Sorry Cornwall - the Sussex pasty was here first.

The Albion pub on Hastings seafront is famed for its home-made pies and even has its own ‘pasty shack’ outside offering pasties with a wide range of fillings.

Now it is launching the Sussex pasty using Sussex lamb as the meat filling rather than the traditional beef.

Landlord Bob Tipler explained: “We have found evidence that the popular pasty was actually first seen in Sussex rather than Cornwall.

"Browsing through a box of dusty antiquarian books purchased from a house clearance shop in Hastings, Old Town based Professor Cameron deWolf came across a volume with the title ‘Shepherds be Thankful’.

“The book turned out to be the eighteenth century diary of a certain Lady Fuelle who had eloped with a servant and found anonymity living with humble shepherds on the South Downs.

"Part of the book is given over to traditional recipes she has discovered locally, one of these being for a Sussex Pasty. She tells of how the pasty provided “fair vitals” for her husband John as he tended his sheep and that she would sometimes join him bringing a flagon of ale, “whence all work would stop and continue not”.

“Professor deWolf has made a study of the origins of many Sussex recipes and found evidence that many could have been brought over with the Normans following their success at the Battle of Hastings. He said that Normans being descended from Vikings needed simple and easily portable food for their many raids and the pasty would have provided the perfect transportable sustenance.

"No one knows why the Sussex pasty has passed into obscurity over the years but we are making it our business to revive it.

“We hope that the Cornish are not too upset as Hastings is also still in the Guinness book of records for the largest gathering of pirates following two unsuccessful attempts by Penzance in Cornwall to regain the title!”

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