Page 659

40. Service Rooms.

Buttery.

Behind the parlour usually sharing the depth of that end bay of building was the narrow buttery. This followed the timber house position and was continued in the Long-house type because it was convenient. The Hunts [16] kept in their buttery "ffive Barrells a lorme a tuning boule/ and the stelle xxs/ seaven Bottells and a lanthorne vjs viijd." A "stelle" was a stand for a barrel and "bottells" could be small casks for liquor. Fabian Smyth [51] the miller had a loft over his buttery with a bedstead and cheese rack.

All sorts of things went into the buttery from shelves, barrels, firkins for butter, powdering troughs, vats, churns, cowls and pails. Others like Smyth had wool there as well as the woollen and linen spinning wheels. In 1635 Thomas Wyatt [31] kept "two halfe hogsheads twelve barrells and one saive" worth £1-13s-4d in his, while over the buttery he had "one loft and a lead & Cheese rackes" £1. A hogshead was a cask for beer which held fifty gallons. Butter firkins held half a hundred weight. The value of the loft boards had been added to the Wyatt's inventory so he had been responsible for this improvement. By 1669 the house had a buttery chamber next to the parlour chamber which would place the buttery in the same bay.

In Cross's [51] house they used the buttery to store a second set of cobirons, a spit and dripping pans and all his cooking pots. The room had no pothooks and does not seem to be a cooking area. The usual items were in there: "viij barrells a hogshed/ two Tubs two kivers vij shelfes a/ musterd querne an old cubberd three/ cheese ffatts and a sutar xls." The miller also had on the shelves various pots, bowls and platters, salts, trenchers, a leather bottle, "vj pounde of tallowe" and "ij flitchers of bakon" the last valued at 13s- 4d. Another one doing business who liked to keep his pewter under lock and key away from the customers waiting in the hall? In contrast on one farm Richard Hall [34] in 1634 has only his barrels and milk vessels worth 10s in the buttery. At the other end of town the Devotions [3] call theirs the "boulting house" in 1631, but the "dayryain buttree" by 1634 (the spelling of course belonged to Charles Allen [44] scribe, not the Devotions, but it could have been their interpretation of Em Devotion's speech, or the description Thomas Densey, the second appraiser, used for the room). Em kept "too churns/ a cheesepresse too shelves three kivers/ one cobole too barrelles milk vessell and/ a bolting huch a wollin wheel ..." £1. When sieving flour it was a boulting room and when churning the butter it was the dairy. Elderson [38] calls his the "boulting house" but uses it like a buttery. What part of the country did those who used the different names for this small narrow room come from?

In 1607 Thomas Toms' [15] timber house had the buttery facing the Green with the low chamber at the front towards the yard. They had "ij barrells a stell and a tankerd iiijs/ iij payles xviijd/ iij bords and a cheeserack" worth 5s. Allen had a similar floor plan to Toms, but in reverse. In 1632 they had five barrels, safe, cooking pots and pewter all carefully stored in the tiny buttery. Had the "safe" moved from Watts [34] to Allen's, so that Charles had it under the new stairs? One of Charles tasks may have been to collect the rents for Coldwell [50].

Page 660

Dairy or Milk House.

Gervase Markham's expectations of a cow's daily yield in summer was that "one gallon is good, two is rare and extraordinarie" 1623 [Markham: 175, 189].

The dairy or milk house might be a separate building, but most remained inside the house or cottage. These were recorded at Hudson's cottage [48] and at eleven farms [3,4,8,9, 16,25,26,28,31,34,60]. The inside dairy was often behind the lower chamber in the buttery position, or when added later at the end of the entry passage [36]. Surprisingly some farms still used a buttery for their dairy, for the wives at Lumberds, Toms, Vaughans and Hall [14,15,23,34] may have had to store and make their butter and cheese in theirs, though not all their equipment would fit into the one room. The three wives of John Cross's, Joanne (1590-?), Ellen (1598-1607) and Gillian (1609-1613) used the back house [51].

Dea Houses on their own like Hunt's [16] were usually outside, but a dea house combined with a buttery would be in one of the house bays. In 1609 Alese Howse [28] had hers inside. As late as 1641 their cousin Solomon Howse [9] down the Long Causeway still combined the needs of the two rooms into one. At first only Nuberry and Woodrose [8], French [4], Wyatt [31] and Tanner [39] had a real dairy though some of the missed properties with no inventories would have had them, such as Halls [6].

The larger the herd the more important was the side of the house on which the dairy was placed. It required the coolest position, but might not get it. Palmers [59] solved their space by using their kitchen as the milk preparation room (p447). Next door Ellen Rose [60] and later on Jane Suffolk had a milk house. By 1628 Jane had turned it into a general store for bread making and cooking equipment, though the milk vessels were also in there. It was noticed too that the Suffolks were not displaying their pewter in the hall, or in the kitchen, but keeping it out of sight in the milkhouse, or did that happen after his death? "One boulting huch 5s/ one doe Cover 1s-8d/ one powderinge Iron 2s/ two barrells two Cowells one old/ drye tubb one old Churne two shelves 13s-4d/ one meale sieve 8d/ one earthen milk pann and/ three potts of earth 1s-3d/ three woodden Cowles 1s-2d/ one skippett & one meale/ baskett 7s/ one brasse pott 6s/ one little kettle 3s/ one brasse pann 6s-8d/ three pewter platters 4s" [60].

The Gybbs' [25] and Robins' [26] had a milk house presumably with a slatted wooden window and shutters facing north. Gybbs had in theirs "one Cheese presse and fats [vats] one Churne/ three shelves and all other odd implements" worth £1. This was the women's own department. Robert Robins [26] had a buttery as well as a milk house in which his wife Anne kept "one Churne shelves milke pannes Cheese/ vatts three Covers... "valued at £1-6s-8d.

In the older timber cottages sometimes the milk house was in reality the buttery [48]. This was inconveniently narrow, but if only one cow was kept it had to be managable. It was in 1637 that Thomas Hudson's wife Elizabeth [48] had in the the milkhouse " a little Cubburd/ a pen, a bord, 2 old kyvers, two barreles/ and other od implements" worth 5s 6d. They shared the narrow buttery with her sister Anne Norman who owned the cow and was the first life on the copyhold so all the other milk utensils would belong to her.

Solomon Howse's wife Caterin [9] spent all her married life with her mother-in-law so perhaps it was Margery who had decided where the various vessels went. In 1641 they had in the "dayry & buttry one powdering/ trough 4 drink Barrells a stell one/ bench a churne a dough Kiver a little/ milke kiver a little powdering tubb a Linnen/ wheele and a wollin wheele and two old/ tubbs £1-13s-4d/ 3 milke panns, 3 creampotts ...5s."

Page 661

Not all the brewing, butter and cheese making kept to a particular room for equipment was found in the kitchens, butteries, dairies and boulting houses. Different generations changed the rooms' purpose and stored other equipment in them when the season for their use was passed. Some households needed more service rooms when they took on more land. In the farm dairies they used earthernware utensils for separating cream over the fire, but these were of such a low value they usually escape the inventories along with wooden equipment, or are lumped with the cowpery ware.

They needed large pieces of equipment such as weights, cheese presses, and racks. If the house had no cheese chamber, then as we saw at Hunt's the rack could be found in a bed chamber. French's [4] kept the buttery chamber for the two cheese racks and cheese boards with hemp in 1617, and linen and woollen yarn in 1632. Solomon Howse [9] had a store over the hall for their cheese, butter, bacon and apples which were worth £1-3s-4d. Cheese presses being large would not fit into the narrow butteries and were naturally put wherever it was convenient. Cheese boards being small were much easier to store.

Cheeses were kept in a room of the right temperature for some warmth was very necessary to ripen the cheeses, but not the heat of the full sun. This meant the cheese room should not face south, though it may have been ignored? In the Robins [26] cheese chamber on the 11th of June 1631 they had "one cheeseframe eight shelves bacon/ bread cheese, butter..." worth £3. At Woodrose's [8] "six shelves.../ two powderring tubbes, one powdering trough/ one peale one oatmeale baskett hives cheeses..." valued at £1-10s on the 18th of May 1628. Being only May the cheeses would be from the previous year, or older still. The hives were perhaps new straw skeps waiting to catch a June swarm from one of their garden hives. Richard Hall's [34] cheese chamber had "one Cheese Racke shelves/ 40 of Rough hempe Cheese..." worth 13s-4d, on March 18th 1634. Ann Hall also had a cheese from a previous July or August. Although the right atmosphere for the maturing of cheese was essential other items requiring a dry store found their way onto the shelves or gathered on the floor. The room need not be large, but a narrow one above a buttery was about the most useful size. Not all houses which had cheese chambers had a dairy or milk house and must have used the kitchen instead.

It was expected to find a cheese press somewhere on the property. Of the twentyone house sites known to be producing cheese fifteen were recorded, but how had the rest been missed when the appraisers went round? The press needed a large box full of stones, pressing down on the cheese held in a special vat. John Sherman of Bourton had a "rendle" stone for a cheese press. The dairy maid or man servant helped the mistress to add more weights to increase the pressure, squeezing out the whey into a bowl beneath. From the press the cheese (or "lead" as a 56lb cheese was called), was taken to the rack for daily turning. Some had different routines, but all used a special cheese cloth wrapped round the cheese to keep its shape.

Fifteen inventories mention racks, three of those whose press had escaped attention, and three others mention cheeses, bringing the total up to twentyone houses which had definately made cheese. Four of the early lists had cheese boards called suters used in the preparation of cheese. Palmers at the mill [1] had cheese boards worth 3s-4d in 1606. Nuberry [8] needed five vats and Hunt [16] had six, the rest were managing with three or four. Alese Howse [28] had in her kitchen "a lead a cheese presse .."10s. Was this lead a cheese being pressed or a trough?

Page 662

Some of the Farms and Cottages producing Butter and Cheese.

Page 663

The evening milk went into the cheese vat and was covered overnight. The next milking being added in the morning. Rennet had to be introduced after the milk had been brought up to blood heat for it helped to produce the necessary curd. The milk was agitated until a crust had formed which could be removed with a curd knife after it had been plunged up and down to break up the formed junket. All this must now be scalded and left for the thickened curd to sink. Cheese vats had a tap or bung hole through which the whey was let off into a bowl. The curds were salted and put into the cheese cloth which was then placed in the vat beneath the press. The suter boards acting as wedges were placed inside the vat to take up any space left over. The cheese was left overnight after pressing and then taken out, rewrapped and pressed again, before going to the cheese rack. Turning twice daily prevented the fat in the cheese from settling at the base. Once again the whey went for buttermilk, or to the pigs.

It was not only husbandmen's families who were producers of cheese. Millers received corn as a toll and could concentrate on the products of their two cows. The wives of the three millers, Smyth, Cross and Palmer made cheese for they generally had extra meadowing and leyland rather than arable in their leased land. Elderson [38] and Truss [33] had long-house type dwellings and it was an ideal situation to combine their carpentry or shepherding with a sideline of small soft cheeses made by their sisters, wife or daughters. They were making a thin white cheese with a creamy texture and excellent flavour to sell at Banbury.The farms without records must have produced some cheese because of their cattle, but no inventories survive: [6,12,21,30,35 and 50]. It is almost sure that they would have done so at some period for the milk had to be processed into butter or cheese as it would not keep. Although perishables need not be recorded in inventories an item for sale must be. In 1595 John Ellyott of Bourton had "30 lbs of Butter and twelve cheeses worth 14s-6d" [MS. Will Pec.37/3/8].

Cheese was only stored if made from the best grazing grass in July and August, when the milk was at its richest. A medium cheese was made in May, June and September taking only six to eight weeks to mature before being taken off to market. Any cheese made before May was too young to store and was eaten straight away or sold fresh. In his will of 1587 John Hunt [16] leaves a cheese of three years standing to Richard Hunt [5] weaver, the son of Anthony as well as a tableboard.

The size of the cheese depended upon how many cows you had. They varied in methods, the times turned, and generally the type of leyland the cow grazed upon, so that some farmers' wives would excel, others not. The townswomen did at least have a good market at Banbury. Barnaby Googe writing in 1614 put Banbury cheese before Suffolk, Essex and Kentish cheeses though after Cheshire [ The Whole Art and Trade of Husbandry ].

Some earthenware milk pans and "pots of Earth," butter pots and creampots are recorded for use in butter and cream making, or like Palmers [1] in 1606 the lot were left as "earthern vessells" worth 2s. Hunt's, Toms' and Pratt's [16,15,24] wives used their churns in the kitchen, but by 1609 Hunt's had added a dairy for churning the butter and put the cheese rack over the hall. The milk taken into the dairy or milk house which was required for butter was poured into earthen pans and left overnight. In the morning they used a skimmer, which was a round disc covered in holes with a handle, to lift off the risen cream and place it in another cream vessel to be covered and left for two days while it ripened. It was next put into the churn.

The churns at this time, which were made by a cooper, were tall, cylindrical and narrower at the top. Through the lid went the plunger which was a pole attached to a flat disc, again well perforated with holes. The butter maker plunged this up and down the three foot high churn, keeping a close scrutiny on progress inside, for over churning would spoil the butter.

Page 664

The whey we saw was used for buttermilk, or feeding the pigs in the sty or pigyard, which would be close to the dairy door. Each cow could help provide for two pigs. The butter now needed beating with butter pats to remove excess whey. Butter for the firkins was salted at this stage and pressed down firmly into the barrel. Market butter was further shaped with a second pair of pats whose surfaces were serrated. Finally a farm stamp was put on the shaped butter. The butter basket mentioned in Nuberry's [8] inventory could be a yard long to cater for butter made to a set length, width and breadth as one way of knowing the weight, rather than purchasing scales as Fabian Smyth [51] appears to have done. In 1595 Fabian had "one basen rope and butter waights" which was possibly part of a butter scale similar to the much larger beam scale for wool (p263). The weights for the butter scale were worth 1s-8d.

The cream would be slowly heated in a milk pan over a gentle heat and then having taken care not to boil it, left overnight to clot. The skimmer was used to remove the cream into creampots. Woodroses [8] had ten, Solomon Howse [9] opposite had three, Palmer [59] owned two and Tanners [39] had "creampots." Kynd and Wyatt [31] at the top of Creampot had the only references to creampots in the lane called after them. A nickname more easily recognisable than an earlier name now out of use? Or was it a friendlier name for a lane ignoring the mud (p172)? Hunt's [16] Dea House had amongst other items "two boules ffower milke/ pans ffive butterpots..." Woods [56] in their cottage at the bottom of Hello had butter and cheese worth 6s-8d and of course a cow valued at £1-10s.

Butter was used for cooking as it did not keep well. Salt was essential and came along the Salt Way close to Banbury and perhaps sold by Tanner the mercer [39], though none was found in his shop when he died. The salted butter was packed into firkins and emptied by dismantling the barrel, tying up the barrel staves and returning them to be reused. Nuberry [8] had six, Lumberd [14] seven and Robins [26] just "firkins."

Did the cottagers who had milk houses [48] sell milk rather than making butter like Palmers [59]? Would they supply Banbury with milk for there were too few Cropredians without a cow. The following twentyeight sites had some skimmers, pots or milk pans: [1-4,8,9, 13-16,23-26,28,30,31,33,34,38,39,43,48,51,55,56,59 & 60].

Boulting Houses.

As flour would not keep small households might send a son with only one sack at a time to the mill. He would wait or return later for their own flour. The miller's hopper took only one sack at a time. The millers did not mix up their customers' corn, neither did they store the flour for them. A corn toll must be subtracted instead of a cash payment (p472). Once the flour was home it was put in the hutch. At Robin's [26] they had in the "boultinge house one garner one boultinge hutch one/ malt mill two Covers..." worth £1-13-4. Eldersons boulting house was more a dairy and buttery [38] considering they had three cows, so why call it a boulting house? A boulting hutch was used as a container for flour or meal. Some hutchs were just like large chests, but others looked like a chest of drawers through which flour was sifted to sort out the bran and husks to grade their own flour. By using a boulter and separating the flour, middlings and bran at home they saved a higher tollage going to the miller. When they had no special room put aside for flour then the hutch was kept in the driest and coolest place away from steam. If there were seven in a household one bushel of corn had to be sent to the mill to be ground for the weekly bake. Ten bushels of barley gave around eight bushels of flour.

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The flour having been sifted through Hunt's [16] boulter in the kitchen it was taken to the kneading trough in the dea house and back to the kitchen to rise on the moulding stooke, which was a moveable stand and could be positioned out of draughts. Robins [26] had two dough kivers in the kitchen and Cross [51] had a kneading board and table, two dough kivers and tubs as well as three cheese vats at the mill. Down Creampot Hall's [34] wife Ann kept a moulding trough and her boulting hutch in the kitchen which had no hearth. These large objects were passed down the family. John Suffolk [60] besides the implements mentioned above in his milk house had a moulding table in the kitchen. His skippet and meale basket are interesting for this skippet was a round wooden box specially made to raise yeast. The valuer associating it with the meale basket. Across Hello Pare [58] had his boulting "wytch" [hutch] in the kitchen with a "kurding" trough and three pails worth 8s-6d, but most important was the next item the appraisers noted which was the "fyer grate." Here both the hall and kitchen had fire tools and they had room to expand if both fires were going, unless the family had divided it between the two generations? Thomas Matcham [18] had a "boulting which" but nothing else of sufficient value to be worth a mention, such as his wife Gillian's wooden or earthen baking vessels which were not recorded. In 1631 Palmers [59] had stored over the kitchen away from the steam"one Coffer a bolting hutch a dough/ Cimeer tooe old tubs a otemele/ basket..." 13s-4d. They took baking very seriously, but with the kitchen such a busy place did they have to make the bread in the over chamber and set it to rise before cooking it in their kitchen oven.

"Maslin bread is made half of wheat and half of rye. And there is also maslin made half of rye and half of barley" [Andrew Boorde, The Dyetary of Helth, 1542]. The manor courts were responsible for imposing and collecting a fine from any whitbaker or producer of ale who broke the assize of bread or ale. The standards were very strict though we have no records to judge if Bokingham [55], William Hill [20] or others, ever paid a fine. They called the loaves the "quartern" which weighed 4 lbs, the "half-peck" weighing 8 lb and "peck" weighing 16 lbs. A one peck loaf was said to be eaten daily in some households and it required a bushel of barley to make three full peck loaves [H.E.Hallam: Rural England 1066-1348 Fontana Press 1981 p67].

William Hill had a small bakery in Church Lane [20], but he had no land and must buy in all his corn for flour, some of which came from the vicar's farm opposite his cottage (p338). Bakers were able to buy direct from the husbandmen often acting as merchants. They could make a little profit on the purchasing, but little on the bread which had to sell at a set price. Most bakers in rural areas would take loaves to their nearest market towns arriving very early. Townsmen in Cropredy who had ovens, fuel and their own flour made great savings, perhaps half the cost, by baking their own. Other housewives would take their flour to Hills to make and bake in his oven.

Bread made from rye is not easy to handle so it was usually mixed with barley or wheat. The rye giving a good strong flavour mixed well with wholewheat providing it was a minor ingredient. In 1596 the rye harvest failed, because of the excessive rain throughout the winter before. In that year rye was brought into the country from Germany and Poland. If only Thomas Holloway had written down in 1596 where he purchased his seed corn from. It was also that same year that Bartholomew Steer, carpenter of Hampton Poyle grew anxious about the enclosing of an adjacent parish, especially as rye was rising in price. He decided to call a meeting on Enslow hill to go with others against the gentlemen responsible. They were caught, but how many others were as angry and anxious as he was? Hampton Poyle was only thirteen miles away from Cropredy (p710).

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Oat flour or meal could be kept for a short time in an oatmeal basket. They used it to make a flat cake, for having little gluten it does not allow the flour to rise. This was baked very slowly at a low heat at the end of the oven bake, or on a flat piece of iron such as Smyth [51] had in 1595. His griddle stone coming into use during the run of poor rye harvests and perhaps only noticed by the appraisers because of the crisis.

Wyatt's [31] old lead oven could have been made in the smithy. With the coming of stone chimneys a new oven would be built into the structure and lined with special bricks forming a beehive roof. Each had an iron door and to seal it once the bread was inside they pressed a strip of dough round the edge of the door.

Having the newly ground wheat and rye, or a strike of barley and rye flour, the women put a dry faggot or two into the oven and lit it, the smoke escaping through the partly open door up a flue over the oven to the chimney. When hot the oven would be swept clean with a birchwood broom and a mop swirled around to clean it. The risen bread was then placed inside and the door shut, for perhaps an hour. A peel was used to bring out the hot bread. Only two peels to take the bread out of the oven were recorded [8 & 26]. Pastries then went in and if there was still some heat left other slower dishes used it up.

Cellars.

"In the seller/ fower hogheads six barrells with thealls xxvjs viijd" [M.M.D 1/5. Richd Gorstelow 1621. O.A.].

This was recorded at Prescote manor in 1621. Gorstelow's was reached by a flight of stone steps curving round to the stone floor of the cellar. Two other properties had known cellars with stone steps. In Coldwell's [50] their water supply was in the cellar reached by stone stairs inside the house. Howse[28] had an outside stone staircase. Their cellar had a transverse beam supporting the Lodging chamber floor. It was lit by a two light stone mullion window with a fine label mould with dropped and returned ends. Although this faced south the cellar was used to store perishable goods but none needed to be mentioned in the inventories.

Wool House.

On the 11th of June 1631 they recorded the contents of Robins' [26] wool house: "two Cheare frames 5 spinninge wheeles/ one still one Irongrate six stoole frames..." worth £1-10s. The sheep were still waiting to be shorn. This wool room took up part of the bay at the nether end of the house. His mother may have used it as her buttery and partly as an entry lobby while she was alive, but now her son had converted part into a place to store wool out of the bedchamber because of the smell and possible "livestock" left in the fleece. The room at the front of the same bay became his best chamber. This had a fire and so could keep that bay dry, but he would still need to raise the sacks off the earthern or stone flag floor.

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Malt Houses and Kilns

"The place may be so, and the skill may be such

that to make thy owne mault, it shall profit thee much.

Some drieth with straw, and some drieth with wood:

wood asketh more charge, yet is nothing so good." Tusser.

Before milling for flour or malting could begin the barley had to be taken to a drying kiln. Once again Justinian Hunt [16] on the Green had the right equipment. One of the Hunts had built a kiln house and there is even a mention in 1609 of a hair cloth fine enough to allow the heat to rise to the barley, but too fine to allow grain to descend into the fire below. "In the kilne house a mault mill and an old barrell" were worth 24s. In the loft over the kiln that April he had a vat, some wood and a "hayre" cloth and rough hemp. In 1587 John Hunt had a malt sieve for helping to sort the rubbish from the drying barley.

When Thomas Holloway wrote such full records in 1614 was he housebound and having to direct operations from the study, thus giving him time to write his ledgers up in full, or was it just an average year that was saved? Their barley was made into malt by William Toms that winter of 1614/15. William was one of his servants, mentioned as "my boy wam toms" [f14v c25/2]. The Toms appear to be connected with malting more often than others whose family records have survived, except for Bostockes. Where would Elizabeth Holloway send young Toms to help malt the barley? Malt was found not only in College houses, because malt was part of the rent, but also on the following sites [4,9,14-16,21,25,26,28,31,33,39,42 & 51]. How could all this barley be dried on the few drying floors known to exist? The demand had to be fulfilled which means there must have been other kilns on those farm sites which have no inventory.

In the Holloway period only a few townsmen have a malthouse recorded in their inventories. Cross had a malt house at the upper mill [51]. Mr Hall at Springfield [6] had a one bay malt house combined with a cottage and kiln house. Woodrose's [8] had a kiln and Tanner [39] had a kill [kiln] house as well as a mill house in which he kept the malt mill. At Wyatt's [31] they eventually built a "killhouse." The three already mentioned: Hunt's [16] kiln house on the Green, Robin's [26] in the High Street and Hall's [34] down Creampot Lane still only makes eight. Elizabeth Holloway's husband entered into his farm accounts a memo. "then she had uppon the flower & kylne 3 quarters/ to be dryed" [c25/2 f8]. Did she come in to answer his queries about how much malt had come home, so that he wrote "my wyfe sayth"? Thomas was making a note at the time of how much malt his wife had made for the Vicarage at one of the town kilns with William Toms:

"a note of my malte made wth

Wam toms in wynter 1614 [1614/15]

 

The malte made & come home

before the tenth of january 1614 was

fower quarters halfe

Item more befor the 20 of march fower quarter

halfe

Item more the 4 of aprill one quarter halfe

Item more the 19 of aprill one quarter halfe

 

Memo. then she had uppo the flower & kylne 3 quarters

to be dryed

 

Memo. my wyfe sayth that my malte made unto

this six of June 1615 and then come home

is twenty one quarters

Thereof sold xiiij strykes" [c25/2 f8].

 

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At Mrs Holloway's command young Toms would take the threshed barley in a cart round to the kiln they had reserved. On arrival the first task was to steep the barley in a lead cistern for about three days with several changes of water, and then the water was allowed to drain away. The grain was now swollen and must be taken out and left in heaps to drain. It is possible this preparation was done at the vicarage and the drained barley taken by cart to a farm's upper drying floor where it was laid to a depth of 12 inches. It was William Tom's responsibility to see to the barley whilst it lay there, turning and tossing it regularly with a wooden shovel until dry. A moderate kiln fire of straw or damp wood regulated the temperature helping to dry the barley as it sprouted. Mrs Holloway had ordered three quarters (twentyfour bushels) to be dried. Small kilns could only take half a quarter at once. This was therefore a big drying area and hard work to turn. If he was lucky one of the maids went to help stoke the fire. The husbandman might be a good maltster and control the making, helping to regulate the growth of the shoots to ensure the grain germinated evenly. The grain needed regular raking for two to three weeks and from one to four days over the kiln where it rested three inches thick on a hair cloth, then the shoots were burnt off and the grain was ready to become the white to brown chalky powder known as malt. Once it was cooled, winnowed and ground then Tom took home to his mistress the quarters of malt.

The vicar notes "malt spent in my house 9 strykes" [f1cv] for their consumption. Keeping it safe and shut away was very important, because of the duty to be paid on all malt. Malt was stored therefore in a windowless compartment, though when it was in a staff chamber did they allow a small window with the malt in a closed and locked garner? It is highly probable the windowhole was lacking for some cottages even in this century were found to have no windows in back bedrooms, or even if they had one they were not all made to open.

If the Holloways had twentyone quarters of malt brought home this was sufficient to produce sixtythree hogsheads of beer! One hogshead should hold fifty imperial gallons. Surely they sold a great deal before brewing the rest. How long could they use the kiln?

The malt was measured in quarters, the weight of which was 336 lbs (or seams) equal to eight malt bushels. Tanner has two quarters of malt in his inventory. This would be enough to make six hogsheads of ale and perhaps some small ale. In 1631 Robins [26] had eight quarters of malt worth £16. Robins' malt house in June held only plough timber seasoning quietly out of the sun until the next barley harvest started further activity.

Most people like the Hunts kept their malt in a special garner over the entry. The room over the entry, or a hall chamber, having the warmth of the chimney proved an ideal dry storage place. A few needed large garners due to the size of their household and so their needs were revealed by the amount of equipment. Large households required staff who in turn needed to be catered for. French's [4] kept their garner in the chamber over the kitchen where the men usually slept.

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Robins [26] had the garner in the servants' room in 1603 and his son kept two garners with the men, only he had moved their chamber into the cockloft. Alese Howse [28] in May 1609 had four quarters of malt in a vat worth £4. Richard Hall [34] had two garners in the men's chamber and the malt, about nine quarters in March 1634, was valued at £13-10s. Richard had a kill [kiln] house in which he also brews. Here he kept "one vlerige fatt a Garner/ one maltmill three Coules/ one heere.." [hair] valued at £2-13s-4d.

Brewing.

Thomas Holloway: "I give my wieffe my brewinge leads, vats, keever, and all things accomptable, as cowpery ware, to her use onelie" 1619.

Brewing was necessary for husbandmen's households and many artisans as well. Sometimes a copper was built into the hall chimney on the opposite side to the oven. Robins' [26] backhouse chimney had a very complicated flue and the brewing copper may have been behind in the western end of the extension and the oven on the home side (p568). Improvements were made over the following centuries to this chimney.

The Reverend W. Harrison found yeomen sending sons to university as well as putting glass in their windows and adding Brew houses. He did not look any further down the social scale. Harrison made ten score gallons of beer for £1 which included the cost of malt, wood, wages and food as well as the wear and tear on his equipment. This cost him one old penny a gallon. Three hogsheads of beer could be produced from one quarter of malt.

The only "Bruehouse" in Cropredy during our period was at Edmund Tanner's [39]. Prescote manor had one in Richard Gorstelow's time (d 1621). The rest used the kitchen or hall [4,8,16,25,26,34] and Cross his backhouse [51].

Tanner's brewhouse had a small furnace and his mashing tub was made from a large barrel. Edmund would boil up the water with his little furnace and then transfer it to his mashing tub. This was raised up about a foot so that the wort could be taken off into a smaller wooden tub below. To the boiled water was added five bushels of malt well and truly stirred and then covered over. A few hours later hot water was very very slowly allowed to pass through the thick mass. The lower tap allowing the wort to flow into the small vat or tub. The wort was put into the copper. Hops were then added. The fresher the hops the stronger the beer. G.Markham wrote in his The English Hus-wifes [1615 London]:

"After the malt is ground they put it into a mash vat and the liquor in the [cauldron] being ready to boyle, put it to the malt and mash together. Let it stand an hower. Then drain the liquor from the malt and put it in the [cauldron] againe, and ad to it for every quarte of malt a 1 1/2 lbs of hops and boyle over for the space of an hower. Then cleanse the liquor from the hops through a strait sive into the Cooler... then put in your barme and after they have wrought, then heate them together, then tunne your Beere into hoggsheads, let it purdge well, and after closse them up. This Beere may be drunke at a fortnight's age and is of long lasting."

As all farmers grew barley and needed to brew there were several querns, or malt mills found in the inventories [1,4,8,25,26,34,35,39,51,59,60]. Mrs Holloway left in her will of 1623 "My brueing furnace of copper wch standeth in the kitchen." Her husband had intended she carried on brewing for the family. They were called brewing furnaces [4,8,14,16] or coppers for brewing [21,31,39] such as "one furnace of copper" at Gorstelow's of Prescote, or Hall's [34] "leads to brew in" £1. The last may have been the one Rychard Watts' appraisers found in 1602 when they recorded a lead and malt mill also worth £1.

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This expensive piece of equipment was often left to a son in a will. The first one recorded in the inventories was widow Gybbs [?25] in 1577: "iij vattes an old stryke a heyre clothe a new stryke/ an old troffe a brewing ledd" 15s and "vj lommbs ij payles a kymnell an old saltinge/ troffe..." 6s. Nuberry [8] had "a brewynge leade" 16s-8d with a wooden covering for "ye Leade," "a dry fatte" ij/. "ij old colves ij loomes a small powdringe tubbe iiij payles" 4s as well as "iiij malte seves and vij small syves" 1s-8d and "an old here cloth" also 1s-8d. Alyse Howse [28] has "ffoure maultsives a pecke and a hayre sive/" and a "hayre cloth".

In a PCC will made by Robert Woodrose [8] came the following instruction in 1625: To Nicholas my "brewing furnace as it now stands and my mashing ffatts with the frame that it stands upon and my cooling ffats with the frame it stands upon. And also my mault myles. The wife to have the use of them while she dwells there." This eventually left Dyonice and Martha in joint ownership of the cowpery ware (p521). They were in the old hall which used the central chimney with the flue opposite the oven. In here Nicholas left "one paire of iron racks one brewinge/ Copper one mashinge fatt one Coleinge fatt one yealeinge fatt fower Cowles fower pales/ one malt mill..." which were valued with a cheese press, three spits, two dripping pans etc at £2-17s.

In 1632 French [4] had "in the kitchen [a] furnace a messinge/ rake 3 cowles 2 steds 2 dowe/ kivers 1 cistern on side trough a/ cheese press on payre of pot hangles..." worth £3. The kitchen furnace and cistern together meant it was all inside the house. Could it mean that French's had water in the cistern and side trough coming from the well house mentioned in 1617? It was surely possible using gravity.

Other brewing equipment might be found in kitchens, boulting houses or butteries. Mashing vats [4 & 31], yealing tubs [4, 8 & 36] and hair cloths [16]. Those who had malt also had some cowpery ware. Many had wooden pails. Hunt's [16], Woodrose's [8] and the Vicar [21] had a wort tub, a shallow vessel to take the wort to the copper. Ffendries [43] cowperry ware was worth 12s-4d. Others with cowpery equipment were Hill's [20] Sutton's [42] Watt's [27] and Palmer's [1].

Tanner [39] sold hops in his shop, but how many grew their own in small quantities? In the last quarter of the sixteenth century the growing of hops spread rapidly north from London. Tanner would be able to get the preferred fresh ones, but he had to store hops throughout the year for later brews.

In 1587 the vicar sold to Goodwyfe Mosely and Goodwyfe King of Wardington quarters of malt. He arranged for them to pay at the next Michaelmas quarter day or Saint Thomas day. Were these two widows making and selling ale to keep either themselves or their families fed? In April 1589 they are included in his sales of "maslyne" and there unfortunately the record stops (p338). All ale houses required a licence from the church courts. From a few references we know that Bokingham [55], Bostocks [41] and possibly Densey [13] sold ale.

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Kitchens.

The stone houses which were built in the sixteenth century generally had an oven built into the hall chimney and this dictated the area of cooking. Although the majority kept on cooking in the hall twenty of the known households also had a kitchen. In there they hung some of the bacon, prepared the vegetables, salted the pig and stored large equipment. It all depended on what work was carried out on the premises, what space was required, the work in hand, and the size of the household, especially if they had living in servants. Even if they had a kitchen boulting hutches and bread making equipment might still be found in other parts of the house.

Did two of the cottagers who had a hall hearth also have one in the kitchen, for Palmers [59] and Pares [58] appear to reverse the name of the two rooms and cook in their kitchens? Why had the appraisers decided those were kitchens and not halls. At Pares the long table, forms and pewter were in the hall along with "2 brasse potts & four kettells xvjs." They obviously ate and lived in there and kept the brass cooking equipment inside the hall, or placed it there for appraisal? They had two hearths already but in 1663 the house had three chimneys. In the "Kychen" they had

"A bultinge wytch a kredinge trough 3 payles .........viijs vjd/

a fyer grate 2 payre of hangells a spytt/

a fyer sholve a payre of cobbords 2 payre

of potthokes a payre of bellowes & an

axe & a frying pan .........................................................viijs/

v serry stooles [?] .................................................................xijd."

The cooking could definitely be done here in the kitchen. Across the Hello passage their neighbours the Palmers [59] only ate and sat in their hall, but both the hall and kitchen had chambers over them and could have had a chimney. The cottage was not paying rates. The most likely place for Palmer's hearth was in the kitchen. Their possessions included a malt mill found "over the stayres" perhaps on a shelf using loose boards. This meant they might be brewing. Their dough kiver and bolting hutch were kept in the kitchen chamber (p447) which surely meant they had their own oven to the same chimney, while out in their yard they had the necessary "ffuces" and old wood, for the oven and fire. Their women's tasks included the use of the:

"2 Coles 3 payles/

a kiver three barreles t[w]o Cremepots 4 milke panes/

all the brasse and pewter/

a dishbench and dishes and a/

Churne and a little table..." with a "Chayre" to sit on.

By 1663 nineteen taxable houses had two or more hearths. Only a few farms had added an extra kitchen chimney, possibly for the brewing furnace. It would be a long time before the cooking pots were all taken from the communal hall into the kitchen. Three generations must continue to share the one hearth unless a second one could be afforded by the tenant. This was a large outlay for so little financial gain.

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When the properties changed hands in the late seventeenth century the landlords might encourage some tenants who had some financial backing to make improvements such as new windows, extra chimneys, including a brewhouse or kitchen after which the entry fine could be put up.

There were two early kitchen chimneys in the High Street. Had they both been put in at the expense of the tenant? Gybbs [25] and Robins [26] had kitchens extending out from behind the hall house and long before 1577 widow Gybbs had cooking utensils by her kitchen hearth (p561). In Robins' house next door their kitchen was alongside Newstreet Lane and this acquired a chimney sometime after 1603. It had an early oven and into this complicated chimney a brewing furnace was made at the back. This was necessary due to the narrowness of the kitchen extension. There was a loft above the kitchen for storage, but this did not connect with the house as Gybbs' did. The only way to reach the loft was by a ladder (p568).

Alese Howse's [28] kitchen was not the present kitchen which is a later north extension. The position of the Howse kitchen is still unknown and no second fireplace was recorded in the 1660s.

Kitchens were used to store food especially when they had no hearth. At Justinian Hunt's [16] in April 1609 he had left in the "kicsin"

"a lead a mesh fat a boltinge which/

a moulding stocke a forme and a stell ...........................xxiijs id/

Ten flychins of Bacon and ffive of beefe ...............iiij£/..."

Out of all the households only Hunt's had sides of beef hanging. A great many had flitches of bacon in the kitchen or elsewhere in the house (p277).

Thomas Gybbs [25] in May 1629 had besides the "saltinge troe" and tubs, seven "ffleeches" of bacon hanging up, or smoking in the chimney? Flitches of bacon had come from the house holder's pigs, which required a salting tub. Halls [34] and Wyatts [31] have one in their kitchens. Toms [15] and Lumberd [14] used the buttery. Bokingham [55] and Nuberry [8] the dairy, and Fenny [43] had to keep his in the hall. The other houses who salted their pigs were Howse [9,24,28], Gybbs [25], Robins [26], Kynd [31], Tanner [39], Elderson [38] and Cross [51]. The last had a lead worth 10s to salt his store pigs in, if it wasn't a cheese! Hung up were Truss's [33] two flitches of bacon. Smyth [51] had a "bacon which." Was this a wooden chest lined with lead to salt bacon in? Suffolk [60] had a "powdering Iron". These were iron pots to salt or pickle meat in and he kept this in the milk house. Woodrose [8] has two powdering tubs and one powdering trough in the cheese chamber. Some spelt it according to how it was pronounced in their household: "troe" others "trowe" or "troffe." In Bourton William Hall left "one stone trough and a wodden trough to salt meat in," valued at 4s in 1588 [MS. Will Pec. 41/1/12]. They also had a spice mortar with a pestle. These were quite common in wealthier households, but noted for their rare appearances in Cropredy. French [4] had their bacon where we would expect it in the kitchen chimney (p506). They also had a lead to "brand" in. Those with an open hall fire carried on in their old fashioned ways and hung the bacon up in the roof to smoke it, or if they had a chimney and space in the kitchen roof kept it up there out of the way.

Kitchen equipment varied a great deal and most valuers would miss out such items as Rychard Watt's [34] "dishes boles suters cheesevats spoones and trenchers" in 1602. These were worth iijs and the cowpery ware ixs. Later in 1628 [8] nine wooden dishes and six old spoons were worth only 3d.

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At Wydow Kynd's [31] they include her "wach tub" called the "broash" tub in her husband's list. A broash tub was generally an earthenware bowl and often glazed white on the inside. This was used for washing right into this century in West Glamorgan. Was this pronounced as "bro-ash" for wood ash was part of the washing ingredients? In Nuberry's [8] spence, between the hall and kitchen, they had a "broashe" worth 4d in 1578. Other households used shallow wooden tubs called kivers to wash in. Tubs were made by the cooper who bound them with metal or willow hoops. Half an old barrel also made an ideal bathing tub, if it was given handles for emptying. There was no evidence of stone troughs by the Cherwell for the whole town, only troughs in the yards near the wells which must have been sufficient for a more private home wash. In a thirty acre farm in Ceredigion they had made a brick trough under a pipe coming directly from the spring. The quality of the water was assured by a pair of toads taking up residence under a stone in the trough. A smooth area by the trough was used for washing. Not many Cropredy households could have the advantage of a hill to bring and take away water, but they would take advantage of the trough to fill it with water from the well for rinsing and Wyatt's [31] waste water could escape into the ditch and run down the Lane to the Cherwell. On flatter sites waste water would go to the vegetable area.

Ralph and Margerete Nuberry's [8] wide kitchen and dairy house at the north end of the long house was not short of equipment: "of brasse ij pannes and a hanginge kettell..." £1-6s-8d "a small kettell a chafinge dyshe a small dabnet iiijs/ ij brasse pottes & pottynger of brasse and a skimmer xxjs/ an axe ij hatchets a byll ijs ijd/ ij gospanes a brand Iron a fryinge pann a paire of cobbards a gryd Iron ij spites vijs-vjd..." with other brewing vessels (p670) as well as "one great tankard ij small vjd/ ix wodde dishes vj old sponnes iijd..." Some sieves, strykes winnowing sheet, ten sackes and a stryke bagge, boards, a ladder and old pieces of wood and a stell and that bacon already mentioned up in the roof. At Rychard Watts [34] was a "flaskett and Baskett" 1s, which generally appear together in the inventories.

Nuberry's [8] had four crab pounders to crush the hard crab apples which were collected to make cider. The cider barrel would be sealed with a wooden stopper and some wax. Some would change to vinegar, called a verjuice, and was then used for medicinal purposes in the cowshed as well as helping with older meat. They kept this in a "verges" barrel at Hunts [16] and Robins [26].

Nuberry's and later Woodrose's [8] had a spence and so did Cleredges of Bourton. This was mentioned in a will leaving "a which at spence dore." In Prescote manor Gorstelow's did not have a spence but kept a safe in the larder. The word larder came from the swine's lard, but their two flitches were hung in the brewhouse in 1621.

Wells.

"You'll never miss the water till the well runs dry."

Wells were lined with stone. They varied in depth widening out towards the rock at the bottom. As the water from the flooded meadows sometimes rose towards the Hentlowe's [35] house leaving the north east part of the building very damp, how safe was their well which was by the eastern entrance? The tenant at the end of the last century was one of those who pressed the College to lay on tap water. In the cattle yard just north of the well they had made a great cesspit, so being at the bottom of the Lane had many disadvantages in a very wet season. They would be diligent in keeping the pond from silting up and the ditch clear which led to the mill pound.

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The ditch ran beside the track to the meadow gate and then turned southwards. It looks as though this was a measure taken to help drain off waste liquids to keep the well water clean. What happened when the water table was very high and the valley flooded?

Wells were so necessary and the convenience of having one sunk right beside a door would have been greatly appreciated. During the rebuilding the position of the well in relation to the back door was of prime importance and may have led to the stone building being in the same position as the old timber house. Robins [16] had one deep well and it may be a second shallower well was dug for washing water and a third to give another drinking well. In 1603 in their kitchen and bolting house they had the well curb, chain and bucket, could there be a well in there under cover?

Cropredy had several lines of wells on both sides of the road. The main wells tapped underground water which in the upper town flows eastwards down to the valley, while the rest may flow south eastwards. Had these influenced the original siting of houses, or was water easy to find?

Down Creampot all had a well. Howse and Lyllee in the courtyard [28], Cattell's [30] in the yard, Rede's [32] in the rickyard, Truss's [33] behind in the garden. Wyatt's [31] which was by the road had a curb. Near by were his hog troughs and a horse trough. Teams of horses and several cattle required a great deal of water so the troughs were positioned next to the well and helped the chore of topping them up. In Bourton Thomas Smyth's farm was just as organised for in 1612 he left "ij wells wth the curbes buckletts and chaynes wth A stone troff to water cattell standinge by they wells" valued at 13s-4d [MS.Wills Pec.51/1/2]. There was plenty of water supplying the spring and overflow pond at the top of Rede's yard, for centuries later it still overflowed. Their well was in the higher garden to the west of the yard and house (p589). Eldersons [38] had a well near the back door and one behind the barn. He had at least one well chain and bucket for the house, so the other may be either for his cows, or a later addition for the cottages made from the barn. Breeden's [37] well was behind the house and Huxeley's [36] stone lined drinking well near the front entrance (p398). Tanner's [39] had one well between their pond and the house, perhaps in line with the Elderson's [38] well to the north.

Down Church Street a line of wells might start at Fenny's [43] at the top passing in front of Rawlins [45] and on to the rear behind Whyte's [46] and the three cottages [47-49]. Coldwell's at [50] used a spring in the cellar. In the High Street other cottagers had the use of one behind Sutton's [42]. In Church Lane Vaughan's [23] had just a lid to cover the very deep well. His well at the front was still renowned, three hundred years later, for its fine drinking water, but the cottages across the road had wells at the back which were not as deep or the water as pleasant to drink.

Water may not have been too much of a problem when the population was around 330, but in the nineteenth century when each bay of building in some of the old farms had been converted into a cottage often with several occupiers, there were problems due to water shortage over the summer months. This was only partially solved when extra water was brought down from the spring level in Hackthorn, above Harble, and piped to the B manor properties at the end of the nineteenth century.

French's [4] built a well house now under the turf in Springfield garden, or the field behind. In the "well house one mault mill 2 plowes with plowe tymber" worth £1-14s, so it was doubling as a winter storage place in the February when he died. Wyatt, Lumberd, Rede, Cross, Robins and Gybbs [31,14,32,51,26,25]were some who had a curb for their wells, but did everyone have one? The curb of the well and the furniture to it were worth about 4s.

Page 675

The fact that curbs were seldom recorded may be because the tackle belonged to the landlord, after a change in tenancy. Other items were the well bucket, rope and links worth 1s in 1607 [15]. These were not mentioned in the next two inventories on this site and several others are missed, for example the Brasenose farm [8]. Hunt's [16] was then to the rear of their house like Toms [15], but it was not recorded. Gybb's [25] well only appears in 1629, yet this too was an old site and there was more than one well. For the two houses [1 and 1a] at the south end of Cropredy by the lower mill there was a well where the lane turns east towards the river.

Pewter, Silver and Gold.

Such was the demand for pewter tableware that the pewterers of London had to supply and pay other master pewterers to help fill their orders as the industry grew. The "fine" pewter was made from tin and a little copper. "Common" pewter had tin and lead while the last grade had only 80% tin with the rest of lead and copper. Tin miners sold their tin to dealers who purchased for the Pewterer's Company in London. The miners did not achieve wealth because many were unable to free themselves from debt, having to continuly strive to pay it off. In 1568 an English company was formed to mine calamine (a native zinc carbonate) and make brass, which before this was imported from Germany. "Latten" candlesticks are mentioned which were hammered cold with a lower zinc content than the ones they could forge in the fire. They had first to melt zinc ore in liquid copper and tin.

Once again the Reverend Harrison made a comment that the farmers were "Garnishing their cupboards with plate." How much detail did the appraisers give and what value did they put on them? Most families collected and displayed their pewter which was thin, light and round, or "latten" platters as Smyth had in 1595 [51]. At the same time the majority like Kynd's [31] continued to use their wooden square trenchers.

Platters were on display, or hidden safely away in thirtytwo properties described by appraisers, but twentyfour other households had the platters disguised in a lump sum which reduces the value of comparison between types of collections.

Cottagers like Watts [27] the weaver had sixteen. Cox [49] had ten and Cross [51] had eight. Bokingham [55], Kendall [?13] the thatcher, Fenny [43] and Gulliver [?41] had five each. Pare [58] the collarmaker had seven, Lucas [2] the carpenter three, while Matcham [18] the tailor and Smyth [51] the miller had one each . Watts [27] had the same number of platters as French [4].

Husbandmen continued to purchase platters. The inventories showed the Nuberrys [8] with twentyfour, Robins [26] twentythree, Lumberd junior [14] a husbandman and Woodrose [8] a gentleman had seventeen, and then came French [4], a husbandman, with sixteen. Lumberd senior [14] and Vaughan [23] had fourteen, Widow Kynd [31] twelve, Widows Gybbs in 1577 [?25] and Alese Howse [28] had ten like Cox of Church Street. John Kynd [31] and Justinian Hunt [16] just eight each. John Hunt [16] and Arthur Watts [34] seven platters or pieces. Widow Batchelor and her son-in-law Gybbs [25] had only six. Thirteen had from one to five platters.

There were pewter "basons" at [13,14,25,49]. Nuberrys, Woodroses [8] and Robins [26] in 1631 had a "Ewer and Bason." Cross [51] had three basons and Lumberd [14] one. The rest would wash their fingers at the table in wooden bowls, or in a handy pail. In many households they would still be using a leather jug known as a "black-jack," but a few had flaggons to fill their pewter or horn mugs: Gybbs [25] and Lumberds [14] had two. Wyatts [31] and Robins [26] had three each.

Page 676

Just Nuberry [8] had a small and great tankard. Kendall [13] and Toms [15] also had one tankard each. Pint tankards were only about six or seven inches high, but by the turn of the century they had become taller and thinner.

The gap between the purchasing power of cottagers and husbandmen had begun to close, but it is difficult to interpret how important it was to a cottager. Did they wish to increase their standing? Or was it a determined attempt to avert disaster by having something of value when there was no simple banking available, other than bonds between trusting neighbours. The wooden platters, trenchers and spoons (some of horn) were good enough in a frugal economy, but once the wages of the sixteenth century increased many craftsmen and labourers started their own collections of pewter. Apart from being useful items to endow their children with, they could be displayed and used in company. Unfortunately even though the wages still rose after 1600 their purchasing power was only half of what their grand fathers' coins could bring in and this boom in the pewter trade reaching down to the cottagers may have been coming to an end for a while.

This did not deter all the craftsmen who may have collected pewter from executors to pay outstanding debts. If three good shearling ewes were worth £1 then the value of the following five pewter collections can be better judged. Brass was valued much higher than pewter and such items were needed for daily cooking. The three most important pewter items, after platters, were "salts" "sawcers" and spoons.

The salt was the most significant piece of pewter on the table, for the more important people in the household sat above the salt cellar while lesser folk sat below it. Salt cellars were not always lumped into a valuation. There were fortytwo on eighteen sites from twentythree inventories [8,13,15,16,24-29,31,33,34,38,39,43,51,55].

"Sawcers" were shallow dishes without a rim. They were used to serve spiced sauces to overflavour strong meat. The rich used glass which the vinegar would not affect, but here they are definitely of pewter.

Spoons might once have been taken along to a meal in another house along with the personal knife. Nuberry [8] had twenty "tyn" spoons and a tin bowl in 1578, but pewter spoons were recorded in widow Gybbs' [?25] as early as 1577. She had six. Her neighbour widow Robins [26] left spoons two years later. Others were Hunts [16] who had twelve in 1587, seven at Woodrose's [8], six at Smyth's [51] in 1597 and two widows Robins [26] and Bicke [25] in 1627. Altogether twelve households left spoons in inventories. Five households [56, 38,55, 18, 43] reveal the spoons and salts thought necessary for their households:

1624 Wood: "all his pewter and spones" worth 13s-4d

1624 Elderson, carpenter: "9 pewter dishes, spones & 2 salts" 9s

1625 Bokingham: "5 platters, 5 sawcers, 1 pewter tunning dish, 6 spoones, 1 dozen trenches

& 1 salt" 6s-8d [These could have been of low quality because of the ale house].

1630 Matcham: "1 pott, 2 platters, 2 saucers spoons & dishes..."

1636 Ffendrie: "4 platters 2 saucers, 2 salts a pewter pot and spoones" 8s.

The above were a cross section from the lower end of the middle income group, if not quite in the bottom group of rural inhabitants. They lived in good stone houses and had been able to form a small nest egg of displayable goods.

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The highest pewter valuations per decade were at the following houses and cottages:

1570's: Nuberry [8], Gybbs [25] and Howes [9] out of seven. Highest £3-2s-8d.

1600's: Robins [26], R.Watts [34], Howse [28], Hunts [16] out of twentyfive. Highest £3-19s-4d.

1610's: 3 cottagers Watts [27], Truss [33], Coxe [49] out of nine. Highest £3-6s-8d.

1620's: Woodrose [8], Palmer [1], Wd Batchelor and Gybbs [25] out of nineteen. Highest £5-2s-2d.

1630's: Robins [26], Wyatt [31], Lumberd Jnr. [14], French [4], Hall [34], Lumberd Snr. [14],

Palmer [1], Tanner [39] and Devotion [3]. Highest £9-16s-0d.

Many gentlemen whom we could expect to find owning such goods had none. Had they purchased land instead? Or had all their assets been spent while they needed nursing care? Widow Coldwell [50] had her late husband's will proved in London. Arthur Coldwell had left pieces of silver to various relations (p679). The manor farms started buying silver especially spoons protected by leather cases. The wealthier gave a christening spoon to a godchild. These early spoons had rounded bowls. Woodroses [8] had one silver salt and three spoons worth £1-10s in 1628 and Robins [26] three years later left two spoons valued at 10s. Were any spoons given to children as christening presents valued with a parent's estate? Had Elizabeth Holloway [21] as godmother to Elizabeth Robins [26], her grandchild, given her a silver spoon and this accounted for one of her father's two spoons?

In the husbandmen's and wealthier artisan's houses other items appear. A very early mention of special salad dishes and "salletts," were found at Woodroses [8]. The two generations each had a garden to feed their separate households (p513).

Warming pans were not verycommon. French [4] had his included in the pewter not the brass, and Alyce Batchelor's [25] valued separately was worth 4s in the 1620's. Warming pans first receive a mention in 1603 at Robins' [26] valued at 2s-6d. The miller with land [1] had one in 1605, and of course four of the five trend setters: the Lumberds, Frenchs, Tanners and Wyatts [14,4,39,31], but not this time the Hunts [16]. Long handled warming pans, holding hot embers safely inside the pan, were moved round the bed to warm it for the elderly, the sick, or to air visitors' beds. In one of the landlord's letters he did not want to arrive in Cropredy to collect his rents and find the bedding damp. "Pray have a great care of our goods and see they be kept from damps" 3 September 1683 [Boothby Letters Add. MS. 71960 p 94]. The following January he insists "...let them be aired by a good fier. Especially the beding" [Jany 4th], and when he came for the Michaelmas rent in October "...because the New Rooms [15] may not be well air'd pray let Mrs Wyatt [50] know wee design to lye att her house this Time and I desire the Roomes and Beds may be well aired, and necessaryes for my horses provided." He added that he did not intend to stay long [Add. MS. 71962 p1]. There were several chimneys at Job Wyatt's [50], the B. manor [8] and a few other Wyatt households where it had become fashionable to keep bedrooms aired by a fire. Other households must heat a stone in the hot ashes of the hall fire, before wrapping it well in a cloth, and so helped to warm the bedclothes which proved a cheaper and worthwhile method.

The Woodroses [8] have besides the basin and ewer "1 potte pott, 1 wine pott, 1 wine shorte pott, a wine pinte pott, 1 quart pott, 1 half pinte pott, 1 rounde pott wth a cover, 1 little pott..." in 1628. They could afford to buy imported wine. There are no records to say how much wine was made at home, except for wine given to the vicar (p280).

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Those amongst the husbandmen and their sons, who had lived for a generation in a stone house complete with chimneys, now found that a little of the profits could be used for internal comfort or display and this may be one reason for the number of their candlesticks and other pewter ware. The chamberpots were found at Robins [26] who had three pewter pots in 1631. Lumberds [14] owned two and Broughton's [9] one. Nuberry [8] in 1578 followed by John Gardner of Bourton in 1591, Tanner [39] in 1630 and Hall [34] in 1634 all had one each. Some of these households could have had long term nursing care of the elderly: Allys Whitinge [14] and Margery Broughton [9] and perhaps a sick Isabell Tanner [39]. The only other college tenant who had one was the spinster Em Devotion in [3] 1658 and she could afford one. Others no doubt had wooden buckets. How many had close stools, which the appraiser discreetly called just stools, or "joyned stools?" The trip out to the cowbarn was the usual place for relieving oneself, and for some that required a candle, not a lantern, to find the way. Smells were an everyday occurance, from sweet hay to strong ammonia of the cow stall and lanes. This was one good reason to strew herbs over the hall floor in summer, and fill the garden spaces with highly scented flowers.

It came as a surprise when only five households mention "lanthornes:" Redes [32], R.Watts [34], Vaughan [23], Hunts [16], and Bokingham [55]. A candle "lanthorne" was very necessary to lower into a well before descending to repair or clean it. Shepherds took them round their flock as the soft light would not disturb sleeping ewes. A light would be very necessary to ascertain what the problem was during a difficult lambing. The "lanthornes" were made of tin with a panel of horn scraped thin. Inside they fixed a candle. In 1625 a lantern was valued at 6s-8d, the same as a good ewe. By most barn doors a stone was left out making a candle shelf which would take a lantern or candle. A few such as the ones at Huxeley's [36] have a good stone surround. The barn behind Bayleys [19] also has a shaped stone alcove. Here the candles stood out of reach of draughts, beasts and hay carrying and lit up the cow stall when milking on a wet dark dawn.

No rushlight holders have been recorded at Cropredy. Wooden candlesticks also escaped a mention, perhaps because they soon became dangerously scorched. Safer brass or pewter candlesticks had been in use for more than fifty years. Most inventories found they had been left in the hall after being brought down from the chambers each morning ready for the following evening meal. Candlesticks were at first plain and elegant standing upon three small feet which held the stem. At the top a spike was used to impale the candle and a wax-pan was fitted under the spike to catch the melting wax. The early tallow candles were apt to bend and drip dangerously. They also smelt of pieces of rancid fat which had not been clarified out. Later on they used bullock tallow which was mixed with sheep's tallow and made a stronger sweeter candle, and by Holloway's time they had begun to insert a spun twisted wick, which produced a better light. The most expensive candles were made from bees wax. The wax was flattened and wicks of Turkey cotton laid on them. The wax was then folded over and hand rolled into a round candle. Once candles had improved they could be used in the newer socket holders which replaced the spike. Candle snuffers had to be handy to prevent a fire. Candle shears to trim the wicks would have been made by the Denseys or the Wyatts. Tanners sold "spiles" for candles and pipes in their shop. Some broken clay pipes have been dug up in the close once belonging to Howse's farm [9].

The manor farm[8] had seven candlesticks. There were five at [14,16,26,28,32], four at [24,51,55], three at [4,8,14,16,24,27, 31], two in [23,26,29,37,39,48,51,57], and one at [4,9,13,15,25,31,34,40, 43,51]. It is almost certain if a cottage had no rushlight holder they must have had at least one candlestick.

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Bokingham [55] was a labourer when he died, but as his wife ran an ale house they had four candlesticks and one "lanthorne" mentioned above. On the other hand the Watts/Hall [34] house with several rooms had only one candlestick and one hearth in their two and a half storey house. The large number of children in the Watt's family must learn to comfort each other in the dark chambers. There is no way of telling what kind of candlestick they had, brass or pewter, without a value attached to them and even then we do not know what kind Pratt left in 1609 when "fower candle stickes" were valued at 2s.

In the poultry tithe book [c25/6] the vicar receives not only fowl, but also candles from Thomas Sutton [42] the tailor, and "Fenny" [43] sends a "pond of candle" on two occasions. Thomas Elderson [38] a carpenter provides two great candles for the church. Justinian Hunt [16] had tallow in 1609 and Cross [51] in 1614 had six pounds of tallow. The butcher, Henry Hill [58], the baker William Hill [20] and the candlestick maker were all important. Why did Fenny [43] send candles twice if he did not make them? We do not know for certain who regularly made the better candles, nor who made the candle holders. Leather trades needed tallow or beeswax for dressing the leather (p281), and they also needed to wax their hemp for sewing.

Both manor farms had begun to buy gold rings and were mentioned in wills. Mr Arthur Coldwell [50] left a "gould Ring with a mandsare in yt" [A man's hair?]. Arthur also left nine silver spoons, one worth 13 shillings to nine relatives or godsons. Other godsons had a salt with a silver cover, a silver band, his great goblet of silver, a white silver tankard and another tankard. Dyonice Woodrose [8] had some silver and gold in the house (p520).

The shepherd Valentyne Huxeley left a gold ring. Rings were rare items in Cropredy. All these are in PCC wills except for the gold ring belonging to Mrs Elizabeth Holloway [21] whose will was proved at Cropredy in 1623:

"One ringe of gold wch hath this inscription,

'This is my Mothers gift, wch my mother gave'

and my gold ringe where in the stone is."

Her husband Thomas Holloway who plays such a vital part in the Cropredy records had "one hundred pounds in goulde and silver in my house, at the writinge hereof as my wiffe and my daughter knoweth, I doe give the said hundred pounds unto Thomas my son." Thomas and Gamaliells were to share the plate, but allowing their mother the use of them. "I give my goulde ringes, the greater to my sonne Gamaliells, the lesser to my sonne Thomas... concerning my household goods" half went to his wife "Shee to make her choyce," the other half to the two remaining children Thomas and Joanne.

Weaver Watts shall have the last word. Obviously boldly on display were William's and Anes's sixteen platters, two salts, three brasen candlestickes worth 26s-8d. All ready for legacies. More for their every day use were their "halfe a dozen of woden dishes half a dozen of spoones one shielfe" 1s. Most did not bother to record them so perhaps these were carved dishes and worth a mention.