Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition (Medieval History and Archaeology)

364 Pages·2009·7.07 MB·English

by  C.M. Woolgar

Medieval History and Archaeology
General Editors
JOHN BLAIR HELENA HAMEROW
Food in Medieval England
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FOOD IN MEDIEVAL
ENGLAND
Diet and Nutrition
Edited by
C. M. WOOLGAR, D. SERJEANTSON,
AND T. WALDRON
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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ISBN 0–19–927349–9 978–0–19–927349–2
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Acknowledgements
Many of the papers in this volume had their genesis in meetings of the Diet Group,
at Somerville College, Oxford. The Group would especially like to thank Barbara
Harvey for hosting its meetings there over the last decade and Helena Hamerow
for suggesting that this volume might form a part of Oxford University Press’s
‘Medieval History and Archaeology’ series. For permission to use illustrative
material, the contributors wish to thank Oxford Archaeology (Plate 1.1), the Dean
and Chapter of Westminster Abbey (Plate 2.1), the Controller of Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office (Plate 3.1), the British Library (Plates 6.1, 9.1, 10.2), the
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Plate 7.1), Marshall Laird and Winchester
College (Plate 9.2), the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (Plate
11.1), and William Muirhead and the National Trust (Plate 14.1). The editors are
grateful to the Hartley Institute, University of Southampton, for a grant towards
the costs of preparing this volume for publication.
c.m.w.
d.s.
University of Southampton
t.w.
University College London
August 2005
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Figures x
List of Tables xii
Abbreviations xiii
Notes on Contributors xv
1. Introduction 1
c.m.woolgar,d.serjeantson,and t.waldron
PART I: SURVEY OF FOODSTUFFS
2. The Consumption of Field Crops in Late Medieval England 11
d.j.stone
3. Gardens and Garden Produce in the Later Middle Ages 27
c.c.dyer
4. The Archaeology of Medieval Plant Foods 41
l.moffett
5. From CuandSceaptoBeffeandMotton 56
n.j.sykes
6. Pig Husbandry and Pork Consumption in Medieval England 72
u.albarella
7. Meat and Dairy Products in Late Medieval England 88
c.m.woolgar
8. Fish Consumption in Medieval England 102
d.serjeantson and c.m.woolgar
9. Birds: Food and a Mark of Status 131
d.serjeantson
10. The Consumption and Supply of Birds in Late Medieval England 148
d.j.stone
11. The Impact of the Normans on Hunting Practices in England 162
n.j.sykes
12. Procuring, Preparing, and Serving Venison in Late Medieval England 176
j.birrell
viii Contents
PART II: STUDIES IN DIET AND NUTRITION
13. Group Diets in Late Medieval England 191
c.m.woolgar
14. Seasonal Patterns in Food Consumption in the Later Middle Ages 201
c.c.dyer
15. Monastic Pittances in the Middle Ages 215
b.f.harvey
16. Diet in Medieval England: The Evidence from Stable Isotopes 228
g.müldner and m.p.richards
17. Medieval Diet and Demography 239
p.r.schofield
18. Nutrition and the Skeleton 254
t.waldron
19. Conclusion 267
c.m.woolgar,d.serjeantson,and t.waldron
Bibliography 281
Index 325
List of Illustrations
1.1 A succession of kitchen floors at Eynsham Abbey, thirteenth to
fifteenth centuries 6
2.1 The Feeding of the Five Thousand, a detail from the Westminster
Abbey Retable, c.1270–80 15
2.2 The kilnhouse in the grain-processing complex at Castle Acre Priory,
c.1360–1400 24
3.1 Aerial photograph of the deserted village of Holworth in Dorset 30
6.1 Pannage in practice: pigs feeding on acorns shaken down by their
swineherd,c.1320–45 78
6.2 Pigs and acorns, the rebus of John de Swinfield, d. 1311, precentor
of Hereford Cathedral, from his tomb in the retrochoir there, early
fourteenth century 82
7.1 A dairymaid milking a cow, from a bestiary of c.1240–50 95
7.2 The refectory of Beaulieu Abbey, on the south side of the cloister,
early thirteenth century 98
8.1 Eel fishermen with traps on the River Creuse, 1986 103
8.2 Castle Rising from the north-west 121
8.3 The fish house of the Abbot of Glastonbury at Meare 125
9.1 A hen with white lobes on her neck, believed to be an especially good
laying breed, c.1320–45 141
9.2 A gyrfalcon seizes a duck, probably a teal: a misericord of the late
fourteenth century from Winchester College 144
10.1 Birds, including a bittern and a crane, from the first-floor chamber in the
Longthorpe Tower, near Peterborough, c.1320–50 150
10.2 Partridges caught in a net, from the early fourteenth-century
Queen Mary Psalter 151
11.1 The Pilkington charter: Edward I grants Roger de Pilkington free warren
in his manor of Pilkington and elsewhere in Lancashire, 1291 165
13.1 The medieval kitchen at the Bishop of Winchester’s palace at Wolvesey 197
14.1 The fourteenth-century dovecot at Kinwarton in Warwickshire,
built for Evesham Abbey 207
18.1 A medieval female spine showing the typical changes of DISH 264