Text Box: Monastic Diet: Bread, Beer and other items © Graham Mayhew 2007 Text Box: Bread and beer consumption 1532-3 Three sets of accounts for the Lewes Granator survive for the 1530s, listing the quantities of grain used by the Priory kitchens, bakehouse and brewery. The accounts for 1532-3 show 513 quarters 7 bushels of wheat expended in this way, some of it destined for alms to the poor, probably both at the Priory Gate and in the town’s 2 hospitals. In addition there was an annual donation of milled wheat flour, ground in the Priory’s mill within the precinct walls, which varied from year to year but in 1532-3 amounted to 1 quarter and 6 bushels, to the local Franciscan Friary and 1 quarter and 1 bushel to poor people in alms. By comparison Durham Priory used on average 458.5 quarters a year. Following Barbara Harvey’s computation, for Westminster Abbey, that one quarter of wheat produced 106 conventual loaves weighing just over 2lbs and that each monk was given one of these, at least, a day, the amount of wheat consumed at Lewes would have been sufficient to provide nearly 54,500 of these loaves annually or 5½ of them daily to each of the 27 resident monks. Some of it was also mixed with 30 quarters 6½ bushels of bran to make a coarser bread called “manybred”. So as with the meat and fish it is clear that sufficient bread was provided for all the Priory servants as well as for alms and there would still have been substantial supplies of flour available for the needs of the Priory kitchens. A similar picture emerges from Lewes Priory’s consumption of barley for malting for the brewery. In 1532-3 Lewes Priory used 866 quarters of barley for the brewing of ale as compared to an average annual consumption at Durham of Text Box: 1049 quarters. The granator also bought 100lbs of hops. Again following Harvey, who calculated that one quarter produced between 45-50 gallons of the best conventual ale, drunk by the monks, senior priory servants and their guests, this would suggest an output of approximately 40,000 gallons per year, over 100 gallons a day, more than sufficient to give each monk a daily ration of at least one gallon and to provide for the Priory servants, guests and for alms. Dairy products: Eggs, butter, cheese and honey Lewes Priory’s consumption of 24,893 eggs in 1533-4, a weekly average of 479 eggs or just under 18 eggs per monk per week seems relatively modest compared to Durham Priory’s 808 eggs or 22 eggs per monk per week and is well below Westminster Abbey’s 82,000 eggs consumed over 32 weeks (excluding Lent) in 1491-2, although by modern standards it is enormous and testifies to the monks’ love of rich custards, puddings and tarts. These probably also accounted for the 36 gallons of honey recorded in the accounts. In the same year the larderer recorded the consumption of 181 cheeses which, even at an average of 10kg (22lbs), a conservative estimate since one cheese was thought sufficient as a generous gift, would equate to an average daily allowance to each monk of over 7ozs outside of Lent, far more than Harvey’s estimate of Westminster Abbey’s average allowance of 2½ oz, again suggesting that there was adequate cheese to provide for all the Priory servants and guests, probably much of it used in rich cheese flans as at Westminster. Whilst there are no records of the amount of milk consumed, the accounts do reveal the consumption of one barrel of oil (probably 30 or 36 gallons), 18 gallons of butter and 33 gallons of fat, no doubt mainly used in cooking. Overall the Lewes Priory records confirm the relatively high consumption of dairy products in a diet which was high in saturated fats.

Top left: Glastonbury Abbey kitchen                                                 Bottom right:  Lewes Priory kitchen, Samuel & Nathaniel Buck 1737

Oats, beans, herbs, seasonings, fruit and vegetables

Oats and beans were used primarily in pottage, including, according to the larderer’s accounts for 1533-4, 7 quarters of oats and 1 quarter 1 bushel of beans. Three bushels of beans were also given to the poor as part of the mandatum on Maundy Thursday. Additional quantities of beans were used in the pottage of the monks during Lent and Advent. These appear in the procurator’s accounts which record the purchase of green beans for pottage in Lent in 1537 and of 4 quarters of white beans for pottage in Lent and advent in 1480-1.

Apart from bulk items such as salt (21 quarters of unrefined for cooking and 1½ bushels of refined salt for the table) and mustard seeds (1 quarter 2 bushels), both items in 1533-4, the larderer’s accounts are silent on the consumption of herbs and seasonings, although saffron and cannabis (hemp) - the latter for its seeds - were grown on site and destined for the prior’s table. The prior’s household also accounted for the apple and pear trees which grew within the precinct, the sole item of vegetables recorded in the larderer’s accounts being 4 bushels of onions and garlic also grown on site, which were probably used in cheese flans and similar dishes.

In common with other English monasteries and aristocratic and gentry households in general, therefore, Lewes Priory’s diet was probably especially deficient in fresh fruit and green vegetables whilst confirming the English love of large quantities of meat.