Frears & Blacks Wilson BMW Bread Van

Home delivery of bread was once good business but was an early casualty of supermarket growth. Frears & Blacks was an old and highly regarded bakery in Leicester. It was taken over by Spillers around 1973 and became a 'Mother's Pride' bakery.

Frears & Blacks pioneered the use of electric delivery vans from the early 1930s and their 100-strong fleet was largely Wilsons, built in Leicester. The appearance of the bodywork, cab and livery barely changed over the years so LBC 136 is very typical of the fleet.

While earlier milk floats rarely had cab doors, bakery vans often did although the amount of stop-start work was similar. This helped to keep the bread fresh. You can see that Frears & Blacks favoured a door on the driving side but allowed the baker to exit easily on the kerbside.

Preservation

LBC 136's survival is firstly owed to a builder who purchased it from the bakery in 1973 and ran it for a further nine years. We can then thank the Pershore gentleman who kept it in running order before passing it to us in September 1987. Renovation, including rewiring without the benefit of a wiring diagram, and its return to original livery was completed in 1989.