The Quakers Hall Bakery stood on Quakers Hall Lane at the bottom of Cobden Road, as this photograph shows. It was in business in the early 1900s and this image has been dated to around 1912, when it was owned by Biggs Bros. The business later changed hands, and subsequently became an undertakers, before being demolished and converted into flats and houses.

Thanks to a History Hub follower who sent in some recollections of one of the family, which were printed in a magazine in the 1980s and you can read below.

…It was Hot Cross Bun time when activity was at its most hectic. The firm supplied approximately 2,000 customers and if each ordered an average of seven buns (they were sold in sevens, half a baker’s dozen?) a total of 14,000 needed to be made and delivered. All of these had to he baked in a short time – not more than 24 hours – in addition, of counse, to the bread normally baked.

Making the dough began on the Wedsesay night and continued all through Thursday, the last batch being made early on Good Friday morning. As soon as they began to come out of the oven, and when they had cooled a little, they had to be brushed over with hot meited sugar. It was at this point that all hands were enlisted.

Every member of the family, some seven or eight of us, set to work brushing the buns and then bagging them, seven to a bag. These were sold for six old pence! After a while the acrid smell of the hot sugar not only made my eyes smart but I also felt quite sick. We all had do work at great speed, and very early in the morning dozens of bags were loaded on to vans waiting in the yard, ready for the delivery men to rush them round to customers throughout the town and surrounding villages.

At first these vans were horse-drawn, but later on motor vans, gradually introduced, enabled the operation to be further speeded up. When the last load finally left the yard a sigh of relief went up from all concerned. It was indeed a most exhausting operation but one which no-one questioned and about which no-one complained. It was taken for granted that it was important and right that the customers should come first – the firm was there to serve them. One thing is certain those who had the privilege of eating those buns thoroughly enjoynd them. They were delicious.

It was in 1932 at the end of Hot Cross Bun time that my uncle said, “That is the last batch of Hot Cross Buss for me. ” And so it was. By the next Good Friday the business had been sold and my father and his brother had retired. It in doubtful if any other baker carried on this annual mammoth task. Certain it is that no one does today. Nevertheless, I would dearly love just once more to savour the sweet smell of hot melted sugar on Hot Cross Buns and, most of all, to taste one of those delicious confections for less thas one old penny.