East Carleton

Today's the day ................................. for family history

The village of East Carleton near Norwich was where my paternal grandmother grew up. It was close to here that my own father was born - although almost immediately the family moved north to Edinburgh. The remnants of the market garden nurseries that my great grandparents ran are still to be seen in the village and there are some Wilkinson family graves in the churchyard.

Most Norfolk towns and villages have colourful signs depicting historical scenes from the past and East Carleton is no exception. In the 11th century East Carleton came under the Manor of Carleton Peverel. Every year, the Lord of the Manor had to carry to the King of England - 24 herring pies. In return, the person delivering the pies would always receive 6 white loaves, 6 dishes of meat out of the king's kitchen, one flagon of wine, one flagon of beer, one truss of hay, one bushel of oats, one pricket of wax and six tallow candles.

This seems like a fair swap - but in October 1629 a letter came from Hampton Court complaining that the pies had not been sent according to their original tenure. They had to be of the first new herrings - and there were too few herrings in the pies and fewer pies than before. The Lord of theManor promised more caution in the future; that they would be the first new herrings, that there would be 24 pies and they would be well seasoned with the following spices: half a pound of ginger, half a pound of pepper, a quarter pound of cinnamon, one ounce of cloves, an ounce of long pepper, half an ounce of grains of paradise and half an ounce of galangals.

It is not known how long herring pies were presented to the King but sadly it is not something which has continued on to the present day.......................