No wonder they called it 'porridge!

I was surprised to hear that today is world porridge day, as by coincidence, I'd already started to prepare a post on this very topic.

I love a bowl of porridge and it's versatile stuff, a healthy and filling food.

But of course it has connotations with 'doing time' in prison, because once upon a time oatmeal gruel (thin porridge), was standard prison fare.

Recently I found out to what extent, when I was on holiday and stopped off for coffee at what was once Northleach in Gloucestershire's old prison.

As well as being a great pit stop for snacks and drinks, we were able to visit a part of the prison and found some really interesting information.

To understand the issue of the prison rations, you need to first understand the prisoner categories. And these were::

Class I: The most atrocious males

Class II: Idle apprentices, servants, young and less atrocious males

Class III: All males not on hard labour

Class IV: All females

And here is their schedule of rations:

Served to the cells at10.30am daily.

Per prisoner: One and a half pounds of good household bread. One quart of good oatmeal gruel.

In addition: For First and Second Class prisoners only:

Monday and Friday: One quart of nutritious pea soup enriched with meat stock

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: Two pounds of potatoes and a quarter ounce of salt.

Saturday: A half pound of cheese

Sunday: One quart of vegetable soup made with oatmeal or rice.

I guess the extra rations for Class I and II prisoners was an acknowledgement of the extra calories needed when required to carry out hard labour.

But for the poor old run of the mill prisoners there was a relentless diet of porridge and bread! 😢

I hope that, if you had porridge today, it was because you really wanted it!