Proper bread, baked in Ancoats
Slow sourdough, flaky pastries and Manchester tart, baked through the night in an old cotton mill and on the counter by half seven.
See what is bakingMade the slow way
No shortcuts, no improvers, no bake-off mixes. Just flour, water, salt, time and a lot of early starts.
48-hour sourdough
Every loaf ferments for two days before it meets the oven. That is where the flavour and the crackly crust come from.
Northern flour
Stoneground wheat and rye from mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and milk and butter from a farm near Bolton.
Fresh every morning
We bake in small batches from 2am. Whatever is left at closing goes to a local food bank, never the bin.
Delivered by bike
Office breakfasts and cake orders go out by cargo bike across the city centre, Salford Quays and Chorlton.
Born in a cotton mill
Ancoats was the world's first industrial suburb. Two hundred years ago its mills spun cotton for half the planet.
Today our ovens sit on the ground floor of one of those red-brick mills, right on the Rochdale Canal. We kept the old iron columns and the worn floorboards, and added a wood-fired deck oven that never really cools down.
Read our storyFresh out of the oven
Coffee roasted down the road
Our beans come from a small roaster in Salford, two miles from the counter. The house espresso is chocolatey and round, made to stand up to milk and to a pain au chocolat.
The filter changes every week. Ask Danny what is on, and be ready for a long answer.
See the menuWhat our regulars say
4.8 4 reviews
Awesome cakes!
Ben, 19 October 2026
Best cinnamon bun in Manchester, and I have tried a lot of them. Worth the walk along the canal from Piccadilly, even in the rain.
Siobhan M., 18 October 2026
Ordered a Manchester tart traybake for my dad's 70th. It took him straight back to school dinners. Lovely team, and the bike delivery was bang on time.
Raj P., 18 October 2026
Supper club is coming
Long tables in the mill, wood-fired bread and a Manchester menu, one Friday a month from January. Register your interest and you will hear about the first night before anyone else.
Register your interestFrom the Journal
15 October 2026
Our autumn menu has landed
Cardamom buns, a spiced apple Danish and the return of the cheese and onion pasty. Here is everything new on the counter.
3 October 2026
Manchester tart and Eccles cakes: why we bake them
Two old local bakes that deserve a place on any counter, and how we make our Manchester tart.
19 September 2026
A rainy Saturday in Ancoats
It is Manchester, so it rained. Our five favourite bakes for a wet weekend, and a walk along the canal to work up an appetite.
A System56 demo website
Mill & Bee is not a real bakery. This website is a demo of System56 Websites. Every page, form, review and Journal post here is a block that a System56 client can use on their own website, and change themselves in Tech Hub.