psmv6: A bread timeline

This morning, on waking, I got to thinking about how I have been keen on bread for quite a long time. Mostly, but not always, white bread. Then I got to assembling a time line of bread and bakers I have known and made serious use of over the years. What follows is a list, oldest to newest, of what I can remember this morning.

Sliced white, factory bread was the staple of my childhood. With an occasional diversion to Barker's of Histon or Maskell's of Cambridge.

White bloomers from various branches of United Dairies. These corner grocers sold quite decent bread.

Split tins from a baker at the top of Warwick Road in Norbury.

White bloomers from Hales of Crouch End.

Dugdale & Adams of Gerrard Street in Chinatown. A commercial baker who also sold excellent small, round, wholemeal loaves. For which see reference 5.

White bread from a small baker in Lordship Lane, Wood Green. A little to the east of what was the Freemasons, this last now demolished after a 100 years or so of service and replaced by a small block of flats with a Tesco under. The baker was a bit rough and ready, but on a good day he was good enough. And he did well out of the (factory) bread strike which happened at that time. Artisanal before the word was reinvented by foodies.

Flat, round, white loaves from a baker at the top of Green Lanes in Harringay. Sometimes with sesame seeds on top. Cypriot.

Back with Maskell's for a bit. Back on the split tins.

Split tins from a baker in Unthank Road, Norwich. For which see reference 4.

An interval, when we did not have ready access to a proper baker. Also a time when the big supermarkets moved into what they are pleased to call in-store bakeries.

Small white bloomers bought on the way to work. One baker in Tachbrook Street, another in Strutton Ground. Both in the vicinity of Victoria Station.

Small white bloomers from a baker in Cheam Village.

DIY brown bread from around 2010. More than 700 5lb batches of same over the period. Ad hoc supplies from places like Borough Market and Covent Garden. Plus the supermarkets when there was a hiccup in the supply chain.

THE END

PS 1: not sure what sort of a website reference 1 is, apart from being advertisement infested. But it does include quite a lot of material about various brands and makes of white bloomers. Maybe there is a bread nut hiding in there somewhere. Turned up by Bing and the source of the image included above. The loaf looks to have been bought from ASDA and made by the people at reference 2.

Except that reference 2 is badly infested by sourdough and does not appear to include white bloomers. There is also talk of the people at reference 3, but they don't seem to offer anything much like the snap either. On the other hand, they are palm oil free.

All very confusing.

PS 2: it looks as if Barker's survived until quite recently, although they had probably moved on from the genial, middle aged man who used to come to our estate in a small green van, complete with a large wicker baker for a spot of door to door.

PS 3: Google turns up the image above, from eBay, on the search key 'vintage wicker bread baskets for delivering bread hoop handle'. Not bad, although the basket I remember was rather deeper. It took a few goes to get the key right.

I then associated to 'bread basket' as a descriptor for regions like the Ukraine. Whereupon Google reminds me of the stomach usage, which I have not heard for a long time. Must have fallen out of use.

And, curiously, none of the baskets of present interest.