Essex bakery to re-open with new name

Gilbert’s, the Essex bakery based in Leigh, will now be run by the Murphy family, and will open within the next few months. 

Formerly run by the Hill family, and the Gilberts before them, Sean Murphy, who has been in the bakery trade since he was eight, will move his nearby Canvey business, The Bakery, to the Leigh premises.

The Hills closed the bakery in October 2014, and it had been on the market for some time before that.

Murphy said: “I worked for my dad’s bakery in Ongar, but that closed down six years ago. He also used to have the Chalkwell Park Bakery, but again that has gone now.

“I started off greasing tins and washing the floors in my dad’s bakery, now I’ll be doing the baking and my wife, Jane, will be doing the shop, so it’s good to keep it in the family and continue the tradition of family-run businesses on these premises.

“It will be a traditional bakery, doing bread, cakes and buns. I haven’t thought about what to call it yet, but it will probably be something simple like The Bakery. I want people to be coming back because of what we bake so it doesn’t matter what your name is if your produce isn’t good.”