Out for a refreshing stroll round the park at 6.00 am this morning and as I returned Queen’s Road was just starting to wake up. A Warburton’s lorry was delivering bread to Coombs/Hampshire's Bakers. This used to be Hampshire's, but following financial difficulties at Coombs the two have merged, so we still have one bakers in Queens Rd. Not so long ago there were three. The big one on the corner of Montague Rd run by Mr. Greasley, Coombs and opposite, this one. Their demise must be due to cheaper competition, but also, and perhaps reassuringly, the expanding use of home bread makers.
There is a remarkable amount of activity this early as traders prepare for the day and it is reassuring that, in the days of huge supermarkets, the family run businesses can still survive, or even thrive.
3 comments:
Good stuff Tobe. Not sure about the rise of the home breadmaker 'though; more likely the greater use of domestic freezer cabinets. Toasts up lovely straight from the freezer. Me? I'm a fan of Vogel's Sunflower and Something Or Other Wholegrain with lashings of butter and organic honey. Sends me straight to sleep in front of the telly after a hard day doing my imaginary job.
Sad demise of bakeries hits me hard. My old man never shopped in Co-op. He blamed them for unfair competition post-war which caused the family bakery to go out of business before I was born.
I escaped the fate, therefore, as did Jürgen Klinsmann, of getting up in the small hours to knead the dough. Mind you, as I write now, I am in desperate need of dough.
I love the idea of early morning deliveries. I once went down to Smithfield to watch hugh refrigerated lorries off-load cow and pig carcasses. The bloke superintending it all stood at an old-fashioned schoolmaster's desk, and every so often a lorry driver who walk up and he would lift the desk lid to receive a covert joint of beef which meant he jumped the queue. At least, that's what I thought was going on.
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