R D Western & Sons of Exeter
Interview with Mary Long as told to Beryl James
R.D. Western & Sons were family bakers in Exeter for over fifty years until 1956. Richard Davie Western was my grandfather; he was born in 1873 and married Frances Emma Pook in the mid 1890s.
The first shop
He opened his first shop at 38 New Bridge Street, below which is where Angela's Restaurant is now. The bread ovens were in the cellar and were still there when the property was sold. There was a shop at the front and a tearoom at the back. The 1901 Census shows both Richard and Frances, along with their children Richard (known as Reg) and William (known as Bill), three bread-makers, a needleworker, a sister-in-law, Bessie, and three nieces living at Bridge Street. It must have been crowded, but this was not uncommon in those days.
A second shop
The shop must have done well, because my grandfather soon bought a second premises in Cowick Street at numbers 76 to 78. These were three-storey buildings with a shop, an office to one side and the 'cart path' on the other; this gave access to the rear, where there were stables for the horses that pulled the delivery vans. These premises were next to the school in Cowick Street which is now the West Exe Children's Centre. Grandfather also bought a piece of derelict land next to the school. Here he kept pigs which provided meat for the pork pies which were a speciality of the business. Grandfather soon owned four tenanted cottages at numbers 79 to 82 Cowick Street too; they had very long gardens stretching right back to Churchill Road. Grandfather became quite a big landlord, because he also bought the newsagent's that was where the pharmacy is now. That had outbuildings behind and a space for car parking. (By coincidence, many years later, when St Thomas Social Club moved into the outbuildings, my husband, Norman, was on the committee and saw my grandfather's name on the deeds of the premises.)
My grandparents lived over the shop at Cowick Street until grandfather retired in the 1930s. Grandfather would take in boys from the children's home to train in the business. Three or four at a time lived in the rooms on the top floor of the house. I think one of them was Stan Pyne, who worked in the business for years and afterwards for Shaul's Bakery.
The family
My grandparents had five sons and the three eldest all went into the business: Reginald was born in 1898, Bill in 1900 and Albert, my father, in 1902. Of the younger two, Percy Charles (Charlie) became a wheelwright and owned Major Coachworks and Harold became a headmaster. Bill developed a separate bakery business in Paignton. My father had an early introduction to the business: he was twelve when the First World War started and, as the men were called up to fight, he went out on the van delivering the bread. In spite of this experience (or maybe because of it!) he was not keen to join the family business: he wanted to be a clergyman and was the organist at St Edmunds Church from 1929 until 1940. However, he was obliged to do what was expected of sons in those days.
Delivering the bread
In the early days, the delivery vans were pulled by horses In winter they were housed in the stables, but in summer Jim Govier, the roundsman, would take both horses to a field in Barley Lane each evening on his way home to Whitstone. (Jim never learned to drive and, when petrol vans replaced the horses, he was kept on in the business accompanying the driver on his rounds. It was an example of my father's kind heart but perhaps not of his good business sense!)
Tragic accident
My Dad married Violet Lillian Blake in 1929 and I was born whilst my parents lived over the Bridge Street shop. Dad served in the shop whilst Mother cooked meals for the tearoom. Grandfather died in 1935 and Reginald ran the Cowick Street shop until his early death in 1940 following a tragic accident: whilst tending the bakery horses one Sunday, he fell from the hayloft when the steps gave way and suffered injuries from which he later died. So, when I was eight, we moved to Cowick Street.
Business growth
The business continued to thrive and eventually there were teams of day and night staff. The four night staff made the bread for the next day and their shift finished at 6.00am. The day staff worked from 6.00am to 3.30pm and they made the cakes. The bread-making was semi-mechanised: there was a flour loft over the bakery and a chute down which 140lb sacks of flour would shoot into a large bowl. After mixing, the dough was weighed, kneaded and shaped by hand into loaves which were put in tins and into the prover under the working surface to rise before baking. The ovens were fired by coke which was stored in the stoke hole and they never went out. At the peak of the business' success, the old stables were converted to a cake bakery which was used by teachers and students from Exeter College; Mr Charlton, founder of Shaul's Bakery, still in Sidwell Street and South Street, was trained there.
War time
During the war the business was really busy in spite of rationing. It escaped the worst of the bombing, but, when the Co-op bakery in Summerland Street was destroyed in the blitz, the staff transferred to Western's, which operated round the clock seven days a week to meet the demand. Locally, some gas and electric mains were damaged so nearby families relied on using the bakery ovens for hot meals. My father could only make really fancy cakes on Fridays due to a shortage of ingredients; I remember a queue always formed for the tray of cream slices! Once again the men went to war and Etta Gregory drove a delivery van. At this time there were six vans and two horses and carts serving the city and Ide, Kennford, Longdown, Newton St Cyres and the surrounding areas.
Hard work
Running a large family business was hard for my parents and there was little free time. They worked seven days a week: on Sundays Dad did the books and, when other staff were not available, would also prepare the dough on a Sunday afternoon ready for the arrival of the night staff.
After the War
After the war the business struggled to stay viable; there was more competition and Western's was not equipped to offer modern products such as sliced and wrapped bread. On the other hand, it still maintained the extensive delivery service that was proving expensive to sustain. In 1956 R. D. Western & Son was bought up by Tiverton Bakeries and Dad then ran their branch in Fore Street. It was an unhappy time for him to see the family business taken over.
Having lived over the shop all my life and seen how hard running a family business could be I was determined not to join R.D. Western & Sons. However, when I married in 1952 we did live on the top floor at Cowick Street for a time before moving to Albion Street in 1955. My brother worked for Tiverton Bakeries for only a short time after the takeover so my father's generation were the last to run the business.
Something must have rubbed off on me though, as I ran a successful business of my own for many years and I still live in St Thomas today.
As told to Beryl James by Mary Long on 15 January 2009