170th Anniversary | Grasmere Gingerbread (2024)

She sells it to passers-by from a tree stump outside her Church Cottage home in Grasmere. Ginger is plentiful as it is imported into Whitehaven harbour via the international spice trade. Sarah protects her unique recipe with a special trademark which is still the distinctive logo of Grasmere Gingerbread®.

Wealthy tourists travel to the Lake District by steam train and arrive in Grasmere by four-in-hand coaches to buy Sarah Nelson’s mouth-watering culinary delicacy. Grasmere Gingerbread® is now synonymous with the village from which it takes its name.

Sarah Nelson’s 18-year-old daughter Dinah dies from tuberculosis, followed by her sister Mary Ann a year later from the same disease. Sarah channels her grief into work and teaches local children the alphabet using Grasmere Gingerbread® letters.

After Sarah is widowed, her sister Ann moves into Church Cottage to help make and bake Grasmere Gingerbread® but when she passes away four years later Sarah is once again on her own.

A legend in her own lifetime and a role model for working class women seeking to improve their lives, she is buried in St Oswald’s Churchyard, Grasmere.

Fortunately, Grasmere Gingerbread® lives on as Sarah’s nieces - the German sisters - inherit the business. Already established bakers and confectioners in their own right, they increase production of Grasmere Gingerbread® to meet growing demand.

Local villager Daisy Hotson buys the business from the German sisters, securing its future.

As German U-boats sink large numbers of British merchant ships, Grasmere Gingerbread® is kept on the shelves by substituting butter with margarine while grated carrot mimics the sweetness of sugar.

Daisy Hotson enters into a partnership with Jack and Mary Wilson to run The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.

As Britain is told it has ‘never had it so good’, Grasmere Gingerbread® begins a mail order service. Soon, it is delivering freshly baked packets of its spicy-sweet cross between a biscuit a cake to customers across the UK. It has since been sent to over 80 countries.

Throughout the 1950s Grasmere Gingerbread® appears in numerous local and regional newspapers and magazines, further helping to spread the word about Sarah Nelson’s incredible culinary invention.

Hey Jude by The Beatles is Number One as Margaret and Gerald Wilson take over The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop with three young children in tow.

Grasmere Gingerbread® is air dropped to British troops onto the Falklands Islands.

For the first time in its history The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop opens its doors to customers throughout the year. Its historic trading season has been Easter to October.

Throughout the 1980s, Grasmere Gingerbread® and The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop star in a host of national television travel shows.

For the first time Grasmere Gingerbread® is presented in a commemorative tin which wins a special design award.

By the middle of the decade The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop is renowned for its long line of eager customers from the UK and the rest of the world.

As more and more TV programmes from overseas are broadcast from The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, Sarah Nelson’s spicy-sweet culinary sensation goes global.

Throughout the noughties Grasmere Gingerbread® features on a range of national food and lifestyle TV programmes.

Grasmere Gingerbread® creates a distinctive Sarah Nelson brand and the range now includes fudges, chocolates, conserves, body products and gifts.

A range of romantic Grasmere Gingerbread® wedding favours is launched which instantly prove popular with marrying couples across the country. Ginger warms the blood and induces passion...

A new 3D ‘pop-up’ e-commerce website is launched at a Victorian themed fair inside the nearby Wordsworth Hotel to celebrate the 160th anniversary of Grasmere Gingerbread®. An anniversary tin proves popular with customers.

The storm destroys the main A591 road from Keswick to Grasmere. It takes six months to rebuild. Eden Rose Hunter, daughter of Joanne and Andrew Hunter records a special video recording of Somewhere Only We Know to raise funds for the Cumbria Flood Recovery Appeal.

Princes Charles visits The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop to boost morale in the wake of Storm Desmond.

The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop opens its doors to full Sunday trading.

A marketing and administration suite opens in Church Stile to accommodate new members of staff. Grasmere Gingerbread® now employs 30 people - up from just 3 in the year 2000.

A second shop selling freshly baked Grasmere Gingerbread®, takeaway artisan takeaway coffee, Sarah Nelson branded goods and Grasmere Gingerbread® Ice Cream opens on the corner of Main Street in Hawkshead.

Grasmere Gingerbread® celebrates its remarkable 170th anniversary with a green and gold commemorative tin and adds new products to its Sarah Nelson branded range.

Grasmere Gingerbread® wins Speciality Food Retailer of the Year in the Prestige North of England Awards bringing the total number of awards won to 25 - see full listings of awards.