Here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time,
lost in Victorian rural England.
A unique project has brought it back to life
as it would have been in the 1 880s.
This is the way to travel, isn't it?
Gee up!
That smells delicious.
Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn
are living the lives of Victorian farmers for a full calendar year,
from the cold of winter to the warmth of summer,
turning the clock back to rediscover an age gone by.
They're an unruly bunch, they really are.
Keep her going, keep her going. Backwards! You've done it. That's it.
(Laughter)
They're halfway through the project.
This is doing my back.
So far, they've planted wheat,
only to see it attacked by wildlife,
which they dealt with in true Victorian style.
- (Makes bird call) - There's one.
They've nurtured livestock through the harsh winter.
And in their restored farm cottage,
experienced the reality of life without modern conveniences.
Bathing in a room with no central heating... it's cold.
Now it's spring.
Time for the animals to produce their young -
the lifeblood of the Victorian farm.
lt's March.
There are lambs and pigs to be delivered.
And chicks to hatch.
But nothing comes easy on this farm,
especially when the hens are under attack...
Got another one, Peter.
..a prized ewe's life is in danger...
The foot rot's got in and l'm deeply, deeply concerned about this.
..and a lame horse may jeopardise the crops.
But the Victorian Age was one of scientific invention.
The team hope this will get them through.
Walk on, Smiler. (Clicks tongue)
You obstinate animal.
lf they succeed, they'll have something to celebrate at the May Day fair.
lf they fail, all their hard work will have been in vain.
Oh, no! l've broken it already.
lt's make or break time on the Victorian Farm.
Stop.
Lambing has begun.
Right, defocus.
Found 'em.
- Got the legs? - Yep, got the legs.
l'm just going to pull it out.
So far, just one ewe has given birth,
but there are still nine to go.
Alex must watch his flock like a hawk
for signs of them going into labour.
We've got our mobile shepherd's hut.
So we can park it up next to the pens
and hopefully keep watch on them overnight.
Good boy.
But already, things are not going to plan.
ALEX: We borrowed the shepherd's hut from good friends over at the home farm.
Just as l was bringing it out of the yard,
the cartwright said to me,
''l was wondering whether that front would hold but it seems to be OK.''
(Tuts)
l'll have to go back to him now, tail between my legs.
l'm not going to be the most popular man.
Peter, do you think we should leave the cart there?
PETER: Middle of the field. Makes sense.
Can't see the bloody sheep, though.
Spring-cleaning was a Victorian obsession.
And scrubbing the cottage from top to bottom is a job that will take Ruth days.
You get a huge amount of dust doing this sort of thing.
Rather than breathing it,
l intend to take it out of the house.
For that purpose, l save my tea leaves.
l'll keep them in a pot,
and then when l need to sweep,
l'll just chuck them damp...
down on the floor.
As you're sweeping, the dust sticks to the tea leaves and they become like little balls.
So instead of flying up everywhere, it's stuck to the tea leaf.
You can brush it out, get rid of it all.
Six months ago, Alex sowed wheat in this field.
lt survived the winter,
but he's concerned about its progress.
ln some places, it's really come up rather well.
But in other parts, it's looking a bit threadbare.
Failure of this crop would be devastating,
a year's work lost.
For the Victorian farmer, it meant loss of income.
And he could have found himself one step closer to the workhouse.
ln the 1 870s, a series of wet summers ruined harvests in Britain
and ushered in an agricultural depression.
British grain became so scarce and costly,
it was cheaper to import it from America.
But Alex is determined that this crop won't fail.
So he's seeking advice from their Victorian farming bible.
l've had a look at Henry Stephens' Book Of The Farm.
He talks extensively about a place called Rothamsted,
where they set up an experimental station
and researched all sorts of different types of fertilisers.
This experimental station is still going today.
So l'll see if l can get some of their experts down to give me a little bit of advice.
Rothamsted Experimental Station was set up in 1 843 to develop fertilisers.
And scientists like Dr John Jenkins continue this work to the present day.
- Hello, Alex. - Hello, John.
- Nice to meet you. - And you.
So what do you think of the wheat crop?
l was a bit concerned about it myself.
Some of the other wheat crops around here are doing rather well,
but mine seems a bit feeble.
l think it doesn't look too bad for the time of the year.
What can you tell me about it?
lt's gone in after something in the region of, l think, 60 years of grass.
l think for this time of the year that's not looking too bad.
And after a very long period of grass,
there will be plenty of nitrogen in the soil.
So it won't need very much at all.
For centuries, farmers used simple fertilisers like manure, blood and bone
without much understanding of how they worked.
Whoa! Stand.
But Victorian scientists identified that elements like nitrogen and phosphorous
helped crops grow.
The chemical fertilisers they developed greatly improved harvests.
So when do farmers first start sort of using chemical fertilisers?
Well, it developed during the 1 9th century,
particularly, l suppose, from about 1 840, 1 850, thereabouts.
So we had nitrate of soda, a form of nitrogen,
guano, which is bird droppings,
and then the superphosphate fertilisers,
which were produced on an industrial scale
by treating minerals, mineral phosphates, with sulphuric acid.
ALEX: So what was the true impact of all the scientific research on British agriculture?
lt was pretty big. Everything was developing during Victorian times.
Science developed,
so that we understood better what crops needed,
and the differences between different crops.
Root crops, for example, respond well to superphosphates,
whereas cereal crops are more dependent on nitrogen.
l think in true Victorian scientific research fashion,
what l'll look to do here is to do half of the field with our fertiliser,
and then leave the other half.
JOHN: l think that would be an excellent plan.
ln spring, everything is growing on the farm,
including the pigs.
Princess, the Gloucester Old Spot, is heavily pregnant,
and due to give birth at any time.
Peter's monitoring her closely.
She's been up and down here for about an hour now,
collecting up bits of twig, a lot of hay, a lot of straw,
and then just dumping it in there.
l think that this is a definite indicator that the piglets are imminent.
With Princess about to farrow,
she'll need a bigger home for her new family.
So her neighbours, the Tamworths, must go.
Two will be sold,
one will be slaughtered.
(Pigs squeal)
Feeling really sad, actually.
l've always known this day would come.
But, you know, they've been such friendly little pigs.
And now it's time to say goodbye.
They know something's up, don't they?
Peter is looking for the fattest one to slaughter.
ln Ruth's Family Save-All book,
it says that, as a handy hint...
48 inches in circumference around the belly,
that equals 1 4 stone.
And every inch beyond that is an extra stone.
So l've got my tape measure.
Ooh, dear.
And she is...
So that's 46.
So...just under 1 4 stone.
(Pig grunts and squeals)
All right, l think it's time to let one go.
(Squealing)
Go on, out you go.
Out.
Come on.
Damp newspaper...
is really good for cleaning glass.
Vinegar's not bad, either.
But um...newspaper to finish
gives the most smear-free glass l think l've ever managed to achieve.
Although the Victorians could buy ready-made cleaning products,
they were expensive.
So it was often easier to make your own.
l'm just grinding brick dust.
The dust makes a fantastic...abrasive,
for cleaning things.
l thought l'd give all the pots and kettles and things a bit of a go,
because they've got terribly, horribly black on the range.
What l'm going to do is get a grubby old cloth, dip it in some vinegar to wet it,
and then dip it into the brick dust.
lt just...
scrubs and polishes it all off.
Just like a modern metal cleaner,
it's an abrasive with a little bit of acid.
That's all most of them are when you buy them.
There we are.
Just wash that off.
Look at that.
There we are, a lovely bright kettle.
That looks a sight better, doesn't it?
Nice and bright.
And clean.
With the cottage spick and span and the winter dirt removed,
Ruth disposes of the household waste.
The rag and bone man's due,
so the bones that we've been building up and collecting
are in the bucket, ready for him to pick up.
He'll sell them to somebody who'll grind them down and turn them into bone meal fertiliser.
lf we lived in town, l'd let him have the rag too.
Because one of the many uses for old used-up bits of cloth
was as fertiliser on the fields.
Selling poultry was a good way to supplement the Victorian farm's economy,
so Ruth plans to breed chicks.
At the moment, the hens roam freely round the farmyard.
But for their fertilised eggs to hatch,
they must sit on them in a sheltered, safe place.
l've managed to acquire an old Victorian-style chicken hut.
lt's a mobile chicken hut.
But it needs a new roof.
The idea here is... l think we've got about 1 8 chickens.
And what l want to do,
is get some of them settled in here...
lots of eggs,
lots of chicks.
And hopefully...
..we'll have a small poultry concern here.
To roof the hut, l'm using...
..this corrugated iron sheeting, which is actually galvanised.
And because it's so durable and easy to put up,
you actually find it replacing thatch as a traditional roofing technique
in many parts of the British lsles.
lt's another one of these rural country crafts
very much threatened by mass production in the late-Victorian period.
The hut's all set to go,
ready for the 1 8 chickens to roost inside.
But there's a huge blow to their poultry enterprise.
While roaming free in the farmyard,
they've been attacked by a dog.
We've got five here that are either dead or dying
and four missing.
(Clucking)
l've got another one, Peter.
We've had a duck in A&E.
And today we've had four.
We've come back to the farm - four. We've just seen the dog running off.
ls that one still alive?
He's still alive and he's making a bit of noise.
lt's the same thing, look. The same.
The puncture wound to the back. Oh, dear.
l think, at the end of the day, l suppose a Victorian farmer, same as a modern one,
if there was an errant dog on the land...
Shoot the dog.
You've got sheep about to lamb in that field.
You can't have something chasing them.
Now the chicken hut is finished,
it should be a safe house for the remaining birds.
lf l want the eggs to hatch rather than have them for eating,
the chicken has to sit on them and keep them warm for an incubation period.
lf those eggs get cold, they'll die.
So we have to make somewhere where she wants to sit,
where she's going to be comfortable,
where she's going to keep her eggs in top condition until they hatch,
and then we'll get chicks.
These are the eggs that were laid overnight.
And these are the ones that l'm going to put the hen to sit on.
And it's marking the egg,
so that l know these are the ones l've set underneath her to hatch.
So if any new eggs pop up,
l'll know that they're not part of this batch
and then l'll be able to take those out for eating fresh,
leaving these under the hen to hatch.
ln you go. There we go.
lt's often a good idea to put a hen to sit like this at dusk,
because the dark makes them go dopey and happy to sit in the first place.
They like to be nice and quiet and go to sleep overnight.
Go for it. One movement.
So far, five of the ten ewes have lambed.
And the new arrivals are doing well.
But it's not over yet.
All the way out.
She's trying to stand up as well.
That's a great sign, to be honest, a great sign.
Peter and Alex are still watching their flock from the shepherd's hut.
ALEX: l have got a Boy's Own Paper chess puzzle from 1 897.
Excellent!
PETER: We'll get very good at this game
with all the waiting we'll be doing over the next month.
ALEX: That's all it is, isn't it?
lt's being here with our sheep in our field.
Waiting and watching.
As well as watching the sheep,
Peter's also keeping an eye on Princess the pig.
At 2am, she goes into labour.
So far, we've had four piglets.
lt looks like we're getting a fifth.
Here it comes. lt's just popped out.
But the fifth piglet is barely clinging to life.
This one, it really is absolutely tiny compared to...
compared to these other ones here.
l mean, look at this.
Look at the size difference there.
This one really doesn't look good.
He's nowhere near as lively as the others.
l mean we've got four...five now.
Come here, little fella.
l think this is going to be a really busy night.
l think this one's really pulling through now.
This is our runt. l've been helping her to suckle.
Or helping him to suckle - l haven't checked yet.
But l think l'm going to call him Dylan.
Cos Dylan means runt of the litter.
By dawn, it's all over.
Princess has successfully given birth to nine piglets.
And these guys are all in line for a nipple.
Once they've got it, that's it, they don't swap around.
Whereas this one is really going to need help feeding.
l'm keeping an all-night vigil
so that she doesn't squash any of these guys.
And also, the little one needs feeding.
Princess giving birth has been what this farm has been all about in these spring months.
lt has been absolutely amazing.
lt's mid-April.
Two weeks ago, Alex fertilised half the wheat crop,
and already the improvement is clear to see.
The hens and ducks are finally sitting on their eggs.
And the ewes have all lambed.
Little friends. Look at those.
Sadly, Dylan the runt didn't make it.
But the other eight piglets are thriving.
These little Gloucester Old Spot piglets are now five days old.
And all a little curious and fluffy and cute and cuddly.
With a Gloucester Old Spot, you might have a litter of 1 2.
We've only got a litter of eight, but that's not a bad thing.
They'll fatten quicker, and they'll also get bigger.
So, l mean in the long run,
that could actually be quite beneficial for us.
You know, the faster they fatten,
the bigger price you're going to get for them, and quicker.
Throughout the 1 9th century,
breeds such as the Gloucester Old Spot pig, like Princess here, were improved.
And it gives them a much better quality meat, makes them far more docile.
And essentially, you get more for your money.
The Tamworth's been slaughtered.
Once butchered and cured, it will last for months.
lt's said every part of a pig can be eaten except the squeal.
And that was certainly true on the Victorian farm, where money was tight.
Ruth is using the head to make a popular Victorian dish
for the upcoming May Day celebration.
So l'm going to take the brains out first.
There we go.
The main body of the head l'm going to make brawn out of.
lt's lots of little tiny fragments of meat that have been boiled up
and then set in jelly.
lt's also our traditional Christmas dish.
By the Victorian period it had already gone,
but in the early Middle Ages to the early Tudor period,
brawn formed the dish for Christmas Day.
So l'm just going to drop that into the pot
and boil it as it is.
And when it's cooked,
all the little pieces of meat will be very easy to take away from the bone.
l do want to actually include the brains in the brawn.
But they're cooked much more delicately.
So l'm going to cook them separately, just poach them very lightly in a little water.
l'll just drop them in.
That should be fine.
The lambs are doing well.
But there's one more crucial job left -
clipping their mother's hooves.
OK, we'll try and make this as...
Ohhh!
..as painless as possible for her and for me.
Roll her over my knee like that.
Oh, look at that!
Oh, look at that.
You beauty.
Just got to hold her steady. A lot of work needs doing here.
And they absolutely stink, they really do.
lt just smells...of really, really cheesy feet.
l mean, it...
Eugh! Jesus!
lt's making my stomach turn, that is.
The reason we do this is essentially because you can see here...
you can see how it's growing over.
Traditionally, sheep would winter... up on the hills.
And they'd wear all of this nail down because they'd be walking on rocks.
But, of course, out in these plush meadows there aren't the rocks to wear down the nails.
What happens is, they grow, and the shepherd's got to step in
to make sure they don't grow so far they go over the hoof, trap the mud...
As you can see, this one is beginning to do so.
Then they get infections.
This is absolutely killing my back, this is.
Christ knows how you do a flock of 200.
Back in the cottage,
the pig's head has been boiling on the range for three hours.
The meat is falling off the bones now.
And very, very soft.
So l'm just picking through and finding all those bits that are good and tasty.
This would have been quite a cheap dish to do,
even if you had to buy a bit of pig, you know.
The head is not the most expensive cut, by a long way.
lf you're living in a mostly outdoor world,
you're busily farming, doing heavy manual labour,
you have no heating...
then you find your body quickly begins to crave animal fats.
Things that you might turn your nose up at in modern living...
''Lard, yuck! Dripping, eugh!''
..once you're living a Victorian life suddenly become delicious.
That's the eyeball.
Many people enjoy the eyeballs, find them a delicacy.
Seeing as that one's come out nice and whole,
l might put it in the centre of the brawn and see how the boys take to it.
These sorts of bits normally get turned into sausages
or some sort of burgeriness
or sausage rolls, that sort of thing.
l have to be honest, anybody who thinks they've never eaten eyeballs is kidding themselves.
l'm also going to lay the brains whole.
Now, the gelatine is simply the water...
..that we've boiled the pig's head and the feet and the tail in.
All l've got to do is strain it through a cloth...
..leaving the jelly behind.
And one of the reasons for putting the gelatine on like this,
is that it excludes air.
And without air, bacteria can't get a hold.
The jelly is a short-term preservation method in its own right.
(Alex groans)
Come here.
Alex and Peter have a serious problem.
One of the ewes has an infected hoof.
We're just going to have to wash that. Good girl.
lf it worsens, it could be life-threatening.
Her nails had just grown too long.
What's happened is, you can see the toe's exposed there.
The actual toe, and the foot rot's got in and rotted this away.
And l'm deeply, deeply concerned about this.
Now, l'm touching that toe there.
ls that...
- She's feeling it, isn't she? - She is feeling it.
Yeah, she's feeling that.
l'm really worried now for a lot of the other sheep.
l'm wondering whether our over-winter pasture's just been too damp,
too muddy.
The Victorian farmer would do whatever he could to save a ewe.
lf she dies, her lambs will almost certainly die too.
And of course, she has the potential to produce young for years to come.
(Chirping)
There's better news in the poultry hut, where the chicks have hatched.
RUTH: We've got a nice little clutch of chickens and ducks.
l've brought the ducks in,
because l thought they'd be safer and away from marauding foxes.
The hens brood them.
Now they're past a little bit, the hens look after them,
whether they're ducks or chicks.
Hello, sweeties.
Soon the farmers will be looking to harvest hay.
To ensure a good crop, Ruth is fertilising the grass.
The muck that l'm taking out of here is really good manure.
lf guano was the natural wonder manure of the age,
then this is something domestic that was very similar.
Guano's just bird droppings that haven't had the nitrogen leached out of them by rain.
One of the beauties of this chicken shed is,
rather than me having to try and spread this manually on the fields,
l just move the shed and then kick all the muck out the back door.
So...l dunno.
See if l can give it a shove, see if l can get it going,
(Strains) No.
- Peter? - Yeah?
You couldn't give me a hand just shifting the chicken shed, could you?
Right, say when.
- That'll do. - Yeah?
Lovely. Cheers.
That's all right.
The farm will soon need more pasture,
grassland where their sheep and lambs can graze.
The Victorian farmer would have scientifically created a seed mix
to be both nutritious to sheep and withstand all weathers.
For advice, Alex is visiting the owner of the farm's estate,
Thomas Stackhouse Acton.
- So this is the book? - This is the book of grasses,
published in 1 804.
Mr Acton, an expert on Victorian farming,
has sought out a 200-year-old book on grasses in his library.
This book lists all the grasses to be found in the British lsles.
We've got some here,
which are good yielders.
Meadow foxtail.
Yes, it says here it ranks high in the estimation of the farmer,
springing early and producing plentifully.
Wonderful. OK, so meadow foxtail.
THOMAS: Yes.
Sheep's fescue - Festuca ovina.
This grass, l think, is very good for sheep's wool.
So this would be a good grass, then, for pasture for the sheep?
THOMAS: Yes, so we'll have some of that.
Definitely. l mean, it all sounds very technical,
all of these different selections of grasses.
ls this something that a Victorian farmer would have been aware of?
Oh, l think so.
Yes.
Armed with a list of grasses, Alex is now all set to sow.
At the cottage, Ruth is also deciding what to plant,
this time in their small cottage garden.
According to the Book Of The Farm,
''Farmers, as a rule, are bad gardeners.
Not unfrequently, the garden, or where the garden should be,
is one of the most thoroughly neglected spots on the farm.''
Vegetables could be quite expensive to buy in Victorian Britain.
There wasn't much importation of fresh veg.
So if you wanted veg, you pretty much were better off growing your own.
This is why when you look at recipes for feeding the very poor,
food in institutions - workhouses, prisons, hospitals, even -
there's almost no veg, because the veg was pricey.
Food for the poor was about grain and starch and possibly potatoes.
lt's all about gruel.
So, there's this whole push amongst ordinary people
to get as much food as possible out of the little scraps of ground they've got.
l've put the beetroot seeds in.
l like beetroot.
You can plant them really close together when doing a bed system.
You don't have to give the space you would in others, really good for a cottage garden.
Grab as much food as possible in the tiniest possible space.
ALEX: Clumper.
Come on, fella.
To sow the grass seeds,
the farm's shire horse Clumper is essential.
But as Alex attempts to move him,
it's clear he's in distress.
l spent all of winter looking forward to spring, you know,
getting out in the field with the horse on my own, going it alone for the first time.
And sowing a crop myself.
Then come the big day, he's lame.
l don't know what to do now.
Look, he's limping.
He can't put any weight on it.
l'm just giving his feet a clean.
l've got to have a good inspection of them,
and see if there's anything...
in the hoof itself.
lt's a bit of a nightmare, really,
because Clumper's so important to the effective running of our farm.
lf we're to compete as Victorian farmers,
we need him to be in shape.
And if we lose him for, you know, a considerable period,
it will significantly set us back.
After seeking professional advice,
Alex has been told that Clumper probably has a sprain.
So he must completely rest for the next few weeks.
Ruth spring-cleaned the cottage only last week.
But already everything is grimy with coal smuts.
Every day, and l mean every day,
it's like this.
On every single surface.
To the Victorians,
coal had become cheap and plentiful.
Coal also burns longer and hotter than wood,
making it an ideal fuel for a range.
But whereas wood burns cleanly,
coal is a dirty fuel.
All your clothes become black, your tablecloths,
all your napkins, all your towels, all your sheets.
lt means you have the most enormous amount of laundry.
But on the Victorian Farm, almost everything is recycled,
even the troublesome soot.
Soot from chimneys is really, really useful on the garden.
lt's a fantastic fertiliser.
Right up to the Second World War,
lorry drivers would bring veg in to Covent Garden Market
and in their return trips they'd be taking London soot back to the fields,
in order to fertilise them.
lt's fantastic for roses.
lt stops them getting black spot.
Tea leaves are good for roses, too.
So a little bit around the base.
And, actually, just let it shake over the plant itself.
Alex needs a horse to help sow the grass seed.
But with Clumper still out of action,
he's asked the estate owner if he could borrow his horse, Smiler.
l went to Mr Acton and said, ''l've got this problem.''
We thought we'd get Smiler out of retirement and back between the shafts.
Walk on.
Despite his name, Smiler is anything but cheerful at returning to work.
Smiler, walk on. (Clicks tongue)
Come on, walk on. Hup, hup!
Come on.
- Walk on. - Come on.
You obstinate animal.
- Walk on. - Walk on, Smiler.
Good lad. Hup!
Walk on. Walk on.
Come on, walk on!
Come on, fella. Come on, last...
Last bit, come on.
Good lad!
That's it, good boy. Good boy.
To sow the grass, Alex is using an enormous seed box -
a fantastic piece of Victorian technology.
Good lad.
You can imagine just how quick this kind of equipment would have made this job,
back in the late-1 9th century.
lt's just such an enormous seed chest,
you know, 1 6 foot across.
You're talking about getting through about five acres a day with this thing.
When you're hand sowing,
broadcast sowing,
you'd be looking at maybe an acre, maybe a bit more.
How do you think he's done today, Mr Acton?
Considering he's done no work virtually for eight months,
l don't think he's done badly.
So l think we can give him a pat on the back.
Back in the cottage, Ruth plans to make a new dress for the May Day celebration.
(Knock at door)
She's invited an expert in Victorian clothing,
Luca Costigliolo, to the farm.
l'm very well. How are you?
Quite well, a bit...busy at the moment.
Are you? l'm so glad you could come.
l really, really, really need your help.
So this is the fabric l've got.
l don't know what you think of that.
lt's a nice print, a bit loose weave,
compared to what a farmer's wife would have got then.
lt's so hard to get that quality of fabric now.
LUCA: Yeah, it is.
l've got a series of women's magazines.
And this one, for example's, got,
''What to wear: chit-chat on dress.''
And it's got various pictures of the fashion for March.
l mean, this is a bit posh for me, isn't it? (Laughs)
Yes, indeed.
l reckon that a farmer's wife really would be looking at this stuff,
- even if she can't afford to do it. - Definitely. Definitely.
So in this page you actually get the bodice, the sleeve...
and an apron that goes on top of the skirt.
And on the other page,
we have got the skirt.
RUTH: The skirt.
Patterns were commonly featured in magazines,
in an age when it was expected that every housewife could sew.
First thing, l am going to measure your bust.
Mm-hm.
So...
34.
Then down to your waist.
Now, one of the things l read on this,
was that a perfectly-proportioned woman's waist should be ten inches small...
- Ten inches? - Ten inches smaller than her breast.
Ah, yes, l agree.
- l agree. - (Laughs)
l don't stand a hope in heck. What's that?
27. lt's not bad.
Well, my natural waist is not 27.
My natural waist is 29.
So the corset's already doing two inches.
Yeah, but l think that if the corset was cut a bit more shapely,
then you could, without feeling too compressed.
l found this book - Common-sense Clothing.
And it's got these really quite horrendous diagrams of what corsets would do to you.
- There we are. - Oh, l love this.
l wonder if this is really what happens to your inside.
l have seen Victorian bodices with a 1 7-inch waist.
So that's...that big.
- That's 1 7 inches. - Mm.
Oh, good grief!
Scaling, then transferring the pattern from the magazine to the fabric
is a skilled and time-consuming job.
There's such a lot of work involved in making any clothing in this period...
..that you couldn't possibly have a lot of clothes.
An ordinary farmer's wife like me probably owned no more than three,
maybe four dresses at any one time.
You darn them, you mend them, you turn them inside out
to keep them going a bit longer.
Probably only embark upon a new dress
say, after two years, something like that.
As May beckons,
Winter is well and truly over.
The longer, sunnier days are helping the wheat, grass and vegetables grow.
By June, the farmers will have the luxury of beetroot and beans to eat.
There's good news for the livestock, too.
The pigs, chicks, ducklings and lambs are maturing.
And, thanks to Alex and Peter's swift action, the ewe's infected foot is clearing up,
saving not just her life but those of her two lambs.
lt's time for the lambs to go out to pasture and fend for themselves.
But first there's one more job to do.
We're gonna mark them and the mother so we know which ewe they belong to.
You can use numbers but if you use letters, as we are,
you save on raddle and every little penny counts.
Cos, of course, there's nine numbers, isn't there?
There's ten including zero.
Right, OK, and 24 letters.
26.
Just testing.
So l'm going to raddle her - l'm going to mark her - ''C''.
Yeah, OK.
- Her? - Him.
- That one's a geezer. - l always get that wrong.
This one could be a decent show ram.
So if he turns out to be good, we want to know which ewe he's come from
and which one to then breed from, you see.
So it's quite important. That's C.
You want to go back to Mummy?
Excellent.
The ewe is marked with the letters of her two lambs.
The raddle's made out of a red ochre,
which we've mixed with some linseed oil and a little bit of tallow fat.
So...it should hold for a long time...
..but not stain the wool permanently.
So when we come to shear, we should be able to still get a good price for our wool.
The kidlets can go too.
She's going that way.
This is the front of the skirt which you've now prepared and tacked together.
l'm just going to sew one of the seams, so it's like this.
Ruth's now ready to stitch her summer dress together.
So Luca's giving her a crash course in using a Victorian sewing machine.
l have to say, this is a very good machine.
lt might be old but it's very good.
An innovation of the age,
by the 1 880s, Singer was selling over half a million machines a year worldwide.
- Want to have a go, Ruth? - l suppose l'd better.
Yeah...
Aaargh.
Look, it's like this.
Yeah? Carry on. Carry on.
Unlike modern electric machines, this one is treadle-powered,
requiring plenty of hand-foot coordination.
OK. Just concentrate on the work.
Hi-tech sewing machines, together with patterns in popular magazines,
made fashion no longer the preserve of the rich.
Don't look there any more. Use both your hands.
- Just try to feed that into the machine. - Yeah, OK.
l think you're actually quite good...
Ooh!
Oh, you see, l went immediately backwards. Why?
- l've lost it. - You were good before.
Yeah. Oh, don't...
Please concentrate.
Ah! Ah-ah!
And stop.
You haven't really followed the line on the pattern at all.
Feel the machine. The machine is just an extension to your body.
Yes?
lt gives me heart pain every time you go in the wrong direction.
l feel sorry for the machine.
- When are you going? - l'm going at five o'clock.
(Laughs) God.
(Exhales)
Alex treated the wheat with chemical nitrogen fertilisers.
To the Victorians, this was the latest in agricultural science.
But to fertilise the new pasture,
The Book Of The Farm describes an old-fashioned way
of putting nitrogen into the soil.
By sowing clover over the grass.
lt traps atmospheric nitrogen in little nodules in its roots.
That nitrogen is then released into the soil.
lt's a very traditional way of fertilising a field.
lt's all part of a rotation but it's only really during this period
that the Victorians start to understand the science behind it.
Clumper's still out of action,
but The Book Of The Farm recommends an innovative way of sowing clover without a horse,
using a seed fiddle.
Hello, Mark.
- Hello, Alex. - Thanks for coming along today.
Local farmer, Mark Morris, used one as a boy and has come to show Alex how it works.
How it works is...
..you fill the bag up with grass seed or clover seed or whatever you're going to sow.
There's a setting on the side which alters the gap or the hole
for the stuff to drop, or the speed of the grass seed or clover seed to drop onto the disc,
which, as you walk, spins.
And it just throws it out onto the ground.
So it's a mechanised way of doing what they'd done for years and years before,
just broadcast sowing, so any old Tom, Dick and Harry can do it, basically.
lf you put your left leg forward and push it.
- And push it. - Push it.
All right.
And then, with your right leg, it comes back the other way.
(Ratcheting clicks)
Oh...
Right.
Oh, yes!
These seed fiddles are actually an American invention
and introduced to this country in the 1 880s.
Like so many things in the late-1 9th century,
the Americans were sort of innovators, really,
introducing scientific practices to agriculture.
(Chuckles)
So, is it... Oh, no!
- Oh, no, Mark. l've broken it already. - Oh, dear.
Look. The handle's come off the end.
This is the fourth thing l've broken.
Well, you're welcome to use mine.
(Laughs) No, cos l'll just break that one.
lt's the 1 st of May and this evening the farmers will celebrate the new life on the farm.
l'm making a fidget pie. This is a traditional Shropshire recipe.
With bacon...potatoes and onion.
This is our bacon, from the Tamworth. l've had it hanging in the larder.
A splash of cider to go in.
And a little bit of stock.
Ruth encases the filling with pastry,
using a Victorian recipe
made from boiling water, suet and flour.
All the fat and the water.
Hot water crust pastry is particularly important for this sort of pie
because it's very tough and doesn't melt when you put it into the oven.
Traditionally,
all pies had to stand up in the oven on their own without a tin.
lt's only in the mid-1 9th century...
..that technology changes
and it becomes possible to make cheap tins in pretty much any shape you want,
cheap enough for the likes of us to afford.
Fidget pie is called a fidget pie because of its shape.
lt's thought the word ''fidget'' comes from a Shropshire dialect word meaning ''five''.
Now we've sort of formed the pie shape, in goes the filling.
ln some ways, by packing them really full, it helps to support it in the oven.
Slip it on top.
Put a hole in the centre for steam.
OK. ln we go.
The last of the sheep to be moved.
- One lamb each, yeah? - Yes, let's do that.
The lambs are now fending for themselves so it's time to move them out to pasture.
ln theory, when the lambs are taken, their mothers should follow.
The last to go is the ewe with the sore foot...
..now fully recovered and back to full strength.
(Bleating)
lt'll be a while before Alex's pasture is ready,
so Thomas Acton is letting the sheep graze in his field in front of Acton Scott Hall.
Shall we let these guys go?
- Yeah, let's let them go and run over to Mummy. - lt's paradise field for you guys.
(Bleating) - Oh, dear.
(Ewe bleats)
There we go. Go on, over to...
- There we are. - Look, you've got a view of the hall.
ALEX: Look at that for a success story.
Ten happy mothers and 1 6 lambs. Go on, off you go. Go and play with your friends.
- Well, that's it. - Yes.
- lt's over. - Yes.
l felt, actually, a tinge of sadness when we took that last sheep out.
Empty lambing pen, empty field.
And it seems a shame. Short of shearing them towards the end of the year...
- That's it. - ..that's it. Yeah.
But l question myself as to whether l could eat one of those little lambs.
l think l could...after it's reached maturity,
but as it's being born, it's all about bringing life into the world.
- You're not seeing the pound signs. - No. You're seeing a helpless...
Or the nice lamb shank with mint sauce.
But l think, really, for our first time round,
l think we could hold our heads high at a kind of Victorian livestock fair
and say, ''Look. Nine ram lambs, all in good shape.''
- Yeah. - And make ourselves a few bob.
Plus seven ewes to breed off of.
- So our flock has increased. - Yep.
Looking forward to this May Day festival?
- Yes. - Excellent.
Why didn't that...?
(Groans)
Ruth got to grips with the sewing machine... in the end, and finished her new summer dress.
lt's taken an age. lf l add it up, l think l'm on nearly 60 hours now.
lt's all very well if you can sit with nothing else to do for a couple of weeks and just work on it,
but... (Sighs)
..amongst everything, it's been hard.
So this is my first time l've had this on properly.
That should be the straight panel at the front,
then pleated at the side and gathered at the back to help give the shape.
This fits quite nice, actually.
Quite high at the back.
This is all my leftover fabric.
Some of the pieces are big enough to do something useful with.
But these little bits, the little scraps, l can sell these to the rag and bone man.
All these bits of cut fabric will be sorted and then shredded down into fibre...
..respun and made into new clothes.
Shoddy. That's the name of the fabric.
The modern word ''shoddy'', meaning something of poor quality, comes from this fabric.
lt didn't wear very well.
lt didn't last.
But nonetheless, it's cheap
and people can have clothes who perhaps couldn't have had them otherwise.
Ooh-ooh-ooh!
l'm really pleased with it, actually.
Hey, May Day, here l come.
Good morning, lords and ladies
Good morn to you l say
We've brought for you a garland
For now's the month of May
Oh, it is the first of May
Oh, it is the first of May...
John Kirkpatrick is an expert in English folk traditions.
He's providing the entertainment for May Day,
traditionally one of four important days in the farming calendar.
You get the 2nd of February, which is Candlemas,
May Day, which is a huge, huge festival,
2nd of August is Lammas
and end of October, early November, you get Halloween and Bonfire Night all mixed up.
So May Day was a huge cause for celebration.
The animals are out in the field and everything's starting to bloom and blossom,
so it's kind of a relief that everything's working as it should.
..and a penny for our cheer
And if we live to tell the tale
We'll call again next year
Oh, it is the first of May
Remember, lords and ladies
lt is the first of May
(Cheering)
As a gift to his tenants, Mr Acton has donated some of his famous cider.
- Here's to May. Here's to... - Spring!
- Here's to Spring. - No more cold weather!
(Laughter) - A joyful Spring.
- This is absolutely fine. - lt's an acquired taste.
Yeah.
l really think this is a very scrumptious drink
and l shall look forward to drinking many tankards of it tonight.
(Lively music)
As life on farms and everywhere became more mechanised,
and more scientific,
there was a sort of movement back, a sort of sentimentality
about these older folk traditions.
Celebrations like these were usually alcohol-fuelled raucous affairs,
something that Victorian clergymen were keen to stamp out.
Towards the end of the 1 9th century, May Day was cleaned up and romanticised,
leaving these earlier, drunken celebrations behind.
l find the Acton cider is kind of like the Marmite of the cider world.
You either love it or hate it.
- And l love it. - l can tell from your cheeks.
(Chatter and laughter)
- Anybody want something to eat? - Yes, please.
We've got fidget pie, brawn, and bread.
Can l interest you in a nice bit of brawn.
- The brawn tastes fantastic. Fabulous. - lt was a good pig.
- Where are the eyeballs in this? - There's an eye.
There's an eye, isn't it? There's some brains in the middle.
- Give me that eyeball. - There we go.
lt's not gonna burst open and spray all over my face?
(Ruth laughs)
- Mmm. - They're all right, aren't they?
- lt's very tasty, actually. - Mm.
- lt's fine. - l spent, you know...
quite a long time with those eyeballs looking at me lovingly...
..every time l came round with the food bucket.
Staring said eyeballs in the face.
Some May Day games involve the new life of the farm.
(Squealing)
We're going to try singing for a pig, a popular game at May fairs and so on.
You hold a piglet under your arm and you sing a song.
Whoever sings the longest before the pig squeals wins the pig.
Brace yourself. Here we go.
Whose pigs are these?
There's little chance of anyone taking this piglet away.
(Squealing) ..in the vicarage garden
(Laughter) - Oh.
- Sing, quick. - (Squealing)
(Laughter)
She knows your game. She knows your game.
(Footsteps thudding on floorboards)
As the party carries on into the night, the farmers now look forward to summer,
where a whole new set of challenges await.
Back the other way.
Next time on Victorian Farm...
it's Summer.
(Whistle)
This is the most fantastic train.
There are sheep to shear...
..and cheese to make.
Women's work. Doesn't make it any easier.
Alex takes up a risky new enterprise.
How long is it going to be before l get stung?
And it's time for the all-important hay harvest.
Get it right, you've got a hayloft full of hay
for your cows, your sheep and your horses.
lf you get it wrong, it could spell disaster for a farm.