Bakerywraps it up after 94 years

Ben Arnold says goodbye to retail fixture which has become district's own little slice of history

- Ben Arnold

MARTIN Hobson's grandparents Harry and Marion - started Hobson's in Reddish the day after they were married in the June of 1929. "They sold anything and everything," Martin says.

"Traded whatever they could. You did what you had to in those midwar times. Black market, buying, selling. We still sold cigarettes until about 40 years ago." It's only been a bakery for the past 60 years or so, he says, when his father Peter decided to adapt the business and move things on from being a general store.

"The reason Hobson's has been trading all this time is because we've been flexible like that, we've moved with the times," Martin adds. "We've evolved."

Astonishingly, some of that same equipment endures. The 'Little Champion' pie press, which presses out pork pies, has been there as long as their baker Mark has and he's been there 35 years. It is likely a good 60 or more years old and used every single day.