Congleton Food & Drink Festival

Congleton Food & Drink Festival is back! 

It's back, Congleton Food & Drink Festival has returned to the streets after a two year lockdown break. Stalls offering top quality artisan foods and drinks lined the streets and locals revelled in the freedom of the festival, sampling new flavours and meeting up with old friends.

Food stalls and music 

Not only food and drinks were on offer, a few stalls were selling herbs and medicinal plants, including the Congleton Bath House and Physic Garden, where I bought an unusual mint and a bronze fennel plant.

Congleton Bath House and Physic Garden stall

Plenty of foods and drinks were offered as samples and we were introduced to a new local gin, Cloud View Gin mad with botanicals found on The Cloud (a local landmark hill).

Food and Drink Festival in full swing

The award winning Great North Pie Co had a great selection of artisan pies to choose from and I went home with a Chicken & Stornoway Black Pudding pie to try.

On another stall, Aga baked Yorkshire parkin and fruit cakes temped us and the owner, Annette Burnham, showed me how she used a traditional small printing press to print the labels for her cakes.  As it is Congleton's 750 years celebration this year (2022) she had created a special printing block to honour this. Each individual letter is placed in the block (backwards) - if you look closely you will see them, and the resulting print is shown below.

Printing block with 'Congleton is 750 years old!' 

The resulting print

I came away with a selection of fruit cakes and parkin and can't wait to try them!

The town is looking lovely with bunting and hand painted heraldic flags flying to commemorate the 750 years of being granted a charter allowing men of the town the right to hold land through payment of a rent rather than personal service to the Lord of the Manor. It also allowed the inhabitants to elect a mayor and an ale taster!

Heraldic flags to celebrate Congleton's 750 years

The Tibetan restaurant, Four Friends, had a stall outside selling delicious Tibetan food which could be enjoyed in the garden at the back of the restaurant on Mill Street, below fluttering prayer flags.

Four Friends garden

There were some great cooking smells coming from the hot food stalls, such as Reubens, cooking up burgers.

Reubens in action

Not only was the festival well attended but luckily the weather was beautiful and everyone seemed to be having an excellent time. 

Congleton Food & Drink Festival