Pie and tripe, pure delight!

"Tripe, what a beautiful sight

Is a plate of tripe

I wish I'd a ton

It would soon be done

Same to you

Wi' some aliker (vinegar) on."

As children, we would chant this as we gazed in the tripe shop window in Deardengate, Haslingden.

My father used to work at Mitchell's tripe works which, I think, was in Helmshore.

When he came home from work, the smell was horrible, but it did not stop us from eating tripe.

Even now, I love half a pound of seam, with salt and plenty of vinegar on.

My mother, when making stew, would put half a cow-heel in to thicken it. It was "strengthening," she said.

As for Holland's pies, mentioned in the same issue, well, they go together - tripe and pies.

I am 83 and I don't think there is a week that goes by without me enjoying a meat and potato pie, hot or cold.

You can all have your pasties, there is nothing quite like a Holland's pie or a plate of tripe.

ADA GIBSON, Grange Street, Clayton-le-Moors.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.