Remembering Mackmans bakery
COOKING UP A STORM: John Mackman by three large industrial mixing bowls
The Way it Was
In partnership with Hull History Centre
By Neil Chadwick, archivist/librarian
The success of The Great British Bake Off has led to it rarely being out of the news.
Serving up a variety of baked and confectionary treats each week, the show has become one of the country’s most popular TV programmes. Paul Hollywood is the UK’s most well-known celebrity baker.
Hull had its own famous baker and confectioner, John James Nathaniel Mackman. Known as ‘the wizard baker’, the chain that bore his name ‘Mackmans’ would become one of Hull’s best-known and best loved names in the food business.
Early life
John Mackman was born 1875 in Thorsby, Lincolnshire.
His father, Joseph, was a police officer, who served in the Lincolnshire Constabulary at Barton upon Humber. His mother was Annie Nixon, daughter of a Lincolnshire farmer.
Around 1887, the family relocated to Hull. By this point, John’s father had resigned from the police force on conscientious grounds. After resigning from the police, Joseph went into business as a miller.
Perhaps this is where his son got his knowledge of baking from.
Career beginnings
John started working aged 14 as a tin greaser, which earned him 15 shillings a week.
Incidentally, his brother, George, was also a baker and confectioner who would go on to be a bakery manager for the Hull Co-operative Society.
At age 20, John was bakery manager for a firm in southern England. He returned to Hull and, by 1896, started working for William Jackson & Son.
EXPANSION: The announcement by Geo Reed about Mackmans taking over the bakery on Southcoates Avenue
He married Marian Wilson on May 1, 1905. In 1906, they welcomed their first child, Nora. Nora was followed by Jac in 1908 and Ethel in 1910.
By 1911, the family lived at 16 Bank Street, an eight-roomed property, spacious for the time.
Aged 36, John was William Jackson & Son’s confectionery manager. By 1921, he had risen to the company’s director.
The family now lived at 142 Boulevard, very much the ideal location for a man of John’s standing at this time.
Seven years earlier, in 1914, the family welcomed Eric Wilson Mackman into the world. It was Eric who would succeed his father and continue the Mackman name after the Second World War and beyond.
John continued to work for William Jackson & Son until 1933. A year later, in 1934, he went into business with George Reed.
George had already established his business as a baker and confectioner in 1894. It was George Reed’s premises on Southcoates Avenue that Mackmans inherited.
A year later, in 1935, George retired, and in early 1936, John formed the business into a limited company bearing his own name of J.J.N. Mackman Ltd, better known as Mackmans.
Prolific award-winner
John developed a reputation as a skilled baker.
During his career, he won over 12,000 awards for his bread and confectionary. He was presented with a gold medal by King Leopold of Belgium when he became the first non-Belgium to win the championship at the Brussels Confectionary Exhibition for three successive years.
He received letters from all over England asking for his advice on the production of bread, and even received requests from as far as Canada and the United States.
CELEBRATED: A diploma awarded to John Mackman
John toured the United States, which lasted over a year, where he visited all the principal bakeries in the country. He also did some broadcasting from here.
During the Second World War, his advice was continually sought by the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton, on the baking of bread. In recognition for his services, he received a sign photograph of Lord Woolton and personal letter of appreciation.
Closer to home, he was president of the Yorkshire Federation of Master Bakers, as well as president of the Hull Master Bakers’ Association.
John died on March 26, 1948, aged 74. He had been unwell for some months and retired to his home on Newland Park.
Rise, decline and closure
The business passed into the hands of Eric, who had entered the family business in 1934.
As well as leading Mackmans, Eric was a Hull magistrate and on the Hull Jail’s Board of Visitors, from which he retired in December 1984.
The business continued to grow under Eric’s leadership. At the time of his father’s death, Mackmans had 14 grocery and confectionery stores and at its height under Eric there were 40 shops in total, including nine mobile shops.
In the late 1970s, the business began to decline. And, despite efforts to improve Mackmans’ trading, the company eventually went into liquidation on April 3, 1981.
Hull has been blessed with many great bakeries, including Skeltons and Fletchers. Although long gone, many still remember Mackmans with great fondness, whether it was for breadcakes, its sandwiches or its sweet treats, Mackmans was loved by many across the city and surrounding vicinity.
Here are just a few of the things sold by Mackmans that people fondly remember:
Treacle arrow bars
Russian slices
Blackcurrant flans or slices
Vanilla slices
Wholemeal cob
Sausage rolls
Meat pies.