Aberffraw & Shepherd’s Biscuits
James Shepherd set up Aberffraw Biscuit Co in 2013 with his wife Natasha. Since then the business has grown rapidly and now employs seven people at the bakery in Llanrwst.
James and Natasha had the idea for the business watching television one night…
He said: “My wife and I were watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off in October 2012. Half way through they ran a feature on ‘Britain’s oldest biscuit’…from North Wales… called the Aberffraw biscuit.
“I turned to my wife and said ‘that can’t be right or else we’d have heard of it!’. So the next day I began researching the story and it all seemed to pan out and I thought there must be an opportunity in this.”
James, a former journalist, was working in e-commerce at the time and began developing recipes at home. Then in August 2013 launched the business to considerable publicity including an appearance on the BBC’s The One Show.
“I got a phone call from a researcher on the show asking if I could get some biscuits to them as they had Paul Hollywood (Great British Bake Off judge) appearing as a guest,” said James.
“I sent some down to London and then watched in terror from my sofa as Paul tried them on air… it could have been the shortest business venture ever if he had slated them but fortunately he didn’t! In fact, he said it was a ‘nice biscuit… good flavour’.
“The funny side to this though is with it being the BBC they are not allowed to accept gifts, so I had to invoice them for the biscuits I sent down – so my very first sale was to The One Show for Paul Hollywood!”
A taste of Welsh heritage…
The oldest biscuit recipe in Britain? From North Wales? Never heard of it?? Well here’s the Aberffraw biscuit history…
It’s called the Aberffraw biscuit (sometimes Aberffraw cake or Cacen Berffro) and is said to originate from 13th Century Anglesey. It’s a basic shortbread that is pressed with the shape of a scallop shell… legend has it that a Welsh king was holding court in Aberffraw – his wife was walking on the beach there and, spotting a pretty scallop shell, asked for a cake to be baked in the same form. And so the Aberffraw biscuit was born.
However, a far more realistic source for the biscuit was the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This pilgrimage to the church of St James in Galicia, north western Spain, began in about the 8th Century with pilgrims wearing badges on their hat in the shape of a scallop shell. It’s for this reason Aberffraw biscuits are sometimes also called James cakes.
Under the patronage of King Gruffudd ap Cynan (1075-1137) or his son and successor Owain Gwynedd (1137-70), a stone church was built at Aberffraw with Romanesque features similar to 12th Century churches on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. This building is the final link to the scallop shell of St James pilgrims and the small Welsh village of Aberffraw.
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