Edwardian Farm (2010) s01e06 Episode Script
Episode 6
Here in Devon, in the tranquil Tamar Valley, was once a port bustling with industry.
Now, for an entire year, archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, and historian Ruth Goodman, are taking it back to how it would have been in the Edwardian age.
So far they've tried their hand at the industries which brought wealth to Devon's countryside.
Mining.
Fishing.
And market gardening.
Our strawberry plants.
They've got the farm up and running, grappled with the long-lost art of building a hayrick If the hay gets damp, it's quite simple - it rots.
It loses all of its nutritional value.
and raised their livestock through the harshest winter for a generation.
There's a big group of very, very, very hungry cows up there.
Now it's February, and exactly halfway through the year, we explore one single day in a typical Edwardian farmer's life.
This episode delves as never before into the details of day-to-day existence, revealing the hidden stories of how ordinary people got by.
I get a bit obsessed with hot water.
From getting dressed I've got somebody else's hair.
to having fun.
My lungs are absolutely bursting.
From the village high street to the travelling salesman The very ultimate in Edwardian technology.
we explore the basics of everyday living over just one day on the Edwardian Farm.
The day in a life of an Edwardian farmhouse.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
Daily life in the Edwardian countryside had a rhythm and routine all of its own.
Ruth has discovered a remarkable source of information about this now forgotten way of living.
Goodness! I've been given this set of letters.
They were found in a box in a house down here, and they were written in 1907.
They really give such a picture of what it was like.
The little things that people deal with all the time.
And this one, you get a bit of the local gossip, really.
"Harry's wife has got another baby, which makes eight children.
" Eight! "The eldest is gone to London in a situation.
" So some poor little kid has disappeared off to go and work in service.
This letter rings so true, this is exactly what we're going through at the moment.
"The days are so very short now that it does not give one half enough time to do all I should like to do.
" That's February! "It is a fearfully hard winter for everyone, but I suppose it will be better soon.
" It's all these sort of little things in life.
Easy to forget when you read a big history, and these letters really remind you of the daily thoughts going through people's heads, the daily little niggles and worries, and the concerns.
Obviously these letters meant a lot to somebody, they kept them very safe.
I ought to write to my family, really.
Haven't spoken to my mum for ages.
I'm a bad daughter! I don't keep in touch anywhere near enough.
"Dear Mum, Sorry I haven't written for so long.
You wanted to know what it's like down here.
Well, I'm going to tell you what we've been up to today, so then you'll have a picture of a day in our lives.
" "This morning I was up before dawn.
" Ooh, do this bit as quick as possible! I am not a morning person.
Thankfully, Edwardian underwear is fairly capacious.
And warm.
Oh, the morning corset wrestle.
The Victorian corset was all about making the tiny little waist.
And compressing, sort of, this area, but left all that completely untouched.
It's as if an Edwardian corset is just a lot lower, so, actually, I'm really quite unsupported at the top.
Look at the state I've got my petticoat, dragging it in the mud.
It takes some getting used to, this.
It really does.
Oh, dear.
Dirtiest job of the day.
Before we can put the kettle on, before we can think about breakfast, I've got to get the range sorted out.
Every tiny little drop of hot water I need has to come from this beast.
As, of course does the heating for the house, so, pretty much the centre of all warmth and comfort.
This is a common Edwardian practice, brushing your teeth with soot.
The brush I have here, made out of bone and badger bristles, pretty much resembles a modern toothbrush.
And as any dentist will probably tell you, it's the action of brushing teeth that makes up the majority, about 90%, of keeping your teeth clean.
This is no different from brushing your teeth with toothpaste.
The only thing that you're missing is the minty freshness of it all.
Every morning Alex and Peter's first job is feeding the animals, but with the winter dragging on, their store of hay is running dangerously low.
- This is the lot, mate.
- Well, let's hope that rick is sound, yeah? Yeah, let's hope it's sound.
They've built a rick to store extra hay in case this situation arose.
- Wobbling away, isn't it? - The whole thing does move.
It's covered in straw mats to keep rain out and prevent the hay from rotting.
Now they must cut into the rick and see if the hay has survived.
Well, some of these signs are pretty ominous here, look.
If I pull that out you will see, there's actually a mushroom.
It's actually growing.
So mushrooms mean damp and warm, which is not really what we wanted.
Don't worry, mate.
It's going to come good, Peter.
I know.
The cows are looking on distinctly unimpressed.
"What have they done? The bungling fools!" Many Edwardian farmers were dependent on income from livestock.
In the 1900s, meat and dairy were one of the most profitable areas of Britain's agricultural output.
- Let it go, yeah? - Yeah.
With the welfare state yet to provide a safety net, if his livestock failed, a farmer and his family could end up in the workhouse.
So the team's animals are their most valuable asset.
And to feed them they need hay.
- There, that's it.
- Cut thee well, my boy.
Oh, look at that.
You can see all the mould under there, look.
It's black.
Right at this moment, I can't really see.
There's a lot of dry here.
There's dry here.
But there's nearly as much damp, and I'm slightly worried about the angle there.
Cos that means it's tipping in to the middle of the rick, so I think until we've cut off all the way down to the bottom - Yeah.
we won't really know.
We're desperate for hay now.
We've really got to the bottom of our resources up in the hayloft.
If the winter looks like it's going to stretch on into March, we are going to really struggle.
"By seven o'clock I was on my knees with a scrubbing brush.
The amount of filth that gets walked in is quite unbelievable.
" Muddy boots on the floor.
Day in and day out.
You see, it might not just be mud, working on a farm.
There's a fair bit of animal dung as well.
So it's got to be cleaned.
- Dry on the outside, because it's had the wind.
- It looked really dry, that.
The thing is, kept walking past it thinking, "Cor, that rick's done well.
It's brilliant.
" Whilst inside it's a festering, rotting compost heap.
Well, it's not even good for compost.
We'll see.
Maybe I'm being a bit negative, Peter.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, Peter.
- What are you saying? - Right, that is the top, that's the top layer.
- That's all right, isn't it? - But, look, I mean that is.
Peter, look at that.
That looks lovely.
It's good hay, it's dry hay.
I would say that proves that those mats were an absolute success.
They must have been fit as butcher's dogs, those boys.
God! That's the one.
It's not so bad after all, Peter.
"Around half past seven, having washed the floors, it was time to wash myself.
And believe me, I needed it.
" All the first jobs of the day are extremely dirty.
Hygiene was such an important issue in Edwardian Britain, It's the period of time when people are going on about the "great unwashed".
They're becoming increasingly sniffy about cleanliness of the body.
Mostly about sneering about other people's uncleanliness.
As is always the way.
The majority of adult women in Edwardian Britain probably hardly ever bathed.
I mean, just how many times could you find when you were alone in the house and you could take all your clothes off? Bathing was something for children.
And for boys, and for men.
So that water's looking pretty grey.
There it goes.
- Is that enough? - Yeah.
It's a beautiful face, once you've cut it.
All these the butts coming out, it's like a really neat thatch.
It was just bad luck that we actually started cutting in at this point.
And when I was stood on there, and I could actually hear it squelching underfoot, I thought, "Oh, my God, we've got a just an enormous pile of rotting hay.
" But this is bone-dry.
So now we've got more than enough hay to last us through to when the spring grass starts to grow.
- Haven't we? - This is a lot of hay.
I spent ages trying to work out how to do an Edwardian hairstyle, because every photograph you see, absolutely everyone, everybody has the big hair on top.
Nobody has Ruth hair, which is skinny and little, you see? That's how my hair really wants to go up in a bun.
Notice how there isn't very much of it.
So I had to think about how on earth an ordinary woman would have achieved that if she had hair like mine.
Cos not everybody has big wavy hair.
And the more I looked into it, the more adverts I found for things to help you.
More and more hair "products".
Not so much things in bottles, which, of course, is a modern approach to the problem.
More about hairpieces.
So I got somebody else's plait.
And this is real hair.
I tried it with one, still didn't work, had to use two.
Hair's just way too skinny.
It was something of a rite of passage, wearing your hair up in Edwardian England.
Girls wore it down, loose or in a sort of ponytail thing, and then in your teens you had a sort of halfway hairstyle.
Only when you really were counted pretty much as a grown-up did your hair go up.
That'll do.
Right.
Breakfast on.
Come on.
Come on, cows.
Come on, cows.
Come on, cows.
Well, this is some of the hay that came off the top of the rick, and, in fact, well, I'm hoping it's edible.
And, of course, the proof is in the pudding.
These are our calves.
There we go, fellas.
See what they make of it.
That's going down.
That's good news.
That is good news, actually.
The thing about good farming, particularly when it comes to livestock, is spending the time watching the animals, it's such a crucial thing.
It's not a case of just turning up, mucking out, feeding and walking off.
You know, each time you want to be counting, obviously, doing a head count, and also looking at condition, looking at the way they're moving.
You want to see an animal move every day, if not twice a day.
And that way, you stay on top of the livestock.
You don't get any nasty surprises, you know.
You don't come in the field and find one of them's lame or even dead.
"It's non-stop work with the animals.
We've got the sheep to tend to.
The horses to look after.
And the cattle to fatten.
Then there's the pigs.
" Morning, pigs! If we were farming pigs on a commercial basis, then pig farming is, in the Edwardian period, men's work.
But when it's just a cottage pig, just one, it falls to the lot of the woman.
Part of the routine.
"Mustn't forget the chickens.
Alex's favourite.
" Oh! If there's one thing on a frosty morning that's going to warm your hands up, it's a chicken.
Oh, yeah, get your hands in there.
That's lovely and warm, that is.
And last but not least, the geese.
We've had to be extra vigilant with the animals through the winter.
Come on, guys.
There's plenty of predators round here who would like to get their claws into them.
Got one of our geese.
And she's been got by the fox.
Just in here.
And I saw the fox the other day.
He's big.
When I say big, I mean, he's you know.
And it's been so cold.
They're so hungry, and they've just been after the poultry.
We've had a couple of chickens been got.
And now this one.
And she's not looking very well.
Geese were expensive in Edwardian Britain, and to lose one would be a real blow.
She's got a bit of fight in her.
I think she's almost too weak to feed herself.
I mean, to a certain extent the fact that she's been got by the fox means that we've failed her.
- How's Goosie? - Don't know, to be honest.
- No? - 50/50.
- 50/50? - Yeah, she's got she's got fight in her.
- Yeah? - But she doesn't seem to have mobility in her.
- Right.
- Head's drooping.
Can't really walk properly.
- Right.
- So do our best.
- Do our best.
- Keep her warm, try and feed her.
I'm thinking we should get some security guards in.
Some ganders.
I know you don't like ganders.
They'll be yapping at your heels all day as you're trying to feed them, but they'll keep the fox away, won't they? It's not my heels I'm worried about.
Anyway, the big job of the morning is mucking these calves out.
Oh, go on, then! Peter, I'm just going to poop it, this one.
I'm just going to throw this in here for you, just get all this out of here.
"Around eight o'clock it was time to start on breakfast.
I love this dish.
It's called raw tattie fry around here.
A real working man's breakfast.
Managed to find myself a nice bit of blackthorn, which has miraculously grown in the perfect shape for a human yoke.
So this is about the equivalent of three slices of bacon, for half an onion each, and the rest of the breakfast will basically be potato.
And obviously, after you've already done a couple of hours' work before breakfast, you're starving! A little light bowl of cereal is not going to cut the mustard.
Just got a few roots from the market garden, I'm just going to chop up for the calves.
- Water.
- Roots.
Think I'm just about ready for my breakfast now.
Yeah.
Look forward to it.
- Here we go.
- Ooh, lovely! One of those meals that doesn't look great on the plate, but - Smells amazing, though.
- I know, it's one of my favourite.
What were you expecting, Peter? Eggs Benedict? - This is such a wonderful meal.
- I love raw tattie fry.
Peter has had a difficult morning nursing Goosie.
- Have you? - Yes, one of our geese was got by the fox.
- What, dead? - No, no, just - Close to dead.
- Yeah.
- Severely demoralised.
- It's just been sort of a daily grind, really, just to keep the animals alive and in good health, and in good spirits, hasn't it? Yeah, well, I have to say, frankly, it's the same with the people.
I was going to say it's a daily grind keeping your own spirits going.
That's why I brought the daffs in, cheer myself up.
Oh, God, I needed this this morning! "After breakfast the farrier came to look at our two lovely shire horses, Tom and Prince.
He gives them a regular checkup every six weeks.
" And the farrier's job is basically keeping the horse's feet fit and in a fit state to work.
Farriers are specialists in caring for horse's hooves and making horseshoes.
The job has existed for centuries, but in the Edwardian period it was becoming formalised, with farriers taking exams and joining an official register.
Ian Mortimer has been a qualified farrier for 16 years.
It was a very important craft, because, unlike today, in Edwardian times, horses weren't so much kept for pleasure, they were kept specifically to work.
They were still the backbone of British motive power.
So the British economy, really, at home, was very much dependent on these.
At that time it was still very dependent on the draught horse, in particular.
So I suppose the big question here is, when are you looking to shoe and not looking to shoe? There two main reasons for shoeing.
The main one is if the horse is wearing its feet out faster than they're growing, you're going to end up with a lame horse and you absolutely have to shoe.
- Yeah.
- The other thing is grip.
Horses sometimes if, you know, on slippery ground, slightly slopey ground, they do need the extra grip that a shoe will give them.
It's basically like studs on a football boot.
It does make a difference.
Prince is the younger of the two horses.
Prince.
Nuisance.
He hasn't been pulling his weight in the field.
He's three years old, so it's the equivalent of being a teenager.
He's just sort of clumsy, bored.
Generally sort of Ow! Generally fed up with life on the farm, kind of thing.
Ian's discovered a possible reason for Prince's attitude.
This horse's letdown are his uneven, unbalanced feet.
- Right.
- See how that's been pushed across that way? You can see in there, but you have to pull it out to see there.
The whole foot is leaning that way.
So that would mean this side would split here.
And this side would has been in the past, packed with gravel.
Right.
Just cos he walked hard on the outside, doesn't take enough weight on the inside and it just flares away, so this isn't getting worn away.
Which is why you can see it's starting to lie over.
- So this is crucial, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
So if I was being sort of brutally economic in my choices of work If you had to make your living from him, you'd think: "Might have two years, then he'll go lame.
" - Right.
But is there anything I could do, if I could bring a farrier in? Let's say I've already got the horse.
Can the farrier do anything about that slight imbalance there in the foot? - Yes, you can do a little.
You can.
- Right.
But, in time, that'll still be his weak point.
But by shoeing it, you will put that off.
Right.
Just trying to get some water and also some food down her neck.
Just mix us up some feed in some water, to make a very almost like a thin goose soup.
She's had some.
You going to go for it? She certainly has enough strength to be to be sort of worth worrying about.
I suppose we'll just try and keep her warm.
Keep her in here, keep her safe.
And only time will tell.
"By mid-morning I was getting on with the main work of the day.
It's a constant round of chores just to keep the cottage going.
" Oh! I trudge down this path, what, three, four times a day.
"It's only when you don't have running water that you realise how much we take it for granted.
" And people often stress the health benefits of having piped, clean water, which, of course, is extremely important.
But there's also the amount of time and work involved.
Which you'd never know until you'd lugged it all yourself.
I've become obsessive about hot water.
If the stove's empty it ought to have pans full of water on it.
You just always need hot water, and, of course, you have to plan so far in advance.
One of the laws of nature, isn't it? There's always more washing-up.
It's got really burned on, this one.
I left it a bit long and it's caught on the stove.
Most Edwardian housewives just used a bit of sand on your cloth.
There you are.
You've made your own free, disposable, environmentally-friendly scouring pad.
In the same way I get really, really paranoid about hot water, I get just the same about dry kindling.
You really notice how much hurry at this time at this time of year.
The days are so short.
I'm rushing all the time, every job, try and get it done as fast as possible.
Cos I've got to move onto the next one.
Wooh! It's just so much more satisfying than hoovering! Oh! Once I get this dinner on, pretty much everything else is now under control.
Housework wasn't the only daily task for Edwardian women.
Across Britain, around five million Edwardian women were employed outside their homes.
But working conditions often varied with their marital status.
For a long time, in industries where married women were working, you find that there is a later start hour for married women than there is for single women.
So in the laundry industry, for example, nobody expected a married woman to be in before eight o'clock, even though unmarried women might have started at half-six.
Because a married woman had to do everything.
And everybody knew that.
Come on, you lot.
You can all get in there.
I can just leave that to simmer.
"Our Whitefaced Dartmoor sheep are expecting lambs in a few weeks, so it's vital for the boys to make sure they're in good health.
" Come on.
Handling the sheep on a regular basis, you get to know their characters.
Yeah.
You always get one or two that just stand at the back of the flock.
OK, we've only got a small flock, but they stand at the back, and they'll always position themselves at the back.
Like a sort of shy child at a wedding.
They're always hiding behind the rest of the flock, seeing what's going to happen.
They may be the wise ones, may be the clever ones, to be honest.
Then there's the ones that'll just come to the bucket.
You've only got to wave a bucket in front of them and they're all yours.
Look at that one.
This might be our problem sheep.
Look at that.
It's turned over.
Almost entirely.
The problem with these Dartmoor sheep is that their natural habitat as a breed is up on the moor, where it's also quite stony, and they would actually wear a lot of this down, but where we've got them down, and we've had them down very close to water meadows, so it really isn't the driest land in the area.
So it's up for us to step in, and I'm hoping that one's going to be all right.
That one didn't look too pretty, it has to be said.
I don't know if you want to just quickly That little waxy deposit there that's coming out, that means we've got a pregnant sheep.
Indeed.
So I think we should be confident that all of these have been serviced by old Cyril.
- Take back everything we said about him.
- Yeah.
Sorry, Cyril.
You've clearly been doing the job.
OK.
That next one out.
The cold weather, and hungry foxes, could put the lambs in danger.
So Alex is looking into an Edwardian solution.
Wattle hurdles are made from locally sourced hazel.
They keep the wind out and the lambs in.
- Hi, Ian.
- Hi, Alex.
- Nice to meet you.
- How are you doing? All right? Local hurdle maker, Ian Roper, has come along to make a batch for the farm.
- Just putting the zales in at the moment.
- Zales? Yeah, zales.
So basically that's your upright post.
OK, so we want a couple of our That's the longest rods.
They want to be about eight foot long.
- Yeah.
- At least.
Going to tie in the bottom of the hurdle here.
It's over and under, round and round.
Right, so you're not just weaving You're plaiting them as well.
Yeah.
At each end the hazel must be turned back on itself without snapping.
Again, that's very much technique more than strength.
- Brilliant.
- That's becoming like rope.
Just amazing.
This really is.
The way the wood has actually turned to a rope.
Ian's twisted it so much that the fibres have separated, making it flexible, pliable.
The wonder of wood.
All right.
So that's the bottom of the hurdle in.
The middle of the hurdle is built up with tightly-woven split rods.
That's it.
These hurdles are going to be instrumental when it comes to lambing.
And the beauty about the wattle hurdle is it keeps the wind out.
And when it comes to lambing season, especially on places like Dartmoor, it's imperative that they don't get cold, wet and then chilled by the wind.
Finally, the hurdle is held together with a single rod twisted around both ends.
- There we have it.
- And there we have it.
That's the lot.
There we go, out of the mould.
- Up on your shoulder.
- Up on the shoulder there.
Spin round.
Well, Ian, cheers.
Thank you very much.
No worries, Alex, good job.
"Around midday, I popped into the village shop.
We needed a few supplies.
" - Morning.
- Hello again, madam.
- Ooh! - How may I help you, madam? - Well, first I'll have a loaf of bread, please.
- Certainly, madam.
By the start of the 20th century, consumerism was taking hold of society.
The number of shops grew massively, from 300,000 in 1875, to over 450,000 by 1907.
An Edwardian shop is such a different place from a modern one.
For a start, I get to sit down.
You just sit nicely on a chair and they serve you, which is very pleasant, thank you very much.
- Oh, is that golden syrup? - Yes, madam.
We'll have a syrup sponge, I think.
Can I have a tin of that, please? You certainly can.
More and more and more companies were producing things in a branded package, and selling it with a great big bright logo, and a name that everybody recognised.
The same products right across the country.
- And some marmalade.
- Robertson's, madam? Yes, that would be nice.
The railway network is so completely up and running, everywhere's connected.
Food can be shipped from one part of the country overnight.
So many of these foodstuffs could have come from, well, anywhere.
They're not local at all.
There's foods here from Leicestershire, from Reading, all transported right across the face of Britain, down to Devon and Cornwall.
That's a really new idea, that food should move around like this.
And particularly, some of these things could easily have been made here.
There's no reason why the flour, for example, sitting there, couldn't be local flour.
But it's not.
And that's very much an Edwardian story.
Would you like the boy to bring this to you, madam? Yes, that would be very nice, so I don't carry it, thank you.
It wasn't just local food that was being pushed out of the high street.
Individual craftsmen, like the blacksmith and the candlemaker, were disappearing, unable to compete with new big brand names.
Among those feeling the pinch was the village shoemaker.
Until the mid-19th century, shoemakers carried out their work by hand, usually in a workshop in their own home.
They enjoyed a huge amount of freedom, deciding what hours and days they worked.
Then, in the 1850s, machines for shoe production started to appear, and many shoemakers went to work in new, large-scale factories.
It was the end of their independence.
Alex's brother, Tom, is one of the few people in Britain carrying on the tradition of making shoes by hand.
Shoemaking is often called "the gentle craft".
It's quite therapeutic, it's quite relaxing.
He's come to fix Alex's boots.
Start with an upper.
This is an old upper I've taken off.
And this is, as you can see, it's stitched together, so that this can be pulled over the last.
And a last is basically a wooden block that you pull the leather over in order to shape the shoe.
They come in a variety of sizes.
I've got some men's there, down to little children's there.
As you can see here, I've pulled the leather over the last and nailed it on so that it's tight over the top of the last.
It's taken the shape of the shoe.
Next the sole is built up in hard-wearing layers.
And then in here I will put the shank.
That can either be metal or wood.
And that will sit in here and just give the strength underneath.
Then this area here will be filled with cork.
And on top of all of this, I then place the mid-sole, and the sole itself.
By the end of the Edwardian period, specialist shoe shops selling factory-made shoes were becoming a common sight.
The final nail in the coffin is the First World War.
And during that time I think the factories of Britain made nearly 60, 70 million pairs of boots for the forces that were fighting around the Empire.
So the factories take hold and they're churning out boots.
Cheap boots that people can afford.
And this type of work becomes very expensive.
Shoemakers have to adapt, so they're becoming what's called a cobbler.
And a cobbler is somebody who mends shoes.
They don't make shoes.
Beyond the high street, Edwardian manufacturers often used travelling salesmen to get their goods deep into the countryside.
Good morning, sir.
I just wondered, can I come in and show you one or two items I've brought up from London? Sure.
OK.
Avid collector, Maurice Collins, owns over 400 historic inventions.
And then you just press down.
He's come to the farm, armed with his Edwardian wares.
- Do you have chickens, sir? - We have a lot of chickens.
I would, if I may, like to show you the very latest item that we are using for farms.
- Right.
- And I will place this right over here, sir.
Yeah.
And you will find that this will grade your eggs.
The chicken drops its egg, it rolls down.
Oh! When it gets to the appropriate weight it is then graded.
- How about that one? - Unbelievable! Well, that's certainly something Alex might be interested in.
Let me show you one or two other items.
I know you get up very early in the morning.
- Yes.
- Cold, I am sure.
You can wear this, fill it with hot water, place it around your belly.
Makes me look slightly larger than I already am! - Does it matter, sir, at five in the morning? - No, the cows don't care! This, in fact, is what they call a propeller spoon, that you would actually mix your food.
The propeller stirs it in the opposite direction, giving you double the result from half the effort.
This is a bird caller.
- Which bird is that? - To be honest, we haven't quite established.
That sounds like Alex in the morning! Let's see what else we have that might be of interest.
- Indeed.
- This, in fact, is the boot and shoe warmer.
In this instance you do not have to take your boots off.
What, one step at a time? No, that's quite something.
And finally I would like to show you the very ultimate in Edwardian technology.
It's something that perhaps is going to sweep the country and you are in at the beginning.
- This, sir, is the Teasmade.
- A teasmade? - The Teasmade? - The Teasmade.
And run, may I say, by clockwork.
This item is based upon a clockwork situation of your clock.
What you would do is set the alarm at the appropriate time that you wish to arise.
- I would imagine it's about five in the morning.
- Ten in the morning.
Ten in the morning? Five in the morning.
What would happen is, you would actually fill the night before your kettle with the water.
Right.
As soon as the time arrives, this would automatically fly across there.
The emery cloth would then strike on the match, which will light that heater.
And when the kettle is boiled, it will tilt like that into the teapot, and then this iron would flash back and cut out the burning flames.
- That is absolutely fantastic.
- You have a vast selection of items here.
Is there any one that you feel would satisfy your immediate needs? The hen's egg sorter - perfect for our chicken concern.
The boot warmer, perfect for my frozen feet.
I mean, I want all of them.
I need none of them.
But I would quite like to possibly purchase this.
- How much is this going to set me back? - Well, around about two pound.
An Edwardian labourer would probably be earning roughly around 20 shillings a week.
- So 20 shillings is, what, a pound? - Absolutely.
And this is just over two pounds.
This is over two weeks' wages.
But, sir, it's well worthwhile.
It gives you the height of fashion in terms of domestic ware.
And for you we will do it paid on the never-never.
We'll send a man round to knock on your door to collect the money.
Don't tell Alex or Ruth.
- All right, Tom? - Hello, Alex.
- How's it going? All right? - Yeah, good.
All finished.
Resoled.
New heel.
Hobs, as well.
Wow! It's like a brand-new pair of boots.
I think we agreed our price.
We did.
Have a word with Mum.
She'll sort you out your cash and "Around one o'clock we all sat down for a quick bite of lunch.
It was a chance to catch up on the day so far.
" How's the goose then, Peter? She looks as if she's starting to go on the road to recovery.
That is good news.
Can't lose a goose.
- We'll get a gander.
That's what we'll do.
- That's a good idea.
"This lunch time Alex had a surprise in store for the afternoon.
" So, you feeling fit, Peter? - Always.
- Got a little treat lined up for you.
- I hate it when he says that.
- I know! It's just - We lined you up - Mm? with a special fixture.
It's a football match.
We're playing Plymouth Argyle Legends.
A team that went professional in the Edwardian age.
OK? We're up against them.
We got nine men, I'm ten.
There's a space for you, Peter.
I think we're going to get a hiding, cos these guys were once semi-pro, but I'm counting on you, Peter.
You're behind me.
I've seen pictures of Edwardian footballers.
Does that mean you get ridiculous shorts? - I think we get the ridiculous everything.
- Excellent! Well, Alex, I mean, you and I are both men of Scottish heritage.
And what do Scotsmen drink at football matches? - Beef tea.
- Beef tea.
- I think we need to make beef tea for half-time.
- Good idea.
Peter, you're going to have to be at your very best.
Don't worry, Alex, I'll be on it.
I have read somewhere that in the Edwardian period the concept of the foul was yet to be introduced.
Yeah.
I must admit, I might actually come and watch you.
It'll be very funny! "After lunch the boys got on with jobs for the cottage, like collecting firewood.
" These are cobbles now, Princey.
Just you take it easy, boy.
And whoa! Stand there, boy.
This is all of the hedgerow wood that we cut out earlier in the year when we did the hedging.
So it's had a couple of months to season.
So all of that, hopefully, will make firelighting here down at the cottage much easier.
- Where do you want this, over there? - Yeah, same place, I reckon.
A source of energy, a source of fuel, was something, back in the Edwardian period, that was something you got yourself.
You know, it wasn't a case of just flicking on switches here and there.
It brings you that much closer, doing this, to experiencing life back then.
You know, it's hard-fought stuff, this.
It really is.
I thought I'd do us a pudding for supper.
Again, it's something I can stick on now and leave.
So it's just flour and some shredded suet.
Add some raisins.
At its simplest it's quite a stodgy, basic thing.
It's really just a dumpling, isn't it? But at its finest, a British pudding, it'll be fantastic.
I mean, what could be quicker than that? Frankly, take you longer to get the packaging off some ready meal, wouldn't it? The injured goose is feeling better.
And the team's latest purchase should make the farmyard a safer place.
- Is this him? - This is him.
I had to outbid a few old boys at the auction for him.
And there he was, on his tod.
He was the only gander there, so I had to pay a few quid for him.
She's a lucky girl.
But this boy's going to protect you now.
He wants to get involved.
He's strong! And you can see he's been a bit of a fighter, look.
And that's what we want.
The thing is, with this type of bird, is it loves a ruck.
Dogs, foxes, he'll go for them.
They'll run at them, flapping their wings.
And to be honest, most foxes will be put off.
Unless it's a big fox and he's really, really hungry, most of them will be put off.
It's too much hassle to deal with them.
A lot of farmers keep them for that purpose and that purpose alone.
- I think a lot of humans would be put off as well.
- Yeah.
- It's a lot of noise and violence.
- That's the only problem.
I have bought a very, very anti-social creature into the farmyard.
Once he gets confident, he'll be snapping at your heels, following you around, barking.
- Just like Ruth.
- Yeah! In we go.
Go on, then.
- There he goes.
- There he goes.
It's the sound of a protected farmyard.
Ooh! Off he goes! - Half-time, we're getting this down our necks.
- Beef tea.
We're going to Even if we're down at half-time, this is going to turn it round for us.
"Select one pound of nice, fleshy beef without fat.
Cut it into small pieces about the size of dice and put it in a clean saucepan with about one pint of cold water and bring it to the boiling point.
" - It's done.
- Let's have a look.
There we go.
Ready to strain? Yeah, I reckon so.
Looks green.
It does, doesn't it? It doesn't look very beefy.
It looks quite watery.
It's going to take some selling, this is.
And that is beef tea.
Got to give it a try, though.
- Tastes of beef stock.
- It does, doesn't it, actually.
That's quite a good If I had my eyes closed, and I was watching Plymouth Argyle The legends.
cold February afternoon, and I was drinking this, I'd think that was a good cup of beef extract, that.
Just slightly concerned that we've got enough maybe for a capful each.
- Shall I put another one on the boil? - Yeah, put another one on the boil.
This'll be the weaker variety.
Yeah, make it really salty, so they get really thirsty.
Second half they'll be really parched.
At which point we can come to life.
"While the boys took over the kitchen, your granddaughter, Eve, came round to see me.
" Ah, there you are, been waiting for you.
Mm! Good? "We got into the sporting mood with some callisthenics, a proper Edwardian exercise for ladies.
" OK, so, it says, "standing straight, feet turned out.
" I can do that.
Now this is a chest-expanding exercise.
Callisthenics originated in ancient Greece.
OK, so we've got nice expanded chests.
But it became popular in the late-19th century, when the middle classes began to believe it was a suitable exercise for women.
It's really odd, isn't it, how it's all the top half? - Yes.
- It's all shoulders and It is.
It's all the upper body.
They're still worried.
There's an old hangover of the ideas that women shouldn't move too much in this part of the anatomy.
There was a lot of worry about women's wombs not being fixed, but being mobile within the body.
So people are still a bit concerned about the whole idea that women really shouldn't move about too much.
You know, running around was not considered healthy for centuries.
That whole part of the body was not to be too shaken up.
So this is the beginning of that whole loosening, you know? Becoming more free.
Anyway, enough talk, more action.
- Oh! - So, one, two, three! It's not really one's idea of energetic exercise, is it? It's supposed to be energetic, is it? I feel like a monkey! - Not a proper monkey, I'm a flying monkey.
- Are we allowed Yes, a flying monkey! - There is a little bit, you know - I can't do anymore.
Yes, you can.
For goodness' sake, you wimp! - Right.
Do you want me to give you a bunk up? Saucy! Yeah, go on, then.
OK.
At the ready It's a great setting for a football match, isn't it? It's a fantastic setting.
Although football had been widely followed in the 19th century, in the Edwardian era it became the people's game, the most popular spectator sport.
The first crowd of a hundred thousand was in 1901, and the first thousand pound transfer fee was paid in 1905.
But Edwardian rules were very different from modern ones, including no offside, no substitutes, and no red or yellow cards.
Football historian David Goldblatt has come along to explain how it worked.
- Right, that's most of it.
- Clearing the pitch up, guys? I'm David.
- Hello, David.
I'm Peter.
- I'm Alex.
- Hello.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
Was there a lot of this on the pitch? There's a few more here, certainly in the penalty area.
We're trying to get that as clean as possible.
This shows you just how important and how big football was in Edwardian England, because if you played 20 years earlier, who's playing in the countryside? - Football's an urban game.
- Right.
But now, by 1908, everyone in England is playing, even out here in Devon, in the world of cows and manure - Yeah.
we're playing football.
Cos it's professional now.
So we've got formations.
But it's not like today where it's four at the back, four in the middle as the standard.
- They're playing a completely different game.
- Right.
It's two at the back, three in the middle, five at the front, five forwards, and - So very attacking, then? - It is attacking.
What we don't have is a lot of training.
There isn't a lot of training going on in between games.
- That's funny because we've - Not done any training! We've stayed true to that! Have you been drinking reasonably regularly and getting some tobacco down you as well? OK, you're in perfect condition for Edwardian professional football.
You're heads, you're tails.
Tails it is.
Offside! - Come on, Ref! - Yeah, I did take that, yeah.
No offsides! I was inoculated against all forms of sport at school, so I'm totally ignorant.
Well, I'm afraid that's what was tending to happen in Edwardian England, is that sport was not for girls.
Sport was something only boys and men played, turned you into a man.
But, thankfully, a few Edwardian women have worked out that sport is for them.
And so you've got the beginnings of a women's football culture.
- Really? - Yeah.
But the really big move is to come in about five or six years after this game is meant to have been played.
The First World War arrives, and, of course, the men are all sent off to the Front.
Women are coming and working in factories.
What do they do? The same as the men.
They create football teams.
Good gracious.
So seven or eight years after this game is played, you've got teams like Dick, Kerr's Ladies, from a munitions factory in Preston, and they're playing charity games in front of 25,000 people.
Really? Yeah, by 1921 they're playing in front of 50,000 people.
Oh, my goodness! And in fact the Football Association actually gets so worried about women entering men's domain that they say to their clubs, "If you allow women to play on your grounds, even your training grounds, you're out.
" And that's women's football over for 50 years.
That's quite shocking.
My lungs are bursting.
My lungs are absolutely bursting.
Play! Get stuck in! See what they make of our beef tea, then.
- I think we're in the lead.
What's the score? - 6-2.
6-2.
I don't think it had a lot to do with myself and Peter, though.
No.
- Bring me beef tea.
- There we are.
Try that one.
Thank you.
Mm.
Oh, the taste that revives.
How is it with the boots? It's a bit slippy, but it's this bit at the end here, I can't seem to actually control the ball, but that's always been my problem! Is that the boot, or is that? I'm not sure that's an Edwardian technological issue.
- No, I think it's the legs, actually.
- Take a rest.
You've done well, boys.
It's a good recreation, I'm impressed.
- Thanks ever so much for coming down.
- My pleasure.
"After the match it was back home, to put the animals to bed, and to have a bite of dinner.
" - How are you bearing up, Peter? - Oh, not bad.
I can still make it to the pub.
Might not make it back again.
"Then a quick drink to round off the day.
" There's been public houses for centuries.
Ale and beer is our national drink, isn't it? But for centuries they were just a house, literally a house that was open for the sale of drink.
They looked like somebody's front room, because that's what they were.
And it's only really from about the 1830s onwards that you start to find buildings specially built to be pubs.
And, of course, the early ones were particularly in the towns, and they tended to be really rather glamorous sorts of places.
If you went into an urban gin palace or pub in the mid-Victorian period, you'd expect to find it all beautifully tiled, with great big mirrors, art, and all gleaming and shiny, whereas out in the countryside it carried on being somebody's front room.
- The end of another long day.
- Mm.
I think, from all the diary extracts I've read of the period, we've really started to experience something of that daily grind during the winter months.
- Going round and round and round.
- Yeah, and you're just praying that things are going to warm up.
One thing I'm going to say is the public house is a haven from daily life.
- It is.
A bit of a refuge.
- Always has been, always will be.
Yeah.
Sort of a little moment out.
Well, look, first and foremost, cheers to the day in a life of an Edwardian farmhouse.
Yeah.
Another one down.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
"I'm off to bed now, so best finish up.
Whatever happens, the worst of the winter's behind us, and spring is definitely in the air.
The daffs are out.
And it'll be lambing time soon.
Then we'll be busier than ever.
Take care of yourself.
Lots of love, Ruth.
You'll never guess what Peter bought.
" You up yet? And I've got a Teasmade to pay for.
Now, for an entire year, archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, and historian Ruth Goodman, are taking it back to how it would have been in the Edwardian age.
So far they've tried their hand at the industries which brought wealth to Devon's countryside.
Mining.
Fishing.
And market gardening.
Our strawberry plants.
They've got the farm up and running, grappled with the long-lost art of building a hayrick If the hay gets damp, it's quite simple - it rots.
It loses all of its nutritional value.
and raised their livestock through the harshest winter for a generation.
There's a big group of very, very, very hungry cows up there.
Now it's February, and exactly halfway through the year, we explore one single day in a typical Edwardian farmer's life.
This episode delves as never before into the details of day-to-day existence, revealing the hidden stories of how ordinary people got by.
I get a bit obsessed with hot water.
From getting dressed I've got somebody else's hair.
to having fun.
My lungs are absolutely bursting.
From the village high street to the travelling salesman The very ultimate in Edwardian technology.
we explore the basics of everyday living over just one day on the Edwardian Farm.
The day in a life of an Edwardian farmhouse.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
Daily life in the Edwardian countryside had a rhythm and routine all of its own.
Ruth has discovered a remarkable source of information about this now forgotten way of living.
Goodness! I've been given this set of letters.
They were found in a box in a house down here, and they were written in 1907.
They really give such a picture of what it was like.
The little things that people deal with all the time.
And this one, you get a bit of the local gossip, really.
"Harry's wife has got another baby, which makes eight children.
" Eight! "The eldest is gone to London in a situation.
" So some poor little kid has disappeared off to go and work in service.
This letter rings so true, this is exactly what we're going through at the moment.
"The days are so very short now that it does not give one half enough time to do all I should like to do.
" That's February! "It is a fearfully hard winter for everyone, but I suppose it will be better soon.
" It's all these sort of little things in life.
Easy to forget when you read a big history, and these letters really remind you of the daily thoughts going through people's heads, the daily little niggles and worries, and the concerns.
Obviously these letters meant a lot to somebody, they kept them very safe.
I ought to write to my family, really.
Haven't spoken to my mum for ages.
I'm a bad daughter! I don't keep in touch anywhere near enough.
"Dear Mum, Sorry I haven't written for so long.
You wanted to know what it's like down here.
Well, I'm going to tell you what we've been up to today, so then you'll have a picture of a day in our lives.
" "This morning I was up before dawn.
" Ooh, do this bit as quick as possible! I am not a morning person.
Thankfully, Edwardian underwear is fairly capacious.
And warm.
Oh, the morning corset wrestle.
The Victorian corset was all about making the tiny little waist.
And compressing, sort of, this area, but left all that completely untouched.
It's as if an Edwardian corset is just a lot lower, so, actually, I'm really quite unsupported at the top.
Look at the state I've got my petticoat, dragging it in the mud.
It takes some getting used to, this.
It really does.
Oh, dear.
Dirtiest job of the day.
Before we can put the kettle on, before we can think about breakfast, I've got to get the range sorted out.
Every tiny little drop of hot water I need has to come from this beast.
As, of course does the heating for the house, so, pretty much the centre of all warmth and comfort.
This is a common Edwardian practice, brushing your teeth with soot.
The brush I have here, made out of bone and badger bristles, pretty much resembles a modern toothbrush.
And as any dentist will probably tell you, it's the action of brushing teeth that makes up the majority, about 90%, of keeping your teeth clean.
This is no different from brushing your teeth with toothpaste.
The only thing that you're missing is the minty freshness of it all.
Every morning Alex and Peter's first job is feeding the animals, but with the winter dragging on, their store of hay is running dangerously low.
- This is the lot, mate.
- Well, let's hope that rick is sound, yeah? Yeah, let's hope it's sound.
They've built a rick to store extra hay in case this situation arose.
- Wobbling away, isn't it? - The whole thing does move.
It's covered in straw mats to keep rain out and prevent the hay from rotting.
Now they must cut into the rick and see if the hay has survived.
Well, some of these signs are pretty ominous here, look.
If I pull that out you will see, there's actually a mushroom.
It's actually growing.
So mushrooms mean damp and warm, which is not really what we wanted.
Don't worry, mate.
It's going to come good, Peter.
I know.
The cows are looking on distinctly unimpressed.
"What have they done? The bungling fools!" Many Edwardian farmers were dependent on income from livestock.
In the 1900s, meat and dairy were one of the most profitable areas of Britain's agricultural output.
- Let it go, yeah? - Yeah.
With the welfare state yet to provide a safety net, if his livestock failed, a farmer and his family could end up in the workhouse.
So the team's animals are their most valuable asset.
And to feed them they need hay.
- There, that's it.
- Cut thee well, my boy.
Oh, look at that.
You can see all the mould under there, look.
It's black.
Right at this moment, I can't really see.
There's a lot of dry here.
There's dry here.
But there's nearly as much damp, and I'm slightly worried about the angle there.
Cos that means it's tipping in to the middle of the rick, so I think until we've cut off all the way down to the bottom - Yeah.
we won't really know.
We're desperate for hay now.
We've really got to the bottom of our resources up in the hayloft.
If the winter looks like it's going to stretch on into March, we are going to really struggle.
"By seven o'clock I was on my knees with a scrubbing brush.
The amount of filth that gets walked in is quite unbelievable.
" Muddy boots on the floor.
Day in and day out.
You see, it might not just be mud, working on a farm.
There's a fair bit of animal dung as well.
So it's got to be cleaned.
- Dry on the outside, because it's had the wind.
- It looked really dry, that.
The thing is, kept walking past it thinking, "Cor, that rick's done well.
It's brilliant.
" Whilst inside it's a festering, rotting compost heap.
Well, it's not even good for compost.
We'll see.
Maybe I'm being a bit negative, Peter.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, Peter.
- What are you saying? - Right, that is the top, that's the top layer.
- That's all right, isn't it? - But, look, I mean that is.
Peter, look at that.
That looks lovely.
It's good hay, it's dry hay.
I would say that proves that those mats were an absolute success.
They must have been fit as butcher's dogs, those boys.
God! That's the one.
It's not so bad after all, Peter.
"Around half past seven, having washed the floors, it was time to wash myself.
And believe me, I needed it.
" All the first jobs of the day are extremely dirty.
Hygiene was such an important issue in Edwardian Britain, It's the period of time when people are going on about the "great unwashed".
They're becoming increasingly sniffy about cleanliness of the body.
Mostly about sneering about other people's uncleanliness.
As is always the way.
The majority of adult women in Edwardian Britain probably hardly ever bathed.
I mean, just how many times could you find when you were alone in the house and you could take all your clothes off? Bathing was something for children.
And for boys, and for men.
So that water's looking pretty grey.
There it goes.
- Is that enough? - Yeah.
It's a beautiful face, once you've cut it.
All these the butts coming out, it's like a really neat thatch.
It was just bad luck that we actually started cutting in at this point.
And when I was stood on there, and I could actually hear it squelching underfoot, I thought, "Oh, my God, we've got a just an enormous pile of rotting hay.
" But this is bone-dry.
So now we've got more than enough hay to last us through to when the spring grass starts to grow.
- Haven't we? - This is a lot of hay.
I spent ages trying to work out how to do an Edwardian hairstyle, because every photograph you see, absolutely everyone, everybody has the big hair on top.
Nobody has Ruth hair, which is skinny and little, you see? That's how my hair really wants to go up in a bun.
Notice how there isn't very much of it.
So I had to think about how on earth an ordinary woman would have achieved that if she had hair like mine.
Cos not everybody has big wavy hair.
And the more I looked into it, the more adverts I found for things to help you.
More and more hair "products".
Not so much things in bottles, which, of course, is a modern approach to the problem.
More about hairpieces.
So I got somebody else's plait.
And this is real hair.
I tried it with one, still didn't work, had to use two.
Hair's just way too skinny.
It was something of a rite of passage, wearing your hair up in Edwardian England.
Girls wore it down, loose or in a sort of ponytail thing, and then in your teens you had a sort of halfway hairstyle.
Only when you really were counted pretty much as a grown-up did your hair go up.
That'll do.
Right.
Breakfast on.
Come on.
Come on, cows.
Come on, cows.
Come on, cows.
Well, this is some of the hay that came off the top of the rick, and, in fact, well, I'm hoping it's edible.
And, of course, the proof is in the pudding.
These are our calves.
There we go, fellas.
See what they make of it.
That's going down.
That's good news.
That is good news, actually.
The thing about good farming, particularly when it comes to livestock, is spending the time watching the animals, it's such a crucial thing.
It's not a case of just turning up, mucking out, feeding and walking off.
You know, each time you want to be counting, obviously, doing a head count, and also looking at condition, looking at the way they're moving.
You want to see an animal move every day, if not twice a day.
And that way, you stay on top of the livestock.
You don't get any nasty surprises, you know.
You don't come in the field and find one of them's lame or even dead.
"It's non-stop work with the animals.
We've got the sheep to tend to.
The horses to look after.
And the cattle to fatten.
Then there's the pigs.
" Morning, pigs! If we were farming pigs on a commercial basis, then pig farming is, in the Edwardian period, men's work.
But when it's just a cottage pig, just one, it falls to the lot of the woman.
Part of the routine.
"Mustn't forget the chickens.
Alex's favourite.
" Oh! If there's one thing on a frosty morning that's going to warm your hands up, it's a chicken.
Oh, yeah, get your hands in there.
That's lovely and warm, that is.
And last but not least, the geese.
We've had to be extra vigilant with the animals through the winter.
Come on, guys.
There's plenty of predators round here who would like to get their claws into them.
Got one of our geese.
And she's been got by the fox.
Just in here.
And I saw the fox the other day.
He's big.
When I say big, I mean, he's you know.
And it's been so cold.
They're so hungry, and they've just been after the poultry.
We've had a couple of chickens been got.
And now this one.
And she's not looking very well.
Geese were expensive in Edwardian Britain, and to lose one would be a real blow.
She's got a bit of fight in her.
I think she's almost too weak to feed herself.
I mean, to a certain extent the fact that she's been got by the fox means that we've failed her.
- How's Goosie? - Don't know, to be honest.
- No? - 50/50.
- 50/50? - Yeah, she's got she's got fight in her.
- Yeah? - But she doesn't seem to have mobility in her.
- Right.
- Head's drooping.
Can't really walk properly.
- Right.
- So do our best.
- Do our best.
- Keep her warm, try and feed her.
I'm thinking we should get some security guards in.
Some ganders.
I know you don't like ganders.
They'll be yapping at your heels all day as you're trying to feed them, but they'll keep the fox away, won't they? It's not my heels I'm worried about.
Anyway, the big job of the morning is mucking these calves out.
Oh, go on, then! Peter, I'm just going to poop it, this one.
I'm just going to throw this in here for you, just get all this out of here.
"Around eight o'clock it was time to start on breakfast.
I love this dish.
It's called raw tattie fry around here.
A real working man's breakfast.
Managed to find myself a nice bit of blackthorn, which has miraculously grown in the perfect shape for a human yoke.
So this is about the equivalent of three slices of bacon, for half an onion each, and the rest of the breakfast will basically be potato.
And obviously, after you've already done a couple of hours' work before breakfast, you're starving! A little light bowl of cereal is not going to cut the mustard.
Just got a few roots from the market garden, I'm just going to chop up for the calves.
- Water.
- Roots.
Think I'm just about ready for my breakfast now.
Yeah.
Look forward to it.
- Here we go.
- Ooh, lovely! One of those meals that doesn't look great on the plate, but - Smells amazing, though.
- I know, it's one of my favourite.
What were you expecting, Peter? Eggs Benedict? - This is such a wonderful meal.
- I love raw tattie fry.
Peter has had a difficult morning nursing Goosie.
- Have you? - Yes, one of our geese was got by the fox.
- What, dead? - No, no, just - Close to dead.
- Yeah.
- Severely demoralised.
- It's just been sort of a daily grind, really, just to keep the animals alive and in good health, and in good spirits, hasn't it? Yeah, well, I have to say, frankly, it's the same with the people.
I was going to say it's a daily grind keeping your own spirits going.
That's why I brought the daffs in, cheer myself up.
Oh, God, I needed this this morning! "After breakfast the farrier came to look at our two lovely shire horses, Tom and Prince.
He gives them a regular checkup every six weeks.
" And the farrier's job is basically keeping the horse's feet fit and in a fit state to work.
Farriers are specialists in caring for horse's hooves and making horseshoes.
The job has existed for centuries, but in the Edwardian period it was becoming formalised, with farriers taking exams and joining an official register.
Ian Mortimer has been a qualified farrier for 16 years.
It was a very important craft, because, unlike today, in Edwardian times, horses weren't so much kept for pleasure, they were kept specifically to work.
They were still the backbone of British motive power.
So the British economy, really, at home, was very much dependent on these.
At that time it was still very dependent on the draught horse, in particular.
So I suppose the big question here is, when are you looking to shoe and not looking to shoe? There two main reasons for shoeing.
The main one is if the horse is wearing its feet out faster than they're growing, you're going to end up with a lame horse and you absolutely have to shoe.
- Yeah.
- The other thing is grip.
Horses sometimes if, you know, on slippery ground, slightly slopey ground, they do need the extra grip that a shoe will give them.
It's basically like studs on a football boot.
It does make a difference.
Prince is the younger of the two horses.
Prince.
Nuisance.
He hasn't been pulling his weight in the field.
He's three years old, so it's the equivalent of being a teenager.
He's just sort of clumsy, bored.
Generally sort of Ow! Generally fed up with life on the farm, kind of thing.
Ian's discovered a possible reason for Prince's attitude.
This horse's letdown are his uneven, unbalanced feet.
- Right.
- See how that's been pushed across that way? You can see in there, but you have to pull it out to see there.
The whole foot is leaning that way.
So that would mean this side would split here.
And this side would has been in the past, packed with gravel.
Right.
Just cos he walked hard on the outside, doesn't take enough weight on the inside and it just flares away, so this isn't getting worn away.
Which is why you can see it's starting to lie over.
- So this is crucial, isn't it? - It is, yeah.
So if I was being sort of brutally economic in my choices of work If you had to make your living from him, you'd think: "Might have two years, then he'll go lame.
" - Right.
But is there anything I could do, if I could bring a farrier in? Let's say I've already got the horse.
Can the farrier do anything about that slight imbalance there in the foot? - Yes, you can do a little.
You can.
- Right.
But, in time, that'll still be his weak point.
But by shoeing it, you will put that off.
Right.
Just trying to get some water and also some food down her neck.
Just mix us up some feed in some water, to make a very almost like a thin goose soup.
She's had some.
You going to go for it? She certainly has enough strength to be to be sort of worth worrying about.
I suppose we'll just try and keep her warm.
Keep her in here, keep her safe.
And only time will tell.
"By mid-morning I was getting on with the main work of the day.
It's a constant round of chores just to keep the cottage going.
" Oh! I trudge down this path, what, three, four times a day.
"It's only when you don't have running water that you realise how much we take it for granted.
" And people often stress the health benefits of having piped, clean water, which, of course, is extremely important.
But there's also the amount of time and work involved.
Which you'd never know until you'd lugged it all yourself.
I've become obsessive about hot water.
If the stove's empty it ought to have pans full of water on it.
You just always need hot water, and, of course, you have to plan so far in advance.
One of the laws of nature, isn't it? There's always more washing-up.
It's got really burned on, this one.
I left it a bit long and it's caught on the stove.
Most Edwardian housewives just used a bit of sand on your cloth.
There you are.
You've made your own free, disposable, environmentally-friendly scouring pad.
In the same way I get really, really paranoid about hot water, I get just the same about dry kindling.
You really notice how much hurry at this time at this time of year.
The days are so short.
I'm rushing all the time, every job, try and get it done as fast as possible.
Cos I've got to move onto the next one.
Wooh! It's just so much more satisfying than hoovering! Oh! Once I get this dinner on, pretty much everything else is now under control.
Housework wasn't the only daily task for Edwardian women.
Across Britain, around five million Edwardian women were employed outside their homes.
But working conditions often varied with their marital status.
For a long time, in industries where married women were working, you find that there is a later start hour for married women than there is for single women.
So in the laundry industry, for example, nobody expected a married woman to be in before eight o'clock, even though unmarried women might have started at half-six.
Because a married woman had to do everything.
And everybody knew that.
Come on, you lot.
You can all get in there.
I can just leave that to simmer.
"Our Whitefaced Dartmoor sheep are expecting lambs in a few weeks, so it's vital for the boys to make sure they're in good health.
" Come on.
Handling the sheep on a regular basis, you get to know their characters.
Yeah.
You always get one or two that just stand at the back of the flock.
OK, we've only got a small flock, but they stand at the back, and they'll always position themselves at the back.
Like a sort of shy child at a wedding.
They're always hiding behind the rest of the flock, seeing what's going to happen.
They may be the wise ones, may be the clever ones, to be honest.
Then there's the ones that'll just come to the bucket.
You've only got to wave a bucket in front of them and they're all yours.
Look at that one.
This might be our problem sheep.
Look at that.
It's turned over.
Almost entirely.
The problem with these Dartmoor sheep is that their natural habitat as a breed is up on the moor, where it's also quite stony, and they would actually wear a lot of this down, but where we've got them down, and we've had them down very close to water meadows, so it really isn't the driest land in the area.
So it's up for us to step in, and I'm hoping that one's going to be all right.
That one didn't look too pretty, it has to be said.
I don't know if you want to just quickly That little waxy deposit there that's coming out, that means we've got a pregnant sheep.
Indeed.
So I think we should be confident that all of these have been serviced by old Cyril.
- Take back everything we said about him.
- Yeah.
Sorry, Cyril.
You've clearly been doing the job.
OK.
That next one out.
The cold weather, and hungry foxes, could put the lambs in danger.
So Alex is looking into an Edwardian solution.
Wattle hurdles are made from locally sourced hazel.
They keep the wind out and the lambs in.
- Hi, Ian.
- Hi, Alex.
- Nice to meet you.
- How are you doing? All right? Local hurdle maker, Ian Roper, has come along to make a batch for the farm.
- Just putting the zales in at the moment.
- Zales? Yeah, zales.
So basically that's your upright post.
OK, so we want a couple of our That's the longest rods.
They want to be about eight foot long.
- Yeah.
- At least.
Going to tie in the bottom of the hurdle here.
It's over and under, round and round.
Right, so you're not just weaving You're plaiting them as well.
Yeah.
At each end the hazel must be turned back on itself without snapping.
Again, that's very much technique more than strength.
- Brilliant.
- That's becoming like rope.
Just amazing.
This really is.
The way the wood has actually turned to a rope.
Ian's twisted it so much that the fibres have separated, making it flexible, pliable.
The wonder of wood.
All right.
So that's the bottom of the hurdle in.
The middle of the hurdle is built up with tightly-woven split rods.
That's it.
These hurdles are going to be instrumental when it comes to lambing.
And the beauty about the wattle hurdle is it keeps the wind out.
And when it comes to lambing season, especially on places like Dartmoor, it's imperative that they don't get cold, wet and then chilled by the wind.
Finally, the hurdle is held together with a single rod twisted around both ends.
- There we have it.
- And there we have it.
That's the lot.
There we go, out of the mould.
- Up on your shoulder.
- Up on the shoulder there.
Spin round.
Well, Ian, cheers.
Thank you very much.
No worries, Alex, good job.
"Around midday, I popped into the village shop.
We needed a few supplies.
" - Morning.
- Hello again, madam.
- Ooh! - How may I help you, madam? - Well, first I'll have a loaf of bread, please.
- Certainly, madam.
By the start of the 20th century, consumerism was taking hold of society.
The number of shops grew massively, from 300,000 in 1875, to over 450,000 by 1907.
An Edwardian shop is such a different place from a modern one.
For a start, I get to sit down.
You just sit nicely on a chair and they serve you, which is very pleasant, thank you very much.
- Oh, is that golden syrup? - Yes, madam.
We'll have a syrup sponge, I think.
Can I have a tin of that, please? You certainly can.
More and more and more companies were producing things in a branded package, and selling it with a great big bright logo, and a name that everybody recognised.
The same products right across the country.
- And some marmalade.
- Robertson's, madam? Yes, that would be nice.
The railway network is so completely up and running, everywhere's connected.
Food can be shipped from one part of the country overnight.
So many of these foodstuffs could have come from, well, anywhere.
They're not local at all.
There's foods here from Leicestershire, from Reading, all transported right across the face of Britain, down to Devon and Cornwall.
That's a really new idea, that food should move around like this.
And particularly, some of these things could easily have been made here.
There's no reason why the flour, for example, sitting there, couldn't be local flour.
But it's not.
And that's very much an Edwardian story.
Would you like the boy to bring this to you, madam? Yes, that would be very nice, so I don't carry it, thank you.
It wasn't just local food that was being pushed out of the high street.
Individual craftsmen, like the blacksmith and the candlemaker, were disappearing, unable to compete with new big brand names.
Among those feeling the pinch was the village shoemaker.
Until the mid-19th century, shoemakers carried out their work by hand, usually in a workshop in their own home.
They enjoyed a huge amount of freedom, deciding what hours and days they worked.
Then, in the 1850s, machines for shoe production started to appear, and many shoemakers went to work in new, large-scale factories.
It was the end of their independence.
Alex's brother, Tom, is one of the few people in Britain carrying on the tradition of making shoes by hand.
Shoemaking is often called "the gentle craft".
It's quite therapeutic, it's quite relaxing.
He's come to fix Alex's boots.
Start with an upper.
This is an old upper I've taken off.
And this is, as you can see, it's stitched together, so that this can be pulled over the last.
And a last is basically a wooden block that you pull the leather over in order to shape the shoe.
They come in a variety of sizes.
I've got some men's there, down to little children's there.
As you can see here, I've pulled the leather over the last and nailed it on so that it's tight over the top of the last.
It's taken the shape of the shoe.
Next the sole is built up in hard-wearing layers.
And then in here I will put the shank.
That can either be metal or wood.
And that will sit in here and just give the strength underneath.
Then this area here will be filled with cork.
And on top of all of this, I then place the mid-sole, and the sole itself.
By the end of the Edwardian period, specialist shoe shops selling factory-made shoes were becoming a common sight.
The final nail in the coffin is the First World War.
And during that time I think the factories of Britain made nearly 60, 70 million pairs of boots for the forces that were fighting around the Empire.
So the factories take hold and they're churning out boots.
Cheap boots that people can afford.
And this type of work becomes very expensive.
Shoemakers have to adapt, so they're becoming what's called a cobbler.
And a cobbler is somebody who mends shoes.
They don't make shoes.
Beyond the high street, Edwardian manufacturers often used travelling salesmen to get their goods deep into the countryside.
Good morning, sir.
I just wondered, can I come in and show you one or two items I've brought up from London? Sure.
OK.
Avid collector, Maurice Collins, owns over 400 historic inventions.
And then you just press down.
He's come to the farm, armed with his Edwardian wares.
- Do you have chickens, sir? - We have a lot of chickens.
I would, if I may, like to show you the very latest item that we are using for farms.
- Right.
- And I will place this right over here, sir.
Yeah.
And you will find that this will grade your eggs.
The chicken drops its egg, it rolls down.
Oh! When it gets to the appropriate weight it is then graded.
- How about that one? - Unbelievable! Well, that's certainly something Alex might be interested in.
Let me show you one or two other items.
I know you get up very early in the morning.
- Yes.
- Cold, I am sure.
You can wear this, fill it with hot water, place it around your belly.
Makes me look slightly larger than I already am! - Does it matter, sir, at five in the morning? - No, the cows don't care! This, in fact, is what they call a propeller spoon, that you would actually mix your food.
The propeller stirs it in the opposite direction, giving you double the result from half the effort.
This is a bird caller.
- Which bird is that? - To be honest, we haven't quite established.
That sounds like Alex in the morning! Let's see what else we have that might be of interest.
- Indeed.
- This, in fact, is the boot and shoe warmer.
In this instance you do not have to take your boots off.
What, one step at a time? No, that's quite something.
And finally I would like to show you the very ultimate in Edwardian technology.
It's something that perhaps is going to sweep the country and you are in at the beginning.
- This, sir, is the Teasmade.
- A teasmade? - The Teasmade? - The Teasmade.
And run, may I say, by clockwork.
This item is based upon a clockwork situation of your clock.
What you would do is set the alarm at the appropriate time that you wish to arise.
- I would imagine it's about five in the morning.
- Ten in the morning.
Ten in the morning? Five in the morning.
What would happen is, you would actually fill the night before your kettle with the water.
Right.
As soon as the time arrives, this would automatically fly across there.
The emery cloth would then strike on the match, which will light that heater.
And when the kettle is boiled, it will tilt like that into the teapot, and then this iron would flash back and cut out the burning flames.
- That is absolutely fantastic.
- You have a vast selection of items here.
Is there any one that you feel would satisfy your immediate needs? The hen's egg sorter - perfect for our chicken concern.
The boot warmer, perfect for my frozen feet.
I mean, I want all of them.
I need none of them.
But I would quite like to possibly purchase this.
- How much is this going to set me back? - Well, around about two pound.
An Edwardian labourer would probably be earning roughly around 20 shillings a week.
- So 20 shillings is, what, a pound? - Absolutely.
And this is just over two pounds.
This is over two weeks' wages.
But, sir, it's well worthwhile.
It gives you the height of fashion in terms of domestic ware.
And for you we will do it paid on the never-never.
We'll send a man round to knock on your door to collect the money.
Don't tell Alex or Ruth.
- All right, Tom? - Hello, Alex.
- How's it going? All right? - Yeah, good.
All finished.
Resoled.
New heel.
Hobs, as well.
Wow! It's like a brand-new pair of boots.
I think we agreed our price.
We did.
Have a word with Mum.
She'll sort you out your cash and "Around one o'clock we all sat down for a quick bite of lunch.
It was a chance to catch up on the day so far.
" How's the goose then, Peter? She looks as if she's starting to go on the road to recovery.
That is good news.
Can't lose a goose.
- We'll get a gander.
That's what we'll do.
- That's a good idea.
"This lunch time Alex had a surprise in store for the afternoon.
" So, you feeling fit, Peter? - Always.
- Got a little treat lined up for you.
- I hate it when he says that.
- I know! It's just - We lined you up - Mm? with a special fixture.
It's a football match.
We're playing Plymouth Argyle Legends.
A team that went professional in the Edwardian age.
OK? We're up against them.
We got nine men, I'm ten.
There's a space for you, Peter.
I think we're going to get a hiding, cos these guys were once semi-pro, but I'm counting on you, Peter.
You're behind me.
I've seen pictures of Edwardian footballers.
Does that mean you get ridiculous shorts? - I think we get the ridiculous everything.
- Excellent! Well, Alex, I mean, you and I are both men of Scottish heritage.
And what do Scotsmen drink at football matches? - Beef tea.
- Beef tea.
- I think we need to make beef tea for half-time.
- Good idea.
Peter, you're going to have to be at your very best.
Don't worry, Alex, I'll be on it.
I have read somewhere that in the Edwardian period the concept of the foul was yet to be introduced.
Yeah.
I must admit, I might actually come and watch you.
It'll be very funny! "After lunch the boys got on with jobs for the cottage, like collecting firewood.
" These are cobbles now, Princey.
Just you take it easy, boy.
And whoa! Stand there, boy.
This is all of the hedgerow wood that we cut out earlier in the year when we did the hedging.
So it's had a couple of months to season.
So all of that, hopefully, will make firelighting here down at the cottage much easier.
- Where do you want this, over there? - Yeah, same place, I reckon.
A source of energy, a source of fuel, was something, back in the Edwardian period, that was something you got yourself.
You know, it wasn't a case of just flicking on switches here and there.
It brings you that much closer, doing this, to experiencing life back then.
You know, it's hard-fought stuff, this.
It really is.
I thought I'd do us a pudding for supper.
Again, it's something I can stick on now and leave.
So it's just flour and some shredded suet.
Add some raisins.
At its simplest it's quite a stodgy, basic thing.
It's really just a dumpling, isn't it? But at its finest, a British pudding, it'll be fantastic.
I mean, what could be quicker than that? Frankly, take you longer to get the packaging off some ready meal, wouldn't it? The injured goose is feeling better.
And the team's latest purchase should make the farmyard a safer place.
- Is this him? - This is him.
I had to outbid a few old boys at the auction for him.
And there he was, on his tod.
He was the only gander there, so I had to pay a few quid for him.
She's a lucky girl.
But this boy's going to protect you now.
He wants to get involved.
He's strong! And you can see he's been a bit of a fighter, look.
And that's what we want.
The thing is, with this type of bird, is it loves a ruck.
Dogs, foxes, he'll go for them.
They'll run at them, flapping their wings.
And to be honest, most foxes will be put off.
Unless it's a big fox and he's really, really hungry, most of them will be put off.
It's too much hassle to deal with them.
A lot of farmers keep them for that purpose and that purpose alone.
- I think a lot of humans would be put off as well.
- Yeah.
- It's a lot of noise and violence.
- That's the only problem.
I have bought a very, very anti-social creature into the farmyard.
Once he gets confident, he'll be snapping at your heels, following you around, barking.
- Just like Ruth.
- Yeah! In we go.
Go on, then.
- There he goes.
- There he goes.
It's the sound of a protected farmyard.
Ooh! Off he goes! - Half-time, we're getting this down our necks.
- Beef tea.
We're going to Even if we're down at half-time, this is going to turn it round for us.
"Select one pound of nice, fleshy beef without fat.
Cut it into small pieces about the size of dice and put it in a clean saucepan with about one pint of cold water and bring it to the boiling point.
" - It's done.
- Let's have a look.
There we go.
Ready to strain? Yeah, I reckon so.
Looks green.
It does, doesn't it? It doesn't look very beefy.
It looks quite watery.
It's going to take some selling, this is.
And that is beef tea.
Got to give it a try, though.
- Tastes of beef stock.
- It does, doesn't it, actually.
That's quite a good If I had my eyes closed, and I was watching Plymouth Argyle The legends.
cold February afternoon, and I was drinking this, I'd think that was a good cup of beef extract, that.
Just slightly concerned that we've got enough maybe for a capful each.
- Shall I put another one on the boil? - Yeah, put another one on the boil.
This'll be the weaker variety.
Yeah, make it really salty, so they get really thirsty.
Second half they'll be really parched.
At which point we can come to life.
"While the boys took over the kitchen, your granddaughter, Eve, came round to see me.
" Ah, there you are, been waiting for you.
Mm! Good? "We got into the sporting mood with some callisthenics, a proper Edwardian exercise for ladies.
" OK, so, it says, "standing straight, feet turned out.
" I can do that.
Now this is a chest-expanding exercise.
Callisthenics originated in ancient Greece.
OK, so we've got nice expanded chests.
But it became popular in the late-19th century, when the middle classes began to believe it was a suitable exercise for women.
It's really odd, isn't it, how it's all the top half? - Yes.
- It's all shoulders and It is.
It's all the upper body.
They're still worried.
There's an old hangover of the ideas that women shouldn't move too much in this part of the anatomy.
There was a lot of worry about women's wombs not being fixed, but being mobile within the body.
So people are still a bit concerned about the whole idea that women really shouldn't move about too much.
You know, running around was not considered healthy for centuries.
That whole part of the body was not to be too shaken up.
So this is the beginning of that whole loosening, you know? Becoming more free.
Anyway, enough talk, more action.
- Oh! - So, one, two, three! It's not really one's idea of energetic exercise, is it? It's supposed to be energetic, is it? I feel like a monkey! - Not a proper monkey, I'm a flying monkey.
- Are we allowed Yes, a flying monkey! - There is a little bit, you know - I can't do anymore.
Yes, you can.
For goodness' sake, you wimp! - Right.
Do you want me to give you a bunk up? Saucy! Yeah, go on, then.
OK.
At the ready It's a great setting for a football match, isn't it? It's a fantastic setting.
Although football had been widely followed in the 19th century, in the Edwardian era it became the people's game, the most popular spectator sport.
The first crowd of a hundred thousand was in 1901, and the first thousand pound transfer fee was paid in 1905.
But Edwardian rules were very different from modern ones, including no offside, no substitutes, and no red or yellow cards.
Football historian David Goldblatt has come along to explain how it worked.
- Right, that's most of it.
- Clearing the pitch up, guys? I'm David.
- Hello, David.
I'm Peter.
- I'm Alex.
- Hello.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
Was there a lot of this on the pitch? There's a few more here, certainly in the penalty area.
We're trying to get that as clean as possible.
This shows you just how important and how big football was in Edwardian England, because if you played 20 years earlier, who's playing in the countryside? - Football's an urban game.
- Right.
But now, by 1908, everyone in England is playing, even out here in Devon, in the world of cows and manure - Yeah.
we're playing football.
Cos it's professional now.
So we've got formations.
But it's not like today where it's four at the back, four in the middle as the standard.
- They're playing a completely different game.
- Right.
It's two at the back, three in the middle, five at the front, five forwards, and - So very attacking, then? - It is attacking.
What we don't have is a lot of training.
There isn't a lot of training going on in between games.
- That's funny because we've - Not done any training! We've stayed true to that! Have you been drinking reasonably regularly and getting some tobacco down you as well? OK, you're in perfect condition for Edwardian professional football.
You're heads, you're tails.
Tails it is.
Offside! - Come on, Ref! - Yeah, I did take that, yeah.
No offsides! I was inoculated against all forms of sport at school, so I'm totally ignorant.
Well, I'm afraid that's what was tending to happen in Edwardian England, is that sport was not for girls.
Sport was something only boys and men played, turned you into a man.
But, thankfully, a few Edwardian women have worked out that sport is for them.
And so you've got the beginnings of a women's football culture.
- Really? - Yeah.
But the really big move is to come in about five or six years after this game is meant to have been played.
The First World War arrives, and, of course, the men are all sent off to the Front.
Women are coming and working in factories.
What do they do? The same as the men.
They create football teams.
Good gracious.
So seven or eight years after this game is played, you've got teams like Dick, Kerr's Ladies, from a munitions factory in Preston, and they're playing charity games in front of 25,000 people.
Really? Yeah, by 1921 they're playing in front of 50,000 people.
Oh, my goodness! And in fact the Football Association actually gets so worried about women entering men's domain that they say to their clubs, "If you allow women to play on your grounds, even your training grounds, you're out.
" And that's women's football over for 50 years.
That's quite shocking.
My lungs are bursting.
My lungs are absolutely bursting.
Play! Get stuck in! See what they make of our beef tea, then.
- I think we're in the lead.
What's the score? - 6-2.
6-2.
I don't think it had a lot to do with myself and Peter, though.
No.
- Bring me beef tea.
- There we are.
Try that one.
Thank you.
Mm.
Oh, the taste that revives.
How is it with the boots? It's a bit slippy, but it's this bit at the end here, I can't seem to actually control the ball, but that's always been my problem! Is that the boot, or is that? I'm not sure that's an Edwardian technological issue.
- No, I think it's the legs, actually.
- Take a rest.
You've done well, boys.
It's a good recreation, I'm impressed.
- Thanks ever so much for coming down.
- My pleasure.
"After the match it was back home, to put the animals to bed, and to have a bite of dinner.
" - How are you bearing up, Peter? - Oh, not bad.
I can still make it to the pub.
Might not make it back again.
"Then a quick drink to round off the day.
" There's been public houses for centuries.
Ale and beer is our national drink, isn't it? But for centuries they were just a house, literally a house that was open for the sale of drink.
They looked like somebody's front room, because that's what they were.
And it's only really from about the 1830s onwards that you start to find buildings specially built to be pubs.
And, of course, the early ones were particularly in the towns, and they tended to be really rather glamorous sorts of places.
If you went into an urban gin palace or pub in the mid-Victorian period, you'd expect to find it all beautifully tiled, with great big mirrors, art, and all gleaming and shiny, whereas out in the countryside it carried on being somebody's front room.
- The end of another long day.
- Mm.
I think, from all the diary extracts I've read of the period, we've really started to experience something of that daily grind during the winter months.
- Going round and round and round.
- Yeah, and you're just praying that things are going to warm up.
One thing I'm going to say is the public house is a haven from daily life.
- It is.
A bit of a refuge.
- Always has been, always will be.
Yeah.
Sort of a little moment out.
Well, look, first and foremost, cheers to the day in a life of an Edwardian farmhouse.
Yeah.
Another one down.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
"I'm off to bed now, so best finish up.
Whatever happens, the worst of the winter's behind us, and spring is definitely in the air.
The daffs are out.
And it'll be lambing time soon.
Then we'll be busier than ever.
Take care of yourself.
Lots of love, Ruth.
You'll never guess what Peter bought.
" You up yet? And I've got a Teasmade to pay for.