How Murrays the Darlington bakers rose to the challenges of the 1980s

A few of the pictures of him in the Echo archive show him firing up the first computerised calculator in 1985, firing up his first computer in 1986, firing up his huge new bakery in 1988, firing up his new fridges in 1989, firing up a trendy Teasmade he was giving to customers to celebrate the baker’s 75th anniversary in 1998, firing up the mixers for his secret Christmas pudding recipe in 1999…

Sadly, then it goes quiet. On August 1, 2001, the business started by his grandparents went into administration, unable to compete with the supermarkets that were driving so many small, family businesses to the wall.

Jack and Nora Murray in the doorway of their shop at 74 Durham Road (now North Road) with baby Frank, who was born in 1923, in their arms

Jack and Nora started a baker’s at 74, Durham Road, in Darlington in 1923, and in 1926 it was renumbered as 119 North Road, which we think was at the top of Wales Street. Slowly, they acquired other premises and in 1939 opened a bakery in Maude Street.

Murrays the Bakers' early van in Darlington in the 1920s

Their first out-of-town acquisition was a shop in Richmond in 1964, but then they were struck by a run of tragedies: Jack died suddenly in 1966; his son, John, was killed in a motor accident driving back from the Richmond shop in 1970, and then in 1971 Jack’s eldest son, Frank, died aged 48 of cancer.

This meant Frank’s son, John, who had been away to university to study engineering and was working in the old industry, was called back to Darlington to take command.

Piggford's shop on West Auckland Road next to Cockerton Post Office (the post office survives to this day). Murrays bought Piggford's in 1968

A Murrays’ staff outing from the top of Maude Street in 1963, sent in by Monica Jiggins (nee Hughes) who is in the centre with the big framed glasses. Monica can spot Alf and Margaret Sissons, Lily Cole, John Murray, John Scott, Jackie Sandham, Tom Haigh, Anne Pinder and Arthur Murray

And suddenly Murrays was everywhere. They bought Pigfords bakery in Cockerton and Bestwicks’ bakery on Haughton Green; in 1979, they bought Archers bakery in Northallerton; in 1980, they opened inside the Morrisons centre on North Road; in 1983, they diversified into a coffee shop in Crown Street.

Women at work in the Maude Street bakery before 1988

An Echo article in 1984 tells how Murrays made 48 types of cakes, and how its breadmakers started at 3am by loading up the mixers with 35 stone of flour, 5lbs lard, 6lbs 4oz salt and a soya-based improver. The mixture was then placed in the ovens that baked 20 dozen loaves in oven at a time (that’s 240 loaves, unless a baker’s dozen was involved).

In 1985, Murrays baked 12,000 loaves a week and reckoned they had 750,000 customers across the Tees Valley – they had just opened on Yarm High Street.

Maureen Nicholson ices cakes in the new Murrays bakery in Union Place in March 1989

To feed all of these stores they opened a larger bakery in Union Place (which must have been somewhere in the cleared area behind Bondgate) in 1988 which allowed them to make 50,000 rolls and teacakes a week, 18,000 cakes, 12,500 loaves, 10,000 pies and pasties and 10,000 cream cakes.

It led to their biggest takeover in 1993 of GT & A Guy which brought them shops and bakeries in Barnard Castle, Guisborough and Stokesley.

Wendy Forster of Murrays' Crown Street tearoom in November 1985 with a tray of Yorkshire curd tarts - these were so tasty that the recipe was being sent to a fan in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who had tasted them when visiting in Darlington and couldn't forget them

John Murray shows off his new fridges in Union Place in 1989

But the 1990s were typified by price wars between the big five supermarkets of Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsburys and Tesco. In 1995, banana wars broke out with the price plummeting to 15p-a-pound; in 1996, baked bean wars broke out with the price plummeting to 3p-a-tin although in some stores you were actually paid 2p to take away some beans with your shopping.

Peter Rowley, chief executive of Darlington Building Society, and John Murray mix up special Christmas puddings in 1999

Then, in 1999, bread wars began. Asda went first, cutting the price of a 800 gramme white loaf from 17p to 9p. Tesco followed. Morrisons and Safeway went to 8p. Then upstart newcomer Kwik Save went to 7p. Everyone matched it.

The spokesman for the National Association of Master Bakers fumed: "There is absolutely no way at that price you are even covering the ingredients used in a loaf of bread. The supermarkets are using large industrial bakers to produce this flour and water rubbish at a low price."

It was the last thing the Darlington bakers kneaded. They required £500,000 in investment to get them through 1999 but the end came in 2001, when their 60 staff lost their jobs.

WHY a baker’s dozen? Bread, a staple of the human diet, has been one of the most regulated foodstuffs in history.

In 1266, the Assize of Bread and Ale Act codified previous measures and stipulated the weight of a farthing loaf. The price of the farthing loaf stayed the same but its size could vary depending upon the price of wheat. The Act’s sliding scale ensured that unscrupulous bakers did not use rip off their customers.

Any baker caught selling undersized or overpriced bread was fined, pilloried or even flogged.

However, baking bread is not an exact science. The size and weight of the finished loaf can depend on how the yeast performs in the oven.

To avoid being prosecuted if his loaves came out lighter than expected, the baker would bake a 13th or 14th loaf.

When he came to sell a single loaf, he might offer the customer a piece of the extra loaf to ensure the required weight was reached. This extra bit was called “in-bread”.

When sold on his loaves by the dozen to a shopkeeper, he would throw in the 13th (or even the 14th) to ensure the legal weight of 12 loaves was met. The extra was known as “the vantage loaf”.

The usage of “baker’s dozen”, “in-bread” and “vantage loaf” is well documented from the 16th Century, and while the last two concepts died out when bread regulations were eased at the start of the 19th Century, we still understand that 13 for the price of 12 is a baker’s dozen.

Greta Sanderson with a cake baked by Murrays in 1998 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Brodsky String Quarter which coincided with the bakery's 75th anniversary. On the wall is a picture of Greta's mother, Nora, who had founded the bakery with her husband, Jack, in 1923

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OUR interest in Murrays the Bakers has been sparked because, as Memories 636 and 638 told, an old nameboard for J Fraser Murray & Son emerged in Coniscliffe Road in Darlington recently after being covered up for 50 years or so.

This Mr Murray (above) was born in 1905 and was a cousin (we think) of Jack who founded the baker. He became a butcher with a shop first in North Road and then from the last 1950s in Coniscliffe Road.

In 1960, Mr Murray visited the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, and returned to Darlington fired up with ideas about self service and free parking.

In 1961, he, and his son Alan, converted Coniscliffe Road into the first Spar shop (we think) in town.

Spar are a grouping of small traders who use their economic muscle to get better prices from wholesalers. It is a concept which started in the Netherlands in 1932 where they were originally called DESPAR which stood for “Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig”.

In English, this means “All Benefit from Joint Co-operation Regularly”.

In the 1940s, it was shortened to SPAR and in 1957, the first Spar opened in Portsmouth. In 1961, the concept came to Coniscliffe Road where it was announced with the fanfare – as opposed to Fine Fare – of a full page advert in the Echo’s sister paper, the Evening Despatch.

That page is below where you can see how much a pound of Pure American Lard was in 1961.

In the advert, Mr Murray says: “I feel that there is a trend back to a modicum of counter service.” But today, not only is it all self-service but increasingly self-checkout as well.