Flooding didn’t stop us baking (From Worcester News)

Flooding didn’t stop us baking

11:31am Tuesday 4th September 2007 in Farmers' Markets

How did you manage during the floods? Richard Church, his partner and six children not only coped for 10 days without water but also ran their bakery, providing local villagers with fresh bread and cakes throughout the deluge.

"We didn't want to drain the bowsers and upset people so my partner Lisa drove to relatives in Coventry to get fresh water for the bakery. Local people were so grateful to be able to come and get fresh bread from us. We were very busy!" said Richard.

Richard and his partner Lisa Baker opened Churches Traditional Bakery six years ago in a little courtyard in Bishops Cleeve, near Cheltenham. He is proud to make his products from scratch the traditional way.

"All the ingredients we use are the kind of things you would have in your kitchen, like flour, fat, yeast salt and water - we don't use any additives, improvers or use any premixed products," he said.

Everything is made fresh the night before and sold the following day in their shop, to local businesses and at farmers' markets stalls around Worcestershire and beyond.

As well as award-winning white, brown and wholemeal bread, Richard, aged 43, has a range of speciality breads - his tandoori bread won a gold medal in 2005 at the Wales National Bakery competition.

Richard left school aged 16 wanting to be a chef. He got a work experience placement at a bakery, being paid £23 a week and started out at the bottom, greasing trays and carrying flour.

"Everything was made properly at the bakery and although I was doing all the basic tasks I paid attention to how they were making things," he said.

Later, Richard worked for baker Howard Lloyd in Cheltenham. After Mr Lloyd passed away, his son gave Richard his recipe book.

"Howard won so many gold medal for his bread making. The recipes in his book are irreplaceable. The stilton and walnut bread which we make is one of Howard's recipes," he said.

After working for other people for years, Richard decided to run his own business in 2001.

"I had so many ideas of my own, I knew it was a gamble. I'd already been supplying car boot sales, so I knew I could fall back on that."

"I do all the baking, from 7.30pm to about 3am and get everything ready for Lisa to take to farmer's markets and for the shop the next day. Lisa is up at 5.45am loading up to get to the farmers' markets.

As well as breads and Cornish pasties the bakery sells a wonderful selection of traditional cakes, all made the old-fashioned way.

So why do Churches Traditional Bakery sell at farmers' markets?

"Our customers know they are buying quality products. It's nice to meet our customers and they can ask us about our goods and they know they are getting something that has been made just hours ago. Sometimes the bread is still warm!"

Find out more at www.churchesbakery.co.uk