 Sale
of 3 Corby Road,
including
bakehouse, 1860
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The old bakery building, later a fish and chip
shop, at
3 Corby Road (2003)
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1950s (Bidwell's bakery on left hand side)
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From
at least 1841 to the mid 1940s, there was a bakery on Corby Road
located in the renovated barn that stands in front
of No.3 (South View Cottage), next to the bus stop. The
1860 legal contract above records the sale of 'a copyhold tenement with
the bakehouse, stable yard, new sections and outbuildings' at 3 Corby Road, for
the princely sum of £150!
In
1841, this bakery was run by Henry Rayson and his wife Elizabeth.
In 1881, Henry's daughter Elizabeth was running the bakery, and a grocer's
shop, with her nephew, also named Henry. In 1901, the
bakery was being run by 53 year-old widow, Mary Aldwinckle and her
cousin, James Carter. For a brief period in the 1950s, the building was used as a
fish and
chip shop.
Many
villagers remember Bidwell's Bakery, run by Peter
and Mary Bidwell from the house now named 'The Granary' on Corby Road. Mary
tells us that Peter actually started baking in the old barn (see above) before
moving into the house opposite in the 1940s, and setting up a bakery there. He
baked in this house (now named 'The Old Bakehouse') for around six months before
moving across to The Granary, where he baked until he passed away in 1977. The Granary was
originally a single storey building, with a flour store above and, during this
time, the Bidwells continued to live in the Old Bakery. After Peter died, Mary
rented the bakery out to a Corby company called Youngs, who
continued to operate from The Granary for a time. I am told that Youngs' bread
wasn't nearly as good as Peter's though!
A number of former villagers can remember taking
their Sunday roasts and Yorkshire puds down to be cooked at Bidwell's bakery on
Corby Road.
David Dodd,
who lived on Frog Island, Rockingham Road in
the 1940s, recalls: "Cooking in most houses was on a built-in range -
a cast iron oven next to the fire in the living room. However when it came to
the Sunday roast, outside help was sometimes required. Whether it was because
the joint was too big for the oven, or the weather was too hot to tolerate a
fire, or maybe it was cheaper - Sunday morning about 10.30 usually saw a few
people cautiously heading towards Bidwell's bakery in Corby Road, baking tray in
hand, determined not to spill the sloppy Yorkshire pudding. 'Be sure to keep it
level going down the hill', I was told. When fetching the cooked joint an hour
or so later the instruction was 'don't put it down on the ground - a dog might
get it!'."
Hilda Lavery (nee Beadsworth)
also remembers the trek down to the Corby Road bakery on Sundays, saying:
"Nobody had an electric oven back then. Around 10 o' clock on a Sunday we used
to take the meat, a big jug of yorkshire pudding mix and a bucketful of peeled
spuds down to the bakehouse for cooking. It used to cost 2d! Then, at 2 o'
clock, us kids would go and bring the dinner back."
Church
Street |
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The
Church Street bakery operated until around until the learly 1960s, with the
last baker being Mr Downton, who followed Mr Ding. The bakery stood opposite Chamberlain's
grocers and the building is still there, aptly named 'The Old Bakehouse'. In 1901, the bakery
was run
by Ernest Chamberlain. The 1841 Census records a baker named John Parker living
in 'King Street', which I believe could have later become Church Street.
Rockingham
Road
The
Rockingham Road bakery was run
by 21 year-old Elizabeth Vickers
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