By Helen Miller

A SUSTAINABLY-run heritage craft bakery specialising in small batch, hand-crafted sourdough bread with a mission to pass on heritage skills to the local community through education and training, has opened for business at Grandey’s Place Heritage & Craft Centre in Green Tye, near Harlow. 

Micro Bakery is the brainchild of chef turned craft baker, Richard Lewis, who’s the latest recruit at Grandey’s Place, a philanthropic enterprise dedicated to the preservation of the UK’s heritage crafts and home to a vibrant community of exceptionally talented artists and makers specialising in stained glass, globemaking, watchmaking, ceramics and more. 

Richard, too, is passionate about preserving his craft for current and future generations. His traditional artisan breads are created with flour milled from heritage grains sourced from award-winning British producers. Heritage grains are varieties which were cultivated before the advent of intensive, scientific plant breeding in the mid twentieth century and provide a rich, nutty taste that commercial grains cannot match.

“For me, the essence of great cuisine lies in its simplicity. It’s about creating an authentic product from grains that have been largely untouched or genetically modified, in contrast to the modern over-processed wheats you see everywhere today,” says Richard. “These haven’t only changed our food but have also affected our health, reinforcing the adage ‘you are what you eat’.  I see it as my responsibility to educate and inspire people that bread made with heritage grains offers better nutrition while providing complex, richer flavours.”

As well as loaves baked daily, the Micro Bakery menu offers a rotation of pastries including cruffins (a cross between a croissant, a muffin and an indulgent sticky bun), brioche buns, double butter croissants and more. Takeaway teas and coffees are also available. 

 “Micro Bakery is a welcome addition to Grandey’s Place and offers a totally different type of heritage craft, which can be enjoyed not only by the resident craftspeople, but also the many hundreds of people who visit us each year,” says the centre’s owner and benefactor, Clive Beecham. “Richard’s time-honoured baking skills and reliance on heritage grains make his business a perfect fit for us and it’s great news for local people looking to buy products that are made to traditional artisanal standards.”

Members of the public are warmly invited to drop by and pick up takeaway breads, pastries and a brew. Cycle racks and visitor parking spaces are available while you shop. The bakery’s opening hours are Tuesdays to Fridays 9am to 3pm and Saturdays 9am to 1pm. The postcode is SG10 6FF.

The rest of the Grandey’s Place site is not open to the public except by appointment or for pre-booked tours held on the first Wednesday of most months. Visit www.grandeysplace.co.uk to reserve your place. 

More details about Richard Lewis and Micro Bakery can be found on the “Our Craftspeople” page of the website or at www.microbakery.co.uk (website goes live shortly). Craft Baking classes are expected to start in the autumn.