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1962 view of Caroline's Cake Shop No.143 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol - Now Richer Sounds PLC.

Article Published in the Illustrated Bristol News 1962.

OF ALL THE BRISTOL FIRMS whose histories we have presented from time to time in this magazine, probably none has had so romantic a past, or achieved comparably as much, as Caroline’s Cake Shop Ltd.

This thriving Bristol business rose from a tiny single-fronted shop in Clifton thirty years ago, built on a legacy of ?100 and a small bank balance by Joyce Ley, to the present three modem bakeries and eight retail shops supplying Bristolians with many thousands of cakes every week of the year.

The Caroline story really started in the late 1920s when Joyce Ley, a hard-up soprano making a difficult living in London, took a last-ditch job at a small restaurant near the British Museum. She was 21 - Despite her inexperience she got a job baking cakes, and reluctantly decided to make a career in a trade more immediately rewarding than singing, even for as accomplished a soprano as she then was.

After a few months learning the trade, she got a residential job with a Sidmouth Devon concern, and when Carwardines built a new bakery in Bristol became head cake-maker there.

In the summer of 1931 came the ?100 legacy — and with this money, plus ?40 of her own savings, Joyce Ley decided to go into business for herself,

Her mother, the late Mrs. W. M. Ley - never doubted for a moment that Joyce would succeed. Together, they toured Clifton until they found, at 17 Princess Victoria Street, exactly what they wanted a single-fronted shop with rear kitchen. which they took on a three-year lease at 12s. 6d. a week.

By the time opening day arrived, Joyce Ley was down to her last few pounds. Buying equipment, ingredients and containers had shrunk her small bank balance.

Cycling up to Caroline’s Cake Shop — a name invented by her mother—at 5 a.m. on Thursday, August 31st, 1931, she felt, in her own words, like ‘someone about to plunge over a cliff to her doom’. But she set about baking her ‘morning goods’ (scones, queen cakes, rock cakes and buns) and at 9 am. she and her mother opened the front door and nervously waited for the first customer.

By noon, not one single cake was left... So Joyce started baking again. . .

And they came back, and more and more came again and again. Joyce Ley could — and did — frequently work from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. and to midnight on Fridays, yet still she could not satisfy the demand for Caroline’s cakes.

And it went on like this. Her father and mother and brothers Geoffrey and John all gave up their spare time, and further help was engaged. There was only one thing for it — to open up a second shop.

They found it in a new rank at 102 Henleaze Road. It included a bakery, with larger ovens, and a cafe. Then came a further move, from 17 to 5 Princess Victoria Street, and a manageress to look after it.

Clifton and Henleaze prospered, so in 1934 Joyce Ley took a real gamble, and opened a third larger shop at 143 Whiteladies Road.

The business was by now becoming too big for Joyce to handle alone, so she persuaded her 22-year-old brother John to leave his job and go into partnership with her. It was a happy partnership, lasting until 1947, when the formation of a limited company led to Joyce’s appointment as chairman and John’s as managing director.

Male bakers were engaged — two of them, Ernest Cook and Bert Walters, are now bakery managers with the firm — and another noted addition to the staff came from Marlborough in the person of Miss Brenda Chatterton.

March, 1937, saw another shop at 1 Stoke Lane, Westbury-on-Trym, and early in 1939 the fifth shop and cafe was opened at 20/22 Gloucester Road.

With Joyce Ley herself married, and a new chief bakery manager, Mr. Charles Booy, successfully seeing out the war years, Caroline’s rested on its well earned laurels until 1960, when they vacated 66 Whiteladies Road, and crossed over to their current new shop, bakery and office block on the other side of the street.

Earlier, an ideal modern bakery was built at the rear of 5 Princess Victoria Street, and soon afterwards a new shop and bakery opened at The Triangle, Clifton. There were also more shops acquired at 35 Queen’s Road, and Alliance House, Baldwin Street.

Last year, further shops were added at 159 East Street, Bedminster, and at 717 Fishponds Road. So from the little kitchen in Clifton sprang an empire, employing 150 people and earning the respect and affection of customers all over the city of Bristol.

All in all, the Ley family have made their mark in Bristol, with eight of them at one time or another associated with Caroline’s, and John Ley and his wife ‘discovering’ and opening up The Glen for picnics and dancing, and then founding, in 1950, the Ashton Court Country Club.

A family indeed at home in a city famous for the pioneering spirit and business enterprise of its early merchant venturers.

This is a photo for this weeks photo assignment, themed K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid).

For one reason or another my photography has been a lttle slack recently, but I have certainly not lost any of the desire.

This is something I've seen in a magazine and wanted to try myself. I attempted it this evening under tungsten light without a flash and to be honest the colours weren't very nice. So I have adjusted it in Lightroom a little bit to give it an overexposed washed out kind of look.

This is something I'll try again in the future when I have the equipment (and/or knowhow) to avoid all of the reflections in the glasses and I'll also reduce the aperture size a little to get more crisp detail across all of the glasses. :)

WIT:
The glasses were taped to a box which was then raised on the right hand side by another box. I filled all of the glasses up so that the water was at an even level then twisted the camera on the tripod so that the top of the glasses lined up with the top of the viewfinder. This created the slanted effect. I then added a few drops of food dye and quickly took a few shots.

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