Game's Bakery

Bakery History

1936

Game, David, White Hall, Albert Street - Newmarket Directory

1926

Game, D., Melrose House, All Saints Road - Newmarket Street Directory

1924

David Game, baker, All Saints Road - Edinburgh Gazette

1916

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1913

Death of David Game (senior)

1911

David Game, baker & pastry cook, Queen Street - Census

1904

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1901

Game, David, Queen St. - Eastern Counties Directory

1901

David Game, baker & shopkeeper, Queen Street - Census

1896

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1892

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1891

David Game, baker & confectioner, Queen Street - Census

1888

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1883

Game, David, baker &c. Queen Street - Kelly's Directory

1881

David Game, journeyman baker, Queen Street - Census

1877

Marriage of David Game to Annette Grace Willis

  • Game's Bakery

    The son of Joseph Game and Frances Jane (neé Pryke), David Game was born in January 1854 in Boxted, Suffolk.

    In 1871 he was working as a porter, living in Islington in London, but by January 1877 he'd left 'the smoke' and married Annette Grace (neé Willis) from Gazeley, at the Congregational Chapel in Newmarket and at that time was living at No.13 Baker's Row, in Exning Road.

    By 1881 he was living and working in Queen Street as a journeyman baker (a journeyman was someone who plied his trade by travelling around). The couple had six children - Alice (1877), Grace Annie (1880), Frances (1882), Roselie Hannah (1884), David (1887), and Pollie Willis (1889).

    On the 1911 census he was listed as a baker & pastry cook, and from the sequence of the census the location of the bakery was between Erskine Cottages and Hilton Cottages in Queen Street. In later records the house that was the bakery became known as Rose Villa.

    Erskine Cottages is still there in Queen Street, but on the right of these, where Rose Villa should be, is now an empty space - the house has been pulled down.


    Location of Game's Bakery in 2016

    Game's Bakery as it was
    As informed by his only son (another David), David senior died at the bakery on 28th March 1913, due to 'fatty degeneration of the heart'.

  • Melrose House

    David junior, born in Newmarket on 11th March 1887 was also a 'Baker & Pastry Cook' (as shown on the 1911 census). He married Annie Nora Crena (neé Clack) on 12th December 1912 in Cambridge.

    After his father's death young David took over an existing bakery business, just a short distance down Queen Street in Melrose House, on the corner with All Saints road (next to the old Co-op at the time and opposite Saberton's shop).

    The original bakery was left to become a private house - Rose Villa.


    1926 Newmarket Street Directory - All Saint's Road
    In this 1926 listing above the Newmarket Co-operative Society Ltd. had taken over what was previously the Workhouse Yard - details about this can be found on the page for Paradise Row (All Saints Road).


    Location of Melrose House - 2014

    If you have a look at the old maps Melrose House was a building that stood out on its own, next door to the main 'barn' of the Workhouse Yard (which used to be the Boots Dept. of the Co-op). Melrose House first appears in the censuses in 1911, when Domestic Gardener Samuel Langley lived there. His son Albert Langley is listed as a baker on 'Own Account', 'At Home' - so presumably it was he who started the bakery here.

    David Game junior wasn't entirely successful with his new bakery here though; as he went bankrupt in September 1924 and in the Newmarket Directory of 1936 was living in White Hall in Albert Street (now the Moulton Road).


    Edinburgh Gazette, 26th September 1924 p.1204 - David Game, Receiving Orders

  • The legacy of the Game's didn't stop there though; as David and Annie had quite a large family and became one of those well-known characters that many Newmarketonians remember so well. They had 10 children:- Nora A Game (1913), David Maxim Game (1915), Crena R Game (1916), George Victor Game (1917), John Edward Game (1921), Frank Vernon Game (1923), Rosemary Game (1925), Anthony James Game (1927), Charles Edward Game (1928), and June Rose Game (1931) - (there was also an infant child who was never christened, that died before a year old and is not shown here).

    Mrs. Patricia Eaton fondly remembers being evacuated to Newmarket during War II and staying with the Game family in Albert Street.


    Albert Street - Mrs. Game c.1940s
    Many thanks to Peter Norman for the above photo


    White Hall / House in Albert Street - c.1940s
    Many thanks to Peter Norman for the above photo


    Newmarket Cricketers c.1950s
    - the Scorer was Jimmy Williams, some other names are Reg Walton, Jack Payne,
    David Game, Archie Fell, Petrol Young, Taffy Hughes and Fred Webb.
    David (Maxim) Game is standing 3rd from the right.
    - many thanks to 'Old Newmarket' for the above photo
    http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/news/latest-news/can-you-help-put-names-to-town-cricket-club-players-1-4736893

  • Charles Edward (Charlie) Game (b. 29th November 1928) was another of those local characters; as he worked for Anne Hammond at the Stetchworth-based Millfields riding school. He lived on-site at Millfields and my wife remembers him well when visiting there in the 1960s. Charlie died in Huntingdon in January 1999, aged 70yo.

  • David Game (b. 1887) died in December 1972 in Ely.

  • The descendants of the Game family have spread far and wide and during my time running this web site and the associated Facebook Page I've now been contacted on 4 separate occasions by different members of the family asking about the Game's bakery in Queen Street.

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