Lamprey pie

The annual custom ended in 1836, but in 1893 it was revived when Gloucester mayor, John A. Matthews wished to send a pie to Queen Victoria during her Jubilee Year.

[1] The pie was made and sent annually by John A. Fisher and Sons, Ltd., Tudor House, Gloucester, until in 1917 King George V requested that the gifting be suspended until World War One had ended.

[6][7] The River Severn at Gloucester was a key source of lampreys for the English royalty, and the fish was often given by landowners to royals as a means of seeking favour.

[8][6] The fish was an expensive luxury; the Earl of Chester gave King John (r. 1199–1216) a single lamprey and received a palfrey horse in return.

[8] The custom of Gloucester sending the monarch a lamprey pie, decorated with gilded ornaments, at Christmas ended in 1836 when it was considered too expensive.

[clarification needed][13][14] There is a single lamprey fishery surviving in Britain, on the River Ouse in Yorkshire, where it is primarily sold as fishing bait.

[6] Lampreys remain popular in Scandinavia, the Baltic States and the Atlantic coast of continental Europe, where the fish is eaten as a delicacy.