Mother and daughter duo Emma Parry, 65, and Louisa Pinkham, 37, run Stable and Wick, a community bakery and farm shop in Downton.
The pair started their business from the kitchen table in 2020 when Louisa had to give up her previous business in events to move back home. Like many, Louisa’s sector had been decimated overnight by the pandemic and she had to change her life.
She said: “It hadn’t ever occurred to me that I’d be in my 30s, running my own business and it would be shut down overnight and I’d have no option but to move back to live with my parents Emma and Bryn.
“Yet many of us were in that position.”
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Once at home, Louisa and her mum decided to embrace home baking and sell bread and brownies to people locally.
The pair shared some information in a local social media group and sold out within hours. The orders kept coming in for bread and Emma’s now-famous cinnamon buns until the pair were cooking all hours to fulfil demand.
Louisa said: “We didn’t have a business plan, we simply reacted to the extraordinary situation we were all in and the community supported us. By the early spring we’d run out of space and we had to consider if this business had ‘legs’. For me, it didn’t look like the events sector would be on its feet any time soon.”
The pair talked to local farmer Will Dickson, and he embraced the idea, offering them a derelict disused barn.
Louise Pinkham from Stable and Wick (Image: Fiona Scott)
Louisa said: “On that first day we did worry that no one would actually turn up.
“However soon there was a queue down the lane for people wanting to buy their bread, cheese and milk from us.”
The pair are now raising funds to expand their offering, to buy new seating and equipment for the premises. They will then apply for a grant to help with some of those costs.
They are already welcoming community groups to the space – including a crochet club – and wish to become a social hub for locals.
Louisa said: “When we first began baking back in 2020 and offering our food for sale, we never dreamed that we would be running our own micro bakery and farm shop just four years on.
“We are so grateful to our community for supporting us and also for the Wiltshire Rural Hubs project for helping us move forward.”