Wantage Road Bakery

At a time when baguette shops come and go and chicken places abound, what price a bakery nestled in the middle of the street where work-from-homers could pop easily to pick up a fresh loaf of bread or a sandwich for their lunch, and maybe a delicious sweet treat to boot? Well, that’s exactly what previous residents of Wantage Road used to have at the accurately named ‘Old Bakery’ at number 136.

One of, if not the first bakers to hold fort at the bakery was Walter G Hicks, previously a Tilehurst grocer but having turned his hand to baking, was by 1901 installed as the live-in baker at 136 Wantage Road alongside his wife Alice and their son, also called Walter.

Affectionately known as “Pa” Hicks, Walter wasn’t only loved for his bakes, he was a stalwart of the local sporting scene. In particular, he helped to form the Reading Wednesday Cricket League and was a big supporter of Berkshire County Cricket Club, whose home ground at the time was Kensington Park. “Pa” was also a season-ticket holder for Reading Football Club up at Elm Park. It really was a time when sporting action was within touching distance of Wantage Road residents.

In a sign that the pilfering of delivered goods is nothing new a quarter of the way through the 21st century, towards the end of 1904 the Reading Observer carried a report of the theft of a loaf of bread that had been delivered from the Wantage Road bakery to an address on Beecham Road. Unfortunately for the opportunistic thieves, they were spotted by an off-duty policeman from his bedroom window across the road. The copper jumped into action, followed the thieves up to Tilehurst Road and there apprehended the culprits. What happened to the loaf of bread in the end is unclear.

Back on Wantage Road, in the early years of the twentieth century the Hicks family was expanding. Walter junior had married Rebecca and they had two daughters named Mabel and Cicely who were soon enrolled at the local Wilson Primary School. The extra bodies required more room than was available at the bakery, and the young family moved into 122 Wantage Road, just a few doors down from the bakery due to the missing numbers between 126 and 136 (what’s all that about?!) By 1911, Walter P Hicks was working as a bookkeeper for the bakery and getting ready to take over from his father as the elder Walter neared retirement.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1921 Census, “Pa” Hicks has retired and swapped places with his son, moving with Alice to live at 122 Wantage Road as Walter junior took over as the baker at number 136. Sadly, just a year later “Pa” was to pass away at the age of 69 following a ‘long illness, patiently borne’. The Reading Observer reported that, “Reading is much the poorer today than last week owing to the passing away of that personality loved by all.” Walter G Hicks was buried at St George’s Church cemetery on Norcot Road. Walter’s wife Alice outlived him by 18 years, and was still living at number 122 when she passed away at nearby Battle Hospital.

Walter P Hicks was dedicated to his trade and his bakery, eventually becoming a Master Baker. He was still at the Wantage Road bakery at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 when he was 60 years of age himself. This meant that the Hicks family ran the old bakery for the best part of 40 years or more. Walter would live on for a further 20 years, and when he did pass away suddenly, he was himself back living at the family home of 122 Wantage Road, which had been in their possession for over half a century.

As for the bakery, the local newspapers were still advertising for jobs linked to it through to the 1970s, but alas the only smell of fresh bread on the street nowadays is from those residents that bake their own tasty loaves.