The Bakers Shop Sheffield: Popular family-run bakery in Walkley closing after 30 years

A popular Sheffield bakery is closing after 30 years as the owner prepares for her well-earned retirement.

June Hall opened The Bakers Shop at the old Yorkshire Bank building on Howard Road, Walkley, in the 1990s, and has run it with her sons Darren and Derek Falleh.

Three decades later, Saturday, November 25 will be the shop's final day of trading as the trio bid an emotional farewell to the community they have served for all these years.

June was unable to find someone to take over the bakery so instead sold the building, which she believes will probably be turned into offices or accommodation.

Speaking to The Star, she said: "It's a successful little business but we couldn't sell it as a going concern because no one was interested. It's too much like hard work.

"Our customers were very sad to hear we're closing as it's the only place in Walkley where they can get fresh bread, with everything made by hand from scratch.

"I'd like to thank them for their custom over the years. They've been very supportive."

June, who is 78, told how Darren and Derek, both in their 50s, had worked through the night for years preparing the bread and other baked goods.

She said they were going to take a 'well-earned rest and have a bit of a life before they're too old to enjoy it'.

June, who specialises in baking cakes, while her sons are responsible for the bread, is not retiring completely. She will be helping out for a couple of days a week at her other son David's bakery, also called The Bakers Shop, in Balby, Doncaster.

June told The Star how the Walkley bakery has always been a very traditional one with vanilla slices among the most popular of the classic sweet treats sold there.

Before opening the bakery, June was a co-founder and one of the chefs at Rafters Restaurant in Nethergreen, which opened in 1989 and has gone on to become one of Sheffield's most acclaimed restaurants, bestowed with three AA Rosettes.

She had petitioned to save the Yorkshire Bank branch before buying the building and opening the bakery there.

To fill the gap left by The Bakers Shop, the nearby Chinese takeaway Wok This Way, also on Howard Road, has announced it is launching a new breakfast bread cakes menu, with classic fillings like bacon, sausage and egg, available from Monday to Friday, between 8.30am and 11.30am each day.