Castle Bakery in Beaumaris could become seafood restaurant

The bakery has been empty for nearly three years since the chain suddenly closed

A former bakery that closed suddenly after 130 years could be turned into a seafood restaurant.

Castle Bakery opened in Beaumaris, Anglesey, in 1885 and built up a chain of shops in north Wales serving more than a million customers a year.

Dozens of jobs were lost when the shops closed in 2016 with no explanation.

Justagin, which already runs a string of restaurants and food outlets on Anglesey, plans to showcase Welsh suppliers in the premises.

The firm said the new restaurant would prepare seafood in the style found in Boston and New England in the United States.

"Our experience of local trading patterns has allowed us to identify a gap in the market for this concept, which has been a long-standing ambition of ours and has been in development over the past 10 years," the company said in a planning application to Anglesey County Council.

It comes just weeks after Gwynedd Council planners approved a change of use for the former Castle Bakery in Caernarfon into three flats and a shop.

The family-run Castle Bakery firm was founded by William Roberts on his return to Anglesey from the Welsh colony of Patagonia in Argentina.

Shops in Caernarfon, Bangor, Menai Bridge and Holyhead all closed along with the flagship Beaumaris outlet in February 2016, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.