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News from the 1980’s that never made the headlines

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The 1980's Quiz Book

Just Published:

The 1980's Quiz Book (UK)

The 1980's Quiz Book (US)

 

This quiz book focuses on news from the 1980’s with 20 different categories and over 340 multi-choice questions.

 

These are weird, wonderful and odd stories and all true; for quiz masters needing new and unique material and those who enjoy reading about the slightly bizarre side of real life.

 

Take a short fun quiz on the 1980's Quiz Book page.

Albert Hirst

 

Albert Hirst, black pudding king of England and purveyor of the monstrous BarnsIey chop to royalty, died at his home in Barnsley. He was 73.

 

Albert was a big man with a well-fed look that one likes to see in butchers. At breakfast every morning, he would eat a slice or two of his own black pudding. ‘The caviar of the North’ he called it. “Good for anaemia. Stands to reason. They’re made from blood.”

 

Makers of celebrated, noted or simply choice black puddings in Lancashire will doubtless challenge his right to be called the king. But the Post Office has delivered letters addressed to Black Pudding King, England to Albert Hirst at Barnsley.

 

Anyone asking him about the Barnsley chop would receive a card, reading: Food fit for a king: Barnsley chops, supplied for luncheon at the opening of Barnsley Town Hall by HRH the Prince of Wales in 1933 by Albert Hirst.

 

The Barnsley chop, the card said, was believed to have originated at the King’s Head Hotel in Barnsley in 1849. when farmers going to market always had a meal of a very large chop. On the visit of the Prince of Wales, Barnsley chops weighing 1lb 6oz each were served. They came from year-old Southdown sheep, two chops from each sheep.

 

As the weight of a Barnsley chop suggests, it is more like a joint than a chop, and is roasted in the oven and not grilled. According to reports, the Prince of Wales, who was no trencherman, was unable to finish his hunk of meat.

 

Albert Hirst was a regular competitor in the world black pudding championships at Mortagne-an-Perche, Normandy. He won gold medals and the cup, but the supreme award eluded him.

 

He sent his black puddings by post to France, where they were refrigerated a week before the festival, and then travelled over by car. Fellow passengers described his pronunciation of French place names as pure Albert Hirst. Nearing Alencon, he instructed his passengers to keep a look out for signposts to Allison.

 

Having served the Prince of Wales with a Barnsley chop Albert decided in 1970 that Princeess Anne bad been for too long- deprived of black puddings, the caviar of the North. His gift of the black blood sausage was acknowledged by a lady-in-waiting:’Most kind of you ,to think of her Majesty, sincere thanks.’ What the letter did not say was whether the princess ate the black pudding.