Some of the best places to get your fill during Pie Week

CRISP golden pastry with a delectable filling of tender meat and gravy - that's the beauty of pies, one of the ultimate comfort foods.

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

Not that you need any excuse to sink your teeth into a pie, the fact that it’s British Pie Week is a very good reason to tuck into your favourite.

They've been around for millennia, with the Ancient Egyptians credited with making the first version of a pie with a honey filling with a crusty coating of grains. A chicken pie recipe was found carved on a tablet from 2000 BC.

The Romans weren't just adept at building roads, they also invented the first pastry pie. However, the pie case wasn’t made for consumption but to preserve the filling.

Pies have a dark side too. In Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, the title character killed off the two men who attacked his daughter and baked them in a pie, while you'd never want to eat a pie in the vicinity of Sweeney Todd’s infamous barber shop.

On a lighter note, Nottinghamshire is very fortunate as it’s home to a number of award-winners.

Here's a roundup of some of the best that deserve a place in the pie hall of fame.

The pies at this country pub are quite something. Mother and daughter Tara and Shannon Eades create incredibly good pies, or as they say at the pub ‘proper pies’.

On Wednesday and Thursday the inn, in Main Street, Hickling, is running an offer of buy one pie, get the second half price - perfect with one of the real ales or craft beers and ciders.