Pots about Barking Abbey Archaeology

The Barking Abbey Archaeology Project team and St Margaret's Parish Church presented two talks and homemade pancakes and waffles to taste, on Shrove Tuesday! Our Shrovetide event opened with a talk about Barking Abbess Hildelitha. In a sequel to a previous talk, on Barking Abbey's founding abbess, St Ethelburga, we explored why Hildelitha was so well written about, widely respected and ordained as a saint in the early years of Saxon Christianity.Image taken from a manuscript in Lambeth Palace Library, showing Aldhelm presenting his work De Virginitate to Hildelith and the nuns of Barking Abbey.

This was followed by a talk on Shrovetide Traditions and featured extracts from the fifteenth century account by a celleress from Barking Abbey.

Barking Abbey's Fifteenth Century Celleress' Account, held at the British LibraryShe mentioned cripsis and crumcakes which were a Shrovetide custom at Barking Abbey. The former was probably made from a batter with yeast and/or egg whites and the latter a type of dry flat bread, known in Latin as Laganum and used for long journeys and religious rituals. The medieval celleress also listed the foods purchased for the period of lent which revealed the high status of the nuns and wealth of the abbey!

Photo: Kareem Dayes When abstaining from meat and animal products, as Pope Gregory had decreed back in the sixth century, the nuns of Barking had a diet which included several types of fish (salt cod and salmon, eel and red herring), nuts (almonds) and fruits (figs and raisins) and rice. It was interesting to consider that the foods which the church suggested people give up for lent, such as 'devilish' butter, eggs, cakes and creamy milk are often regarded as 'bad' or unhealthy for us today and foods considered 'good' for our souls such as fish, nuts, cereals and fresh/dried fruits are now considered good for our physical health. At the family event one of our visitors explained that Christian communities in southern India eat Kozhuukkatta at Shrovetide (which is on a different day of the week to Tuesday). These are dumplings made from rice flour, with grated coconut and jaggery (a sweet syrup made from cane sugar and/or date and palm sap). Another delicious indulgence made from traditional Indian ingredients, for feasting before lent...

Heritage Volunteers having a pancake or a waffle after the Shrovetide TalksBoth then and now everyone enjoyed the opportunity to use and enjoy some of those naughty ingredients to make pancakes or waffles for feasting before fasting!

Old newspaper cutting from St Margaret's Parish church, showing Jackie Wood and Jean Wrott enjoying a pancake competition at Ripple Hall, Barking

We looked at the evolution of the pancake, from the pre-historic proto-type to present day and also saw a piece of a medieval waffle mould made from pottery and found during an excavation of our abbey ruins!

The medieval waffle mould fragment now resides with the parish church with some beautiful decorated tiles also found there.

Viewing the archaeology at St Margaret's Church, photo: Kareem Dayes

Last week the project team and volunteers enjoyed visiting the Museum of London Archaeology centre, where we discovered new information about previous Barking Abbey excavations (across 16 sites, dug between 1966-2000). This post-excavation work is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, as part of the Barking Abbey Archaeology Project and is managed by MOLA's Mike Tetreau. Pre-Saxon Pottery fragments from Barking before the Abbey

We received an update on the potential of these previous archaeological finds to improve our knowledge and understanding of the past and the process of creating an archive of data, which will provide a foundation for future studies. They explained stratigraphic sequencing - which creates a chronology of layers beneath the ground, representing different periods of time. Whilst previously found, dated coins provide useful 'spot dates' and contexts for other finds. Previous reports have emphasised the high quality and importance of loom weights, a weaving wand, styluses (for writing) and bone/antler combs. The main focus for this re-assessment has been some of the large number of pottery finds.

Late medieval pottery colander from Barking Abbey

These archaeological finds reveal much about the lives of Barking residents from centuries past, and also help to create a timeline of the site - which is something we aim to highlight in our accompanying Barking Abbey exhibition, in July.

Medieval pottery shards from Barking Abbey

The volunteers enjoyed a tour of the premises with explanations of how new archaeology is stored, then carefully cleaned, dried and evaluated.

We saw some amazing Roman pottery from a recent excavation at Fenchurch Street.

The highlight of the day were two talks on the abbey's pottery from experts Lyn Blackmore, who specialising in Saxon Pottery and mediaeval expert Jackie. They compared Barking pottery finds with London and Essex traditions of pottery and explained the different types of pottery identified from Barking across the abbey's timeframe (Saxon to Tudor periods). In the Saxon period much of the pottery was made of a glittering 'coarse-slipped' pottery material or tempered with chaff (added to prevent cracking when drying). In the medieval period shells were often used for tempering and effect.

Some of the Saxon pots were stamped, including fragments of Ipswich Ware jars and pitchers, mostly hand-thrown and there were a few examples of superior imports from Europe.

Two of the most recognisable pieces were a small hanging oil lamp and a pottery colander, which we hope to display in the project exhibition, in July.

Medieval Lamp find from Barking Abbey

Some of the sherds of colourfully decorated, glazed, jugs were beautiful pieces too. We look forward to creating a timeline of example fragments with informative text and illustrations for our exhibition and working with the MOLA team in coming months, as they write a report on their findings, determining prospects for future funded projects and contributing to our academic symposium in September.

We hope the visitors on Tuesday enjoyed our homemade pancakes and waffles - made in a modern way - and for those of you giving up 'bad' foods or other negative influences for Lent or fasting for Ramadan we wish you well!