Bread 'like your grandmother made' is secret to new bakery's success

IN these days of doom and gloom for high street shops, it is reassuring that a Highcliffe bakery has been flooded with customers since the day it opened.

The secret, says owner Gary Marlow, is good old-fashioned bread "like your grandmother made".

He has reopened the bakers formerly known as Ballentine’s in Lymington Road, which closed down unexpectedly last year.

Now named Shelleys at Highcliffe, in just a few short months it has become one of the busiest shops in the High Street - and it is no wonder when you look at the array of baked treats on offer.

Old-fashioned cottage loaves sit alongside artisan varieties like sourdough – and if that was not enough, there is also a wide range of speciality breads including Mediterranean and cheddar cheese-and-marmite.

As for the cakes, the list goes on - gorgeous fruit-stuffed Chelsea buns, treacle tarts, rum truffles, cream horns and chocolate fudge cake, to name just a few.

“We make 25 different types of cake a day,” said Gary. “I think we have something for everyone. We even have lardy cake made from a famous traditional recipe.”

A professional hotelier and caterer by trade who at 27 was the general manager of the catering side of the Cambridge Science Park, Gary has run his own hotel and restaurant besides being head chef at Sandy Balls holiday camp in the New Forest for a period.

“The big hole in my CV was baking,” he said. “Even though I had done it at home for over 30 years. What I really wanted was an old-fashioned, traditional bakers and confectioners.

“When Ballentine’s came up I jumped at it, and within days of the shop becoming mine I was in here baking.

“The shop wasn’t yet open but passers-by who could smell the bread started coming around the back entrance to ask if they could buy some bread!”

Gary said he uses the highest quality ingredients, and promised that for anyone tasting his bread, there is no going back!

His head baker is Poland-born Piotr Skiewercynski, who Gary says has the highest baking qualification possible in his country.

“We are baking here 24 hours a day,” he said. “In Poland they produce brilliant bread in the old-fashioned way. Peter is very talented.”

Now the shop is swamped with people delighted there is a “real bakery” back in the village.

“It has totally surpassed our expectations,” said Gary “We haven’t done any promotion but people are flooding in."

Apart from the cakes and breads, the shop also offers a takeaway service of savoury pastries, including award-winning pasties from Cornwall, sandwiches, baguettes and coffee.

Gary is open to suggestions from customers, saying: “We are feeling our way at the moment, just seeing what people want. I really want to get the shop right - I want to offer what people want.”