Bairds Bakery
Civic Square
The Bairds Bakery ovens
from John Smith
The ovens from another angle
from John Smith
A 3rd view of the ovens
from John Smith
These images are of the old bakery building in Civic Square, Tilbury which still stands today. The bread was baked at the back and then sent into the shop which was called Bairds. I understand they were there in the 1960s and baked all kinds of bread and cakes
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My dad George Peacock worked for Stanley Baird for years and I worked in the shop. It was Stanley who suggested the name Evelyn to my dad when I was born
Yes the bread and cakes was so lovely and everyone enjoyed them .
I just wanted to say thank you for all the kind words about my family. My grandfather Stanley was the owner of the bakeries. My father Keith Baird and I used to work in the bakery in the 60s I was about 12 when I started. I’m still baking after all these years, but not like the old days.
for me it was jam/cream doughnuts and meringue I loved the shop
Bairds meat pies were the best pies I ever tasted when you walked in you could smell them cooking. I remember going for dinner hour at school and running down to bairds grabbing a pie then on to Rita’s fish shop to get the chips Rita was not impressed as we did not buy her pies. BAIRDS PIES ALWAYS !
As a ‘paper boy’ for Scoffin’s in St. Chads Road (circa 1943/44)my day started at 6.am with a trip to the Dock station on my bike to pick up the papers. Following my delivery round, which took about an hour and a half, my final stop was at Baird’s bakehouse where I purchased 2 rolls for a penny – and on a Friday my Mum would sometimes ask me to get a Baker’s dozen for a tanner! (That’s thirteen rolls for sixpence for the uninitiated!) The aroma in the alley was something special -and will never be repeated in these modern supermarket bakeries!
I remember Beards bakery, my brother Bob(Robert) and I used to go round to the bake house and watch them cooking the bread and we always had a fresh loaf to take home with us, and remember buying bags of buns to share on the way to school for a penny,
I lived with my parents above the shops in Civic Square from 1957 to 1963. One of my lasting memories is the smell that used to emanate from the bakery – makes my mouth water thinking about it.
Looking at these images brings lots of memories flooding back. That back alley doesn’t appear to have changed a bit since the fifties. As kids we walked to school from Railway Cottages to Manorway more often than we caught the 370 bus, especially in the warmer months. Our route usually took us through Civic Square into Arkwright Road and through Spencer Walk, but as I was terrified of the huge (in my eyes) bulldog that they kept in the Anchor yard, that was sometimes waddling in the road, I preferred to duck into the alley at Manor Road and exit at Arkwright passing Bairds on the way and avoiding the dog!
In those days people weren’t anything like as privileged as we are today and then the attraction of those unforgettable aromas were enough to force a detour.
Percy Dalton
I loved Bairds. The current buns were amazing. As a kid growing up in London road in the 50s, I would sometimes call in and ask if they had stale cakes for sale. For a penny they would give you day-old buns which I recall as being much fresher than today’s supermarket offers.
iworked as boy in bairds in 1964 £6 per week and a loaf of bread every day it was also a teabreak place for the bobby on night beat also worked as a waiter in bairds resturant above
the shop in grays
my dad, tom west worked at bairds bakers in the fifties, he was a master baker and used to bring home hot bread every morning which is one of my best memories but unfortunately in 1956 he had and accident with the bread cutting machine and sustained injury to his hand and could no longer do his job.
This brought back so many childhood memories .. the smell and atmosphere. Agree about Hot Cross Buns Doughnuts, cream slices, etc. etc. — sitting here in Florida and my mouth is watering.
My best memory of Bairds was Good Friday morning going to buy hot cross buns. They were the only shop open on Good Friday and the buns were really fresh and like their name hot when you bought them.
They made the best sausage rolls I have ever had.
Peter, you aren’t wrong! those smells from Baird’s were amazing, I know as we get older nostalgia may get in the way of what actually happened, but i’ve honestly never tasted bread or rolls quite like Baird’s..absolutely delicious. One of the rare times we’d not argue about being sent to the shops.
my dad used to send me early in the morning sometimes to get a loaf of bread and i used to go round the back of the shop to get it. it was very hot and the smells were amazing. there used to be windows in the ovens then. i can recall it was around the sixties and i was only a boy.
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