A set of images unearthed from the Mirrorpix archives offers a glimpse of Manchester many of us have never seen.
The photographs show what appears to be an incredibly popular eating contest taking place on Canal Street long before it established itself as Manchester's Gay Village. The food in question is a now largely shunned delicacy from Manchester's past, namely tripe.
Tripe, not to beat around the bush, is the edible stomach lining of farm animals – mostly cattle, sheep and pigs with beef tripe being the most common. If that doesn't get you salivating, you were probably just born in a later generations where its popularity has dwindled.
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Tripe was a nutritious and cheap dish for the British working classes from Victorian times until the latter half of the 20th century. And while it is still popular in many parts of continental Europe, the number of offal (internal organ meat), including tripe eaters in the UK, has rapidly declined.
So it might not feature on too many plates these days, but just 50-years ago there were hundreds of tripe shops and stalls across the north of England. So popular was the foodstuff, regular eating contests were held whereby a the first to finish a slithering plateful first was declared a champion tripe eater.
One such competition was captured in a brilliant set of photographs found in the Mirrorpix archives recently. The images show a tripe eating contest taking place on Canal Street in Manchester on April 23, 1975.
Not only do the photographs show what looks to have been a lively day of eating and drinking at the canal-side, but also what a popular event tripe eating contests were. Colourful characters dressed in flat-caps, bowler hats and fake moustaches were egged on by a large crowd of Mancunians who had gathered to watch the competition hosted by Sutcliffe's Tripe of Wigan.
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The images also show just how different Canal Street looked nearly 50-years ago, long before it had established itself as Manchester's gay quarter. But there are many recognisable landmarks in the photos including the pub which later became the New Union Hotel and Show bar.
Keen eyed observers will also recognise Whitworth Locke Civic Quarter and 111 Piccadilly tower block in the background. And if you're wondering who won the competition that day, the title was clinched by pub landlord, Alan Southgate.
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In the Daily Mirror the following day, Alan's victory was described saying: "In 10 glorious minutes yesterday, publican Alan Southgate scoffed his way through just half an ounce short of 4lb of tripe. Burly 47-year-old Alan looked as if he had stepped straight out of the Mirror's Fosdyke Saga* strip cartoon as he defended his own world title.
"He wore a flat cap, tie without collar, waistcoat with watch-chain , corduroy trousers and clogs. A trumpeter heralded Alan and his seven challengers – two of them women – at the contest on a Manchester canal-bank.
"A bookie taking bets on the field had marked Alan down as a 5-1 outsider. But Alan's hard training – a dozen sheep's trotters a day and plenty of tripe – paid off.
"He finished a good 10oz ahead of the field. And as he doffed his cap to the cheering crowd, he said: 'I could manage another plateful. I love the stuff."
"The prize for Alan, who runs the Churchill pub in Chorlton Street, Manchester: A silver cup and a weekend for two in Paris. I only hope they've got tripe over there," said Alan.
Does this story awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
* The Fosdyke Saga was a comic strip published in the Daily Mirror between 1971 and 1985 described as - "a classic tale of struggle, power, personalities and tripe". It centred around the antics of the wastrel son of a tripe magnate with stereotypical nods to "Northern" life such as flat caps, mangles, smoking chimneys and soot.
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