Animals played a significant part in the function of priory life. The livelihood of the monks was dependent upon rents from the tenants who farmed the manors held by the priory. In part, these rents took the form of animals and animal products.

The thirteenth-century Custumale Roffense (‘the customs book of Rochester’) provides us with the most detail about food and food products as rent paid to Rochester Priory.

Cheese, honey, bacon, tallow

As well as the crop staples of wheat, peas, barley and oats, cheese (Latin, caseo), honey (mel), bacon (bachonus) and tallow (sebum) are recorded as animal products brought to the monks (Custumale Roffense, folios 39v and 40r).

Tallow – rendered animal fat, typically from cattle or sheep – was used for making candles. Custumale Roffense (folio 40r) points out that tallow was used ‘in the dormitory, in the infirmary, in the guest chamber, and in the parlour’, the room where business was conducted with visitors.

Hens and eggs

Snapshots from the farming lives of tenants are provided in the Custumale Roffense survey of the tenants’ services and dues (folios 9r-27r). These demonstrate how animals were at the heart of what was provided for the monks, both in terms of food and transport of food.

Here, by way of example, is the translation of part of the record for the small manor at Denton (folio 11r):

‘Denton has three yokes* and three acres. This is the duty of service from there. […] Whenever there is a need for grain to be shipped, all tenants will come at the command of the lord [the ‘lord’, here, is Rochester Priory] with horses and their own sacks, and each one should be careful not to refrain from this otherwise he is subject to the mercy of the lord. They must also supply 8 coombs of groats [coarse meal for brewing] and 16 coombs of malt and bring it to Rochester, and make payment at the monk’s granary. Likewise, they will bring to Rochester eight coombs of wheat and a coomb and a half of peas, and two pounds of cheese, and six bacons. They also owe, at the customary payment [Latin, exenium] of St Andrew, 24 hens one year and the alternate year 25 hens. Moreover, at Easter one hundred and twenty-three eggs. […]

*A yoke (Latin, jugum) was a Kentish measurement of land, approximately 50-60 acres (Christopher Corèdon with Ann Williams, A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases).

The much larger manor of Southfleet, which had 25 yokes of land, was to provide 200 hens at the exenium on St Andrew’s feast day (30th November), and 1,100 eggs at Easter. The Southfleet tenants were also responsible for using their draught animals for transporting grain to Gravesend or Northfleet, where it would subsequently be exported to London by ship.

Geese and lambs

In addition to hens and eggs, the manor at Frindsbury provided geese and lambs (folio 11r):

‘From the 21 yokes [of land] they owe at the customary payment of St Andrew eighty-four hens and 21 geese. At Easter, two thousand one hundred eggs. From which the bishop [of Rochester] will have half a thousand. The cellarer [the monk responsible for provisions at the priory], half a thousand. The rest to the court of Frindsbury [meaning the satellite church at Frindsbury]. 21 lambs. These the bishop will have.’

Geese and lambs were also part of the food rents of the manor of Stoke.

Sheep’s milk cheese as shepherds’ rent

Generally, food rents were supplementary to monetary rents. There are, however, examples where cheese – probably sheep’s milk cheese – was the only rent charged by the monks. This is described in a section ‘Concerning shepherds’ (folio 12r):

‘Roger son of Robelot and Asketill hold the marsh for 150 sheep with eight acres of land for 50 shillings. Besides this they hold 2 pieces of enclosed marshland [Latin, melehopes] for which they must pay two weights of cheese, but nothing else as rent. […] Robert son of Hugh holds pasture for one hundred and 50 sheep and fourteen acres of land for 50 shillings. He holds besides this pasture for 30 sheep for two pounds of cheese.’

Fish from afar

Fish were also part of food rents. Strikingly, the manors of Haddenham and Cuddington – almost 90 miles away from Rochester – were expected to fetch and transport fish all the way from Gloucester on the River Severn to the monks (folio 44v):

‘Also, if it is pleasing to the lord [meaning Rochester priory] to send for fish, the summoner must summon four hide-holders from which two hide-holders will go for fish near Gloucester, and the other two hide-holders will bring the fish to Rochester.’

In the thirteenth century, Gloucester was a centre for the fish trade. Local fisheries there included royal weirs, which provided royal tables with lampreys, salmon and shad. Salted fish from Ireland and elsewhere were also available at Gloucester. It is quite probable that salted fish formed the bulk of the fish for the monks.

Food for the hospital

The monks also made food provisions for those who both resided and worked at the hospital of Saint Bartholomew, just outside of Rochester. As well as leftover dishes from the monks’ refectory, ale and loaves of bread were provided daily. On special feast days, there were special treats, including whatever live animals were brought to the monks on August 24th, St Bartholomew’s Day (folio 47r):

‘On Christmas Eve, one ham; instead of cheese 2 shillings [perhaps used to buy cheese locally]. On the feast day of Saint Bartholomew, they will have everything living which is offered, except geese, and two shillings for their feast day.’

Dr Christopher Monk

Monk’s Modern Medieval Cuisine

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Animals and food at Rochester Priory

Dr Christopher Monk explores details about animals and animal products consumed at Rochester Priory emerging from a section in Custumale Roffense concerning the monastery’s lay servants (folios 53r-60v).

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