SOLDIERS will be marching to a Golcar museum in double quick time at the weekend.
The smell of freshly-baked havercakes – or oatcakes – will drift around the village this Sunday.
Members of His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment of Foot – aka The Havercake Lads – will be heading for Colne Valley Museum in Golcar.
The soldiers, wearing bright red uniforms, will be piping and drumming for all they’re worth. Their destination will be the kitchen at Colne Valley Museum where havercakes are being made by museum volunteer Jane Lee and her helpers.
Oatcakes were part of the staple diet of the working class in earlier times and were used to mop up gravy or were crumbled into stews and soups. Records from the 19th century show that local inns which served hot food gave away oatcakes soaked in gravy.
Over the weekend museum visitors will see how traditional oatcakes are made in the Victorian kitchen and can find out why the Havercake Lads got their name. They can even try some of the oatcakes for themselves.
The simplest oatcake recipe was a mixture of fine oatmeal, a little yeast, salt and water, mixed to a thick cream and thrown onto a bakestone or griddle.
The steam puffed it up and when baked it was still damp and floppy and was hung on a rack above the fire known as an oat-flake to dry.
The name havercake comes from the old Norse word hafri meaning oats.
As well as a display by the 33rd Regiment of Foot visitors will also have the chance to view the current exhibition Colne Valley Tracks and Trails, Past and Present.
The museum, in Cliffe Ash, is open on Saturday and Sunday 2pm-5pm.Admission is £2.50 for adults and £2 for concessions. Children are free.
