A bakery in Bolton run by ex-offenders has been left flying high after winning big at the 2022 British Pie Awards.
Proving that everyone deserves a second chance, the bakery scooped up four gongs at this year’s prestigious ceremony held inside Melton Mobrawy’s 12th Century St Mary’s Church, also known as the ‘Cathedral of Pies’.
Cleaning up, the team of ex-offenders impressively won the overall vegan category with their chickpea curry pasty – leaving them feeling completely ‘ecstatic’.
HM Pasties were also awarded silver for their cheese and onion pie and twos bronzes for their traditional pastry and creamy vegan leek and mushroom pies.
Image: HM Pasties
In a heartfelt post shared to social media, the bakery said that achieving such recognition felt like a ‘validation of the work of the whole team’.
ADVERTISEMENT
“This is such wonderful news for everyone in the bakery team,” they wrote.
“Four of our products to be recognised in this way, judged by experts, is such a validation of the work of the whole team.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We couldn’t be prouder and thank everyone who has wished us well, bought our products and supported our journey so far.”
Image: HM Pasties
Image: HM Pasties
HM Pasties, set up by former prisoner Lee Wakeham in 2018, offers a lifeline to those in need of work experience after leaving prison.
Using ingredients from local prison farms wherever possible, the bakery makes delicious Cornish pasties and pies.
ADVERTISEMENT
They weren’t the only ones to win big, either, with a total of six different Greater Manchester pie makers taking home gongs this year.
Ate Days A Week (Stockport), HM Pasties (Bolton), Great North Pie Co, Patel’s Pies (Manchester), Fraser’s Butchers (Bolton) and Baldy’s Pies (Wigan) all scooped up impressive comments from the judges this year – proving chefs in the north west more than know what they’re doing in the pie department.
Ate Days A Week, which has only been churning out pies for 18 months now, took home four awards – most notably, a prestigious Gold for their Lamb Pie Of The Tiger.
The team also took home silver awards for their Madrassive Attack and Ox Cheek Pie of the Tiger pies and scored a bronze for their Salt and Pepper Chicken Pie Of The Tiger.
ADVERTISEMENT
Speaking on the win, owner and chef Andy James said: “Proper proper mad to even conceive that we’ve not even been making or selling pies for 18 months yet and that’s 5 awards in that time.
“I’m seriously proud of what we’re doing and where we’re going. Next year, we’ll be a class winner I promise that!”
Image: Ate Days A Week
Local favourites, longstanding winners and now, also, judges at the awards, the Great North Pie Company alsos did well – picking up two more awards to add to their collection.
Their Corned Beef and Potato and Chicken and Bovril Balti pies both earned Bronze awards at this year’s event, spelling good things to come for their Manchester pie shop – also due to open in the city later this year.
Elsewhere, Patel’s Pies, founded during the pandemic by ex-scaffolder Steve Patel, won two silver awards for their Aloo Matar and Chickpea and Paneer pies.
HM Pasties Bolton neighbours Frasers Butchers also got an acknowledgement, receiving three awards in total: a silver award for their pork pie and Huntsman pie, and a bronze for their classic meat and potato pie.
Meanwhile Wigan’s Baldy’s Pies, not to be overlooked, picked up a gold award for their Fisherman’s Pie.
The team was also awarded with a bronze gong for their Big Jim pie – comprised of bone marrow, braised beef shin, confit onion and pistachio crumb.
Further afield, the Cheshire Pie Company and Glossop’s butchers Mettrick’s also picked up awards at the 2022 competition.
Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
15th March 2022 
