Changing from hunter-gathering to farming meant learning new skills, for a start off they had to learn to build permanent shelters, you couldn't really talk about houses at this stage. When this was done there was an immediate benefit. When we talk about 'want' we usually mean lack of food but we should remember that another essential was shelter and for the first time families were able to ensure that they were sheltered from the wind, rain and cold. We are so used to housing these days we forget that on most nights staying out in the open all night would mean hypothermia at least and possibly death by exposure.
One thing that always surprises me is how, in a comparatively short space of time, new types of crop became established. Probably the biggest change was growing primitive cereals, the ancestors of our modern oats, barley and wheat. Once you had grown and harvested them you needed to develop ways of using them in the diet. It wasn't long before they found that the grain could be stored over winter and that to get the best use out of them they needed to be crushed or ground so that they would cook easily. Luckily, the archaeologists can give us some definite information about this. At first they simply pounded the seeds or grain in a hollow on a convenient stone. This developed over time to the use of the saddle-stone and muller. The saddle-stone was a flat slab of rock and the muller was a cylindrical piece of stone that was used as a grinder not a roller and so soon developed a flat face. The grain was put on the stone and ground by a woman kneeling at the end and thrusting the muller forwards and then back towards her. This had to be done every day and is the origin of the phrase 'the daily grind' that we still use today.
By about 100AD the saddle-stone was replaced by a more efficient method, the quern. This was a stone with a round depression in it in which fitted another circular stone that could be turned with a handle. The grain was fed into a hole in the upper stone and emerged as flour or meal at the rim and was collected. Eventually, with the advent of manorial and monastic water driven corn mills laws were introduced banning querns and forcing people to use the mill. From the lack of evidence of such offences in the Manorial Rolls it seems that Barlick's lords were more flexible than most and the quern could have been common here up to the end of the 16th century.
So next time you buy a bag of flour from the shop, remember those ancient housewives performing 'the daily grind'. We have it so much easier today but sometimes forget it!
Local querns at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley.
