Staff at Ditty’s Home Bakery in Castledawson said they were both delighted and surprised to be chosen as one of the UK’s top 20 bakeries.

The listing which appeared in The Telegraph came completely out of the blue according to store manager Clifford Brimley, but he said owner Robert Ditty was “pleased”.

“We don’t really know how it came about,” said Mr Brimley.

“We got a call from one of the food writers at The Telegraph. She just said we’d been listed as one of the top 20 bakeries in the country.”

And since the article appeared in the national newspaper on January 30, Mr Brimley said they have had a great reaction from staff, customers and suppliers.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from our ingredient suppliers who’ve got a bit of coverage from it,” he added.

“It’s not that we did anything for it. It was really out of the blue.”

Rated alongside the likes of century-old bakeries like Botham’s in Whitby and Leakers in Dorset, second generation baker Robert Ditty could put his success down to his love of working with his hands, being creative and feeding people.

The artisan bakery uses local ingredients where possible, as well as artisan producers such as traditional smoke houses, organic dairies and local farmers to offer a broad range of speciality biscuits, pastries, breads and savoury foods.

Famous for their oatcakes, which have been served at prestigious events like the Ryder Cup and Wimbledon as well as being awarded several Taste Awards, Clifford said they pride themselves on the quality of the ingredients used by the “craft bakery”.