A view of Ralph Sparks & Sons bakery on Bishopton Avenue, Stockton Several parked cars included in a view of Ralph Sparks & Sons bakery on Bishopton Avenue, Stockton 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of Ralph Sparks & Sons bakery on Bishopton Avenue, Stockton Several parked cars included in a view of Ralph Sparks & Sons bakery on Bishopton Avenue, Stockton
Can anyone give me some information about Sparks.
My mother was manageress of a cafe in Darlington called Sparks in around 1920’s 1930s.
I understand it had a very good reputation.
Would this have been the same company as the bakery.
Any information would be very much appreciated.
My dad worked in Sparks bakery in the 80s he was called Peter Henry he use to work with a man called Mick. We lived in Dunmail Road inWrensfield. Mick was seeing one of the Derbyshire girls who was my friends sister he was called Andrew his nickname was Derby.
My father Tom died at Sparks Bakery in an accident back in the 1960s. I wondered if anybody who worked there remembered him.
I was a Chartered Surveyor working for RHM in the 1970s. I was based at the Cerebos Salt factory in Middlewich, Cheshire. I visited the Sparks Bakery regularly as they had quite a few shops in the area and I was involved in negotiating new leases and rent reviews and the like. The manager I seem to remember was a Scot Who was I think called Robertson. The shops manager was named Walter but I can’t recall his surname. I was made very welcome whenever I visited.
John and Nancy Welford owners of the Welford bakery in Yorkshire was relatives by (second marriage) to my mum Margaret Fox (nee Lewis) she has very fond memories of both of them as they had no children of their own they asked my Nana (Annie Elisa Simpson Cook Lewis) if they could adopt her..but Margaret “wouldn’t leave her mother for a pension”) John and Nancy lived in a big house overlooking the Redcar beach mum remembers the servants call board and bells in the kitchen. We have their wedding photo in our lounge in Taupo New Zealand my Mum and Dad came to live in NZ in 1953 and that was the last time they saw the Welfords. Nancy had a sister called Grace Gilleran who was married to Bob and they were lovely people too. Nancy’s Mum married my Granddad Lewis (she was his 2nd wife)
Hi Margaret I am very interested to know more about the Welfords and where they are buried. I am chairman of a group in Redcar the Friends of Redcar Cemetery and it would be very interesting for our newsletter or for anybody else wanting to know the history of this family. Cheers Ged Fleming
Sorry to hear Jim Spark, I think was one of the brothers, has died recently aged 88. He leaves a wife and children, who lived at Worsall before he died.
funeral this week I think by Reays of Yarm
Does anyone know Kenny Guest who worked at Longlands Welfords bakery? I was his van lad, Billy Swift from Middlesbrough, we delivered to Bbillingham. Old times always remembered, £13.50 a week including blue overcoat…
I am trying to trace a Ralph Frederick Briggs who worked for Welfords bakery around about 1957… Does anyone remember him?
Hi Lyn yes Ralph is my dad he sadly passed away 3 years ago aged 96
The green in front of the bakery was where a lot of the boys off the Newham Grange Estate played their early days of football. In the fifties, on a night when the bakery front was lit up, one of these youngsters was Donny Heath who later played for Norwich City & Swindon Town when they beat Arsenal in the Football League Cup-Final at Wembley.
I worked at Sparks in the 80s, it was a great place to work and the wages at the time were very good. I worked with a guy called Harry Welsh if anyone knows him? I lived at Daventry Ave and when I walked to work on a morning you could smell the fresh bread. Good old days….
My dad worked there in the 80s he was called Peter Henry he lived in Dunmail Road, Newtown
I was a rep for J Bibby and Sons ,Liverpool and one of my calls was Welfords who were part of the Wonderloaf group. The buyer was Mr Stoddart. He was great, I was lucky enough to have some of our bakery fats accepted to be used in supplying the M&S group,which was a great thing at that time as M&S are fastidious in quality of their foods. I was made redundant in 1967 ,and had no contact with Welfords after that,my only memories of the company were good.
My grandfather was Christopher Sparks, the family came from Middlesborough I believe. I am seeking any trace of relatives with the Sparks name, he went to Western Australia circa 1900? and came from Hunslett. He also had close family in Freeman Street in Cleethorpes/Grimsby and my mum Betsy & Aunt Joy Sparks used to go & stay there in thwe school holidays after they came back from Australia, circa 1919 onwards? Anybody know anything? There is nobody left alive to ask that I know now. PS I believe my grandfather was a ships cook/baker?
Hi Pamela, my sister married Thomas (Sparks) Mantle of Stockton and I believe his father was also Thomas Sparks Mantle. The family story is that there was some family connection with the Sparks family, I have a lot on the male side of Mantle but am short on the female side, if you receive this message and wish to contact to exchange information, Picture Stockton have my permission to pass on my email address. I married into the Mantle family.
I worked in the motor trade from 1967 to 2003. During the 70s there were 3 big bakery groups with either bakeries or distribution depots on Teesside. I know this because they all ran fleets of Leyland 550FG Box Vans & I sold parts to them during my spell at Dutton Forshaw”s & Hargreaves Vehicle Distributors. Sparks, Stockton was part ot the RHM Group (Rank, Hovis, McDougal later known as British Bakeries), Welfords, Middlesbrough was part of the Spillers/Homepride Group & Hunter”s the Bakers (Sunblest brand name on their vans) was part of Allied Bakers Group. All these groups had bakeries on Tyneside too. Carricks which had a string of shops throughout the North East was also part of the Allied Bakers Group. Does anyone remember the Bakery on Longlands Road, Middlesbrough? I think it may be a retirement home now. Was it called Hills?
Are you Eddie Holmans Son? He had the m/bike shop in Parliament Street, Stockton.
Could it be Forbes?
My late mother (Helen Ogg, later Clutton) worked at Welfords in the 1950″s for a Mr Harrison (I think) as secretary. I believe he was the MD or similar and drove an early XK120 Jaguar in which he occasionally took my mother shopping to Middlesborough! She lived in Redcar at the time. She recalled him as a generous man & the bakery had Morris Minors as “pool” vehicles which she was allowed to use. When she and my father married in 1954 the wedding cake came from Welfords.
If your friend drove wagons for Wellfords it was probably bought by Allied Bakeries as Sparks was bought by RHM Bakeries. Only working on the fact a private bakery would”nt be trunking that far.
Last I heard of Welfords Bakery was in 1976 my friend was a wagon driver for them and a few times I had a run out when he went to Glasgow delivering for them, and yes it was on the Redcar trunk road at that time, I think they went out of business in 1977, he then went and drove for Bobby Durhams
WELFORDS BAKERY WAS ON THE TRUNK ROAD NEAR MIDDLESBROUGH,THEY ALSO HAD A BAKERY IN REDCAR AT THE RACECOURSE ROUNDABOUT IN WEST DYKE ROAD,I BELIEVE IT IS NOW A GARAGE.I DID KNOW OF ONE PERSON WHO LEFT LOAVES IN THE OVEN TOO LONG AND WAS SACKED,A MODERN DAY KING ALFRED. BREAD TASTED BETTER IN THOSE DAYS.
I too am trying to find some info on a bakery called ” Welfords Bakery ” …I understand it was in operation around the same time as the Sparks bakery. I am told it was located somewhere along the trunk road from Middlesbrough to Redcar -my “DEAN “ancestors were somehow associated with this bakery-anyone out there remember it or have any info about the bakery or a photo?
Im trying to find out about Ralph Spark and Sons. Does anyone know when they went out of business. Also the history if possible. Im a Spark myself born in Middlesbrough. Im doing family history and an wondering if they are related somewhere further back in time. My lot came from Stanhope Durham and further back Allendale/Hexham
During the 2nd world war, which started when I was 5 years old, I lived with my parents in Norton High Street . I can remember the spark’s family living in Wellington house opposite where I lived. During the air raids when we were in the High street shelter, Mrs Spark used to bring a tray of cakes with her, I never new whether they were left overs, but as children we loved them..
My brother John Wilson worked for Sparks in the 1957 period, he told me Mr Ralph Sparks was an abandoned baby known as a ‘foundling’ (because it had been found abandoned) what we must surmise is he was adopted by a couple called ‘Sparks’ who must have been very proud of him indeed, and his progress and presumed wealth. Mr Sparks was a local Justice of Peace in Stockton Magistrate Court, which came in handy when my brother was arrested for the most minor of street offense (it starts with a U, and men sometimes commit this offense in a back alley after leaving a public house) the snag was in those days it could be and was reported in ‘The Gazette’, so he asked Mr Sparks for advice and to intervene on his behalf, the charge was dropped. Sparks had a Russian Bakery Manager in those days, who some of the members might recall. After leaving Sparks John Wilson joined Pickering lifts and perhaps fitted lifts for them.
Hello Margaret,
In 2013, I bought the house that was built for John Spark, one of Ralph Spark’s three sons. It stands on Bishopton Road, not far from the well-known Sparks arc deco bakery which is preserved as a listed building. John Spark’s house, (built in 1923/4) was beautifully designed by the architect TWT Richardson, of Stockton who had earlier built the lovely Baptist Tabernacle in the town. I think it was around 1954 that the house was first sold, probably on the death of John Spark.