Wake up and smell the bread

The actor Burt Lancaster once said that he judged a restaurant by the bread and the coffee. Both are good indicators of quality and attention to detail. I realised that subconsciously I judge a town by same criteria. Aldeburgh for example has a Two Magpies bakery, outside which you often see queues. It also has a good number of cafes serving excellent coffee, my favourite being Munchies, which I like to sit outside with coffee and cake and watch the world go by.

But I’m now living in Leiston, and plan to spend the rest of my life here. The town has a strong culture of sustainability and an aspiration to become Suffolk’s first net-zero community. It has a few good cafes, with perhaps the best coffee coming from the local coop. But it has no bakery, although at least one shop does take orders for bread from Harvey & Co at Rendlesham. We collect our order from Leiston’s High Street every Friday.

I asked one day why there is no longer an artisan bakery in Leiston, and was told that most people here cannot afford ‘expensive bread’. When I was growing up there were two bakeries in the town, and now there are none. Most I guess buy bread from the coop or Tesco in nearby Saxmundham.

Leiston has a few empty shops, and I suspect rents are far lower here than in Aldeburgh. Is there an opportunity for a young entrepreneur to set up a bakery here, providing high quality bread and cakes at affordable prices? The town already has a butcher and greengrocer. Leiston has a community land trust, with a bold plan for urban renewal. I hope their plan includes good bread and coffee!