ITS location beside rural Martley Road in the western fringes of Worcester, right where town meets countryside, always seemed a slightly odd setting for a commercial food factory but was a nod to how things used to be.
Because the site which Elizabeth the Chef built into one of the UK’s top cake makers and has now closed used to be part of a farm.
It was on the old Temple Laugherne estate and since 1974 had been used by the well-known agricultural name of Stokes Bomford as a facility for handling, packing and processing fresh fruit and agricultural goods.
For that it was ideally situated, being easily accessed from the many apple, pear and cherry orchards in the Teme Valley.
In addition there was much market garden land in the nearby villages of Broadheath, Hallow and Holt Heath.
However, by the early 1980s priorities had changed and Stokes Bomford moved out to be replaced by Broadheath Foods.
The company started out in the chilled food sector before creating a food and cake manufacturing plant.
This was acquired in September 1995 by Elizabeth the Chef which had begun life in in a small way in Leamington Spa but had big ideas.
Its takeover at Temple Laugherne was the start of 30 years of highlights for the plant as, among other things, it launched a range of cakes for England’s Premier League football clubs and had the Spice Girls emblazoned across the packaging of its sponge cakes.
But more than that it was a major employer on Worcester’s west side.
In late 1999 the company decided to plough more than £2 million into the Lower Broadheath complex after turnover doubled in four years.
It was always an interesting place to work and in 1997 Stephanie Preece, now editor of the Worcester News, cut her teeth as a young reporter by visiting the works.
She wrote: “Walking through the factory, the warm comforting smell of home baking fills the air and immediately throws you back to childhood days and memories of licking out the bowl.
“This sweet aroma greets hundreds of workers every morning as they make their way into the huge bakers just outside Worcester.
“Cakes, puddings, deserts and pastries roll down conveyor belts, transporting the goodies from one process to another while huge stainless steel ovens and packing machines prepare the produce for the shop shelves.
“But, despite the onset of modern technology, many things are still done the way your mother would have done them, like spreading the butter on bread and butter puddings or pricking the tops of pies to prevent messy jam-filled explosions.”
Sadly all this has now ended but the hope must be that just like a good soufflé the food factory can rise again.
