BREAD AND BAKERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 November 1934, Page 8

BREAD AND BAKERS

SOME OLD-TIME CHANCES In the early days of public breadmaking and selling, between six and seven centuries ago, it was usual to employ women to distribute the loaves. As payment for their labour, the baker gave an extra loaf for every twelve. This piece of bread could either be sold or kept as the woman pleased. Thus arose the idea of a “baker’s dozen” being thirteen. Another fact -concerning these female bread carriers and sellers is that no loaves were taken back if they were cold. Apparently the regulation was adopted for the purpose of stimulating the activity of the female sellers and preventing dawdling. The word “lady” is said to be derived from a compound Saxon word, meaning “distributor of bread.” Women were naturally the household bread-makers, as they are to-day in remote rural districts, and they also distributed it to dependents and others.

The fact that bread was sold in open market in olden times is still impressed upon the minds of passers along Cheap-side, London. “Bread Street” marks the spot where the bakers took their wares from the bakeries at Stratford and offered them to the public. It is supposed that Stratford was chosen on account of its proximity to Epping Forest, which extended much nearer to the City of London than it does at present; the bakers could obtain fuel cheaply from the forest!

RULES AND PENALTIES From the earliest times the baker has been hedged by rules and .regulations, with the fear of heavy penalties ever before his eyes. Not only in London, but in many other places in the country, have by-laws been passed against him. One, which sounds somewhat curious nowadays, prescribed that butter should not be used in the making of bread! A subsequent law enacted that no suet should be mixed with the flour. In 1307 the London Company of Bakers received power"to examine all bread within a 12-mile radius of the City of London, with the further power of inflicting punishments. If the examining offifial found shortage of weight or inferiority of quality, the baker was liable to have his whole stock confiscated and given to the poor of the parish. If the poor had suffered through the man’s unfair dealing, they benefited by his detection. Confinement in the pillory, with a loaf or two dangling from his neck like an exaggerated necklace —that was another form of punishment. The gibbet was yet another form. It was not a hanging matter in the ordinary sense; it was the suspension of the offender in a basket or a cage over a muddy pool. The only way to escape was to jump from the basket into the dirty water and run the gauntlet of the angry mob. If a cage were used, the wretched man had no such chance; lie was lowered again and again into the filthy water till the authorities considered that he had been sufficiently punished.