Pruden’s Story
In 1928 William Pruden purchased the baker’s shop at 75 High Street from the Spary family who were moving to set up a bakery business in Castle Street, Luton.
William was born in Kimpton and had worked at the Kimpton Bakery where he learnt his trade: which also included a bread delivery round to St Paul’s Walden where he met Marjorie who was in service to the Bowes Lyon family. He had to borrow from his Father to meet the selling price of £500, a very considerable sum in those days. The sales document signed by the participants hangs in the Markyate shop to this day.
William came to Markyate as a single man in September 1928 and was joined by his new bride Marjorie Alice in November that year The newly weds moved to live above the shop and Marjorie soon became part of the enterprise: she worked in the shop and generally supported the business and, bravely, took on the task of running the accounts which, in those days (without computers) was extremely complex as Customers used various different payment patterns – paying weekly, monthly or even annually with farmers, particularly, preferring to pay yearly at the end of the harvest. It is interesting to note that the cost of the loaves (delivered) was 4 & half (old) pence for a large loaf and tuppence farthing for a small one (nowadays a large loaf cost approximately £1).
Bill (as he was known) took care of the bakery with the help of an assistant: the doughs were made late in the day and left to ‘prove’ overnight in wooden troughs: in the early hours of the morning they were placed on the bench, scaled off, weighed into dough pieces, moulded into various shapes and put into tins, then, with the help of a long-handled wooden peel carefully placed in the coal fired oven, which could hold 200 loaves at a time, the smaller ones to the front as they cooked more quickly. The bakery would do 2 -3 firings per day and the whole process was done by hand and was in place for several years.
Norman mentions the tall chimney at the back of the bakery from which the smoke rose high: apparently, if the wind was in the wrong direction, there were complaints from some of the housewives whose washing caught the smuts.
The fresh bread was delivered daily to homes in the surrounding villages – northwards of Markyate with a van and southwards in a pony and trap.
As Norman was growing up he became part of the business too and worked in the shop from the age of 16 when he left St Albans School until he was called up for the (then compulsory) National Service at the age of 18.
He served in Egypt and Palestine as a Crew Operator in the 4th and 7th Royal Dragoon Guards. At his call-up he was asked if he would like to be an army baker: he said ‘no thanks’ as he felt sure he was going to return to the family business after his service.
Norman enjoyed his time in the Army undertaking driving, gunnery and radio and, for about 14 months he served as Squadron Clerk when his National Service ended Norman returned to Pruden’s and the business began to expand its range. During the war there had been a big demand for bread as the village population grew, with Land Army and Service personnel as well as evacuees, many of whom were to make Markyate their peacetime home.
As the customer base became bigger and sugar and other ingredients became more easily available Norman began to bake delicious cakes and pastries which were especially popular as wartime food rationing had strictly limited such luxuries. Cake had been sold in the shop in William’s time but they were large slab cakes (either seeded or fruit) and customers would buy a portion which was cut off, weighed and priced.
Two years after his National Service finished Norman met Edna, a farmer’s daughter from Flamstead, and in 1952 they were married beginning a happy and successful partnership. They moved into two rooms and shared kitchen at the Farmhouse in Pickford Road for which they paid £2.50 per week rental and, on his marriage Norman’s pay was increased to £4.12 per week.
Edna had a satisfying job when she got married and had not planned to work in the shop, however, fate took a hand when her mother-in-law became ill and was hospitalised: she started to work in Prudens and also took over the accounts from her mother-in-law who was a an excellent business woman, so much so that Edna recalls an occasion when she was charged for a slab of cake! However, the two women were great friends and Edna remembers Marjorie very fondly.
Edna was virtually running the shop at that time and when a local farmer approached her to arrange a birthday celebration for his daughter it began the start of Pruden’s very successful outside catering business, which, of course, linked into the supply of Norman’s speciality of celebration cakes for all occasions. The business grew without ever having the need to advertise, as satisfied customers recommended it to friends and family. Edna recalls a very happy and successful team in which many young Markyate mums worked as waitresses. They put on functions in large venues such as Vauxhall in Luton and were booking 2 -3 years ahead for weddings.
Eventually when it felt as if they were working 8 days a week it was decided to pull back on the catering side as it was becoming so popular that the stress of continually working so hard to make every occasion extra special was beginning to tell. The couple had, at first, supplied themselves with table linen, cutlery etc for 100 guests but, in no time, as the business expanded, they found they needed enough for another 100, so, when they closed down they disposed of quite a lot of equipment and Edna was amused to recognise some of her ‘pieces’, when attending a Roosters event recently: she says “it just goes to show I only buy the best!”
Edna and Norman are now enjoying a happy retirement and the business is being run by their two sons, Andrew and Jonathan: their parents were very anxious that their boys should not feel obliged to join the family business and encouraged them to try other occupations for a couple of years.
Both Andrew & Jonathan attended the National Bakery School in London. On leaving Andrew went on to specialise in Bread Making at the Flour Milling and Bakery Research Association (FMBRA). Jonathan went to specialise in celebration cakes with Jacksons of Aylesbury who had an excellent cake decorating department. Whilst their Jon met Heidi who was running one of their shops and it was not to long before he was making his own wedding cake.
Andrew rejoined the family business in 1977, Jon in 1979 and Heidi followed the well rehearsed route of a Bakers Wife joining the business in 1984 following a successful career as a supervisor with Marks and Spencer.
The young Prudens now run 5 very successful shops, each of which has its own particular ‘personality’ and have 63 staff members (including delivery drivers, shop and backroom staff – many of whom are part-time). Their latest venture is a shop at Warner’s End Hemel Hempstead serving Prudens famous cakes and pastries and, what Andrew describes as ‘fancy coffees’.
At the Millennium they embarked on building the new bakery behind the Markyate shop: this required a lot of careful planning as the shop is in a Conservation Area: eventually having researched various possible sites in the village, it was decided to build behind William Pruden’s original shop – the result is a perfect and handsome fit: bread and the famous own-brand sausage rolls are baked there daily for all the shops which (with a touch of Pruden magic) are all within 10 minutes drive of the main hub in Markyate.
It feels like a perfect combination of Baking skills and Business acumen – William would be very proud of them.