Horsham Gingerbread Bakehouse

A Website That Brings a 200-Year-Old Sussex Recipe to Every Doorstep.

Web Design

eCommerce

Overview.

A warm, heritage-led online shop that tells the story of Horsham’s lost gingerbread and makes ordering a tray, a biscuit box or a hamper simple.

Horsham Gingerbread Bakehouse was founded by Lesley Ward in 2013, after a 200-year-old recipe book from the Shelley family turned up at Horsham Museum. Lesley spent a year perfecting the recipe and brought back a tradition the town had lost in 1917, when its last gingerbread maker died. Today she and her daughters bake gingerbreads and gluten-free biscuits in small batches in West Sussex. We designed and built a WordPress and WooCommerce website that sells the range online, shares the history and helps shops find out about stocking it.

WordPress CMS: The family adds new products, recipes and newsletters themselves, with no developer needed.
WooCommerce Online Shop: Gingerbread trays, biscuit boxes and gluten-free hampers can be ordered in a few taps, with free UK delivery on every order.
Heritage Bakehouse Design: Gingerbread Spice and Treacle Plum tones, Libre Baskerville headings and black and white photography give the site the feel of a traditional bakery.
Clear Routes Through the Story: About, History, Shop, Stockists and Wholesale sit in one simple menu on every page.
Great Taste Awards Up Front: The 2025 three-star badge and comments from the judges sit on the homepage to build trust with new customers.

The Challenge.

Reviving a Lost Local Tradition Online.

Horsham Gingerbread is sold through more than 100 farm shops, delis, garden centres and village stores across Sussex, Surrey and beyond, so the website had to work for several audiences at once. Shoppers needed to buy online, stockists needed a route to wholesale, and gift buyers needed to know the bakehouse could send hampers on their behalf. All of this had to sit alongside a history that goes back to Percy Bysshe Shelley and a range that is almost entirely gluten free.

Telling the Story: The history of Horsham’s gingerbread makers and the Shelley recipe had to be easy to find and a pleasure to read.
Selling Online: Products, gift boxes and hampers needed a simple checkout that works well on a phone.
Supporting Stockists: Shops needed a clear list of stockists and an easy way to ask about wholesale.
Explaining Gluten Free: Customers needed to see straight away which products are gluten free and why.

The Results.

A website that tastes as good as it looks, with the shop and the story working side by side.

The new website gives Horsham Gingerbread Bakehouse a home online that feels as handmade as the biscuits. Visitors can read how a 200-year-old recipe was brought back to life, meet Lesley, Anna and Lucy, and order gingerbread or gluten-free biscuits with free UK delivery. Retailers can find the stockist list and get in touch about wholesale, and businesses can arrange gifts for clients and colleagues. The family keeps everything up to date themselves through WordPress.