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This month West’s Bakery
celebrates 100 years of trading. In 1910, Hubert West and his wife, Emily,
moved to Wellesbourne from Barford where they’d originally started, opening the
shop we’re all familiar with and starting door-to-door deliveries by horse and
cart in Wellesbourne and the surrounding villages.
In 1933, after serving his
apprenticeship in a Coventry bakery, their son, Reg and his wife Edith, a
Barford lass, took over and carried on and throughout the war, in spite of
rationing, managed to keep what staff they had employed. Reg’s twin sister,
Margaret, “Auntie Mar” served in the shop with Edith for many years and was
well loved.
Reg and Edith had two daughters, Noreen and Linda. Linda worked in the bakery for a while as a
confectioner.
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In 1959, Noreen’s husband Ken
became involved in the bakery and when Reg and Edith retired, Ken and Noreen
carried on trading as West’s Bakery, when the wholesale side of the business took off.
Ken and Noreen had three
children, Clive, Mark and Susan. Mark, after serving an engineering
apprenticeship, became interested in the business and started working with Ken
in the bake-house. In 1995, Mark took over making him the fourth generation to run it.
The bakery still bakes bread
entirely from scratch using flour from local millers. Mark produces a wide
range of traditional breads but has introduced many lines of continental
products such as Fougasse, Focaccia and Ciabatta.
Mark and Rachel will be
holding an open day on Sunday 26th September from 11am until
3pm when everyone will be welcome to a tour of the bakery.
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