Soap star Bill Ward and Hairy Biker Si King feature in the free trail for National Stottie Week
Big River Bakery in Shieldfield (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Well-known names are signed up in support of a new Tyneside trail being launched to celebrate National Stottie Week. The week, dedicated to the much-loved flat Geordie loaf, was established by Big River Bakery in n Shieldfield in 2024 and its third outing – from this August 10-16 – will be bringing a host of free events and activities including The Great Digital Stottie Trail.
As previously reported, this free trial – a first of its kind – is a celebration of the region’s baking and culinary history and it is being voiced by two famous supporters of the work of the community bakery: a social enterprise which involves local people in bread-making and helps others in need. Actor Bill Ward – known for roles in the likes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale who in 2024 also appeared on the Newcastle stage – is also an award-winning photographer who previously has taken photographs for the bakery to help raise awareness of its work.
Now the North East-born star of stage and screen has loaned his voice to the trail – along with another local favourite, chef Si King of The Hairy Bikers who is also a supporter of Big River, having praised its ethos as well as the quality of its “proper bread” including the stottie, a bread which has been baked and bought in the region for generations.
The famous pair recorded voiceovers for the new trail, help to bring its heritage stories and characters to life. Bill said: “I’m delighted to be a part of the Big River Bakery Stottie Trail.
“As a North East lad myself, I know the legendary status the stottie plays in all of our lives – big, round and full of good stuff. Long live the stottie!”
Actor Bill Ward, pctured with Gail Lawler and Matthew Compton from the bakery in 2021(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
The app-based family-friendly adventure trail features characters Scotty and Dotty the Stotties, who have accidentally lost 20 mischievous mini stotties around Newcastle and Gateshead. It invites people on a quest to track them down and save Stottie Week and as they do so it offers a chance to explore some well-known cultural, historic and community venues – such as Baltic, which was formerly a flour mill, and CWS in Dunston – the Co-operative Wholesale Society – which was made up of both a flour mill and soapworks.
There’s an additional stop too, in Sunderland – at Si King’s PROPA outlet at Sheepfolds. Digital photo opportunities with Scotty and Dotty will be available to download at selected locations too.
Award-winning Gateshead studio MAADIGITAL created the trail, after input from local schoolchildren. More than 1,000 youngsters entered a design competition to help create the look of the mini stotties and 12 winners have been digitised by the professionals and now appear – alongside their young creators’ names and school details – as the lost stotties hidden along the trail.
The new digital trail invites families on a local food-inspired adventure to find lost mini stotties
The trail is being accompanied by a week of free events to make up a far bigger National Stottie Week compared to previous years when it was run, it says, ‘on a shoestring budget’. Gail Lawler, of Big River Bakery, said: “When we started National Stottie Week in 2024, we didn’t have a big budget or a large events team but we did have a huge amount of belief in the North East and in the importance of celebrating the things that belong to our region.
“The stottie might look like a simple round loaf but it carries so many memories. It reminds people of childhood, family kitchens, home baking and bait boxes. It harks back to the hard-working days of the pits, shipyards and factories.
“It is part of our shared history. It is also about looking forward and celebrating everything that is great about the North East.”
The trail has been made possible thanks to sponsorship this year from the Airbnb Best of British Fund. The bakery has also teamed up with lots of local venues to arrange a packed programme of events for the week.
Hairy Biker Si King with Big River Bakery founder Andy Haddon in 2021(Image: handout from Big River Bakery)
Go North East, for instance, is providing a special Stottie Express Bus to take children to a picnic and activity session at Baltic on August 14. After a Stottie Week launch event at Mason & Rye in Fenwick on August 10, upcoming activities will include a stottie-making workshop broadcast live on August 12 from the bakery, which also will be hosting a ‘stottie-hoying’ on August 14.
A Scotty the Stottie character will be making surprise appearances around Newcastle throughout the week. And in news guaranteed to please grown-ups, Stottie Beer, which was launched in collaboration with Firebrick Brewery for last year’s Stottie Week, will be making a comeback too.
For all National Stottie Week plans see the bakery’s website here. The Great Digital Stottie Trail can be accessed through a free smartphone app called Letsargo which can be downloaded by a QR code – keep an eye out here – which also will feature on posters at participating venues.
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