I have been making our own bread recently. It is one of those things that I have been telling myself I should do for years. But in the past the results often resembled bullets that could have been thrown at the walls of a medieval castle with more effect than a cannon ball and even the more successful ones were likely to give you indigestion.
But it is something we do here in Chorlton and over the last few weeks with a special recipe, a new type of flour it has all come together.
So imagine my interest in the news that my old friend Lawrence has been experimenting with something called the National Loaf. “It was introduced in 1942 due to a shortage of shipping space for flour from Canada and the USA. It was sold unwrapped and unsliced to save packaging. There are references to it being sold a day old despite bread being best when fresh as possible. White bread was then no longer produced so if you wanted bread you bought the National Loaf” and you can follow the full story on his blog at http://hardylane.blogspot.com/search/label/National%20Loaf
Yesterday he recreated the National loaf in his own kitchen and now that my own bread is acceptable to the family I think it is time to branch out and have ago. It is all there the recipe, and the results.
All of which got me thinking about how we present the past. Today it is a growth industry ranging from the quest to uncover family history to the recreation of coal mines, period houses and whole communities. I have stood outside an early 20th century shop in the Midlands, peered into the downstairs room of a one up and one down cottage in Salford and stood beside the rebuilt Roman gate house facing out on to Castlefield.
And I have mixed feelings. It is something I have written about before now. As correct as the detail can be are we really able to fully understand what life was like 100, 200 or 2, 000 years ago from these reproductions? And is there not a danger that what people walk away with is a sanitized view of the past neatly packaged and somehow reinforcing what we were taught at school or confirming that warm comforting view of Edwardian Britain from the Hovis advert?
This is not to rubbish experimental archaeology. I am a great fan of Peter Connolly who tried to uncover some of the details of Classical warfare recreating the equipment. In the same way I don’t denigrate all those enactment groups. I know dressing up in period costume and pretending to do battle can seem strange but certainly in the case the Ermine Guard who are “a society dedicated to research into the Roman Army and the reconstruction of Roman armour and equipment” http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/ESG.htm their work is both very useful and does bring the subject to a wider audience.
Now there is a danger that what the public see is just not right, a point made by Chris Haines MBE of the Ermine Guard in a recent post http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/Centurions%20Corner.htm
Not only do they then walk away with a sanitized view of the past but it is one that is wrong. Does it matter I hear someone mumble? Well I think it does. I know some family historians who just hoover up people who have a tenuous link to their own family because the name and date are right without fully researching the background. This of course is bad history and helps no one.
But when done well I think the recreation of the past has value. We can never be sure that we always get it right, and what is put forward today as accurate may have to be modified in the light of future research, but I guess as long as we have that simple idea in our mind we can have some fun and learn something from that cottage in Salford.
Which brings me back to Lawrence’s National loaf which I shall try making this weekend. It will be a bit of fun and get me a little closer to what my parents and grandparent ate just seven years before I was born. On a more serious note Lawrence has highlighted an aspect of the last world war which does not always get much coverage. Setting aside the battles and the air raids what people ate and why is an important part of that history.
Picture; the real thing one up one down cottages in Bradley Street, 1983 the Early Manchester Dwellings Group. The three were built in the late 18th century and were converted into offices at the close of the 20th century
But it is something we do here in Chorlton and over the last few weeks with a special recipe, a new type of flour it has all come together.
So imagine my interest in the news that my old friend Lawrence has been experimenting with something called the National Loaf. “It was introduced in 1942 due to a shortage of shipping space for flour from Canada and the USA. It was sold unwrapped and unsliced to save packaging. There are references to it being sold a day old despite bread being best when fresh as possible. White bread was then no longer produced so if you wanted bread you bought the National Loaf” and you can follow the full story on his blog at http://hardylane.blogspot.com/search/label/National%20Loaf
Yesterday he recreated the National loaf in his own kitchen and now that my own bread is acceptable to the family I think it is time to branch out and have ago. It is all there the recipe, and the results.
All of which got me thinking about how we present the past. Today it is a growth industry ranging from the quest to uncover family history to the recreation of coal mines, period houses and whole communities. I have stood outside an early 20th century shop in the Midlands, peered into the downstairs room of a one up and one down cottage in Salford and stood beside the rebuilt Roman gate house facing out on to Castlefield.
And I have mixed feelings. It is something I have written about before now. As correct as the detail can be are we really able to fully understand what life was like 100, 200 or 2, 000 years ago from these reproductions? And is there not a danger that what people walk away with is a sanitized view of the past neatly packaged and somehow reinforcing what we were taught at school or confirming that warm comforting view of Edwardian Britain from the Hovis advert?
This is not to rubbish experimental archaeology. I am a great fan of Peter Connolly who tried to uncover some of the details of Classical warfare recreating the equipment. In the same way I don’t denigrate all those enactment groups. I know dressing up in period costume and pretending to do battle can seem strange but certainly in the case the Ermine Guard who are “a society dedicated to research into the Roman Army and the reconstruction of Roman armour and equipment” http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/ESG.htm their work is both very useful and does bring the subject to a wider audience.
Now there is a danger that what the public see is just not right, a point made by Chris Haines MBE of the Ermine Guard in a recent post http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/Centurions%20Corner.htm
Not only do they then walk away with a sanitized view of the past but it is one that is wrong. Does it matter I hear someone mumble? Well I think it does. I know some family historians who just hoover up people who have a tenuous link to their own family because the name and date are right without fully researching the background. This of course is bad history and helps no one.
But when done well I think the recreation of the past has value. We can never be sure that we always get it right, and what is put forward today as accurate may have to be modified in the light of future research, but I guess as long as we have that simple idea in our mind we can have some fun and learn something from that cottage in Salford.
Which brings me back to Lawrence’s National loaf which I shall try making this weekend. It will be a bit of fun and get me a little closer to what my parents and grandparent ate just seven years before I was born. On a more serious note Lawrence has highlighted an aspect of the last world war which does not always get much coverage. Setting aside the battles and the air raids what people ate and why is an important part of that history.
Picture; the real thing one up one down cottages in Bradley Street, 1983 the Early Manchester Dwellings Group. The three were built in the late 18th century and were converted into offices at the close of the 20th century
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