The Edwardian Farm Faces A Potato Blight | Edwardian Farm EP11 | Absolute History

here in devon in the tranquil tamar valley is a port that once bustled with industry [Music] overground farmers supplied britain's growing towns and cities with fresh produce daffodils set for london while underground miners extracted copper and precious minerals [Music] now at mall wellum key archaeologists alex langland and peter ginn and historian ruth goodman are living the lives of edwardian farmers for a full calendar year [Music] they're getting to grips with the rural industries that once brought wealth to devon oh wow we got something previously they've restored the market gardens that once covered the valley you'll have one because these are all for market planted a field of potatoes we've just got to hope that we get some dry weather and rounded up a new worker from the wilds of nearby dartmoor one of our most important jobs trying to start breaking him in [Music] now it's july their busiest month so far the team must harvest from the trees the land and the river i'll tell you what it beats scrubbing floors but the potato crop is under threat some of these plants we're getting a kind of rot on the leaves and it's crunch time for the new recruit i think this is going to be a bit heavier than anything he's had before when their hard work is complete they can enjoy a trip to the seaside edwardian style [Music] harvest time in the tamar valley was the busiest period in the year alex and peter will need to call on all their resources to bring in the crops there'll be a lot to carry so they're enlisting laddie the dartmoor pony to help ladies a workhorse in training until four months ago he'd spent his whole life roaming wild on the moor so this has been the first step in his training just to get this leading you know his head's down his ears aren't desperately pinned back you know he's sort of listening around and we're pretty happy that he's good to lead now one of the reasons these ponies have survived and become such a feature of the rural economy around here is because right up into the edwardian period they were carrying out crucial services to the people that lived on and around dartmoor and um pack animals basically that was their their major role as along with karting and the first thing we want to do a little bit simpler than karting is to use the horse to to to carry panniers basically panniers are baskets that would be laden over their horse's back and they would take you know something up to sort of 30-40 pounds worth of weight these are two sacks that are filled with fleeces and this should just act as an introduction to put baskets on there let me have a sniff so uh here we go there you go boy just sit here for a bit just marvel with this pony actually you know we just throw a couple of bags on him like this and he's not particularly bothered he's a cool customer he is do you want to um see how he fares then welcome he's doing very very well considering he hasn't had anything on his back before certainly not walking around like this he's taken to it really well come on the next step is taking laddie out of the training pen i am feeling slightly nervous about this it's the first time he's done any work outside this ring [Music] it's unnerving you know everything so far has gone so well with him i'm just slightly worried that at the moment he's just been too cool [Music] the first thing lady will have to carry is the cherry crop the most important july harvest for many edwardian farmers in the 1900s there were 12 000 acres of cherry orchards across britain compared to around 1 000 acres today the tamar valley was one of the main producers [Music] only a handful of the valley's orchards remain but alex and peter are hoping to harvest the valuable fruit they need to find one important piece of equipment we now need the ladders it's critical that we have the ladders we can't offer to help out this cherry harvest without having our own ladder it's like turning up to a tennis match without a tennis racquet well we certainly have a selection of ladders here we do cherry ladders varied in design from region to region in the chiltons they splayed out at the bottom while in the tamar valley they were straight all the way down wherever they were found they had to be extremely long because cherry trees can be up to 70 feet tall that is a beast of course the difficult thing is peter is uh getting out of it easy [Music] it's not going to go right what do you think window we've got we've got to drop it down into here yeah the problem is i think the building behind us has been built on subsequently with breach blocks in there so chances are these ladders are never coming out watch that pane of glass peter that's it don't okay we're under cool it's coming it's coming we're nearly there mate but of course might be fun to be doing it down at that entrance [Music] there we go oh dear peter i think we've got another problem here while the boys prepare for the cherry harvest ruth's getting on with another job for july so this is a salmon net the sort used in this river that's right yes keeping your nets in good repair would have been important salmon fishing was once a huge industry in the south west with up to 2 000 fish caught on the tamar every year local fishermen alex skoble and frank lanyon were among the dozens of men who made their living in this way so how old were you when you first started selling fish in this river then when i was going to school really you were out as kids oh yeah yes netting salmon usually we went with the older salmon fishermen yeah you know i think it was cheap labor really because they never paid the boys very much you were women never allowed to go out on the boats oh yes there's nothing to stop them really because i mean the sea fishing they wouldn't let them anywhere near but on the river it was a bit different was it well myself that was superstitious really i didn't like ladies in the boat didn't you no he let me and my daughter go with him so it's just like special cases hey very good so can i join you then on a fishing trip yeah i'll take you up on that mend the net and we'll take you on a fishing trip that has a good deal to me yes please king is a carpenter who studied how cherry ladders were made he's come to the farm to help out here is the ladder which i need you to take a look at what's a ropio thing it is you can see well we've lost a few rungs and um some of them i think are a bit past a sell by date yeah so you're looking for a repair i suppose i am indeed and i hear the chairs are getting ripe yeah they are and we've got to get to them before the birds do so it's got to be a mate do a men job hasn't it indeed stewart's using a pole lathe to turn the wood into rungs [Music] they're such a fantastic piece of equipment it's so simple as well isn't it yeah we can trace lays very similar to this back at least to the uh the iron age right 150 bc almost certainly way beyond that really all through history from there on that is lovely that finished never used sandpaper didn't need to that's as far as i can go until we measure the size of the hole right okay so that we taper those down yep to fit the hole i have just the tool calipers are used to make the measurements yeah i'm just going to measure that one with these inside calipers that's perfect perfect should we try this one yeah pull the ladder apart for me there she is all the nets ready to go yes already oh this is a great boat yeah either you can throw the net out or roll the boat can i row the boat yeah suddenly you can see i knew there was a reason the dad taught me to row the traditional method of salmon fishing on the tamar is known as saine netting it's one of the oldest occupations on the river the net is 600 feet long as it's fed into the water weights along one edge cause it to stretch down to the bottom of the river fish are caught by encircling them in the net same netting is currently banned on the tamar but they've been given permission to attempt it aha she's all in so i just left boat ride up onto the shore yeah [Music] it's just sort of leaning into it let your weight do it rather than cool you're right i'll tell you what it beats scrubbing floors salmon could only be caught at certain times of year when exactly is the season then well it did range from march well it was then in march to august so what are the chaps doing the rest of the year well usually men in this part of the valley we go back and work on the market garden nope she's empty empty when you pull the net in there's nothing there they call that a hop out hop out that's all the fish have hopped out so now we load up again and just go again so what's the biggest catch you've ever had then well one cast of the net 27. whoa but for one tide yeah we have 55 ah gosh that's a lot of fish in one tide [Music] fishing like this has been banned on this river now so we've had to get special dispensation to come out yes sorry so if we do catch any fish does that mean we have to put them back in yes yes i'll hop out again boat our boat charlie fish it appeals to the gamblers in life those are like it's slow and steady don't turn to fishing [Laughter] so it's not just having a woman out with you then of course this run of bad luck no comment no comment i like that i don't care we didn't get any fish i had a really good day yeah bye i've enjoyed your company oh thank you proper job well you know when they do lift the ban give me a call [Laughter] the cherries are ripe and ready to pick alex and peter are helping jessica collins who owns one of the few cherry orchards still left in the valley her trees are varieties that were developed in the 19th century to suit the southwest's climate [Music] norma chapman grew up harvesting cherries from her father's market [Music] good garden good morning alex hello norma nice to see you hi hi jess nice to see you so do you want to guide me then and tell me where i should be putting the ladder i'll do my best to do that yes okay excellent positioning the ladder could be a matter of life or death cherry pickers were injured and sometimes even killed falling off them i'm more round this way [Music] this tree's a funny angle and the excuses are coming out now those curses will be coming out later [Music] it's the moment of truth for the old ladders it's feeling pretty sturdy waiting for those telltale creeks [Music] first cherries so i wasn't wrong how big was this industry well it was very large because not many people worked outside the village at all and everyone the families went down through the generations and as soon as i was old enough i left school and i worked with my parents until they retired so as a just a family industry how many cherries were you picking on in a season well with helpers on a very heavy season dad has picked an eight ton eight tons that's right that's right but on an average it was three to four tons a year off the trees he had tremendous in the 1900s a ton of cherries could sell for 90 pounds around two years wages for the average agricultural laborer this meant a cherry orchard was often the most valuable part of a farm i love the outdoors and also particularly cherry time i mean we used to sing our hearts out of the top of the cherry tree it would just echo around the valley i have to say there's nowhere i'd rather be on a hot july morning up here in the treetops nice cool breeze and of course it's also a test of your acrobatic fitness obviously it's dangerous but at the same time if you just take care make sure your footings are good and that all the branches you're leaning on are nice and safe it's actually a pretty good workout for the body no yoga class is needed for me tonight up on dartmoor the weather's closing in [Music] ruth has braved the rain to collect some food for lady it doesn't look much does it of course you think what the heck can you use that for well actually it's pretty darn useful stuff gourse is highly nutritious it contains half the protein content of oats it's free and it requires no cultivation as a result in areas where it grows wild many edwardian farmers fed it to their horses women's work this some farms would pay a woman to come on up to the moors and cut and she'd spend most of the day up here if you were good at it and worked hard the theory was a woman should be able to cut enough course in six hours to feed 12 horses they eat the little shoots right at the top it's really quite sort of luscious stuff further down of course it's much harsher if you're up here on long enough and you watch the ponies you see they not only eat the course but they actually sort of prepare it themselves they'll pull a piece off like i'm doing put it down on the ground and then stamp on it with their hooves and that stamping breaks all the sort of spines which makes it much softer in their mouths to eat when i get back down the bottom end i'll have to do a load of stamping myself just to break it up to make it into good fodder [Music] i have to pick another stalks in as soon as the stalk comes out all the juice runs out of course if you don't you can eat them that one doesn't have a stalk hey alex how full is your cherry basket not too bad i'd like to say it was half full but probably looking closer to a third actually well you can still see the bottom of my basket is that because more of the cherries you picked in old tummy tumkins peter he knows me too well no alex he'll be the rooney's what do you think of the standard of the cherries i mean there are a few i mean i don't think that one's gonna there may be one or two red ones but on the whole they're very good indeed and and you haven't broken them you've picked them with the stems on which you might carry well what would happen to them now they'd be bought that day would they yes yes nine times out of ten very rarely did they wait till next morning right the order was gone right they were that popular yes they were and there's probably a reason why they're that popular isn't there but yeah it is good now i've been really good i haven't actually tasted one haven't you i've waited so i've got down here and i'm just gonna give this one because it's especially dark this one yes that one looked much sweeter than the others no absolutely delicious it doesn't taste like from the supermarket does it no no no i mean that's completely different that is a taste sensation that gets in around the jaws that does that's so sweet they're incredible true tamara valley cherries wow brilliant how are you getting on peter i've got a little bit of tummy not very many cherries i'm gonna head off now and go and get laddie the pony and we're gonna charge him with carrying these panniers full of all this produce so i'll say a big thank you thank you thank you so much for your time today thanks for letting us uh get involved jess that was brilliant fantastic i'll let you fill that up i'm gonna get the pony i thought in order to sort of like calm daddy dance he wasn't too skittish get him in a good mood i'd get him really full anybody with a really full stomach tends to take things a little calmer that's my theory anyway you can see all the green juicy sap being released when you look at it straight on the bunch it looks as dry as anything but bash it a bit and you can see it's actually quite succulent [Music] beautiful juicy cherries we have yeah but how's that easy all right full of ghosts but he's ready for work yeah i think so this is the big one he's going to help us get these cherries back from the orchard alex is taking lady to meet up with peter and the cherries [Music] this is what made this creature so great down here in the southwest because the advantage of him was quite simply that he could take a straighter route from a to b than a cart could you can undoubtedly get more in a cart but with a cart with wheels you're always endangering these steep slopes of running away from yourself but the pony of course come on welcome well they could go anywhere that a human could go doesn't matter how steep the valley sides were they'd be able to cross them so they wouldn't have to make massive detours to bridges and much easier inclines to carry produce feeling sorry for laddie this is quite a weight hello peter hi here he is and here are the the cherry pannies right okay now this is the tricky bit i think this is going to be a bit heavier than anything he's had before okay we've got the edge of this not that one i'm just hoping he's going to be all right with this weight later what do you reckon fella hey welcome come on eddie come on lady good boy first day of work how does it feel come on good lady good dad these panniers do seem to be working out really really well he's just taken to this like a duck to water it's amazing it really is you would not really fathom the fact that he was a wild pony on dartmoor merely a couple of months ago and now he's an integral part of our farm team he's the guy doing all the work [Music] at the cottage ruth's making sure the cherries last i can't possibly eat that many fresh so i thought i'd preserve a whole load for the rest of the summer it reminds me of being a kid doing this my mum's a great gardener and we always had oodles and oodles and oodles of soft fruit and her and i would sit outside the back door on a sunny day on a chair a giant bowl of fruit between us and chat and prepare all the fruit so i just need some sugar now if you read a recipe they will start telling you you need this many pints and this many pounds of sugar i think that's really misleading to be honest because what you need is enough sugar to create the right thickness of syrup for your fruit well if your fruit's got loads of water in it that's going to go out into the syrup and make a really watery syrup if your fruit's a bit drier because you've had a hot summer with no rain then you're going to need a completely different amount of water as against sugar so i always think the best way is to ignore the recipe and look at it and as the fruit cook they're going to sort of gently release the water that's in them so i should be able to see how watery it's going and then i can add sugar until it looks the right sort of thickness until basically the sugar doesn't dissolve if it starts to feel gritty in the pan as i'm stirring it stop adding sugar so if i put that on that corner there so they'll just very gently sweat in there right there out done if there was a secret ingredient in this recipe this would have to be it the jar but by the edwardian period very cheap readily available glass jars were on the market by a number of makers but particularly the kilner jar kilner jars revolutionized home preserving invented in the 1840s this system of jars had airtight seals and interchangeable parts so any lid would fit on any jar you wouldn't think something like a different sort of jar would make such a difference to ordinary people's diets but it did if you can preserve your own fruits and jams easily and cheaply then the amount of vitamin c that an ordinary family can get through the winter it just rises enormously didn't that i mean we're so used to being able to get fresh stuff from all over the world but in the edwardian period preserved fruit and veg was relatively new in common people's diets and this is the format it was most often in so there's my cherries in my jar rubber seal on the top and my glass lid slips all over and a screw top and of course because it's gone in hot as it cools i get a vacuum and that will help the preservation and we shall be eating cherry puddings cherry pies for ages bringing in the cherries was cause for huge celebration in the tamar valley throughout the edwardian period a local landowner hosted an annual party for the children on his estate this was known as the cherry feast here we go cherry pie take a seat it was often attended by a rector from the church of england but i think boys used to take a few caps you're going to say your prayers let us pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit reverend lamb is the rector of nearby parish may the lord make us truly thankful amen to this locality but at the same time clearly typical of the local harvest it's very much a sort of an establishment thing isn't it you've got the lord and the man are all the equivalent of the owners of the estate putting on these sorts of feasts and you get the established church being involved the vast majority of course the cherry orchards were owned by the large landowners and it was a way of saying thank you to for the tremendous effort they put in this child has not finished his pie an unseemly waste of good good food he needs more tea oh dear me a little more tea a little more tea to wash it down this sort of food i mean cake and pie and cream this would have been quite a treat huge yeah and also the great fun of eating outdoors yeah but it's sort of a street party atmosphere yeah it would have been but they would have been on their best behavior even so harvest celebrations were a welcome break for edwardian farmers rural workers holidays were few and far between many farmers only had one day out a year so that's the cherry harvest over and done with yeah potatoes next i have a little thing to cheer us up the church day outing at the seaside really yeah yeah our methodist chapel at the seaside yeah but what i know what you're gonna have to smarten up for you at some point well that won't let you on the beach peter looking like that don't worry mate i'll get you a suit a suit to die for before the team can embark on their beach escapade there's the potato harvest to bring in but conditions on the farm have not been ideal and alex has spotted a problem he's decided to get an expert to check the crop francis mudge has a lifetime's experience of farming in devon and has been advising the team throughout the year well thanks for coming down mr muds just to want to get your opinion on this i'm i'm really concerned that some of these plants we're getting a kind of rot on the leaves yeah you've got a bit of blight just coming in here it's blight isn't it yeah and blight is so bad for potatoes blight is caused by a fungus-like organism which has spores that are carried through water or air they infect the plant's leaves causing its cells to collapse blight frequently destroyed potato crops [Music] but there are emergency steps the boys can take if you cut the tops off now you you'll save the potato but right he won't grow no more right it may be a bit on the small side but it's better of a small potato than the no potato then no potato at all right we've actually got to behead all these plants take all of these plants off cut them off and right including the ones without blight well yeah because then i would catch it blight thrives in warm humid and rainy conditions this must have been the potato growers greatest fear of a summer of rain like this typical temperature weather like you know right they say sunny dab but you still you still get the rain right now yeah sunny devon i've heard that one too many times [Music] i have to say so far i've been really proud of this potato crop but i have in many ways forgotten about blight potato blight it's really probably one of the most famous diseases and it's caused what we might term almost sort of medieval like famines during the 19th century and there would have been people in edwardian england and ireland who would have remembered the great famines of the 1840s the great irish potato famines so you can imagine farmers with that memory stepping out into the field seeing the rain and you could watch the color drain from their faces as they observe the blight taking hold in the potato crop knowing that one more year they're gonna lose that harvest for us i'm hoping with these plants gone we're gonna be able to lift these potatoes and keep them free and safe from the blight the boys must wait for a spell of dry weather before harvesting the potatoes if they're lifted in the rain they'll be covered in mud making a huge amount of work to clean and dry them to bring in the summertime crops many farmers enlisted extra help ruth's found one potential source we need some labor for our potato harvest cheap labor that means child labour and like many edwardian farmers got our eye on them they are the cheapest labor about it's not difficult work it just needs lots of little hands children's labor had always been central to the rural economy their work whether it be picking a harvest clearing stones off the field scaring birds had always been the little bit of extra labor that tipped the balance that made the difference between a farm being economic and not economic sit in the 1900s more welham had a village school together bow your heads in reverence and close your eyes valerie aldridge is a teacher who reenacts classes from the past in the classroom there would have been probably around 60 children depending on the time of the year because in the summer when the harvesting was taking place most of the boys would have been out on the fields doing their jobs or helping their fathers and the school mom probably would have turned a blind eye and the authority of the mother over the suns so scott around the turn of the century there was a shift in the way people thought about schools for the first time many began to believe that children's education was more important than their jobs from the 1870s onwards a series of laws made schooling both compulsory and free the school leaving age rose but there was still a demand for children to work when i say the words commence i would like to the school leaving age was raised to 12 but if the children were able to pass their standard exam at the age of perhaps 10 and a half then they were allowed to leave so the pressure on children to get through that exam from their families could be intense maybe at 10 and a half you could be bringing in money that made the difference between meat once a week and meet never but only if you could pass the exam and immediately i can see that one of two of you have improved and one or two of you need to practice a great deal more practice makes perfect repeat and again discipline was extremely important bearing in mind that of course adults were superior to children children should be seen and not heard and speech's silver silence is golden and the school mom was queen absolutely and the children did what they were told or they were punished they'd probably be quite glad have a bit running around in the mud [Music] once the potatoes are harvested the team will head off for a trip to the seaside ruth's called in an expert to help her prepare luca castilla is a costume designer who specializes in historical clothing hello he's come to show ruth how to make one crucial garment i've always really fancied one of these bathing suits i don't know why they could really be made by anybody yeah edwardian swimming costumes were made from woven fabrics such as wool crepe i've always been fascinated with the idea of wearing wool to the seaside i've always wondered what happens when you come out of the water you know how baggy the costume will become and yeah so i'm just going to cut the pattern out the design of women's swimming costumes was fraught with controversy in the edwardian period victorian women had worn bathing dresses which when wet could weigh up to 30 pounds making it difficult and even dangerous to swim but around 1900 a new one-piece costume appeared dubbed the skin suit only the most daring women would wear it luke has chosen a more traditional option for ruth i decided to go for a two-piece you know a little blouse with a belt and some bloomers i think okay i'm ready to cut the cloth bright red what a choice of color i think it's quite a nice color to wear on the seaside i mean i don't think anyone was really supposed to be that attractive in this kind of clothing it's not a sunbathing suit it's not no it's not a dog only for wearing in the water exactly [Music] let's get the needles out when are you going to the seaside next week i think is the plan oh where where it's a town called linmus i'm so sorry that i'm not going to be there seeing you bathing in the sea of this right i'm ready to go on the machine yeah yes [Music] i love the gold folio the length of stitch as well as the forward and backward stitch is controlled by the stitch regulator handle a c illustration sewing machines were indispensable to many edwardian women though ready-made clothes could be bought in department stores a lot of women still prefer to make their own i love these old machines but i mean look how beautifully the bumping gets filled it's just just engineering so precise [Music] once you get into the rhythm of it you can go quite fast [Music] the weather's been clear for several days and the ground has dried out at last the boys have a window to harvest the potatoes local farmer david yudy has brought along his potato lifter this type of plow was invented in the mid-19th century when potatoes began to be grown on a large scale bit stoney just as you go in here oh look at that look at this bountiful crop a river of potatoes i'm just overjoyed to see that we don't have any signs of blight on the potatoes so it's definitely worthwhile cutting the heads off but the lifting plow is struggling to dig out all the plants it's just about getting this plow to the right depth so that we get underneath the plants and lift them all out i mean it's a fairly heavy duty piece of kit isn't it these flowers fortunately david's brought along another contraption a potato digger [Music] wow look at that [Music] potato diggers were another device that first appeared in the 1850s but it took decades to perfect the design they came into common use around the turn of the century this is lethal can't see this passing modern health and safety legislation it's raining potatoes look at that and it's not missing a potato either is it fantastic the digger lifts the potatoes totally clear of the soil this was a big advance for farmers for the first time they had a machine that left their crop cleanly on the surface of the field smashing steady boys steady whoa so this is a much more clinical exercise isn't it oh yeah very much so yeah yeah big improvement on the other machine it's almost like a fun fair ride for the potatoes make a farm review yet clear [Music] okay [Music] there we go that job was a lot quicker than i thought it would be it doesn't with this piece of kit no still a very good job it must have been quite revolutionary when these things turned up on british farms then oh yeah yeah and it's got on britain's best machine is it britain's best machine well i'll vouch for that but before the team can get the potatoes in the weather's turned against them it's terrible timing for the crop which is now covered in mud and in danger of rotting in the field the school children are quickly pressed into service okay down to the bottom first follow the field first always easy to work uphill even the very smallest potatoes need picking up okay ones you wouldn't even consider eating we don't want any spots left behind we want a really good okay absolutely every potato even the very smallest potatoes they'll grow in next year and we don't want them to grow back next year because they'll carry disease on year on after year so we've got to pick up every single potato [Music] this really isn't the potato harvest i'd envisage i was looking forward to blazing sunlight lovely dry friable soil clean potatoes sun on your back but unfortunately it's sheeting down this really isn't the weather in which you want to be picking potatoes i can't move my shoes are full of mud scrapers let's talk more action more baskets here chop chop lads obviously alex right now has his own little army a bit like fagin you're slow come on we got to get this meal done by the end of the day it's full come on in might have to farm ya right you two standing around doing nothing that one can go up the top please the new education laws and advances in machinery meant that the use of child labour on farms began to fall [Music] but potato picking remained a job that couldn't be done by machine this is very hard work and i'd say that these baskets are weighing somewhere between 20 and 30 kilos each and we've been taking loads off the field so we are gonna get i reckon a couple of times coming off of here spots coming out of our ears okay get in the dryer then fellas there's a quagmire presentation was crucial to the edwardian consumer muddy potatoes would have been difficult to sell down the sides we'll get them trying to get them on top of that size and above gets washed anything that size and below goes in the sack i like your system it's good ingenuity it increases productivity which means you get paid more yeah do you know how much you get paid sixpence for a day's work in modern money that's about two pound fifty how's that sound for a day's work good well good that's good my lights are here keep at it boys it's fun listening to these kids enjoying themselves it must be said however that their edwardian compatriots would have been made to work in silence after all you do more if you're quiet you're concentrating on your work so there wouldn't have been quite so much chatter as there is today that's a good sack of spuds that is heavy right it's been a hard couple of months thankfully for us we've got a day out coming up it's the church out into the seaside i've been thinking about it for ages fingers crossed for the weather [Music] historian john walton is an expert in edwardian seaside resorts for so many ordinary people this was the chance to have a day out and do what the tourists do well especially if you worked on a farm it was the only time you'd get to do it once once a year at best and always it will be something like the chapel or church outing as it's a methodist outing of course people would be on their best behavior in all sorts of ways you could do a bit of courting on the backseat really you couldn't misbehave too much including not drinking what's sorry it's a seaside booth isn't it do you like it oh you get them lots of pretty ladies at the seaside well the reason we're late is because of this thing on peter's face [Laughter] you look smart you do look smart i'll admit you do look smart jealous so where's the shower bang then [Music] [Applause] sharabangs were a popular vehicle for edwardian group outings their name's french and means carriage with benches okay we're ready to go originally they were pulled by a team of horses but in the 1900s motorized sharabangs became an exciting new alternative it's incredible isn't it that brand new technology like this so quickly becomes something that ordinary people like us are using yes only of course in this form the coach of the car ordinary private cars were for pretty wealthy people and doctors which is how you crash onto them there was a regular route three times a week of a shadow bank by 1908 right through our village that is really early and it's because of course it is such a touristy area and the railways didn't go to a lot of the most scenic places look at her she's a cracker unlike being in a train compartment you're all together you can have a sing-along if it's not a methodist outing you can even have a crate of beer in the back that sounds such fun oh well that was one version of it but here of course it's got to be lemonade lemonade naturally no alcohol no the team are heading to the devon resort of linton and lindmouth before the late 19th century it was hard to access the beach lies at the bottom of a 500-foot cliff but a major feat of engineering opened it up to tourists a funicular railway this is a fantastic piece of technology john when was it built it opened in 1888 um at a time when this sort of thing was being set up all over britain all over the coast and some inland too right but this is an amazing place to have one it was um 20 miles from the nearest railway and um really it was in the middle of nowhere this is all about tourism then that's the industry that's taking off absolutely obviously it's convenient to be able to get from lincoln at the top to lindmouth at the bottom and back again right but it's for tourists rather than locals especially just a tiny little edwardian britain had the most developed system of seaside resorts anywhere in the world there were almost 150 of them welcoming millions of visitors each year the seaside was packed with distinctive entertainments [Music] ladles and jellyfish we are the peer echo tony livington manages a troupe of historic performers i've never seen a pierrot bunch at the seaside is it particularly odd wardian thing well it started in uh 1890 in britain and they would perform on promenades and on the beaches and they'd collect the pennies and the hatefulness from people sitting around oh i say i say i say what do you say quiverson lies at the bottom of the ocean i don't know a nervous wreck it's the equivalent today of a kind of indie pop chart or a kind of stand-up comedy club but that's what where people learnt their trade as to how to perform in front of the public we all do everyone likes to spend their it's summer really distinctive look isn't it yeah well it comes from the comedia day originally and uh the character of pedrolino who used to wear completely white so that's the sort of renaissance street theater from italy yeah the italian comedy some people call it where we get mr punch from as well is it yeah yeah you settle down you save up all the money you want till summer comes around then off you go to a thought you know whether [Music] oh [Music] to be the side beside the seaside sat here in my blazer my waistcoat i'm pretty hot i think different sea [Music] have a scotch cheers get that down your neck let's sort you out son ruth how are you doing they can make these things a bit bigger couldn't they [Music] i don't want to come out we ready for this one two [Music] three [Music] men and women swimming together was a new development on many edwardian beaches for most of the 19th century the majority of large resorts enforce segregated bathing but in the 1890s the idea of mixed bathing was taking off imported from resorts on the continent oh i feel better for that we could have picked a better bathing beach but that was fantastic i felt invigorated it was good wasn't it it really was good certainly built up an appetite now i need a good edwardian bit of grub here we go mr punch where are you it's been quite a classic day at the british seaside hasn't it a classic edwardian day at the british seaside pizza yeah when you only get one day a year it's got to be good isn't it here we are finishing up the day with fish and chips that great edwardian dish now i'd always thought fish and chips was a more recent dish you know 70s 80s 90s well it developed really in the last quarter of the 19th century um quite explosively with steam trains with steam trawlers with refrigeration and more popular purchasing power so pretty much everyone in england could have had a fish and chips supper at least once oh um probably once a week even people in rural areas could enjoy a fish supper brought to them by a horse-drawn fish and chip van [Music] well it's been a fantastic july for us it really has and to end it with a traditional edwardian seaside experience has really put the icing on top of the cake hasn't it but you're not escaping until i've got a photograph of you all well actually john capps you could take the picture when we get all three that seems a really good idea thank you ready boys [Laughter] charming man [Music] next time it's august and the team's year on the edwardian farm comes to an end with the oat harvest we don't get this right that's it finding a way to predict the weather and greeting the dawn of a new era

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 294,613

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history

Id: z8M8vXzshgI

Length: 58min 21sec (3501 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020