Lovingly Artisan has been named as the National Bakery of the Year at a new awards ceremony.

The bakery, which operates at Plumgarths, near Kendal, and at Altrincham Market, Manchester, was also named North West Regional Bakery of the Year at the inaugural Bakery Business Magazine awards.

Owners Aidan Monks and Catherine Connor attended the ceremony, hosted by television presenter Mark Durden-Smith, where they were officially crowned.

Aidan and Catherine, said: ‘’We didn’t expect to win Best Northwest Regional Bakery and certainly didn’t expect to win the overall award as the UK’s Bakery of the Year.

"We can’t get over it, it’s such a huge pat on the back for all of us, we’ve all worked so hard to create the best possible artisan breads for our customers.

"The whole team take great pride in what we do, quite simply we want to show people what real bread is all about, that we as consumers don’t have to accept poor quality bread in our diets.’’