No Bad Manners at The Village Manor Bakery

Venue: Village Manor Bakery, 499 Huddersfield Road, Oldham.  OL4 2JG
Date: 7th January 2018
Pie: Pork Pie (a BIG un!)
Pie Temperature: Hot and Cold
Rating: 8.3

A few weeks ago, just after Christmas I was discussing pies with my Father-in-law when he mentioned that one of his Granddaughters was now working part time at a bakery to earn a few pounds for spending money.  A very commendable thing to do and of course this piqued my interest somewhat…. “A family member working in a bakery.. Mmmmm.. Interesting” I thought.  We continued to discuss pies and the baking tasks his Granddaughter undertook, one of which was making the jelly for pork pies and filling said pies to perfection.  Now we all know that I like a good Pork Pie, and so does my Father-in-law.  In fact, he’d had a Pork Pie from the bakery in question the previous day for his evening meal (for his Tea if you’re from the North), and very pleased with it he was too, and so having express my liking, he promised to bring a pie next time he visited.

The bakery, Village Manor Bakery, is located just outside Oldham in a place called Waterhead on the edge of the Pennies which historically was a hot spot for the mills of the Cotton Industry and also a few Coal Mines were worked in the area.  Waterhead took it’s name from Water-head Mill a water powered Corn Mill of the mid 1800s.  “Enough of the geographical history lesson” I hear you say, “This is supposed to be about pies!”.

So a couple of week later, a Pork Pie from the Village Manor Bakery was duly delivered.  It was a bit of a monster pie and to be honest took two of us a couple of meals to eat.  I tried the pie both hot, reheated in an oven for 20 minutes or so, and cold from the refrigerator.   My preference was hot, as all that lovely jelly had melted into a piping hot juice and really did make the eating experience and the aromas more intense, but I did also enjoy the pie cold.  The pastry of the pie was well cooked and the pie was of a deep golden colour. When cold the pie cut reasonably well, but due to the size needed a strong arm to cut through steady and smoothly.  There was a little crumbling at the edges where the knife had gone through, but it was minimal.  The filling was a lovely deep pink in colour with a nice amount of jelly(cold) / juice(hot) surrounding the meat.  The meat was well seasoning and quite peppery which I personally like and the overall look of the pie was appetising.  As I mentioned earlier, when hot, the aroma from the pie was very mouthwatering and while eating there wasn‘t hint of pastiness or clinginess in the mouth.  When cold the pie was again easy to eat, but didn’t set the mouth juices flowing quite as much as when hot, never the less, it was a pie that didn’t disappoint, especially with a little dab of mustard.

Over all, it was a good Pork Pie and one that I would definitely have again, but maybe the more traditional size rather than the monster size that my Farther-in-law brought with him for us both to eat.  Now I know where the bakery is, I’ll definitely be calling in to take ‘one step beyond’ the pork pies to see what other fayre else is on offer and of course to say hello to my niece.

HF.