A family bakers in Epping Forest was celebrating a significant milestone ten years ago this week.

A traditional bakery is marking 50 years of selling bread and cakes using the same recipes as when it was founded.

Spray’s Bakery, which has three shops in Loughton, one in Buckhurst Hill and one in Chigwell, was founded in 1962 by Peter Spray and is now run by his sons, Michael and Peter.

“I used to go around on the delivery van when I was four or five,” said Michael Spray, 49. “I still work in the bakery myself and everything is produced in Lambourne End, Chigwell.

“Everything is still traditionally hand-made.”

He said the business had been steered towards providing sandwiches and coffee for workers on their lunch breaks in recent years, which had helped keep it going, but added that he doubted it would still be alive in another 50 years.

“Supermarkets get cheaper all the time and every year, we notice a drop because of the supermarkets,” he added. “But we give the quality and I won’t substitute the ingredients in our products for cheaper ones.”