A 90-year-old former RAF driver has helped to save lots of his local church, after raising £30,000 through the production and sale of sausage rolls and malt loaf.
Gerry Smith, of Market Weston in west Suffolk, took up baking on the age of 80, following the death of his wife Pamela, who served as a warden on the local St Mary’s Church.
St Mary’s 12 windows were collapsing and being held up with wood boards. In an effort to revive the church, the area people raised £100,000 to repair the windows. Smith accounted for nearly a 3rd of this total through his baking, although other donors included the Alfred Williams Charitable Trust and the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust.
Smith, talking to the East Anglian Daily Times, said, “The church means all the pieces to me. Pamela and her family were all deeply involved within the church. The community has been like a family to me since she passed.”
Smith, worked as a timber trader and a builder after leaving the RAF, although his baking associations return a good distance. His top-secret malt loaf recipe is reportedly 200 years old, and his great aunt once served as a baker for Queen Victoria.
“I am unable to inform you my secret recipes, but what I can inform you is that individuals absolutely love my baking and it brings me loads of joy,” Smith said.
St Mary’s church warden, Richard Chatham, said that Smith had been “wonderful”: “He’s a doer and enjoys the journey of life and he’s a neighborhood man who wants to present back to the community.
“He also understands that the church is on the centre of our community and we’re here as and when people need us.
“It is that this generosity of spirit to support this adventure that has kept this church alive.”
