A Cultural History of Tripe (or why did we stop eating it?)

There was a good turnout for our afternoon talk by Andrew Hobbs and those who attended were not disappointed.

From being a dish enjoyed by all classes (in his diaries, Samuel Pepys mentions enjoying it) it became only a working class meal.  From nationwide consumption it is now limited to East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, though few tripe stalls now exist on the local markets.

Served cold and sometimes eaten with hot chips as a snack straight from a newspaper, to delicious (?) soups and stews, tripe gained popularity during the war, as it was not rationed but its status has since waned.  Our picture shows tripe soup.

We were shown lists of Rossendale tripe dressers and sellers from local directories with many local names eg Lord, Haworth and Hoyle.  The national directories furnished large amounts of statistical information which allowed Andrew to produce various graphs to illustrate its decline across the UK.

We were shown lists of Rossendale tripe dressers and sellers from local directories with many local names eg Lord, Haworth and Hoyle.  The national directories furnished large amounts of statistical information which allowed Andrew to produce various graphs to illustrate its decline across the UK.George Formby and Mike Harding sang about it, Bill Tidy in the Fosdyke Saga made it a central part of the story while Ken Dodd used it as a base for clog dancing – Lancashire audiences laughed with them, others laughed at them.  Did this contribute to its national decline?

Far from talking tripe which could have been an offal afternoon, Andrew not only entertained but enlightened us as well.  Thank you Andrew.