Description
Book SynopsisDrying kilns, corn-dryers and malting ovens are increasingly familiar features in post-Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval archaeology. Their forms, functions and distributions offer critical insights into agricultural, technological, economic and dietary history across the British Isles. Despite the significance and growing corpus of these structures, exceptionally few works of synthesis have been published. Yet such a foundational study was produced by Robert Rickett as early as 1975: an undergraduate dissertation which, for the first time, assembled a gazetteer of drying kilns from across the British Isles, critically examined this archaeological evidence in the light of documentary research, and established a typology and uniform terminology for drying kiln studies. This pioneering and oft-cited dissertation is here published for the first time, providing a foundation for the future study of drying kilns in Britain, Ireland and beyond. A new introduction and notes by Mark McKerracher set the original work within the context of drying kiln research since 1975.
Trade Review‘Overall, this is a fascinating and valuable study for which the author, editor and publisher are to be congratulated for making so widely available.’ – Stephen Rippon (2022): Medieval Archaeology, 66/1, 2022
'There is no up to date overview of medieval kilns for England or Scotland. I can only hope that future researchers will build on Rickett’s work, by creating a national database and adding to this the growing number of drying kilns discovered each year. This would then facilitate research and help reveal chronological changes in the distribution, prevalence, and function of these kilns in relation to the changing environmental and socio-political climate of each period and region, and thus help identify more clearly the role these structures played in the agricultural realities of the people living in the British Isles.' – Marijke van der Veen (2023): Agricultural History Review
Table of ContentsIntroduction ;
Post-Roman and Medieval Drying Kilns ;
Identifying drying kilns in archaeology ;
Evidence of function ;
Other functions, and relationship of kiln type to function ;
Purposes of kiln drying ;
Evidence of fuel ;
Siting, and materials and methods of construction ;
Construction of superstructure and drying floors ;
Distribution, dating and origins ;
Historical context ;
Gazetteer of Drying Kilns ;
Introduction to the Gazetteer ;
Summary of types ;
Type I ;
K1: Stamford kiln 1 (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K2: Stamford kiln 2 (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K3: Stamford kiln 3 (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K4: Great Casterton (Rutland, England) ;
K5: Montgomery Castle (Powys, Wales) ;
K6: Stamford kiln 4 (Lincolnshire, England) ;
Type II ;
K7: Barrow (Rutland, England) ;
K8: Grafton Regis (Northamptonshire, England) ;
K9: Brixworth (Northamptonshire, England) ;
K10: Faxton (Northamptonshire, England) ;
Type III ;
K11: Nottingham Caves (Nottinghamshire, England) ;
K12: Rue Farm (Dumfries, Scotland) ;
K13: Sandal Castle (West Yorkshire, England) ;
K14: Doncaster (South Yorkshire, England) ;
K15: Nottingham (Nottinghamshire, England) ;
K16: Stanhope (Co. Durham, England) ;
Type IV ;
K17: Alcester (Warwickshire, England) ;
K18: Houndtor (Devon, England) ;
K19: South Witham (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K20: Ballymacash (Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland) ;
K21: Beere (Devon, England) ;
K22: Glenvoidean (Bute, Scotland) ;
K23: Rathbeg (Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland) ;
K24: Sandal Castle (West Yorkshire, England) ;
K25: St Blane’s (Bute, Scotland) ;
K26: Buckden (Cambridgeshire, England) ;
K27: Glen Parva (Leicestershire, England) ;
Type V ;
K28: Jarlshof (Shetland, Scotland) ;
K29: Kirkstall Abbey (West Yorkshire, England) ;
K30: Stretham (West Sussex, England) ;
Type VI ;
K31: Ballycatteen (Co. Cork, Ireland) ;
Type VII ;
K32: Doarlish Cashen (Isle of Man) ;
K33: Highlight (Glamorgan, Wales) ;
K34: Hullasey (Gloucestershire, England) ;
K35: Letterkeen (Co. Mayo, Ireland) ;
K36: Lundy Island (Devon, England) ;
K37: Uisneach (Co. Westmeath, Ireland) ;
K38: Underhoull (Shetland, Scotland) ;
K39: Altmush (Co. Meath, Ireland) ;
K40: Garranes (Co. Cork, Ireland) ;
K41: Michelham Priory (East Sussex, England) ;
K42: Tintagel (Cornwall, England) ;
K43: Merthyr Dyfan (Glamorgan, Wales) ;
Insufficient Evidence for Type ;
K44: Alcester (Warwickshire, England) ;
K45: Block Eary (Isle of Man) ;
K46: Deddington Castle (Oxfordshire, England) ;
K47: Inishkea North (Co. Mayo, Ireland) ;
K48: Lincoln (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K49: Northampton (Northamptonshire, England) ;
K50: Rhuddlan (Denbighshire, Wales) ;
K51: Scole (Norfolk, England) ;
K52: Spaunton New Inn (North Yorkshire, England) ;
K53: Sutton (Shropshire, England) ;
K54: Thetford (Norfolk, England) ;
K55: Wallingford Castle (Oxfordshire, England) ;
Not Drying Kilns ;
K56: Fountains Abbey (North Yorkshire, England) ;
K57: Stamford (Lincolnshire, England) ;
K58: Winchester (Hampshire, England) ;
Appendix: The Brewhouse and Bakehouse at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire ;
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