A bakery which opened nearly 70 years ago has closed one of its shops.

The original Brassingtons bakery and shop on Brown Street, Macclesfield, was set up by Arthur Brassington in 1950 and is famous for its lemon buns.

Two more shops were then opened on Sunderland Street and Wellington Road in Bollington.

But the current owners, baker Karl Collins and his wife Debbie, who bought the firm from Granville Sellars in March 2016, have closed the Sunderland Street shop, stating it was not viable to keep it going.

Debbie, 55, a mum of three, said the shop had to close to save the Brassingtons brand.

She said: “We tried our best with Sunderland Street, throwing money into it, taking on a new member of staff and keeping it well stocked but nothing worked and it just went down and down.

“There are people who are loyal to Brassingtons but on Sunderland Street it needs to attract people walking past. I’ve spoken to other shops which are struggling with footfall.

“I wanted to keep Sunderland Street open. We work 86 hours a week, get up at 3am, but people need to support their local baker. We will look at our options. It may be possible to take on new staff and give it one last go, but right now the shop is closed for good. If we hadn’t shut Sunderland Street, within three to six months the other shops would have to go and there would be no more Brassingtons.”

There were three members of staff at the Sunderland Street branch.

One has now left and the others work at Brown Street, where there are five shop staff, three bakers including Karl and son Alex, and three drivers including the couple’s other son Nicholas.

The firm also supplies cafes and shops as a wholesaler.

Debbie and Karl, who live in Rainow, took the Brassingtons firm over from Granville Sellars, who ran it for around 30 years. Karl is now the sole director. They say the focus is now on the remaining two shops.

Debbie added: “Brown Street is busier now and we’ve got new menus and choice at Bollington, but the Bollington shop is not doing as well as it could.

“Brassingtons has some die hard fans but needs to attract new people and bring people back to the business. Some people are nervous of new people coming in to run the business but we really want to make a go of it.

“We’d love to hear people’s ideas.”