A few days ago, we posted pictures of the top slab going on to ground floor of the extension. Well, here’s a photo taken an hour ago, showing the upper part of the extension being built on top of that.
Following our recent discovery of possibly the earliest written example of a recipe for the famous Bakewell Pudding, Carolyn and Richard Young have recreated the pudding from Clara’s recipe and it is now on sale in their Original Farmers Market Shop in Bakewell. Here are some photos of their dish
Don’t forget to send us your pictures of dishes created to our historical recipes and we will feature them here too
“To four quarts of Water, put a couple of old Rabbitscut into small pieces, the lean part of a neck of mutton, a shank of ham a few Turnips, a bunch of sweet herbs, or [unknown], season it with a very little Mace, Cayenne Pepper. Thicken it with butter and Flour and as much cream as will make it a nice colour, not very white, it should be made the day before it is used, all the fat may be skimmed off, it ought to simmer by the fire seven of eight hours covered up as it may not away too much”
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Here are some freshly-taken snaps of work on our extension. They show some key moments in the life of the project, as progress becomes tangible.
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Here is the recipe for a Bakewell Pudding discovered in the recipe book of Clara Palmer-Morewood, one time resident of Alfreton Hall. Dated as it is in 1837 it is possibly the first ever documented version of the almond dessert which local legend claims was invented by accident in the 1860s. Why not have a go at making the famous local dish yourself to this unique 1837 recipe? And don’t forget to let us know how you get on, and send your pictures in.
It reads: “Lay a Puff paste over a tin, open tart mould, put into it two dozen raisins stoned and chopped fine (Dryed cherries would be better) Almonds cut thin, candied orange peel, or any kind of Preserve. Beat well the yolks of four eggs, & the white of one, add ¼ lb of clarified butter, & some powdered sugar, beat all together & fill up the mould with the mixture, (Lemon would improve it) bake it in a slow oven – to be eaten cold & sprinkled over with powdered sugar. 1837″
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We will be adding more recipes from Clara’s book (including some medicinal and gardening ”recipes”) over the coming weeks, so keep an eye for more delicious dishes to try your hand at
A search room regular concurs with our manager’s view that this little fellow is a chaffinch.
A very insistent little bird is pecking away at one of the search room windows, clearly intrigued as to what is going on inside.
was born George Canning, future Prime Minister. In the first sketch by Derbyshire-born artist and caricaturist, George Murgatroyd Woodward, entitled “Naughty Boys giving in their Resignations”, Canning on the left and Castlereagh on the right, bow to the King in the centre, while handing in their resignations.
George III protests: “What, what, going to shoot one another. I am a plain Country Gentleman and don’t approve of it, if you must shoot go and shoot Buonaparte.”
Canning replies:”But when my honor is considered”, while Castlereagh laments: “That it should come to this!! Farewell ye bed of roses”.
In the second sketch also by George Woodward Canning is depecited at St Stephen’s fair on a booth announcing ‘A COLLECTION OF SKY ROCKETS just arrived from DENMARK very curious’ referring to his role in the bombardment of Copenhagen and capture of Danish fleet.
(both copright Derbyshire Record Office)
Phew! Well, that’s the Radio Derby bit done with – it always gives me a minor case of the heeby-jeebies. As I think Aleena said after I had finished talking to her, Hydranthea later went by her middle name of Brenda (as you can see from the 1901 census), which is what I would have done under the circumstances.
But I omitted a favourite fact, taken from Hugh Hornby’s terrific book, “Uppies and Downies”, all about the history of mass-participation ballgames, including the Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football. He mentions a form of “Cornish hurling” at St Ives, Cornwall, where the ball is made of wood and covered in silver (rather than cork covered in leather as in Ashbourne). According to an antiquarian who saw the game played in 1846, the way they chose teams was to have one team made up of men called Thomas, William and John and another made up of people with different names. Those three names were so common at the time that the teams were usually fairly evenly matched!
I might mention this one in conversation with Aleena Naylor on Radio Derby this coming Monday (11.15am or thereabouts) – we are supposed to be discussing the rise and fall of forenames over the years, but I haven’t worked out what to say just yet! Anyway, while looking through some parish register printouts to check the frequency of Johns and Marys, we spotted someone baptised at Darley Dale in the name of Hydranthea Brenda Zara Fox. She was born to parents Willoughby George Fox (gentleman) and Eliza Anne Jane Fox on 5 June 1869. A quick check on freebmd.org.uk tells me hers was the only birth registered in the name of Hydranthea during the entire century. I can’t find her death certificate, though – which makes me wonder whether she altered the spelling, or even elected to go by the name Brenda.
