The History of Ruddington Depot
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Post War Changes
The Depot Bakery serves the community
The Horspool family continued their contract to supply bread to the remaining canteen on the site, but the quantity needed each day declined after the filling factory closed. As their own premises in Church Street, Ruddington were cramped they decided to bake all the bread they sold at the Depot site, and use the bakery in the village to make their confectionery.
Like all bakers Peter Bedford had an early start to the day:
“We started work at about 5 o’clock and finished at 12 o’clock. After dinner we would leave the bakery and go into the village to make the confectionery.
The bakery was a brick building with a loading bay for the delivery of flour, and for taking the bread away for delivery to the shops, and to Gotham, Bunny and Bradmore. In summertime it was very hot inside, as it was only a single storey with a flat concrete roof and not much ventilation. In the wintertime it was very cold. The ovens seemed to have no impact on the temperature even though they jutted out into the bakery. The stoking was done in a corridor on the outside of the building. The ovens were coke fired, and they were banked down overnight to keep the heat in, then stoked up first thing in the morning.
Preparations were made each night before we left, so we could start the bread off every morning by adding further flour to the mixture of flour, water and yeast that stood ready. About 500 loaves of different shapes and sizes were made each day. The bread for the canteen was supplied as 6 lb. loaves; long and square shaped to make slices all the same size.
On Fridays we worked from 5 a.m. to midday then we returned at 10 or 11 pm and worked through to the early lours of the morning, because that was the only way we could get enough bread made for the weekend demands.”
Much of the bread eaten by the people living in the surrounding area was baked at the Depot after the war and throughout the 1950 and 60’s but most had no idea that was so.
The Story > Chapter 5 > Section 5.09