The role of Bread in Shropshire Folklore

 

As you have probably realized by now, Shropshire is a landscape rich in folklore, magic, and tradition. Indeed, the folklore of Shropshire runs deep, an intricate web of veins and capillaries reaching upwards, towards the surface. Even the deepest, forgotten things are rising now, wishing to be told.  I believe that it is important to look at the traditions and beliefs of the past, as they can give us insight into our ancestors. They provide colour and intricacy to history, a different perspective on those who came before us. Such systems of belief, such as folklore provided meaning, and a semblance of order, even control amongst the confusion of daily life. They allowed individuals to escape the mundane and dare to dream. Whenever things got tough, you could trust folklore, it mattered and often, it gave power to the powerless.

One of the most fascinating things about Shropshire folklore, is the power attributed to even the most everyday objects. Household items are imbued with the potential to change the very path of fate if one understands their correct use in divination. Divination in Shropshire is practical, grounded and thus uses items which people would readily have at their disposal, including bread. Indeed, folklore states through the process of baking and the bread itself, people can learn about the future. I want to discuss some of this divination with you for the remainder of this article.

Humans have a long history with bread. Indeed, the archaeologists have found the charred crumbs of a flatbread made by hunter-gatherers at an archaeological site in the Black Desert in Jordan. These crumbs show a bread made from wild wheat, wild barley and plant roots, dating from around 14,600 to 11,600 years ago. In Australia and parts of Europe, potential grind stones have been found, which date from 30,000 years ago, these could have been used in bread making. During the medieval period bread served both as a staple part of the meal, and part of the table service, with trenchers, made from stale bread used as plates. The first ever law to regulate the production and sale of food, dating from the 13^th century regulated the price, weight, and quality of bread (and beer) which goes part of the way in demonstrating the food’s importance. Thus, bread can be seen as a metaphor for the necessities and living conditions necessary to life. It also has religious symbolism, as being both prominent in the eucharist as well as having meaning within other religions, even paganism.

But what of Shropshire?

As with most areas, bread would have been a staple in Shropshire homes, and would have carried similar meaning to what I’ve just outlined. For women much of their time would have been consumed by the art of baking.  I think this is part of the reason why such divination grew and developed, perhaps wandering minds developed the folklore whilst kneading the dough. Whatever the reason, the folkloric potential of bread is evident from the baking process.

Whilst baking, Shropshire women would make the sign of the cross over the flour before adding the other ingredients. This was seen as a direct preventative measure against witchcraft, and ensured that the food, and thus the household were protected against being bewitched. The sign of the cross was also made over malt before it was brewed into beer. Such a simple action was imbued with protective potential. This process was also repeated when the bread was a dough. Shropshire women would prick the sign of the cross onto the loaf with a fork or knife, before putting them in the oven. This again had associations with protection against enchantment, but also served as a practical method of allowing the bread to rise, and prevented the dough from being overly heavy, or going mouldy quickly.

Once the bread was in the oven, particular attention was paid to how the loaf or rolls formed. There was a belief in Shropshire that if the bread rolls merged as they cooked and became attached, you could discern meaning from this, and it served an omen. For example, if four of your bread rolls stuck together, this was a sure omen of a wedding, either for the person baking or within the household. One cannot help but imagine the flash of joy a single woman might feel upon seeing this, even if it was seen as ‘an old wives’ tale’. Perhaps she had a man in mind that she would be eager to wed. There are many types of love divination in Shropshire folklore, and often they use items that are readily available within the household.

If five of your bread rolls had merged during the baking process, this was less of a cheerful omen. Indeed, in the event that five of your rolls merge into one, it meant that the household would be expecting a funeral, and that death was not far from the door. Perhaps upon seeing this, people would become more watchful for other death omens, such as the call of owls, bats or the dreaded three knocks at the door during the night. Death omens are an interesting area of study, worthy of separate discussion. They provide a sense of order, and also serve as a warning and thus perhaps a way in which humans feel some control within the uncontrollable.

Shropshire folklore also stated that if the bread cracked whilst cooking, this could give insight into the future and had particularly negative connotations. If the bread was ill formed during the cooking process and crumbles in two whilst cutting, this symbolised an imminent parting. If the bread appeared cracked on top, or cracked through, this also signified a parting, and was generally taken as an omen of ill. Interestingly, Charlotte Burne shares an account of when bread’s omen turned out to ring true.

She states that in January 1879, during the inquest into the death of a woman known as Ann Wooley, bread’s role as an augury of ill was referenced. Ann Wooley’s body had been found not too far from her home in Prior’s Lee (Priorslee, in modern day Telford) The cause of death had been drowning. Whilst speaking during the inquest into her death, her husband recounted that on the day of her death, he had known something was to happen due to the way the bread had formed.  Ann had been busy baking on that day and had put the fruits of her labour into the oven, then gone into the garden to get on with some of her other jobs. Her husband, noticing that the bread was ready to come out, removed the loaves from the oven, rather than let them burn whilst looking for his wife. To his horror, when he removed the loaves, he saw that they were all cracked right through. Having knowledge of local folk belief, he quickly left the house, and began to search for his wife. Sadly, Ann was found not too far away in a nearby pool. It was believed that she had slipped and thus drowned.

It would be easy to dismiss this story as a superstitious old wife’s tale, or even perhaps look to more sinister motives for Ann Wooley’s husband telling it, such as his involvement in her death, However, I think we should give this story more credence. It provides an insight into how folk belief governed action and was present in people’s life, but also, how folklore can provide meaning amid the ungovernable forces of life. Perhaps in this instance, the folk belief, in which Ann’s husband was familiar with served as a way to conceptualise the gut feeling, that something may be wrong. Perhaps, subconsciously Mr Wooley knew something wasn’t right that day, that he hadn’t seen his wife for a long time, that everything felt different. Thus, upon seeing the cracks of the bread, he understood the symbolism, and this drove him to act upon his concerns. I find this whole case so fascinating.

 

 

 Elsewhere, types of bread were associate with symbolic alms for the poor, such as soul cakes given during the Hallowtide festivals. Alms of flour or wheat were given out during the Christmas period. Within the coal districts such as the east Shropshire coalfield, It was believed that the consumption of bread that was baked on good Friday was an excellent cure for diarrhoea.

Bread is also intrinsically linked to the Sin Eating ritual which had some presence within Shropshire. I have written a whole article regarding sin eating in Shropshire, which is worth reading if you are interested, but I will discuss its significance in brief.

The basic premise of the Sin Eating ritual is that if a person died before their last rites could be completed, they would employ a sin eater to attend to the body, and ritually consume bread and ale over the body. This consumption of earthly goods allowed the sins of the deceased to be transferred, and thus consumed. This allowed the sin ridden dead to be buried in consecrated ground and ensured that the community would not gain a ghost, as well as providing the sin eater with a meal, as they often came from poor socio-economic backgrounds.

Bread is a simple thing, and yet a staple of collective human existence. As we have seen can be imbued with so much meaning, both within Shropshire and further afield, and I think that Is wonderful. The folklore of bread teaches us to pay attention to the world around us, and make meaning from the little things, which I think is a good thing to practice.