| Viewing swaag.org website implies consent to set cookies on your computer. Full details | Swaledale and
Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Number 1155775 |
SWAAG Honorary President:
Tim Laurie F,S,A, |
| SWAAG News Archive | |
| News Archive | |
| Bread Ovens and Campaign Medals | |
| SWAAG member, Richard Hunt, spoke about his research into bread ovens in Swaledale. He began by explaining that historically there were three main types of bread oven – communal ones that served a village or hamlet, internal beehive-shaped bread ovens and external bakehouses. To date he has discovered that nineteen houses between Grinton and Keld had or still have bread ovens. They are usually on north-facing walls and a number were built understairs. Sometimes a few curved footing stones on the outside of a building are the only clue to a bricked up or demolished bread oven. Bakehouses are trickier to discover as their more substantial dimensions meant that some were subsequently converted into small dwelling houses. The manorial records sometimes refer to bakehouses, allowing Richard to identify thirty-five locations where these might previously have existed. Finding them on the ground is trickier. There may have been communal bread ovens in Swaledale, which might explain why some villages seem to have comparatively few houses with bread ovens, but caution is required as the sample size is small. There is some evidence that communal bread ovens existed nearby in Bowes, where there is a record of two villagers having been prosecuted for using their own bread ovens. Manor bakehouses may have had a monopoly in the same way as manor corn mills. As most of Richard’s discoveries have been by word-of-mouth, he would be very interested to hear from you, if you too have a bread oven! One of Richard’s other interests is pre-20th century campaign medals. Medals were awarded following major wars, with additional bars added for specific battles. The first were awarded by the East India Company following the 4th Anglo Mysore War (1798-99), which saw the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan, ‘The Tiger’, ruler of Mysore. The medals, which were made of either gold, silver, bronze or tin, showed the British lion defeating the tiger on one face. Monetary awards were also given, varying from £10,000 down to £7. The British Government only began issuing campaign medals much later, when they issued them retrospectively to the participants in the Napoleonic wars. Campaign medals show the name of the soldier together with their regiment, giving a small insight into their time in battle. Richard looked at several of the campaigns in more detail and briefly considered their impact, together with the controversies they caused. J.H. |
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| News Record: 193 Updated: 07-11-2024 14:50:10 | |