We didn’t have a baker, we just had an idea

Chris and Rosie Robinson, proud founders and owners of Chalk Hills Bakery, sit busily working in the office above The Kiosk attached to the bakery in Horley, Surrey. ‘You know, we passionately believe in good food,’ Rosie says, a certain and shared sentiment between all of Chalk Hills’ employees, clients and customers.

As the Robinsons celebrated the bakery's 15^th anniversary in November 2025, I asked them how did it come to be and what have they learnt along the way.

Founded on a farm

The story starts in a former tractor shed at Priory Farm, in Nutfield. Once the production grounds of the award-winning farm shop’s own ready-meals and cakes, the space became available following the farm’s partnership with a frozen ready-meal company. This coincided with the Robinsons’ search for a location to bring their idea to life. ‘Luck has played an important part in many of the things that we’ve done,’ Chris says, reminiscing on the delight of divine timing. Having bought all the necessary equipment, Chris and Rosie began to rent the space and, on 24 November 2010, the pair opened the oven doors, smelling the steamy air of their very first bake. ‘It snowed,’ says Rosie, eyes gleaming with nostalgia. 

Notably, the old tractor shed came equipped with Jo Mighall, master of baked goods, who is still an employee at Chalk Hills today. Jo played a rather integral role in the bakery’s early days: having transferred to the new team directly from Priory Farm, Jo brought with her the founding recipes for the beloved baked confectioneries, allowing many of the 1960s recipes of Wendy Shinner, mother of the farm’s current owner, Nic Shinner, to live on. 

Moving into the bakery in Priory Farm marked the start of a fruitful friendship that prevails between the two businesses. In addition to their first recipes, it supplied the bakery with their first retail customers and, significantly, a fantastic relationship with Priory Farm’s wholesale customers on account of the business’s reputation as reliable and trustworthy, something that Chris continues to be grateful for. 

Pop-up proves popularity

Very soon, the Robinsons were ready to expand. On the night of 31 December 2010, enlivened with an enthused sense of productivity for the New Year, a conversation between friends sparked the next enterprise: a pop-up shop in Lesbourne Road, Reigate. The venue would be an office that would be empty on weekends, and otherwise unusable on account of the antique, hand-painted tiles that remained from its days as a butcher's shop. The plan, not too dissimilar from the plot of a children’s novel, was to set up the pop-up bakery in the early (early!) hours of Saturday morning, fully furnished with hessian hanging from the walls, stock, sell and then clear the whole thing away every Sunday afternoon in time for tea. No one would be any the wiser! 

Delivering flyers to all the nice houses on all the nice roads that guard the borders of Reigate, the operation was to begin a few weeks later. With a queue from the very first Saturday, it was a great success. By Sunday lunchtime each week, they would always be sold out. Soon enough, word of Chalk Hills’ quality produce began to get around. After a few months, another friend – Ed, Rosie’s mum’s financial advisor – learned that that an old gift shop in Reigate was soon to become vacant and let them know. By June 2011, Chalk Hills had a new home, at 75 Bell Street.

Tireless hard work

As much as Chris and Rosie humbly claim that such a string of success was due to a series of lucky circumstances, it was arguably much more a testament to their tireless, hard work. With Rosie managing the retail side and Chris as the bastion of wholesale, the pair collectively clocked in nearly 130 hours a week. Between the bakery at Priory Farm, the pop-up shop, the farmers’ market stalls around Surrey, packing orders, and conducting deliveries, ‘the business was literally 24/7 as far as we were concerned,’ says Chris. Clearly still nostalgic, the pair began to wonder how they ever got the kids to school.

Things weren’t always so smooth, however. Grieving the loss of family members, suffering personal injuries and being forced to move home, the history of Chalk Hills has certainly seen challenges across the board. One of the most significant was in 2012, when Marek, a baker integral to the operation, died of a heart attack on the bakery floor, due to a previously unknown tumour on his heart. He was only 37 years old. Chris and Rosie walked into a traumatic scene of rushing paramedics and the event was devastating for everyone.

On top of the very personal, human tragedy, ingredients were contaminated by medical supplies and dough overflowed from the proving racks. The bakery was contractually committed to a number of large wholesale orders and with only one – untrained – baker available, ‘we thought it was the end,’ Rosie says solemnly. 

Marek’s death was ‘a really big turning point,’ say Rosie and Chris. Their biggest lesson was learning about community; in Reigate, between their wholesale customers and throughout the business itself. Dana Ghioca, for example, dispatcher and bakery assistant, played a key role in re-operationalising the packing system when Chris and Rosie were spread thin, ‘taking complete ownership of everything [she did].’

Rising to the challenge

‘We’ve got a good team,’ Rosie affirms, as the pair discuss how the spirit of collaboration amongst their workforce and encouraging the autonomy of their employees allows them to be better managers of the business. Such a good team is certainly important as many small businesses have been addressing increased challenges in recent years. Without reprieve since the Covid-19 pandemic, rises in energy costs, National Insurance and ‘butter prices fluctuating like nobody’s business,’ according to Chris, investing in local companies has become more important than ever. 

Further challenges are on the horizon, with changes to ESG requirements, such as the Extended Producer Responsibility, set to migrate additional costs for sustainable packaging from governments and councils to producers. 

It must also be acknowledged that the Robinsons are facing such challenges with a wealth of business experience. Rosie says that it has made her braver as a business owner and driven innovation. Shoppers have seen this from the development of the deli at the Reigate shop, the opening of the Horley Kiosk and, as part of their wide range of technological updates, the launch of the Chalk Hills Bakery app, allowing customers to order for click and collect and earn points on their orders. The entire range of baked goods is available online from their website. 

Sourdough

Chris and Rosie first thought about making sourdough bread around 20 years ago, while they were owners of a pub and ready to move onto something new. A passion for sourdough had been ‘kicking off’ at the time, in bakeries around London and elsewhere in the UK, though it was fairly unknown the Robinsons’ part of Surrey. ‘Nobody was doing sourdough here,’ the pair claims. Having been introduced to a bakery in Dorset that was well-known for its sourdough, the couple recognised the potential and scalability of an exciting new venture. 

Timing was important. Many people were becoming increasingly conscious about what they were eating, looking for healthier baked alternatives. With reliability and integrity as core values of the business, Chalk Hills Bakery was destined to become Reigate’s best spot to find trustworthy produce. It is food made using the highest-quality, locally sourced ingredients, by impeccably trained employees, in a business with a strong loyalty to and from their customers.

Loaves and legacy

Overall, it’s fair to say that Chris and Rosie have experienced their full share of highs, lows, miracles, and misfortunes along the bakery’s 15+ year journey. ‘I think having your own business is a real privilege…and it’s something that you shouldn’t go into lightly,’ Rosie shares, as they reflect on all the lessons of the past. Emphasising the value of community engagement, from giving back to local schools with bread vouchers throughout the year, to keeping up with each week’s regulars, gratitude for their wealth of long-standing employees, and highlighting key strategic developments to pedal harder through new challenges, there’s no doubt that the Robinsons have made a little legacy for themselves.  

‘There isn’t one day that I don’t want to come to work,’ says Rosie of their undoubtedly rewarding experience. Would they do it all again? ‘Yeah, we would,’ chimes Chris. ‘Just wish we’d started 25 years ago.’ The pair laugh and continue back to the busy day at work, readily supplying people of east Surrey with some truly cracking bread.

@chalkhillsbaker

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