REPORT ON SOCIAL EVENING OF SHAP LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER 2011.

Food from great Cumbrian Houses.

The final event of a momentous year for Shap L ocal History Society was their social held in the Memorial Hall. During the year the Society has celebrated their tenth anniversary and launched their first book, Mardale, Echoes and reflections of a lost Lakeland community .

The first course of the supper consisted of a three-bird roast of turkey, duck and chicken, or vegetarian terrines, with a historic Grand Salad and bread rolls baked by Derrick Newsome.

The highlight of the evening was talk by Ivan Day, the renowned food historian who was introduced by Society Chairman Jean Jackson. Mr Day said that had recently returned from America where he had given lectures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York , and Mount Vernon , the home of George Washington, saying that he had not felt nervous in front of the large audiences. However he said that Shap was different, he was on home ground and confessed to feeling a little nervous.

The topic of his talk was ‘Food from Great Cumbrian houses', he explained that a few grand ladies with elevated and privileged social positions in the area had left a wonderful legacy in the form of receipt books; these contained recipes for medicines, veterinary use and food. The first of these ladies was Margaret Russell, later the Countess of Cumberland , and mother of Lady Anne Clifford; whom Mr Day described as being the Harry Potter of her time! She had explored the arcane arts, set up laboratories and had her scribe translate a book on alchemy into English. There was a belief that God put all plants on Earth for a purpose and for the use of man. Some of her recipes were quite alarming containing poisonous substances such as mercury; one of her daughter's godfathers was John Dee the 16 th century astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and occultist.

A recipe book believed to have been made for Lady Anne Clifford is in the British Library, a copy made in the late 17 th century is a collection of receipts for extracting rennet from calf's stomach to use in cheese making. There is a section on ‘banqueting stuffs', sweet dishes and sweets, included were instructions for making walnuts to contain sweets or a poesy; these were moulded from sugar to look exactly like walnuts in their shell, and there were pictures of some Mr Day had made. They were the first kind of Christmas cracker, for when cracked open there were comfits or a poesy (poem) written on a long strip if paper.

Rydal Hall was the home of Sir Daniel Fleming, and a recipe book dated 1673 includes recipes for gingerbread; Mr Day said that this type of gingerbread was virtually inedible, being very hot, and would have been used as a medicine. The type of gingerbread made at the time was pressed into mould, and then gilded with gold leaf. Mr Day had moulds from that period and showed pictures of the moulds and the resulting gingerbread figures. Sir Daniel Fleming is recorded as sending char pies to London ; these would have been baked in a very hard pastry crust almost like concrete, and then sealed with clarified butter. The fish was reported to be still sweet three weeks later. Another kind of biscuit were cracknel, these were boiled then baked, and very popular until Victorian times.

Rose Castle is a very important historic building, and in the period 1670 -80 it was the home of Bishop Rainbow; he married Elizabeth Smythe whose father was master at Magdalene College , and she was related to the Fane family. Lady Anne Clifford's steward Edward Hasell was brought up by Bishop Rainbow, and he left him money with which he purchased Dalemain.

In the Rose Castle recipe book, Elizabeth Rainbow records a recipe for a Grand Salad from Lady Sedley, who was a mistress of James the Second and scandalised the Court; it is strange that a Bishop's wife should have connections with such a notorious woman. It is just possible that she might have known her when she lived in Essex . It is known is that Elizabeth Rainbow was related to the Fane family who were Earls of Westmorland; and included in her book is ‘Lady Westmorland's Sweetmeat Pudding', one of the two created by Mr Day for the diners to sample. The second pudding also came from the same source ‘Cheese Cakes my Cozen Fane's Way'. There are also recipes for Sea Holly roots which were candied as Eryngo roots; these were considered to be the Viagra for the Stuart Age! Again the Essex connection comes in; for Candied Eryngo Root was produced commercially in Colchester .

Mr Day next told of an exasperating situation when he had been advised by mail that some Musgrave papers from Edenhall were for sale; these included a recipe book. He had been away and when he called about them discovered that they had been sold to America . The Musgraves had originally lived at Hartley castle, before building a new mansion at Edenhall; an inventory of the kitchen at Hartley survives as does one from Edenhall; both list some of the same items including a jack. A jack was a piece of equipment wound up to turn meat rotating before a fire. The largest jack ever made was from Lowther Castle , it was designed to go in front of a fire eleven feet wide by four feet high, which took three-quarters of a ton of coal to heat. Mr Day has a jack installed at his house, and he showed a short video of it in action.

Town End at Troutbeck was the home of local statesmen farmers, the Browne family. In 1703 Benjamin Browne married Elizabeth Birkett, and her recipe book includes Shred Pie, these being made in fancy shapes, with drawings illustrating the designs; shed pie was very similar to mince pies.

An extreme example of a dish was a great pie made at Lowther Hall in 1763, it weighed 22 stones and contained not only goose, ducks, rabbits ham and veal, but an unbelievable assortment of wild birds, including a curlew, thrushes, blackbirds, starlings, yellowhammers and larks; as Mr Day said, there would be little birdsong in the Lowther valley for several years afterwards. A similarly large Christmas pie had been made for Queen Victoria and was carried by six footmen. These pies were made in a similar way to char pie, sealed with clarified butter in a hard pastry case, and would keep for three or four months. Mr Day's example was not so large, and he assured everyone that the pastry was a nice edible one, and the decoration was equally impressive.

Syllabubs and possets were popular and appear in books by Elizabeth Birkett and Lady Fletcher Vane of Hutton in the Forest . A syllabub had a frothy top and an alcoholic milky base; these were served in posset cups that had spouts to suck the liquid out from beneath the froth, and were passed around. Lady Fletcher Vane includes cordials, with one Golden Cordial containing real gold leaf.

The only man to feature in the talk was John Ruskin of Brantwood; he not only encouraged the making of Ruskin lace, but with Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, set up travelling schools where girls and women could learn how to make cheese; Cumberland and Westmorland were famous for making hams and butter, but little cheese. Out of this venture they saw a need for an agricultural college; Canon Rawnsley being a founder of Newton Rigg.

Mr Day ended by saying that this county has an incredible literary heritage relating to food; he then thanked Jean Jackson and Jean Scott-Smith for cooking the dishes for the first course, and Liz Amos, Liz Kerrey, and Patrick Neaves for helping with the assembly of the salads, serving and helping organise the event.

Following the talk everyone was able to sample the two puddings created by Mr Day. Lady Westmorland's Sweetmeat pudding was a precursor of Bread and Butter pudding containing a wide variety of fruits; and ‘Cheese Cakes my Cozen Fane's way' were made with a base and lid of very short pastry filled with a lemon flavoured curd cheese filling and an overtone of rose water.

Mr Day was thanked by Mrs Jackson who said that the information had been wonderful and that the society felt privileged to have such an eminent person with them; she thanked everyone for attending, and the raffle was drawn.

The Society will next meet on Monday 30 th January with a members' night when Patrick Neaves will speak about and show images of the surviving traces of human activity that can still be found in Mardale.

REPORT ON MEETING OF SHAP LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY HELD ON MONDAY 31 st OCTOBER 2011.

Inside a Lakeland Farmhouse.

Members of Shap Local History Society welcomed one of their favourite speakers back when Andy Lowe gave an illustrated lecture entitled ‘Inside a Lakeland Farmhouse'.

Andy used to be the building conservation officer for the Lake District National Park Authority, and is a recognised authority on all aspects of the vernacular architecture in the county. Chairman Jean Jackson opened the meeting by welcoming Mr Lowe, and announced that the tickets for the social evening were going well, as were book sales and that a draft copy of the 2012 programme was available.

Mr Lowe began by showing how typically houses were situated to face the morning and afternoon sun, and built so that they nestled into the landscape; and then showed typical ground floor plans with a entrance on the gable end and a heck partition to protect the fire place, this being simply an open fire on a raised slab with smoke going up into a canopy where a beam supported chains for suspending cooking pots and higher up meat would be hung to preserve it, a fire window allowed ventilation and light into the area. To the side of the fire was a small cupboard for storing salt and spices, these often bore dates and initials. This was the main room of the house, with a separate parlour, originally the master and mistresses bedroom separated by a partition. At later dates the upper floor was used not only for sleeping children and servants, but for storing materials such as fleeces.

Whilst it is fairly common to see date stones above doorways, inside the building the best dating evidence is often a spice cupboard, and sometimes the much larger bread cupboard, the latter being used to store haver bread; however Mr Lowe said that he did not know of any examples of either of these cupboards bearing dates later than 1737, if anyone knew of any he would be interested to know. There were several slides showing rare survivals of old fire places and canopies some within farm buildings.

Styles of beams changed over time and the finishes could be quite ornate, with chamfered edges and stop ends. Mr Lowe also exploded the widely held belief that old beams were ‘ships timbers'; where beams show signs for pervious use, they are usually reused cruck beams; for it was not feasible to bring wood from the coast with no reliable means of transport.

Panelling was originally quite plain, one type called plank and muntin was constructed of overlapping planks, at later dates, carving was sometimes incorporated. It was interesting to see that much of the carving, although from different period, had a basic style using naturalistic forms similar to fronds of bracken.

Doors were large – some up to three feet wide, plain plank doors had cross pieces to strengthen them these being attached by square pegs in round holes, at later dates panelling came into fashion; the furnishings of the door had great character, some simple and functional made by a local blacksmith, and others ornate, the locks were also interesting. Some old latches bore a ‘witch mark' an incised saltire cross as a means of protection. One example was of wood carved into a curved lip with a hole behind to lift the latch, this showed the patina from years of constant use.

Early windows had mullions and were unglazed, with stout shutters; Mr Lowe showed two examples of these early windows still surviving in the Lake District . Glass could also be interesting, much old glass being wavy and some may have inscriptions like graffiti.

Staircases evolved from simple stone steps, to plain wooden staircases, then in wealthier houses, very elaborate and grand staircases that made a statement.

Some images of very fine examples of plasterwork were shown, this was a feature of the grander houses; one example at Lorton had a design of thistles and horses, whilst one at Calgarth Hall was more heraldic.

Mr Lowe encouraged the group to find examples of features that were particular to the locality, saying that it may be possible to identify a ‘Shap' feature.

In summing up, Mr Lowe said that the buildings were designed for the climate, and the interior designed for man. Whilst we should not live in the past, we should respect the past with sensitive adaptations of old features.

Vice Chairman Jean Scott-Smith thanked Mr Lowe and members were invited to look at a display of books and pictures and to ask questions.

The next event will be Social evening on 19 th November with food historian Ivan Day, who will speak about ‘Food from Great Cumbrian Houses'; tickets are available, costing £15 including a two course supper with Ivan's puddings. Special dietary requirements will be catered for if requested when booking. Booking is absolutely essential; Tel. 01931 716386.