By Jim Hevey
This is a brief tale of a family of Broadway brothers and their various family members who became bakers, pastry-cooks and bread carters around Victoria, primarily between 1900 and 1950.
It mainly concerns the exploits of Leonard Edgar Broadway, my grandfather who was born at Lockwood in 1881 and passed away in 1947, so I only knew him when I was a young boy. In the early 1940s his bakery operated under the name of Wembley Bakery from premises at 50 Hamilton Street Footscray (now Seddon).
Prior to World War One a number of family members moved to Yarraville from where Len and a number of his brothers began to spread out as bakers including; brothers George Allan Broadway to Gormandale then Footscray and Essendon, Ern to Lindenow, Len to Narre Warren, Ascot Vale, Spotswood then Yarraville and Footscray (Seddon). The brothers and other family members then spread out between all of the bakeries as they assisted each other from time to time.
An article in The Australasian Baker magazine May 31 1925 under the heading ‘Bakers All- and of one Family’ included an image of the Broadway family members at a birthday function at the Cuming Smith Institute in Yarraville.
In 1928 my grandfather Len moved from Narre Warren to Ascot Vale, then to Spotswood and in 1935 purchased the pre-existing business at 314 Williamstown Road Yarraville known as Wembley Bakery. This business was obviously established to service the nearby William Angliss Wembley Estate being developed.
Around 1940 he moved into the building at 50 Hamilton Street previously occupied by his older brother George. The site consisted of a dwelling facing Hamilton Street, and behind this, with access from Webster Street, was the double storey brick building which was the actual bakery and the area housing the carts and horses.
The buildings had been there since 1916, and according to the Sands and McDougall directories of the era, the postal districts changed from time to time between Footscray, Yarraville and Seddon, as have the house numbers.
In 1916 George Allan Broadway, his eldest brother, had applied to Footscray Council to occupy the building at 69 Hamilton Street as a bakery, this later being renumbered and known as 50 Hamilton Street.
During the 1940s my father married my mother Beryl Broadway and he joined the business as a bread carter. My mother retired as a junior school teacher, and during World War 2 carried out some bread delivery work and then became the book keeper.
The Williamstown Road and Hamilton Street Bakeries continued in business until a short time after my grandfather passed away in 1947.
It is hard to imagine now the possibility of operating a large bakery, and housing three horses in a yard in Seddon.
