About

The harnen, or ‘hardening stand’, was used mainly in northern counties, where people traditionally grew their own oats, to grind into oatmeal and make oat bread. A stiff oatmeal dough had hot water, salt, and fat, kneaded thinly enough to prop up, and toast until dry and hard, by the open fire. Each harnen stand had a hinged back leg, and a decoratively wrought horseshoe-shaped front, with a little ledge to raise the bread upright, off the earthen floor. The blacksmith merged function with flamboyance, to create an eye-catching utensil to hang above the hearth. Frugal versions made of wire, stone, or timber competed with improvisation, such as leaning the fragile bread against the leg of a stool.

Claudia Kinmonth MRIA (with thanks to Regina Sexton)