Starting Up with Julia Nash @ Nash’s Bakery

In 1929 my grandfather William Nash moved his wife and the first of their nine children to Bicester where he bought a shop and founded the Nash’s Bakery that we all know and love today.

Soon after William started winning awards all over the country at trade and county shows. During the 1930s he introduced delivery rounds from his bakery to the villages around Bicester. That may be where all of the support we enjoy at Nash’s has stemmed from, my grandfather dropping cake and bread directly to doorsteps.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 William started deliveries to the British Army base located outside Bicester in the villages of Ambrosden and Arncott. He also made deliveries to the huge US Air Force base in Upper Heyford.

After the war Will bought out and ran Mrs Browning’s Café on Bicester’s Market Square, as well as running a mobile café in a van on Bicester’s London Road. In 1949, having outgrown the original bakery premises, William bought out George Cannon’s bakery in Bicester, renaming it WG Nash and Sons and moved the baking side of the business into Cannon’s much larger building in Priory Road with his elder sons Clifford and Lawrence.

In 1951 William was crowned National Hovis Bread Champion for producing the best loaf of bread in the country.

In 1955 he opened his second shop in the Covered Market in Oxford, and we’re still there today enjoying the hustle and bustle of one of our favourite places.

In 1963 Will opened a second shop in Oxford called the Swiss Patisserie and a few years later his son Graham joined the business followed by another son Trevor in 1969.

In 1971 William officially retired and handed over the reins to his sons. 1986 was a busy year for us! Graham and Trevor repeated my grandfather’s feat of becoming The National Hovis Bread Champions in the final ever year of the competition and still found time to build and move into a brand new 6,000 square foot bakery off Priory Lane in Bicester.

At the start of the 90s a second shop was opened in Bicester when the brothers bought the Bicester Bakery from the Richards family, bringing the number of shops under the Nash’s brand to four. Then Graham’s son, Mark, joined the firm as a part-time delivery driver.

He said it was only temporary but he’s still here today at the helm of the business.

In 1998 Graham was appointed President of the National Association of Master Bakers. This all happened around the time the fifth shop with a Coffee House was opened in Chipping Norton.

In 2004 a new shop on Bicester’s Bucknell Road was opened, which bought our total up to six shops.

In 2007 William Nash died at 103, having helped in the bakery well into his nineties. He was a truly wonderful man and baker, with a rare and successful approach to business. I joined the business in 2013.

Nowadays, we fire our ovens overnight, with our team of skilled and passionate bakers who arrive at the bakery in the evening and continue to bake through the night for delivery to customers early in the morning, ensuring products are as fresh as possible.

Nash’s Bakery was awarded the Baker’s Marque by the Worshipful Company of Bakers in 2013. We are one of only 12 companies in the UK to be awarded this.

It is for this reason that we take part in Craft Bakers’ Week as it supports high street bakers like us. During the week we will have special offers and promotions through all of our outlets plus samples. Our best seller is our traditional Oxford Lardy Cake so I’m sure we will sell out in no time but we will keep our stocks up. We’ll also raise money for the campaign’s charity partner Make-A-Wish UK.

JOIN IN
Craft Bakers’ Week runs from September 28-October 3. 
Visit craftbakersweek.co.uk