Twenty Years of Service - At the Double!

Secret long service gifts surprise two loyal Grasmere bakers

Bakers Nigel Prickett and Steve Mellor each knew they were about to notch up twenty years service with the world-famous Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.

But they didn’t anticipate shop manager Joanne Wilson and baker husband Andrew Hunter commemorating their double milestone with surprise gifts - a case of speciality wines for Nigel and a slap-up meal at a top restaurant for Steve.

“It was a wonderful surprise and totally unexpected,” said Nigel, 52, after receiving six bottles of vintage chateauneuf de pap. “I also received a Cumbria Crystal goblet engraved with the words Nigel’s quaffing glass,” he said. “Two of the bottles can be drunk now, two won’t be ready until 2011 and the final two need five years to mature.”

Steve’s culinary gift was an eight-course dinner for two at Cartmel’s famous L’enclume restaurant and overnight stay in their deluxe suite in the south Lakeland village.

“It was amazing, a fantastic culinary evening out and the accommodation was utter luxury,” he said. Former coal miner Steve, 53 - who has also worked as a chef in local hotels and on board gas rigs in the North Sea - started working at the shop in 1989 after a chance meeting with Nigel.

“I was picking up my kids from school when I bumped into Nigel who had just been offered a job by Joanne’s dad Gerald who was running the shop at the time,” said Steve. “Thinking there might be other work going I called in to see him and he took me on there and then.”

Cricket enthusiast Nigel’s connections to the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop stretch back to his childhood.

“As a boy Gerald used to take me to the away matches of Ambleside Cricket Club so I could score the games,” he said. “And I used to collect sawdust from him for my rabbit!”
Steve - who also makes the shop’s award-winning rum butter - and Nigel have met scores of celebrity customers over the years. “We had Chris Evans in and the late Richard Whiteley who used to present Countdown,” said Nigel. “Alan Whicker also called in for a single piece of gingerbread!”

Both men enjoy the camaraderie of the business and look forward to coming to work.

It’s a great team, a really good working atmosphere and not having to commute is a great bonus,” said Steve who, like Nigel, lives with his family in Grasmere. Joanne and Andrew took great care choosing the gifts.

“We already knew that Nigel was something of a wine connoisseur and Steve appreciates good food having been a chef,” explained Joanne.

“It’s so important in a small family-run business like this that everyone gets along and appreciates each other. 

“Nigel and Steve are integral to the business and we really wanted to show how much we value and respect the contribution that they make.”