Staff at Norths Bakery in Littleport are to hang up their oven gloves as the shop is set to close due to poor trade on the high street.

The shop is due to close on Christmas Eve, and claims that the closure of Barclays bank and the pharmacy on Main Street, where the bakery is situated, has caused a fall in trade.

The bakery is part of a family-run business - Boswell and Son - which owns six other bakeries around Cambridgeshire.

The Littleport branch employed four members of staff, who will all receive redundancy packages when it closes its doors next month.

One of those workers is Cathy Doswell, who has worked at the village bakery for four years. She said: “It wasn’t the Christmas present we wanted. When we found out, we were all very disappointed because we have tried to make a go of it. Realistically, we thought it might happen, but we didn’t think it would happen until the lease ran out, which would have given us a few more months.”

Residents of Littleport have taken to social media to express their sadness at the bakery’s closure.

Claire Burrows said: “We will miss the bakers. I often pop in there with my youngest after dropping my eldest at school. One of the ladies there always makes a fuss of my son and makes sure he has his own bag for his cake or biscuit. It’s the small things.”

Kerrie Gathercole Leadbetter gave her sympathy to the bakery’s staff, saying: “I feel really bad for these ladies. Like everyone, they have families and jobs are not easy to come across.”