A former weekly newspaper journalist has moved into a new career as a biscuit maker.

James Shepherd, a former web editor at the Chester Chronicle, has started a business with his wife Natasha baking one of the oldest biscuits in Britain.

They have set up the Aberffraw Biscuit Company to bake the biscuit of the same name, which was first baked in the Anglesey village 800 years ago.

James and Natasha are now developing their scallop-shaped biscuits in a variety of flavours and they will be launched at Llangollen food and drink festival in October.

James and Natasha Shepherd show off their new biscuits.

In a story in the Daily Post about the new business, James, who left the Chronicle a few years ago, said: “We were watching the Great British Bake Off last October and they had a feature about the Aberffraw biscuit.

“We started chatting about it and realised that despite the fact we were both from North Wales, we had never even heard of it.

“The first thing I did was to buy the domain names for the website and then did some research to build an informational website and start developing a business plan.

“Tourist shops in North Wales all seem to sell Scottish shortbread and I would just like to get them out and the Aberffraw in.”

Keen baker James is developing the biscuits and designing the packaging while Natasha continues to work part-time for a governmental agency

The couple are using only Welsh ingredients to produce the biscuit in a variety of flavours – chocolate, lemon, orange, traditional and vanilla.