Just received a surprise present from herself, a pristine copy of " Traditional Food East and West of the Pennines" ed C. Anne Wilson 1991. Good stuff! According to it, iron bakestones could be up to 26 inch in diameter, which makes me feel quite inadequate at 15, which I considered large up to now, and that the larger farms had what were called backstones which were built into the domestic rooms. " standing at table-height in a convenient corner, the horizontal top was formed by two large flat iron sheets about 30 inches square. These were heated by a fireplace below, the vertical freestone slab forming the front of the backstone having suitable holes pierced in it for the insertion of fuel and the extraction of the ash" "These large backstones were utilised to make oatcakes in very large batches; a number of women earned their living by travelling from one house to another to do the baking. One lady from Bootle in Cumberland charged 1/6 and a glass of gin each day for this service around 1900. Perhaps baking up to 20 stones of meal in a single session."
Any one got a picture of a backstone thus described?
i need to make me sen a spurtle, not the porridge stirring sort but the oatcake turning flat job. Also need to pick up a brandreth, Launditchs excellent folding tripod is a bit high for this job on a fireplace where you can't push the legs into the earth to adjust the height and I've seen quite a few of the low tripods for not much in junk shops.
Not heard from the stonemason who probably wrote me off as a crackpot! It will probably be Easter before I see my local history expert. She's the sort of person who will probably know exactly which quarry was used and tell me where some discarded bakestones are piled!
ATB
Tom
Ps, searching for images I discovered the glory that is a bannock spade!
http://www.oldandinteresting.com/bannock-flat-bread.aspx
If I can find some dimensions I think I could make one of those easy enough, better than the plastic egg slice I'm using now!