The oil drums, converted into baking facilities for the famous johnny cakes in Anguilla – a feature of the annual Welches Fest – will now be complemented by a replica of the traditional stone oven, some remains of which can still be seen at old family home sites.
The modern-day brick oven builder is Linford Richardson of South Hill who has built one for that village community’s occasional social functions. The oven has been erected in a corner of the Frederick O Harrigan Playing Field in Welches where the annual festival, featuring traditional cooking, displays of childrens’ toys, artifacts of yesteryear, and string band music, is held annually. The old-time oven, as it is commonly called, is among a number of new initiatives that the Welches Fest Committee will be introducing for the upcoming Whit Monday occasion.
Mr Richardson told The Anguillian how he developed his skills in building rock ovens. “I watched an old guy built one for my parents and when it broke down, we built it back ourselves, just by watching that guy,” he explained. “That was a long time ago, but I still remember how to do it from then to now. One day the South Hill community said they wanted someone to build a rock oven so I told them I could do it and they commissioned me to build the oven. I went ahead and did it, and I have now moved to this one in Welches.”
Richardson was being assisted by two other workmen when The Anguillian visited the building in the formative stage of construction: “The structure is mainly composed of clay, white cement or lime and brick firestones. We first fill the base to shape the oven and from there we build the top using bricks, fire rocks, land stones, clay and finally cement to seal the structure to prevent water from soaking through. The heat the oven will produce will not only bake bread and cakes, but chicken, pork and any other kind of meat. In fact, whatever is baked in a gas stove, can be baked in a rock oven. After the oven is dried out well, it will take less heating. This oven will take about two hundred and fifty bricks. The guy in Jamaica, from whom we brought the bricks, told us they were manufactured from red dirt and molasses and were first made way back in slavery times.”
The oven, which Mr Richardson said was seven feet long, by six feet wide, was built in three days.
How much does it cost to build such an oven, and how many more would you like to build? Richardson was asked.
“They cost a thousand US dollars,” he replied. “If more people ask for them, and I have the time, I will build them. I am a contractor for ovens, buildings and whatever else you want to build.”
