Meet the team

What are your bakery qualifications and experience?

I have a three-year apprenticeship including college training, plus 36 years in the baking industry. I was previously with Happy Toast Bakery in Hedge End.

Are you a tea or coffee drinker? How do you prefer to take your beverage, milk, sugar etc?

Tea and coffee, with milk and sugar!

What’s your favourite cake and why?

Lardy cake because it’s old fashioned and delicious.

What is your favourite bread at the bakery and why?

I like a nice sourdough loaf because of the taste and flavour.

Do you like to bake at home and if you do, what do you like to make and why?

Normally I like to relax at home and spend time with family. I might knock up an occasional chocolate cake.

Hobbies – what do you do in your spare time?

Fishing, watercolour paintings and I ride fixed gear bikes.

What is one interesting fact that very few people know about you?

I am a lay Minister for the United Reformed Church.

What do you think is special about Communibakes and why?

It’s giving in the heart of the community. Every cake or loaf you buy from us is helping someone who lives here through the work of the charity Communicare, which we support, and it could be you or it might someone you know, now and in the future. We also seem to have lost a sense of community. Every place used to have its own bakers, butchers and greengrocers, which helped people to connect and feel a part of their neighbourhood. Everybody would know each other by name and were not just strangers, so Communibakes helps bring this back.