A conveyor belt was also installed to take flour sacks up to the loft, but if you look at the side wall on Scarborough Drive at the first-floor level you will see the door where the 140lb flour sacks used to be carried up on a ladder. In 1963, The Hills had the shop altered to its final form, and in 1969 the back extension was built and the new bread ovens installed. Flour Door – April 2009 (via Google Maps)
Alberts wife, Elsie Tracey Gilbert, continued to help in the Chalkwell shop, especially at the weekend when she provided saturday tea for the cricketers who played matches in the park nearby. When Albert retired in 1957, the business was sold to John and Gwen Hill, who kept the name “Gilberts” since it was so well respected in the region. Eventually, they opened a second shop and cafe at 879a London Road next to Chalkwell Park (although everything was still made at 1155). It developed into a successful business which, according to my grandmother, was “the best bakery from Southend to Leigh”. At Christmas time, in addition to buying their famous christmas cakes, some customers took their turkeys to the bakery for them to be cooked in the large ovens! 879a London Road – August 2009 (via Google Maps) In the early days, Albert took a wheelbarrow around the roads near 1155 selling loaves of bread. 1155 London Road – April 2012 (via Google Maps) The whole family, including my grandfather John (born 1925), lived in the flat above the bakery. Although conditions were basic and the work was hard, they were happy. They moved from Ardleigh near Colchester, to Leigh-on-Sea where they took over the bakery at 1155 London Road in 1927, renaming it “ Gilberts Bakery”.
His father, Reuben Benjamin Gilbert – a baker by trade, offered to train him and so the family business began. My great-grandfather, Albert Edward Gilbert, had trained to be an engineer but after the First World War there was a lot of unemployment and he was unable to find a job. The ovens ran on coal that had to be carried upstairs from the basement.
Devonshire Bakery – Teas & Light RefreshmentsĪt this time the storeroom at the rear of the shop was called the parlour and there was a stabling for the delivery horse at the back. Originally named “ The Devonshire Bakery”, you can still see the hand-painted sign on the wall above the yard to one side of the building. The deeds to the property at 1155 London Road show it was built around 1900 and that there had been a bakery on the premises since at least 1920 when it was run by Frederick and Maud Weston. She also dusted off an ancient typewriter and wrote me a lengthy telegram with what she knew of the preceding period. My grandmother got in touch with the previous owners who kindly passed along a pamphlet with a history of the last 50 years. I was upset because I never had the chance to visit in person so, while it was still in living memory, decided that I should find out more. Two decades later while casually browsing Google Maps I discovered to my dismay that the bakery had recently closed down. I remember being told stories of how my great grandfather had been a baker and that, although under different ownership, the family bakery still existed in the area.Īt the time the notion of my family running a bakery was rather novel given my relatives predominant professions in medicine and academia and so assumed an air of historical myth in my impressionable mind. Follow the lad who is on level 49, he has very good info.As a child I spent many happy summer holidays at my grandparents house in Southend-On-Sea, a seaside resort town on the north side of the Thames estuary. If you haven't unlocked Blueberry Buckle, I suggest you calculate the best way to earn maximum xp because, blueberry buckle earns you 303 xp per stove!Īnother way is cook as much as possible!!! Whatever you can fit in, do it! A tip to remember: if a dish takes, say, 8 hours to cook, don't worry! It will last another 8 hours. There is only about a 350 coin difference.
) If you have not yet unlocked Seashell cupcakes, you can always cook Blueberry Buckle. EG 1,100-740=360 ( this of course is ridiculous but, it IS an example. This is because you have to subtract the cost of the dish from how much you'll earn. The problem is that you WOULD earn 16,600 coins but instead you only earn roughly 9,500 coins. The way I earn my money is by cooking Seashell cupcakes as much as I can. I am on level 72 so if you are on level 60 or so or higher, then this is for you.
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