A Day In The Life Of An Edwardian Family | Turn Back Time: The Family | Absolute History

the family it's where we love laugh shout and cry [Music] it makes us who we are but it hasn't always been the cherished institution it is today to find out how the modern family came to be a group of parents and kids from across britain are turning back time to face the same ordeals as millions of others over the past 100 years in the northern seaside town of morecambe the past is coming alive a row of terrorist houses has been turned into time machines to transport our families through the twists and turns of the 20th century from the age of masters and servants i felt a bit emotional because i knew she was there to take the children away which is quite difficult through the roaring twenties to the great depression anything else of value will need to be sold the fact that was in front of the family felt really useless from life on the home front of the separation to the swinging 60s about the length of their skirts and we're starting the rebellion right now and on to the groovy 70s i can give a damn about material things for me family is the most important thing and the past is going to get personal as they live the lives of their very own ancestors rather than just living in a museum we're actually living an ancestor's life she died of tb consumption i'm sorry for quite emotional we take so much for granted i think we're turning back time to find out how history made the family what it is today [Music] there are dozens of albert roads in britain all of which have been home to generations of families this one in morcom lancashire is about to be the setting for something extraordinary a row of terrorist houses are being taken back to the early 1900s when they were first built for the next five weeks the houses will become time machines transporting three modern families through 100 years of history guiding the families on this incredible journey will be working mom and queen of the breakfast sofa susanna reid this is the story of three families but it is also the story of us all of us and our families and understanding what our great-grandparents grandparents and parents went through and how that shaped us today social historian juliette gardner will be making sure the families stick to the rules of the past what we're trying to do here is very exciting we're charting the development of british family life over a hundred years of history and completing the team is antique gadget enthusiast joe crowley wow look at that you wouldn't want your finger in the way of that one the adventure for our families is about to begin the tailors are from norfolk hardworking nurse adele and electrician michael have their hands full with four children we're a chaotic family it's just throwing all the balls in the air seeing where they land we had four children because we want a busy house i don't want to ever be in a house that's quiet i want to be in the thick of it with everybody there but for the tailors there just aren't enough hours in the day mom wants us to do this because she wants us to um um be together a bit more and she wants to see what it was like in the olden days and stuff what our second family are the meadows from royal berkshire okay can you bring down the horses please self-made man phil and his wife susie run a polo school with the help of their teenage daughters saskia and genevieve okay baby for the meadows family means being part of a team as a family we probably spend more time together than most uh families because of the nature of the business and that we all play the sport the world we live in is like a little cocoon we deal with some incredibly wealthy people royalty from all around the world everyone knows everybody it's very nice but it's quite limited the opportunity to actually do something as a family that's outside of polo is quite exciting for me but phil and susie are aware just how privileged their girls are we actually as modern day children don't do much housework me and jennifer are quite lazy when it comes to that it's going to be great for saskia and genevieve to understand how tough life was in the 1900s and how they've got it so easy quite frankly our third family are the goldings from cheshire customer services manager ian and part-time accountant naomi have three kids okay for them family is all about equality the children can see that dad can do the washing and can put them to bed and bath them just as much as i can do so it's a real modern sharing sharing family even the kids get to have their say i'd like to have family meetings and get them to say what things they're not happy with while steven and naomi agree on most things when it comes to child discipline ian would like to try something more old-fashioned i don't necessarily think that being firm is always such a bad thing i think he's going to quite like the idea of being in control i think he thinks he's going to be respected a lot more than possibly he is now i don't think he'll like it i think he thinks he'll like it but i don't think he will like it that much their journey will begin in the early 1900s when for the first time the family itself was something to aspire to number one is the height of upper middle class luxury down to number three a typical working class dwelling none of the families have any idea which house they'll be living in but it will be determined by the status of their own edwardian ancestors something they know little about which house would you like to be rich i know not a lot about my family history but i'm pretty sure there isn't any secret millionaires somewhere i definitely want to be in this house welcome to the start of your adventure an exciting challenge lies ahead you are going to put britain's family unit to the test by living through five eras of the 20th century and it is going to be tough you are going to have to cope with whatever history throws at you i'm going to do my best to assist you in your challenge by bringing you some 1900s domestic technology which may make your lives easier or it may not now in this era families you've got to live according to the rules and social conventions of the time all of you must live within the means available to people of your class well i know you are all dying to find out which house you're going to be in and all is about to be revealed [Music] tailors please go to number one albert road the upper class house goldings number two the middle class house [Music] [Laughter] and meadows please go to number three the working-class house [Music] the taylor family are stepping into a world of wealth and leisure i'm your housekeeper mrs mcmullen hello may i introduce you to your staff this is mr dowding your chef and natasha your housemate there are five of us all together and what do we do with you [Music] guys just don't break anything no this is gonna be very stressful on top of five servants the tailors have a vast four-story house complete with a nursery full of toys and dad michael has his own private study where he can retreat to when things get too hectic i think this is me i think this is where i belong well i love this i think this is brilliant their home is state of the art with electricity and a boiler in the scullery producing hot water on demand [Music] i'm just a bit shocked we just expected we would be in the number three with the dirty windows that was because there's no money in our family so i don't quite know how we've ended up here at all juliet has come to reveal just why they've landed the most prestigious home on albert road hello taylor family hello hello i've come to tell you why you're living in this rather grand house and the reason is you really got to thank one of your ancestors michael's great-great-great-grandfather william bennett was at the heart of britain's thriving cotton industry running a mill in derbyshire what i perceived as my ancestors were all very much working people okay you've landed on your feet here you've got a very comfortable lifestyle but you're going to have to obey the conventions and the regulations that come with that lifestyle so will we liaise with any other neighbors would we speak to them you would keep your distance you know you'll be very anxious to keep your status just keep yourself separate from them i think that's going to be a real difficult challenge for us from knowing how we like to interact with different people um to actually be very standoffish today it's going to be very very difficult things will be much tougher for the meadows family at number three [Music] they'll be living in the most basic conditions cooking and heating their water on an open fire where are we going to sit that's comfortable oh i actually won't be sitting anywhere so there's no tv things are looking even worse in their only other room oh what a bedroom this is this is the only bed oh my god all four of them will be sleeping in this tiny space with the girls sharing a mattress on the floor guys do you want me to worry you now toilets might be a bit of a problem [Laughter] with no bathroom the meadows will have to use the outside privy or face the alternative [Music] oh no i'm not peeing now do you feel [Music] oh the goldings are in the middle class house [Music] i love it it's a modest but respectable home with seven rooms there's no electricity but plenty of options for an evening's entertainment the goldings will enjoy running water and the latest cooking range i'm not sure how you're going to cook on there how much guys i hope you're not very hungry so what's in this book guys each family has been given a manual explaining the rules they're expected to live by father is the head of the house his word is law do you know what i've been waiting for that for years children should speak only when spoken to oh this is music to my ears before the goldings settle in they must change into the appropriate clothing of the time it's not really very attractive is it [Music] oh jack he's my little edwardian sailor oh susanna has come to explain to the goldings why they're living in the middle class house we have tracked down your great great grandfather right and here he is his name was nathan lutzky and he was a tailor in cardiff which puts you in the middle classes but he didn't originally come from cardiff originally russia look at that well i have no idea about any of that like thousands of russian jews nathan ludsky emigrated to britain around the turn of the century unusually for an immigrant he prospered from the start what this means is that you are going to avoid getting your hands dirty it means that you are going to have a white collar job next door joe crowley has arrived to tell the polo playing meadows why they're living in such humble circumstances so this is the 1901 census yeah west ham in london but if we come down here we see james meadows james meadows was phil's great-grandfather who worked in london's east end as a general laborer and that's what you're going to be doing you're going to be out there doing manual jobs you have to find jobs day to day and just get started putting the money in and joe has a surprise for saskia too you're going to be working two doors down at the big house okay you're going to be a scullery mate yes let me see your hands they're quite manly i think these beautiful nails might happen up a little bit okay thanks i'm just working out how much we need to earn and it's not going well in the edwardian era families who couldn't pay their rent faced instant eviction we need to earn [Music] 22 shillings and toppants a week to pay our bills as a general laborer phil will have to find his own work but at best he'll earn two shillings a day so he'll have to rely on the others to make up the difference right deep deep team family this is all about the family remember let's try and keep it together i clearly didn't marry very well i should have known better we find ourselves impoverished and it's going to be really hard i think [Music] while the tailors and the golding settle down for a comfortable night's sleep the meadows are facing a very different prospect [Music] tomorrow the hard work begins it's 6 a.m and the working-class meadows are in for a rude awakening [Music] in edwardian times a knocker upper was the alarm clock for the masses lovely see ya it's really inconvenient i mean there's no room for anything it's all uh i mean there's nobody to put your clothes we sleep under anything that'll keep you warm at night because it's freezing there's no heating so and then everyone's on top of each other like this all the time um so it's incredibly inconvenient for the working classes living in poverty meant life was a slog from the moment they got up everything takes so long to do everything's a major palava and all you do is think about food and tea and warmth food tea warmth that's it that's all you care about for the meadows to keep their heads above water seventeen-year-old saskia has been forced to take up a role as a scullery maid seeing as my dad's not getting any work my mom hasn't got any work i've got to go and spend my entire day scrubbing and cleaning a reluctant saskia heads off to work for the tailors under the watchful eye of housekeeper mrs mcmullen i probably come across a bit of a scary lady i with the little glasses and i'm short i have very high standards i am very very intimidating to work for [Music] hello i'm saskia hello saskia now normally you would not come in through the front entrance not the servant's entrance okay but you can come in today as a scullery maid you are the lowest of low yes you girls are tina penny yes you will be chopping filleting gutting plucking and a lot of scrubbing lovely [Music] what she won't be doing is ever fraternizing with her new employers the tailors who are waking up to the extravagance of upper middle class [Music] yeah life high service when we go the upper classes had staff for even the most personal of chores the courses feel really strange because you can't actually breathe properly in them the richest families could have as many as five servants for each family member in some respects it feels like i've regressed back into childhood where you you have your mother to dress you in the morning inside your shoelaces everything michael and adele are used to doing for themselves is now done by someone else please come in [Music] even looking after their kids nanny hutchinson sir madam good morning madam good morning good morning sir good morning good morning miss i shall endeavor to instruct the children academically morally and spiritually are they all in good health at the moment they are excellent morning how are you joseph very good thank you good you looking very smart today i am nanny hutchinson how do you do and good morning miss lily good morning good morning nanny good morning nanny and good morning miss alice good morning come along then children give mommy a kiss before you go with mommy redundant [Music] kira and katie will you sit down now please don't confuse themselves not speak to me next door ian golding is relishing the opportunity to get stuck into his role as the family's authority figure jack would you like to take your elbows off the table please thank you why are you crying chad you're not like daddy talking to you like this no always attempting to better themselves the middle classes were determined to keep up appearances even behind closed doors wash your hands please i would like to think that they will appreciate how important it was to behave properly 100 years ago and that sometimes we don't really behave as politely and as nicely as children used to that's being a meanie having some of the the manners of of their predecessors actually is not such a bad thing can i see if you've washed your hands properly they're wet keira could you dry them please thank you strict discipline was a cornerstone of edwardian child rearing but it's a foreign concept to the golding children edwardian dogs used to be strict and horrible and we can put our hallways on table at home [Music] wealthy edwardians were obsessed with formality even at breakfast time this one's sausage bacon i don't know kidneys bacon what's that this one's lobster i was expecting toast and jam no i don't want the breakfast corn flakes of the taylor clan the only child allowed to eat with the adults is 15 year old megan the other taylor children must eat their meals in the nursery a very different routine from home we normally eat together but now we're not allowed to eat together which is quite weird do it quite firmly and then work your way down at the toilet bowl it's just four hours into saskia's day as a scullery maid and what you're doing is taking off all the urine from inside lavatory [Music] i wasn't expecting it to be such hard work i hate washing up smells of food i want to go home it may not be glamorous but if she sticks at it she'll take home five shillings a week nearly a quarter of what her family needs to stay afloat i want to find out what year they invented the dishwasher [Music] edwardian toil may have come as a shock to saskia but upstairs the taylor children are also finding it hard to adjust remember that children should be seen and not heard you do not disturb mamar and papa downstairs at home they're used to doing pretty much as they please but now adults are the unquestionable authority you're with your brother and your sister who will also help to look after you and we really do not want any silly tears they're wobbling at the minute lily is anyway she's struggling with this this is just not she wants stories and play and fun i've not heard them laugh at all this morning don't concern yourself madam the children are fine i think when nanny arrived i felt a bit emotional because i knew she was there to take the children away which is quite difficult but as long as they go out and have a bit of fun that'd be fine fifteen-year-old genevieve is doing her first day of child labor she's working with mum susie who like many working-class women has turned their family home into a laundry business it's not washed yes it is it's got stains on it where i've washed it they're taking in washing from their neighbors a washer woman could earn up to 10 shillings a week almost half what the meadows family needs to survive but doing washing in this era is a laborious process boiling the water i hope this hasn't got a leak in the bottom hand are you scrubbing me using the cumbersome mangle to wring out laundry it works it does work easy actually making starch from potatoes dip them in your starch and finally using the flat iron i do figure that this was absolute labor of anything but love this was a necessity to just earn money they hurt they're all wrinkly and horrible because of the water just feel disgusting and my nails have chipped off but susie's fighting a losing battle mom what you need to watch this again yeah you see i just touched it with that oh for god's sake so you've got your white laundry is being cleaned by the coal scuttle that isn't very sensible thank you is it ian golding is heading to his job at the local council office morning before the age of computers and printers edwardian businesses relied on a small army of clerks today ian will be working as an envelope addresser and he'll be doing nothing else for the next eight hours this is the kind of job that a very junior person in an office might do in terms of stuffing envelopes but for what i would imagine a middle-class office worker today this is not really the kind of job that they would uh be used to doing it might be me neil but the job earns him a secure income of 57 shillings a week something phil meadows can only dream of he's out looking for casual work walking in the footsteps of his great-grandfather james meadows you need anything with a man with a wheelbarrow moving rubble around anything like that you know where i live so you'll fill up i don't need any labourers skilled man tough ends we'll roll that down up [Applause] god this thing's heavy i have a new respect for guys that do that now i'll tell you what that's tough work [Applause] 4 p.m after seven hours of hard graft suzy is ready to return her first load of washing how are you today very well thank you good five pennies sir you owe me is that that's per item no we said the whole price was five i think we said per ounce honey no it's five pennies per for the for the whole job the whole job yes it was okay susie's coming to terms with just how cheap her labor is in edwardian britain a sheet for two pence is absolutely ridiculous i mean soul destroying completely self-destruct [Music] it's nearly five o'clock the end of the day for office workers boring bored boring the only words that are coming to my mind so far i think me doing this job absolutely sums up middle class edwardian life a little bit stuffy a little bit boring good afternoon i am now absolutely in edwardian middle class man mode i absolutely expect my dinner on the table with a roaring fire in the kitchen and a cup of tea hello how are you what are you doing in here you're not allowed to be in the kitchen can you leave please you do not come in this kitchen leave the kitchen mother why are you letting them come in the kitchen i thought they were okay to come in the kitchen no they're not supposed to be in the kitchen no are they not nice to me why are the stairs still covered in dust uh i haven't had time to do that but what have you been doing i've been cooking your dinner and cleaning everywhere please don't speak back to me oh sorry i thought you asked me a question yeah he wanted to see you when you come home from work he needs to understand that this is the way it was i know so um [Music] i'm not meant to go and comfort them if they're crying there'd be no emotional caring at all i don't know how they trying to work out how adored and children come to themselves i guess they discounted each other hey they must have been a lot tougher than children today katie would you mind going to get jack a tissue please for his nose something to wipe his nose please the reality that being in edwardian family is actually not a lot of fun for the majority of the time all i seem to have done is make the children cry because i just have to be very strict all the time not a lot of fun at all so i'm looking forward to actually being able to talk to my children whenever i fancy talking to my children um holding them whenever i want to hold them cuddling them when they're sad and just having a conversation would be nice because we're not even allowed to do that phil has been working on the streets all day for a wage of two shillings he'll need to do this every day to stand a chance of keeping a roof over his family i'm exhausted i mean you need to just dig in dig deep and get on with it and and the only way you can do that is by almost slightly switching off meanwhile daughter saskia is coming to the end of her first day as the taylor scullery maid i thought when we're on camera we'd have to do the chores but then when it was like cut i thought we'd be able to go off go get some food have a chat amongst everyone i didn't realize we actually had to live like families did in the 1910s so it's a bit of a shocker after 12 hours of hard graft saski has finally been allowed back home hello darling okay listen to this i need to sit down by the fire so you walk in and it's all heated and you've got chandeliers drawing rooms pianos nursery they've got a chef um a housekeeper a maid another maid we're very proud of you out working says there we are right you're gonna bring home five shillings it must have been really hard to think that they're only in this life to earn money for their mum and dad now this is just the next one you have kids to supplement your family income you don't really necessarily have kids to want to love and cherish like we do i'm so tired there's one big role and that is to put the food on the table and uh it's really tough to do that i spent the whole day worrying that i can't provide food for them i was a useless parent i can't look after my daughter they're all gonna be real unhappy the pressure is hard it's survival [Music] as an upper-middle-class man with an income almost 40 times greater than the meadows and plenty of leisure time to spend michael's taking sun joseph clay pigeon shooting at leighton hall a local stately home owned by mrs susie reynolds hello thank you also on the grounds is phil meadows unlike michael he's not here to enjoy himself he's been given a day's work shoveling manure i didn't like being cool by my surname for some reason i didn't want to raise my eyes to them i didn't want to let them in the eye i definitely felt that which is weird i wasn't expecting it fantastic it may well have been that you basically were so frightened of doing something wrong and getting the sack that you basically you did the minimum possible just kept working etiquette dictates that michael could bring only his son with him to shoot leaving the rest of the family behind the advantage of this era for the gentleman is that he does get to go out and do the things that are really exciting but to the detriment of the relationship between myself and the family also enjoying the great outdoors with their nanny are the two youngest taylor children lily and alice well of course working with them so much you do get very attached to them they are very delightful children and very well behaved but for the remaining members of the tailors adele and eldest daughter megan there is little to fill their day i feel a bit resentful of michael who's gone out living the life of riley can't even be bothered to tell me where he's going or when he'll be back i feel like a prisoner in in this house there's this illusion of this powerful woman with the status and this fancy house and actually it's all lies adele might feel she has things tough but two doors down the grind of working class life is getting to susie meadows [Music] the women of the 1900s must have been absolutely rock-like they they would have eaten after the rest of their family especially their children they had to be up earlier than everyone else they had to go to bed later than everyone else it makes me quite emotional actually because oh dear while the drudgery of life hits home for her mum daughter saskia is starting to embrace hard work you've done very well so far saskia and i'll come and see you again shortly thank you i just know that i have to get on with it now so i might as well do it in a in a nice fashion or i'm not to get on with miss mcmullen t upstairs it's the first time adele has seen michael all day and she's still waiting to see the children [Music] good afternoon madam sir may i present the children to you i'd like to give that to them wow look at that like the feathers did you pluck the animal yourself what have you been doing upstairs had a game of chess we've been for a walk wow was it nice you have been very busy wealthy edwardian women often spent little more than an hour with their children before they were whisked back to the nursery by nanny in edwardian times perhaps the women didn't know any better they had no expectations that spending time with their children perhaps would be a nice thing it wasn't expected of them so they didn't think to ask whereas that's the norm for me initially when we were told we were coming into house number one and you turn around and see the grandeur of it i kind of thought great this is gonna be really good experience and then the reality kicked in that in fact actually you wouldn't know your family you wouldn't know your kids because you never see them michael is leaving the family again for another social engagement mr taylor is attending the local music hall where he'll have his own private box but he won't be the only resident of albert road there as the meadows have scraped up a few pennies for four tickets in the stalls [Music] i'm here on my own which is a horrible feeling knowing that adele and the children at home and they would love the show after seeing the meadows downstairs all singing and clapping and enjoying themselves i just felt really lonely up there on my own [Music] i miss the kids and i miss being around the wife the flap sorry [Music] it's hard [Applause] [Music] meanwhile adele home alone is expected to be more concerned with improving the family's social standing right honorable bertram castro maddox so juliet has tasked her with holding a lavish dinner party for some illustrious guests i just don't think i'm pushy enough to associate with people with a law degree from cambridge university i'd rather invite the working plus people from down the road or beat another jolly old knees up in here but i don't think that's gonna happen [Music] mate believe was so real to him would see him getting rounder it's nearing the end of the week in the edwardian era and the taylor children are becoming accustomed to the new family dynamic away from their parents i think it's fun being with the nursery because there's lots of toys and things to do when downstairs is sitting down and books i think they're missing us more than we're missing them actually because we're having quite a lot of fun but mom says it's a bit boring just sitting there doing sewing so yeah i think they're missing more after spending most of the week cooped up inside adele has discovered one way for her and megan to escape how do you get out with a hefty price tag bikes were only for the wealthy but they offered a new independence for women who had always been driven and chauffeured they now had the freedom to travel alone this bit of edwardian life i like it's strange how after being locked in a house you feel like you just got this bit of freedom i want to run around the park like yeah free and i'm kind of just not wanting to go back home did you eat anything no we couldn't eat him back on albert road ian golding is comparing lifestyles with his lowly neighbor do you have bread this morning no because there's nothing to unless you want to eat dry bread historian juliet has some news for the social climbing ian that might bring him down to earth you can aspire to go to join them or you can join my revolution oh entirely up to you it depends if you want to live or not i have to tell you actually the divide between you and the meadows is much less than you think ian is living the life of his great great grandfather nathan ludsky but on the other branch of his family tree is another ancestor abraham weinstein whose life in britain was very different to nathan's they would have come over at the time of the pogroms after the assassination of the tsar at one point about 91 percent of the residents of spitalfields in the east entertainment your own family you know the two parents and the four children the six people were all living in two rooms makes me feel very humble because i i think i i've ignored my family history completely and i don't know why it's just it's never something i've shown any interest in life was hard for the weinsteins and within 10 years of arriving abraham's wife kate died at the age of only 39. she died in december [Music] [Music] um we're very spoiled we take so much for granted i think you wouldn't have been able to do that 100 years ago you couldn't take anything for granted really we're bloody lucky and bloody lucky to be here and we're lucky to be how we are and we could be like the meadows is next door [Music] next door at number one the house is a hive of activity preparing for tonight's grand dinner party go right down yep mrs mcmullen needs extra hands to make sure the evening runs smoothly so she's promoted saskia to housemaid transfer your weight down down down down down down down now welcome to the scullery genevieve downstairs genevieve has been taken on as saskia's replacement in this gallery i am very pleased with the way that your sister has worked so you've got something to live up to with only one day left for the meadows to make the 22 shillings they need to avoid eviction saskia and genevieve are earning vital money for the family don't even know if i'm doing this right oh my god what the hell miss mcmullen you must pluck this pigeon please i heard you pluck it and she said she'll be down soon but here i don't know how to do it just start plucking the feathers off jen just grab a feather pluck it off [Music] i don't get any diseases jenna to make sure that taylor's dinner party has the wow factor technology expert joe has arrived to introduce michael to the very latest in home entertainment right michael i have something to show you fabulous do you know what this is it looks like a camera that's pretty good it's a magic lantern all right i want you to entertain your dinner party yes with a magic lantern show okay i'd love to yeah okay this is it for entertainment you don't have a tv this is your edwardian home cinema system and i wouldn't let too many of these slip into the collection look at that the taylor ladies get dressed in their finery downstairs the guests are starting to arrive this is susan reynolds oh mrs reynolds juliet gardner is here to see if the tailors can entertain like true edwardians and do their wealthy ancestors proud right honorable bertram cattle maddox are you ready no you're not because you haven't got this prepared newly promoted saskia is doing her best to keep service on track right once you've washed them on here once it's all washed dry i know i know don't drop anything but we've got to do it quick time because we need it all again now these slides are quite special upstairs the guests are enjoying the magic lantern show oh that's good even the reluctant adele is getting into the spirit of things [Music] [Laughter] sorry my mistake [Music] next door the middle class goldings are entertaining themselves you are singing brilliantly ian has decided to abandon strict edwardian discipline to be able to hold jack it's the first time i think i've held him it was lovely it was really lovely it makes me feel more like a dad you know i'm a dad not a father so to have the opportunity to hold him was lovely this is very pretty centerpiece yes very pretty we either need to be taller i think all of our decorations smaller [Music] an evening like this one could cost more than a poor family had to live on for two years [Music] yes [Music] [Laughter] if there are no calamities i will be absolutely amazed because she's notoriously clumsy but it's not saskia who slipped up what are you kidding me generally that's not funny i don't mean to do it tesca this is taken out of our wages on a serious note because that was the first thing that mcmullen said to me at nine pence a bone china cup costs almost a day's pay i'm very annoyed at my sister we're probably gonna be back to nearly zero so i'm not very happy and my parents are gonna be livid i want to be honest but i'm scared of miss mcmuller i don't know her name genevieve needs to pluck up the courage to confess to a busy mrs mcmullen why are you pushing up open up the lid you're not set um yes while i was washing up i went to dry cup and it fell off the table and it smashed it it's one of the white ones all right i think that's sleepy i'm sorry it happens luckily mrs mcmullen has her hands full and genevieve's off the hook [Music] dinner parties were all about excess and tonight adele will have to see her way through eight sumptuous courses if the lady of the house actually knew how many courses there were maybe she adjusted a corset first come the hors d'oeuvre no thank you thanks very much followed by asparagus [Music] two fish dishes one meat dish genevieve's pigeons and vegetables presented with typical edwardian flamboyance but however grand the meal for adele the evening is meaningless without her family we've had the most wonderful food foods i've i've never tasted in my life before like being in the fanciest restaurant i've ever been and i haven't been able to enjoy it because the family haven't that they haven't been they haven't been with us while we bet it because sorry the residents of albert road are preparing to leave the lives of their edwardian ancestors behind after living their life i feel more detached from my ancestors it's nice to do all the great things and do the stuff but i don't want to do things on my own i really don't i want to do things with my family my ancestors i don't know how they must have lived like this my family's found it difficult when there's four of us in this house and we're only here for five days for them to live like this for the rest of their life must be very difficult and it's quite heartbreaking susanna and juliet are back to catch up with the families it's time to find out how the family unit has survived the edwardian experience have our families lived like true edwardians within the rigid class structure how has it been for you living in the posh house it's been horrible absolutely awful i didn't see the children i didn't see my husband me and megan were locked in this room 90 at a time with nothing to do there's no purpose as a busy working mum every minute of the day is looking forward to family time trying to catch that time with with children and just having nothing to do no purpose nobody needs you you've got no say in anything as a woman in this era i could walk out this door and nobody would notice that i wasn't here probably for days what do you think is most distinctive about the edwardian family unit it seemed like a bunch of single people living in a big house it doesn't there's any such word as the edwardian family [Music] next door the middle class goldings are less disparaging of the early 1900s evenings you know the way the family behaved in the evenings it is so easy just to turn on the tv i think it would be nice not to do that all the time me molly and you've had to take on the role of the strict edwardian father your role sounded like the one that you might enjoy strictness for an edwardian father seems to be just for the sake of being strict the edwardian father needs to understand that it's not such a bad thing sometimes to show a bit of emotion [Music] but trapped in the cycle of survival the working-class family had it hardest we really lived this and it was bloody awful and it really was the first few days until we got our act together it was just awful and then we kicked in you know and we made it work but we could have easily gone the other way we've just gone home actually yeah well juliet how have they done financially i've got your budget here so your total outgoings in your week were 21 shillings and 10 pence okay so now let's look at your income as a family you have earned 28 shillings four and a half pence so well done pretty good you've lived within your budget and some well done i think it pushed us to the to the maximum i think as a family i think we did really well children's reaction to this has actually amazed me i cannot believe the girls have really had to change because if anything they're probably you know they're a little bit more sport at home but i've been so proud of both of them for the families it's the end of the edwardian era time on albert road it's the roaring 20s cheers might be a little bit bumpy here but the great depression is just around the corner i'll leave you with four chairs but anything else of value will need to be sold who will ride the storm no we haven't sell that yet no we'll sell the kids first and who will see their fortunes slip away

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 279,866

Rating: 4.9249597 out of 5

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, edwardian era, edwardian family, absolute history, turn back time, turn back time the family, victorian era, life in victorian era

Id: DwkUW0mMkqE

Length: 56min 46sec (3406 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021