- 3 months ago
Documentary, BBC Victorian farm S01 E06
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00:00For the last 10 months, in a unique project, this once deserted farm has been brought back to life, as it would have been in the 1880s.
00:10Gee up!
00:16Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn, and Alex Langlands have been living the lives of Victorian farmers, from the depths of winter to the warmth of summer.
00:26Turning the clock back to rediscover an age gone by.
00:33They've restored the farm under the watchful eye of their landlord, Thomas Stackhouse Acton.
00:40I think it's slightly tilted.
00:42And experienced life without modern conveniences.
00:46Bathing in a room with no central heating, it's pretty cold.
00:50Successfully bred Victorian breeds of poultry, sheep.
00:54Some friends, look at those.
00:57Cattle and pigs.
00:58A little curious and fluffy and cute and cuddly.
01:02But the dreadful June weather devastated the hay harvest.
01:07It's not cutting, is it?
01:09No, it's not.
01:09It's so wet.
01:11I mean, look, the peaches winging it out there.
01:13For the Victorian farmer, this is a disaster, leaving him no hay store to feed the animals over winter.
01:20Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.
01:22Let's hope it doesn't affect the wheat, eh?
01:24Now it's late summer, and the year-long project is almost at an end.
01:31But first, the team faces their biggest challenge yet, the wheat harvest.
01:35Only a bumper wheat crop can offset the failure of the hay harvest.
01:40First, they must make some urgent repairs to their cart.
01:46Water.
01:48Then get to grips with cutting-edge technology, Victorian style.
01:53We've had a blockage, and Brian's just going round the machine to try and work out what it is.
01:59But most importantly, they need a break in the rain.
02:04We've only got a very small window between now and when those clouds come over.
02:09A failed wheat crop could mean the workhouse for a Victorian farmer.
02:14It's early July.
02:34The wheat was planted back in September and has survived the harsh winter weather,
02:39as well as attacks by pheasants and rabbits.
02:42Now it needs to ripen from green to the familiar golden colour.
02:51Wow, this is amazing.
02:54This really is.
02:55It's a bit of a dream come true, this.
02:58This is actually probably better than I expected.
03:02But with harvest maybe four to six weeks away, weather depending,
03:08we've still got so many things that could go wrong.
03:11If we don't get the harvest right, we cut it too late, it's too dry.
03:14If we cut it too soon, it's too green, it won't thresh.
03:17Fingers crossed.
03:18I'll get it right and I won't look like too much of an idiot.
03:21If it's harvested at the right time, the wheat grain from the heads will be sold to make flour for bread.
03:28But wheat must be dry before it can be cut.
03:33If rain delays the harvest, all it will be fit for is animal feed.
03:38This acre of wheat would take our farmers a week of back-breaking work to harvest by hand.
03:47But in the 1880s came this, the horse-drawn reaper binder.
03:52As its name suggests, it not only cuts the wheat, but binds it into sheaves too,
03:58harvesting an acre in as little as an hour.
04:01What a contraption. It's amazing, isn't it?
04:03It's like something out of a Wallace and Gromit movie, isn't it?
04:06All these gadgets and levers and wheels and cogs.
04:11You've got the cutting face down there, the blades going across,
04:14so it takes the wheat up and spits it out the other side, bound somehow.
04:17So this is the real labour-saving device.
04:20It means that we don't have to run around the field bunching all this stuff up and tying it ourself.
04:25Putting this Victorian contraption back in action is going to be no mean feat.
04:31So local farmer Mr Thomas and his son Brian have offered to help.
04:36Now you've used one of these, haven't you?
04:39Yeah, my father had.
04:39Yes, I've used one of these for several years, and with horses.
04:43With horses?
04:44Oh, yes.
04:45In 1936 when I started using one, like, and we went on into the...
04:5050s?
04:51Yes.
04:52We're winding her down into her working position, approximately.
04:55Keep going till them wheels get us off the ground.
04:57That's it.
05:00Yeah, you're going down now, lovely.
05:01She's quite heavy, isn't she?
05:03She is, yeah.
05:03Do you prefer working with horses or tractors?
05:07It's a lot easier with tractors.
05:08Was it?
05:09It was.
05:11You know, we'd get on the seat and ride all day.
05:13So what's the next job, then?
05:15We're going to put the knife in now.
05:17Alex will bring him round to us, and we'll pop him in.
05:19Yep.
05:19Be very careful of that.
05:20It's sharp.
05:21Right, so we're ready to cut now, are we?
05:27No.
05:28We've got to get the string in.
05:29We've got to have the string in that thread it through the needle and through the knotter.
05:32The string's in here.
05:33Yes.
05:33It's got to end up where Alex is.
05:35This ingenious knotter ties the cut wheat into bundles.
05:38Through there, exactly, yes.
05:41Invented in 1857 by an 18-year-old Wisconsin farmhand, it was a revolutionary breakthrough.
05:47Have you done this job before, Peter, or not?
05:50No, no, I've never done this before.
05:52Well, you're quite professional at it.
05:54I think you seem to think you've got this completely under control.
05:57I think I might need to pass over to you, Alex.
05:59Yes, Alex, yes.
06:00Lift the hatch and just get down in there.
06:02You'll see it coming through there now, Alex.
06:04Can you see that?
06:05I don't want to see that.
06:05That chop.
06:06Yeah, I've got that.
06:07Right, okay.
06:08And it's basically like a giant sewing machine, this mechanism here, isn't it?
06:12This is the most complicated part of the whole procedure.
06:16Pull a bit more out here.
06:17You haven't got enough of a little bit more there.
06:19That's better.
06:19Right, all the time.
06:21And Pete is going to turn it over manually just to check if it works okay.
06:26Here it comes.
06:28Yes.
06:29Oh, no.
06:30Oh, no.
06:30No, it's clear.
06:31Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem there, Pete.
06:33Let's try it again then.
06:34Try it again?
06:34Let's pull that.
06:35It shouldn't make any difference.
06:38When was this machine last used?
06:41Have you any idea?
06:42We should try it then with a, you think, with a sheave?
06:45Yeah, I should put the straw in it.
06:46Yeah, yeah.
06:47Have a sheave?
06:47Right on there.
06:48Right.
06:49Basically.
06:51Yes, ready to go.
06:59Yes.
06:59Yes.
07:00She's tied it, yes.
07:01And we have a sheave tied.
07:03Yes.
07:03Yes.
07:04Look.
07:05Excellent.
07:05Lovely.
07:06Look at that.
07:06I've nutted up Port-A-Lisi.
07:08Yeah.
07:08That's brilliant.
07:09That is going to save us an enormous amount of time.
07:11Really good.
07:12Mm.
07:12Mm.
07:12So is it good to see this working again after so many years?
07:16Oh, yes.
07:16It's very nice to see it working, like the boys said.
07:19Yes.
07:19But I wouldn't like to go out and work with it all day now.
07:23No.
07:24Straw, the stem of the wheat plant, will be a byproduct of the harvest once the valuable grain is removed.
07:32Ruth is keen to put it to good use.
07:35Local craft expert Anne Dyer is visiting the farm to teach Ruth straw plaiting.
07:41Hello.
07:42Hello.
07:43How nice to meet you.
07:45Yes.
07:45Oh, thank you so much for coming.
07:47I see you brought straw.
07:48Yes.
07:49Most of my female ancestors, if you go back into the Victorian period, were straw platters.
07:53The men were labourers, and the women were straw platters.
07:55Well, it should be in your hands, my dear.
07:57Oh, I hope so.
07:58I've started a bit because it's easier to plait once it's begun.
08:02And you know it has to be kept slightly damp.
08:05No, I didn't.
08:06Otherwise it'll crack.
08:07Oh, right.
08:08And when it's, look how pliable that is.
08:10And that doesn't make it rot then?
08:11Just being wet all the time.
08:13Nope.
08:13Well, think of the English weather.
08:15Yeah, that is a point.
08:17Now, you've got seven straws.
08:20So you've got four on one side and three on the other.
08:23And you're going to keep moving one to the other side.
08:26And whichever side you've got most on is the side you plait from.
08:29So it's easy.
08:30You can't lose yourself.
08:33I bet I can.
08:34Oh, you made it look so easy.
08:35Hang on.
08:36Oh, well, it's a few hundred miles of plaiting.
08:38It's a few hundred miles of plaiting.
08:39It's a few hundred miles of plaiting.
08:39It's a few hundred miles of plaiting.
08:40It's a few hundred miles of plaiting.
08:41That's right.
08:42Now, keep them at right angles.
08:44This is addictive.
08:46You don't have to do this sitting down, do you?
08:48No, no.
08:49A bag on one arm to put the finished plait in.
08:51And your bundle of damp straws under your arm.
08:53And you can go walkabouts.
08:55Yeah.
08:55So you get these groups of young women behaving just like teenage gangs on street corners do today.
09:01Intimidating everybody who walks past.
09:03And nobody could really shout at them because they were earning good money.
09:07They were working.
09:08When you've got your 50-yard bundle and you can sell it.
09:11Sell it.
09:11You've got money for the groceries.
09:13Now, you know how to plait.
09:15You know how to sew.
09:16So you know everything you need.
09:18Everything I need.
09:19I bought my husband's hat.
09:20Oh, my goodness.
09:21So a hat is just like, it's just a spiral of straw plait.
09:28And then you sew it as you go.
09:30So you're not molding it over anything.
09:32You're just bending it in your hands.
09:36And a skilled person would get a perfect shape.
09:39I thought there was all sorts of clever machinery.
09:42So how much of this do I have to make before I can make a hat?
09:45Depends how big the hat is, of course.
09:47But just a nice little small one.
09:50Probably about 15 yards, 20 yards.
09:5315 yards for a small hat.
09:54Yeah.
09:55And I've done three inches.
09:58Yes.
10:00I really want to have a real proper go at this.
10:02We've got all this straw out in the field.
10:03There's no excuse.
10:04Yes.
10:04Yes.
10:05To carry the harvested wheat from the field, the Victorian farmers need a cart, or dray.
10:15But theirs has lain unused for decades, and Peter is unsure of the condition of its wheels.
10:21So he's visiting Mike Wright, the wheelwright, for advice.
10:25How are you?
10:26Hello, Peter.
10:26We've got a wheat harvest that we want to bring in, and for that we're going to use our dray.
10:31But I've had a look at it, and the wheels are a bit wobbly.
10:33I was wondering if you could come as a wheelwright and cast your expert eye over it.
10:37Yes.
10:37The thing is, I know so little about wheelwrighting, I'd love a quick demonstration, actually.
10:41All right, yes.
10:42Well, obviously, we start with the hub and work outwards to the spokes and the fellies,
10:47which are the wooden rim around the side.
10:49Right.
10:50The hub is made of elm, because elm's got a very twisted grain,
10:54and it doesn't split easily when the spokes are driven into it.
10:57Right, okay.
10:58The spokes are made of oak for strength.
11:01Yes, so all the power of the wheel, the weight, is just transferred down the grain.
11:05Yes.
11:06The rim of the wheel, or fellows, as they're called.
11:09Fellows, right.
11:10They're made of ash.
11:11Ash, so there's three different woods.
11:13You've got elm, oak, and ash.
11:15Ash is quite flexible, isn't it?
11:17That's the reason that it's used.
11:19It takes the shocks of the road better than anything else.
11:24Once we've got that on, I've got to make sure all these tongues are engaged.
11:28Right.
11:29And then tap them up gradually all the way around.
11:33Close all the joints.
11:36Well, this looks pretty complete as a wheel, but you don't use glue or nails,
11:39so how do you hold it all together?
11:42Well, we hold it together with the metal tyre that goes around the outside.
11:45Right.
11:48This is made smaller than the wheel.
11:50Okay.
11:51And it's normally heated to red hot, so that it expands sufficiently to go over the wheel,
11:56and then cooled quickly so that it shrinks and pulls all the joints up tight and holds the whole wheel under tension.
12:02So this would be red hot as it was going on?
12:04Absolutely, yeah.
12:05And then it would start to cool.
12:07Yeah, and draw all these joints up tight.
12:08And there we have a wheel.
12:09Yeah.
12:10And you can see it's quite...
12:13And that tyre really ties it all together, doesn't it?
12:18Yeah.
12:19That's right.
12:20It's a very effective way of clamping up the whole wheel.
12:22I have to say, on our dray, there's a bit of a gap, actually.
12:26It's not as tight as this, so it might be the tyre that's a problem.
12:32That's it.
12:32Actually, we need to lift it a bit more, really, but that'll do it.
12:38This one, the tyre is a little bit loose, so I think we need to take that one off and re-tyre it.
12:43Yeah, the last thing we want is our dray to fall apart.
12:47As the year on the farm draws to a close,
12:50Ruth is keen to try something different in the Victorian kitchen.
12:57Curries were really popular in Victorian Britain.
13:00All the recipe books are full of them.
13:01Indeed, the first curry house was opened in London in 1811.
13:06This one calls for powdered ginger, turmeric and cayenne pepper,
13:11all of which were relatively cheap.
13:14So now I've coated the chicken pieces in my curry powder, my mix of spices.
13:20They're to be browned or fried in butter, along with lots of onion and garlic.
13:27I'll just pop in the chicken into the melted butter.
13:31And I shall brown those off.
13:35Oh, back on the stove.
13:40And you find recipes in Mrs. Beaton, in Mrs. Rundle, Eliza Acton,
13:45and also the family save all, using leftovers, using a huge variety of meats, fish, even curried eggs.
13:55They're nice, I like curried eggs.
13:56Curries are also one of the few times in which the Victorian recipes include garlic.
14:09It's only supposed to be the one clove, so I'll let's make the most of it.
14:12Now I've got my stock pot here.
14:14I've just got some chicken stock.
14:17I'll just go straight in.
14:18These are the onions that have been cooked through, browned off in the rest of the butter and spices.
14:28And they go in two, and then up in my marrow.
14:35And this is all going to stew down now for about 45 minutes to an hour.
14:41And it'll reduce as it does, so that the stock combining with the spices will make the sauce.
14:49This is our dray tyre.
14:59Just taking it round to the forge.
15:01The metal tyre's been removed, repaired, and is ready to go back onto the wooden wheel.
15:07Hi, Mike.
15:08Hi, Peter.
15:09Well, I've got the tyre.
15:10All right.
15:11So it'll drop over like that.
15:13Right.
15:13You can see it's too small to go over at the moment.
15:15Yeah.
15:16But when it's hot, hopefully it'll be big enough to drop over.
15:18So when it gets hot, it'll expand.
15:20It'll expand.
15:21Bigger on the wheel.
15:22Yeah.
15:23And then it contracts and clamps.
15:24Yeah.
15:25A hundred years ago, we would have been using the...
15:28I'm sure it was the Chronicle, not the Shots of Star.
15:33Plenty of sticks around the outside, wigwam fashion.
15:37Right.
15:39Fill up all the gaps, so that the wind can get into it.
15:48We're now going to light our fire.
15:54Feeling a bit nervous about this, actually.
15:57There's nothing to it.
15:59Take your word for it.
16:00Let the air get to it a bit more, yeah.
16:02I have to say, I'm starting to feel my eyes beginning to melt.
16:07Yeah, I think it's time to move back a little bit, I think.
16:11Yeah.
16:13Seriously, the heat of this fire, I cannot exaggerate how intense this heat is.
16:18In an effort to retain my facial hair, and I have had it burnt off before, I'm just putting
16:28a bit of water on my face and my hands.
16:32So, that just gives me a little bit of extra protection against the fire when I go in with
16:37the tongs.
16:37So I'll keep my eyelashes, I'll keep my eyebrows, and I'll keep my beard.
16:41And unlike Mike, I'll keep my hair.
16:43Are you ready, Peter?
16:48I'm ready.
16:48We've got to go for it now.
16:50Grab one of these.
16:51Highly resolve the essence.
16:57Just raking the fire off the top of the tyre.
17:02One on.
17:03One on.
17:05Hang on.
17:07I'm ready.
17:07Ready?
17:08Ready.
17:12Joint on the middle.
17:13Yeah.
17:13Okay.
17:17Right, push all's out.
17:18Lock you down with a hammer this side.
17:20Hang on.
17:21Wait.
17:21Wait.
17:24Do you want to...
17:24Water?
17:30Just evenly applying water here.
17:39This is just shrinking the tyre into place.
17:42As you can see, while the water's boiling, as soon as it hits the tyre, it's still red hot.
17:49There's actually so much of a gap around the outside, I didn't think actually it was ever going to close up, but it is starting to close up now.
18:03It is.
18:03Once after the water touches it, once after the water touches it, it's still bone-dry.
18:09It's still quite warm to the touch.
18:10It's still quite warm to the touch.
18:11Yeah, it is.
18:12It's still quite warm to the touch.
18:16Yeah, it is.
18:17The water did work on my face, although now it's been replaced with a sheen of sweat.
18:53That'll do.
18:54Wonderful.
18:55And we just slip the wheel on.
18:59And now the linchpin.
19:04Wheel on.
19:05Wheel on.
19:06Yep.
19:07Hopefully this means that we'll have a working dray for our wheat harvest.
19:14Right, that's up.
19:15Trestle out.
19:16Trestle out.
19:17Wheel down.
19:18Job done.
19:19With both the dray and reaper binder up and running, Peter and Alex head back to the cottage to plan the harvest with Ruth, over a curry.
19:30Smells very good.
19:31Curry always smells good.
19:32Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
19:33I never thought on this Victorian farm we'd be sitting down to curry.
19:34Curry.
19:35That was really popular.
19:36Good old Victorians.
19:37They're quite cosmopolitan in their food.
19:38I mean, if you go through Eliza Acton's recipe book, you can find food from about 20 different countries.
19:41They're quite cosmopolitan in what they called the British Empire.
19:42Well, exactly.
19:43What are we going to do about harvest them?
19:44I mean, even with a reaper binder, we're going to need quite a lot of extra labour, aren't we?
19:45Yes.
19:46I suppose you'll want less than you would do if you were doing it entirely by hand.
19:47Yeah.
19:48Yeah.
19:49Yeah.
19:50Yeah.
19:51Yeah.
19:52Yeah.
19:53Yeah.
19:54Yeah.
19:55Yeah.
19:56Yeah.
19:57Yeah.
19:58Yeah.
19:59Yeah.
20:00Yeah.
20:01Yeah.
20:02Yeah.
20:03Yeah.
20:04Yeah.
20:05Yeah.
20:06Yeah.
20:07Yeah.
20:08Yeah.
20:09Yeah.
20:10Yeah.
20:11Yeah.
20:12Yeah.
20:13Yeah.
20:14Yeah.
20:15Yeah.
20:16Yeah.
20:17Yeah.
20:18Yeah.
20:19Yeah.
20:20Yeah.
20:21I would do if you were doing it entirely by hand.
20:22Yeah.
20:23Yeah.
20:24Yeah.
20:25But then if we do have help, we should really have a party to say thank you.
20:26I'll have a supper.
20:27And equally, it's the end of our year here.
20:28It would be nice to say thank you to people, wouldn't it?
20:29Yeah.
20:30Yeah.
20:31I mean, we can't afford to pay people much, so how on earth are we going to ...
20:32Well, I think we're going to have to pay them at the party and the party's got
20:37good food, good beer, and good music. Okay, good food, reasonably passable homebrew, and good music.
20:47So you're going to have a crack at some beer then?
20:50I think we should have a crack at some beer.
20:53Okay.
20:53Also, how many Victorian farm labourers are wandering around in the 21st century?
20:57They might be quite a little come by.
21:00Yeah, they might be, they might know. So how are we going to get them to come then?
21:03Do you think poster? We could get a poster.
21:08Advert?
21:08It was a very Victorian thing to do, advertise, in print, you know, in print, isn't it?
21:12I mean, there were adverts for everything, everywhere.
21:14First great age of advertising.
21:16Yeah.
21:17So they say.
21:19Apparently farmers could read.
21:21Well, yeah.
21:22I might learn soon.
21:25So when are you opening your curry house?
21:26It's all right, isn't it?
21:27It's delicious.
21:28Very sort of English curry, but...
21:34To attract help with the harvest, Peter and Alex are making beer, Victorian style.
21:40The first job is to heat malted barley in water.
21:44Smells delicious, isn't it?
21:45Yeah.
21:46That smells fantastic.
21:47It's got like over tea, isn't it?
21:49Yeah.
21:49Malt drink, hot milk drink.
21:51Hot.
21:51Malt.
21:52Drink.
21:56Just making it.
21:57We're going to need to keep that temperature at that 150 degrees.
22:00We need to do that for two hours.
22:04The temperature is critical because if it's too much, it kills the enzymes.
22:07If it's too little, the enzymes won't work.
22:10But 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the enzymes will release sugars from the barley into the water,
22:17to create the sugar water, which is the wort.
22:19Basically, this sugar is what the yeast feeds on, and that reaction creates the alcohol.
22:25Back in the Victorian period, you were very much responsible for providing not only for
22:32the sort of financial needs of your labourers, but also for their refreshments as well.
22:37And if you brewed a good beer, there's a very good chance that you get all the best labourers.
22:43That smells absolutely lovely.
22:44It does.
22:45And it's holding its temperature well, or at least it has done now, and it's been
22:49pushing three hours.
22:51Yeah, that should be fine.
22:52Well, a big problem now is straining it into the cauldron.
22:55Okay.
22:56Because you'd normally have a hole in the bottom and stuff at the straw.
23:01But obviously our wooden vessel leaked, so we couldn't use that.
23:04I found this.
23:07Is that what I think it is?
23:08Top of Ruth's chamber pot.
23:10Is it?
23:10I hope you can get a thorough cleaning.
23:13Let's go for it.
23:14Go for this.
23:15Just don't tell anyone.
23:22If that has been used in anger, I think you might want to give it a slightly more thorough rinse.
23:31I'll pop it in the cauldron.
23:33Brilliant.
23:33Sterilisation begins.
23:35Nobody will ever know.
23:37While the boys battle with the beer, Ruth heads off to a printer's shop in nearby Blissed Hill.
23:43Hello.
23:46Good morning.
23:47Good morning.
23:48And how can I help you?
23:49Um, I've come to order a poster, if possible, please, to put up.
23:52Yes, yes.
23:53What sort of size are we looking at?
23:55Oh, I don't know.
23:55Sort of poster size.
23:57Okay, yeah, yeah.
23:58Um, it's for the farm, for Glebe Farm.
24:00Glebe Farm, yes.
24:01Um, and we want some harvest help.
24:03Now, the boys think that we might have trouble getting labourers, so they said we've got to
24:05make this poster really, like, really attractive.
24:07They suggested we put something like, you know, that the best beer around was on.
24:11That certainly attract them in, the best beer around.
24:15Here we have our cases of type.
24:17This case here contains all the capital letters, and this one here contains all those small letters.
24:23So, printers often call this the uppercase and the lowercase letter.
24:27Oh, I see, that's what it means.
24:29So, what we do is, and we're going to set the word Glebe Farm here.
24:32So, we pick up a G from the compartment and put it into our stick.
24:36Now, what it is, you hold the stick in your left hand and you work away from your body.
24:39So, we're going to put the next one is the L. So, we're following it to each one.
24:43L, E, B. We're in the lowercase here.
24:47Yeah.
24:48Right, so we've done the word Glebe.
24:49We need to put spacing material in here.
24:51So, we're putting two pieces of space, and then we're going to do the word Farm.
24:56Capital F, again, that uppercase, F, A, R, M, so there you are.
25:04We've now completed our time.
25:06Now, it looks as if it's upside down, but when you turn the stick around like that,
25:10you can actually see that it is backwards.
25:13Oh, right. And so, when you were doing that, you were spelling it out in order.
25:16You weren't trying to spell it backwards, were you?
25:17No, no, no.
25:18Oh, that would make it so much easier.
25:19Yeah, this is where the poor old apprentice after got this wrong.
25:23If you have a look at this, this is the name of our shop.
25:27This was done by an apprentice who simply started the wrong end of the stick
25:31or got the wrong end of the stick.
25:32Oh, I see.
25:33So, that's where the staying comes from, getting the wrong end of the stick,
25:35starting the wrong end.
25:38The 19th century saw the first great age of advertising,
25:42and almost all of it was in printed form.
25:47As well as posters, masses of printed leaflets,
25:50junk mail flowed through the Victorian postal system.
25:53You're going to have to use all your strength at half a ton of pressure.
25:58Let's see how we've done with your first poster.
26:00Oh, talk about half a ton of pressure. Look at how that's come through.
26:02There you are.
26:04Oh, fantastic.
26:07Great. Right, well, I'll just get these stuck up around the village, I think.
26:10I suppose as Victorians, if we got good at brewing beer,
26:15we could invest in the proper kit.
26:21Back at the cottage, the malted barley is filtered from the water, drop by drop.
26:30This is tedious.
26:31That is a bit, isn't it?
26:34But we can always just tip it through the,
26:37I was going to say the pillowcase.
26:38Genius idea, let's innovate.
26:42I'll nip this off Ruth's bed.
26:45And pour it in there.
26:48Necessity is the mother of all invention.
26:51That's good, I think.
26:52Leave that at that.
26:56The case seems to be waterproof.
26:58I think, put the hops in here.
27:08We've still got to drain it though, haven't we?
27:11We've still got to drain the water out at some point.
27:17I think at this rate, we're going to be lucky if we've got any beer for harvest.
27:20Don't say that.
27:23Eventually, the barley's filtered out.
27:29Next, it's time to flavour the beer.
27:31This is going to give it the bitterness and also the hoppy taste.
27:35Yep.
27:35But we're going for the bittersweet, aren't we?
27:38We are.
27:38Summer beer and all that.
27:40We're going to put in some honey.
27:41Brilliant.
27:42Some honey.
27:42Yep.
27:43Well, we've got so much of it at the moment.
27:44Honey's the only ingredient in the world that doesn't go off in its raw form.
27:48This is our yeast.
27:51So I'm just going to put this into the beer.
27:57And I'll just stir the yeast into the wort.
28:00And the wort is sugar water and the yeast feeds off of that sugar.
28:05And the result of that is alcohol.
28:08So this is it.
28:10This is now beer.
28:12It is in the lap of the gods.
28:14There's nothing more we can do for this.
28:18There's nothing more we can do for this.
28:21Hey, piggies.
28:25This is the barley from our brew.
28:28And one of the things Victorian farmers would have done with it is feed it to the pigs.
28:32Because pigs pretty much eat anything.
28:35And look at them.
28:35They are really, really tucking in.
28:37I mean, malted barley, it's like Maltesers.
28:40It's like Ovaltine.
28:41It's a malt extract.
28:42It's lovely.
28:44And they're absolutely scoffing it.
28:48With the piglets weaned, it's time they were fattened for slaughter.
28:54In just a few weeks, the team will leave.
28:56So Merle Wilson from a local farm has come to collect the pigs.
29:00Oh, hi, Merle.
29:04Anybody back?
29:04Hi, how are you?
29:06Not so bad.
29:07They're very good, aren't they?
29:08They are.
29:09They're lovely.
29:10Absolutely lovely.
29:10Have you just weaned them?
29:12Yeah, pretty much.
29:13What are you going to do with them?
29:15Well, I think I'm going to fatten some up.
29:17Yeah.
29:18See what they're like, because we haven't had Glosterol spots before.
29:21But I'm going to keep one female to breed from.
29:25Right.
29:26Right.
29:26Shall we take them over?
29:27Yeah.
29:28Do you think they'll follow?
29:30Yeah, I think so.
29:33Come on, pigs.
29:36So I suppose you'll miss these pigs, will you?
29:38Immensely.
29:40More than you'll know, I suppose.
29:42Yeah, this is goodbye.
29:44This is it, really.
29:45But that's the way of farming.
29:47I know.
29:49It is the way of farming.
29:50If they've had a good life, that's the main thing.
29:53Oh, yeah.
29:55I'd better get behind them.
29:57Come on.
29:58Big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big.
30:00Come on.
30:01Come on.
30:04Come on, boys.
30:05You've got a long walk.
30:08Come on.
30:09Come on.
30:10Come on, pigs.
30:10big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big
30:17as well as the nurtured wheat crop the nearby hills of the long mind have their own natural
30:28harvest wind breeze this is a place where in the summer women and children came to pick a free
30:39harvest a free cash crop actually have quite a good commercial value I'm
30:44picking well locally they're called winberries much of Britain they're
30:47called bilberries winberries are pretty much the same thing as American
30:53blueberries oddly many British people know American blueberries and don't
30:56know our own native version our native version is a little bit smaller but I
31:00think it tastes nicer in the 19th century this whole moorland was managed
31:07for grouse and they would burn sections of it year after year to take the big
31:14vegetation out and allow fresh young growth to come and that incidentally by
31:20the by is really good conditions for the winbury bushes to grow so you get this
31:25huge berry harvest all over the tops of these hills you don't have to plant
31:30anything you don't have to weed anything you don't have to fertilize anything you
31:34need any machines it's just they're free and what made it commercially viable as
31:40opposed to just you know local produce for local people is the railway down at
31:45the bottom which meant the great big baskets and crates full of winberries
31:49could be whisked off to London where you could get really good money from the
31:54restaurant trade as July ends the wheat is turning golden and will soon be ready to
32:05harvest the harvest will be the culmination of their year as Victorian farmers it's been a
32:16fabulous year but it's going to be a wrench having to leave this farm and one
32:21thing I really have learned is that farming isn't a job farming is a lifestyle and it
32:26is totally engaging we'll be back in the the real world soon and I don't know how
32:32I'm going to react to having to go back to modern living I've enjoyed Victorian
32:35farming so much so it's going to be quite a shock to the system but of course we've
32:40still got the wheat harvest to do and you know I'm very anxious about that what
32:44with the weather at the moment the wheat must be dry otherwise the reaper binder will jam but
32:52the prospects aren't good the summer's been one of the wettest for years despite anxieties about
33:00the weather the preparations for the harvest are going well the posters are up around the village so
33:06hopefully they'll get some much-needed help the horse-drawn dray and reaper binder are set to go
33:13and Ruth's beginning preparations for the harvest festival making winbury jam
33:21winburys don't have very much pectin which is the thing that makes the jam set so I'm going to use
33:31some apple peel and apple cores to produce some pectin so all I've got to do is take all my corings
33:38and my peelings and let them simmer in some water and then the water will become the water that I
33:45make my jam with and hey presto a set will occur pectin is something which occurs naturally in lots
33:51of fruit and when you boil it up the liquid and the pectin react with the acids in the fruit and it
33:57turns into a jelly I'm going to put all the peelings in a cloth just makes it easier with the straining
34:02afterwards and I'll just pop that on the range and boil it for a couple of hours master my winburys
34:13all the fruit in top of my nice pectiny water I need to weigh the sugar and with most jam it's
34:23basically same amount of sugar as fruit earlier centuries sugar had been expensive and jam had
34:31been a luxury product but with slavery and new machines in the sugar refineries and better
34:38transport bringing the sugar back sugar had become a cheap mass ingredient in Britain so bread and jam
34:44was something that many a person who couldn't afford a joint a mutton turned to the sheep have been one
34:54of the great success stories of this Victorian farm the initial flock of 10 has grown to 26
35:00back in April Alex sowed them a nutritious pasture to graze using grasses developed in the Victorian era
35:14but with a year on the farm drawing to a close it's time for them to be taken away by sheep farmer
35:20Richard Spencer so what do you think some of these lands then Richard well you've got one or two
35:25outstanding specimens there there's one of those year lambs is an absolute beauty it's as good as
35:31anything I've bred this year I'm very impressed with what you've done Richard's also impressed by
35:36Alex's pasture Richard's advised enclosing the sheep in a small area and moving it every day this is a
35:59valuable feed for your sheep and if you put them on here they'll come in here hungry delete it down then
36:04tomorrow you'll move them on to the next piece and also with them being on continually fresh grazing which
36:10in effect it is there's no chance for a parasite problem to develop let's just have a look and see
36:14what the conditions like on the back so we're going to catch one of those lambs and we're going to see
36:17what it feels like and we'll see if it's ready for the butcher jolly good are you ready let's go for
36:21it oh that's one go man go go go go where are you Alex good grief you old man youth youth don't
36:28do you know that will do that will do I'll tell you mother right this is this is just about right
36:41you put your hands on there yep right across there where am I not yeah you can feel the meat it's
36:47about like that oh yeah yeah yeah but if you put your hands there yeah that is wonderful that is
36:52solid meat in there that is a very nice ram lamb actually it's not wool it's firm flesh yeah I'm
36:58quite quite impressed with that you've got some absolutely wonderful lambs there there's always
37:02one or two that aren't as good as the others it's a fact of life I mean I was a run to the litter but
37:06I survived so we'd stand up then as as Victorian shepherds you would oh absolutely absolutely thank you
37:14so much Richard absolute pleasure absolute pleasure well done Alex well done Pete well done
37:18back at the farm Ruth has been bitten by the straw plating bug this straw plating has really turned
37:27out to be addictive I find myself doing it all the time and it's quite nice using our straw and look
37:34I've nearly finished it actually looks like a hat I'm so pleased with it I mean I just when I started
37:43sewing it together I thought well you know if I just make a disc shape that'd be something but as a sort
37:48of worked it it just sort of happened and came together it's quite fetching I think really if I
37:57want to be Victorian I'll wear it with a big bow so tied around and then it should come under my chin
38:02which pushes the hat into a different shape sort of sort of bit like that it's the first of August
38:10known as Lammas Day this was traditionally the start of the wheat harvest season if the next few days
38:18stay dry this will be the best time to reap the crop to celebrate Lammas Day Alex and Peter are
38:26ringing the church bells under the watch of warden Edward Jones well we've had a few practices and I think
38:34last night we were sort of almost there weren't we did very well last night yes we're going to get
38:39it right today yes we are indeed and you're going to ring the tenor bell Peter that's the heaviest
38:45bell half a ton weight wonderful Rupert's on the treble the first bell and Alex on the middle bell
38:51right so I'll set the pace with the treble bell and I'll try and keep it as slow as possible because
38:57I'm aware that your your bell is that is the heaviest and we have to try and keep up with each other
39:02that's right look to treble going treble gone really just trying to concentrate I'm getting a nice even
39:19ring all the while I'm watching Rupert so that my Sally's going just after his which it isn't at the
39:27moment making quite a racket in there aren't they they're doing a wonderful professor Ronald Hutton is
39:35an expert in British rituals what exactly is it that they're doing well you ring the bells twice
39:42traditionally you ring the bells at Lammas the loaf mass which is the first of August to announce the
39:48beginning of the harvest and then in this parish you'd ring the bells at the end of harvest to
39:54announced the fact it was over for everybody this is a relatively new custom it's part of the harvest
39:59festival which doesn't come in until the 1840s to the 1860s and that's to get over the commercialization
40:06of agriculture in the early 19th century more and more harvest hands are accepting extra cash instead
40:11of a harvest supper which makes sense but it doesn't lose in that sense of community so what happens
40:17instead is the entire parish gets together to have a general harvest celebration when everybody's finished
40:22reaping everybody pays a bit towards it and it stores that sense of an organic community and it works
40:28so well we're still doing it how do we do them it wasn't too bad there's room for improvement
40:37it's harvest time the rains held off and the wheat is dry enough to cut
40:46local farmer Brian Davis and his daughter Sharon have come to drive the reaper binder
40:55powered by three horses it cuts and ties the wheat into sheaves doing the job of dozens of workers
41:05such an amazing piece of an egg that is just tremendous I was hoping it would work I was just so fast
41:19whoosh
41:20but with just one row done the reaper binder comes to a shuddering halt
41:30we've had a blockage Brian's just going around the machine to try and work out what it is
41:43and there's another problem brewing on the horizon rain
41:47a downpour now will threaten the whole harvest
41:54problem here is we've only got a very small window between now and when those clouds come over
42:02we really don't want to get uh to caught in a thunderstorm
42:07so it's the lamp that's locked up
42:15it's where it's going now so it was a blockage
42:20yeah blockage on the knife
42:22go
42:23weeds amongst the crop caused the jam
42:30but with a storm closing in they can't afford another hitch
42:34time for urgent action
42:37we were desperately keen to try and avoid this kind of harvesting
42:42this really is sort of early 19th century style harvesting all by hand
42:47but the reason we've had to do this is because we fertilized this patch along here
42:52and what we've really done is we've fertilized the weeds as well
42:56and one of the weeds that we've got in here is a field vetch
42:58and that is a real pain to farmers
43:00so what we can do is just clean ourselves a nice kind of sway through here if you like
43:05with the weeds cleared the reaper binder can cut without risk of jamming
43:12in less than an hour the job's done
43:16and only just in time
43:18well here comes the rain
43:25hopefully it won't be too much of a heavy shower
43:27but it doesn't look good does it
43:32this has been probably one of the most stressful things
43:35after the disaster of the hay crop because of the weather
43:37we just um you know this has just been so stressful
43:41that was pretty quick
43:47but i think stooking is going to take us a bit of time
43:49and the rain's coming
43:50we can get everyone we can get
43:52they're loitering there with intent
43:53are you going to help us stook
43:55we need to do it really fast
43:57ruth's poster hasn't produced any harvest labourers
44:01yet
44:02so it's all hands on deck
44:04we need one more
44:07it's really important that we upend and stook
44:10all the wheat so that the wheat is up in the air
44:12where it can be dried
44:13if we left it down on the ground
44:14it would start to rot
44:15up like this it can dry out
44:17plenty of air around it
44:18and hopefully dry before any mould gets to it
44:21whew that was a badly stoop stoop wasn't it
44:23you'd make a good farmer you would
44:25it's now raining
44:28if this had happened before we couldn't have cut it
44:31i mean it's a miracle
44:32come on
44:34but not all the wheat is cut and stooked
44:42a small clump remains
44:44professor ronald hutton has returned to the farm
44:47to explain a strange victorian ritual
44:50late victorian scholars themselves
44:55thought that a spirit lived in the corn
44:58in which ancient peoples believed
45:00and of course as you cut more and more of the crop
45:02the spirit retreats into the last bit
45:04so that particular stand of crop
45:06is infused with this vital element
45:10that's actually quite dangerous
45:11and that's why you dare not approach too close
45:14you fling things from afar
45:15or you try and get it blindfold
45:17that's the mystical interpretation
45:19that sounds very victorian
45:20but professor hutton believes that there's a much simpler explanation for the ritual
45:25harvesting a crop as you've discovered
45:28is really difficult work
45:29and so everyone's really elated
45:31and you get to the end of it
45:32and you want to make a big thing of it
45:33i'd like to be the first to volunteer ruth
45:35i hope you don't need your ankles in the future
45:40there we go
45:42now we're all just going to pop down the path
45:43and you let us know when you've finished
45:47turn ruth round a few times
45:49and give her the scythe
45:50and then take cover
45:51one
45:52oh it's like dancing this
45:55it's very nice
45:55it is very elegant
45:56three
45:57oh
45:58that's a stoke
46:00that was 12 o'clock
46:02you want 6 o'clock
46:03another stoke
46:06it's behind you
46:09it's behind you
46:10okay behind it
46:10right
46:11hit hard
46:12oh i'm so rubbish at this
46:15no you're not
46:16with the last of the week cut
46:18it's time to celebrate
46:20all over the british isles
46:23the last sheaf is given a name
46:26the maiden
46:27the crone
46:28the baby
46:29the hare
46:30in shropshire it's called the mare
46:31don't know why
46:32that's its nickname
46:33and what you do is you shout
46:35i have her
46:36i have her
46:37i have her
46:37in a shropshire accent
46:38and we three guys shout
46:41what hast thee
46:43what hast thee
46:44what hast thee
46:45and you shout
46:45a mare
46:46a mare
46:47a mare
46:47you want to try that
46:48okay so
46:49i have her
46:49i have her
46:50i have her
46:51what hast thee
46:52what hast thee
46:53what hast thee
46:53a mare
46:54a mare
46:55a mare
46:55wonderful
46:56well done
46:57they'd have heard that
46:58in the neighbouring farm
47:00who won't have finished their harvesting
47:01and you will feel great at having shown them up
47:04so what do i do with this now then
47:08well in shropshire you probably wouldn't have made it into a corn dolly
47:11they do that elsewhere
47:12right
47:12so you stick it up in your house
47:14as a trophy
47:15you can plait it
47:16you can put ribbons in it
47:18you can put flowers in it
47:19you do what makes you feel good about having done so well
47:22it's your achievement
47:24the farmers must now wait three weeks for the sheaves of wheat to dry out
47:30before they can be brought in from the field
47:32if their store's damp
47:34they'll rot
47:35there's no clever victorian machine to do this job
47:40so plenty of extra labour will be needed
47:42fingers crossed ruth's poster works
47:45while they wait
47:50it's time for peter ruth and alex
47:52to move out of the farm where they've lived as victorians for the past year
47:56it's truly a life enhancing experience
48:04maybe even a life altering experience
48:06it's going to be very very hard to leave this place
48:09very hard indeed
48:11the final job on the victorian farm
48:22is to bring in the harvest
48:26in the wheat fields there's been an excellent response to ruth's poster
48:31and there's no shortage of help
48:35we've managed to enlist an army of victorian labourers to help us load our dray
48:41the only problem is peter and i've never done this before
48:45it's like the poster worked seem to want loads of people to give us a hand
48:49how's it going peter
49:06it's going very well
49:08like many hands make like work
49:10thank you very much
49:12i think we might just get it all on
49:15we're just using the sort of time honoured implement of the rural scene
49:23the pico or pitchfork as it's more popularly known
49:26and it's quite literally all it does is just pitches stuff up to us
49:30well it lasts a bit of sun eh ruth
49:33yeah
49:34eventually
49:36eventually
49:37eventually
49:37the way we're stacking this dray
49:40is we're putting it stalk side out
49:44because that means the head of the grain is in the middle of the dray
49:46so if you lose any
49:47it's still on your dray
49:49with all the stoops loaded it's time for gleaning
49:53collecting any stray stalks of wheat left in the field
49:56for very poor families this was deeply important to their yearly economy
50:02if you were good at gaining and you followed the fields from farm to farm
50:06you could get several months worth of bread corn for free
50:10the 19th century saw the birth of photography
50:16for the first time accurately illustrating everyday rural scenes like this
50:21today these images give us a window into a lost age
50:26photographer chris vile has come to the farm to take a picture of our harvest
50:33with a victorian plate camera
50:35hi chris
50:37thanks ever so much for coming along
50:39why would photographers be so interested then in harvesting this sort of everyday activity
50:43the majority of photographers were it was undoubtedly taking portraits
50:47and but two things had changed
50:49a the materials have become much cheaper and more mass-produced
50:53but i think also photographers in the early days saw themselves often as artists
50:57and they're in that sort of romantic tradition
50:59and maybe as a as a reaction to the sort of increasing industrialization of the countryside that we're seeing
51:06and they wanted to capture that rural life
51:09right stand still for a few seconds
51:23last september the team threshed wheat removing grain to be sold to make bread
51:30now they're leaving a wheat crop to be threshed by the next tenants of the farm
51:37on the way to the farmyard there's a steep hill to negotiate a real test for the repaired wheel
51:44as we're going down the brow of the hill we're attaching a slipper which is going to break the cart
51:52the cart so the cart isn't going to run away with the horses
51:54the cart isn't going to run away with the horses
51:55the cart isn't going to run away with the horses
51:57oh i feel as safe as ours is up here
51:59celebrating the end of harvest has been a custom across europe ever since history began
52:06it's a chance for the workers to be repaid with free-flowing beer and food accompanied by folk musician
52:13john kirkpatrick
52:20for the poor it's an opportunity to get decent food and beer
52:27mr acton and his son rupert
52:34have been the victorian farms landlords all year and have come along to join in the celebrations
52:41mr acton and his son rupert have been the victorian farms landlords all year and have come along to join in the celebrations
52:49mr acton how lovely to come join us
53:06well as you can see
53:08mr acton
53:09a harvest
53:10and here is the last sheath as well
53:13it looks a healthy sample
53:15it does
53:16there's a little bit of weed
53:18here
53:21can we offer you a drink
53:23i didn't mean to slur that
53:26now the moment of truth
53:29time to taste
53:31peter's beer
53:36jolly nice
53:38to be honest
53:39quite an acceptable flavour
53:43jolly good
53:45mmm that is nice peter
53:47all things considered
53:48all things considered i think that's a damn good home brew that
53:52you drinking the same beer as i am
53:56i think it's an opportunity as well to say a big thank you to everyone that helped us with the harvest today
54:01yes
54:02so a big thanks to everyone
54:04cheers
54:05thank you very much
54:06cheers
54:07and i've got one last very sad duty to do i've got to give you that back
54:11that's very kind
54:12that's a very sad moment for me
54:13into the cottage
54:14well i'm sure the cottage is in a lot better state now than it was when you arrived
54:18you might have the key but we've changed the locks
54:20thanks
54:21and now there came three men from the west me boys their fortune's for to try
54:33and these three men made a solemn vow john barley corn must die
54:39victorian harvest festivals were notoriously boozy and uproarious affairs
54:58over and over and over and over and over drink up
55:03it's not long before the drinking games start
55:05over and over and over and over till your liquor's drunk up your hat is turned over
55:10over and over and over and over and over till your liquor's drunk up your hat is turned over
55:29cheers
55:40cheers
55:54i don't know what's more tiring bringing in the harvest
56:05it's time to leave the victorian farm
56:08and say goodbye to a way of life from an age gone by
56:15we have pulled our heart and soul into this project
56:18and that's the reason why it's going to be so hard to leave
56:21one thing that stood out has been bringing new life into the world
56:26and out of all that new life i think the pigs are those i've been closest to
56:32these little gloster old spot piglets are now five days old
56:35as a historian and archaeologist i've spent an inordinate amount of time reading about the past and excavating the past but this was an opportunity to do it for real and just to have the insights into day to day country life back in the 19th century
56:56how am i doing then
56:57how am i doing then
56:58you're doing very well
56:59i suppose if i had to pick out one thing that i've thoroughly enjoyed from this year
57:02it's going to have been working with heavy horses and such a massive thrill and to work with such graceful beasts and it's certainly something i'll be looking to do when i leave the farm
57:13we've been really lucky too to have a chance to get involved in all the sort of crafts of the countryside the things that you need to make and do to support life on a victorian farm
57:24i mean the basket making was just it was a joy to behold
57:27you do get a very real sense though of how in the kind of modern age we really have lost touch with the countryside you know just all the different types of wood and trees and plants and grasses that to victorian farmers would have been second nature
57:45they're virtually alien to the kind of the people of today
57:52there's a huge weight of sadness about finishing doing all this but then i'm also really excited because it's thrown up so many ideas
58:03well this is the end of our victorian adventure i'm going to really miss this place
58:13thank you
58:43thank you
58:45thank you
58:47thank you
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