[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question

[Terry Decker]

It doesn't require a forester to collect downed limbs to make bundles of
faggots to sell to the baker and it was common many of the feudal countries
to allow the locals to collect downed wood for personal use or for sale thus
reducing the fire danger to the more valuable standing wood.  I'm not sure
of the Norman practice in this regard.

Milling and baking privileges were commonly reserved to the jurisdiction, so
the local lord might control the mill and the communal oven and charge a fee
for providing access and the services of a miller, baker or ovenkeeper.
These privileges were occasionally the source of some very interesting
disputes.

The Conquest was not complete in 1066.  It took 4 to 5 years to consolidate
control of eastern England under the Normans.  The nine years of famine are
very likely the result of an ongoing resistance.

Bear




> As an aside, and possible topic for further discussion, does anyone have
any extant evidence of
> fuel shortage after the Norman Conquest in 1066?  I was looking over a few
pages yesterday which
> clearly indicate that England experienced a rather severe famine after the
Conquest (20,000 +
> dead), due to the inability to adequately farm the fields for roughly 9
years.  I would assume
> that the same would hold true for the foresters, or other persons who were
responsible for the
> gathering of wood fuel for community ovens.  Anyone?
>
>
> William de Grandfort