Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-08T21:45:39.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Domesday Water Mills

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Extract

The staple food crops of Saxon and Norman England included rye, barley, oats, millet, beans, and peas. Wheat also was not unknown. In fact, a few carbonized grains have been found upon Neolithic sites. But, even as late as the thirteenth century, wheaten bread in more than one region of England was a luxury food, enjoyed by the mass of the agricultural population only on boon days or religious festivals. The porridges and cereal soups, or flat-baked cakes and small loaves, which accompanied the peasants’ daily cheese, sausages or herring, were usually made from a coarse meal composed of rye, or rye mingled in some proportion with wheat, barley, oats or beans.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1939

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable