The Devon pasty war
Proof the Cornish are thieving bastards!
"In November 2006 a Devonian historian claimed that pasties originate from the other side of the river in Devon. Dr Todd Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon's Archives, insisted he was right. 'The pasty is a Devonian delicacy and Cornwall stole it'.
His claim is based on the historic Old Audit Book and Receivers Accounts for the Borough of Plymouth, which dates back to the 16th century. The book is housed in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office.
Dr Gray spotted four key lines of text which refer to the financial cost of making a pasty, using venison from the Mount Edgcumbe (so at least the meat was Cornish) estate just across the Tamar River. The words date back to 1510. So Dr Gray contacted the Cornwall Record Office and found that its earliest record of a pasty recipe was in 1746. Thus Devon wins the pasty war by a clear 200 years, he concluded. 'This is one of Plymouth's ancient 16th-century documents which has never been properly presented to the public. This is a great joy for me as an historian uncovering local history,' he said."
This was also reported by the BBC and the Guardian, Observer & Independent newspapers.
The full story about the entry in the entry in the Borough of Plymouth Audit Book can be seen on this web site here: The Plymouth Pasty, 1510 AD, where the whole page from the Audit Book is seen, complete with a full transcription into Modern English.
