Cotswold Crust Bakery

The smell of bread first drew me home from school across a Cotswold lane, and years later that same smell still opens our bakery doors before dawn. Cotswold Crust began in a redundant village barn with a second-hand oven, a sack of stoneground flour from a nearby mill, and a starter culture passed between bakers like a family recipe. We wanted bread that tasted of time — not additives, not hurry.

Stoneground flour keeps the germ and bran that industrial roller milling removes. We mix slowly, autolyse where helpful, and ferment dough for hours or overnight so flavour develops naturally. Sourdough is our backbone, but we also bake tin loaves, rolls, and seasonal enriched breads for celebrations. The oven — partly wood-fired — gives crusts their snap and crumb their warmth. Every loaf is scored by hand; every batch is shaped by people who can feel when dough is ready.

We source grain from British farms where possible, prioritising regional wheat that suits our hydration and fermentation style. Pastry and buns use the same principles: proper butter, restrained sugar, and no shortcuts that trade tomorrow's flavour for today's speed. Our team trains apprentices from Gloucestershire villages because baking is a craft that dies without teachers.

Early customers still queue when the first loaves leave the oven, and we keep starter cultures that link today's batches to the bakery's earliest experiments in that draughty barn. That living link is as important as any recipe card in the office.

Today Cotswold Crust supplies Maxwells with bread and baked goods that arrive fresh, not factory-parbaked. The Cotswolds are gentle country, but our standards are firm. We believe a good loaf is one of life's quiet luxuries — and that luxury should be available on an ordinary Tuesday as well as a feast day, still warm from the oven when we can manage it.

Values: Slow fermentation, stoneground flour