The Melton Mowbray Pork Pie is one of the UK’s most iconic food products. When the future and integrity of the Melton Mowbray pie looked in jeopardy twenty years ago, it was Samworth Brothers along with other pie devotees that safeguarded its future.
The Samworth family and Samworth Brothers have a long association with pork pies. A previous Samworth family business owned the Pork Farms brand. However, their involvement stepped up a gear in 1986 when Samworth Brothers acquired the Leicester pie maker Walker & Son, followed by the purchase in 1992 of Melton Mowbray’s ‘Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe’ and the accompanying Dickinson & Morris brand.
A pie maker called John Dickinson had opened the Melton “Pie Shoppe” in 1851. His grandmother Mary Dickinson is credited as the first pie maker to use the distinctive wooden “dolly”, around which the pastry of a Melton Mowbray pork pie is raised.
As well as their unique bow shape, a result of baking the pies free-standing, Melton Mowbray pork pies are made with fresh pork, which is naturally grey when cooked, contrasting with the pink hue of other pies whose pork is cured with nitrates. Melton Mowbray pork pies also feature chopped pork, rather than the minced meat used in other types of pork pie.
The battle to save Melton Mowbray pies
It was in the late 1990s that Samworth Brothers supported the push to safeguard the Melton Mowbray pork pie. Matthew O’Callaghan, then a local councillor and now Chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, another key player in the battle, said
“A number of us were concerned that Melton Mowbray pies were increasingly being produced with no reference to the traditional recipe and provenance.”
Matthew and others ramped up the campaign when they reported one “Melton Mowbray” pie made in Wiltshire (for a very well-known UK retailer), and featuring pink meat, to Trading Standards! After a stand-off, a solution was found. “We had a chap down from DEFRA who suggested we go for the newly introduced EU Protected Names Status,” says Matthew.
Samworth Brothers Chairman, Mark Samworth remembers the years of campaigning.
“We all realised this was a classic British food that needed to be safeguarded for the future. Just like the French with their champagne or the Italians with Parma ham.”
However, this wasn’t the end of the battle. A legal tussle ensued with a large national pie maker that claimed the pie was generic and, regarding the protected area boundary, involved a visit to the High Court followed by the Appeal Court. This led eventually, in 2008, to the Melton Mowbray pork pie achieving EU Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) status. After Brexit this protection has been continued with the UK’s new Geographical Indication (GI) scheme.
The Future
It may be more than 170 years old, but the Melton Mowbray pork pie continues to be a contemporary hit. The Dickinson & Morris brand has all-year-round listings in Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges and recently launched its “For Impeccably Good Taste” campaign, appearing on TV and digital channels across the nation. Younger consumers love products such as D&M’s Melton Mowbray Sharing Pie and the highly popular Mini Melton Mowbray pork pies.
In 2024 Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in Melton Mowbray underwent a major refurbishment which added a new tasting room and the world’s first ever pork pie museum. For Samworth Brothers’ Chairman Mark Samworth, the march of the Melton Mowbray pork pie continues.
“We are proud to support British food and farming.”
“One of the reasons we have heavily invested in both Leicestershire and Cornwall is because of the food heritage of these counties. It is not just about protecting and preserving these food traditions, but also making them relevant and exciting to new consumers.”