Had the pleasure of attending the "Birthday Party" of the famous bakery upon the 20th May. Yes it's really forty-years since the Fielding family arrived in the Lakes to transform an old dusty motor spares shop into what would become the world famous Apple Pie Eating House.
It was my pleasure to be part of the team in those early years and it's fair to say you can make a few life-long friends in that time. Although those friends now seem to be scattered far and wide, locations not always known, some regrettably no longer with us.
In those early years I can recall every item made in a days production would be sold in the course of that day, if not within an instant and in the shop the customers would be shoulder to shoulder, eager to sample our wares.
Although everything is so well organised and professional these days, in those early years I can happily remember a toaster and a kettle behind the counter and being greeted by the constant smell of burning toast and clouds of steam from the kettle. In those forty-years the toaster and kettle have long disappeared, though people still flock there in their droves.
