Here in Shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time,
lost in Victorian rural England.
Now a unique project has brought it back to life,
as it would have been in the 1 880s.
Gee up.
For a full calendar year, Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn
are reliving the life of the Victorian farmer.
(Laughter)
Eight months into the project, they've restored the derelict farmyard,
under the watchful eye of their landlord, Mr Acton.
What do you think of the stone, Mr Acton?
l think it's slightly tilted.
- Pull that leg out. - They've delivered lambs...
Go, go, go, go. Get him out, get him out.
..and piglets...
This one really doesn't look good. Look at the size difference there.
..cared for a pregnant cow through the winter...
There we go. That's it, girl.
..and learned to handle a shire horse...
- How am l doing? - Very well.
..only to see him go lame.
lt's a bit of a nightmare, because we need him to be in shape.
Now it's summer on the Victorian farm.
lt's May.
Summer means time to bring in the hay harvest.
lf you 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 the farm.
lt's hard going in the dairy...
This is women's work. lt doesn't make it any easier.
..and with the sheep.
They just eat little holes into the skin.
Alex takes up a risky new venture.
How long is it going to be before l get stung?
Long days mean more time for leisure,
as the team explore what Victorian farmers did for fun.
(Whistle)
This is the most fantastic train.
But as the weather turns, it becomes a race against time to save the hay from ruin.
Gee up! Gee up!
May is a crucial month for the farm's flock of Shropshire sheep,
a popular Victorian breed.
Having given birth to 1 6 lambs, the ten sheep must now be shorn.
Alex and Peter have asked sheep farmer Richard Spencer,
and professional shearer Keith Sessions, to help out.
The first objective here is to get the sheep from the covered area,
where they've been sheltering from the rain overnight, and into the yard.
Come! Juno!
- (Whistles) - Push them on in then, now.
Come here, Juno. Come here.
All the gates are shut in this yard, aren't they, Peter?
l believe so.
- The sheep are getting out. - Where are they getting out?
- Onto the road. - Oh, dear.
The sheep have smashed their way through a weak spot in the fence.
They're all the way up there.
Last time, we lost one sheep when we attempted to move them.
We've now succeeded in losing all 26.
(Whistles)
Four of the ewes are quickly found,
but convincing them to return to the yard isn't going to be easy.
(Panting)
They're coming.
Alex and Richard have managed to track down the rest of the flock.
l've just been told to get out of the road because they're pushing them up the lane.
lt's gone 1 2 now,
and we've not even got the sheep in the farmyard.
We're going backwards rather than forwards at the moment.
Nothing seems to ever go to plan.
Come on, Forget-Me-Not, over you go.
Raaar!
(Lows)
The farm's cow, Forget-Me-Not, has given birth to her calf.
Ruth's getting to grips with the daily milking routine.
She's a nice quiet cow.
lt makes a big difference.
Doesn't it, girl?
You're a good cow, aren't you?
What a good girl.
A cow needs to build a relationship with you.
Talking to them helps, because your voice is soothing and they know who you are,
your smell, your voice, what you look like.
l have been looking forward to this.
Milking and dairying are such an important part of small farms in this part of the world.
Whereas an arable farm in the 1 870s needed about 50 acres of land to break even...
(Lows)
..a small Shropshire dairy farm could manage with only five acres.
You could pay your rent with the cheese money.
l'm going to watch Forget-Me-Not's milk day by day.
When l see it change from this lovely rich, thick milk into something thinner,
then that'll be the time to go into massive cheese production.
The sheep have finally been rounded up.
They're just coming round the corner now.
Thank you very much.
Ah, there you are.
lf there's anything good to come out of that, Alex,
the sheep will be hot and sweaty, as well as me.
lt means that the wool will have ''risen'', as we call it.
lt means, basically, that the oils and greases that are naturally there in the fleece will be hot.
lt'll make shearing that much easier, the fleece will peel off,
rather than have to be peeled off with a lot of effort. lt'll come off easily.
So letting them break out of the yard and run a couple of miles was actually good for them?
lt wasn't good for me but it was good for the sheep, yes.
ln the farmyard, it's time to get to work.
ln the early 1 9th century, sheep were sheared with clippers,
but by the 1 870s, shearing machines were being developed.
Right. Ready to start?
Er... (Laughs)
(Whirring)
Look at the speed of that compared to the hand shears.
The machines were much more efficient
but had one real drawback for the person winding them.
- How are you doing? - All right. lt's hard to concentrate.
And it's bloody knackering.
He's sweating!
- There we are. She's done. - She's done!
One down, nine to go.
As Keith's son takes over the winding, Peter brings out a time-saving device
invented by the team's landlord, Mr Acton.
Ah-ha!
We've got a winder.
Mr Acton got tired of people hand-cranking with these old machines
so he rigged up the mechanism onto this 1 950s Raleigh.
l like the footwork, Alex.
This time, it's Alex's turn to shear.
Give me some power then, Peter.
(Rings bell)
There's a lot of vibrations coming up from the seat.
lt's a bit of a fun ride.
lt's so much easier than the hand crank.
l wish he'd hurry up, though.
A professional can shear a sheep in two minutes.
Alex has been working at this one for 20.
There is a possibility the sheep may die of old age, but we'll hope not.
Wooh!
That was difficult, really difficult.
You don't know where body stops and fleece starts.
The shearing has revealed a serious problem.
lt's bending over, as well.
- See that there. - Yeah, yeah.
The fleece is infested with maggots.
lf they're left long enough, they then start to eat little holes into the skin.
Yes.
Then they get under the skin.
lf they get bad enough, if you move the skin they come out the holes in the back of the sheep.
A few more days, he would be a lot worse.
So we've got it just in time.
From now on in, what do we need to do?
Because the fleece has gone off the ewes, it should be all right.
As the lambs get older and it gets to the middle of the summer, they could be a problem.
We've got to keep our eyes peeled, then.
(Popping) - Oh, beautiful! That's what we want.
Oh! Go for it!
To a successful sheep shearing afternoon.
Successful sheep shearing afternoon.
(Belches) Pardon me.
The hay harvest is the biggest job of early summer.
The team will be using the meadow in front of Mr Acton's hall.
l'm having a closer look at the species we've got in here.
We've got a lovely meadow grass there.
There's some perennial rye grass, a lovely foxtail.
And these all make for great fodder crops.
Essentially, haymaking is coming out here and cutting the grass at the point at which it flowers,
when it's at its maturest, if you like,
and it's at its sweetest, as well.
You let it dry in the field, we'll then rake it all up,
get it on our dray, get it back into the farmyard, up into the hayloft,
and it's essentially a crop, it's a harvest.
That hay will sustain our cattle and our horses and sheep throughout the long winter months.
ln the early 1 9th century, huge teams of people brought in the hay entirely by hand.
But by the 1 880s, the harvest was becoming mechanised.
l hope you don't mind me roping you into this one, Peter.
- Not at all. - l think this is a two-man job.
For advice on the latest technology, Alex has consulted the team's bible for the year,
The Book Of The Farm, published in 1 888.
The boys are keen to use as much up-to-date kit as possible...
..if they can get it working.
So this is a hay rake.
Look, there's a little bit of movement there, but it's obviously been here for quite a while.
This is another of these fantastic machines that Mr Acton's collected up.
- He's got a lot, hasn't he? - He has. lt's amazing.
And it's horse-drawn as well, so it should save us a lot of time.
- Yes, it should. - We've got to get it out first.
Let's start hacking away at some of these brambles.
- l see you've got your pasty on. - l've got the right, you've got the left.
- l've got the billhook. - l've got the right, you've got the left.
Just testing there. Just testing.
lt's always good to have my beast of burden with me.
l like to get Peter to do the lifting and the pulling.
You enjoy it, don't you, Peter?
l can see you sitting on there.
- ls it quite light? - Yeah.
That's actually one of the lightest vehicles we've got.
l should imagine the weight's going to be when you drop it.
So if l sit up there...
- Take the pasties. - They'll be all right on the floor.
- So l sit up here... - Mind yourself on that.
- That looks quite vicious. - lt does, doesn't it?
lt's quite pronounced there at the front.
lt's a bit damp, actually.
- OK, so you be the horse. - Yes. Ready?
- l'll be the hay master. - Right. Whoa.
Beautiful Victorian engineering at its best.
So we're going along, l pull this lever,
and it can't...
- Does it push forward? - No.
- Try pushing it all the way forward. - l can't. l can't.
lt's seized, l think.
Try undoing the wing nut.
Ah.
Right. That's the problem, then.
Slide that. Yeah.
And bang. There goes the rake.
- lt's in. - l'm dragging the rake along the ground...
- Hay's catching in it. - l collect all the hay up, it's getting really heavy.
l get in line with my windrow,
- and l lift the rake, drop the hay. - And we turn around.
Drop the rake again.
Brilliant.
Whoa!
Stand, boy. Stand, boy.
Good boy.
Before the hard work of the harvest begins,
Peter's making good use of his remaining free time.
l think it's undisputable that summer has finally arrived on the farm,
so we've been thinking: cricket match.
For a cricket match we're going to need a cricket bat.
l've dug out this catalogue of HJ Gray & Sons,
who are a Victorian company that are still operating and making bats today.
Cricket bat making was quite an important rural craft.
However, l am pretty ignorant of how a cricket bat is made,
so l'm going to the factory to find out.
HJ Gray & Sons is now the famous company Gray-Nicolls,
whose bats are used all over the world.
The laws of cricket state that bats must be made from wood,
and for hundreds of years, English willow has been a popular choice.
Gray-Nicolls grows and processes its own.
Bat maker Alex Hohenkirk is proud of the company's Victorian roots.
- When's this bat from? - This bat was made in 1 875.
And you're going to try and recreate this for us?
l'll try and recreate this one today. lt's a lot different from what we make now.
You can see the differences in the general amount of wood in the bat all through it.
- ls this machine made? - No it's all handmade.
- We do everything by sight. - Right.
So, l shall try and replicate this bat for you.
Cricket bat design was transformed in the 1 9th century.
Before this date, bats were made of one piece of wood,
which meant they were easy to break and hard to repair.
So bat makers came up with the idea of creating a bat in two parts,
by splicing together the handle and the blade.
With having a splice, this gives a bat more flexibility
and it gives you more strength and versatility in the shots that you're playing.
You've got more feel for the game with a bat that's been spliced.
And the innovations didn't stop with the splice.
The famous Victorian cricketer, WG Grace, developed a new style of batting,
which, in turn, spurred changes to the shape of the bat,
that can still be seen today.
When did the hump on the back here start being really introduced?
The hump started to develop in around 1 860, 1 870.
lt was something pioneered by some of the bigger hitters of the day,
players like WG Grace.
Originally, players were very into just pushing the ball around the ground,
gentle shots and using the speed of the ball.
Players like Grace tended to revolutionise things by big hitting.
The hump's been put into the bat to put more wood into the bat,
which means a stronger and harder striking surface.
Just one final look.
The weights are pretty similar and l think we're pretty much there.
Wonderful. Thank you very much.
l hope it plays well for you in your cricket match and good luck with it.
Back at the cottage, Ruth's indulging in her favourite summer pastime.
Gardening as a leisure activity is something that becomes more popular in the Victorian period.
l'm making myself a pesticide here.
Nice and simple. lt's to kill the sawfly on the gooseberries.
These are the leaves of the elder tree.
l'm dropping them into the bucket, where there's a kettleful of hot water.
l'm going to add in a few shavings of soap.
Bash the whole lot together and hey presto! That's all it is.
lt's nice and warm.
Come on, you little sawflies.
Off my gooseberries.
Ruth's little garden isn't the only one on the estate.
Mr Acton has a spectacular walled garden.
lt needs constant care and he's asked the boys to help out.
For Alex, it's presented a golden opportunity.
There's a swarm of bees in the walled garden.
This is an excellent chance for me to get involved in beekeeping.
lt really is something that captures my imagination.
For a Victorian farmer, it would be the perfect sideline.
l shouldn't need gloves, but...
..l am going to take the precaution here with a bit of string,
just so they don't crawl up my sleeves.
l don't think l'm going to do this alone.
l'm going to wait for a beekeeping expert to come and help me wrestle this swarm
and get it into our Victorian cottage hive.
(Fierce buzzing)
Thanks for coming over, Brian.
Pleasure.
Brian Goodwin is president of the Shropshire Beekeepers'Association.
lt's been there for a while.
Good swarm.
We're going to capture these bees and put them in our cottage hive.
- We are. That's right. - Their new home.
How long is it going to be before l get stung?
You won't feel anything after about the fourth.
So you'll be all right.
Brian's going to catch the bees in an old-fashioned type of hive,
known as a skep.
They were the way to keep bees many, many years ago.
This is the classic ancient way of keeping bees, reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh.
Exactly that, yes.
The bees are clustering now on this branch of a tree.
The strategy is to get them all in this basket.
The simple way of doing that is to just use a simple brush.
- No problem at all. - This isn't going to upset them, then, doing this?
You'll have 30-40,000 flying around your ears, but don't worry too much.
The first thing to do is to shake.
There we are.
l'm worried about them crawling up my...
They won't hurt you, they're perfectly docile.
They're an ltalian type of bee.
- This is an ltalian type of bee? - Yes.
- Right. So we haven't got a good British bee? - No.
And these were imported in the Victorian period?
They were, yes.
They were imported from Slovenia, Northern ltaly,
and they bred thousands and thousands of queens each year
and we imported them into this country
in the mistaken belief that they were better than our bees.
And there they are, all in the skep.
Skeps had many shortcomings.
The swarm makes its honeycomb inside the basket.
To reach the honey, many keepers would kill their bees.
Fortunately for Alex, in the 1 9th century, a brand-new hive changed all that.
There are the bees again.
l drop them onto this sloping surface and they'll all start to walk uphill.
Their natural tendency is always to go into a closed, dark area,
where they can re-establish themselves as a colony of bees.
They're all doing it now.
The modern beehive was created in 1 85 1 by an American named Lorenzo Langstroth.
He based his design on an amazing observation.
Langstroth realised that the bees always constructed their combs
with an eight-millimetre gap.
This eight-millimetre gap became known as the bee space,
and replicating it was the basis of Langstroth's invention.
l could lift this wooden frame, which we put into the hive,
and you'll see if l move it there's just eight millimetres' space.
The bees add the beeswax in the centre there.
We can take the comb out and examine it quite easily.
The bees are quite happy clinging to the comb, carrying on with their work
while the beekeeper can twist the comb about and observe exactly what they're doing.
- Get a really good inspection going. - That's right.
For the first time, beekeepers became, not just beekeepers, but bee managers.
They could influence what was going on in the hive
and take steps to change the behaviour of the bees and change what was happening.
That was revolutionary, and that revolutionised beekeeping.
- Wonderful. - That's fine.
lt's the day of the cricket match.
Acton Scott, the farm's local team, are playing a neighbouring village.
- lt'll give us a chance to try out the new bat. - l'm looking forward to that.
We've knocked it in, oiled it up,
and it's ready to go.
Almost looks as smart as we do.
Yes.
And again!
lt's a nice bat, Peter. lt's working beautifully.
l don't claim to be a sports fan.
l'm here to eat the sandwiches and have a nice sit down.
There's so many people. l was hoping somebody else would bring food as well.
lt'll probably disappear in ten seconds flat.
l won't be here for very long.
One ball.
- Oh! Split my trousers. - Go on!
(Laughter)
Middle?
l seem to have split incredibly tight trousers.
l've got a hole in my pants as well.
Hey!
Thank God.
l really want to be back out there batting.
You do?
l think with a better pair of trousers, l could have stayed in a bit longer.
Catch!
Earlier on in the 1 9th century, we'd probably be doing blood sports,
bare-fist fighting, cock fighting, all that kind of thing.
Towards the end of the 1 9th century, landlords were looking to get their labourers
and the people of the parish involved in far gentler sports.
Cricket was a perfect opportunity to galvanise the community.
Far more gentlemanly pursuits for the labouring classes.
(Clapping)
As June begins, preparations for the hay harvest are in full swing.
- This is our mower. - How does it work, then?
- Hay comes in here. - We're missing a blade.
lt's not in brilliant shape, is it?
The sheep are enjoying their shorter fleeces.
Forget-Me-Not and her calf are doing well.
And for a couple of weeks, the bees have been left to their own devices.
lt's about time that l got into the hive and had a check to see how things are getting on.
And look at that.
That is absolutely wonderful.
They are making inroads.
ln fact, looking at it, l think l should be concerned
because the danger is that what they'll do, is they'll fill this up and they'll say,
''We've run out of space, we need to swarm. We need to find somewhere else to go.''
That's the last thing l want.
To swarm and make a new colony, bees must first create a new queen.
The most crucial thing for me to do here
is to check that they're not developing any queen cells.
Let's have a look.
l can see all the larvae in there. And bingo.
This is just what we don't want.
This thing here is a queen cell.
l think, to be honest, l've got it just in the nick of time.
My job here is to just pinch this out.
That wasn't far off becoming a queen.
What l'm going to do is put another box on
with some more frames in, some empty frames in.
This has got to go back on.
Hm. Just a minute, chaps.
l've just got a bee on my meat and two veg.
Don't want them getting in there.
So, l think l've taken the necessary steps to avoid swarming.
Let's get the lid on.
And it clearly won't be long now before we start to extract some honey.
The piglets have got big, and it's high time they were weaned from their mother.
At the moment, their pure source of food is Princess's milk.
We need to wean them, which is a gradual process.
There's a picture of a ring pigs' trough in Book Of The Farm.
We've got a very similar design pig trough.
lt creates segments, so when the piglets feed, they've each got their own compartment,
which mirrors the fact that they each have their own teats where they take milk from Princess.
l'm going to try and let the pigs out...
..without letting Princess out.
Which is going to be easier said than done.
Done it the other way round.
l'll feed her here.
She'll go anywhere for food.
(Squealing)
There you go.
lt appears, on the surface of things, to be moderately successful.
Rearing these guys has been a lot of work
but it's been such a fun time.
l'm immensely proud - certainly of the ones feeding from the feeder.
Not so much of the ones with their heads in the bucket.
But it's been great.
Out of all the animals on the farm, the pigs are the ones l'm going to miss the most.
lt's going to be quite a wrench.
Once they're fully weaned, some you'll keep and some you'll kill.
Ssh. Don't tell them.
lt's harsh. lt's harsh.
l've got a really messy, stinky job here.
l've got the stomach of a young male calf from our neighbours over there.
l've got to clean it out and make rennet,
which is the magic ingredient that turns milk into cheese.
ln a dairy herd, male calves are not terribly useful.
So at this time of year, many of the male calves are slaughtered.
You eat the veal, which is very tasty, and use the stomachs to make your cheese.
A calf's stomach has four chambers.
Ruth must find the fourth one, where rennet is produced.
Rennet is the juices of the stomach.
lt's the enzymes, with which the young mammal,
and it happens in any mammal, including ourselves,
separate their mother's milk into a solid and a liquid.
Cheese-making is very dependent upon this rennet.
Milk has to be separated into curds and whey.
Ruth must rinse out the stomach and cover it with salt to preserve it.
The calf has to be very young. lt has to be one that has only sucked milk,
and has not yet been weaned on to grass.
Once the calf has been weaned and is eating solid foods
the nature of the enzymes changes in the stomach
and no longer does the job with the same efficiency.
The stomach will now be left in a bucket of water.
The rennet will seep out, ready for use in a few weeks'time.
The hayfield is growing well.
But preparations for the harvest have hit a snag.
Clumper, the farm shire horse, has an ongoing problem with his hoof.
Since most of the machinery is horse-drawn, this is a real cause for concern.
No.
Alex is seeking the advice of a modern vet and, as an extra measure,
he's trying out a traditional home-made remedy.
l'm going to make a balm here for Clumper's foot.
lt's gonna be a comfrey balm.
So this is comfrey root, root of the comfrey plant.
Let's give it a really good breaking up.
And the idea with comfrey is, it's got this substance called alantoin in it.
And what this stuff apparently does, it helps in cell proliferation.
So the sores on his foot, hopefully l'll get the balm on there
and it will just help it heal over that much quicker.
Alex must first heat the crushed root with some tallow fat.
See how this is doing. lt's certainly very hot.
Oh, look at that. Yep. That's done the trick, l think.
Just let that strain through.
That's the base oil, then.
What l'm going to add now is the magic ingredient.
This is some beeswax from the hive.
So l'm just going to put this on the range.
Really, the beeswax, what it does once it's been applied to the sore area,
it'll stick, it'll hold the fat in, and the fat will be holding in the vital ingredients.
Right, this looks like it's melted down.
Quite a nice smell. Not that Clumper will appreciate that.
That's well mixed in.
So it will take one of these receptacles.
OK.
So it's simply a case of putting this on the cold stone in the pantry to cool and set.
As soon as it's done that, l can get it on Clumper's foot.
RUTH: lt's Alex's birthday today.
So l'm going to make him a cake for tea.
Birthdays were not celebrated in a big way in Victorian Britain.
But, nonetheless, there are references to farmers having cakes for their birthday.
So l'm making a pound cake.
lt basically means a pound of every ingredient.
l'll start with butter and then l've got some sugar.
So it will be a pound of that.
And there'll be a pound-weight of eggs and a pound of flour in the cake as well.
A pound of raisins and currants
and then just to flavour it, a little pinch of spice.
ln the walled garden, Alex's birthday is proving busy.
Mr Acton has asked the boys to make a protective shelter for his raspberry patch.
They've built the wooden frame, but now they've got to cover it with netting.
(Groans)
(Laughter)
You're to a certain extent trying to defy physics with that one, Peter.
When you've finished goofing around, Peter, we can get on with some work.
Wire netting became available after 1 844,
when Charles Barnard, an ironmonger, invented a machine to manufacture it.
Barnard was a farmer's son
and knew there'd be huge demand for a product that kept predators off livestock and plants.
Do you think leafy overhang like that at the front, yeah?
- Yes. - Yeah.
What about here? We won't be able to open the door.
Ah. l was wondering if you'd be the first to spot that one.
We could always open the door.
- What, and then cut round it? - No, you're right. Let's go.
Good suggestion, though, Peter.
Hiya! How you getting on?
ALEX: Oh, not too bad. How are you? All right?
Yeah.
- Oh, dear, this is taking a while, isn't it? ALEX: Yep, not an easy job.
RUTH: Time to stop.
Seeing as it's your birthday,
- l baked you a cake. - Lovely.
PETER: Who's a lucky boy?
- Looking good for 45. - (Laughter)
We can't sing you Happy Birthday and we can't even say happy birthday.
lt's an American idea, it doesn't come into Britain until a lot later.
The melody for Happy Birthday comes from a song called Good Morning To You,
written in America in the 1 890s.
The famous lyric itself didn't appear in print until 1 924.
We have got you something.
- l wrapped it. - What could it be?
The bow's just for show.
Good.
- Do you know what it is yet? - ''The Apiary...
Or Bees, Bee Hives And Bee-Culture.''
- Thank you very much. RUTH: So there'll be no excuses now.
We're expecting honey and wax in huge quantities.
(Ruth chuckles)
Now you're a year older, do you think you're a year wiser?
Certainly when it comes to bee-keeping, l think l'm gonna be.
So if we can't say happy birthday to you, l don't know... Many happy returns?
Yep.
RUTH: Here's to another year. - Congratulations for surviving this long.
(Laughter)
Thank you ever so much for my book and the cake. lt was lovely.
lt's mid-June.
Princess's piglets are now fully weaned.
Hello, my sweeties.
Forget-Me-Not is still yielding plenty of milk.
Come on, you greedy.
Come on. Ooh, come on.
(Lows)
That's it.
And everyone's hoping the balm will make a difference to Clumper's hoof.
Stand!
Come on. Stand still, boy.
All eyes are now turning to the hayfield.
And the weather.
For several days, the crop has been hammered by rain.
At the first break in the clouds, the boys have a chance to inspect it.
- lf you feel right down in here, that's... - That's damp.
- lt's damp. - The earth is damp.
The hay can't be harvested in wet conditions.
But the boys mustn't delay for long.
With every passing day, the crop's nutritional value is going down.
So unless the weather improves, and the harvest can start,
the crop will have little use as animal feed.
- This is awful. Truly awful. - lt really is.
Let's just hope we get a nice dry spell within the next couple of weeks.
Right. Do you want to start getting some milk in?
Yeah. Sure.
ln the dairy, Ruth's also got a big task ahead of her.
She's asked her daughter Catherine to come and help out.
We're about to make our first cheese of the year.
And this is our vat - which is just a great big box, that we're filling up with all the milk.
We've got to raise it right up to...
- Was it 85 degrees? - Yes, 85 degrees.
85 degrees, which is... Fahrenheit, that is. Fahrenheit.
This is our method of warming the milk.
This is the old and traditional method of bringing the milk up to a temperature,
so that when we add the rennet, the magic will happen.
lf the milk is too cold, no matter how much rennet we add, no reaction will occur.
We'll just have milk.
lf we can get the milk to the right temperature, when we pop the rennet in,
the milk will then separate into the solids, which are the curds -
which is what you make cheese out of-
and the liquids called whey, which you feed to the pigs.
Every time the water cools in these jugs,
we take the jugs out, fill them full of boiling water and pop them back in again.
(Sizzling)
Once the temperature reaches 85 degress, the rennet is added
and the split into curds and whey begins.
Right, so now we need to cut the curd into little cubes.
That starts to help the whey be released from the curds.
ln the old times we would have done that with our hands.
You literally put your fingers apart and gradually, very slowly, drew your fingers through.
But by Victorian times, you could purchase marvellous, gorgeous curd knives.
Do you want that one?
You draw it across the vat. The curd has to be treated very gently at this stage.
That's it.
Really smells horrible.
(Ruth giggles)
l'm sorry, it's horrible.
lt smells like baby sick. lt's really nasty.
- Well, it is, isn't it? lt's cow baby sick. - Eurrgh!
- lt is. lt's milk. - Look, it's all cubey.
lt's milk and the juices from a calfs stomach.
l mean, that's what...
- lf a baby calf was sick, this would be it. - lt's still horrible.
Ruth is making Cheddar cheese.
And it's now that the process of Cheddaring takes place.
The liquid whey is drained off, heated and returned to the vat.
lt then heats up the curd which sets into a firm mass.
They should stay solid. Yes, see?
The curd is then piled up in blocks.
By turning it we're starting a very gentle press,
just using the weight of the curd itself to press whey out.
lf we didn't do this Cheddaring process, we'd have a cheese that would only last a short while.
You'd have to eat it within the month.
But by doing this process, we'll have a cheese that can last six, eight, nine months
and still be nice.
(Buzzing)
- Thanks for coming down again, Brian. - That's fine.
Alex has asked beekeeper Brian Goodwin to help with one final task.
lt wasn't a job l felt l could do myself, to be honest.
(Brian chuckles)
(Buzzing)
- That's freshly-made wax. - lt is.
And if l scrape off that bit of wax with the hive tool,
you can see that there is honey underneath it.
- That's what we've come for. - That's what we've come for.
The first step in extracting the honey is to get the bees off the comb.
You can see that this comb's got rather a lot of bees on it.
They're very quiet at the moment and when l shake them off into the box,
you'll find that they become rather more agitated.
This is the time that you've got to beware of them.
So, they don't like me doing this.
- So back to the cottage. - Yes.
We've got two different types of extractor.
So it will be interesting to see how they work.
Right.
First, the beeswax must be removed from the comb in a process called uncapping.
And it's a slicing action that gets it off fairly easily across the comb.
And these are traditional honey knives, are they?
They are. These are what are called Bingham honey knives, made in the 1 880s, 1 890s.
Then it's time to bring out the extractor.
You put the frame inside the extractor, resting against the wire grid,
which supports it when it's revolving at high speed.
Right. There we go.
The faster you turn it, the faster the honey
will be flung out by centrifugal force against the metal container.
But the higher the risk then of it skidding off. Right, there we go. l think l've got it.
(Squeaking)
The idea of using centrifugal force to extract honey
was hit upon in 1 865 by ltalian army major Francesco De Hruschka.
lt requires quite a high level of concentration, this.
Legend has it Hruschka came up with the idea
after seeing his son playing with a basket of honeycomb.
The boy whirled the basket in the air and his father noticed a few drops of honey come out.
- Have a look in there. - l'll take the comb out.
And you can see where the honey has been flung out of the comb,
up against the wall of the main body of the extractor.
But you can see that this extractor isn't very efficient.
Once the principle of using centrifugal force was established,
it wasn't long before improved extractors hit the market.
This was a major advance, because you can extract four combs at once in this extractor.
Right.
The secret is to place the extractor firmly within your knees
because it could be unbalanced.
- And you need to grip it fairly tightly... - Right.
..as you extract it.
You turn the honey quite fast
and you can see immediately, if you look down in the gap,
- you can see the honey coming out. - Wow! Look at that.
lt's amazing.
When l was a lad, l used to sit in the kitchen alongside my father.
- Did you? - He would be uncapping the combs
and l would be turning the handle furiously.
And that was my job.
- Right. Here we go. The moment of truth. - Here we go.
- Wow. - You would get that golden liquid coming out.
Look at that. This is a dream come true, Brian, this is for me.
- ls it? - Yes, to see this.
And we tip it back now, ready to close the gate valve. That's it.
That's absolutely amazing. Look at that.
OK. l'll have to do it one block at a time.
Victorian technology is also coming in handy in the dairy.
This curd mill was made in the factory of local inventor Thomas Corbett,
whose products were sold all over the world.
So having got it into these solid blocks,
l think it's rather ironic that we then have to grind it down into a crumblyness.
Yes, it's a bit weird.
The blocks help to develop flavours,
develop texture.
You can't mix in the salt or pack it evenly into a press
if it's in great big thunking lumps
Being a dairy implement, this is women's work. Doesn't make it any easier, does it?
No.
After mixing salt into the curd and packing it in a mould,
it's time for the final piece of equipment -
the cheese press.
Flipping heck.
This is very much a standard, basic, farmyard cheese press.
And you see hundreds and hundreds of them.
They were made in vast numbers and they survive in vast numbers
because they're really sturdy and they do the job beautifully.
The pressure gauge is really rather useful.
Just want it so that the whey will run.
- There it is. Starting to see the first run. - Yeah.
- ls that running? - Just.
Over the next three days, the pressure will be gradually increased,
until most of the whey has come out.
lt's still raining and the hay still can't be cut.
With every day that goes by, the crop is losing nutritional value.
To cheer themselves up, the team are having their first taste of the farm's honey.
That is absolutely stunning.
- lt's so good. - lt's so alive, isn't it?
Brian said there is no better-tasting honey than the honey you get from your first extraction.
And l think l have to agree with him.
(Laughter)
While they wait for the rain to stop, Peter's making some provisions.
l'm going to make some ginger beer for the hay harvest.
This is The Family Save-All, Ruth's book, that she's given to me,
with the best ginger beer recipe in it.
lt's white sugar, lemon, lemon juice, honey,
ginger, which we've got,
water.
And then it's just, basically, boil it up,
mix in all the rest of the stuff, and then add some yeast, and leave it.
lt's a pretty simple recipe, which is lucky, cos l've never done this before.
lt's flown everywhere.
And that, l would say, is bruised ginger.
This is honey that Alex has given me.
So hopefully it will give it a nice flavour.
l've never been one for exact guidelines.
(Laughs)
This is a very, very sharp grater.
Careful my fingers don't go the same way as The Family Save-All.
Yeast -
which l've got here, it's a brewer's yeast.
l'm going to leave these for a couple of days, just to ferment.
Let the yeast act and it will all start frothing up.
So...fingers crossed it will work.
The ginger beer will be ready to drink in about ten days'time.
But the cloudsjust won't clear.
We've got a nice bit of sun here, and we've got some wind as well,
so you'd think it was good haymaking weather,
but l'm just looking at the cloud formations
and it's just starting to break up into what we call a mackerel sky.
And the old rhyme goes, ''Mackerel sky, mackerel sky,
Never long wet, never long dry''.
And that's not good haymaking weather,
so we're going to have to leave it for another couple of weeks.
(Rustling and giggling)
(Giggling continues)
lt's Midsummer's Eve -
a night that in Victorian rural folklore held powerful meaning.
Of an evening like this, in the 1 880s,
young women working on farms
often liked to use a whole range of folklore practices
to work out who they were going to marry.
Who were the young men who would strike lucky?
Many of these rituals took place in churchyards at night.
Ruth's daughter Catherine has decided to try one out.
Ow. There are so many thorns. lt really hurts.
You all right there?
- Can you see? - Yeah. OK. There we go.
- She's got to scatter hemp seed. - Can you remember what l'm supposed to say?
BOTH: Hemp seed l sow, hemp seed should grow.
Erm...
RUTH: He who will marry me, come after and mow.
- There we go. - Right.
- l can't remember that. Ready? - Ready. Go on, then.
Erm...
Hemp seed l sow, hemp seed will grow.
He who will marry me...
..come after and mow.
(Ruth giggles) - There we go.
(Bell tolls)
- What's supposed to happen now? - He's supposed to appear.
Like a ghost.
- You see any ghosts? - l don't think it's worked.
- Which young man had you in mind? - No-one.
(Both laugh)
- Really? - Really. No-one at all.
- No-one at all. - No little prospective...?
No, not at all. Not in the slightest.
You might dream him, you know. Might come as an apparition in your dreams.
That's even more creepy, OK?
l just have to say, that is hugely creepy.
Back at the farm, the cheese has been pressed.
While the unsettled weather continues,
the team are taking a trip to explore one final piece of Victorian dairy technology.
(Train whistle)
Doesn't that look magnificent?
- That is the future, Ruth. - lt is the future.
lt is the future.
From the 1 840s onwards, the railways opened up a crucial new market for dairy farmers.
For the first time ever, fresh milk could be sent in bulk from the countryside to the town.
Beautiful.
- Oh, and the carriages too. - Look at that.
- Right, and this is where our milk goes. - Right, OK.
To get a flavour of this breakthrough, the team's come to the Talyllyn Railway in Wales,
one of the few railways still preserved as it was in the 1 9th century.
- OK. - Shall we have a ride?
- Yeah, let's get on for a ride. (Ruth chuckles)
- Ah, l'm so looking forward to this. - l'll see you at the next station.
- Green flag. - Righto, we'll go.
(Whistle)
Alex is travelling with one of Talyllyn's most dedicated drivers, Phil Higginson.
ALEX: This is the way to travel.
lt's got all its original locomotives and rolling stock.
- Right. - We're on an original train.
- We're on a time capsule from the 1 860s. - Completely.
Think about it.
These engines have gone back and forth on this bit of line since 1 865.
lmagine it back in the 1 860s when this was the cutting edge of engineering.
This was hi-tech. This was like having the internet arriving, broadband at your house.
(Train whistle)
This is the most fantastic train, isn't it?
lt is indeed, yes.
lf you think about the development in the railways within Queen Victoria's lifetime -
in 1 830 the speed world record for a steam train was 30mph.
- Yeah. - ln 1 895, it's 90mph.
And there's so much more network than there is nowadays in modern Britain.
lt's something like four times as many stations in 1 880,
as there are in the 21 st century.
These things, they absolutely revolutionised dairy farming.
The whole production of raw milk going into cities and towns,
where before it would have gone off before you got there.
Now you can get your churns to a station.
- Yeah. And it's away. - Away. Off you go. Quickly.
lt arrives in a brilliant state.
- Sellable, straight off. - The rocking might turn it into butter.
(Train whistle)
(Hissing of steam)
That was great, wasn't it?
That was absolutely fantastic.
- There he is. - Cheers, guys.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you so much.
(Train whistle)
Back on the farm, the weather is worse than ever
and the hay is now in real jeopardy.
Fresh grass is growing up underneath the hay crop,
making a thick layer that would be difficult for Victorian machines to cut.
ln a brief gap in the rain, the boys have decided it's now or never for the hay harvest.
They've called in expert local horseman Brian Davis to help.
Gee up! Gee up!
Gee up!
- Just not cutting, is it? - No, it's not.
lt's just so thick, isn't it?
Try it again, Brian?
Gee up! Come on.
Gee up.
l'm really feeling for Alex at the moment. He was so up for this.
He's put so much effort into it, and it's just not working.
lt's so thick and so wet as well.
lt's soapy. lt's what's called soapy.
- Look at that. - Peter's wringing it out. Look at that.
Wringing it out.
To become hay, the grass must be able to dry in the field.
But this grass is so wet, it's more likely to rot away instead.
- lt's like a carpet, isn't it? - Shagpile.
For a Victorian farmer, this would have been disastrous.
A failed hay crop would leave him with nothing to feed his animals over winter.
So the boys aren't quitting.
Give it a few more tries maybe, Brian.
Back. Back!
Back! Back!
But eventually they come to a painful decision.
l'm afraid we've had to give up.
lt's just too thick, this crop. lt's too wet.
And we've had to admit defeat.
ln this situation, the Victorian farmer would have had to buy in his hay for the coming months.
That would mean raising money from elsewhere on the farm.
So everything now rests on the success of the team's wheat field.
They need a bumper and profitable crop when they harvest it in a few weeks'time.
- Bloody rain. Rain, rain, rain, rain. - Let's hope it doesn't affect the wheat, eh?
Yeah, there's more clouds on the horizon, isn't there?
Every cloud has a silver lining. Just got to work out what it is.
(Laughter)
Hopefully it will be your ginger beer, my good friend.
- Hi, Ruth. - Hello.
- Oh, gosh. You're back quick. - We are.
- Sadly, it's not to be. - lt's not to be, unfortunately.
Not today. And probably not ever.
- Really? - Not this year, anyway, for us.
- lt's just too wet. - lt was too thick.
Too thick.
- Oh, what a shame. - lt is a shame.
l was really looking forward to doing it.
- We've got that ginger beer of yours. - Shall we give it a go?
lt looks the part, it really does.
Well, here's to a better wheat harvest.
- Yes. - Here's to a better wheat harvest.
Mm. That's gorgeous.
- lt's not bad, is it? - That is delicious.
(Ruth laughs) - lt really is.
- l don't like ginger beer, but that is good. - Really nice.
- Something's gone right. - Thank goodness. Thank goodness.
What are we gonna do if the wheat doesn't work?
- lt will, it will. - lt will work, we'll make it work.
We've got to.
Next time on Victorian Farm..
the year-long project nears its end.
But first the team face their toughest challenge -
the wheat harvest.
(Ruth whoops and laughs)
There are urgent repairs to be made.
Water.
Yes, right.
Cutting-edge technology -
Victorian-style.
- Yes or no? - No.
And crucially, they need dry weather.
Otherwise, a year's work will have been in vain.