Story of Cheshire's iconic Roberts Bakery (Part 1)

One that now has 800 employees supplying top-quality bread to the UK and Europe with sub-bakeries, including one in Derby. But where did it all start?

The story of Roberts Bakery started in the 1860s when Robert Roberts learnt his trade in Salford.

He was just 11 years old when he began his apprenticeship in bread baking and groceries.

Even at that young age, Robert was a bit of an entrepreneur and saw the possibilities open to him in the trade.

In 1891 he had moved to Northwich and was a boarder with a family residing at 8 Navigation Road, Castle.

That family comprised Sarah Shaw, aged 60, and her seven adult children; Robert was listed as a baker and provision dealer from Salford.

In 1887 he had bought a grocery and fresh bread shop at 1 Wellington Street, Castle, now a private house, selling and delivering groceries and his homemade bread.

At the time, the street was a typical terraced street, as it still is today.

In 1893 he married Mary Jane Gough from Byley; by 1901, he moved his business to 26 Station Road, Lostock; again, the building still exists and is occupied by a photographer under Art Me Photography.

The bakery and groceries were a success, and by 1911 he had a thriving business, and it had expanded into the next-door property, number 24.

Meanwhile, his son Frank, aged 15, was a boarder and grocers apprentice at 17 Green Lane, Wallasey.

During the next few years, Robert's wife Mary and their children Frank, Annie, Alice, Ada, and Nellie worked to a varying extent in the business.

It thrived, and in the 1920s, Robert modernised it with mechanisation, such as bread slicers and speedy wrapping machines.

In 1922 Frank married Jennie Pinkney, and they moved to Sunningdale, Manchester Road, Lostock Gralam.

In the 1930s, he became the managing director of the business and decided to concentrate on baking the best bread possible.

Roberts Bakery off Gadbrook Road (Google)

The founder, Robert Roberts, died on July 22, 1936, and his wife died five years later in January 1941; at the time, they still lived in Station Road, Lostock.

Their grave can be found in Knutsford Cemetary on Tabley Hill Lane.

Frank expanded the business from two to eight bakers, and in 1937 he started to look at further expansion.

There was an old established bakery business in Warrington Road, Northwich, owned and built up by Alfred Middleton.

Roberts purchased the bakery, and they continued with the new bakery under its original name but remained at the head office, 24 to 26 Station Road, Lostock.

When output grew to three times the normal during the war, it was decided that the Warrington Road site was simply not big enough.

Frank Roberts decided that the two bakeries should be united in a purpose-built one and what they needed was a site in open country with clean, fresh air and hygienic surroundings.

Frank's sons Alan and Bernard had joined the firm, and David joined later after leaving school.

Alan Roberts had spent two years at Manchester School of Technology on a £250 scholarship studying bakery.

The war was still ongoing, and he joined the RAF and, after training in Canada, won his wings. In the meantime, work started on the new bakery. On demob, Alan returned to the family business.

Continuing next week as the business went from strength to strength but with some sadness.

Thanks to Lindsay Occleston nee, Roberts, and Alan Hughes for their assistance.