I love bread--mmmmm, carbs. So I always notice bakeries and, when I am researching, I notice mention of bakeries and bakehouses.
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| mid-19th century advertisement |
In the newspapers of the Regency, there seem to be frequent mentions of baking establishments changing ownership.
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| Morning Advertiser - Thursday 13 November 1806 |
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| Morning Advertiser - Wednesday 14 January 1818 |
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| Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser Mon 13 Jan 1817 |
So I did some investigation on baking and bake shops in the Regency era. (By the way, meal was the word for flour and grains, and meal-men were dealers in the same.) The best book I found on bread baking was:
In it, Mr. Edlin describes the best way of constructing a bakery:
And he describes the "most usual and indispensible requisites" (tools) for the bakery:
The seasoning tub
The seasoning sieve
The warming pot
The brass-wire sieve
The pail
The bowl
The spade
The salt bin
The yeast tub
The dough knife
Scales and weights
The scraper
Marks
The rooker
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| An early 19th century bakery from 'Baking in America' by Panschar & Slater 1956 |
Baking was big business. Only the largest establishments made their own bread; most households routinely purchased the staple of life. Bake shops did a small sideline in baking items for householders but the Appendix in Mr. Edlin's book makes it clear it was a small earner for the baker.
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| Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 15 September 1810 |
The man who took on a bake shop had to be a hard worker and a good manager of business. The margins were small and the regulations increased throughout the 19th century due to the dishonest practices of a few bakers. (Bread was often adulterated with such things as alum and chalk.)
There is a substantial appendix of interviews and statistics at the end of Mr. Edlin's book. He sums up the facts with the following paragraph. Reading it, I no longer wonder why there were so many bakeries for sale in Regency newspapers.
Hmm, I'm hungry. I think I'll go support a baker.
'Til next time,
Lesley-Anne
Sources: Google Books
British Newspaper Archives
