Happy days! More memories of Adams Bakery in Northampton

I was delighted to read the correspondence from Barry Dearsley in Your Views on May 14.

My father Arthur Jackson, was a master baker, he worked at Adams Bakery in Kings Heath, for a good many years.

I do agree that they provided quality bread and cakes then, all with natural ingredients.

Prior to that my dad worked extremely hard for little pay at Faulkners, family bakers in Abington Avenue Northampton, who ceased trading.

In our teens my twin brother Barrie and I, now both 80, used to go on alternate Saturday mornings, to help our dad in the bakery in the 1950s.

My father would work from 9pm on Friday night non-stop to 6pm on Saturday.

Flour and yeast from the loft, to make the dough, was sliced by hand into 2lb lots, into the greased tins.

Then it went into to the oven, previously lit, heated to the correct temperature by coal and coke, shovelled by hand.

Bread batches of different types were moved to to the van. We would then delivery to our regular customers, all over Northampton.

The aroma in that van, from the freshly cooked bread, made my mouth water. Just two men to do all of that work, six days a week. Amazing!

On Sundays the locals would bring into the bakery their Yorkshire puds, cooked for them to perfection.

To top it all, there were pigs kept in the yard, fattened with the bakery leftovers.

I also recall going to Oliver Adams cafe in St Giles Street, when I worked at the borough council, as a housing officer until 1997.

Their big takeaway roll filled with ham, cheese, tomato, etc was the ultimate feast. There was enough to eat until the evening!

Happy days indeed Barry. Thank you for bringing back such memories.

Keith Jackson

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