Autumn 2024Rochdale's pancake legacy 30 years on

It’s been a date forever etched in the annals of local history. The 13 August 1994 was a day when the town of Rochdale did something quite extraordinary, and something that no one has managed to replicate in the three decades since.

As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Rochdale Cooperative Movement, the town took on a challenge of gigantic proportions: creating the world’s largest pancake. And in doing so, they cooked up not just a pancake, but a piece of history that is still a topic of discussion among locals three decades later.

On a typical summer day, over 40,000 people gathered in front of the iconic Town Hall for the record attempt organised by The Co-operative Union Ltd.

They gathered to witness an audacious feat of culinary engineering that would leave a lasting impression on both the town and the world. Organisers Alan Gill and Graham King had masterminded this colossal endeavour, ensuring every detail was meticulously planned.

The centrepiece was a 50-foot diameter pan, a gleaming giant crafted from 25 tonnes of steel, designed by the mechanical engineers at Manchester Metropolitan University.

This mammoth pan was a triumph of engineering, and its creation was a story in itself, with a specialist team overseeing its construction at Sinton Engineering in Preston.

The mixture, a concoction of flour, eggs, and the Co-op’s own-brand milk, was spread across the pan, forming a pancake that would eventually measure a staggering 49 feet three inches in diameter and weigh in at an astonishing three tonnes. To put that into perspective, the pancake was as heavy as a baby blue whale or four adult cows.

The cooking process took nearly three hours, a marathon session that had chefs turning and tossing the enormous pancake with a precision that was nothing short of impressive. The crowd held its breath as the cranes delicately manoeuvred the pan, flipping the pancake with surprising grace.

A mechanical operation of this scale had never been attempted before, and the success of the flip was met with a roar of applause from the onlookers.

The pancake, once cooked, was sold off in pieces to raise money for local charities, ensuring that the day’s efforts had a lasting impact beyond the record books.

Adding to the carnival-like atmosphere of the day was a special guest appearance by Mr Blobby, the 1990s children’s TV sensation. Dressed in his trademark pink and yellow spots, Mr Blobby entertained the crowd with his antics, though he may have been a little disappointed that there wasn’t a slice of pancake big enough to satisfy his infamous appetite.

As the sun set on that historic day, Rochdale had firmly secured its place in the Guinness World Records. The pancake, with a surface area of 1,905 square feet – 53 percent bigger than the internal surface area of an average detached house – became a symbol of the town’s ingenuity and togetherness.

Thirty years on, Rochdale still holds the record for the world’s largest pancake, despite numerous attempts by others to snatch the title.

In 2024 we can enjoy the memory of that historic achievement – and to the hope that someday, somewhere, another generation might dare to dream as big as Rochdale did on that unforgettable day in 1994.