Bedwyn Village Bakery has changed hands and its new owners, David and Jackie Snell, plan to expand sales into Marlborough as soon as they can. For now they are balancing gradual changes with a concern to retain the traditional products and features of the Bakery.
New products already include sour dough and six seed loaves and rye bread – all sitting alongside the ever-popular granary loaf and the ‘splits’ and ‘tins’ and ‘bloomers’.
Bedwyn’s lardy cake has long been famous across north-east Wiltshire. “It flies out of the door”, says David, “and now the fresh croissants on Saturdays are doing the same”. He is enthusiastic about local ingredients for the bakery products. Flour supplies come from Wantage and rye has now been sourced from Doves Farm just a few miles away.
The Bakery has been in Bedwyn longer than anyone can remember and supplies outlets in Shalbourne, Burbage, the Collingbournes, Ramsbury and Aldbourne. And now Marlborough is on the agenda.
The new owners, who both have other business interests, have spent two years on research – visiting other bakeries, looking into new baking technology and talking to the previous owners.
The words ‘quality’ and ‘local’ pepper David Snell’s sentences as he describes the bakery’s new features. A cheerful new van now makes the deliveries. A coffee machine has been installed, and there will be more investment in the premises and a new oven in due course.
Their aim is to double turnover by increasing wholesale customers as well as shop sales.
The bakery is also the village sweetshop, and generations of Bedwyn children have queued to buy penny sweets on their way home from school. It is also one of the main hubs of Bedwyn life where people meet and exchange news and views.
Altogether there are nine staff, and they play a big part in retaining the loyalty and affection of customers. David Macfarlane has done the baking for 23 years and Viv Fox’s big friendly smile has been behind the counter for 30 years.
The village owes a big debt of gratitude to Gordon and Lesley Merritt who have now retired after 30 years of hard work running the business. The Snell family has lived in the village for 14 years and they know what a wide mix of people make up their clientele.
They are also conscious of the need to respect the history and traditional preferences of older customers whilst at the same time blending in the modern tastes of younger ones who are calling in on their way to the station in the morning.
So the shop now opens an hour earlier at 7:30 am and there are all sorts of tempting specials – like a gluten-free chocolate brownie. Bedwyn is getting the best of both worlds – young and old.
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