A SEARCH has been launched to find former employees of a historic Droitwich tea room and bakery which is due to re-open at the start of December.
The refurbished Bullock’s will be back in the town for the first time in almost three decades.
And it is hoped some of the staff members who used to work there will be able to come along on the day of the re-opening.
The Abbeys purchased the premises from Alf Bullock and ran the bakery and tea room from 1970 to 1989.
George Abbey, Mrs Abbey’s son, was the chief baker. They had the premises renovated and it was officially opened by Earl and Lady Spencer (Lady Diana’s father and stepmother) on November 11, 1985.
The premises were empty after Mrs Abbey retired until Wychavon District Council bought it, revamped it and opened it in 1998 as the Wychavon Shop.
When that relocated to Droitwich Library, the building became vacant again until its current owners – Steve Weaver and Andy Probyn – bought it in 2013.
Jacqui Dowdeswell took Andy along to the auction, where he purchased Bullock’s and, in the first week of December, it will be re-opened by former owner Betty Abbey almost 30 years to the day that it was officially opened by the Spencers.
It will be a tea room during the day and a bistro on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
Steve said: “Andy and I are both local and we have grown up with Bullock’s so we wanted to reopen it with its original name.
“Everyone in the town knows it as Bullock’s and it will be great to see it back in Droitwich, where it belongs.”
Many of the photographs of the old Bullock’s will be displayed inside the premises, accompanied by information about the building.
Those details and pictures have been provided by the Historic Droitwich Project.
Among the names of former employees which have been collected so far, from newspaper articles, are Mavis Collins, Karen Lambert, Dorothy Garfield and Sharon O’Toole.
They, along with any other ex-staff members from Bullock’s tea room and bakery, are urged to get in touch with Claire Lloyd from the Historic Droitwich Project on 01905 771865.
