Name/TitleButter mould
About this objectUsed by the donor's parents, William Green Munnings (brother of Alfred Munnings) and Mary Munnings until circa. 1916 at Ketts Farm, Mendham. They had several private customers for their butter, and also sold it to the shop at Menham, until they gave up buttermaking when they started to sell their milk wholsale on October 1st, 1916. The stamp depicts a swan on water. There is a string tied around the stamp's handle for suspension.
Richard Hall, Research Volunteer:
This would have been used to produce a decorative finish to the butter. A romantic notion is that it could have been used to distinguish the butter’s place of manufacture; perhaps Mill Farm had a pond nearby with resident swans. Alas I have found no evidence of this being the case.
Butter is usually made from cows’ milk, although it is possible to use milk from goats as well. Mary Taylor produced a very interesting blog piece about making butter on the farm in 2013 in which she tells us that after the cream had been separated from the milk, it was put into a butter churn and turned until “it made a thumping noise”. At this point, she knew that the cream had turned to butter.
Medium and MaterialsSycamore.
MeasurementsHeight: 7 cms
Diameter: 4.7 cms
Object Typebutter stamp
Object numberSTMEA:76.A.79.11
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial (cc)
