picture from  www.nps.gov

    Haelen! Welcome to the day in the life of a bakers daughter, me Emeline Baker. My life includes where I live, how I live, and most importantly my job. My life is hard, but I overcome my many obstacles with the help of my family. It is now the year 1377 in the year of our lord.

 I live with my mother, my father, my baby brother Herald, and younger sister Elizabeth. I am learning to become a baker and be able to live on my own with my soon to be husband Harvey.  Harvey is also a baker who also lives on our road. Now that I am at age to marry mother and father have choosen me a husband to marry.  When I marry Harvey I will live with him and we will be in charge of my father and mothers bakery.

    Each morning I awake when it is still dark to the rooster crowing. I live on Baker Lane like many other bakers do in Newquay, England.  I must knead the dough that my father has prepared with yeast, flour, sugar, salt, and water until the dough can be pulled of the sides of the wooden carved bowl. Each morning I knead 20 different types of bread. The fancy white dough bread was made for the rich upper-class people to show how rich they were. The rye bread which sometimes contained tree bark was made for the poor peasants. After the dough is ready to be baked I bake the dough on a griddle with an overturned bowl to make a makeshift oven for use over an open fire. We do this because a regular oven costs 6 shillings and this will give my father a greater profit to be able to care for our families needs.

   After the bread has baked the servants from the castle, peasants, and nobles come to get the bread.

    My father belongs to a baker’s guild with three other bakers. Each baker must keep the same price for a loaf of bread which is a  penny loaf. So that everyone has a fair amount of business.  My father makes a profit of 4 shillings a year.

    We must now give people extra bread so that we don’t get in trouble by the king because we have been cheating on the public by giving them less bread for their money. If we cheat on the public we will be severely punished. This has given my father less profit and has affected our family.  

    Also there is always sicknesses going around England so we must spend more money on medicine to take care of my baby brother Harold and the rest of our family.

     There has been a great uproar in all of England because King Richard 2 is forcing every person above the age of 15 to pay the king one shilling a year which is a lot of money. The peasants have then started the Peasants Revolt which has made the times hard on many peasants. This has also affected our family because our family is now paying the king 3 shillings a year. Which has made our profit go down and we are unable to pay for certain our certain needs.

     I live in a small hut on the corner of Bread Lane. Our hut is made out of mud bricks and wood. The hut does not have windows because we cannot aford them so we have small slits in the walls to let air come.

     I am a true Christian and go to church every Sunday. On Sundays we take the day off of work so we can pray and go to church. Everything I do is for the Lord Jesus Christ above who has saved our sins. Each morning as I wake up I pray to the Lord that I can make him proud and be a good true follower of Christ.

     This is a day in the life of a bakers daughter. As you can see my life is not always easy but my family is always there for me.

Bibliography

"Baker, Barrister, Bookbinder." Medieval Occupations 2009: . . . January 14 2009 < http://http://members.tripod.com />. 

, . "Medieval Professions." Medieval Professions 12.5.98: . . . January 14 2009 < http://www.geocities.com/elangoc/medieval />.

, . "Medieval Times." The Federation of Bakers 2007: . . . January 18 2009 < http://www.bakersfederation.org.uk />.

Medieval Mysteries Bakers." The mystery box 2003: . . . January 14 2009 < http://www.themysterybox.com />.