When we lived in Worcestershire, my wife, an exiled 'Potteries Wench' could get something of a respite from her longing for home by eating the Staffordshire oatcakes we could buy in Tesco in Worcester.
Now we have moved back, we can buy the same oatcakes fresh from the very same shop where those oatcakes were made.
It's quite a thing to watch. There is a stainless steel hotplate, about ten feet long, and the batter is in a hopper running along rails at the side of the hotplate. As it is wound along it drops measured amounts of batter on the hotplate.
The operator flips them all by hand, with a spatula, to cook both sides. It takes longer to write about than to do.
Oatcake recipes are widely supposed to be family secrets, passed from generation to generation. Whether this is just a way of restricting competition or whether there really are secret ingredients, I have no idea. We've tried recipes from the internet, but they are never the same, or as nice as fresh ones from the shop where they are made.
Cheers
Dave