Five years ago, a loaf of sourdough in Port Avery meant a trip to the market on a Saturday. Today it sits on the counter of forty corner shops, next to the milk.

The change was not planned by anyone. It began when the three small bakeries on the east side, each too small to run its own van, agreed to share one. Shopkeepers who had never stocked bread worth more than a pound found that a £4.50 loaf sold out by nine.

“It brings people in,” said Hassan Qureshi, whose shop on Alder Road takes twelve loaves a day. “Nobody comes in for a newspaper any more. They come in for the bread and they buy a newspaper.”

The shared van now leaves the Mill Lane bakery at four. Its driver, Joe Ferris, knows every back door on the route.