How To Make Tudor Home Remedies | Tudor Monastery EP6 | Absolute History

500 years ago England was emerging into a new era after years of war plague and famine the kingdom was enjoying peace and prosperity under the reign of the first Tudor King Henry the seventh a new class of business savvy farmer was thriving boosting food production and then over she goes while wool from their sheep was generating half the nation's wealth many of the nation's farms were under the control of the biggest landowner in England after the king the monasteries their influence could be felt in every aspect of daily life they were not just places of religion they were at the forefront of Technology education and farming but with the daily lives of monks devoted to prayer they depended increasingly on tenant farmers who worked and tended their lands steady girl [Music] now historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Tom pin fold and Peter Ginn are turning the clock back to Tudor England here at Weald and down land in West Sussex two workers ordinary farmers under the watchful eye of a monastic landlord here it to succeed they'll have to master long lost farming methods gonna gain and get to grips with Tudor technology [Music] while immersing themselves in the beliefs customs and rituals that shaped the age this is Mary England for heaven's sake so to speak let's enjoy it this is the untold story of the monastic farms of Tudor England [Music] [Music] it's September the beginning of autumn and the days are getting shorter the team are preparing for the end of their farming year and their time as Tudor farmers Ruth Peter and Tom need to make provisions for the winter the pea crop has been collected and stored yeah flabbergasted which is how many peas we've got yeah it's time to bring the animals back to the farm from their summer grazing and the barley crop is now ready to be harvested in the Tudor period the harvest was the climax of the farming year if the harvest failed or the weather turned it could lead to malnutrition and even famine it looks amazing like the color is just incredible as one of England's largest landowners monasteries owned vast amounts of agricultural land most fields were open and not enclosed by hedges unlike today so tenant farmers would be given strips of land to cultivate within these large areas much as this could be a huge open field we would just have this strip here wouldn't we and also probably another strip over there now that strip over there but everyone would be growing the same crop and all be all hands to the pump yes definitely well that's why school holidays take the form they do isn't it because even students that to come out and do harvesting yeah bodies [Music] the team are discovering just how back-breaking the harvest would have been for the tudor farmer how often we have to actually sharpen our tools I mean you think metal versus barley have been an easy win but it's not once it's cut it needs to be bound into sheaves traditionally it's the men who reap and the women who bind so you run along behind the blokes picking up all the loose stalks and then finding it into a sheath say so much easy to control once it's bound like that every last grain from the harvest was precious even the smallest amounts would be gathered by those less well-off a practice known as gleaning offa poor people it was a really important source of food I mean for anybody that extra bit makes the difference doesn't it you know if you think this is your year's crop that little bits was gleaned by the kids is the last week's food yeah and you can get pretty hungry in that last week we know it if it rained then all the barley they had gathered would be ruined to prevent this the sheaves were stood upright on the ground known as stoking which allowed the grain to dry off it is the most incredible amount of work it's tiny little piece that we've done of our strip this has taken us four and a half hours to do they're looking like more there is waiting for us [Music] as well as bringing in the crops it was crucial in the autumn to prepare meat for the winter the essential ingredient for doing this was salt Ruth's learning the job of a Waller the women who were in charge of making salt salt was one of the most important commodities of the ancient world and also in the medieval it was one of those things that you simply couldn't do without it was necessary for survival it was an important item of trade and a huge industry however it was one of the basic staples of life which you basically had to purchase for cash it was part of the cash economy unlike say carrots which you could grow your own in Tudor times the majority of salt was imported from France or Spain but pockets of England were highly productive especially areas in the north that had natural brine springs the team have reconstructed the equipment used in this period what I've got here two different parts a furnace and the pan now the pan is made of late flat bottom to evaporate off as much of the water to produce the salt but that has sort of technical difficulties led is a very soft metal it means that under the weight of the water there's a danger that it would collapse downwards so that's what this frame over the top is for it's actually for supporting the pan the area's setup for salt production were known as walling yards hence the name Waller for the women who worked there the pans were left boiling 24 hours a day it takes some serious boiling to turn brine back into salt but it is beginning to happen the surface is cresting over it's becoming so concentrated bucket after bucket after bucket a brine reduce reduce reduce and there is salt forming as a skin on the surface [Applause] in autumn the tudor farmer would make provisions to ensure all their valuable animals would survive winter we're coming up pigs the weather's turned it's got cold we need to look after our flock we need to protect our investment and the best way to do that is to get them back to our homestead to get them back to the farm you can even sleep above your animals to get the heat coming up if you so need to you know enjoying the the cottage then the farmstead no he won't snuggle the monasteries flocks could number thousands tenant farmers faced the daunting task of herding their sheep from the fields back to their farms so got sheep up there and sheep up there ideally get them down the middle walking down the fence movement pincer movement I'll see you in about an hour don't fall asleep counting your sheep the 1530s would see a turning point in sheep farming at the end of the monastic era the monasteries land was sold so flocks were broken up and large common fields were enclosed yeah G yeah this is kids it was the last time these huge flocks grazed together changing farming enterprises and the landscape of Britain Helen it's going really well this field is massive as it's an open field but the secret is not to go in there too hard and heavy we're just slowly pushing them tickling them here tweaking them there and they're all bunching together in a mammoth flock good stuff Tom we don't even have a top this time I've got you Peter I've got you [Music] [Applause] [Music] the brine has been boiling for four hours enough water has evaporated for Ruth to attempt the next stage of the process extracting the salt the very best quality salt is this first scum if it's clean and there is one thing I could do to make sure that it really is clean what I need to do is throw a load of proteins in and then those proteins will bind with any impurities that are there the cheapest was ox blood but I haven't got a huge supply of that I'm gonna try with snakes just give them a good stir up it certainly gathering fits together in larger clumps and the sort of leaves and twigs it's not doing much - but it does look like it's taking somewhat funny color out prices result varied depending on his purity and whiteness there were different grades of salt with the greatest and cheapest used for household cleaning and the whitest being reserved for salting cheese Ruth is experimenting with forming salt in a traditional wicker cone these would have been used for draining and transporting it'll be taken back to the farmhouse to be used for her winter preparations before the weather turns the barley needs to be safely stalled or the crop will be ruined to ensure it is kept safe the boys are using an age-old technique picking gorse so what we're gonna do is actually make a layer of this course and the bottom of our barn and these spikes will keep the mice and the rats at bay keep them out of it but also raising the barley off the floor just get some air underneath keep it nice and dry protect our investment protect our crop although this is not a job I'm enjoying it seen I was coming on our easiest tasks but in a moment bleeding now prickly my ankles oh no it's my taking an angry dog for a walk isn't it autumn was the time for slaughtering animals as it was harder to feed and look after them in the colder months the tenant farmer would want to make their meat last for the months ahead Ruth is trying a tutor technique for preserving beef using the salt she's produced you know nowadays we cut up beasts according to certain joints we want to get out but a tutor butcher was looking for something rather different he was looking to be able to fill his barrel with equal sized pieces of a portion for a man nobody really worried too much when they were butchering whether one person got mostly meat and another person got mostly fat as long as you got you to perm weight it's not exactly easy though butchering it up into beautiful pieces salting the meat for winter was usually the job of the Tudor housewife I'm really pleased with my salt coat I can tell you it's a heck of a lot of work after the salt has been crumbled it is then rubbed onto every surface of the meat and what I'm hoping to do by this process is to dehydrate the meat I'm going to try and draw out all the juices within it because they are what allow infection in once the blood and other fluids have been drawn out of the beef it is ready to be stored in brine a mixture of water that has been boiled with salt and herbs this will move the salt further into the tissues of the meat just need to leave it in the brine for three days of that brines I really penetrate once this has happened the meat can be packed into a new barrel of dry salt for the final stage in preserving during the winter pieces of the meat would then be taken out and rinsed when required for cooking so I'll jump over a piece of you pass it over yep let's get this course down ice prickly prickly stuff over there and you can spread it with that I suppose not only if we brought our sheep and our cows in also bring in a harvest and by doing so we're leaving stubble fields so we're taking away the home of the rats and the mice and we're creating a food store for them so they're all gonna come here looking for food so we need the schools down here protect it otherwise we're just took this barley would have been used throughout the year to make two of our staples bread and ale so it's very important [Music] or more load to get and then we can have our feast looking forward to it let's crack on its McComas a feast day toussant michael the protector of the christian church it marked the shortening of days and the end of the yearly farming cycle Ruth is cooking goose the traditional meat eaten at this time of year Ranade as many people only ever eat goose if they eat it at all at Christmas and that's a madness from the farming point of view utterly ridiculous it's completely out of season there are two points in the year when it makes sense to eat goose one is towards the end of summer at that moment they are at their fattest and their juiciest and it used to be called a green goose a grass-fed goose however if you want to keep them true to Nicholas then there is one more source of free food to fatten up your goose you set your geese free on your stubble lands and they pick about and any we've dropped grains they feed on and fatten up a second time and that is a stubble this just ready for Nicholas [Music] the last of the barley is being brought in to be stalled it was customary once the last field was reaped for people to celebrate marking joy and relief after the hard work that had gone into the farming year the celebration took the form of harvest home and was steeped in rituals as communities across the kingdom sankt God for helping them with their harvest professor Ronald Hutton has joined the team to help bring in the harvest so this year the fact that we've got such a good crop this really is a moment for celebration there was a disease in Tudor England called the bloody flux in modern times we thought it was some infection that had died out only with our relief work in Ethiopia and Sudan the late 20th century did we realize that the bloody flux is the last stage of starvation when your body is famished beyond a certain point the wall of your intestine gives way in a massive hemorrhage that kills you off and that's the alternative to getting it a good harvest or even a harvest that's pretty stark [Music] with the dark prospect of famine avoided the farmers would have been able to rejoice once the cart was filled with the last of the barley the community would choose a harvest queen a maiden from the local village who would be carried on top of the cart as it made its way back to the farm congratulations Mary person pretty unanimous you get the honor of a crown and ride in the cards [Music] gentlemen one last little ordeal for you yes generally games involved in bringing home triumphant be the lost cart from the field usually guys versus girls one which lasted for centuries after the Tudor era was for the men that's you I'm afraid to try and get a small sheaf of cereal each into the bar now you see the ladies are lined up behind you armed with water who will try and empty the water over as you do so there's a speed and intelligence [Laughter] [Music] this is history that does it to us I'm just the messenger the rituals were followed by a great feast to reward the harvest workers for their toil it was a time of year which marked relief expressed by giving thanks for farming success it's Mikal mmus the feast of Saint Michael and all angels which marks the real end of the agricultural year that's why we're celebrating so hard and the monastery has rewarded us for our labor by a customary extra gift of the goose which we wrote for Michaelmas to show that not only are we getting on well with each other we'll be getting on well with our landlord but before we do anything would you please speak the grace [Music] Benedictus benedicat per Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum this goosey is fair carb away [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well Ronald it is good to be alive it certainly is right now remember in 1500 we have winter ahead of us hypothermia darkness and above all boredom we're gonna have to whine away there's long nights with lots of stories well as the beer is flowing we'll have a few stories that is a wonderful wonderful idea here's to you [Music] [Music] with the harvest safely stored the team have completed their farming obligations for the monastery for the previous eight hundred years monasteries had been at the forefront of farming education and technology as well as a hub for a range of crafts and commercial activities monasteries wanted elaborate beautiful buildings to display their devotion to God and skilled Masons were in high demand peter has come to Gloucester Cathedral to meet with Master Mason Pascal Mike Allison who is restoring the stonework what are you working on at MoMA Oh canopy it is this this for Gloucester Cathedral yeah Oh canopy that's the stone which is covering a statue the head of a statue it was amazes me Cathedral sir they're so beautiful and so ornately carved and I suppose one of the few buildings that were built out of stone in the period so yeah when we talk about storage picture we talk a miserable time we talk almost exclusively about religious architecture yeah that means the Masons their patron we're the church and very soon most Mason would be out of a job after the dissolution of the monastery yeah a Mason would trace designs on two floors and use basic geometry and rows a proportion to create buildings that have lasted for centuries what is extraordinary with medieval Mason on Judo Mason's is what they did with almost nothing and using very very little tools on mostly they use their wit right and that the tool they built get it all with a pickaxe that's all they had so you could anyone become a Mason the modern equivalent to understand that spot on is you go to a football academy either you can kick the ball or you can't it's hopeless but fair system of meritocracy it's at the end of the day you know you can have the skills of weeding the ax or you can't I've kicked the few balls in my time they've never gone in a direction I want them to but hopefully if I hit a phone dr. stone I can yeah why we we can have a little demonstration building was usually done in the spring and summer months the Mason would work with stone that was fresh from the quarry and contain natural SAP that made it soft and much easier to carve the stone could be put in place and left to set in the winter all right fat cats looks absolutely fantastic and you're doing that all by eye well no I I'm a 10 Mason so it would be sadi for okay you make it look so easy how cool okay and this this finger this is basically for guidance is it this piece of stone will be placed in the cathedral when complete you see you've got to go toward it getting younger so you got yeah easily straight away it's coming yep out like that so I need to show what tilt the axe slightly up like yep no bad it's amazing the difference at the index finger makes it does give you control a tutor stonemason would traditionally serve a seven year apprenticeship a system which still operates today and what is nice too is medieval medicine didn't need to go to the gym you know keep you fit go based on that very very little period of me yep chopping realist I know if you think I've got potential to be able to cook kick a football in your your stone I think Academy yeah I think we can put you on a team on sky or right I'd we see hopefully won't regret that [Music] the beautifully embellished monasteries were not just places of Prayer they were also places of refuge and many monastic orders were involved in looking after the sick in the local community Ruth has come to the monastic herb garden to pick plants that were believed to cure ailments common to the winter months this is my last chance to harvest the medicinal herbs ready for the winter and this is the job that you have found going on and pretty much every household all over Britain you needed a stock of household medicines keep you going medical knowledge in medieval times was quite limited relying on herbes and folklore remedies in about 1500 the Renaissance makes it to Britain and what this really is is a rediscovering of ancient Greek texts it was changing the way people understood the plants around them if you were to be an intellectual in 1500 one of the forefronts of research was in plants the botany of this age was the science of the day [Music] monasteries were often large complexes of gardens dormitories and areas for prayer all of these areas were rich in decoration great tiled floors were costly and were another craft that thrived thanks to the patronage of the church and monasteries peter has come to the abbey to meet with Karen Slade from the company of artisans who will help him make tiles for a church how'd he make one well you have to start with some clay then you can take a wire and you can cut it from a block and you can then wedge that up and put that into a tile frame so this is a frame that just should get everything the same size the tiles would then be decorated so if you'd like to make a 1500s to tile this one it's a pattern from Hales ibn Gloucester and was made and about originally about 1536 fleur-de-lys as the fleur-de-lis yes and the three petals that you see here they symbolize the Trinity so you've got the Father Son and Holy Ghost it's very popular symbol also right in thinking that Henry the seventh yes yes okay so I just what line this up yes that's it line up nice and square no one missing horse you hits it relatively hard in the middle first and then each corner [Applause] so and then just hit it just about there just level it up brilliant I just see how that's come out oh that's perfect certainly ready to use the sunken areas on the pattern are filled in with another form of clay known as slip which will then turn yellow once glazed and fired and this is the only thing that they used to have to pay for so you can see how little I'm using compared with the red clay the red clay was free pick that up but this white clay isn't found in very many places so it's precious and then that's it so the next stage we need to do is to just have a go at scraping off the surface now that it's stiff you're trying to get a clean edge in between the two colors so if I just start with just this tiny piece at the top here just so that you can begin to see that lovely clean edge how long does it take it takes ages takes about takes about 20 minutes per tile I was gonna say the thought process I'm making a child it seems ridiculously fast and I knew there had to be a snack there is a snack this is the snake so if you want a little go you have to take over you just need to scrape it flat one thing I never thought I'd be doing shame they will not know if the pattern has worked until it's been fired think that one's almost done but that's not make an entire floor as if so no but a few more I know you better get going in Tudor England the threat of fatal disease was ever-present such as the sweating sickness and the bubonic plague the average life expectancy was just 35 years herbs were used for treatments and it was important to store them over the winter wreaths using the hyssop she picked to attempt a Tudor remedy that's a load of honey I'm just bruising the first of many batches of hyssop and I'm going to seed the hyssop in the honey hyssop is one of those plants that was used really quite extensively in the period it's not so much now if you went to a modern herbalist they wouldn't be all that impressed by using hyssop but in 1500 it was considered to be an important medicinal plant medieval medicine was based on the theory of the four humors it centered on the balance of four liquids in the body blood phlegm black bile and yellow bile illnesses were believed to be caused by an imbalance of one of these humors and medicines would aim to restore the balance and every plant out there was assigned to one of the particular humors to a lesser a more or less degree so hyssop which is the one here this is hot and dry as ideal for counteracting for balancing diseases of phlegm anything where you have too much phlegm can be cured according to this ancient Greek idea by hyssop a spoonful of hyssop mixture mixed with hot water was viewed as a useful remedy you the infirmary was a space within a monastery where the elderly and the infirm of the community could be cared for whether they were there because simply of old age or you know whether it was a particular ailment it was the area of the monastery that was hated unlike the rest monks were allowed to not take part in all the offices of the day so that they wouldn't get too exhausted and they also were allowed to bypass some of the dietary rules there was a bed there was warmth there was food but more importantly in the eyes of the 15th and 16th century there was spiritual care under the reign of Henry the eighth many of these monastic hospitals were closed in their place came the Civic and parish provisions which laid the foundations for modern Social Welfare [Music] Peter and Karen have come to the church at Hales Abbey to see their tiles put into place on the reconstructed floor oh yes they do they shrink quite a lot you have to think about that when you're making a pattern bringing more tiles it's looking pretty good that I mean is it not a fairly quick to lay there fairly quick to lay by using the lime screed to start with that gives you a level base right and then you're simply just buttering on the bedding material so the tiles going to be more or less flat anyway tiles could feature the crests of the benefactors paying for the floor as funding works on religious buildings was viewed as a way of avoiding purgatory other designs had more religious overtones this is also a that's a I've just been scraped and then dried and then fired with a glaze on top and the glaze has changed the color from white pure white to yellow color has come out I think is fantastic okay the distinctive yellow and red tiles worth phased out from the 1540s with the influx of tyler's from the continent bringing new styles all of a sudden you've got wonderful Italian tireless and French Tyler's and people from Holland making Delft we're making blue and white yeah and as soon as people see blue and white tiles on the floor they don't want brown on the other anymore some of their floors are in HD but they don't want they don't want them anymore the final process is to use a dry motor mixture of lime and sand brushed over the tiles into the cracks water is added to set the mixture and keep the tiles in place at the point of dissolution the large monastic houses were still spending money on embellishments such as these tiles or ornate stonework when they really didn't see it coming [Music] [Music] in 1500 the monasteries under Henry the seventh were thriving even rivaling the power of the state but when his ambitious son Henry the eighth's came to the throne the new monarch came to resent the monasteries power their wealth and their control from Rome the king also questioned the religious purpose of the monasteries influenced by ideas from Europe that monks no longer needed to pray on behalf of society individuals should now pray directly to God to ensure their own salvation in the 1520's the wheels were put in motion for the king to break away from the Roman Church and dissolve the monasteries professor James Clark an expert in medieval history has come to discuss the dissolution of the monasteries I just find it utterly amazing that so enormous shift happened with remarkably little protists it is remarkable this is carried out in four years or so they are in fact continuing to embellish their churches and the the buildings of the convent at the very moment that the Kings commissioners arrived there's one scene at one monastery where the Kings commissioners are literally picking their way over the the trenches that are being dug for the foundations of new walls and and so on what was the impact to the wider society the institution that has really made and shaped many people's living and working environment is removed monasteries provided care for the sick through Hospital foundations they had school foundations and these are closed with a solution this is uncharted territory for many village and town communities across England [Music] the team's time as tenant farmers of the monastery is coming to an end the farmers calendar was punctuated with religious festivals earlier in the year the team set up a religious guild a group that monitored its members piety to ensure the salvation of their souls guilds often put on Mystery Plays a tradition that was to be largely lost after the dissolution of the monasteries [Music] a representative from the guild would be in charge of organizing the play and recruiting locals to act and help build the sets the team are meeting with drama expert dr. Eleanor Lowe to find out what's involved what do we mean by mr. play in the first place well the word mystery links to the Latin word mysterium which means the guild or a craft so these plays were very much linked to the the guilds who put up who were responsible for each of these plays and each of the girls would be asked to put on their own section of the story so these these mystery plays were cycle of plays several different plays each of which told us a little snapshot moment from the Bible they tell a story of the scriptures from the creation right through to the harrowing of hell yes education and entertainment at the same time are we talking professional actors then or people giving it a go No so these are amateurs as part of the guild performing on the street in front of their fellow townspeople Ruth is in charge of making a popular Tudor drink for the audience at the play using forgotten fruits from the countryside sure it was only known as a sort of rare spice in early Tudor England so you can possibly make jam or bottle fruit or any of those sorts of methods that later on in history people use for preserving fruit through the winter no in the forty 90s and 1500 fruit had to keep all by itself so what you were looking for was varieties which would do exactly that a fruit was expensive to preserve any that could last for longer in the larder would be most welcome Melissa's arrived on the bullish tree a really ancient fruit one that sort of gets rather forgotten about these days a little sort of type of plum but I mean you can't eat them raw if you like sharp flavors a little bullets being a more solid flesh to less watery sort of a fruit will keep for three or four weeks after it's been picked as taste changed and sweeter varieties of plums such as damsels became more popular the Bullis plum was largely forgotten but what that means is it becomes something of an indicator species if you're out in the countryside and you come across a great line of Bullis trees you're almost certainly at the site of ancient settlement there is much a part of our heritage as any church or other building to impress the audience of the play guilds would pull out all the stops to produce a memorable performance Tom has come to see Alchemist Jack green to experiment with making Tudor pyrotechnics Jackie looks like you about saw cooking here not pestle the mortars got ingredients but this is actually what we're use to make shooter fireworks fireworks yes although they had been used in China since the 10th century in England it was not until the 13th century that a churchman called Roger Bacon first studied how to make fireworks so Jack what's our first ingredients charcoal is what we need no great cost easy accessible yes this is basically the principle grind all the ingredients down yes and the finer grind the more intimately mixed their [Music] fireworks were produced by adding other minerals to the charcoal like saltpeter so what is saltpeter well it's a salt and it's a salt that accumulates in Manila heaps it helped ignition there's also an element of risk creating gunpowder I imagine it's not something people wanted spread about that knowledge the difference between a modern scientist and modern chemists and the medieval alchemists is that a modern chemists believes in publishing results alchemists had exactly the opposite attitude all alchemists wrote in code and the fascination of alchemy is to work out what the symbols mean the Tudor period was the first time these ratios of ingredients were studied and gunpowder was made to be as explosive as possible Jack and Tom are trying their own ratios okay and that's goes on the top I do have a secret ingredient for this I guess and the bottom does it yes well like finish with a flourish you see layers of the powders need to be built up to create different effects Jack's experimental layer of gunpowder will hopefully make it go with a bang I know you're the boss well you're the man with the eye he's know we put the fuse in start it off it should be good mmm there we have it so there we hug good luck for the mystery play trust me he's gonna bring the house down [Laughter] [Music] Ruth is experimenting with an ancient recipe to make an alcoholic refreshment for the audience to enjoy it will be made from the freshly picked bulla C's whenever people talk about monks and monasteries the word Mead comes up across the truth is that monks mostly drunk beer and they drank an awful lot of beer but now and again in party mode there was a little bit of Mead floating around your basic need is just some honey and some water and you allow it to ferment but if you flavored it with fruit you called it melly-mel that's what this is I'm just crushing up the fruit in order to release the juice and then that just goes straight to my brewing vessel and I don't like that the honey now the more honey I use the stronger it'll be and we go and then water you know notice that I didn't wash the fruit first and that's deliberate I want the wild yeasts on the skin of the fruit to be in there working feeding on the sugars from the fruit and from the honey quietly turning the water into alcohol that's basically it Ruth we'll leave it in the Sun allowing the fruit to ferment and hopefully create a tasty drink [Music] [Music] it's the day of the mystery play [Music] [Applause] for mankind shall dwell evermore in bliss that never fails within records give some details of how plays will put on and the team have converted a farmyard cart into a stage from which these mobile plays would be performed across towns so what's really interesting about these plays is that you know they're very popular in the 40s 15th century and then by the time we get to the 1590s they've really been censored out of fashion and you know that's partly to do with the dissolution of the monasteries because of course they're you know very much tied up with the Catholic Church guilds chose a play that reflected their interests carpenters guilds as woodworkers would naturally put on the crucifixion and the teams farmers guild has chosen a place centered on the salvation of souls by Jesus the harrowing of hell [Music] Mystery Plays were similar in style to modern pantomimes Tom is playing Beelzebub and the bad guys arrival on stage is marked in the same way it is today with a bang [Music] Princeton principle from here they shall not pass records of the plays show accounts of pulley systems and elaborate sets being used Peter is in charge backstage using whatever he has to have [Music] they've arrived the dissolution itself then they just in Peter out a bit after yes exactly and then in the sixteenth century we get the foundation of the permanent theatre structures and professional theatre companies I guess to my tits Jesus has saved the souls and banished the devil lightning down lightning here we go praise His glory well done guys well done I suppose that's brilliant well done go take the praise the festivities will carry on for many hours and Ruth smelly mouth has turned out to be a hit with the audience [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1534 Henry the eight have made himself supreme head of the church breaking away from the Rome it marked the beginning of the end for the monasteries it would be the last time that religion and farming was so entwined over the course of the next four years monasteries were pulled down their valuable land and materials stripped and sold off the great structures that had dominated the landscape for centuries were left as empty shells they really melancholy places these aren't they we are standing in a monastic graveyard we were standing in the end of an era that was just so total it's important to remember it's not just the loss these buildings is the social services that lost by the Monster eats closing down the education that caring for the old and the sick the employment it takes near enough for generation to replace this but also monasteries are a victim of their own success they are these institutions of wealth and power of craft and industry of raw materials and Henry the eighth looks at women says it is a lost age lost past do you think what a huge turning point it was in our history [Music] it's the last day on the farm the boys have come to say goodbye to their faithful oxen Gwyn and graceful and give them their winter feed these girls have worked so well for ya we have been a team guys you have been a farm done our ploughing you've done our heroing you've moved parts of wool you've kept us in check haven't you yeah that's the thing well someone had to be I think they picked up the slack where we've let it go yes we'll get some food in a second gonna miss you guys without them we can got half the stuff done and we built up a working relationship and some real insights of just how reliant the tutor farmer would have been on their livestock without these guys you don't have a farm without farm you don't have a livelihood well being emotional besting locals in 1500 the monasteries had been at the peak of their power and influence they were one of the largest landowners in England controlling Minds waterways and farms and holding a virtual monopoly over the wool trade I thought they were supposed to be white sheep these ones they were the dominant spiritual and cultural focus in Tudor society [Music] the dissolution transferred the power of the monasteries along with their land and wealth to the crown [Music] some aspects of monastic authority would be taken over by the state and private enterprise others would simply disappear and the farming landscape of Britain was changed forever here we both are vegetables installer sewer pharmacist it's been amazing working on a Tudor monastery farm I mean turning up it was just hustle bustle the marketplace everything was going on it was just idyllic everything's been fun but it's definitely been hard work no weights dropped off a little bit you know a few aches and pains bruises sores but it's been fantastic I wouldn't change anything I felt this year almost a sort of nostalgia that we were living a life that was about to slip away this is such a pivotal moment it's like the deep breath that Britain takes ready before it suddenly launches into new way of living [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 193,035

Rating: 4.9383144 out of 5

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, tudor monastery, tudor farming, monastery farming, tudor history documentary, the tudors

Id: BXlcnXCjiPs

Length: 58min 27sec (3507 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020