A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



peasant had a few, were apparently allowed to wander at their will. Naturally, 

 as the gardens were unfenced, we hear frequent complaints of devastation, 

 and walls of various kinds were ordered. 



In mediaeval Durham the common drink was beer brewed from grain, 

 generally barley. It took the place of tea and coffee, and, with the coarse 

 brown bread made from maslin * or occasionally wheat, formed the staple of 

 the peasant's meal. Potatoes were, of course, unknown, and meat was not 

 only too dear for him, but not very appetizing in winter, being roughly 

 preserved by inferior salt. Naturally we find the assizes of bread and ale 

 referred to frequently, especially the latter. Each village down to the nine- 

 teenth century was supposed to appoint two men as ale-conners or ale-tasters, 

 and the same or two others were appointed as bread-weighers. The toll of 

 beer belonged to the lord, and we find that he granted a sort of licence to 

 brew to certain people, generally ale-wives. These were forced to submit 

 the ale to the verdict of the tasters, either before sale or when required, and 

 were fined if the inferior quality broke the assize of ale. Some of the regu- 

 lations are startlingly modern, such as those which forced the ale-wife to use 

 sealed measures and to sell either on or off the premises, at the option of the 

 buyer. The price was fixed for each vill and varied from id. to \\d. a 

 gallon. The seller had to exhibit a sign before his or her dwelling and must 

 sell to anyone. If the publican was secured in his monopoly he had also to 

 suffer drawbacks. At Sedgefield and perhaps elsewhere the brewer gave the 

 lord, by ancient custom, a gallon of beer every time he brewed, 3 and in the 

 prior's vills he had to supply the lord's officials with good ale when they 

 came to the vill. Sometimes the brewers on the great roads developed into 

 innkeepers, who, we are told, were apt to pay more attention to the rich 

 man on horseback than to the poor man on foot, 8 and the halmote denounced 

 the reprehensible if natural custom. 



Breaches of the assize of bread are not often referred to in the rolls,* 

 but we hear a great deal of the common oven, which was a necessity, as the 

 wretched huts of the peasants contained no convenience for cooking. The 

 common oven was leased either to an individual or to the vill, and in the 

 latter case the peasants tended it and found fuel in turn. It was a profitable 

 investment in many cases, and we find that the obligation to use it was 

 resented after the Black Death. When it was clear that the firmars of the 

 oven could not enforce their rights, the lord licensed private ovens, 6 but the 

 common oven lingered for centuries in some villages. 



There was generally a smith in each group of villages and sometimes a 

 carpenter. They both held a few acres of land according to Boldon Book. 

 The smith was the more important, and he was bound to make plough-irons 

 and other instruments. Many of the tools were of wood shod with iron, 

 which was very expensive. Probably much of it was from native ore, but 

 the finer kinds were imported from Spain. 8 There was usually in each 

 village a common forge which the tenants were bound to keep in repair. 



1 Maslin, a mixture generally of wheat and rye, was used as late as the early nineteenth century to make 

 the brown bread which was the main article of diet ; Bailey, Gen. View of the Agric. of Dur. 358. 



* Dur. Curs. No. I2,,fol. 120 d. ' Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 138. 



* In 1366 one of the bread-wives of Billingham was fined for forestalling and for selling bread non de 

 integro frumento. 



6 Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 258. 6 Dur. Acct. R. (Surtees Soc. xcix), 71, 143, &c. 



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