This photograph is relatively recent when compared with our Friar Street focus offerings to date. It is just one snapshot of many decades of baking in and around modern day number 5. That is number 15 if you prefer it in old numbers (which means the numbering used prior to about 1920).
The picture probably dates from the 1930s based on the bread-van registration numbers. The frontage shown would have been quite new at that time. Eminent local historian Pat Hughes estimates it to have been put in around 1920. Apart from the glazed bricks it remains to this day. The shop is of course now a branch of Café Rouge.
Charles Alfred
Charles Alfred Wall, as he was known to his family and the clergyman who baptised him in 1887, was the son of the son of a baker. That makes him a 3rd generation beadmaker. His father, Charles Clifford, is shown on the 1881 census running his own business at number 1 New Street. Things did not end well for C. C. Wall – in 1894 he was declared bankrupt and not long after it seems he died. A third, but unrelated, misfortune occurred when the city council demolished number 1 New Street to allow for the extension of Charles Street. A little ironic given the theme of this item.
C. A. as the eldest son had to grow up fast and this he indeed did. By 1901, at the still tender age of just 18, he is head of the family business now in Friar Street. In between times a Mary Wall is listed as the baker there. No connection between Mary and Charles has been discovered, other than a great-grandmother who would have been almost 100 by that time. There must be one though, must there not?
Here is Charles Alfred proudly leaning against one of his vans. The registration number of the van would indicate a date a few years prior to that of the main picture.
Bakeries
Number 5 and bakeries go back much further than this. For many years during the 1800s generations of the Gibbs family made and sold their dough (pun intended, groan) there. Prior to that there is the evidence of the existence of baking going back into the 17th century.
Charles Alfred spent all of his working life here – when he was not out in the van that is. He died in 1967. Soon after his shop closed its doors for the last time. If you have any memories of the man, his family or shop please share by leaving a comment below.
References
Image taken from the Changing Face of Worcester website. Historical facts gleaned from contemporary trade directories and census registers.