Criccieth – Bakers

Description

Criccieth – Bakers

The people of Criccieth would have baked bread from the days that they settled in the area. There has been a mill by the seashore at Abermarchnad since medieval times, perhaps even earlier. Oats or barley, would be brought to the mill by carts for grinding. The mill would grind the grain brought by farmers at a fee or would buy some to sell to the townsfolk. The womenfolk would mostly bake their own bread. Some made extra and sold it so they appear in the censuses as “bakers”. One of these bakers mentioned in the 1861 census was Jane Jones who lived in a cottage on Pencei, opposite the mill. One anecdote tells of a regular job for the boys was to fetch a bucket of the grey clay from the cliffs at Tanrhiwiau (Moranned) to line the inside of the ovens. The steam flour mill was built at Porthmadog in 1862 and flour was brought from Liverpool by the little steamer SS REBECCA , afterwards in 1867 by the Railway. White, wheat flour become common in the district.

The ready availabilty of this flour and the establishing of proper bakeries probably spelt the end of the mill. The last miller to live in the mill house was in the 1880s. The bakeries appeared around the end of the 19th century. The usual practice at first was for the husband to bake the bread and the wife and daughters to make cakes and confectionary. Sometimes there would be a shop attached or nearby. Many of the housewives would still prepare the dough at home and take it to the bakery in loaf tins for baking. There was a metal tag attached to the tins with an identifying number. During living memory there were six bakeries; today only one exists. These were:- CASTLE BAKERY, opposite the Old Town Hall at the foot of the castle.

The first baker mentioned here was Captain John Hughes. He was replaced, for a short period by Ellis Evans then before WW1 Edward Jones, who had been the miller at Tan y Bwlch Mill in Maentwrog, took over and his family ran the busines for many years. GWALIA CAFE on the High Street sold bread and cakes. STATION BAKERY started on Parciau Terrace then moved to the High Street and was run by the Rowlands and Roberts Family. Another member of this family had a bake house at the rear of WELLINGTON TERRACE. This was taken over by Sam Jones before WW2. After the war he moved the bakery up Caernarfon Road to become MAES BAKERY. In 1973 Ifor and Gwyneth Davies took over. They also bought IDRIS CAFE which had baked bread but they stopped production here, concentrating on the Bread and Cake shop and Cafe at this location. This is today run by the same family and is the only bakery business in Criccieth. The bakers were a common sight around town, delivering bread with their ponies and traps or hand older residents remember fondly taking their Christmas turkeys to the bakehouse to be roasted.