A FIFTH-generation trader in Chipping Campden has opened an outlet of his own in the town.

William Toke Bennett is the fourth generation to trade from the high street and his newly opened Toke's Food and Drink delicatessen and wine merchants is reassuringly busy.

Mr Bennett and his assistant manager Annie Threadgill have stocked up on high quality food and drink from Britain and the continent.

Local suppliers feature heavily with Cotswold Distillery, Cotswold Finest, The Cotswold Chocolate Company and Colm Valley Smokery among them.

Gloucestershire cheese from Charles Martell features among the cheese selections plus Ebrington chutneys, Fosse Way honey, Todenham Manor Farm sausages, eggs from Kiln Bank Farm , Stow, and pies and frozen ready meals from the Cotswold Traiteur while the shelves groan under the weight of 250 wines.

"Food, wine and retail are in my genes. The story goes that in December 1978, at just five days old, my parents Charlie and Vicky Bennett, brought me from Cheltenham Hospital to our home and retail premises in Chipping Campden and that in the sitting room, at the rear of the shop, on top of my father’s 1884 Bechstein concert grand piano, was a mountain of Stilton cheeses being stored for Christmas orders. A few months later my parents obtained a wine licence and ran what was to become the nationally award winning Bennetts Fine Wines," he explained.

"Throughout my childhood, family and friends enjoyed long Sunday lunches and holidays in France, and I learned from a young age what great food and wine should look, smell and taste like. Food manufacturing is also in my genes. In 1867 my great, great grandfather Henry Bennett is recorded as being a miller and baker at what was then Haydon’s Mill in Chipping Campden. In 1904 Henry took over Richardson’s bakery in what is now part of Darby’s House, The Square, Chipping Campden.

"During World War One this business became Gabb’s Bakery so, on my great grandfather Enoch’s return from the war the owner of the Lygon Arms allowed him to install a baking oven at the rear of his premises and my great grandmother sold the bread from the front room of their Church Street cottage.

"In 1931 Enoch bought at auction for £425 the high street premises, which became known as Bennetts (now Toke’s), and he installed a Cox of Birmingham coke-fired bread oven costing £165. My grandfather Harry eventually took over this baking business. Continuing this family tradition, Toke’s sells quiches that I have home-baked on the premises.’

Mr Bennett also explains the name, Toke: "I was given the middle name of Toke after my paternal great uncle the actor Toke Townley. Between 1951 and 1970, in the heyday of the British film studios, Toke appeared in almost thirty films, including Doctor at Sea, The Admirable Crichton, and Carry on Admiral. For the final twelve years of his life he played the grandfather, Sam Pearson, in ITV’s Emmerdale Farm.

"Great uncle Toke was very fond of Chipping Campden and would frequently come from Leeds to visit us. He was huge fun but had not the slightest interest in either food or drink."