IT is gone 12 noon on a grey February weekday in Latchford and the shelves of the tall glass counter are almost empty of savoury pies and sausage rolls.
The morning and lunchtime has been as busy as it usually is with the door constantly opening as customers arrive and leave clutching delicious-smelling treats in white paper bags.
In the onsite bakery behind the counter, a team of staff work creating the next day’s treats as the tasty aroma of meat pies and cooking sweet pastries drifts up to your nostrils.
Customers pop into the shop every few minutes – local residents, workmen, pensioners, all in search of their lunchtime pastries.
I’m acutely aware that as each one leaves, there are less pies available for those who are arriving and eagerly scanning the shelves for what’s left.
And then one disappointed customer is left to buy the final pie. She wanted two.
“We’ll have to share it,” she says with resignation in her voice as the savoury baked item is placed into a white paper bag to be divided up later.
Welcome to the world of Currall’s on the edge of the village.
A place where the pies sell out daily and queues often snake outside of the shop with eager customers travelling across town – and beyond to buy their hot freshly-baked food including meat and potato pies, plate meat pies, pasties and sausage rolls.
“I’m sorry we’re out of pies,” proprietor Neil Currall informs the handful of customers who venture into the shop after 12:40 pm when the last savoury item has sold.
They shake their heads in mild disbelief before turning on their heels to leave the shop.
The team at Currall’s know a lot about baking as they are the third generation of pie makers and bakers. They also sell sweet baked treats – flake cakes, gingerbread men, heart-shaped shortbread biscuits for Valentine’s Day filled with jam and buttercream and delicious fruit filled cake.
The shop was begun by their grandparents back in 1939 and it remains there, as popular as ever.
Ex-Warringtonians travel far and wild to sample the delights it offers. And it is not just savoury treats – there are cakes and biscuits, too.
The recipes are inevitably a closely guarded secret. Neil Currall is not prepared to share the family secret with Warrington Worldwide.
Mr Currall explains that gauging the amount of pies and sweet treats to bake “is a judgement call as we don’t keep pies til the next day, we sell them.”
“The amount we sell depends on the day it is. For example, last Saturday we sold 1,200 pies.
“We sell meat pies, meat and potato pies that are made onsite and sausage rolls that we bake from frozen. We just make them fresh every day – that’s the secret to our success. That’s basically it.
“We have a team of about 12 staff part-time and full-time. My grandparents Charles and Bessie established the business, then my parents Kenneth and Peggy took over.
“Now it’s me, my brother Stuart and sister Alison working here.”
His colleague, working on the counter added: “We get people who have moved away from Warrington coming back. There’s people who’ve moved to the Lake District who come back to the shop.
“There’s one guy who comes back to see his mum every seven weeks and he comes into the shop and we have people who are back visiting from abroad.”
Mr Currall said: “We deliver to Widnes Market and we deliver to Warrington Town Football Club. Also they supply the famous Monks delicatessen in Runcorn which was established in 1884.
“The recipe in the pies is not exactly a secret but I am not going to tell anybody what’s in them!
“People don’t usually complain when they realise we run out as they know you have to get here early. We tell them to ring ahead so we can put something aside for them – but they never do.”
