Residents at The Heights nursing home in Downley enjoy a slice of the action during British Pie Week

L-R : Robert Lee, Junior Walker, Diane Woolford, Brian Pearson , Kelly Hartley.

The Heights nursing home in Downley, High Wycombe hosted a ‘Best Home-made Pie’ competition in celebration of British Pie Week.

Residents and members of the team from care provider and charity, The Fremantle Trust’s older people’s services went head to head to claim the title of Best Home-made Pie in celebration of British Pie Week (Monday 4th to Sunday 10th March 2019).

The competition, held at The Heights nursing home in Downley, High Wycombe featured a host of delicious savoury and fruit based pies, with recipes created by residents from The Heights, Cherry Garth (Holmer Green), Lent Rise House (Burnham), Fremantle Court (Stoke Mandeville) and Carey Lodge (Wing).

The joint winners were a hearty Scottish steak, ale and mushroom pie, baked by a team from The Heights and British cherry pie from avid bakers at Cherry Garth care home in Holmer Green.

Jordan Trumpet, manager of the Bricklayers Arms pub in Downley also came down to be part of the tasting panel, as well as serve a pint or two to wash down the delicious pies.

Resident Robert Lee from The Heights is a former butcher by trade and provided expert advice in the run up to the event on the best meat cuts to use. He said: ‘This is a marvellous event and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.‘

A panel of judges including Robert, Jordan and development chef for the Trust, Jude Watts, were unable to choose between the two traditional bakes, which marked a contrast to the vegan pie that was hailed the supreme champion in the annual British Pie Awards, held in Melton Mowbray.

Sue Faulkner, community and lifestyle manager at The Fremantle Trust, added: ‘As a nation of pie lovers, the competition has been a tremendous celebration as well as a showcase of some great talent from across our services.

The competitors have put so much hard work and creativity into their bakes and we’ve had a lot of fun tasting them. Huge thanks to everybody who has been involved for making it such a success!‘

Further information on The Fremantle Trust can be found on their website at https://www.fremantletrust.org.