Stockwood's in St. John's bakes its last loaf

After more than 60 years, the scent of fresh, warm bread will fill the aisles of Stockwood's Bakery for the very last time Friday.

The bakery is closing its doors for good on March 27.

"We never changed, we probably should have changed, maybe become a little bit higher end," said managerCathyIvimey.

"But we just kept the basic bread, the basic squares, things that the older people like and they still come for."

Ivimeyhas been working there for 46 years, serving customers like Paddy Griffin, who says he's been getting his bread there since 1973.

"I treat it like you treat a baby a day old, I don't want it roughed up or squat up or anything like that," he said.

Griffin was in the store Thursday buying up bread to mail to his daughters in Toronto. He normally sends them treats from Stockwood's every Easter, he said, but with the shop closing up, he wanted to get one last shipment to them.

His oldest daughter in particular is"totally devastated" about the end of the bakery.

Stockwood'sfirst opened in the 1950sby Marilyn Stockwood's father in his house.

'We never sacrificed the sugar'

Throughout its life, it was a snack bar on the corner of Freshwater Road and Oxen Pond Road, and has been adeli, a wholesale shop, and a convenience store.

• Finishing touches: Stockwood's up for sale after decades in the family

Marilyn Stockwood started working in her father'sbakery when she was 10 or 12, said Ivimey, learning to bake cookies and decorate cakes.

"Marilyn, her entire life, has been a cake decorator," Ivimeysaid, adding thatStockwoodhas "very mixed feelings" about the end of the shop.

Despite its varied past, Stockwood'sis best known now as bakery, specializing in breads, squares and perhaps most of all fantastically decorated and fantastically sweet cakes.

"That icing is just an old-fashioned butter cream style that your mother, perhaps, or your grandmother would make," saidIvimey.

"We never sacrificed the sugar... we're not very diet-conscious."

The recipes have been passed on through generations. "Some of them might be from Mrs.Stockwood's grandmother or mother," said Ivimey.

None of the treatsin the store's glass displays weremade with a mix, according to her.

"These are from scratch."

Despite having fans across the province, and even as far away as Toronto, the recipes for those treats will likely stay with Marilyn Stockwood, Ivimeysaid.

"I guess they'll just be archived, really," Ivimeysaidunless, perhaps, someone buys the business to keep it running as a bakery.