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How the Dodo Met Its End in Bristol - Fried and Served with Chips.

Discussion in 'Bristol City' started by wizered, Apr 1, 2014.

  1. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
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    A dodo

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    EXPERTS believe that the last surviving dodos, the flightless birds whose very name has become a by-word for extinction, were eaten in Bristol in the early 18th century – more than 50 years after the last previously recorded sighting of the birds.

    The evidence of both recent archaeology and documents from the city's archives now strongly suggests that dodos were regularly consumed by the Society of Merchant Venturers, Bristol's business elite, right into the early 1800s.

    Archaeological excavations undertaken at a building site at the corner of King Street and Queen Square uncovered a large number of animal bones last year.

    The area is known to have been a midden – a dumping ground for manure and other waste, which was in use until after the building of Queen Square in the early 18th century.

    This was also very close to Merchants Hall, the former headquarters of the Society of Merchant Venturers (SoMV) until it was destroyed by German bombing during the Second World War.

    Animal bones are regularly unearthed during archaeological digs, and routinely sent for specialist analysis. The laboratory in Cambridge examining the bones found a large number which puzzled them until one of the scientists realised that what they were looking at were dodo bones.

    "It was one of those career-defining moments that you always hope will come along," said Dr Howard Waldrop of the Animal & Plant Remains Investigation Laboratory. "We have carbon dated the bones. Some go back to the early 1600s, but a lot of them are from a century later. This entirely changes our perception of what happened to the dodo."

    The findings also promise closure on a mystery which has puzzled local historians for a very long time.

    Old civic documents and SoMV documents often refer to the city fathers sitting down to huge meals which included "Dutch Turkeys" on the menu.

    The earliest mention is in a letter from the explorer George Weymouth dated 1612. Writing to his friend and sponsor Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one of the leading Bristol merchants of the day he says:

    "We put into Batavia where I did purchase four paire of ye ugliest birdes I did ever see and which ye Dutch do prize but slightly for their fleshe, being unpalatable and leathery. I do send them to you for curiosity's sake. Mayhap they can be bred cheaply to provide meat for ye poore."

    It was Dutch sailors who first discovered dodos on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Weymouth's letter chimes with other accounts which say dodo meat was not popular, but it was edible and so the birds, being slow and unable to fly, were hunted to extinction. The last recorded sighting of a dodo before now was in 1651.

    Evidently Weymouth's birds arrived safely in Bristol, despite their long voyage from Batavia, and it seems that Sir Ferdinando took up his suggestion of breeding them. Account books from 1619 mention a farm in Brislington with "two score of Dutch Turkeys" among the assets.

    Other accounts through the 1600s mention "Dutch Turkey" being eaten at SoMV functions. While they may not have been popular with Dutch seamen, it seems that one of the cooks at these events came up with a way of making them palatable.

    The diarist John Evelyn, recording a visit to Bristol in 1672, was a guest at one such feast at Merchants' Hall.

    "A great favourite with the Bristol men is turtle flesh and turtle soup. There was also a great baron of beef before us, and as one would expect, a goodly selection of exceptional fine wines.

    "One remarkable curiosity tho' is Dutch Turkey, which they say is like Norfolk Turkey, only bigger. The flesh of this bird is cut into pieces, covered in a mixture of flour, milk and beaten eggs and plunged into boiling oil.

    "This was then placed before each diner with similarly oil-boiled potato tubers from the Americas.

    "The city grandees were evidently accustomed to this delicacy and greeted it with more enthusiasm than any of the other dishes. His worship the mayor, having consumed three bottles of sack, pronounced it 'finger-licking goodly' and fell off his chair."

    The last mention of the Brislington "Dutch Turkey" farm is in 1715 when it was sold. The previous year's account books of the Corporation mention a single bird being eaten at a civic celebration of the accession of King George I on April 1 1714. They then disappear from history.

    "We don't know what happened to them," says Dr Avril Fish of UWE's Faculty Of Old Literature. "Maybe they all died of disease, or from in-breeding, or perhaps they simply went out of fashion. If the Dutch Turkeys really were dodos, of course, it's unlikely that anyone in Bristol realised they were an endangered species.

    "But as things stand, the evidence strongly suggests that the last dodos to walk this earth did so in Brislington, and that they met their end being eaten by the richest men in Bristol, deep-fried and served with chips."


    Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/dodo-m...tory-20889661-detail/story.html#ixzz2xctyaRJw

    Did they not know that a bunch of these birds can be found still, they regularly congregate at the minimal stadium, although in ever reducing numbers and they are still a right bunch of DODO's..

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    Modern day DODO's..


    Happy April 1st..
     
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  2. Bluebaldee

    Bluebaldee Total Git

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    Happy 1st April to you too!

    There may well be dodos down the Mem, equally there are bustards, loons, drongos, shags, snipes, puffbirds and of course tits in abundance down the Gate!
     
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  3. wizered

    wizered Ol' Mucker
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    I've heard of a Bald EAGLE but we have just heard from a self confessed Bald DODO...<laugh>
     
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  4. Bluebaldee

    Bluebaldee Total Git

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    <laugh>.
     
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