14th century communal bread oven in Urval, France
This remarkable 14th century building is a communal bread oven in Urval, France.
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Urval is a small village in a valley within the beautiful Dordogne countryside.
The village features some delightful Perigourdine style houses.
It also has three particular monuments that make it well worth a visit if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.
These are its church, its castle and its communal bread oven. The map below shows its location.
This communal bread oven in Urval was built in the 14th century.
Above the oven is a room that was used to house the 'fournier' who was the fire-tender and also the baker.
The shelves above the oven were used to place the loaves as they were taken out of the oven.
To the right is the pigeonnier where the fournier raised his pigeons.
This bread oven was renovated in the 1800s and again in the 1960s and still works today!
It was used during First World War and on the second Sunday of every August the bread oven is fired up as part of the village festival.
There are very few communal bread ovens from the Middle Ages left these days - and this one in Urval is a lovely, excellent example.
Since Medieval times, communal bread ovens were common throughout Britain and Europe.
Typically, they were built of bricks and fuelled with wood.
The bricks gave them a large thermal mass which meant that they retained their heat after their fire had gone out.
Thus, after raking out the ashes food could be cooked on the floor of the oven.
The oven on Aqueduct Road would have had a coal fire (fire box) separate to the oven, which could operate for long periods with skilled stoking.
The appended photographs suggest that it may well have been constructed with a double oven.
Medieval England and other parts of Europe also had "bannal mills" and "bannal ovens".
The banal or bannal laws were the regulations that kept flour and grain under the control of the feudal superior.
Peasants then had no choice but to bake in the feudal lord's designated oven after having their grain ground into flour in his mill, and to pay the relevant charges.
It’s only during the last hundred years or so that people have cooked with smaller ovens.
Together with the wide availability of ready-baked loaves, the traditional communal bread oven has been rendered obsolete and either converted into houses or demolished.
Some are still operating in Europe.
The oven design was carried to French colonies.
In New France, the oven's fortified construction also served to protect the colonists during skirmishes.
If you’d like to visit this oven in Urval, there are many ways you can get there from England.
The best option is via plane or train.
It’s also a two-hour drive (according to Google Maps) from the popular tourist destination, Bordeaux.
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