MRS WHITING REMEMBERS
Mrs Whiting, who lived when young at Tanyards, baked in a brick oven, which was filled with bavins in bundles. When the ashes were swept out (about a shovelful) then the oven was mopped out with water and bread and cakes put in with due regard to time and temperature for baking. When the baking was done, beetroots or possibly bacon was put in saucepans to cook and afterwards the oven was lined with paper and clothes put in to air. Her neighbour, who had seven children, baked all her bread once a week, using yeast from the making of beer. This was at a cost of three pence, bavins being two bundles from three half pence.
At Ashurst Farm, so she was told by her mother, they used to weave blankets during the winter, but she does not know whether they spun their own wool.
Two pigs a year, one for sale and one for use, lending joints to neighbours, who returned them when their own pig was killed. All fat was rendered for lard. Meat was sent down from Haslemere to Chase’s shop on the Green once a week, which was boiled in a saucepan suspended from a hook on the open fire.
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