1977
To the right is the Spratton and Teeton Conservative Club building. The entrance above it is the access now to The Old Bakehouse, which incorporates the building to the left. This was previously, from the late 1930s, Thorley's butcher's shop (taken over in the mid sixties by Bill Pateman) and the position of the door can be clearly seen - refer to image 1340. The photograph can be dated from the slogan on this building, which was part of the road protest of that year.
In the late 1950s Dick Thorley asked Sidney William Pateman, whom everyone knew as ‘Bill’, to come and work for him. Bill had previously worked for Mr Turland, a butcher in Creaton, and had become a master butcher there. But Mr Turland sold up, and so Bill moved to the Spratton shop. He kept his customers from Creaton, Teeton, Hollowell, Cottesbrooke and the surrounding farms and served them 3 times a week from the back of a van.
Dick Thorley retired in about 1969 and Bill Pateman bought the business from him. The bakery to the rear of the building was run by Dick’s sister and her husband Mr and Mrs Macness. As well as bread they made pork pies and when they retired at about the same time as Dick, Bill Pateman’s wife Alice took over the pork pie business. They grew this side of the business by supplying a lot of pubs and supermarkets in the area, and they became well known for the special hand moulded “Spratton” pies at Christmas. Alice also developed a catering side to her business doing local weddings, and for 3 years running she supplied the lord Mayor’s dinner at the guildhall.
Bill Pateman sold the triple garage and pigsty at the side of the property for the building of the Conservative Club.
(March 2024: some of the information above kindly supplied by Bill Pateman's son, Bill)
Image Reference: 1455
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