Coventry Bakers and Bakeries

I don't know if it was a Bakers, but I remember buying bread from Fennels (I think) in Swanswell Street, on the right coming from Stoney Stanton Rd. Sometimes it was so hot you had a job to hold it and I couldn't resist pinching a bit of the crust on the way home. Also, was Gees a cake shop opposite Swanswell Street on Stoney Stanton Road?

I remember the bakers in Swanswell Street, I only went there once with a friend. It must have been in the early 50s. We had a doughnut each. I can still remember it, it was the best doughnut I have ever tasted. It was still warm and the jam inside was so hot it burnt your mouth. I am so pleased that you remembered this shop.

Farr and Ready was on the corner of Livingstone Road and Lockhurst Lane. Used to get free broken biscuits on the way from Holbrooks Infants School for swimming lessons.

I don't know whether they were bakers, or butchers, but one of my little treats as a kid was a pie or vanilla slice from Garners, on Gosford Street. They used to make some open topped pies, which I suppose makes them tarts, filled with a spicy stuffing like mixture. I think they are probably what gave me my lifelong love of spicy food. Their custard slices were to die for.

STOP IT NOW ! IT'S LUNCHTIME !

My friend, Pam, told me that when her mother was a child (probably the late 1920s) Garners used to open early on Christmas morning to sell pork pies. Pam says it was a tradition in Coventry to have pork pies for breakfast on Christmas day, the tradition was kept up by her mother.

Ooooooooooooow, Tricia, I do love pork pies. I was in a restaurant in Melton Mowbray years ago where I enjoyed a hot pork pie served with hot apple sauce and mash potato. So, where are the best pork pies sold in Coventry now? ps Or Bedworth. I only have to catch the no.55, 56, 57 or 48.

Sorry Philip, much as I like pork pies I have to watch my cholesterol so I can't help you with this one. However, if I'd have been in restaurant in Melton Mowbray and I saw hot pork pie with hot apple sauce on the menu I wouldn't have given my cholesterol a second thought.

Oh dear, you have found my one and only weakness and if anyone wanted to make me really happy it would be to treat me to a pork pie. Alas, I have never been able to get one here in Oz as good as the ones in Coventry. Mum used to sell the Fleur de Lys meat pies at the Broomfield Tavern over the bar and they were very tasty too, even without the chips (sorry Dutchman I know you like the chips)!! But the Melton Mowbray pies were definitely the tops, Philip.

I like pork pies too (provided they have exactly the right proportions of meat, jelly and pastry), but not with chips! I find the bigger they are, the better they taste. The smaller ones skimp on pastry and jelly.

Does anyone remember Edgar Palmers butchers shop in Shelton Square. I used to do electrical maintenance there occasionally in the mid-sixties and the smell of the pork pies cooking was incredible. When we'd finished, the manager would give us a family sized pork pie as a tip - it rarely made it home!

It's the jelly that makes it the more tastier as in the dark beef juice that sits under the dripping when served on toast. Beef dripping is not the same anymore. Was lovely on some fresh cottage bread. Oh heck, it is gone midnight here and I feel peckish now but it is a bit late. Bet you lot are all snoring your heads off by now. Saw the photos of the heritage weekend but could not recognise the area, could you enlighten me Dutchman? Philip is a dab hand with the camera isn't he? Seeing the old bus again took us back to 1974. Sweet dreams to all.

Certainly Dreamtime Descriptions have now been added to the pictures in the other thread to avoid clogging up this one: Heritage Day Pics

I remember a bakery in Earlsdon Street, Buckinghams. Excellent cream cakes. It was almost opposite Providence Street.

Yes, it was a high-class cake shop. They also owned the post office next door, although they eventually gave up the PO, which moved to Providence Street.