YOU RE having a loaf! When pensioner Joan Bristow tried to slice up a crusty loaf for a ­sandwich, she realised she had bitten off more than she could chew. Joan, 81, could not understand why the loaf was as solid as a rock and soon realised it was intend

YOU'RE having a loaf! When pensioner Joan Bristow tried to slice up a crusty loaf for a ­sandwich, she realised she had bitten off more than she could chew.

Joan, 81, could not understand why the loaf was as solid as a rock and soon realised it was intended for display purposes only.

She had pulled the bread out of the freezer and was worried it may not have defrosted properly.

But it was only when she cut off a slice to make her husband, Cecil, a ham sandwich that she realised it was not all it seemed.

Cecil had undergone a heart bypass operation in Papworth Hospital when Joan saw the loaf for sale at an Ely bakery and decided to keep it for when he returned home.

"I thought it looked nice," she said from her home in Ely's Parade Lane, "so I thought I would buy one for when he came home.

"But it was solid. I managed to cut off a slice but there was no way it could be eaten."

Joan says she bought the loaf from Bonnet's bakery, in Ely High Street. But director David Bonnett says they don't have any display loaves apart from Harvest Sheaves.

"I can assure you if it has been treated with something for display purposes it didn't come from here," he said.

But as a gesture of goodwill he sent a shop assistant to Joan's home to give her a replacement loaf.