been covered by nasty rendering. Continuing along Herringfleet Road we came upon a pretty White flower, identified by Josie as “Star of Bethlehem” – the Führer thought it might have been Edelweiss – she would! Leaving the road we took a footpath towards the marshes finding two types of fungi, one unidentified and the other “Sulphur tufts”. Turning towards Herringfleet drainage mill, with Raveningham water tower in the distance, the Walk Master thought he spotted a lion running across the marshes, but it turned out to be a large dog! Arriving at the mill, we were just in time to see volunteers get the mill working. After pausing and having a mardle, we set off east. Walking along the bank, meeting lovely dogs, we arrived at the Duke's head for pints of Adnams and Wherry all in good condition. The short walk back to the railway station, through a boatyard, was made a little longer due to some deliberate misinformation from one of the boat owners. Returning to the cars, we first sampled “Healthy Selection” Houmous and Spicy red pepper Houmous with Black olive crackers. Then on to the pies... When they were sliced, they released virtually no aroma, but the filling looked good despite no jelly. Unfortunately these ‘Crispy Bake’ pies had a soft crust, though it was tasty, which is more than can be said for the filling. This was bland and had no texture, certainly needing the application of mustard. The pies did marginally better this outing scoring 5.375 with a standard deviation of 0.41726. Thankfully the Walk Master’s Scottish Shortbreads were up to their usual high standard. So a normalised 5.5 for Crestwood’s so called “crispy bake” pies.

J. S. Coxford

The Walk master led this weeks 6 miler, in glorious sunshine, before we tucked into pies from J. S. Coxford, of Aylsham - a first tasting for the munchers. Starting at Brooke village hall, we headed north, past Laurel Farm, with its thatched garage, and pony. After walking along the footpaths and across a muddy field, we came to Alpington Hall, with its noisy guard-dog. Into another muddy field, we passed a “mawkin”. Paul and José retrieved some of its reflective adornments, which had obviously blown off in the wind. Lunch-stop was at St. Mary's church in Yelverton. Inside the porch were two lovely stained glass windows - one representing water, the other one, fire. The church had no scratch dial. On leaving the church, we bumped into the son of an old Bystander, with his dog Ruby. She was very friendly and playful, and seemed to enjoy being photographed! At the 4 mile point, we reached “The Dove” public house. Adnams, Broadside and Woodfordes Wherry were all found to be in good condition - and the roast lunches being served looked very good too! Along the next footpath across to the next field, we passed a fish farm and a set of pig shelters. Not the normal corrugated iron huts you normally see - these were much larger and had fabric sides. We then came to the second church of the day - St. Mary the virgin, Howe - a lovely round-tower church with Saxon windows. Don procured a log of laurel wood, from a gentleman cutting the trees back in the churchyard. Back at the village hall in Brooke, tea was served by Josie: stand-in tea lady and pie mistress! Feta-stuffed peppers to start, supplied by King Canape, followed by the pies. These pies had a very crisp, crunchy pastry and a well-seasoned, very flavoursome filling. Top marks to J.S. Coxford butchers, scoring 8.2777, with a standard deviation of only 0.44096. We then had shortcake to finish. . So a normalised score of 8.5. (filed by Josie)

Sainsbury’s mini Melton Mowbray pies

Inclement weather prompted the Pie Master to take the easy option and purchase Sainsbury's mini Melton Mowbray pork pies - we hadn't tried them before & they were on offer! Seven pie munchers set off the following day, in even worse weather, from the fisherman's car park at Blickling Hall. Heading east, we made our way slowly along white fields towards Ingworth, befriending a horse in field on route. We continued east before approaching Aylsham from the north, passing Dunkirk and the old water mill. We eventually reached the shelter afforded by the large church of St. Michael & All Saints. Here we consumed our sandwiches and learnt who we could not marry. Taking note of this, we headed for the warmth of the Black Boys Inn. This establishment was packed with diners, but we managed to squeeze in and enjoy pints of Wherry or hot cups of drink. Thankfully the sleet had abated for our journey back to Blickling, passing the church we then headed west down Peterson’s Lane. We then followed a pleasant footpath that followed the B1354, Blickling Road, emerging opposite St. Andrew’s church, Blickling. We had previously examined this church and found it to be dial-less. Passing in front of the hall, we then headed north to walk around the west side of the frozen lake and back to the cars, spotting a barn owl on our way. Artichoke hearts were canapés this week, that preceded the pies. After providing rather too much in the way of porkie delights last week, I had rather under catered with only 6 mini Melton Mowbray pies to go round. The pies were not bad, but that is about as much that could be said for them. A crisp but lardy case enclosed a bland filling with no aroma. Mustard helped this pie out a little and it managed to score 6.28571 with a high standard deviation of 1.21988. Shortcake completed the grazing experience. So a normalized score of 6.5 for J Sainsbury’s mini Melton Mowbray pork pies.

Castle Grove

Off to Horsey to see the seals this week, armed with Castle Grove pies. The butchers in North Walsham had shut up shop early, so venturing into Lidl; we found pies we hadn’t sampled before. First we had a 5½-mile walk to complete. Parking at the car park at Horsey Gap, we headed inland via Horsey Corner and onto Brograve drainage mill, on the far bank of the Waxham New Cut, built in 1771 by Sir Berney Brograve. We followed the east bank of the cut, spotting three large unfamiliar birds in flight, thought to be cranes, and then along by Horsey Mere to Horsey drainage mill. Here we had our sandwiches on the seating provided. Heading east, over boggy fields we then headed north to the Nelson’s Head. After assuring the landlady that the 8 of us would fit into her pub and that we could all sit round a long table, we enjoyed pints of Woodforde’s Wherry and Nelson’s Revenge. Now we headed for the coast to see the seals with their pups. We were provided with lots of interesting facts about the seals from a friendly Seal Warden, including the fact that they can reach 30mph on land over a short distance. A walk along the dunes reunited us with the cars where we consumed small peppers stuffed with soft cheese, before sampling the pies. The small pies were cut in two, revealing a pink filling with no jelly and low aroma. The pies had a crisp pastry crust, although the filling lacked flavour, helped a little with a dab of mustard. Not a good pie, but better than last week’s, in my opinion, but the munchers differed; awarding it a score of 6.66666 with a standard deviation of 0.51640. Finally shortbread completed the outing. So a respectable normalised score of 6.5 for Lidl’s Castle Grove pies.
We were then joined by Emma, a retriever cross, who had missed the feast, but could still smell food.

Wombat Pie

Sixteen Privileged pie munchers were in for a treat this Sunday; there was the highly praised Wombat pork pie - specially baked for the pie munchers. But Wombat's hospitality did not end there... Together with Flounder, her other half, having obtained permissions from all relevant parties, they took us on a guided four mile tour of the private grounds of Gunton Park. We met at the Sawmill at 10:30 and walked clockwise through the beautiful grounds with sheep around Saw Mill Pond to the bridge that takes you over the stream coming from Great Water. Here we took in the views and saw that Canadian pondweed had established itself, and was causing a major problem. Passing the magnificent south wing of the hall, we then headed north to St. Andrew's church - all magnificently decked out for the Harvest Festival service. After inspecting the church and noting the Lead ties holding blocks of stone together, forming the entrance steps, we retraced our path south a short distance. Continuing east, passing friendly horses and a Melon House in the distance, then into a vast area with many deer. On the horizon was the splendid north gatehouse complete with lookout. Continuing east to Elderton Lodge where our hosts had ensured was stocked with real ale for our visit! Originally built as a shooting lodge, where Lillie Langtry was a regular guest, when the Prince of Wales - the future King Edward VII, stayed at the hall. Here, we were refreshed with pints of Wherry in good condition. Eventually we extricated ourselves from the pub and headed south, down a wooded track that then turned west after half a mile. Then we left the main path to go round a pond, through the woods to a metalled road through Suffield Wood and back into the park. We headed west with more stunning views complete with many deer, passing the south end of Saw Mill Pond,pausing by an old oak tree to admire a bright yellow caterpillar, believed to be that of the Pale Tussock moth. We returned to the Sawmill where we had our sandwiches and were given a short history of the Sawmill's restoration by Barré Funnel of NIAS. The Sawmill was celebrating it's 21^st Re-Birthday - the mill made its first cut after it's restoration on the 18th October 1988 and there was Re-Birthday cake for all visitors to the mill.After sampling the cake and viewing the mill in operation we gathered outside for the Main event: the sampling of the pie. Now in fairness, this wasn't a blind tasting - the large round pie had the Wombat insignia prominently crafted in pastry. Slicing the pie released a little aroma and revealed the crust was a bit crumbly. Although slightly let down by the crust, the contents were seen to be substantial and marvellously meaty with some jelly. Munching was a delight, the real meat filling finding favour with the munchers, resulting in a score of 8.28125 with a standard deviation of 0.81586 meaning the Wombat pie scores a high normalised 8.5. Chocolate & vanilla thins supplemented the Shortbread that followed.

The pie munchers and the Pork Pie News thank Wombat & Flounder for their hospitality and the owners of the park for granting permission for our visit.