The 200-year-old hot cross bun: Treat belonging to couple dated to 1807 (but what's keeping it from going mouldy?)

The bun was given to a Colchester couple 30 years ago as a gift

A historian has traced the baked good's history back to 1807

If true, it is the world's oldest hot cross bun



This hot cross bun looks good enough to eat but taking a bite could spoil your Easter - as it's 207 years old.

Andrew and Dot Munson keep the archaic bun in a cardboard box at their house near Colchester in Essex.

The treat, which represents the Crucifixion and is traditionally eaten on Good Friday, was given to them by a neighbour 30 years ago.

But a distinguished historian has uncovered evidence which suggests it was baked in 1807 and belonged to a medical practitioner by the name of Edward Holdich.

Ancient snack: The world's oldest hot cross bun's history has been traced back more than two centuries

If true, it would be the world’s oldest hot cross bun, dating back to the year the slave trade was abolished throughout the British Empire.

‘I think it’s a miracle it never went mouldy or fell apart in all these years,’ said Mr Munson, 75, from Wormingford.

‘You couldn’t eat it though as it is rock hard - like a ball of concrete.’

The retired electrician was handed the seemingly indestructible bun in the 1980s by a grateful neighbour, Norman Baker, after he did some work at his home.

‘I really didn’t know what it was when he gave it to me. He told me his great uncle had put it in that box so I just decided to keep it,’ he added.

The relic’s provenance was investigated by Andrew Phillips, a Visiting Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Essex.

The owner, a retired electrician, was handed the seemingly indestructible bun in the 1980s by a grateful neighbour

He discovered Mr Holdich was a fairly wealthy man who had a son by the same name.

Edward jnr married the daughter of a farmer called Baker but had no children.

The beneficiary of his will was a nephew called Harry Baker, from Sudbury, Suffolk, who died in 1943 when it passed to accountant Norman Baker - Mr Munson’s neighbour.

AN EASTER TRADITION

Hot cross buns are said to date back to the 12th century but were first mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1733. The cross on the top is supposed to signify the means by which Christ was crucified, the bread represents his body and the spices refer to the cloth saturated with spices that was wrapped around him after his death. They were often kept as they were said to bring good luck and health.

The clincher was an old, brown envelope that is still kept with the bun and which states it was baked in Weir Street, Colchester in 1807.

Mr Phillips said: ‘The handwriting fits the date given as it is written with a quill pen and is in regency style, which preceded the copperplate of the Victorian era.

‘The spelling of Weir Street - now spelt Wyre Street - was common at the time.

‘The hot cross bun also seems genuine as it is a bread roll with a cross incised on the top, rather than pastry filled with sultanas, which came later.

‘It has been an intriguing story and, despite its long history, this bun has only ever travelled a few miles from where it was originally baked.’

Mr Munson added: ‘It stays in a drawer throughout the year to protect it from sunlight but I get it out if anyone asks about it.