Cartwright & Butler - Strong family ties

Yorkshire based Cartwright & Butler supply The Hamper Lounge with yummy biscuits, honey, chutney and jam. This is a story of family and their love of baking that spans over five generations. Strangely enough the business didn't start with the Cartwright & Butler name.  The start of Cartwright & Butler begins with the Adam sisters, Jennie and Kathrine who lived in Hull, in Yorkshire. The third sister Maria was already married to Charles Arnett - more about the Arnetts later! Following the death of their father in 1903 they were left without an income. This led to the sisters setting up a sewing and baking shop in the front room of their house. The success of their baking led to them ditching the sewing and moving to larger premises and employing their sister Maria.  J&K Adam soon built up a reputation of producing some of the finest breads, pies, cakes, biscuits, puddings and preserves in Hull.  The Arnetts (remember them? We said they would be back) who had their own small chain of bakery shops  and joined forces with J&K Adam and purchased the business.  By the way, three brothers, who run the business today are the direct descendants of the Arnetts. During the 1930's, two cousins Gordon Arnett (the grandfather of today’s owners) and Kathleen Arnett took over a shop and café in the village of Cottingham, Yorkshire. Despite tough times during the war years, Gordon Arnett took over a bakery in Hull and due to food rationing with ingredients in short supply the shop would sell out everything they made within the first few hours of opening. In 1946 The Arnetts purchased another business - The Cake Shop in North Bar Within Beverley and the business flourished.  Gordon Arnett's two sons took over the business in the mid 1960's and the family were buiding a good reputation for being skilled bakers. Their cakes and biscuits were being sold nationwide in stores such as The Army & Navy Stores, The Civil Service Stores and the legendary Barkers of Kensington. A lot of this success was down to the hampers that they were included in. Here was an opportunity to showcase their skill in making not just luxury cakes and biscuits but also classic puddings and mince pies. This led to the launch of Beaverlac Home Bakery in the  1980's. Tthe 1990’s saw the family expand into Yorkshire Farm Bakery where a range of boxed cakes using unique packaging were produced. This range was added to in the early 2000’s by a fantastic range of gluten free breads and cakes. With a new generation of Arnetts now running the business, it was time for the next evolution of the business. The brothers then decided to go back "to their roots" and bring back joy to the British teatime table. They would go back to what Jennie and Kathrine did – bake great tasting biscuit and cakes and preserves. This led to the family purchasing a small company making jams and preserves called  Cartwright and Butler. They decided to keep this name and still continue to make the finest biscuits, cakes and jams for miles around. They also fill our lovely gourmet hampers and gift boxes!