VISITORS to Bury Market took a trip back to the early 1900s as they sampled wartime food for a new campaign.

The Better Health at Bury Market campaign, which aims to help residents become healthier and improve their cooking skills, was launched this month.

Each month there will be a cook and taste demonstration with a different campaign theme.

The theme for March was V for Victory, to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One.

Wendy Wray, a chef from the Delicious cafe at the Fusilier Museum, showed visitors how to make healthy wartime meals, using fresh produce from the market.

She said: “People really enjoyed it. It opened their eyes when they saw the rationing side of things.

“We want them to see that this kind of food is tasty and they don’t have to have junk food.

“Everything was made from fresh — we were making the food exactly the same way as years ago and we cook everything from fresh at the museum.”

The meals, which came from a wartime recipe book, included vegetable soup, corned beef hash, and rock cakes.

The feedback from those who sampled the food was overwhelmingly positive.

Participants were given three faces to choose from, to symbolise what they thought of the food — a sad face, a neutral face and a happy face.

Of the people surveyed, only two gave the food a neutral face, while the rest all gave it a happy face.

As part of the event, The Fusilier Museum also held a display, which was coordinated by Daniel Jessop, learning officer at the museum.

He said: “I think the event worked really well. It was a sunny atmosphere and people were getting involved and asking questions.

“It opened my eyes how much excitement there is out there about the war.

“The food was really tasty and it went down a treat.”

To tie in with the Better Health at Bury Market campaign, the Stop Smoking Service offered advice on quitting the habit.

The theme for next month’s cook and taste demonstration is Eating breakfast, which takes place at Bury Market on April 9.

The service linked with this demonstration is You Only Live Once, a 12-month exercise referral pilot aimed at young people from 10 to 16 who have been measured as overweight.