The Peyton-Dashwood Cookbook

As the cataclysm of the English Civil War began to fade from immediate memory and England adjusted to life under The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, one of my ancestors in Suffolk, opened a new leather bound book and began to write down family recipes.

In the late Summer of 2009, I, my wife and newborn daughter came to Suffolk to visit my grandfather, now in his late 80s, to introduce him to his first great-grandchild. My grandfather, Lt-Col JMHR Tomkin had grown up in Suffolk and was very much a pillar of the community, having retired from a distinguished career in the army to take up a bewildering array of posts in local organisations. His home, The Red House, was a classic red-brick ‘gentleman’s’ farmhouse with later additions and the Georgian frontage was dated 1806, although the large roof beams and internal structure hinted at an earlier origin.

On the day in question, I had awoken early (a not unusual occurrence with a 2 month old baby) and was perusing one of the bookshelves in the sitting room when I noticed an untitled leather bound volume which was quite clearly of some age. Carefully sliding it out of the shelf, I opened it and was greeted by pages and pages of hand-written text: the Peyton-Dashwood cookbook.