THIS week people across the county tucked into stacks of pancakes and had a flipping good time to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.

And it would seem that pancakes existed along time before pancake racing was a thing, in fact a long time before even the idea of brunch, or indeed meal times as a concept itself.

Analysis of starch grains on 30,000-year-old grinding tools suggests that Stone Age cooks were making flour out of cattails (wetland plants) and ferns – which, researchers guess, was likely mixed with water and baked on a hot, possibly greased, rock.

Sounds familiar right? A flat cake, made from batter and fried on something hot....could this be the start of pancakes?

Oxford Mail: This playgroup filled up on pancakes before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday and the fasting period. February 1979.

This playgroup filled up on pancakes before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday and the fasting period. February 1979.

The ancient Greeks and Romans ate pancakes, sweetened with honey; the Elizabethans ate them flavoured with spices, rosewater, sherry, and apples.

They were traditionally eaten in quantity on Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, a day of feasting and partying before the beginning of Lent. 

Oxford Mail:

Waitress Juliet Hopkins in traditional Dutch dress outside Go Dutch in March 1981.

Pancakes were a good way to use up stores of about-to-be-forbidden perishables like eggs, milk, and butter, and a yummy last hurrah before the upcoming grim period of church-mandated fast.

So, as we've enjoyed pancakes for so long, here we take a look back at pancake days of the past.

Oxford Mail: Roger Hendry won the annual Blewbury parents’ pancake day in February 1982.

Roger Hendry won the annual Blewbury parents’ pancake day in February 1982.

Oxford Mail: A miss for one student on Pancake Day in 1983.

A miss for one student on Pancake Day in 1983.

Oxford Mail:

Four-year-old Nicola Berry was not having a good day at the pancake race in 1984 as she face planted the floor.

Oxford Mail: Scouts practice tossing pancakes in preparation for Pancake Day in February 1985.

Scouts practice tossing pancakes in preparation for Pancake Day in February 1985.

Oxford Mail:

Eight-year-old Adam Livett learned a Shrove Tuesday lesson about the laws of gravity on February 13, 1986 after flipping a pancake on Donnington Bridge in Oxford.

Oxford Mail:

Champions of the day at the Donnington Doorstep Family Centre's pancake eating competition was three-year-old Neils Luxton with Ian Lovegrove and Adam Doyle, both four, in February 1990.

Oxford Mail:

Blustery winds prevented Peter Caswell, a chef at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford in Feb 1990 from demonstrating outside.

Oxford Mail:

Whoops...Marsha Locke, of John Mason School at the centre in Feb 1990. 

Oxford Mail: Staff at Old Swan Hotel made sure they were in peak form before they started running whilst tossing their pancakes, ready for the race, 1995.

Staff at Old Swan Hotel made sure they were in peak form before they started running whilst tossing their pancakes, ready for the race, 1995.

Oxford Mail:

Hogg Robinson Estate Agents compete at Wallingford's pancake race in 1998.

Oxford Mail: Mental health charity Restore holding a fundraising a Pancake Day quiz 2015.

Mental health charity Restore holding a fundraising a Pancake Day quiz 2015.

Oxford Mail: A T-rex at the Wallingford Market's annual pancake day race in 2017. The Great Wallingford Pancake Race had to go virtual this year due to the third national lockdown.

A T-rex at the Wallingford Market's annual pancake day race in 2017.

Oxford Mail: Sean Wells, winner of pancake race at Wallingford Market Place in 2017.

Sean Wells, winner of pancake race at Wallingford Market Place in 2017

While in 2021 we could only enjoy pancakes at home, we remember the last pancake race in Oxford.

Children and grown-ups turned up at Wallingford Market Place last year for the beloved annual tradition.

Participants were encouraged to bring their own pancake and a pan to the Shrove Tuesday event, but these pancakes were not for eating.

Resisting the urge to eat them the people of Wallingford raced with the pancakes balanced in their frying pans and attempted to not let them fall flat on the floor.

Oxford Mail:

School children show off their pancakes at Wallingford's beloved annual pancake race. Picture: Ed Nix

The Great Wallingford Pancake Race had to go virtual this year due to the third national lockdown.

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