End of an era for resort as cake shop doors shut

Farmhouses in particular groaned under the weight of hams, china tea cups and a genteel assortment of sweet meats and macaroons and proper homemade cakes would be served up for the local vicar and his wife and other well-heeled visiting guests.

But now after more than 85 years providing an array of exquisite buns and delicacies for discerning customers, Sterchi’s legendary cake shop in Filey is set to close on Saturday.

The shop was opened some time around 1924-25, according to Phil Cammish, whose sad job it will be to finally place a Closed sign on the shop’s door this week.

Ninety-two years ago in 1919 a Swiss gentleman, Walter Sterchi, had opened a high class chocolate shop just a door or two away and decided a cake shop would be the ideal complement for it.

Both businesses thrived but eventually Mr Sterchi hung up his apron and the businesses were taken on in the 1950s by Kenneth Dixon and Tim Wilkes.

Phil Cammish’s father Stan joined the business in 1957 and when the duo retired in the early 1970s he continued to run the shops until 1995.

Mr Cammish said: “I came here in 1971 to help my dad and I have been here ever since. I’m afraid that the day none of us wanted to see is on its way.

“Obviously you look at the accounts and takings and the simple fact is that over the last three or four years the cake shop has been struggling compared with the chocolate shop.

“The way people shop and live now has all changed – the pace of life is so different, we are surrounded by supermarkets and it is just so easy to feed your child a slice of pizza. Everything is based around convenience and fast food.

“People don’t eat cakes like they used to and although we are noted for our flapjacks and chocolates crushed with hazel biscuits, the market has now changed.

“I had a lady come in from Somerset recently and how she remembered coming into our shop 40 years ago and all the delicious cakes we sold her, but that era is no longer with us.

“We occasionally get another lady in who orders 20 chocolate cakes and freezes them but the figures tell their own story and it is not like it used to be.

“Filey is changing too – the big shops are eating up the little shops, there are three supermarkets in the town and it’s true you do need the local trade.”

At least he says he has been cheered by the number of letters and phone calls he has received from former customers as far away as London and Retford bemoaning the closure.

One satisfied customer, Janet Berry, of Barfield, Hambleton, said: “It was with great sadness that we learned on Friday that Sterchi’s shop in Filey is to close after 92 years. For those not familiar with this confectioners, this is a wonderful shop selling superb bread, cakes and top quality items.

“It has been the highlight of our holidays in this little resort. When we were children we were bought miniature brown loaves and allowed to choose the most delectable cakes as did our children and grandchildren and in our family alone this has been going on for 60 years.

“We do question whether the large Tesco that has been built here has had an adverse effect on this small independently Swiss-owned shop.

“It is to be closed on May 21. Are there no entrepreneurs out there willing to take it on? Filey will never be the same.”

As well as the personal anguish of closing down a cherished institution Mr Cammish, a 59-year-old father of two, has had the unpleasant task of making five workers redundant including his own son John.

But at least he says he still has the chocolate shop which he is shortly to relocate to Hope Street 50 yards away.

He said: “We take a pride in our chocolates – they are proper hand made chocolates and each one is individually dipped in chocolate by hand. It’s never been a burden coming to work – Monday morning has never been a problem for me.”

Afternoon meal fit for a Duchess

Afternoon tea, also known as “low tea”, is said to have originated with Duchess Anna Maria, the wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford, who in 1841 requested a light repast with tea in the afternoon to stave off her hunger until her evening meal, usually served fashionably late at around 8pm. It soon became a habit and she began to invite friends to join her.

Typically a social event, afternoon tea also offered the chance to impress one’s guests with fine china and fine cakes and society women often dressed in their finest to make the most of the occasion and cement their place in the social hierarchy. A dress code, though somewhat reduced, remains in place for afternoon tea at the Ritz in London.

High tea was a meal eaten at the end of the working day. Typically, it would usually consist of cold meats, eggs or fish, cakes and sandwiches.

The words “low” and “high” refer to the tables from which the appropriate tea meal was eaten.