Wye Bakery is now closed .
Sadly we have had to close the bakery due to a £28,000 per year increase in electricity costs , approximately 600% . This has made it impossible to operate profitably .
We would like to thank all of our customers for their support and business over the last 8 years .
There's been a bakery at 22 Church Street from at least the mid 19th century. From 1963 to the mid 1980s, the bakery was run by the Smalls. The baker was Jim Small. Jim was a baker manager in Folkestone for a number of years before branching out on his own and buying the baker at Church Street. At that time, the bakery didn't do a lot of trader, but Jim soon turned it around. As well as selling in Wye, he had a bakery round covering nearby villages. The bread was delivered in a Morris Minor van. There was also a Saturday boy, Bernie Burden, who delivered bread on a bicycle!
Jim was supported by his wife Mrs Small and his daughter Sandie Reynolds. In the 1960s-70s, Jean Hughes also worked at the bakery with Jim helping to prepare and pack the bread and cakes. She worked with Jim for 16 years. Today, she still lives with her husband in the village and is a regular in the bakery.
Nigel Ings and Mary Braithwaite bought the bakery in 2009 and refitted it and started producing quality breads and pastries made with french flours . They retired to live in Oban in Argyll and Bute in 2014 , But have apparently decided to open another bakery up there , and not really retire after all!
Pauline , knew Mary and Nigel from her time as the market manager of the Farmers market in Wye , and was happy to take on the bakery when they decided to leave .
