Kitchen and Bakehouse

At the back of this hearth, one of several in the castle kitchen, you can see stones reddened by heat. Siege coins found nearby have prompted the suggestion that these Royalist tokens were minted here. It is equally likely that the tokens were minted below ground.

In the Bakehouse next door there are two bread ovens the size of small cars. Bakers used a pele, similar to the baton used in a pizza oven, to arrange the loaves inside.

The grid iron pattern, carved on a block near the entrance to the kitchens, next to a sycamore tree, seems over-elaborate as a mason's mark. Perhaps it was originally set horizontally and used for some kind of game, similar to nine men's morris.

Squared boards were used in counting. The Exchequer, which handled the Royal accounts, got its name from a checked table cloth that was used as a counting board when making the twice yearly accounts.

The 'H' shape mason's mark is carved on the adjacent block.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'