The Bakery
Inspired by the American tradition of Alan Scott’s wood-fired masonry ovens and the sourdough revival, Gordon built the Tracebridge oven with bricks from the old Gun Shop in Wiveliscombe which he swapped for an iron bedstead. He built a shed beside the oven with recycled doors and windows and this became the Bakery.
Fleur Hoyle with bread class attendees
Back in 2008 Gordon's early experiments with sourdough gained a local following, ‘Gordon’s bread’ as it was known, was ‘proper bread’; it didn’t irritate delicate digestions and it filled you up till lunchtime. Sourdough was relatively unknown, and people were curious to learn about this tasty, healthier bread. As a micro-bakery evolved at Tracebridge, Katie joined him making patisserie and cakes including the famous Appley Bun, invented for the re-launch of the village shop at Appley. Volunteers came through WWWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) to help in the bakery, selling at markets, in the gardens and at Friday pizza night. Some stayed longer as apprentices, learning together with Gordon and Katie.
In 2016 Gordon and Katie stopped baking bread for sale and two ex-apprentices Adam Lawrie and Fleur Hoyle launched White Post Bakery at Langford Budville. They ran White Post for 18 months, then moved on to work in other larger bakeries. In 2018 Fleur returned to Tracebridge and joined Katie and Gordon as a partner and principal teacher. Adam returned in 2019 and re-joined the teaching team.
Bakery Classes
Our classes are currently ran online via zoom and can be one-to-one or with a group. Contact us for more details.
We hope to be running in-person classes in Spring/Summer 2021 in one of our guest venues. Classes include a delicious vegetarian lunch.
Make sure you leave room in the freezer for all your bread and pastries!
Newest Classes
Sourdough Sharing and Troubleshooting Workshop with Fleur Hoyle
The focus in this workshop is flour is flavour and how to get the most from your loaves. You will be able to talk to other home bakers, sharing triumphs and failures and work together to iron out problems and develop your baking techniques.
Seasonal
Baking for Christmas
We will make mincemeat and custard sourdough buns (or apples for those who don’t like mincemeat!), cranberry and orange frangipane tarts, spiced sourdough teacakes, candied orange peel and freshly milled flour shortbread.
Check our Classes page for next available dates.
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“A big thank you for today! I thoroughly enjoyed the course, the lunch and the company. I learned a lot and we are now enjoying some of fruits of our labours. Looking forward to a return visit.”
“My husband and I want to personally thank you for a lovely day yesterday. We learnt so much and enjoyed the relaxed informal atmosphere. The lunch was gorgeous, please make a recipe book of all the fresh, delicious food you made as I am craving it all ready. I cannot express enough the perfect day we had. The bread is the best we have tasted. Gordon you are a marvellous mentor and teacher. You have grown a perfect piece of heaven.”
“Thank you again for providing us with such a valuable, enjoyable and insightful day. Gordon and Katie are wonderful hosts and to benefit from their combined baking and facilitative expertise was a unique and genuinely rewarding experience.”
“Gordon, thank you for a really useful, interesting and often surprising lesson in the art of sourdough bread making. I’m really looking forward to having a go at making my own. Katie, thanks for your hospitality and a superb lunch and tea, it was good to meet you both.”
“I want to say how much I enjoyed the sourdough day – a fantastic sense of immersion in the subject, thanks to Gordon’s engaging tutorial technique. My paternal grandfather, who I never met, was a baker, and this was just one of the reasons why it felt like such an important thing for me to do. Having waited three years to do the course I wasn’t disappointed!”
“Thank you, we had a lovely time baking and sampling gorgeous food throughout the day. My husband sends his thanks for sending me home with such a big bag of delicious goodies!”