New bakery and coffee shop opens in North Wales pub and there's an instant clamour for one product

A 17th century pub in Flintshire is to double up as a bakery offering up homemade cakes, hot drinks and freshly-baked bread. The Cross Keys, Llanfynydd, hopes the new facility will lure walkers and cyclists as well as serving as a community hub.

It’s not the first pub in Britain to have its own bakery but examples are few and far between. Homemade pies have long been a tavern staple but at Llanfynydd’s Smithy Bakery the accent will be firmly on artisan products.

The business, whose name acknowledges the village’s industrial past, is being launched by keen bakers Gareth Kirkham and Clare Bradshaw. The were among the co-founders of the Spicy Socials, a group set up last year to curate outdoor activities from the pub such as walks, hikes and cycling runs.

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“I’ve spent the past couple of months trialling out different breads with the locals,” said Gareth. “By far the most popular was the need for a good sourdough loaf - it’s all I ever get asked about now! So that will be our main bread in different formats - white, wholemeal, multi-seeded etc. I then plan to expand on these with other offerings like baguettes and buns to see what people’s reactions to them are.”

Clare will be in charge of making the cakes and will also being baking brownies, cookies and rocky road slices. “Who doesn’t love cake!” said Gareth, adding that Clare is also currently “experimenting” with croissants and tarts.

The pub bakery will initially open on Saturdays at 9am, starting from January 18. Gareth and Clare hope to soon expand to several days a week. To begin with, they expect local patronage - but as the days lengthen it’s hoped word will spread and visitors will come from further afield. Helpfully, Offa’s Dyke runs right through Llanfynydd. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now

Medieval Llanfynydd boasted its own cornmill and blacksmiths, and in the 19th century the village expanded with the arrival of quarrying and mining. Nearby Ffrith is renowned as a former Roman XX Legion settlement and the area’s wooded valleys and escarpments are popular with walkers. Mystifyingly, the area was recently axed from the initial boundary line of the new National Park planned for northeast Wales.

Until 1952, Llanfynydd had a railway station. Its closure brought slow decline and in 2016 the village school was lost. The following year saw fire break out at the Cross Keys and for a while the prospects looked beaked for Llanfynydd’s only pub.

But following refurbishment, the Cross Keys reopened in December 2023 in honour of former patron Mark Steene. The businessman was a popular character in the village who was left paralysed in 2015 after a cycling accident. He passed away six years later aged just 54.

His inheritance was bequeathed to sister Mandy who, with Mark’s friends, came up with a plan to buy the village pub in his memory. During renovations, old train tracks from next to the pub were incorporated in the bar roof and an oak tree twice struck by lightning was used for window ledges.

The Cross Keys has since come alive again with “great community spirit”. “One of its rooms used to be a blacksmiths and is now called ‘The Smithy’,” said Gareth. “So it was a bit of a no-brainer to call our bakery The Smithy, which links it to the pub and the history of Llanfynydd.

“At a time of rising costs, sharing buildings makes more sense. As the pub is open from 12pm-11pm, it is not being used for 13 hours-a-day: we can get up early in the morning whilst the world is still sleeping and bake our fresh bread and cakes in the pub kitchen. We’ll then then open up at 9am for customers to buy our products or have a tea or coffee in the pub’s great surroundings.”

The bakery’s debut coincides with the arrival of a new landlord. Trevor Dawson’s journey to the Cross Keys has been a long one – the former DJ has managed hotels, wedding venues, popular nightclubs and even music festivals, working in places as diverse as Ibiza, Tenerife and Cyprus.

Having succeeded Patryk Kapelinski, the pub’s landlord since it reopened, he’s now working with head chef Song Sima on menu updates. He’s also committed to new entertainment offerings and to continuing the Cross Keys’ charity work.

Speaking about his new role, Trevor said: “I was looking for a community-infused pub with a promising future and The Cross Keys is exactly that.” Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox

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