When I first came to live in Suffolk one of the first things to see on entering Ipswich from the West, was the Tooks bakery. It was a large rambling site of factory sheds and delivery lorries. One of Mrs O’s uncles was a director there so as we passed by it  I’d often hear ‘That’s where Uncle Bunnie works’. This factory churned out the readily identifiable white pap that goes for bagged white sliced bread. A post-war introduction to feed the masses cheaply.

I long ago gave up eating sliced white or dyed brown bread and I am lucky to be able to do so but that white pappy sugar enriched flab did nothing good for my digestive system. I am OK with sourdough and a slice or two of that is quite substantial. I am minded of the awfulness of pap when I have to stay away on business and it gets dished up after the ‘White or brown toast sir? I can never tell whether is was white or brown to start with as it normally arrives in quite an anaemic state and no longer capable of melting butter.

For some time now the bakery has been long gone. It is now protected by heaps of rubble to prevent ingress but that attracts fly-tipping just as at the British Sugar site across the way at Sproughton. At times during the year a travelling fairground takes over the site but nature seems as always to be doing a good job of reclamation.

Ipswich Borough Council has deemed it too sensitive an issue to discuss their proposals for their development of this site. One of the options I believe is to turn it into a Traveller site.

One thing is for sure and that it the time taken to do something positive with this site is taking longer to prove than a sourdough.

This image was made on a cold wet dawn