Here are the winners of the UK Bread Heroes Awards - is your local baker on it?

This month saw the winners of the Tiptree World Bread Awards Heroes announced, with bakers and businesses across the UK celebrated for their work during the lockdown and beyond.

Pre-pandemic, the awards celebrated the bread itself, with hundreds of loaves delivered for assessment by a panel of judges. In 2020, a special edition of the awards recognise the people behind the loaves - the bakers, millers and farmers.

'Shining a light on incredible endeavours'

Hundreds of nominations for the Bread Heroes were sent in from across the UK.

"All the nominees in this year’s Awards truly deserve recognition for their generous, considerate and often altruistic initiatives to help others," said Stephen Hallam, chairman of the judges.

Twelve regional winners were selected by the judging panel, with the overall winner announced as Rob Allcock of The Longs Arms, in South Wraxall, Wiltshire.

One of the judges, Emma Freud, the executive producer of Comic Relief, said, "These nominees were so well found - each of them have done remarkable things for their communities, using their talent with bread to make life easier for people who need support. It was a seriously tough choice, but I am confident we got the right winners."

Scott Goodfellow, joint managing director at Tiptree added, "The efforts of the bread community during these challenging times have been truly inspiring. We are delighted that this year’s Awards have been able to shine a light on their incredible endeavours."

An exhibition of portraits by photographer Henry Kenyon of the 12 Bread Heroes will be touring the UK, including a display at the City Food Lecture 2021, the annual lecture on the future of the food industry, organised by the seven food-related City of London livery companies.

The full list of winners

Read all their Bread Hero stories in more detail here.

South West (and Overall Winner): Rob Allcock, The Longs Arms, South Wraxall, Wiltshire

North East: Andrew and Sybille Wilkinson, Gilchester Organics, Stamfordham, Northumberland

North West: Daniel Nemeth, Seasons Bakery, Ingleton, North Yorkshire

Yorkshire and Humber: Fosters Bakery, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

East Midlands: Green's Windmill Trust, Nottingham

West Midlands: Curtis Stewart, Trentham Bakehouse, Trentham, Staffordshire

East of England: Steven Winter, Bread Source, Norwich

South East: Ruth Macintyre, Ruth’s Little Kitchen, Brockham, Surrey

London: Liz Wilson, Ma Baker, Fulham

Scotland: Mungoswells Malt & Milling, North Berwick, East Lothian

Northern Ireland: Cathy Stevenson, The Daily Apron, Lisburn

Wales: Osian Jones, CRWST, Cardigan

A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, The Scotsman.