A GIANT Pork Minster has been unveiled in the shadow of the cathedral to celebrate Yorkshire Day.

The pie – the creation of award-winning pork pie makers Hinchcliffe’s – is the equivalent of 320 pork pies and took ten hours to make and four people to carry.

Chancellor Canon Glyn Webster blessed the pie and said: “I have seen various pork pies because they are becoming very popular for special occasions – for weddings and birthdays.

“I have seen them with names, with all kinds of insignia, but never depicting York Minster. It’s marvellous; what better way to mark Yorkshire Day?

“We are very grateful to them for putting the idea into action and creating a wonderful work of art.”

Other events to mark Yorkshire Day in York today will include a showcase of the best tasty treats from the county at Newgate Market and at the city’s Chocolate Story, where visitors can dig into specially-made Wensleydale cheese and apple chocolates.

Look out for The Yorkshire Ridings Society, which will also play their long-established part in the special day by taking to the city walls to wave the White Rose flag and will read the Declarations of Integrity of the county.

Touring from Walmgate Bar at 10.45am to Micklegate Bar at 11.35am, they will then move to Bootham Bar for 12.20pm and Monk Bar for 12.35pm, finishing off with a performance in Parliament Street at 1pm.

The integrity of Yorkshire food is being tried and tested to the limit, as Poole’s pie company hunt down the best pie in Yorkshire to be put into battle with the north-west’s best entry, reigniting the Yorkshire-Lancashire feud.

This can all be washed down with a refreshing pint of Yorkshire beer as part of York Brewery’s Real Ale Trail stopping off in York pubs including The Last Drop Inn and the Yorkshire Terrier.

For a chance to proudly survey the county on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, trips are available on a special Pullman service, departing from Grosmont at 1.30pm.