
A Grantham business will be featured on a popular BBC TV programme on Good Friday.
Presenting Bargain Hunt from the Newark Antiques Fair, Natasha Raskin Sharp drops in at a popular bakery on London Road, to try her hand at a very local product.
Opened at the former Salvation Army Citadel, London Road, by Alistair Hawken in 2016 – Hawkens Gingerbread may be a new company but it makes the oldest product.
He actually began producing the gingerbread seven years earlier.
Mr Hawkin, who previously ran a café in Westgate is keen for everyone to enjoy his product this Easter.
He said: “Looking for a last minute Easter gift? Order before 1pm Thursday 28th to get Good Friday delivery!”
The Grantham Gingerbread first appeared in 1740, Butchers Row baker William Egglestone went into his shop one Sunday morning to procure ingredients to make cakes.
In the gloomy shop he mistook an ingredient for another, and after baking he discovered his mistake as they rose up and almost doubled in size.
His family liked them, so he made more, and offered them for sale in his High Street shop calling them Grantham Gingerbreads.
Mr Egglestone eventually sold his recipe to Merchant Briggs who passed it on to his daughters, who in turn passed it to their nephew R. S. Bestwick, and his successors, Catlin Bros, who opened a cafe in 1904. Trading under the same name, Harry Hallam Snr and his family, became the next sole makers of the original Grantham Gingerbread.
After Catlins closed the bakery, the Grantham Gingerbread was made solely by a Long Eaton company.
Then along came Alistair Hawken, his wife, and one employee and the Gingerbread, now available in a number of flavours, was reborn.
And they tickle the tastebuds across the UK, stocked by major supermarkets with the National Trust among its customers.
You can watch Bargain Hunt on on Firday, 29th March at 12.15pm
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