CovSoc member Peter James grew up in Chapelfields and can remember Pails Bakery delivering bread with a horse drawn van in the late fifties. Peter writes….
Crown Steam Bakery was established in Coniston Road Earlsdon in 1912. The use of the word Steam was no doubt used as an advertising tool in an attempt to promote a superior process and product. The Sutton and Ross Crown Bakery was more commonly known as Suttons by the local residents. Initially deliveries were made using horse drawn vans, later replaced by motorised vehicles. Needing larger premises in the 1930s the company moved to Maudslay Road in Chapelfields.
After the bombing of Coventry on the night of 14th November 1940 all the bakeries in the city had been put out of business. The supplies of gas and electricity were non existent and the water supplies had been contaminated. Philip Sutton of Crown Bakeries came to the rescue by sending a fleet of vans and cars to Birmingham. They managed to acquire 4500 loaves and returned with them for the people of Coventry. The Ministry of Food quickly sent a representative to the city and he arranged for supplies of bread. Loaves came from Nuneaton, Rugby. Leamington, Warwick, Leicester and Nottingham. Once a chlorination unit had been installed at Crown Bakery in Maudslay Road production recommenced. It was the only bakery allowed to operate in the city so had to operate for 24 hours a day. Following the blitz 12 bakers in the city ceased trading. Crown Bakery continued production until the business closed in 1991. Bread rationing commenced on 21st July 1946 and stayed in place for two years. It was 4th July 1954 before all food rationing finally ended.
Pails Bakery started in Thomas Street in 1898 when Alfred Hugh Pails took over the business previously run by James Gupwell. In 1909 the bakery relocated to Craven Street in Chapelfields and the facility was extended in 1920 doubling it’s original size. Just like Crown Bakery, horse drawn vans were used with the horses being stabled at the bottom of the vicar’s garden at St. Mary Magdalene Church. In fact Pails shared the stables with Crown Bakeries even though they were competitors. One horse was known to have eaten the heads of tulips in a front garden while on the rounds earning the driver a serious rebuke. Local gardeners were known to congregate at the stables on Sunday mornings to collect manure. This earnt the van drivers a few extra pennies. In 1928 a Trojan motor van was added and by 1939 Pails were operating with 3 horse drawn vans and 5 motor vans. It was the same year when major alterations to the site took place with an extension to the side of the building and over the stables. Eventually the stables became a garage housing two motor vans. Then in 1979 the garage was converted into a shop. David Hugh Pails who was born in 1963 was the last of the family to work at and manage the bakery. He was the fourth generation of Pails involved in the business and just as with past generations had been apprenticed to his father and become a Freeman of the City. The introduction of instore bakeries by the major supermarkets had spelt the death of this and many other independent bakeries.
