Town in Leicestershire, England
Melton Mowbray
In 1837 a drunken marquess and his friends painted Melton Mowbray red, while the town was busy giving the world its most famous pork pie.
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Key information
- County
- Leicestershire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Pork pies, Stilton country, fox-hunting heritage, pet food
- What locals are called
- Meltonians
- Famous people
- Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford, Robert de Mowbray, Frances Pawlett, Cooper Thornhill
About Melton Mowbray
The night a marquess painted the town red
On the night of 5 April 1837, Henry Beresford, the 3rd Marquess of Waterford, and a gang of hunting friends went on a rampage through Melton Mowbray. The story goes that they daubed doors, walls and even a toll-keeper's house in red paint. The town has long claimed this as the origin of the phrase "painting the town red". Whether or not the phrase began here, the prank tells you exactly who was living in Melton in the 1830s: rich young men who had come for the hunting and had money and energy to burn. Melton Mowbray was the place to be in the Victorian hunting season. Packs such as the Quorn, the Belvoir and the Cottesmore all met nearby, and the town earned the title Capital of Foxhunting. In the 1920s the future Edward VIII was among its famous visitors.
Why the pork pie is grey
A proper Melton Mowbray pork pie looks nothing like the pink, tin-moulded supermarket kind. The pork is fresh and uncured when it goes into the pastry, so it becomes greyish-brown during baking. Cured pork stays pink. The pastry is hand-raised around a mould and then baked free-standing, which gives the pie its bowed, bulging sides. The pie is traditionally linked to the hunting set, who wanted a sturdy lunch they could tuck in a pocket. Another popular explanation is that local dairies had plenty of whey left over from cheesemaking, and the whey fed the pigs. In 2009 the Melton Mowbray pork pie was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication. Only pies made in a defined area around the town, to the traditional recipe, can carry the name. The Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe on Nottingham Street, home to Dickinson & Morris, is the best-known place to buy one.
Stilton: the cheese that is not from Stilton
Melton sits at the heart of Stilton country, and the story is a good one. Stilton village, in Cambridgeshire, helped popularise the cheese rather than making today's blue version. It lay on the Great North Road, and travellers bought the cheese at the Bell Inn, where the landlord, Cooper Thornhill, is credited with popularising it. An earlier cheese called Stilton was also made in the village, as recorded in Richard Bradley's 1726 recipe, but modern blue Stilton developed in the Leicestershire countryside. Frances Pawlett, from Wymondham near Melton, is remembered as an early producer who supplied it in the 1700s. Today the name Stilton is protected, and the cheese can only be made in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Not a drop of it can legally be made in Stilton itself.
A town built around animals
Melton's links with animals run deep. Its Tuesday market has long drawn farmers and shoppers from the surrounding countryside. During the First World War the town became a major base for horses, with a large remount depot and veterinary hospital caring for animals sent from the front. That tradition continues. The Defence Animal Training Regiment at Melton Mowbray trains military working dogs and horses for the armed forces. The town is also a big name in pet food. Brands such as Pedigree and Whiskas are made here by Mars, which makes a pie town a very good place to be a dog.
The big church and the pie-shaped chapel
St Mary's Church dominates the centre of Melton. It is one of the largest parish churches in Leicestershire, built mostly in the 13th to 15th centuries, and it is big enough to feel like a small cathedral. The town's name comes from the Norman Mowbray family, who held the manor here. It was a settlement long before them, and Melton appears in the Domesday Book. For something quirkier, look for the Baptist chapel nicknamed the Pork Pie Chapel because of its rounded shape. In October the town celebrates its food with an annual food festival, and visitors come for pies, cheese and a very good market.