Pipit Bakery

Espresso buns and a case that changes

The espresso bun is the bake to know at Pipit, a coffee-scented bun that gives the counter a named signature in a case that otherwise turns over constantly. Beside it sit the seasonal danish riffs, fruit-led and changing with what is around; a blood orange version shows the direction well. The savoury pastries deserve as much attention as the sweet ones: croissants filled with fennel, salami and béchamel, and a danish built on roast tomato, tomato jam and whipped ricotta. None of it is fixed, which is the appeal, and it means two visits a fortnight apart will not look the same.

Sourdough loaves under a Britain’s Best Bakeries listing

Bread is the other half of the argument. The sourdough comes out crusted and fragrant, with wholemeal and rye versions alongside the house loaf, and baguettes fill the gap for anyone shopping for lunch rather than for the week. The Good Food Guide put Pipit in its Britain’s Best Bakeries list for 2026, placing it among the fifty best in the country, and describes it as a warm-hearted bakery at the centre of an ancient market town. That is a fair summary of what the shop actually is: bread and pastry made daily, by hand, in the middle of a town small enough to walk across in ten minutes.

Takeaway, not a table

There is no seating, so this is a shop rather than a café. You queue, you choose, you take it away, and the coffee comes in a cup for the walk. Order the espresso bun and a sourdough loaf on a first visit and you will have covered the two things the bakery does best. If the case has a savoury croissant or a fruit danish on it, add one, because those are the items most likely to be different next time and the ones that show what the kitchen is thinking about. Wholemeal and rye sourdough are the loaves to move on to once the house sourdough is familiar, and both have been singled out often enough by regulars to be treated as more than variations. Coffee is part of the counter, so a bun and a cup makes a workable stop even without a table, and the bakery sits centrally enough that it fits into a walk rather than requiring a trip of its own. For a town of this size, the case is unusually ambitious.