Bread Through the Centuries

c 8000 BC

The first wheat grain was crushed using a pestle and mortar and the first bread was produced. The bread, which today’s equivalents are the Indian chapattis and Mexican tortillas, was unleavened.

c 5000 BC

Formalised grain agriculture was developed by the Egyptians on the banks of the river Nile. Grain became a staple food throughout Europe.

c 3000 BC

The Egyptians developed the closed oven and bread became a very valuable commodity – the workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread. Perhaps this is the origin of “bread” or “dough” as slang terms for money!

c 1000 BC

Yeasted bread became popular in Rome and a circular quern was developed to mill flour. This is still the method by which stone ground flour is produced today.

c 150 BC

The first mechanical dough mixer was developed in Rome – powered by donkeys!! Roman bakers joined forces to form the first baker’s guild.

c 55 BC

Rome invaded Britain and brought with them the technology the had developed for flour milling and bread production.

c 600 AD

The Persians invented the windmill. However it was another 600 years before the such structures appeared in Europe.

c 1066 AD

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

1191 AD

The first recorded windmill in Britain was built at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

1202 AD

King John of England introduced the first laws in Britain to govern the price of bread and the permitted profit margins.

1266 AD

The Assize of Bread was introduced where a council sat to regulate the weight and price of loaves. If a baker broke the rules set out he could be pilloried and banned from baking for life.

1666 AD

The Great Fire of London, said to have been started in Pudding Lane by a baker, totally destroyed the capital.

1709 AD

A new Act replaced the Assize of 1266 giving magistrates the power to control the type weight and price of loaves.

1783 AD

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

1815 AD

The first Corn Laws were passed to protect British wheat growers and a duty was levied on imported wheat.

1826 AD

Wholemeal bread was first said to be healthier than white bread.

1846 AD

With a crisis in domestic wheat production and large groups of the population near to starvation the Corn Laws were repealed and the duty on imported wheat was lifted.

1887 AD

The National Association of Master Bakers was formed.

1930 AD

The introduction of commercial bread slicers for use in large bakeries was made and by 1933 approximately 80% of the bread sold in the USA was pre-sliced and wrapped. The Americans loved it so much the expression “the best thing since sliced bread” was coined.

1941 AD

Calcium was added to flour during the war years to prevent the disease rickets which had been identified in women working in Britain’s Land Army.

1950 AD

The slicing and wrapping loaves was re-introduced following it’s prohibition during World War II.

1965 AD

The Chorleywood Bread Process, first developed in 1961, became common practice. This substantially reduced the long fermentation time for dough by introducing a high energy mixing process which lasted for only a few minutes.

1990 AD

The use of Potassium Bromate to refine flour properties was banned in 1990 and was replaced by the use of ascorbic acid. However, this changed the characteristics of dough produced and the change caused the industry many problems before a practical solution was found.

Today

Today the consumer can chose from a huge range of breads. Indeed the choice is so diverse and the quality so good that even the cheapest loaf would make our ancestors of only a hundred years ago so jealous!