Andrew Dunn family gifting the “The Stottie” by Robert Olly to Big River Bakery.
A drawing which was won in a Greggs Bakery competition by a North Shields resident in 1992 was presented to the Big River Bakery at their premises on Wretham Place, Shieldfield on 25 July.
Prolific South Shields artist Robert “Bob” Olly was commissioned by Greggs Bakery to create the pen and ink drawing of a family in a traditional kitchen enjoying, baking and savouring Stottie bread. The image was used by Gregg Bakery for a raffle in the 1990s to promote and celebrate their commercial success having sold millions of stotties.
Maureen Dunn, who sadly died in 2019 and her husband Ken were regular stottie customers at Greggs at the Preston Grange Shopping estate and won the Greggs raffle. Maureen kept the prized drawing in pride of place in her kitchen. The Dunn family inspired by the work of the Big River Bakery have decided to give it to a new kitchen with the team who make ‘the best stotties in Toon’ in memory of their mother.
Maureen’s son, Phil Dunn, said: “As a family of stottie lovers we wish the Big River Bakery every success in supporting people in learning new skills and enjoying the consumption of their delicious bread and stotties.”
Robert “Bob” Olly has given his permission, with the blessing of Greggs, for the Big River Bakery to use the image as they wish to promote their work. Robert also signed 10 copies of ‘The Stottie’ which will be used to support the development of Big River Bakery’s new charity, ‘Power of the Stottie’ which will be established over the summer.
Andy Haddon from the Bakery, said: “The stottie is an iconic aspect of the North East. It came from communities which found a way to survive and thrive under harsh conditions when people did not have much. Since then the stottie has been on quite a journey through its use for significant commercial return for large bakeries and I like to think with our community bakery the stottie has gone full circle back to family and community.
“The next step for Big River Bakery to help more communities across the North East is to create a charity alongside our community bakery and we have been working on this for some time. The stars must have aligned as when Phil Dunn came to the bakery for a chat earlier this year about using ‘The Stottie’ for good, it seemed a great opportunity to bring our charity plans forward.
“I feel both moved and privileged to meet with Phil Dunn and Bob Olly, not only for their generosity but also because of the spirit demonstrated by their actions. ‘The Stottie’ symbolises quite profoundly the spirit of the people of the North East in the past, the present and hopefully in the future.”
The signed drawings were presented by the artist Robert Olly and Maureen’s son, North Shields TV and stage actor Andrew Dunn, at the bakery in Shieldfield on 25 July.