business and industry

 

pubs

 

shops

 

bakeries

 

garage/carrier

 

clothing/shoe factory

 

brickyard

 

limekiln

 

steam house

 

bakeries

The 1901 Census lists three bakeries - in Corby Road, Rockingham Road and Church Street. The 1841 Census lists two bakers living in the village.

Corby Road

Sale of 3 Corby Road,

including bakehouse, 1860

Bakehouse - 3 Corby Road.jpg (23561 bytes)

The old bakery building, later a fish and chip shop, at

3 Corby Road (2003)

 

1950s (Bidwell's bakery on left hand side)

 

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

Church Street Bakery, 1960s

Church Street Bakery,

post 1960s

 

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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