The Original Cake Shop decorated for the coronation of Edward VII, 1902.

 

The Original Cakeshop, as depicted in the Registered Trade Mark, was built circa 1550 but evidence of an earlier bakehouse goes back to the C13th. The name of Brown, more specifically E. W. Brown, has been directly associated with the Original Banbury Cake since 1868. Indirectly through family connection, the association goes back to 1818, when Samuel Beesley, a quaker, purchased the business in Parson's Street, Banbury, from the successors of Betty and Jarvis White famous local bakers of their time.
After the death of Samuel Beesley in 1843, the business was let to the Lamb family, quakers from Sibford nearby Banbury, who ran it until 1868 when Wilks Brown, a quaker and wollen draper from Warrington, purchased the business for his wife Elizabeth (nee West), and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Charlotte.
Elizabeth and Charlotte Brown, nieces of Samuel and Deborah Beesley continued to run the business and were subsequently joined by their nephew,Wilfrid E.A. Brown in 1929. His son Philip joined the firm in 1968 and helped run it until his father retired in 1983. Philip continues to bake the handmade Banbury Cake in the time honoured tradition.

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Banbury Cakes