Enough of the pies already!
Wigan is now world famous for one – the manufacture of pies; two – the eating of pies and, three, the annual pie competition.
It's pretty safe to say that the national pie eating competition held in our town each year has achieved world fame ... and film of people gobbling the meat and potato pies have folks either laughing or feeling nauseated.
In fact, I've felt miffed for years that Wigan has been thought of as a laughing stock.
Take George Formby – he played the gormless fool and had millions thinking we Wiganers are daft.
Frank Randle didn't do us any favours either.
The Wigan Pier joke, invented by Formby's father, also had the nation tittering at our land-locked town.
Now the pie eating competition – which takes place today – will have the nation laughing at us.
I'm no kill-joy, but I wish our great town could be known for something more than non-existent piers, gormless comics and the conspicuous consumption of mounds of pies in a short space of time.
Indeed, Wigan has a great deal to offer besides pies.
On the literary front, we could host a George Orwell Festival. Or centre a festival around our very own Ian McKellen.
We've gone some way by hosting an Isherwood exhibition (at Leigh). But there's still a long way to go in the bid to make outsiders take us seriously.
Read Wigan World every Tuesday only in the Wigan Observer ...
Email to a friend
Print this page Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Local pages
Looking for a...
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wigan
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South east
