Coventry Bakers and Bakeries

Following a suggestion in the guest book about local bakeries I immediately thought I know dozens having delivered flour to most of them in the early fifties so I started thinking. First was Suttons, a purpose built modern bakery in Maudslay Rd with electric delivery vans taking about 10 tons a week. Then came Savages in Argyle St, this was an old established bakery with stabling for the horses and the delivery "vans" on the premises, also taking around 10 tons a week, which had to be carried up an outside wooden staircase in 140lb sacks. Then I thought of Gladdings, much smaller but made fantastic cakes. This is where age kicked in and although there were so many smaller bakeries scattered all over taking perhaps one or two sacks a week my mind went blank so help me please. Alan

How about Pail's in Craven Street? (Only recently just closed) Hunt's of Spon Street. Also can you please tell us whereabouts in Maudslay Road Suttons was located as I often visit there to use the post office and wonder what previous use the various buildings had before?

There was one on Lockhurst Lane, near to the railway bridge. The name began with an F. They used to deliver in horse-drawn carts

Looking on Google earth I see there is a road called Bakery Lane, as that is the approximate position of Suttons I guess that is how it got its name. How long it has been gone I have no idea. Alan

Ah yes, the name should have given me a clue! (I was hoping it was one the more decorative buildings close to the junction with Allesley Road). I can see from Google Street View that the houses either side of the road and directly opposite are all still original. The earliest planning reference I can find is 1995 but it may have been demolished long before that.

When I used to do shopping errands as a lad, the bakers we used was Stead's at the bottom of Spencer Road on the corner of Albany Road

And what a beautiful collection of Edwardian buildings that is! Always wondered what it was originally, it's now Briant Curtaining.

That's the one! PS Apologies - it's Spencer Avenue not Spencer Road Doh!

Farr and Reddy (not too sure of the spelling)

There was a small bakery in Longford, called Suttons if I recall correctly. They delivered round Longford and Aldermans Green using an immaculate brown horse-drawn van right through to the end of the sixties and into the eary seventies.l

Does anyone know what's happening to the building formerly used by Pail's bakery in Craven Street? The Telegraph (as accurate as ever) claimed it was being turned into an art gallery. I expressed my doubts about that at the time since my stepfather once ran a gallery nearby of which there is no longer any trace. When I passed Pail's the other day it still had a 'For Sale' sign outside although there is no mention of it on Loveitt's website. It's difficult to see what other use the building could be put to? It's a very odd shape and (I assume, looking at it from the outside) still contains much of the specialist baking equipment.

According to my husband who lived in Radford the bakery was called 'Farr and Ready'. My husband remembers buying cakes there after visiting Livingstone Road Swimming Baths.

Farr & Ready supplied the buns for our Sunday school outings. My wife, typing the church magazine miss quoted and stated that 'All had had a good time with plenty of buns & mild supplied by Farr & Ready. It should have read buns & milk, I am sure. No wonder they all had a good time.

There was a Foleshill Bakery called Laurels, who delivered by horse. At the foot of the Foleshill Station railway bridge, one of their carts came to grief along with the horse which had bolted. The area was quite a mess, having involved other vehicles. I can't be sure of the date but sometime in the early sixties.

Does anyone remember the Co-operative Model Bakery in Torrington Avenue, Tile Hill? I think the external shell of the building still stands but I understand it has been used by many different companies sice its original demise. My uncle, Jack Wedlake, worked there stoking two enormous red boilers with coke to provide the steam (I think) for the bakery. Sometimes, as a young boy, I would ride on my bike from Canley across the fields to chat with him in his little "office" in the boiler room. When they were shorthanded he had to work in the factory and I used to love to help him "tin the bread" as it was known, putting lumps of dough into steel bread containers. Enormous machines took twenty or so tins of dough at a time up into a furnace to make the bread rise. Just as quickly you had to get around the other side to empty the tins onto a conveyor belt. Any that were missed got a second roasting and as you can guess the foreman wasn't happy and we got a roasting too. Hot bread never smelled or tasted so good! So sad to see what was once such a proud building just laid to waste.