Monument record 7198/382 - Medieval bakehouse

A bakehouse first mentioned in 1291

{1} The common bakehouse is first recorded in 1291 when the steward received '20/- from all the villeins that they may hold the bakehouse’ and payment for stone for the mouth and clay for the floor of the oven. In 1301-11 it was worth 66/8d but by 1405 only 26/8d, declining by 1488 to 20/-, when it is described as two ovens, possibly both under one roof. In 1518-19 it was still valued at 20/-. It seems likely from the 1405 rental to have lain on the same site as it occupied in the 17th century. In 1527 there appears to have been at least one cottage appended to the end of the bakehouse. In 1620 the bakehouse was worth 16/8d per annum. It is clear that in 1653 it lay in the middle of the street near the main road junction adjacent to Wadcroft, for the tenement of Stephen Simms then had three streets on the north, south and west sides, and the common bakehouse on the east side. This must be the property which in 1721 lay in the middle of the street at the north end of the High Street on Bakehouse Hill. Its apparent absence from the 1587 map may simply be the result of the schematic nature of this highly inaccurate map. (1)

<1> Foard G.F., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Kettering (Medieval + Post Medieval), (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100747.

<2> Kettering 1587, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100752.

Record last edited

Nov 21 2016 12:12PM