At the end of September, we announced that Thomas of Helmsley had reopened following our extensive renovations. And last weekend, we celebrated that opening in style with a Grand Opening event at the store! At 9.30am, we were ready and raring to go to welcome the public to visit the newly renovated Thomas of Helmsley – to see the new entrance, the amazing new signage, the wonderful cheese counter, the delighful deli, the brand new bakery area and, of course, the ever iconic Helmsley butcher’s counter. And did we ever open in style: we were very lucky to be visited by the astounding David Hinde, a Yorkshire town crier, well-known for his appearance in the Dad’s Army movie as well as renowned locally for having the loudest voice. His bell and booming voice called in the crowds throughout the day and we hugely appreciated his work – he definitely made for some good photos for the tourists too! We also…

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It’s the news you’ve all been waiting for: Thomas of Helmsley, our Helmsley based butchers and delicatessen, has reopened following a short period of closure while we entirely refurbished the store. We acquired this historic property in Helmsley a few years ago, and the time had come for it to get an update. The store had for many years been known to the town as Nicholson’s – a family run butchers – and we didn’t want it to ever lose that history or image, so the refurbishment had to remain complimentary to the roots of this iconic piece of Helmsley’s history. We’ve been teasing you with updates on the final finishing touches going into the store over on our Twitter, but we wanted to explain a little bit more about what’s gone into it as well as announcing the official Grand Opening of Thomas of Helmsley on Saturday 30th September. There was some work back in 2016 on the outbuildings of…

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For this week, and this week only, we’ll be offering these fantastic Yorkshire Day cupcakes, decorated with the infamous emblem of Yorkshire: the White Rose of Yorkshire. As a Yorkshire born and “bread” company (pardon the pun!), we’re proud of our heritage, so we’re sending out these yummy cupcakes to all our stores on Tuesday 1st August to celebrate Yorkshire Day – and here are 3 reasons why we think you should head to your nearest Thomas the Baker store to pick one (or more!) up to try them: 1. To support our chosen charity for the year: Alzheimer’s Society Each year we choose a charity that’s close to our hearts to support. It was announced in the press in June that we’d raised over £10,000 during the past year for the British Heart Foundation. For 2017/18, we’ve chosen the Alzheimer’s Society. The goal is to for our fundraising activities to help to fund research into Alzheimer’s and dementia, to support those living with…

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Every year here at Thomas the Baker we choose a different charity to support. In the past, these charities have included Marie Curie, Macmillan, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and more – you can find out more about each of these here. We work with charities in a vast range of ways, from fundraising events such as sponsored walks, food donations to local events and we’re more than happy to consider individual sponsorship requests too. For 2017/18, our chosen charity is Alzheimer’s Society, the UK’s leading dementia charity. During this time, our 34 stores across Yorkshire and the North East will be collecting donations and members of staff across the whole business will be participating in events such as a local Memory Walk – you can find one close to you here if you’re interested in taking part too. Alzheimer’s Society have also launched a initiative to get everyone involved in fundraising in an easy and positively fun way – Cupcake Day! This…

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It seems like Christmas is just around the corner, especially since everyone seemed to have their decorations up by the 1st December and had their gifts bought months in advance. But don’t worry if you’re not quite there with all the presents and food planning yet (we’re not!), as you’re not too late for Christmas with Thomas the Baker just yet! Are you planning a last minute Christmas party for your friends and family but don’t want the hassle of catering it all by yourself? We can help! Our fantastic range of Party Platters will see you through every Christmas and New Year celebration, plus we’ve got a handy discount code which will get you 5% off ALL of our platters! We kept this a secret in our newsletter for a few weeks, but if you’ve missed out on that, tap in the code XmasPlatter5 during the checkout process for 5% OFF your total order. The discount is available to…

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We’ve been very busy recently (aren’t we always?!), but we’ve got some big news to announce for you: we’re launching our brand new shiny website for Thomas the Baker today! Our old website was starting to look a little bit tired and we didn’t feel it was putting across the strong values that we pride ourselves on: family owned and run in the heart of North Yorkshire, using traditional techniques and local ingredients wherever possible, and, most importantly, providing our customers with high quality and award winning products at excellent value, in fact, at a price that might just surprise you! We’ve worked closely with Ripon based digital agency Bronco to create a website that is personal to us and our needs, and we’re proud to show off that finished product today. The brand new website we feel really shows off everything that’s good about Thomas the Baker: presenting the team that we’re proud to call our own, who are…

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Last year saw the Tour De France passing through Yorkshire and cycling fever ran riot. We’re nothing if not proud of our home county of North Yorkshire, so we’re very excited that the cycle race is returning again this year as the Tour de Yorkshire, even more so that a number of our shops and even our bakery will see the Tour passing by their front doors. Check out the route that the cyclists will be taking on the Biking Yorkshire site created by Blue Chip Holidays, and make sure you click onto Stage 3 and Helmsley to spot us making a little feature in the fact box! If anyone can name all the towns and villages that the tour will head through that are home to one of our Thomas the Baker stores, we’ll be very impressed! Have a look at our store list here for a few hints. In celebration of the event, we’ve put our best icers…

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Here at Thomas the Baker, we’re always looking for new and enthusiastic people to join our team in Yorkshire. We’re a fun and friendly bunch who just happen to love baking and cakes more than the average person, and we love finding more people like us. You might have stumbled upon this post, or maybe you saw the article all about our Saturday staff in the York Press? Nathan Church works in our King’s Square branch in York and stated that working for Thomas the Baker makes him “feel part of the family”, and that’s exactly how we want each and every one of our team to feel, whether they work Saturdays or seasonal work in a store, or part time or full time in the bakery. Here’s a quick rundown of roles we’re looking to fill at the moment – if you’re interested in any one of these, make sure to request an application form here. We will email…

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  Phew, we just keep getting busier and busier over here at Thomas the Baker! Well, it’s to be expected in the run up to Halloween and Christmas – did you know that by the time you’re just starting to think about Christmas around now, we’ve already got your Christmas puddings and cakes in production? Anyway, spot that lovely lady in above? That’s my sister Beth, according to the press release that’s gone out to the news this week, the “smart cookie” who is the brains behind the business (no one told me!). She’s been hard at work in the Confectionary department of the bakery recently helping to develop a few new products especially for her favourite time of year, Halloween, including these four handcrafted designs on shortbread biscuits that we’re calling “Spcookies”! The four ghoulish designs are a mummified monster, spooky skull, petrifying pumpkin and a Munster. But they’re not all we’re throwing into the ring for Halloween…after we…

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We’ve been so busy over at Thomas the Baker, creating new products while still keeping the old favourites just as good as ever, that we haven’t had much time to keep up with this blog! Nevertheless, we’ve got a new product hot on the shelves at the moment that we just had to share you with you while it’s still brand new: the Helmsley Plum Loaf. I was lucky enough to be able to sample this while it was still in production a couple of months ago and was definitely taken aback by it. While in the past I’ve never been a big fan of sweet loaves, apparently I am now, particularly with this plum bread! I’ve found it’s perfect to have as a snack any of time of the day, but my favourite ways to have it are as a tasty breakfast instead of a piece of buttered toast, or after a meal when you’re wanting something sweet but…

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