The Sheff

The family-run Eccy Road icon that’s been serving hot pork breadcakes and classic butties since the 1940s

Daisy Jackson - 21st August 2026

Forget your fancy focaccia sandwiches or your American-style hoagies - there's something infinitely more beautiful about a classic ham salad sandwich, served in a soft white breadcake.

And as most of us in Sheffield know, there aren't many places better for such a culinary delight than Roses The Bakers.

This spot has been operating in Sheff since 1940, when Jim Rose opened a modest bakery at the top of Eccleshall Road.

More than eight decades later, the family is still behind the counter, albeit passing down to its third generation, with Jim's granddaughter Seuranie now running the business with her husband.

They've been remarkably consistent with their strategy - good bread, proper baking, and food made with care.

The bakery starts early, with bakers beginning work in the small hours so that fresh loaves are ready each morning.

From those early Ecclesall Road beginnings, Roses expanded across Sheffield, opening shops in Millhouses and Crosspool before moving its main bakery and head office to a purpose-built site at Atlas in 1998. Today there are five Roses shops across the city, including Ecclesall, Millhouses, Crosspool, Fulwood and Atlas.

But perhaps the best way to understand Roses isn't through its timeline. It's through what comes out of the kitchen.

Take the hot roast pork breadcake -a Sheffield staple and one of Roses' best-known offerings. The pork is cooked fresh, then piled into what locals would insist on calling a breadcake.

There is plenty beyond the bread counter, too. Flapjacks, muffins, vanilla slices, quiche and huge scones sitting alongside custard tarts and lemon meringue. Then there are the gingerbread men, made to a recipe passed down from Seuranie's grandmother.

Even the mince pies have become a fixture. Around 300 can be made in a week during the quieter part of the year, before production goes into overdrive as Christmas approaches.

There is something particularly Sheffield about that combination of tradition and practicality. Roses isn't trying to turn the humble bakery into something it isn't. It is doing the everyday things well while quietly carrying more than 80 years of family history along with it.

In 2023, that commitment was recognised when Roses was named Yorkshire and the Humber's Best Bakery at the National Bakery Awards, selected from more than 1,000 entries.

Somewhere between the smell of fresh bread, a warm pork breadcake and a gingerbread man made from Grandma's recipe, the history of one Sheffield family continues to be baked into the city.

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Featured image: The Sheff