General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Southern Belle.

There is nothing special whatsoever about the pies in Wigan.

There. I've said it.

The jealous natives of a nearby town attempted to besmirch tho good folk of Wigan when we colonised/annexed them in the early 70's. Supposedly there is historical evidence to suggest that the term Pie Eater was coined by them to describe Wiganers following industrial action in the early twentieth century.

It was probably one person's comment about a distant relative (singular). That's if it did happen at all.

Anyroad, when the simple townspeople of Leigh were enslaved by Wigan, they used this so-called slur as an act of defiance. Bless em. It was adopted by followers of their local Rugby team and oh how they laughed.

The thing that amuses me about all this, is that when they started casting aspersions, Wiganers were absolutely non plussed. Leaving the Leigh people with a job of explaining their insult. (rather defusing, don't you think?)

As time went on, rather than keep resorting to bogus history lessons, the reason for the insult was diluted to the ridiculous level of claiming that we (Wiganers) consumed more pies than they did.

To counter this anomaly it is suggested that they consume more lobby (see lobbies) than us.

All utter twaddle.

The problem in my opinion, is that lots of younger Wiganers (forgive them they know no better) have embraced the Pie Eater tag in a similar way to how other members of society have 'owned' insults. (see n word)

I'm all for this in theory, but I much rather prefer challenging a Leigh person who uses the sleight and asking him/her where the term originates.



Hope this is of assistance. But feel free to visit and sample pies in either town. There's no shortage of pie shops in each location.