Bread made from potatoes was the original Great British Bake-Off

Every town had its own bakery and until the Second World War, bread and other baked goods were often delivered in the same way as milk, by roundsmen with their own van – or in some rural areas, a horse and cart.

But it was a commodity that could not always be taken for granted. During the First World War, when wheat was in short supply, peas, arrowroot, beans, rice, oats and even parsnips were used as substitutes. At one point, bakers were ordered to fill out their dough with potatoes.

It was not until 1917 that regulations were introduced on what could legitimately be called bread. The same rules regulated the shape of loaves, restricted the sale of stale bread and forbade the production of “fancy pastries” until the war was over.

Industrialisation took hold in the interwar years, with the first bread slicing machine demonstrated in 1928 at a trade fair in the US. Within five years, eight out of 10 loaves in America were pre-wrapped and sliced, and the expression, “the best thing since sliced bread”, entered the language. In Britain, wrapping was prohibited during the Second World War but caught on quickly when bread came off the ration.

But while that innovation soon found favour, another would take decades to take hold. As early as 1930, food scientists had spoken of the benefits of wholemeal bread, but the British preference remained overwhelmingly for white loaves. Only Hovis bucked the trend, milling high wheatgerm flour and selling it to local bakers along with branded loaf tins that famously left the name embossed on the side.

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