Scotch Pie and Bovril

In one hand is the pie – thin crisp pastry, moist meaty filling – in the other the mug of steaming hot Bovril. Both are sustenance at half-time, before returning to the wet and windy terraces for the remainder of the match.

It’s been a partnership at football grounds for decades. At least since the convenient mass-produced Scotch pie became a staple item for urban industrial workers and their families. It was first made by itinerant ‘pie-wives’ who baked them at home and hawked them about the streets for a living.