(Cock crows)
Here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time,
lost in Victorian rural England.
Now a unique project will bring it back to life, as it would have been in the 1 880s.
- Such an amazing piece of kit. - That is just tremendous.
Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn
are taking up the challenge of living as Victorian farmers for a full calendar year.
From the depths of winter to the warmth of summer.
They'll wear the clothes, eat the food
and experience the day-to-day life of rural Victorians.
They'll rear Victorian breeds of animals.
They're an unruly bunch, they really are.
That's the first lamb you've delivered?
Hello, sweeties.
They'll grow crops.
Fingers crossed l'll get it right and won't look like too much of an idiot.
And get to grips with the crafts and skills of the age.
This was a time of agricultural revolution in Britain,
but the industrialisation of farming would wipe out centuries of traditional skills.
Where are you, Alex? Good grief, young man!
Thankfully there are a select few who still keep them alive.
This will encourage the tree to fall in the direction we want it to go in.
That's the theory!
With their help, the team are about to turn back the clock to rediscover a lost world.
But first, before winter sets in, they must restore their dilapidated farm cottage.
- l've never used anything like this. - You're one excited lady. l love it.
Sow crops using only horsepower
whilst dealing with the perennial problem of the British weather.
Unfortunately it's not working out for us today.
The problem is it's just so wet.
And take charge of livestock, learning shepherding skills the hard way.
What a nightmare. This doesn't bode well for the year.
They'll be getting to grips with every aspect of life on the Victorian farm.
lt's the 1 st of September.
Ruth, Alex and Peter arrive at their Victorian farm.
- This is the way to travel, isn't it? - l know! lt's fantastic.
Ruth Goodman specialises in domestic history.
She'll run the cottage, and be responsible for the dairy and poultry.
The Victorian period is a really interesting moment in history.
lt's a time of the most enormous social change.
There's new ways of feeding ourselves, clothing ourselves,
new ways of housing ourselves, new ways of transporting ourselves.
We all base our modern living on
the things that came out of this great turmoil and experimentation.
- What's in this one? - Mostly cook gear.
Utensils.
Archaeologist Alex Langlands will be responsible for growing crops
and rearing the animals.
lt's about getting up first thing in the morning and coming in when the sun goes down.
lt's about spending the time outside, eating fresh ingredients, growing your own ingredients.
l mean, it really is about going back to a way of life
that l think many people today would love the opportunity to do.
Peter Ginn, also an archaeologist,
is keen to get to grips with the steam and horse-powered technology of the era.
We all know about the big events in history.
l want to know about the day-to-day living within that context.
There are massive changes in industry and also there are massive changes in agriculture.
Cos it's such a moment of change, you've got the old and new sitting alongside each other.
You've got ancient crafts that are almost unchanged for a millennia
sitting right alongside a time of mass production.
Their farm is on the Acton Scott estate,
which stretches across 1,500 acres of Shropshire countryside.
lt's been home to Thomas Stackhouse Acton's family since 1 255.
Mr Acton is a Victorian farming enthusiast
and has spent his life collecting old agricultural tools and machinery.
His son Rupert manages the estate
and will be their land agent for the year ahead.
Goodness. (Laughs)
- You look a bit daunted. - Yeah.
You ring the bell.
First stop for the farmers is Acton Scott Hall.
(Bell clangs)
- Ah, hello. - Hello.
Nice to meet you.
- How are you? - Very good indeed.
- Hi, l'm Peter. - Nice to meet you.
- This is Ruth. - Hello.
- l'm Alex. - Excellent.
- Hello. - This is little Florence.
- Hello, Florence. - Little Florence Acton.
She's rather shy.
ln the Victorian age, this was a busy working farm with 1 5 acres of land.
lt was abandoned 50 years ago, but little has changed here for a century.
- lt's quite a sight, isn't it? - l'm afraid so.
This is the cowshed.
Wow, look at that.
- Stunning. - All the stalls.
These barns will be home to their cows, horse and pigs.
- Needs a bit of a clean. - lt is going to need a bit of a clean, isn't it?
Home to hundreds of spiders.
Although abandoned long ago, amazingly, the Victorian water pump still works.
l spent many happy hours here as a child, pumping water for the cattle.
lt's seen better days.
Above the cowshed is the tool loft.
Untouched for decades.
Be very very careful.
There's a good range of tools.
- Fantastic. - Look!
This one is a castrating knife.
Lovely.
That's definitely a boy job.
You know it's a milking stool. No other stool is that high.
- lt's absolutely perfect. - Or has three legs.
Exactly.
There's some horse medication up here as well.
- You've thought of everything. - lt's not still in there?
There we are.
The bottle's still sealed.
''The one minute cure.''
''For gripes or fret in horses.''
My gosh. lt's still sealed. Oh, flipping 'eck.
Wow.
There's so much here, so much to take in.
RUTH: This place is amazing.
lt's almost like it was left yesterday.
Yeah. Well, a long, slightly rusty yesterday.
A time capsule that we've just uncovered, with everything here.
We've just got to get it back in shape.
Make it easier to get to the door.
The team will not just be farming, but also living, cooking and eating like rural Victorians.
Rupert has found them a small farm worker's cottage,
uninhabited since the 1 950s.
l believe one of these keys fits this door, but l'm not quite sure which one it is.
You feel like you've got a key when you've got a key like that, don't you?
Oh, there we go.
Ah, there we are.
- Go on. - Oh, wow.
Fantastic.
ln need of a bit of work, l'm afraid.
This can't have been lived in for quite a while.
lt hasn't been lived in for 50 years. Yes.
At the heart of the Victorian cottage is the coal range.
This was the way most people cooked until the 1 920s,
when gas and electricity began to replace coal.
lt's not only essential for cooking but provides hot water and heats the house.
But this range is in a sorry state.
We're going to have to get this sorted absolutely first thing.
We're not going to be able to do anything until we've got a decent range.
The rest we can live without, but we can't live without the range.
l'm worried about cooking on a coal range.
l've never done it before.
That's going to be quite an important thing for me.
lf l can't crack it, we're going to eat horrible food all year, which is not very nice.
So, shall l show you upstairs?
Show you where you'll be billeted.
Although dilapidated, the cottage is structurally sound.
lt's not too bad up here.
- l think it's pretty good. - He says.
Get shot of the dead birds from the windowsill.
Right, that's it. l'm moving in. As soon as possible.
Guiding the farmers through the year ahead is the celebrated Book Of The Farm
by Henry Stephens, first published in 1 844.
This kind of book is absolutely priceless.
lt gives you a breakdown of everything you'd need to do throughout the year.
lt also gives you the science behind it as well, types of breeds.
There's absolutely everything here.
What is most interesting about these publications
is their mixture of the old and the new.
lt often refers to ancient ways of doing things,
but without quite knowing the exact science behind it.
This was the bible for farmers coming to terms with the industrialisation of farming
in the 1 9th century.
lt's also got some of the cutting-edge technology of the time.
l'm just looking at this ploughing with a steam engine,
with huge cumbersome steam engines.
But it seemed to be and it says here, absolute cutting-edge technology.
Turning this theory into practice will be an enormous challenge.
One of the tasks that l've been entrusted with throughout the project
is going to be managing our arable concern.
lt's really a part of the project where l just can't afford to fail.
And of course for farmers back in the late 1 9th century, it's not an option.
l'm really anxious about it, but at the same time, really excited.
The farm has three acres of arable land.
On some of it they hope to grow a cereal crop, like wheat or barley.
At the moment, the field's covered in grass,
so first it must be ploughed to return it to bare earth.
Guiding Alex is Britain's most award-winning ploughman, Jim Elliott.
- Hi, Jim. - Hiya.
- Who are these lovely fellas? - This is Lion. He's an eight-year-old shire.
And this is Prince. He's a 1 3-year-old lrish draught.
- They work well together, then? - Yeah, they do.
What do you think of the field, Jim?
lt looks fine. Quite a bit of grass on
but we should be able to plough it down and put a bit of fertility into the soil.
- As long as there's no big stones. - l'm glad you're confident.
Gee back, Prince. Gee back.
Whoa, whoa. Slowly, now.
ALEX: This is your money-maker.
This is important, especially for a farm of our size.
You've really got to turn out a good cereal crop.
That's where you're going to get your cash.
During the 1 9th century, the population of Britain grew from 1 0 million to 40 million.
To feed the masses, agriculture had to undergo a revolution...
by industrialising.
Simple wooden ploughs used for centuries were superseded by high-tech iron machines.
Leading the market were Ransomes of lpswich.
ln the 1 840s, they came up with this - the Yorkshire Light.
So great was the design, it was still being manufactured a century later.
Walk on.
Fantastic bit of kit, this. lt's a Ransomes plough. This is one of these mass-produced ploughs.
What you have in the earlier period, the earlier 1 9th century,
is you've still got your wooden ploughs made in local workshops.
But with Ransomes...mass-produced and they're being sent out all over the country.
You'd be using one of these north of Scotland all the way down to the south of England.
These high-tech ploughs revolutionised arable farming.
The earth was ploughed to a consistent depth,
improving the quality of the land and increasing the crop yield.
ln much the same way that you see a modern tractor,
with all sorts of gadgets on it -
hydraulics, levers - it's very much the same here.
Having to adjust everything just by small fractions of inches.
At the cottage, Ruth and Peter are beginning the restoration.
Let's get rid of these birds first, shall we?
Put them in there.
The first job is to clean the bedroom.
lt's in a pretty neglected state, this room.
The walls... The plaster's there, mostly.
lf we just start at the top and take it as thoroughly as we can down.
This has been 50 years of dust, 50 years of spiders,
50 years of an insect and animal paradise.
Yeah, it's absolutely filthy.
This is a much bigger job than l thought initially.
As they remove half a century of dust, the state of the plaster becomes clear.
The plaster's not as good as l thought it was. lt's going to take quite a bit of...
lf it needs to come off, it needs to come off.
The more we look, the more we find we have to do.
Downstairs in the kitchen, there's an even more pressing issue.
The range.
So this is Henry Cottage.
And this is our range.
l don't know what you think about it.
Peter's called on Paul Arrowsmith, an expert in Victorian building.
lt could be repaired but...
- lt's a big job. - Not worth it.
lt's a very small opening. Do you need to do much cooking?
- We need to do a fair bit of cooking, yes. - Oh, right.
l'm not sure if this is actually the original fireplace.
We've obviously got this here.
On the adjacent wall is evidence of a fireplace bricked up long ago.
Only the wooden lintel is visible.
lt's a lot bigger area, so l'm sure it goes back further so you can get a much bigger range in.
The only way to find out is actually to get rid of some of the stuff.
The old range will be discarded and a new bigger range installed here.
Peter is hoping that beyond the rubble, the chimney will still be intact.
Henry Cottage hasn't been used for 50 years.
And, moreover, this is a bricked-up chimney.
So this is all rubble that has been used to fill up this fireplace when it was abandoned
and they moved across to there.
We've got fresh air now.
To burn, the range draws air from the room out through the chimney.
But if the chimney's blocked, the air won't flow, so the coal won't burn.
When they blocked this chimney up, they capped it with stone,
so that we can still use the fireplace in the bedroom above.
At the moment, that stone is lingering precariously up that chimney.
They're trying to force it down so it doesn't fall on us while we're working.
Upstairs in the bedroom, Paul's attempting to shift the offending stone.
lt's coming! More of that, please. More of that. Looks good.
Give it a thrash.
OK.
Once the rubble's cleared, the chimney's revealed in all its glory.
You can see the shape tapering as it goes up... to draw the smoke up.
We've had a shoe come out of here,
and a salt hole here.
These houses would have been damp.
This is one of the few places you could keep your salt dry.
So it would still be granulated.
We're going to sweep the chimney with these drainage rods.
As you can see, this is just the beginning.
l think there's going to be tons and tons of debris coming down.
We've got all the birds nests out of there and you can see daylight.
We're just waiting for the range now.
ln the fields, Alex's early optimism's turned to gloom.
What we're finding up this end of the field
is that we've got a lot of boulders here, a lot of stones.
What's happening is the share is hitting these stones and it's kicking the plough out.
lf it was a bit wetter, it could just roll it over.
- The ground is just quite dry. - Right.
We have had rain overnight but l don't know if it's gone in.
But it's been dry for two months almost.
That's going to create real problems, is it?
The furrow won't want to roll off smoothly.
lt'll want to break in lumps.
That might be our worst concern but we'll have to give it a try.
- l'm slowly losing confidence here, Jim. - There's no need to.
All the many problems you're pointing out.
Go on.
(Whistles)
Alex is coming to terms with the challenges that faced the Victorian farmer.
Failure of a wheat crop back in the Victorian period would spell disaster for any farmer.
lt really would be a case of going from struggling to get by to being broke, essentially.
You might even find yourself and your family in the workhouse.
l've got to have a go myself.
Obviously a farmer of my stature would know how to plough back in the late 1 9th century.
So l'm a bit anxious here because if l cock this up,
then Jim's got a lot of work to do to rectify it.
What l want you to do is keep the furrow wheel up against this edge here.
Walk on.
Good boy.
Keep the land wheel on the ground.
You can put a little bit of pressure on the right-hand handle.
That helps turn the furrow better.
As long as this wheel doesn't come off the ground. You'll lose your depth.
- How's it doing, Jim? - You're doing fine.
- Do say. - l'll soon tell you if you're not.
l daren't look at my handiwork.
- lt's fine. - We'll catch it on the way round.
- lt's mesmerising, watching it turn over. - Steady now.
Good boy.
Victorian farmers ploughed an acre a day,
walking 1 1 miles from dawn till dusk.
But the work is backbreaking.
After a couple of hours, Alex is exhausted.
You're doing well.
A little bit more.
Thank you.
And the dry stony ground is adding to his woes.
- Whoa, whoa. - lt's totally ridden out there.
Press on to the right.
This is doing my back, this really is.
My father used to say that hard work never killed anyone,
but it made them into great queer shapes.
(Laughs)
l suppose a lifetime of ploughing like that, and out in all weathers as well.
At the cottage, the chimney's clear
and two flues have been built, ready for the range to be fitted.
Peter Parker and Steve Powell are Victorian range experts,
and have restored a 1 00-year-old model.
We're just sizing up the oven to make sure that it actually fits within the opening
that's been made for it.
But there's a snag.
The flues have already been put in.
They're too far forward,
which means that the oven is protruding in front of the brickwork,
which is going to make it a bit of a problem.
While adjustments are made to the flues,
Peter and Ruth set out to forage for fruit on the Acton Scott estate.
- This is real hunter-gatherer stuff, isn't it? - Absolutely.
This has been a staple of peoples throughout the ages. Thousands of years.
lt's probably why it makes you feel so good.
l always feel happy doing something like this.
lt always lifts my spirits.
- lf you think of the toil that's put into the fields... - This is like a bonus, a blessing.
A luxury in life.
What are your plans for the sloes?
Mostly gin.
Good to hear.
Ooh.
l think we've got damsons here.
This bounty of free fruit will only last days unless it's preserved.
Ajob that requires a kitchen and a range.
After a few alterations to the flues, the range is fitted and ready to be blacked.
We're putting graphite onto the cast iron to help protect it from rusting
and it gives it a nice sheen.
Usually the housewives would do this.
The young ladies of the house.
l'm saying that because we don't want to get pressurised into doing this at home, do we?
No. True.
Ruth's keen to try out the range as soon as possible,
but first she needs some fuel.
Ruth and Peter head to the nearby Shropshire Union canal
to collect a cartload of coal.
Building Britain's canals was one of the biggest engineering projects
the country has ever seen.
By the 1 850s, over 4,000 miles of waterways had been dug,
transporting 30 million tons of freight a year.
This Shropshire narrow boat, Saturn, was restored by Tony Lewery
and a group of enthusiasts, and is the last of its kind.
Whoa.
- Wow, what a boat. - Beautiful boat.
- The best. Just the best. - We've come to pick up some coal from you.
- Very good. - What sort is it?
The boat is a Shropshire Union boat, built as a flyboat.
Flyboat?
Flyboat - non-stop boat, going day and night, changing the horses along the way.
These boats were the creme de la creme, really.
They were built smaller, slimmer and they went very well indeed.
lt's a very graceful boat.
- Do you want a hand with the coal? - l certainly do.
How many tons do you want?
We've just had a range fitted in our cottage.
- You'll need most of this for the winter. - We'll need a fair bit.
This stuff changed the entire world, didn't it?
lt did. And the canals helped it, really.
Because until the canals came along,
travelling coal in bulk for long distances was impossibly expensive.
As soon as the canals came, suddenly you could deliver 20 ton at a time,
with relative ease, and everything burgeoned, then.
lndustry, steam engines.
We're used to the idea of coal changing industry,
but it changes farming, it changes food, it changes laundry,
it changes the way you breathe in your house, it changes everything.
Canals were one of the principal communication networks of Britain
in the lndustrial Revolution
but also enabled farmers to move produce across Britain.
Essentially it linked farms, so it allowed them to specialise.
That's a really good point, isn't it?
Being able to choose which is the most commercially viable -
is it better to be growing grain, or better to grow dairy?
Whether you've got a canal or a railway in your area will be one of the factors
that makes you make that decision, isn't it?
lt's the industrialisation of farming, in a sense.
Transportation opened up wider markets for farmers,
enabling them to specialise in one product, like dairy, crops or meat.
For the first time, it created a national food economy.
lt's late September.
The ploughing has taken Alex twice as long as he hoped,
but finally the job's done.
Next he must decide what crop to sow.
ln the cottage, Peter's stripped the walls back to bare stone.
Now he must learn how to plaster.
And Ruth's about to light the range for the first time,
under the guidance of range fitters Peter and Steve.
- Exciting. - Good. l'm glad you are.
Are you going to show me what you've been up to?
We've got it all covered up for you to give you a surprise.
Let's hope you like it.
(Gasps)
- Oh, wow. - What do you think about that?
You'd swear it had come straight from the factory. Wow.
Let's hope it's going to work.
Do some nice cooking on it.
Oh, dear. l've never used anything like this.
- One excited lady. l love it. - l am.
l love to see it.
l'm terrified something's going to go wrong and l'm going to be an idiot.
- No, l don't think you will be. - Well, we'll see.
Ruth's collected kindling and wood to get the coal going.
Now l'm getting excited.
And a little bit worried as to whether it'll work first time.
Here we go.
See if it'll...
- Those flues are obviously working. - They are, aren't they?
Oh, yes! That's a bit more like it.
- Are you happy with that? - (Laughs)
That looks good, doesn't it?
l am a pyromaniac.
Mm. This fire's lovely and hot now and the kettle's nearly boiling.
Cooking on coal is so different.
lt's not something that l've done before.
And l know that it has the most enormous impact on what you can cook.
Wood smoke tastes nice.
Coal smoke, however, tastes foul.
lt's sort of acidy and sulphurous.
ln the old way of cooking on wood, you'd be encouraging smoke round your open food,
but on coal you want to stop that, you want no smoke whatsoever.
You're trying to make sure you've got as much separation between food and fuel.
Coal revolutionised cooking,
and recipe books were rewritten for the new fuel.
Roasting on a spit went out and oven-roasting came in.
l don't know that l'm going to get it right for quite a while.
lt's going to take me half the year to practise. Maybe by the end of the year l'll be quite good.
(Whistles)
Coal also revolutionised farming.
And nothing symbolises the agricultural revolution more than this -
the threshing machine.
ln the Victorian age, these steam-powered machines moved from farm to farm,
threshing wheat, removing the valuable grain from the plant.
l'm just looking at our bible, The Book Of The Farm.
Once again Henry Stephens is quick to inform us about what we should be doing here.
As the incoming tenants, there'd be jobs we'd have to do.
And one of these is to get involved with the threshing.
lt says here: Not infrequently, the incoming tenant undertakes for the outgoing
the threshing and delivering of the crop to market on payment for the trouble.
Hopefully we'll earn a few quid today.
Alex and Peter have joined a local threshing team.
Tom Henderson operates the steam traction engine.
lt should start to build up steam in about three quarters of an hour.
We should see the gauge move.
When we get over 1 00lb, we've got enough to start threshing.
(Hissing)
(Steam whistle)
This new mechanised threshing ended centuries of rural tradition.
Until the 1 830s, the job of separating the grain from the stalks by hand
employed thousands of unskilled men throughout the winter.
l've got here a head of wheat.
lt's only really with some force that l can release the wheat from the husk.
When you think about this job, it's timeless, essentially,
since the first harvests of wheat,
to separate the grain from the rest of the plant.
These machines reduced threshing time from months to just days.
Now a few men could do the work of thousands.
The unemployed were furious. Farms were attacked and machines smashed.
But by the 1 880s, the threshing machine was a generally accepted part of country life.
The threshing machine...is an absolute beast...
..that needs feeding...
so l'm just pitchforking up these sheaves...
and they're being put inside.
lt's reasonably light work, l suppose.
l'm just getting to grips with this pitchfork.
l've been told l look quite amateurish when l do it.
For those lucky enough to get work threshing, there were other advantages.
We're cooking eggs and bacon.
l've just got the fat hot on the shovel.
Next job now is to put some bacon on.
Excuse my clean hand, but it does add to the flavour.
There we go. That's rasher number two.
We usually get three on.
Ah, this is ideal.
Could be non-stick, this.
Nonstick, Teflon shovel. There we are.
There you go. That's how you cook egg and bacon.
(Whistle toots)
Lunch break over, it's time to finish the threshing.
lt's the end of the rick now.
lt's quite precarious because l'm just standing on metal struts,
with my hobnail boots on. lt's a bit slippy.
l feel my legs buckling.
With the threshing done, the grain is weighed.
What's the news, Mike? Have we done well?
Very well, yes. About two-and-a-half hundredweight for the day's threshing,
which is about 1 25kg.
- Right, OK. - So very successful.
Most of the grain would have been sold to make flour.
Some would have been kept to resow back in the ground for next year's crop.
- Do the honours? - Yep.
- You all right with that? - Yep.
You sure?
Yes. (Laughs)
Victorian varieties of wheat are very different to modern breeds.
Today we've bred the species so that much of the goodness that goes into the straw
actually goes into the head.
And wheat today is very, very short. A couple of foot off the ground.
This would grow to about four or five foot off the ground.
So, hopefully, in August, we'll have a crop we can just barely see over.
Before the wheat is sown, the clods of ploughed earth must be broken up -
by harrowing.
This is the first time l've actually ever driven horses myself,
so it's absolutely thrilling.
This is great fun.
Now l'm going to bring them round.
This is the difficult bit.
Good boys.
You know, really, l mean, they're doing the stuff.
At the cottage, Peter's ready to start plastering.
He's read in a Victorian manual
that the old lime plaster removed from the walls can be recycled.
l'm just using this to... pulverise the plaster into dust.
l've done about a day of this.
lt's quite a laborious process.
lt's quite hard on the upper body.
But at night, it's the wrists. l think it's the jarring motion.
lt's great to be reusing materials like this.
But it's also very labour-intensive.
Sand and water are added... to make fresh lime plaster.
This is actually incredibly tough.
The consistency we're looking for is quite sloppy.
Again, it's the old adage...
a bit like porridge.
Pretty much all the materials used on this farm are a bit like porridge.
There's one other essential ingredient.
Horse hair.
l'm just going to put this in...
and it should help the plaster bond when it's on the wall.
Stop it falling off.
Hopefully.
lt's really good...to experiment with all these old techniques, but...
..God, they're difficult. (Chuckles)
And they do take time.
ln the field, Alex must decide how densely to sow the wheat.
Too dense and the shoots will compete with each other and die.
Too sparse and the birds will eat it all.
Alex is taking guidance from a highly scientific source -
an age-old poem.
lt goes: One for the rook, one for the crow, one to let rot, one to let grow.
So, according to that little poem there,
we should be anticipating losing some three quarters of what we're sowing today.
Alex has called in local farmer Brian Davies and his daughter Sharon, to help.
To sow the wheat, they're using a seed drill.
lt's a real concern because...really, you wouldn't normally do this job in the rain.
We're hoping this is just a shower and it's going to pass,
but it's looking fairly ominous.
Traditionally, seed was sown by hand - broadcast.
The problem with broadcast sowing is that the grain lands on the ground
and it hits the ground at different heights and then when you harrow it over,
because the seed's at different heights within the seed bed,
it'll grow at different times, it'll be uneven, it'll mature at different periods.
The seed drill, invented in 1 701 by Jethro Tull,
was a major leap forward in the industrialisation of farming.
This was the moment when farming became scientific.
Brian has brought along a design from the 1 880s,
the pinnacle of Victorian technology.
The wheat in the hopper at the top drops down the bottom into a little trough...
..and the revolving cups there,
those discs with the cups on,
you can just see them picking the wheat up
and dropping them into the little yellow containers
which then funnel them down into these tubes,
so that they drop out of the drill.
So the seeds are all planted at the optimum depth,
increasing the chances of germination.
Gee up.
But with just two rows sown,
Alex's worst fears about the weather are realised.
Unfortunately, it's not working out for us today.
The problem is it's just so wet.
lt's so damp, the silt gets so heavy that it's a nightmare for the horses to pull.
lt's a nightmare, really, because it looks like we won't get it done today
and if this weather's set in for a couple more days,
we're going to really struggle to get the grain in the ground.
Do you want to park it up under the trees, then?
At the cottage, Peter and stonemason Paul are preparing to plaster the kitchen.
So we've each got a churn brush and we're just going to brush it down.
Yet another dusty job on the farm.
After that, we're going to get our stirrup pump and moisten it,
which will help the plaster adhere to the wall.
This is our stirrup pump that we found in the tool shed.
lt's pretty old.
Paul and l have taken it apart and we've tried to fix the seals
because originally more water would come up in your face
than would come out of the nozzle.
But l'm surprisingly dry and it's working very well,
so l think we've succeeded.
There's a remarkable improvement in the air quality in here.
lt's time to apply Peter's recycled plaster.
What you have to do...is work it into the wall.
A nice layer on,
cos once it's on the wall, we can spread it out.
Really makes your forearms ache, doesn't it?
- lt does. - You're doing very well.
(Chuckles) You're a good liar, Paul.
l'm learning an awful lot.
l'm also learning that the processes take a lot of time.
You can't hurry lime plaster.
And we've got a number of coats to put on here.
And Ruth's just got a range and she's quite keen to have a meal.
l don't think we're going to be finished in time.
lt's mid-October.
After a week of rain, the sun has returned,
so Alex is back out with the seed drill, planting the rest of the crop.
So far, so good.
You know, this is really turning out brilliantly.
Two days ago, it was absolutely bucketing down and now it's...
now it's really dried off, really crumbly surface.
We've got good distribution. Took us a couple of rows to get it right.
But it's all part of... lt's looking really, really good.
lt's the last thing we need to do in here.
l don't think we'll have to come in in spring and do any hoeing.
lt's a job done. lt's a relief, really.
Because...it's the first thing to do in the agricultural year
and it's one of the most important things.
Hopefully, now, we'll get a good year. We'll leave it to the weather.
We'll be back here in August to harvest the crop.
Only then will we know just how successful things have gone.
ln the cottage, the sunny weather's helped the slow-drying Victorian plaster to dry.
After removing half a century of grime, replastering and repainting,
it's returned to its Victorian glory -
complete with a Victorian brass bed lent by the Actons.
- l'm afraid it's still rather a building site. - Mm, l can see.
The cottage will mainly be Ruth's domain, so she's taking advice.
Dr Nicola Verdon is an expert on the role of the Victorian farmer's wife.
lf you read the farming manuals, which were written by men -
for example Henry Stephens' Book Of The Farm,
which was a very popular 1 9th-century manual and went through several editions -
they don't mention the cleaning of the farmhouse as a task.
They talk about the dairy and the poultry and the food processing and so on,
but the cleaning and the laundry work and so on,
which were big tasks and would have taken up a large amount of time,
- these aren't mentioned. - Just magically happen, do they?
(Both laugh)
Nicola helps Ruth tackle a much-feared Victorian pest - the bedbug -
using turpentine and salt.
l always used to think that bedbugs were like dust mites,
that lived in mattresses, but they're not.
They're nasty.
They get everywhere.
They live in any little tiny crack or space...
and lie dormant for months on end.
Then as soon as carbon dioxide - so, your breath -
as soon as you're breathing, that reactivates them
and they come out and get you and suck pints of blood...
over a couple of months.
Which sounds really unpleasant.
Tackling bedbugs was a twice-yearly job.
Others were daily.
This would have been one of her first tasks of the day, cleaning the bedrooms,
making the beds and so on.
Alongside the milking of the cow and feeding the pigs
and the hens and any other small animals that are in the farmyard.
And making the breakfast, obviously,
and making sure the men are all fed and watered.
- Emptying the chamber pots. - Absolutely.
Working all day, basically.
Very, very little leisure time indeed.
lt's late October.
ln a few days, the animals arrive and caring for them will be a full-time job.
By now Peter hoped to have completed the cottage,
but there's still an awful lot to be done.
Ruth can't wait to use the range,
so she's braving the building site with Nicola
to preserve the foraged fruit.
NlCOLA: What we're doing now in the kitchen was one of the main roles of a farmer's wife.
RUTH: Yes. That preservation of foodstuffs.
The food processing, the preserving, of seasonal food.
This really kept the farm - and the family and the workforce - ticking over.
So it was very important that a farmer married a woman who was a good cook.
Look how much fruit we gathered.
(Laughs) We just got loads and loads and loads of it.
They're using foraged damsons and crab apples
to make an lndian version of pickle...
chutney.
l suppose we shouldn't be surprised that so much lndian food comes into English cookery.
- After all, there we were, over there... - Height of the Empire.
Height of the Empire.
First the fruit is slowly cooked,
then a mixture of ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper and cloves are added.
Where are these recipes from?
These particular ones are from Eliza Acton's recipe book.
But you can find similar ones in almost every recipe book of the period.
- These were cheap enough for... - Everybody was making lndian.
..most farmers' wives to have been able to afford.
- Yeah. - At least one or two.
They seem to have been deeply common and you could buy them pre-prepared.
Peter and Alex also make the most of the autumn crop of fruit,
under the watchful eye of the estate owner, Thomas Stackhouse Acton.
Still a few left on the trees.
Every year, he makes cider using apples from the orchards.
There's quite a few on the ground.
- These are cider apples, aren't they? - Yes, these will do.
- All of these ones, yes? - Yes.
- lt doesn't matter about these blemishes? - No, it doesn't matter.
- No ones which have gone black. - Right.
Like that one?
That one we don't want. No.
That one looks a bit past it, even to the untrained eye, Peter.
And avoid putting leaves in.
Right. OK.
With the windfall apples collected, Mr Acton springs into action.
This is a panking pole
and we use it to shake the apples off.
Mind your heads.
One on my back.
(Laughs)
Quite blessed. l see why you're wearing a hard hat now.
Yes. lt's standard gear, mate.
The chutney's been simmering for three hours,
so the stewed damsons and crab apples are infused with the spices.
Like all chutneys, this improves with keeping.
You can eat it straightaway but it tastes much better after about three months.
You sort of lose that vinegary edge, don't you?
This will be really tasty right in the heart of winter.
Yeah.
l'm sorting out the sealing of the jars,
which we're going to do with the bladders of pigs.
(Laughs)
These are particularly good because they're so stretchy...
..and watertight.
l should get several lids out of each one.
l don't think l've ever actually stretched a pig's bladder before.
- First time for everything. - Well, yeah.
Let's see. lf l stretch that over...
Certainly, as it dries, it will shrink...
and then we'll get a really tight seal on it.
lt's not as bad to touch...
- (Laughs) - lt's a bit slimy.
A little bit, but it's only like wet rubber would be.
Ruth and Nicola are making another lndian-inspired recipe - piccalilli.
So this is the vinegar and the spices.
Ruth stocks the larder with the preserves and pickles, ready for winter.
As well as chutneys, she's also made tomato ketchup,
another popular Victorian relish.
l'm going to let the piccalilli, which was in this one here,
cool down before l put the lids on them.
Actually, l'm relieved to have managed to get some of this pickling and preserving done.
Without the range, l couldn't do anything.
l'd been watching all the fruits in the hedgerows beginning to go over,
thinking, ''Aarghh, l've got to move soon or we'll have nothing in here.''
So it is a relief.
All right, let's have these apples on the pier.
OK. Over it goes.
The fruits gathered from the orchard will be crushed
using a Victorian cider mill.
- Just that bag and that'll be enough, l think. - Right. OK.
- That's enough to be starting with. - OK.
Now it's a case of getting the horse to do all the hard work.
- How long have you been doing this? - We've been doing this for about 25 years.
Right. Have you ever had a really good vintage year?
Well, we haven't made a note of it.
We just keep drinking it steadily.
What consistency are we looking for here?
- Erm, the consistency of porridge. - Right.
The boys are being helped by local farmer Merle Wilson.
Peter's taken Mr Acton's usual job, steadying the millstone.
But things aren't running smoothly.
Ooh.
You're getting a bit of a build-up in here.
Yeah.
- Every time the stone has one rotation... - Yeah.
- ..it settles. - Right.
lf it's got good momentum and there's not too many apples, it will just carry on.
Mr Acton, you were saying that this stone might have been used for sharpening.
Probably. That's why it's got a flat on it.
- lt's got a slightly flat edge. - Yes.
You wouldn't think a stone wheel could have a flat, but...
l think that's what's creating most of the problems.
He seems to be making a harder job of it than you, Mr Acton.
- Well, he hasn't had so many years at it. - He has a lot to learn.
ln the cottage, Ruth's ready to cook her first meal on the range.
l've got a leg of mutton here.
You can see by the size of it, it is not a leg of lamb, it is a leg of mutton.
lt makes so much more economic sense to eat adult sheep,
after you've had eight years of cropping them for their wool.
And mutton was ever such... a popular, traditional and common dish
for the middle classes.
Sometimes they were called ''mutton-eaters''
as a sort of definition of people who were doing OK, but not great.
l'm going to take the bone out and boil it like that.
l think that's done it.
Yes!
Ha-ha.
Right.
lf l roll that up...
Oh, that doesn't look too bad.
Tie it up neat.
l'm just going to pop him in.
(Bubbling)
The pulverised apples are ready to be squeezed forjuice...
using a cider press.
- Winding things up again, Peter? - Not as much as you, Alex.
Here's your first load of apples.
l don't know about you, Merle, but my hands are utterly freezing...
from these apples.
Thank you very much.
The pulp is loaded onto mats known as hairs.
This cider that we hopefully make is going to be kept
and be used for our hay harvest as a means of giving to our workers, our labourers.
Quite often, the quality of your cider
would be something that would attract labourers to your farm to do the work.
And the farmer would also keep back a batch for himself
and he'd probably have some rotten stuff for people he didn't like.
Like Alex.
The bucket's gonna end up on your head.
The stack of hairs, known as a cheese,
is put under immense pressure
to squeeze every last drop of apple juice from them.
We're just bringing the beam down to press it.
- Great stuff. - Just compressing the cheese.
And we're getting all the juice out, all the apple juice.
ALEX: lt's such a lovely colour as well, isn't it?
Keep it going.
lt's getting really hard now.
MERLE: A lot of juice coming out. ALEX: Pleased?
Very pleased. We've pressed this as much as we can now.
lt won't go any further.
The juice is stored in casks, where it'll be left for the next few months to ferment.
PETER: lt should start fermenting in...
..five days.
We have to top it up regularly, sort of every day,
otherwise the air gets in and you get impurities in.
We need to top it up with pond water or stream water.
Basically, water that hasn't come in contact with metals.
The last job of autumn's done.
Just in time to greet the arrival of the first animals...
.. 1 0 Shropshire ewes.
Bred in the 1 840s from local wild sheep, they're famed for their excellent meat and wool.
But the boys'shepherding skills are put to the test almost immediately.
One of our newly-arrived ewe's split from the flock..
..and has come into this garden.
- Any sign of her? - Yes and no.
''Yes and no''?
l could have sworn l saw her in here.
- She's up there. Alex. - Yep.
Found her. You get behind her.
Easier said than done.
lt's pretty thick up here. Oh, no.
- What a nightmare. - There's a gate.
- Has she gone through? - This doesn't bode well for the year.
Oh, no.
Oh, l think all those sheep over there have seen her.
- Yes. - She's in the field.
The runaway sheep hasjoined a nearby farmer's flock.
Yeah, these fences are pretty low.
Well, a 90% success rate there.
Richard Spencer, a sheep farmer of 40 years'experience,
has come to give some much-needed advice to the novice shepherds.
RlCHARD: The one thing you have to remember when you're getting settled down with this flock,
every shepherd knows a sheep is the only animal in God's creation
looking for the quickest way to die.
- You can do everything right... Oh, yeah. - (Laughter)
You can do everything right and it can all go pear-shaped.
You can make mistakes and if Mother Nature's with you, you'll come out smelling of roses.
That's Mother Nature and livestock. You've just got to accept it.
(Whistles)
lf the ewes are to produce young, they must be in tiptop health.
Richard's checking out the field where they're to live.
Well, young man, it's a good set turf.
- lt'll carry the sheep come winter, this will. - Yes.
lt'll take some weather. You need a good turf to carry livestock in winter.
lf it gets wet, without a solid turf, there's nothing to carry the weight of the sheep.
But this will be fine.
l've read about flushing, which is where you put them into good pasture
and because of their improving condition,
they're more likely to conceive twins, essentially.
- ls there any basis in fact? - Oh, absolutely.
lt's fact-fact all the way,
because if the sheep is bursting with energy, she's had all this lovely, lush grass,
she's going to shed more eggs and have more lambs.
So we're doing a good thing here, bringing them into this type of grass?
Yes.
ln a few days'time, once the ewes have settled into life on the fresh pasture,
it'll be time to introduce a ram.
Hopefully, come spring, they'll produce plenty of young.
lt's time to move into the cottage.
Very kind of the Actons to lend us these chairs.
- Yeah, well, whatever you do, don't break 'em. - l'll try not to.
And Ruth's first meal cooked on the range is ready.
This smells absolutely delicious. What are we having?
- Boiled mutton. Could you grab a plate? - Yes.
- Ooh. - Get in here, shall l?
Ooh! (Laughs)
There we go.
- Are you OK? - Could you help me?
Are you really that stuck?
- My arse. - lt went straight through!
Oh, no. You'll have to use that chair... which isn't much better, actually.
- How do you think it's gone so far? MEN: Oh...
lt's more work than l thought it was going to be, getting this all ready.
- Quite obviously. - Yeah.
- The building work on top of everything else. - But that's like modern builders.
They always go, ''Yeah, a couple of weeks,'' and six weeks later you're still waiting.
- (Laughs) - So, you know...
lt's starting to look good. lt's starting to come alive.
The good news is that we are ready for our animals...just.
Peter, Ruth and Alex sleep elsewhere on the estate,
but with the bedroom finished, Ruth can't resist spending the night here.
l've got my chamber pot if l need it in the night.
l've heated a brick on the range and wrapped it in a cloth.
l'm hoping this will warm the bed up a bit, act like a hot-water bottle.
l'll stick that in.
Then l'm going to get in on my lovely feather mattress
that l cleaned and stuffed earlier.
Get down...
Ooh. That feels rather nice, actually.
Mm.
There'd better not actually be any bedbugs.
Next time on Victorian Farm...
building pigsties...
We've had snow, we've had rain, and it's just so cold.
..back-breaking laundry duty...
(Gasps) lt's flipping hard work.
..a new arrival to get to grips with...
- How am l doing? - Very well.
..and a Victorian Christmas to look forward to.
- Cheers. - Happy Christmas.
- Happy Christmas.