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The kitchen was the most important room in a working farmhouse. And its heart was the fireplace, where most cooking was done. The fire was kept alight all the time.

The heavy iron chimney crane and ratchet hanger look unwieldy, but were ingenious. Food was moved nearer to and further from the fire to regulate cooking. Trivets supported saucepans over the logs. The weighted spit-jack kept large pieces of meat on the spit's spikes turning to cook them evenly. All these indicate the kitchen of a wealthy family.

The bread oven was used for other cooking and baking. It would have had a cast iron door. Lighted twigs were put into the oven to heat the bricks, then scraped out and the dough put in.

The great copper ham kettle and frying pan were used later on a cooking range. In shape more like our cookers today, the range was really a big box full of fire and fuelled by coal or wood.

Perhaps the most important utensil here is the kettle. It provided all boiling water for cooking, cleaning, washing-up and bathing -even for filling the hot water bottles shown above the bread oven. At this date Church Farm had no running water. Water had to be brought in from an outside pump. So that boiling water could be poured from a hot and heavy kettle without lifting, it was supported on a kettle-idle.

The massive elm table was once in constant use for food preparation. Some eatables could be kept cool in a stone-lined pantry. But with no refrigeration most food had to be prepared fresh each day.

You will recognise jelly moulds, storage jars and mixing bowls -though the materials are different - no stainless steel or plastic. Even homely objects were expensive. They were used for generations and, if necessary, repaired. We usually throw worn out objects away. Our kitchens change radically and frequently in a way unknown in the nineteenth century.

In the early 1800s Church Farm would have been quite self-sufficient. Apart from baking its own bread, it had cattle who gave it milk, cheese, butter and cream as well as meat. Ducks and hens were kept for eggs and poultry meat. Its orchard and kitchen garden provided fruit and vegetables.

Spices were essential to disguise the taste of bad food. But they were expensive and so kept in a locked box. Tea caddies and candle boxes also had locks.