麻豆社

Napoleon famously said: 'an army marches on its stomach".

In 1914 a soldier鈥檚 daily ration included a pound of bread, and it was portable bread ovens made at the Westwood works to the north of Peterborough that kept our boys going!

During World War One; hundreds of cast metal ovens, dubbed 'Polly Perkins', by soldiers in past wars, left the Works by rail, destined for the Western Front.

Horses pulled the ovens, mounted on wooden carriages, right onto the battlefield, but it often took several days for the loaves to reach the hungry troops.

The efficiency of the Baker Perkins steam pipe ovens was soon recognised by other forces, who bought them to supply their own troops.

The steam baking system invented and patented by Baker Perkins is still used today, and the company sells its equipment and services to bakeries around the globe.

Location: Baker Perkins Ltd, Paston Parkway, Manor Drive, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE4 7AP
Image: An oven mounted on a wooden carriage, courtesy of Dick Preston

Show less