In 1680 a young Huguenot refugee fled France in fear of her life as the Catholic church hunted for heretical protestants. Solange Luyon survived the perilous crossing of the channel (Huguenots were forbidden to leave France under pain of death) and she found safety and a warm welcome in England. She soon settled in the Spa town of Bath and she found work in the bakery on Lilliput Alley where she began to sell the baker’s breads from a basket in the lanes around Bath Abbey. Struggling with her French name the locals quickly came to re-name her Sally Lunn.
Yearning for home Sally began baking a version of the traditional, brioche-like Festival bread she missed from her homeland. It became a sensation in Georgian England and customers began making special trips to visit the Lilliput Alley Bakery just to try the Sally Lunn Bunn. You can still see the kitchen where she baked in the basement of the building and across the lane, in Lilliput court, you can see the level and character of how things would have been in Sally’s day.
The Bunn is still being made to Sally’s Recipe today and is famous around the world.