Date: 13/05/14
Location: Newcastle-Under-Lyme
Interviewer: Hilary Hughes
Permission given to use interview for website, exhibition and Staffordshire archive: YES
Question asked “What do you remember about bread or bread baking”.
I remember Burgess's bakery and the Smithfield cattle market across the road and I also remember the Sutherland Arms pub used to have a thatched roof and all the farmers on market day used to park their horses and traps there. I remember when all the traffic used to come through here (High Street) this was the main throughough fare. Used to be right opposite there Burgess's shop (pointing towards WH Smith on the High Street) they had two.
Yes the wife buys the bread from the lady stands on the Friday market. I also buy from Snapes, the organic wholemeal. We were a big family, you know, growing up bread didnt really concern you. They used to be a little one man bakery down Penkhull Street and at Christmas time people used to bring the turkeys to put in the oven. There's alot of history in Newcastle.
Another one Bayleys Bakery in Penkhull Street, you know where the sunken roundabout is, there used to be a road going down there, that was Penkhiull Street. Where Morrisons is now there used to be a gasworks and a coking plant, there was a big gasometer and a coking plant, we used to go there for gas starter to paint the fences. At the bottom there by Morrisons the railway line used to go across the road and they shut it off while they did goods trains and everything. There used to be a pub on this corner here (High Street and Hassell Street) called The Lamb and behind it was taxi firm in the yard.
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