Broughton Village Bakery has served the village of Broughton since the 1930's and has passed through the hands of more than one local family.

From 1928 until the 1940's May Shaw ran the bakery in with her Husband.

At the beginning of the 20th century Broughton in Furness an important market town: on Tuesdays the auction market was open for the trade in cattle and sheep. The cattle farmers went to the Kings Head for a bite to eat and to whet their whistle but the sheep farmers who at that time walked to market and back favoured a cup of tea in the hand and a pie if the sale went well, before the long walk home. They used to come to the bakery for the pie and would ask the Shaws if they could supply the tea to go with it. Thus began the cafe.

The market still opens. It is at the bottom of Princes Street although now the farmers are served by a mobile sandwich and tea bar.

In 1928 Mr and Mrs Shaw owned the bakery and opened the shop as a cafe on Tuesdays. In that year Lucilla Welan was sent for by her sister May Shaw. She was just 14. May had two small children and Lucilla was needed to help in the bakery.

Lucilla stayed on at the bakery as Mr Shaw died not long after her arrival. She later married Thomas Leslie Dawson. Together they ran the bakery and cafe from 1948 to 1959. Mr Dawson was proficient at icing wedding cakes for many Broughtonians. In 1959 they moved to the Kings Head. They can be seen in the only photograph we have of the bakery at that time, on the wall in the shop.

Please contact us if you have any other stories to tell about the Bakery and the people who work there.

Photograph courtesy of The Clocktower Gallery Ltd. (Phone: 01229 716 000)