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 bought him a bread maker he didn't use it for awhile, now he doesn't like any other bread now. He used to make bread, we've still got the big bowls he used. It must be ten years ago and then I think he gave up because I wouldn't eat his bread, it was too dense, you now what I mean. He's varied it from time to time, he gets an ingredient he likes and keeps at that. My mother did'nt make bread, can't remember anybody that did but there were three Burgess's in town, one there (High Street) one by Queen's Gardens, and one somewhere else. They used to sell good bread, particularly milk rolls whick I like, haven't had them for years of course. They used to make alot of nice things Burgess's did, like eclairs, they'd got that thick chocolate sauce on the top rather than chocolate and I don't know vanilla slices are too big and gooey, they are not as delicate as Burgess's used to do. They used to make nice pork pies, sausage rolls, all that's gone, Newcastle's gone. How it used to be, it was wonderful, all the Blakeleys and the delicatessens and things, then Tesco came and took it over. That was the Castle Hotel there, it was a fantastic hotel, it had a ballroom upstairs, where the side is a big archway where the carriages could go in. Tesco, took it over and they were forced to keep the facade, closed all the food shops in Newcastle and cleared off to Trent Vale. And that by Woolworths (99p store) there used to be a big archway there where carriages could go in, a seed merchant. It was really nice in Newcastle, well we had the cattle market down there, I used to go when I was young and see the lambs and calves. We had lots of boutiques, Henry Whites, marvellous. Now charity shops, banks, oh even the markets lost a lot of it's charm really. It's because the council have franchised it out, all this (roadworks, paving) they did all that, now they've dug it up. I don't understand why they are doing it, it was alright as it was, it seems to be a waste of money, but there you go, they've got money to burn, it isn't their money. I'm a grumpy old woman and I don't mind. Look at you r old baking tins. He uses that fast acting yeast, he might come along (to our Big Bread Days)