- 19/06/2025
Documentary, Victorian farm S01E01
Victorian Farm S01E01
The documentary "Victorian Farm S01E01" follows historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn as they move into a Victorian smallholding on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire, which had not been used in nearly half a century.
Their first task was the restoration of the cottage, and they began by helping to thresh the previous summer's wheat crop, their first experience with steam-powered machinery.
Alex attempted to sow a wheat crop using horse-power, while Ruth and Peter installed a range in the cottage and took a trip to the canals to load up on coal.
It was also time for the apple harvest, so Alex and Peter turned their hand to making cider.
Ruth explored the challenges of Victorian cooking by making preserves ready for winter and cooked her first meal on the range.
The team also had to learn shepherding skills as the first livestock, a flock of Shropshire ewes, arrived on the farm.
The series was one of BBC Two's biggest hits of 2009, with audiences of up to 3.8 million per
Victorian Farm S01E01
The documentary "Victorian Farm S01E01" follows historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn as they move into a Victorian smallholding on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire, which had not been used in nearly half a century.
Their first task was the restoration of the cottage, and they began by helping to thresh the previous summer's wheat crop, their first experience with steam-powered machinery.
Alex attempted to sow a wheat crop using horse-power, while Ruth and Peter installed a range in the cottage and took a trip to the canals to load up on coal.
It was also time for the apple harvest, so Alex and Peter turned their hand to making cider.
Ruth explored the challenges of Victorian cooking by making preserves ready for winter and cooked her first meal on the range.
The team also had to learn shepherding skills as the first livestock, a flock of Shropshire ewes, arrived on the farm.
The series was one of BBC Two's biggest hits of 2009, with audiences of up to 3.8 million per
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LearningTranscript
00:00here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time lost in Victorian rural England now a
00:14unique project will bring it back to life as it would have been in the 1880s such an amazing piece
00:21Ruth Goodman Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn are taking up the challenge of living as Victorian
00:31farmers for a full calendar year from the depths of winter to the warmth of summer they'll wear the
00:40clothes eat the food and experience the day-to-day life of rural Victorians they'll rear Victorian
00:49breeds of animals they really are hello sweeties they'll grow crops fingers crossed I'll get it
01:00right and I won't look like too much of an idiot and get to grips with the crafts and skills of
01:05the age this was a time of agricultural revolution in Britain but the industrialization of farming
01:14would wipe out centuries of traditional skills thankfully there are a select few who still keep
01:22them alive and this is going to encourage the tree to form the direction we wanted to go certainly the
01:27theory with their help the team are about to turn back the clock to rediscover a lost world
01:33but first before winter sets in they must restore their dilapidated farm cottage I've never used
01:44anything like this so crops using only horsepower whilst dealing with the perennial problem of the
01:54British weather unfortunately it's just not working out for us today the problem is is it's just so wet
02:00and take charge of livestock learning shepherding skills the hard way a nightmare it doesn't bode well for the year
02:09they'll be getting to grips with every aspect of life on the Victorian farm
02:14it's the first of September Ruth Alex and Peter arrive at their Victorian farm this is the way to travel
02:33isn't it Ruth Goodman specializes in domestic history she'll run the cottage and be responsible
02:41for the dairy and poultry Victorian period is is a really really interesting moment in history it's
02:47a time of most enormous social change there's new ways of feeding ourselves there's new ways of
02:52clothing ourselves as new ways of housing ourselves there's new ways of transporting ourselves you
02:57know we all base our modern living on the things that came out of this great turmoil and experimentation
03:02what's in this one oh I supposed to cook it tensors archaeologist Alex Langlands will be responsible for
03:10growing crops and rearing the animals it's about getting up first thing in the morning and coming
03:16in you know when the Sun goes down it's about spending the time outside it's about eating fresh
03:20ingredients growing your own ingredients I mean it really is about going back to a way of life that I
03:26think many people today would love the opportunity to do Peter Ginn also an archaeologist is keen to
03:33get to grips with the steam and horsepower technology of the era we all know about the big events in
03:40history I want to know about the day-to-day living within that context there are massive changes in
03:46industry and also there are massive changes in agriculture because it's such a moment of change
03:51you've got the old and the new sitting right alongside each other so you've got ancient
03:56crafts that are almost unchanged for a millennia sitting right alongside a time of mass production
04:09their farm is on the Acton Scott estate which stretches across one and a half thousand acres of
04:15Shropshire countryside it's been home to Thomas Stackhouse Acton's family since 1250
04:21five mr. Acton is a Victorian farming enthusiast and has spent his life collecting old agricultural
04:29tools and machinery his son Rupert manages the estate and will be their land agent for the year ahead
04:37goodness it's a bit daunted yeah you ring the bell first stop for the farmers is Acton Scott Hall
04:47oh hello hello nice to meet you how are you very good indeed hi I'm I'm Peter Peter nice to meet you
05:00this is Ruth hello this is little Florence she's rather shy yeah in the Victorian age this was a busy
05:16working farm with 15 acres of land it was abandoned 50 years ago but little has changed here for a
05:24century oh it's quite a sight isn't it oh wow look at that these barns will be home to their cows horse and pigs needs a bit of a clean
05:39he's gonna need a bit of a clean isn't it yeah home to hundreds find although abandoned long ago amazingly the Victorian water pump still works I spent many happy hours here as a child pumping water for the for the cattle
05:56above the cows shed is the tool loft untouched for decades I'll be very very careful
06:05there's a good range of tools this one is a castrating knife
06:15that's lovely I think that's definitely a boy job
06:19and it's it's you know it's a milking stool no other stool is that high I mean it's absolutely perfect
06:26isn't it or has three legs or has yeah exactly there's some horse medication up here as well
06:33you've thought of everything it's not still in there
06:36well now the bottle's still sealed the one minute cure for gripes or fret in horses
06:46oh my gosh it's still sealed oh flipping heck
06:51wow there's so much here so much to take in
06:54this place is amazing
06:56it's almost like it was left yesterday
06:59yeah well okay a long slightly rusty yesterday
07:02a time capsule that we've just uncovered with everything here we've just got to get it back in
07:07shape make it easier to get to the door the team will not just be farming but also living cooking and
07:13eating like rural Victorians yes Rupert has found them a small farm workers cottage uninhabited since
07:21the 1950s I believe one of these keys fits this door but I'm not quite sure which one it is
07:26oh wow fantastic in need of a bit of work I'm afraid I take it this kind of been lived in for
07:42quite a while no it hasn't been lived in for 50 years 50 years at the heart of the Victorian cottage is
07:49the coal range this was the way most people cooked until the 1920s when gas and electricity began to
07:56replace coal it's not only essential for cooking but provides hot water and heats the house but
08:04this range is in a sorry state gonna have to get this sorted absolutely first thing you're just not
08:11gonna do anything until we've got a decent range I mean the rest we can live without but we can't live
08:16without the range I'm worried about cooking on a coal range I've never done it before so that's gonna
08:22be quite an important thing for me because if I can't crack it we're gonna eat horrible food all
08:28year which is so shall I show you upstairs show you where you'll be billeted although dilapidated the
08:37cottage is structurally sound no it's not too bad up here I think it's pretty good he says right that's
08:50it moving in soon as possible guiding the farmers through the year ahead is the celebrated book of
08:59the farm by Henry Stevens first published in 1844 this kind of book I mean it's it's absolutely
09:06priceless and it gives you a breakdown about essentially everything you would need to do
09:11throughout the year and it also gives you the science behind it as well all types of breeds I
09:15mean there's literally absolutely everything here what is most interesting about these publications
09:19though is their mixture of the old and the new often refers to sort of ancient ways of doing things
09:25but without quite knowing the exact science behind it this was the Bible for farmers coming to terms
09:31with the industrialization of farming in the 19th century it's also got the new as well some of the
09:37sort of cutting-edge technology of the time and I'm just looking here at some of this and plowing
09:41with a steam engine with these huge cumbersome steam engines but seen to be and it says here
09:46absolute cutting-edge technology turning this theory into practice will be an enormous challenge one
10:00of the tasks I've been trusted with throughout the project is going to be sort of managing our arable
10:05concern it's it's really a part of the project where I just can't afford to fail and of course for
10:11farmers back in the late 19th century it's just not an option you know really really anxious about it
10:16but at the same time really excited the farm has three acres of arable land on some of it they
10:23hope to grow a cereal crop like wheat or barley at the moment the fields covered in grass so first it
10:31must be plowed to return it to bare earth guiding Alex is Britain's most award-winning plowman Jim
10:39Elliott hi Jim yeah no these lovely fellas and this is Liam he's an eight-year-old shire right and
10:46this is Prince he's a 13 year old Irish draft and they work well together then yeah yeah they do so
10:54what do you think of the field then Jim field looks fine um quite a bit of grass on but we should be
10:59able to plow it down and put a bit of fertility into the soil you're confident yeah as long as there's
11:03no big stones good I'm glad you're confident you back Prince you back oh whoa whoa slowly now this
11:11really is your moneymaker and this is really important especially for a farm of our size you've
11:15really got to turn out a good cereal crop because that's really that's where you're gonna get your
11:19cash during the 19th century the population of Britain grew from 10 million to 40 million to feed
11:29the masses agriculture had to undergo a revolution by industrializing simple wooden plows used for
11:38centuries were superseded by high-tech iron machines leading the market were ransoms of it switch in the
11:471840s they came up with this the Yorkshire light so great was the design it was still being manufactured a
11:54century later fantastic bit of kit this is the ransoms plow and this is one of these mass-produced
12:03plows what you have in our sort of in sort of earlier period earlier 19th century is you've still
12:08got your wooden plows and they're being made in local workshops but with ransoms mass-produced and
12:13they're being sent out to all over the country should be using one of these north of Scotland all the way
12:18down south of England these high-tech plows revolutionized arable farming the earth was
12:26plowed to a consistent depth improving the quality of the land and increasing the crop yield but in
12:33much the same way that you see a modern tractor all sorts of gadgets on it you know hydraulics levers all
12:41sorts of it's very much the same here boy having to adjust everything just by very very small fractions
12:48of inches at the cottage Ruth and Peter are beginning the restoration let's get rid of these birds first
13:01the first job is to clean the bedroom it's in a pretty neglected state this room the walls the
13:13plasters there mostly if we just sort of start at the top and just take it as slowly as we can down
13:20this has been 50 years with dust 50 years of spiders 50 years of an insect and animal paradise so yeah it's
13:28absolutely filthy this is I think a much bigger job than I thought initially as they remove half a
13:37century of dust the state of the plaster becomes clear it's not as good as I thought it was it's
13:44going to take quite a bit well if it needs to come off it needs to come off I think the more we look
13:50more we're finding we're gonna have to do downstairs in the kitchen there's an even more pressing issue
13:56the range so this is Henry cottage and this is our range I don't know what you think about it Peter's
14:06called on Paul Arrowsmith an expert in Victorian building could be repaired but it's a big job not
14:13not worth it it's very small opening though do you need too much cooking we need to a fair bit of cooking
14:20yes all right well I don't know I'm not sure if this is actually the original fireplace because we've
14:26obviously got this here on the adjacent wall is evidence of a fireplace bricked up long ago only the
14:33wooden lintel is visible it's just a lot bigger area so I'm sure it goes back further so you can get
14:39a much bigger ranging I suppose the only way to find out is actually to get rid of some of the
14:44stuff the old range will be discarded and a new bigger range installed here Peter is hoping that
14:57beyond the rubble the chimney will still be intact any cottage hasn't been used for 50 years and moreover
15:12this is a bricked up chimney so this is all rubble that has been used to fill up this fireplace and
15:20was abandoned and moved across to there to burn the range draws air from the room out through the
15:37chimney but if the chimney's blocked the air won't flow so the coal won't burn when I block this chimney
15:46up they've capped it to the stone so that we can still use the fireplace in the bedroom above at the
15:54moment that stone is lingering precariously up that chimney so they're trying to force it down so it
15:58doesn't fall on us while we're working upstairs in the bedroom Paul's attempting to shift the
16:04offending stone once the rubble's cleared the chimney's revealed in all its glory you can see the shape
16:23tapering as it goes up to draw the smoke up we've had a shoe come out of here and a salt hole here
16:33I mean these houses would have been damp and this is one of the few places you could keep your salt
16:38dry so it would still be granulated we're going to sweep the chimney with these drainage rods as you
16:47can see this is just the beginning I think there's going to be tons tons of debris coming down
16:52got all the birds nests out of there and you can see daylight just waiting for the range now
17:06in the fields Alex's early optimisms turned to gloom and what we're finding up this end of the field
17:24is that we've got a lot of boulders here and a lot of stones what's happening is the share is hitting
17:30these stones and it's kicking the power out if it's a bit wetter you see it could just roll it over the
17:35ground is just quite you know quite dry right and we have a drain overnight but I don't know if it's
17:40gone in but it's been dry for yes two months or yes that's going to create real problems here yeah
17:45it'll the further won't want to roll off smoothly it'll want to break in lumps that might be our
17:52worst concern but we'll have to give it a try I'm slowly losing confidence here Jim no no there's
17:58all the many all the many problems you're pointing out Alex is coming to terms with the
18:07challenges that faced the Victorian farmer failure of a wheat crop back in the Victorian period would
18:14spell disaster for any farmer I mean it really would be a case of of going from sort of struggling
18:19to get by to being to being broke essentially and you might even find yourself and your family in the
18:24workhouse I've got to have a go myself because obviously farmer of my stature would know how to
18:35plow back in the late 19th century so I'm a bit anxious here because if I cock this up yeah then Jim's
18:44got a lot of work to do to rectify it all I want you to do is keep the furrow wheel up against this
18:51edge here walk on good boy right keep the land wheel on the ground yeah you can put a little bit
18:59of pressure on the right hand handle and that helps turn the furrow better as long as this wheel
19:05doesn't come off the ground unless you lose your depth how's it doing Jim you're doing fine yeah
19:11really side no no you don't I'll soon tell you if you know I don't look at my handiwork it's fine
19:18we'll catch you on the way around yeah just mesmerizing watching it turn over
19:24Victorian farmers plowed an acre a day walking 11 miles from dawn till dusk but the work is back
19:37breaking after a couple of hours Alex is exhausted and the dry stony ground is adding to his woes
19:57oh my father used to say that hard work never killed anyone we made them into gay queer shapes I suppose a lifetime of plowing like that you know and out in all weathers as well you know
20:23at the cottage the chimney is clear and two flues have been built ready for the range to be fitted
20:34Peter Parker and Steve Powell are Victorian range experts and have restored a hundred-year-old model we're
20:46just sizing up the oven just make sure that it actually fits within the the opening that's been made
20:51for but there's a snag the flues have already been put in and and they're they're too far forward which
21:03means that the oven is protruding in front of the brickwork which is going to make it a bit of a problem
21:10while adjustments are made to the flues Peter and Ruth set out to forage for fruit
21:18on the Acton Scott estate
21:20this is real hunter-gatherer stuff isn't it yeah absolutely I mean this is this has been a staple
21:28of peoples throughout the ages thousands of years it's probably why it makes you feel so good isn't
21:33it I mean I always feel happy when I'm doing something like this it always lifts my spirit so if
21:38you think of the toil that's put into the fields yeah and then this is just like a bonus like a blessing
21:43isn't it isn't your luxury in life yeah what are your plans for the sloughs mostly gin good to hear
21:51oh I think we've got damsels here this bounty of free fruit will only last days unless it's preserved a
22:03job that requires a kitchen and a range after a few alterations to the flues the range is fitted and
22:15ready to be blacked we're putting graphite onto the past iron to help to protect it from rusting and it gives us a nice sheen and usually the housewives would do this the young ladies of the house I'm saying that
22:33because we we don't want to get pressurized into doing this sort of thing at home do we still yeah true
22:38Ruth's keen to try out the range as soon as possible but first she needs some fuel
22:51Ruth and Peter head to the nearby Shropshire Union Canal to collect a cartload of coal building Britain's
23:03canals was one of the biggest engineering projects the country has ever seen by the 1850s over 4,000 miles
23:11of waterways had been dug transporting 30 million tons of freight a year this Shropshire narrowboat
23:21saturn was restored by tony loery and a group of enthusiasts and is the last of its kind
23:26oh wow what about beautiful boats the best just the best we've got to pick up some coal from you
23:42I'm just going to yeah what sort is it the boat is a Shropshire Union boat built as a there was a fly
23:47boat fly boat non-stop boat meaning going day and night with changing the horses along the way these boats
23:53were the creme de la creme really so they were built smaller they were built slimmer and they
23:57went very well indeed so it's a very graceful boat do you want a hand with the coal I certainly do
24:01how many times do you want uh we've just had a range fitted in our cottage well you're going to
24:10need most of this for the winter then aren't we we're going to need a fair bit yeah I mean this
24:15stuff changed the entire world didn't it it did and the canals helped it really because until the
24:20canals came along and traveling coal you know in bulk for long distances was impossibly expensive
24:25yeah as soon as the canals came suddenly you could deliver 20 tons at a time with relative ease and
24:30they just everything burgeoned then industry steam engine you know we used to sort of the idea of
24:34coal changing industry but it changes farming it changes food it changes laundry it changes the way
24:41you breathe in your house it changes everything but also just canals were one of the principal
24:47communication networks of britain and the industrial revolution but it also enabled farmers to move
24:52produce across britain yeah they're essentially linked farms so it allowed them to specialize
24:56yeah so they can now work that's a really good point isn't it be able to choose you know which is most
25:01commercially viable is it better to be growing grain or is it better to be growing dairy whether
25:05you've got a canal or a railway in your area is going to be one of the factors that suddenly makes you
25:11make that decision isn't it because it's the industrialization of farming in a sense transportation
25:19opened up wider markets for farmers enabling them to specialize in one product like dairy crops or meat
25:25for the first time it created a national food economy it's late September the plowing has taken Alex
25:39twice as long as he hoped but finally the jobs done next he must decide what crop to serve in the
25:49cottage Peters stripped the walls back to bare stone now he must learn how to plaster and Ruth's about to
25:58like the range for the first time under the guidance of range fitters peter and steve
26:03all right how glad you are we've had it all covered up for you to give you a surprise okay and let's hope you like it
26:12oh wow what do you think about that you swore it would come straight from the factory wouldn't you wow so let's hope it's going to work as well oh dear i find this quite
26:22there's some nice cooking on it oh dear i've never used anything like this you look one excited lady i love it i know i am i love to see it i just i'm terrified it's all going to go horribly wrong and i'm going to be an idiot
26:34no i don't think you will be well we'll see
26:38Ruth's collected kindling in wood to get the coal going now i'm getting excited and a little bit worried
26:45it's the way the little work first time here we go
26:52here we go and see if we can
26:57well those flues are obviously working they are aren't they
27:02oh yes that's a bit more like it you're happy with that
27:07that looks good doesn't it i am a pyromaniac
27:13mmmm the fire's lovely and hot now and the kettle's nearly boiling
27:18cooking on coal is so different
27:21it's not something that i've done before
27:24and i know that it has the most enormous impact on what you can cook
27:28wood smoke tastes nice
27:31coal smoke however tastes foul
27:34it's sort of acidy and sulphurous
27:36in the old way of cooking on wood you would be almost encouraging smoke to come round your open food but
27:42on coal you really want to stop that you want no smoke whatsoever and you're trying to make sure that you've got as much separation between food and fuel
27:53coal revolutionized cooking and recipe books were rewritten for the new fuel
27:58roasting on a spit went out and oven roasting came in
28:02i don't know that i'm going to get it right for quite a while it's going to take me half the year to practice maybe by the end of the year i'll be quite good
28:13coal also revolutionized farming and nothing symbolizes the agricultural revolution more than this the threshing machine
28:23in the victorian age these steam powered machines moved from farm to farm threshing wheat removing the valuable grain from the plant
28:34i'm just looking at our bible the book of the farm once again henry stevens is quick to inform us about what we should be doing here as the incoming tenants there'd be certain jobs that we'd have to do and one of these is to get involved with the threshing
28:49it says here um not unfrequently the incoming tenant undertakes for the outgoing the threshing and delivering of the crop to market on payment for the trouble so hopefully we'll be able to earn ourselves a few quid today
29:02alex and peter have joined a local threshing team tom henderson operates the steam traction engine
29:09it should start to build up steam in about three quarters of an hour we should see the gauge move
29:14when we get up over a hundred pounds and we've got enough to start threshing
29:24this new mechanized threshing ended centuries of rural tradition
29:29until the 1830s the job of separating the grain from the stalks by hand employed thousands of unskilled men throughout the winter
29:38i've got here a head of wheat and it's only really with some force that i can release the wheat from the husk
29:47and when you think about this job timeless essentially since the first harvest of wheat to separate the grain from the rest of the plant
29:56these machines reduced threshing time from months to just days
30:02now a few men could do the work of thousands
30:05the unemployed were furious farms were attacked and machines smashed
30:11but by the 1880s the threshing machine was a generally accepted part of country life
30:17the threshing machine is an absolute beast that needs feeding
30:28so i'm just pitchforking up these sheaths and they're being put inside
30:34it's reasonably light work i suppose
30:38i'm just getting to grips with this pitchfork
30:40i've been told i look quite amateurish when i do it
30:46for those lucky enough to get work threshing there were other advantages
30:51well we're cooking eggs and bacon
30:53and i've just got the fat hot on the shovel
30:57next job now is to put some bacon on
30:59excuse my clean hands but it does add to the flavour
31:02there we go that's ration number two
31:06we usually get three on
31:09ah this is ideal
31:13could be non-stick this
31:18non-stick teflon shovel there we are
31:21there you go then
31:22that's how you cook egg and bacon
31:24there we go
31:31lunch break over it's time to finish the threshing
31:34it's at the end of the rick now
31:37it's quite precarious because i'm just
31:39standing on metal struts with my hobnail boots on
31:43it's a bit slippy
31:45i feel my legs buckling
31:47with the threshing done the grain is weighed
31:54what's the news then mike have we done well
31:56very well yes
31:57about two and a half hundred weight for the day's threshing
32:00right which is about 125 kilograms
32:02right okay
32:04so very successful
32:07most of the grain would have been sold to make flour
32:09some would have been kept to resew back in the ground for next year's crop
32:14do the honours
32:15yep
32:16you alright with that
32:17yep
32:18oh
32:19you sure
32:20yes
32:21victorian varieties of wheat are very different to modern breeds
32:27today we've bred the species so that much of the goodness that goes into the straw actually goes into the head
32:33and wheat today actually is very very short you know a couple of foot off the ground
32:37this would grow to about four or five foot off the ground so hopefully when we come out here in august
32:41we'll have a crop that we can just barely see over
32:46before the wheat is sown the clods of ploughed earth must be broken up by harrowing
32:52this is the first time i've actually ever driven horses myself so it's absolutely thrilling
33:00this is great fun
33:02this is great fun
33:03now i'm going to bring them round
33:06this is the difficult bit
33:09good boys
33:13you know really that i mean you know they're doing the stuff
33:17at the cottage peter's ready to start plastering
33:28he's read in a victorian manual that the old lime plaster removed from the walls can be recycled
33:36i'm just using this to pulverize the plaster into dust and i've done about a day of this
33:44it's quite a quite a laborious process
33:47i mean it's quite hard on the upper body
33:50but at night it's the it's the wrists i think it's the jarring motion
33:55it's great to be reusing materials like this but it's also very labor intensive
34:10sand and water are added to make fresh lime plaster
34:14this is actually incredibly tough
34:16the consistency we're looking for is quite sloppy
34:21um
34:22again it's it's the old adage a bit like porridge
34:26pretty much all the materials we use on this farm are a bit like porridge
34:31there's one other essential ingredient
34:34horse hair
34:35and i'm just going to put this in
34:37and this should help the plaster bond when it's on the wall
34:41stop it falling off
34:43hopefully
34:45it's really good to experiment all these these old techniques but um
34:52god they're difficult
34:55and they do take time
35:02in the field Alex must decide how densely to sow the wheat
35:07too dense and the shoots will compete with each other and die
35:11too sparse and the birds will eat it all
35:15Alex is taking guidance from a highly scientific source
35:19an age old poem
35:21it goes one for the rook one for the crow one to let rot one to let grow
35:26so according to that a little poem there we should be anticipating losing some three quarters of what we're sowing today
35:33Alex has called in local farmer Brian Davis and his daughter Sharon to help
35:43to sow the wheat they're using a seed drill
35:46it's a real concern because
35:50really you wouldn't normally do this job in the rain and we're hoping this is just a shower and it's just going to pass
35:55but it's looking fairly ominous
35:57traditionally seed was sown by hand
35:59broadcast
36:01the problem with broadcast sowing is that the grain lands on the ground and it hits the ground at different heights
36:07and then when you harrow it over you'll get the seed because it's at different heights within the seedbed
36:11it'll grow at different times it'll be uneven it'll mature at different periods
36:16the seed drill invented in 1701 by Jethro Tull
36:21was a major leap forward in the industrialization of farming
36:25this was the moment when farming became scientific
36:29Brian has brought along a design from the 1880s
36:32the pinnacle of Victorian technology
36:35the wheat in the hopper at the top
36:37it drops down the bottom into a little trough
36:40and the revolving cups there you can see those discs with the cups on
36:45you can just see them picking the wheat up and dropping them into the little yellow containers
36:51which then funnel them down into these tubes so that they drop out in the drill
36:57so the seeds are all planted at the optimum depth
37:01increasing the chances of germination
37:06but with just two rows sown, Alex's worst fears about the weather are realised
37:13unfortunately it's just not working out for us today
37:16the problem is it's just so wet, it's so damp, the silt gets so heavy
37:20that it's just a nightmare for the horses to pull
37:22it's a bit of a nightmare really because it looks like we're not going to get it done today
37:26and if this weather's set in for a couple more days
37:28you know we're going to really struggle to get the grain in the ground
37:32do you want to park it up under the trees then?
37:36at the cottage Peter and stonemason Paul are preparing to plaster the kitchen
37:47so we've each got a churn brush and we're just going to brush it down
37:51it's yet another dusty job on the farm
37:54and after that we're going to get our stirrup pump
37:57and we're going to moisten it
37:59which will help the plaster adhere to the wall
38:03this is our stirrup pump that we found in the tool shed
38:06it's pretty old
38:08Paul and I have taken it apart
38:10and we've tried to fix the seals
38:12because originally more water would come up in your face
38:15and it would actually come out of the nozzle
38:17but I'm surprisingly dry
38:19and it's working very well
38:20so I think we've succeeded
38:22it's a remarkable improvement in the air quality in here
38:28it's time to apply Peter's recycled plaster
38:32what you have to do
38:35is work it into the wall
38:37nice layer on
38:39because once it's on the wall we can spread it out
38:43really makes your forearms ache doesn't it?
38:46it does
38:47you're doing very well
38:49you're a good liar, Paul
38:52I'm learning an awful lot
38:55I'm also learning that the process has actually taken an awful lot of time
38:58you can't hurry lime plaster
39:01and we've got a number of coats to put on here
39:04and Ruth's just got a range
39:06and she's quite keen to have a meal
39:08so I don't think we're going to be finished in time
39:19it's mid-october
39:26after a week of rain the sun has returned
39:30so Alex is back out with a seed drill
39:33planting the rest of the crop
39:35so far so good
39:37this is really turning out brilliantly
39:41two days ago it was absolutely bucketing down
39:44and now it's really dried off
39:48really crumbly surface
39:50we've got good distribution
39:51it took us a couple of rows to get it right
39:54but so far it's looking really, really good
40:03it's the last thing that we need to do in here really
40:05I don't think we'll have to come in in spring and do any hoeing
40:07and it's the job done
40:09and it's a relief really
40:10because it's the first thing to do in the agricultural year
40:14and it's one of the most important things
40:16hopefully now we're going to get a good year
40:19we just really have to leave it to the weather
40:21and we'll be back here in August
40:24to harvest the crop
40:26and only then will we know just how successful things have gone
40:30in the cottage
40:35the sunny weathers helped the slow drying Victorian plaster to dry
40:42after removing half a century of grime
40:45re-plastering and repainting
40:47it's returned to its Victorian glory
40:50complete with a Victorian brass bed lent by the Actons
40:55I'm afraid it's still rather a building site
40:58the cottage will mainly be Ruth's domain
41:01so she's taking advice
41:03Dr Nicola Verdon is an expert on the role of the Victorian farmer's wife
41:10if you read the farming manuals which were written by men
41:14so for example Henry Stephen's Book of the Farm
41:17which was a very popular 19th century manual
41:19and went through several editions
41:21and they don't mention the cleaning of the farmhouse as a task
41:25they talk about the dairy and the poultry and the food processing and so on
41:30but the cleaning and the laundry work and so on
41:32which were big tasks and would have taken up a large amount of time
41:36these aren't mentioned
41:38just magically happen do they?
41:40yeah
41:42Nicola helps Ruth tackle a much feared Victorian pest
41:46the bed bug using turpentine and salt
41:49I always used to think the bed bugs were like dust mite sort of things that lived in mattresses
41:55but they're not
41:56they're nasty
41:58they get everywhere
41:59they live in any little tiny crack or space
42:02and lie dormant for months on end
42:05and then as soon as carbon dioxide, so your breath
42:08as soon as you're in the room and you're breathing
42:10that reactivates and they come out and get you and suck pints of blood
42:14over a couple of months
42:17which sounds really unpleasant
42:21Tackling bed bugs was a twice yearly job
42:24others were daily
42:26this obviously would have been one of her first tasks of the day
42:29would be cleaning the bedrooms
42:31making the beds and so on
42:33alongside the milking of the cows
42:36feeding the pigs
42:37feeding the pigs and the hens
42:39and any other small animals that are in the farm yards
42:43and making the breakfast obviously
42:46and making sure the men are all fed and watered
42:49emptying the chamber pots
42:51absolutely
42:52working all day basically
42:54very very little leisure time indeed
43:00it's late October
43:02in a few days the animals arrive
43:05and caring for them will be a full time job
43:08by now Peter hoped to have completed the cottage
43:12but there's still an awful lot to be done
43:15Ruth can't wait to use the range
43:18so she's braving the building site with Nicola
43:21to preserve the foraged fruit
43:23what we're doing now in the kitchen was actually one of the main roles
43:26of a farmer's wife
43:28yes
43:29that preservation of foodstuffs
43:31the food processing
43:33the preserving of seasonal food
43:35this really kept the farm
43:38and the family
43:39and the workforce
43:41ticking over
43:42so it's very important that
43:44a farmer married a woman who was a good cook
43:48look how much fruit we gathered
43:50we just got loads and loads and loads of it
43:53they're using foraged damsons and crab apples
43:57to make an Indian version of pickle
44:00chutney
44:01I suppose we shouldn't be surprised really
44:03that so much Indian food comes into English cookery
44:06after all there we were over there
44:08height of the empire
44:10height of the empire
44:11first the fruit is slowly cooked
44:13then a mixture of ginger
44:15turmeric cayenne pepper and cloves are added
44:18so where are we getting these recipes from
44:20well these particular ones are from Eliza Acton's recipe book
44:24but you can find similar ones in almost every recipe book of the period
44:29and these were cheap enough for most farmers' wives to have been able to afford
44:34at least one or two
44:35yeah they seem to have been deeply common and you could buy them pre-prepared
44:39Peter and Alex also make the most of the autumn crop of fruit
44:48under the watchful eye of the estate owner
44:51Thomas Stackhouse Acton
44:54every year he makes cider using apples from the orchards
44:59there's quite a few on the ground
45:01these are cider apples aren't they these ones
45:03yes these will do
45:05all of these ones yes
45:07and it doesn't matter about these blemishes
45:09no it doesn't matter about those
45:11ok
45:12no ones which have gone black
45:14right
45:15well like that one
45:16I suppose
45:17that one we don't want
45:18no
45:19right no
45:20that one looks a bit faster even to the untrained eye Peter
45:25and avoid putting leaves in
45:27right ok
45:30with the windfall apples collected
45:32Mr Acton springs into action
45:35this is a panking pole
45:37and we use it to shake the apples off
45:39find your heads
45:49quite blessed
45:50see why you're wearing a hard hat now
45:52yes
45:53standard gear mate
45:56the chutney's been simmering for three hours
45:58so the stewed damsons and crab apples are infused with the spices
46:04like all chutneys
46:06this improves with keeping
46:08I mean you can eat it straight away
46:10but it tastes much better after about three months
46:12you sort of lose that vinegary edge don't you in it
46:15so this will be really tasty right in the heart of winter
46:18yeah
46:19yeah
46:21I'm sorting out the sealing of the jars
46:23which we're going to do with the bladders of pigs
46:27these are particularly good because they're so stretchy
46:32and watertight
46:33I should get several lids out of each one
46:40I don't think I've ever actually stretched a pig's bladder before
46:43there's time for everything
46:44there's time for everything
46:45yeah well yeah
46:47so if I stretch that over
46:50certainly as it dries it will shrink
46:53and then we'll get a really tight seal on it
46:57it's not as bad to touch is it right?
47:00it's not slimy
47:01it's a little bit yeah
47:02but it's only like wet rubber would be
47:04Ruth and Nicola are making another Indian inspired recipe
47:09pick a lily
47:10so this is the vinegar and the spices
47:14Ruth stocks the larder with the preserves and pickles
47:17ready for winter
47:19as well as chutneys she's also made tomato ketchup
47:23another popular Victorian relish
47:26I'm going to let the pick a lily
47:28which was in this one here
47:30cool down before I put the lids on them
47:35actually I'm really relieved
47:37to have finally managed to be able to get some of this pickling
47:39and preserving done
47:41without the range though I just couldn't do anything
47:43and I've been watching all the fruits in the hedgerows
47:45you know beginning to go over
47:46I'm thinking
47:48I'm going to move sooner
47:49we'll have nothing in here
47:51so it is a relief
47:55right let's have these apples on the pier
47:58okay
48:00over it guys
48:02the fruit gathered from the orchard will be crushed using a Victorian cider mill
48:07just that bag and that will be enough I think
48:10here we go
48:12right okay
48:14that's enough to be starting with
48:16okay
48:18now it's a case of getting the horse to do all the hard work
48:29how long have you been doing this for then?
48:33we've been doing this for about 25 years I suppose
48:36right
48:37have you ever had a really good vintage year?
48:39well we haven't made a note of it
48:41we just keep drinking it steadily
48:43what consistency are we looking for here then?
48:47consistency of porridge
48:49right
48:50the boys are being helped by local farmer Merle Wilson
48:56yeah
48:58Peter's taken Mr Acton's usual job
49:00steadying the millstone
49:02but things aren't running smoothly
49:07you're getting a bit of a build up in here
49:10yeah
49:12every time there's stone there's one rotation
49:15it settles
49:16right
49:17now if it's got good momentum and there's not too many apples it'll just carry on
49:20Mr Acton you were saying that this stone you think it might have been used for
49:24sharpening
49:25probably that's why it's got a flat on it
49:28it's got a slightly flat edge
49:30you wouldn't think a stone wheel could have a flat but
49:33well I think that's what's creating most of the problems
49:37he seems to be making a harder job of it than you Mr Acton
49:40well he hasn't had so many years at it
49:43there's a lot to learn
49:49in the cottage
49:51Ruth's ready to cook her first meal on the range
49:54I've got a leg of mutton here
49:56you can see by the size of it
49:58it is not a leg of lamb it is indeed a leg of mutton
50:01it makes so much more economic sense to eat adult sheep
50:03after you've had eight years of cropping them for their wool
50:06and mutton was ever such a popular traditional and common dish
50:13for the middle classes
50:15in fact sometimes they actually call mutton eaters as a sort of definition
50:19of people who were
50:21doing okay but not great
50:23so I'm going to take the bone out
50:25and boil it like that
50:27yeah I think that's done it
50:30yes
50:32ha ha
50:34right
50:36I'll roll that up
50:39oh that doesn't look too bad
50:42tie it up neat
50:44I'm just going to pop him in
50:46yes
50:47the pulverized apples are ready to be squeezed for juice
50:59using a cider press
51:01winding things up again are we Peter?
51:03not as much as you Alex
51:05here's your first load of apples
51:07I don't know about you Merle but my hands are utterly freezing
51:10in these apples
51:12thank you very much
51:14the pulp is loaded onto mats known as hares
51:17this cider that we hopefully make
51:19it's going to be kept, it's going to be used for our hay harvest
51:22as a means of giving to our workers, our labourers
51:25and quite often the quality of your cider would be something that would attract labourers to your farm to do the work
51:32and the farmer would also keep back a batch for himself and he'd probably have some rotten stuff for people he didn't like
51:41like Alex
51:43the fuck is going to end up on your head
51:46the stack of hares, known as a cheese, is put under immense pressure to squeeze every last drop of apple juice from them
51:56and we're just bringing the beam down to press it
51:59great stuff
52:01just compressing the cheese
52:03and we're getting all the juice out, all the apple juice
52:06such a lovely colour as well isn't it
52:08keep it going
52:10it's getting really hard now
52:15a little juice coming out
52:17pleased? very pleased
52:19we've pressed this as much as we can now
52:21it won't go any further
52:22the juice is stored in casks, where it will be left for the next few months to ferment
52:28we should start fermenting in five days
52:33we have to top it up regularly, sort of every day
52:37otherwise the air gets in and you get impurities in
52:40so we need to top it up with pond water, or stream water
52:43basically water that hasn't come in contact with metals
52:46the last job of autumn is done
52:48just in time to greet the arrival of the first animals
52:56ten Shropshire ewes
52:59bred in the 1840s from local wild sheep
53:03they're famed for their excellent meat and wool
53:06but the boys' shepherding skills are put to the test almost immediately
53:11one of our newly arrived ewes split from the flock
53:17and has come into this garden
53:23any sign of her?
53:24yes and no
53:26yes and no?
53:28could have sworn I saw her in here
53:34she's up there
53:35Alex
53:36yep
53:37found her
53:38you get behind her
53:40easier said than done
53:42it's pretty thick up here
53:43oh no
53:45what a nightmare
53:46there's a gate
53:47has she gone through?
53:48this hasn't bode well for the year
53:50oh no
53:52I think all those sheep over there have seen her
53:54yeah
53:55she's in the field
53:57the runaway sheep has joined a nearby farm's flock
54:00yeah these fences are pretty low
54:02well a 90% success rate there
54:04Richard Spencer, a sheep farmer of 40 years experience
54:08has come to give some much needed advice to the novice shepherds
54:12one thing you have to remember you guys when you're sort of getting settled down with this flock of sheep
54:17every shepherd knows a sheep is the only animal in God's creation looking for the quickest way to die
54:22you can do everything right
54:24oh yeah
54:25you can do everything right
54:26you can all go pear-shaped
54:27you can make loads of mistakes
54:29if mother nature's with you
54:30you'll come out smelling of roses
54:32that's the way mother nature and life start
54:33you've just got to accept it
54:35if the ewes are to produce young
54:38they must be in tip-top health
54:41Richard's checking out the field where they're to live
54:44well young man
54:46it's a good thick turf
54:48it'll carry the sheep come winter this will
54:49yes
54:51it'll take some weather
54:52you need a good turf to carry livestock in winter
54:54right
54:55if it gets wet and you haven't got a solid turf
54:57there's nothing to carry the weight of the sheep
54:58but this will be fine
55:00this will be fine this will
55:01and I've read about flushing
55:02which is where you put them into good pasture
55:05and then because of their improving condition
55:08they're more likely to conceive twins essentially
55:11is there any basis of fact
55:13oh absolutely
55:15it's fact fact all the way
55:16because very basically if the sheep is
55:19bursting with her and she has all this lovely lush grass
55:22she's going to shed more eggs
55:24she's going to have more lambs
55:25okay so we're doing a good thing here
55:26absolutely
55:27bringing them into this type of grass
55:29yes
55:31in a few days time
55:32once the ewes have settled into life on the fresh pasture
55:35it'll be time to introduce a ram
55:38hopefully come spring
55:39they'll produce plenty of young
55:47it's time to move into the cottage
55:50very kind of the actors to lend us these chairs
55:52yeah
55:53well whatever you do
55:54don't break them
55:56and Ruth's first meal cooked on the range is ready
56:00this smells absolutely delicious
56:02what are we having?
56:03okay
56:04um, boiled mutton
56:05you couldn't grab a plate could you?
56:06yes
56:08I'll go right in here shall I
56:10ooh
56:12there we go
56:14are you okay fella?
56:15I told you to help me
56:17are you really? that's stuck
56:21my arse
56:23went straight through
56:25oh no
56:26look you'll have to use the clen chair
56:29which isn't much better actually
56:32how do you think it's gone then so far?
56:35er
56:37it's more work than I thought it was going to be
56:39getting this all ready quite obviously
56:41yeah the building work on top of everything else
56:43yeah but that's like modern builders you know
56:45they always come in yeah it was like a couple of weeks
56:48you know six weeks later you're still waiting
56:50so you know
56:52it's starting to look good
56:54it's starting to come alive
56:55yeah the good news is is that we are ready
56:58for our animals
57:00just
57:02Peter, Ruth and Alex sleep elsewhere on the estate
57:06but with the bedroom finished
57:08Ruth can't resist spending the night here
57:12I've got my chamber pot if I need it in the night
57:15and I've heated a brick on the range
57:18and wrapped it in a cloth and I'm hoping that this will
57:20warm the bed up a bit
57:22act like a hot water bottle
57:23and then I'm going to get in on my lovely feather mattress
57:27that I've cleaned and stuffed earlier
57:29get out
57:30that feels rather nice actually
57:36there better not actually be any bed bugs
57:50next time on Victorian farm building pig styes
57:57we've had snow we've had rain and it's just so cold
58:01back breaking laundry duty
58:04I need some flipping hard work
58:07a new arrival to get to grips with
58:11how am I doing then?
58:12you're doing very well
58:14and a Victorian Christmas to look forward to
58:16Happy Christmas to everyone
58:18Happy Christmas to everyone
58:19Happy Christmas to everyone
58:20Happy Christmas to everyone
58:21Happy Christmas to everyone
58:22Happy Christmas to everyone
58:23Happy Christmas to everyone
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58:29Happy Christmas to everyone
58:30Happy Christmas to everyone
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58:34Happy Christmas to everyone
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58:38Happy Christmas to everyone
58:39Happy Christmas to everyone
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