About 10,000 B.C., man first started eating a crude form of flat bread - a baked combination of flour and water.

Antiquity

c 8000 BC.

At first grain was crushed by hand with pestle and mortar. In Egypt a simple grinding stone (quern) was developed.

c 5000 - 3700 BC.

Egypt developed grain production along the fertile banks of the Nile. Grain became a staple food and spread to the Balkans and throughout Europe, eventually being cultivated in Britain.

The Egyptians invented the closed oven and bread assumed great significance. Homage was paid to Osiris, the god of grain, and bread was used instead of money; the workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread.

c 1500 BC.

Horses took over ploughing from men, using the first iron ploughshares.

c 450 BC.

In Greece the watermill was invented, although it was a few centuries before its significance was fully realized.

c 150 BC.

In Rome the first bakers' guilds were formed and well-to-do Romans insisted on the more exclusive and expensive white bread - a preference which persists in Europe and English speaking countries to this day. A Roman invented the first mechanical dough-mixer, powered by horses and donkeys.

c 40 BC.

Bread and politics. In Rome the authorities decreed that bread should be distributed free to all adult males.

Harvesting grain in Ancient Egypt.
From a bas-relief, about 2650 B.C.

Ancient Egyptian word-pictures, or hieroglyphs, concerning bread.

Medieval Times

The growth of towns and cities throughout the Middle Ages saw a steady increase in trade and bakers began to set up in business. Bakers' guilds were introduced to protect the interests of members and to regulate controls governing the price and weight of bread.

c 1066.

Hair sieves were introduced to help sift the bran from flour, leading to finer white bread.

1150.

Bakers formed guilds to protect them from manorial barons and in 1155 London bakers formed a brotherhood.

1191.

The first recorded windmill in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

1202.

King John introduced the first laws governing the price of bread and the permitted profit.

1569.

Queen Elizabeth I united the white and brown bakers to form The Worshipful Company of Bakers.

1666.

The Great Fire of London, said to have been started by a baker, totally destroyed the milling and baking industry in the capital.

Bakers at their work during the Middle Ages in England. Until Modern mechanization, the tools of the baker changed but little over the centuries. (From an old print.)

The Industrial Age (1700 - 1887)

In Georgian times the introduction of sieves made of Chinese silk helped to produce finer, whiter flour and white bread gradually became more widespread. Today more than 70% of the bread we eat is white. In the early 19th century, life was dramatically changed by the Industrial Revolution. As large numbers of farm workers moved from the country into cities to work in the new factories, less food was produced. When the Corn Laws were passed prohibiting the importation of grain, starvation became a serious problem.

c 1700.

Wheat began to overtake rye and barley as the chief bread grain.

1757.

A report accused bakers of adulterating bread by using alum lime, chalk and powdered bones to keep it very white. Parliament banned alum and all other additives in bread but some bakers ignored the ban.

1783.

The first recorded chain of bakery shops was set up by Christopher Potter of Westminster.

1834.

Rollermills were invented in Switzerland. Steel rollermills gradually replaced the old windmills and watermills.

1846.

With large groups of the population near to starvation the Corn Laws were repealed and the duty on imported grain was removed.

1887.

The National Association of Master Bakers was formed.