The Hard Working Day Of A Victorian Farmer | Victorian Farm | Absolute History

[Music] here in shropshire is a farm that's frozen in time lost in victorian rural england now a unique project has brought it back to life as it would have been in the 1880s [Music] for a full calendar year ruth goodman alex langland's and peter ginn are reliving the life of the victorian farmer eight months into the project they restored the derelict farm yard under the watchful eye of their landlord mr acton what do you think of the stone mr acton i think it's slightly tilted let's pull that leg out they've delivered lambs here we go go go go go go go get him out get him out get him out and piglets this one really doesn't look good look at the size difference there cared for a pregnant cow through the winter there we go and learned to handle a shy horse how am i doing then you're doing very well only to see him go lame it's a bit of a nightmare really because we need him to be in shape now it's summer on the victorian farm [Music] it's may summer means time to bring in the hay harvest if you get it right you've got a hay loft full of hay for your cows your sheep and your horses if you get it wrong could spell disaster for the farm it's hard going in the dairy this is women's work it doesn't make it any easier and with the sheep he just doesn't eat the glows into the skin alex takes up a risky new venture how long is it going to be before i get stung long days mean more time for leisure as the team explore what victorian farmers did for fun [Music] [Applause] this is the most fantastic train but as the weather turns it becomes a race against time to save the hay from ruin may is a crucial month for the farm's flock of shropshire sheep a popular victorian breed having given birth to 16 lambs the 10 sheep must now be shown alex and peter have asked sheep farmer richard spencer and professional shearer keith sessions to help out the first objective here is to get the sheep from the covered area where they've been sheltering from the rain overnight and into the yard push them on in then now come here come here look at me all the gates are shut in this yard aren't they peter i believe so let's see you for getting out where are they getting out of the road the sheep have smashed their way through a weak spot in the fence last time we lost one sheep when we uh attempted to move them we've now succeeded in losing all 26. [Music] four of the ewes are quickly found but convincing them to return to the yard isn't going to be easy [Music] [Applause] ah they're coming alex and richard have managed to track down the rest of the flock i've just been told to get out of the road because they're pushing them up the lane we've gone 12 now and we've not even not even got the sheep in the farm yard we're going backwards rather than forwards at the moment nothing nothing seems to have i got a plan come on forget me now over you go farm's cow forget-me-not has given birth to her calf ruth's getting to grips with a daily milking routine she's a nice quiet cow makes a big difference doesn't it girl [Music] you're a good cow aren't you hey what a good girl cow needs to build a relationship with you certainly talking to them helps because your voice is soothing and they know who you are your smell your voice what you look like i have been looking forward to this milking and daring are such an important part of small farms in this part of the world whereas an arable farm in the 1870s needed about 50 acres of land to break even a small shropshire dairy farm could manage with only five acres you could pay your rent with the cheese money so i'm going to watch for getting nuts milk day by day and when i see it change from this lovely lovely rich thick milk into something thinner then that will be the time to go into massive cheese production [Music] the sheep have finally been rounded up they're just coming around the corner thank you very much oh there you are if there's anything good to come out of that alex the sheep will be hot and sweaty as well as me and it means that they the wool will have risen as we call it it means basically that the oils and greases that naturally they're in the fleece yeah they'll be hot and it'll make shearing that much easier the face will tend to peel off raw enough to be you know peeled off with a lot of effort right so come off easily so letting them break out of the stack yard and run a couple of miles was actually good for them wasn't good for me but it was not for the sheep in the farm yard it's time to get to work in the early 19th century sheep was sheered with clippers but by the 1870s shearing machines were being developed right ready to start look at the speed of that then compared to the handshake the machines were much more efficient but had one real drawback for the person winding them all right it's hard to concentrate bloody neck cream [Music] there we are he's gone he's done one down nine to go as keith's son takes over the winding peter brings out a time-saving device invented by the team's landlord mr acton mr acton got tired of having people hand cranking with his old machines so he rigged up the mechanism onto this 1950s rally treader i like the footwork alex this time it's alex's turn to shear give me some power then peter there's a lot of vibrations coming up from the seat it's a bit of a fun ride so much easier than the hand crank wishy hurry up though a professional can shear a sheep in two minutes alex has been working at this one for twenty where is the possibility the sheep may die of all days but we'll hope not that was difficult that was really difficult you just you don't know where body stops and fleece starts the shearing has revealed a serious problem the fleece is infested with maggots if they left long enough they then start to eat little holes into the skin yes and then they get under the skin and if they get them bad enough you move the skin and they all come out the holes that are there in the back of the sheet i mean a few more days it would be a lot worse so we've got it just in time so from now on in what do we need to do because the fleece has gone off for you it should be all out with the use yeah as the lambs get older and it gets to the middle of the summer yeah then they could become worse keep our eyes peeled [Music] oh beautiful to a successful sheepshearing afternoon successful cheering afternoon [Music] the hay harvest is the biggest job of early summer the team will be using the meadow in front of mr acton's hall i'm just having a closer look at some of the species we got in here we've got a lovely meadow grass there there's some perennial rye grass or a lovely fox tail and these all make for great fodder crops essentially hay making is coming out here and cutting the grass the point at which it flowers when it's at its maturist if you like and it's at its sweetest as well you let it dry in the field we'll then rake it all up we'll get it on our dray get it back into the farmyard up into the hayloft and it's essentially a crop it's a harvest because that hay will sustain our cattle and our horses and our sheep throughout the long winter months in the early 19th century huge teams of people brought in the hay entirely by hand but by the 1880s the harvest was becoming mechanized i hope you don't mind me roping you into this one peter no not at all but i think this is a two-man job for advice on the latest technology alex has consulted the team's bible for the year the book of the farm published in 1888 the boys are keen to use as much up-to-date kit as possible if they can get it working so this is a hay rake look there's a little bit of movement there yeah but it's obviously been here for quite a while this is just another one of these fantastic machines that mr acton's collected up oh it's got a lot hasn't it it is it's amazing and it's horse drawn as well so it should save us a lot of time yes yes it should because we're gonna get it out first so let's start hacking away at some of these brambles and i see you've got your pasty on i have i've got one i've got the right you've got the left i've got the bill here no i've got the right you've got the left yes just testing there just testing [Music] it's almost good to have good to have my beast of burden with me i'd like to get peter to do the lifting and the pulling and the you enjoy it though don't you peter and see you sitting on there is it quite light yeah that's that's actually one of the lightest vehicles we've got i should imagine the weight is going to be when when you drop it so you so you sit up so if i sit up there take the pasties i sit up here mind yourself on that that looks quite vicious it does doesn't it it's quite pronounced there at the front it's a bit damp actually um okay so you be the horse yes you ready i'll be the haymaster right so beautiful victorian engineering at its best so we're going along i pull this lever [Music] and it can't does it push forward yeah try to push it all the way forward oh i can't i can't it's seized i think try i'm doing the um uh wing nut ah right that's the problem then slide that yeah and bang there goes the rake and it's in so i'm dragging the waker on the ground pace catching in it i collect all the hay up it's getting really heavy got full i get in line with my windrow and i lift the rake drop the hay and we turn around drop the lake again yeah brilliant whoa standby stand boy good boy [Music] before the hard work of the harvest begins peter's making good use of his remaining free time i think it's undisputable that summer has finally arrived on the farm so we've been thinking cricket match but for a qriket match we're going to need a qriket bat and i've dug out this uh catalogue of hj grandsons we're a victorian company that's still operating and making cricket bats today cricket bat making it's quite a important rural craft however i i'm pretty ignorant of how a cricket bat is made so i'm going to the factory i'm going to find out h.j gray and sons is now the famous company grey nichols whose bats are used all over the world the laws of cricket state that bats must be made from wood and for hundreds of years english willow has been a popular choice gray nichols grows and processes its own batmaker alex hohenkirk is proud of the company's victorian roots so when's this back from this bat was made in 1875. right and you're going to try and recreate this for us yeah i'll try and recreate this one today it's a it's a lot different from what we make now you can see the differences in the the general amount of wood that's in the back to alt all through it is this machine made no it's all handmade and we do everything by sight right all right and so i'll try and replicate this back for you cricket bat design was transformed in the 19th century before this date bats were made of one piece of wood which meant they were easy to break and hard to repair so bat makers came up with the idea of creating a bat in two parts by splicing together the handle and the blade with having a splice this gives the bat more flexibility and it gives you much more sort of strength and versatility in the shots that you're playing and you've got more more feel for the game with a bat that's been spliced and the innovations didn't stop with the splice the famous victorian cricketer w g grace developed a new style of batting which in turn spurred changes to the shape of the bat that can still be seen today when did the humps on the back here start being sort of really introduced um the humps started to develop in around 1860 1870. it was something um pioneered by some of the bigger hitters of the day players like wg grace originally players were very into just pushing the ball around the ground gentle gentle shots and using the speed of the ball and players like grace tended to revolutionize things by big hitting so the hump has been put into the back to put more wood into the back which means we've got a stronger and harder striking surface so just one final look the weights are pretty similar now but i think we're pretty much there wonderful thank you very much i hope it plays well for you in your cricket match and good luck with it back at the cottage ruth's indulging in her favorite summer pastime gardening as a leisure activity is something that becomes much more popular in the victorian period i'm making myself a pesticide here nice and simple it's to kill the sawfly on the gooseberries these are the leaves of the elder tree and i'm just dropping them into the bucket where there's a kettle full of hot water i'm gonna add in a few shavings of soap bash the whole lot together and hey presto that's all it is oh it's nice and warm come on you little sore flies off migos bridge ruth's little garden isn't the only one on the estate mr acton has a spectacular walled garden it needs constant care and he's asked the boys to help out [Music] for alex it's presented a golden opportunity there's a swarm of bees in the walled garden this is an excellent chance for me to get uh involved in beekeeping it really is something that really sort of captures my imagination for a victorian farmer it would be the perfect sideline i shouldn't need gloves but uh i am going to take the precaution here with a bit of string just so they don't crawl up my sleeves but uh i don't think i'm going to do this alone i'm going to wait for a local beekeeping expert to come and help me wrestle this swarm and get it into our uh victorian cottage hive well thanks ever so much for coming over brian good pleasure brian goodwin is president of the shropshire beekeepers association yeah it's been there been there for a while good swarm we're gonna capture these bees and we're gonna put them in our cottage hive we are that's right for their new home now how long is it gonna be before i get stung uh well you won't feel anything after about the fourth so you'll be all right okay brian's going to catch the bees in an old-fashioned type of hive known as a skep they were the way to keep bees many many years ago i mean this is the the sort of classic ancient way of keeping bees in so reminiscent i suppose of winnie the pooh exactly that yes the bees are clustering now on this branch of a tree and the strategy is to get them all in this basket and the simple way of doing that is to just use a simple brush no problem at all this isn't going to upset them in doing this yes you'll have 30 or 40 000 flying around your ears but don't worry too much the first thing to do is to shake right there we are i'm a bit worried about them crawling up my they won't hurt you they're perfectly docile they're an italian type of bee this is this is an italian type of bee right so we haven't got ourselves a good british breed here and these were imported in the victorian period they were yes they were imported from slovenia northern italy and they bred thousands and thousands of queens each year and uh we imported them into this country in the mistaken belief that they were better than our bees and there they are they're all in the scap scaps had many shortcomings the swarm makes its honeycomb inside the basket so to reach the honey many keepers would kill their bees fortunately for alex in the 19th century a brand new hive changed all that there are the bees again and i drop them onto this sloping surface and they'll all start start to walk up here the natural tendency is always to go into a closed dark area where they can re-establish themselves as a colony of bees the modern beehive was created in 1851 by an american named lorenzo langstroth he based his design on an amazing observation langstroth realized that the bees always constructed their cones with an eight millimeter eight millimeter gap this eight millimeter gap became known as the b space and replicating it was the basis of langstroth's invention i could lift this wooden frame which we put into the hive and you will see that if i move it backwards and forwards it's just eight millimeters space the bees are the beeswax in the center there we can take the comb out and we can examine it quite easily and the bees are quite happy clinging to the cone carrying on with their work while the beekeeper can twist the comb about and observe exactly what they're doing get a really good inspection going here and so for the first time beekeepers became not just beekeepers but b managers they could influence what was going on in the hive and take certain steps to change the behavior of the bees and to change what was happening that was revolutionary and that revolutionized beekeeping right wonderful that's fine [Music] it's the day of the cricket match act and scott the farm's local team are playing a neighboring village it'll give us a chance to try out the new bat yeah looking forward to that yeah well we've knocked it in oiled it up and it's ready to go almost looks as smart as we do yes and again it's a nice bat peter it's working beautifully i don't claim to be a sports fan i think i'm just here to eat the sandwiches and have a nice sit down there's so many people i was hoping somebody else would bring some food as well but never mind it'll probably all disappear in about 10 seconds flat i won't be here for very long one ball oh split my trousers go on i seem to have split the incredibly tight trousers i got a hole in my pants as well thank god i really want to be back out there batting you do yeah i think with a better pair of trousers right i could have stayed in a bit longer of course earlier on in the 19th century we'd probably be doing blood sports the bear fist fighting fighting all that kind of thing but uh towards the end of the 19th century landlords were looking to uh to get their labourers and the people of the parish involved in far gentler sports so quick it was a perfect opportunity to sort of galvanize the community far more gentlemanly pursuits for the labouring classes [Applause] [Music] as june begins preparations for the hay harvest are in full swing this is our mower how does it work then hey comes in here we're missing a blade yes he's not in brilliant shape is it the sheep are enjoying their shorter fleeces [Music] forget me not in her car for doing well [Music] and for a couple of weeks the bees have been left to their own devices it's about time that i got into the hive and had a check to see how things are getting on and look at that that is absolutely wonderful they are making inroads and in fact looking at it i think i should be concerned because the danger here is that what they'll do is they'll fill this up and they'll say right we've run out of space we need to swarm we need to um we need to find somewhere else to go and that's the last thing i want to swarm and make a new colony bees must first create a new queen so i think the most crucial thing for me to do here is to check that they're not developing any queen cells let's have a look you can see all the larvae in there and bingo now this is just what we don't want this thing here is a queen cell [Music] i think to be honest i've got it just in the nick of time my job really here is to just pinch this out that wasn't far off becoming a queen so what i'm going to do is put another box on with some more frames in some empty frames in this is going to go back on just a minute chaps i've just got a b on the meat and two veg don't want them getting in there so i think i've taken the necessary steps to avoid swarming so let's get the lid on and it clearly won't be long now before we start to extract some honey the piglets have got big and it's high time they were weaned from their mother at the moment their pure source of food is princesses milk so we need to wean them which is a gradual process there's a picture of a ring pig's trough in book of the farm and we've got a very similar design picture off and basically it creates segments so when the piglets feed they've each got their own little compartment which i suppose mirrors the fact that they each have their own teats that they will take milk from princess from but i'm going to try and let the pigs out without letting the princess out which is going to be easier said than done done it the other way around i'll feed her here go anywhere for food [Music] [Music] there you go on the surface of things to be moderately successful rearing these guys has been a lot of work but it's been such a fun time and i'm immensely proud certainly the ones that are feeding from the feeder not so much of the ones with the heads in the bucket but it's been great out of all the animals on the farm i think the pigs are the ones i'm gonna miss the most it's gonna be quite a wrench actually and once they're fully weaned someone will keep and some you'll kill don't tell them it's harsh it's harsh i've got a really messy stinky job here i've got the stomach of a young calf a male car from our neighbors over there and i've got to clean it out and make rennet which is the magic ingredient that turns milk into cheese obviously in a dairy herd male calves are not terribly useful so at this time of year many of the male calves are slaughtered you eat the veal of course which is very tasty and use the stomachs to make your cheese a calf's stomach has four chambers ruth must find the fourth one where rennet is produced rennet is the juices of the stomach it's the enzymes with which the young mammal and it happens in any mammal including ourselves separate their mother's milk into a solid and a liquid cheese making is very dependent upon this rennet milk has to be separated into curds and whey ruth must rinse out the stomach and cover it with salt to preserve it the calf has to be very young it has to be one that has only sucked milk and has not yet been weaned onto grass once the calf has been weaned and is eating solid foods the the nature of the enzymes changes in the stomach and no longer does the job with the same efficiency the stomach will now be left in a bucket of water the rennet will seep out ready for use in a few weeks time [Music] the hayfield is growing well but preparations for the harvest have hit a snag clumper the farm shire horse has an ongoing problem with his hoof since most of the machinery is horse drawn this is a real cause for concern alex is seeking the advice of a modern vet and as an extra measure he's trying out a traditional homemade remedy i'm going to make a balm here for um plumper's foot it's going to be a comfrey balm so this is a comfrey root root the comfrey plant just give it a really good breaking up and the idea with comfrey is it's got this something that's called allentown in it and what this stuff apparently does is it helps in cell proliferation so the sores on his foot hopefully i'll get the balm on there and it'll just help it heal over that much quicker alex must first heat the crushed root with some tallow fat see how this is doing certainly very hot oh look at that yeah that's done the trick i think just let that strain through so that's the base oil then what i'm going to add now is the magic ingredient this is some beeswax from the hive so i'm just going to put this on the range really the beeswax what it does is once it's been applied to the saw area it'll stick it'll hold the fat in and the fat will be holding in the vital ingredients right this looks like it's melted down quite a nice smell not i'm sure that clumpy will appreciate that right that's well mixed in so we'll take one of these receptacles okay so it's simply a case putting this on the cold stone in the pantry to cool and set and as soon as it's done that i can get it on clumper's foot it's alex's birthday today i'm gonna make him a cake for tea birthdays were not celebrated in a big way in victorian britain but nonetheless there are references to farmers having cakes for their birthday so making a pound cake it basically means a pound of every ingredient start with butter and then i've got some sugar that'd be a pound of that and there'll be a pound weight of eggs and a pound of flour in the cake as well a pound of raisins and currants and then just to flavor it a little pinch of spice in the walled garden alex's birthday is proving busy mr acton has asked the boys to make a protective shelter for his raspberry patch they've built the wooden frame but now they've got to cover it with netting [Laughter] [Music] certain extent trying to defy physics with that one but when you finished goofing around up there peter we can get on some work wire netting became available after 1844 when charles barnard and iron monger invented a machine to manufacture it barnard was a farmer's son and knew there'd be huge demand for a product that kept predators off livestock and plants now do you think leave the overhang like that at the front yeah yes yeah what about here though we won't be opening the door ah i was wondering he'll be the first to spot that one we could always open the door well then you won't cut round it no you're right let's go good suggestion though peter [Music] hi how are you getting on oh not too bad how are you all right thank you yeah oh dear this is taking a while and uh yep not an easy job time to stop as soon as it's your birthday i bait your cake who's a lucky boy looking good for 45. of course we can't sing you happy birthday and we can't even say happy birthday it's an american idea it doesn't come into britain until quite a lot later the melody for happy birthday comes from a song called good morning to you written in america in the 1890s the famous lyric itself didn't appear in print until 1924. we've got you something i wrapped it what could it be the bow's just for show good do you know what it is or bees bee hives and bee culture thank you very much there'll be no excuses now we're expecting honey and wax and huge quantities so now you're a year older do you think you're a year wiser certainly when it comes to beekeeping i think i'm gonna be so if we can't say happy birthday to you then i don't know what um many happy returns yeah well here's to another year congratulations for surviving this long thank you ever so much for my book and the cake lovely it's mid-june princesses piglets are now fully weaned hello my sweeties forget-me-not is still yielding plenty of milk come on you greedy oh come on [Music] and everyone's hoping the bomb will make a difference to clumpers hoof stand come on stand still boy all eyes are now turning to the hayfield and the weather for several days the crop has been hammered by rain at the first break in the clouds the boys have a chance to inspect it you feel right down in here that's dumb it's damp the earth is damp the hay can't be harvested in wet conditions but the boys mustn't delay for long with every passing day the crops nutritional value is going down so unless the weather improves and the harvest can start the crop will have little use as animal feed this is awful truly awful it really is let's just hope we get a nice dry spell within the next couple of weeks right do you wanna start getting some milk in yeah sure in the dairy ruth's also got a big task ahead of her she's asked her daughter catherine to come and help out we're about to make our first cheese of the year and this is our vat which is just a great big box that we're filling up with all the milk we've got to raise it right up to was it 85 degrees 50 degrees 85 degrees which is fahrenheit that is fahrenheit yeah this is our method of warming the milk this is the sort of old and traditional method of bringing the milk up to a temperature so that when we add the rennet the magic will happen um if the milk is too cold no matter how much rennet we add no reaction will occur and we will just have milk if we can get the milk to the right temperature when we pop the rennet in the milk will then separate into the solids which are the curds which is what you make cheese out of and the liquids call whey which you feed to the pigs every time the water cools in these jugs we take jugs out fill them full of boiling water and pop them back in again once the temperature reaches 85 degrees the rennet is added and the split into curds and whey begins right so now we need to cut the curd into little cubes and that starts to help the way be released from the curds now in the old times we would have done that with our hands you'd literally just put your fingers apart and gradually very slowly drawn your fingers through but by victorian times you could purchase marvellous gorgeous curd knives do you want that one you draw it across the vat the curd has to be treated very gently at this stage that's it it really smells horrible i'm sorry it's horrible it sounds like baby sick it's really nasty well it is isn't it it's cow baby sick but it is isn't it milk it's milk and the juice is from a calf stomach i mean that's exactly what you know if a baby calf was sick it's still hot this would be it ruth is making cheddar cheese and it's now that the process of cheddaring takes place the liquid whey is drained off heated and returned to the vat it then heats up the curd which sets into a firm mass they should stay solid yes see the curd is then piled up in blocks by turning it we're starting a very gentle press just using the weight of the curd itself to press way out if we didn't do this cheddaring process we'd have a cheese that would only last a short while and you'd have to eat it within the month but by doing this cheddaring process we'll have a cheese that can last six eight nine months and still be nice [Music] well thanks for coming down again brian alex has asked beekeeper brian goodwin to help with one final task it wasn't a job i felt i could do myself to be honest [Music] that's freshly made wax and if i scrape off that bit of wax with the the hive tool you can see that there is honey underneath it that's what we've come for that's what we come for the first step in extracting the honey is to get the bees off the comb you can see that this combs got rather a lot of bees on it they're very quiet at the moment and when i shake them off into the box you'll find that they become rather more agitated and this is the time that you've got to be aware of them so they don't like me doing this [Music] so back to the cottage yes where we've got these two different types of extractor so it'd be interesting to see how they work right first the beeswax must be removed from the comb in a process called uncapping and it's a slicing action that gets it off right fairly easily across the cone and these are traditional honey knives are they they are these are what are called bingham honey knives made in the uh 1880s 1890s then it's time to bring out the extractor you put the frame inside the extractor resting against the wire grid right it supports it when it's revolving at higher speed right there we go faster you turn it the faster the honey will be flung out by centrifugal force against the metal container but the higher the risk then a bit yeah getting off right there we go i think i've got it the idea of using centrifugal force to extract honey was hit upon in 1865 by italian army major francesco de ruska this requires quite a high level of concentration this legend has it came up with the idea after seeing his son playing with a basket of honeycomb the boy whirled the basket in the air and his father noticed a few drops of honey come out have a look in there i'll take the comb out and you can see where the honey has been flung out of the comb yeah up against the wall of the main body of the extractor but you can see that this extractor isn't very efficient once the principle of using centrifugal force was established it wasn't long before improved extractors hit the market this was a major advance because in fact you can extract four cones at once in this extractor the secret is to place the extractor firmly within your knees because it could be unbalanced and you need to grip it fairly tightly right as you extract it you turn the honey quite fast and you can see immediately if you look down in the gap you can see the honey coming out wow look at that that's amazing when i was a lad i used to sit in the kitchen alongside my father he would be uncapping the combs and i would be turning the handle furiously uh and that was my job okay all right here we go here we go wow you get that golden liquid coming out look at that this is a dream come true brian this is for me is it yet to see this just about and we took it back now ready to close the gate valve that's it that's absolutely amazing look at that okay i'll do it one block at a time victorian technology is also coming in handy in the dairy this curd mill was made in the factory of local inventor thomas corbett whose products were sold all over the world so having got it into these solid blocks i think it's rather ironic that we then have to grind it down into a crumbliness again it's really weird but i mean the blocks helps to develop flavors develop texture but you can't mix in the salt or pack it evenly into a press if it's in great big funky lumps [Music] being a dairy implement this is women's work doesn't make it any easier does it after mixing salt into the curd and packing it in a mold it's time for the final piece of equipment the cheese press [Music] this is very much a standard basic farmyard cheese press and you see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them they were made in vast numbers and they survive in vast numbers because they're really sturdy and they do the job beautifully the pressure gauge is really rather useful just want it so that the way will run there it is start to see the first run yeah is that running just over the next three days the pressure will be gradually increased until most of the way has come out [Music] it's still raining and the hay still can't be cut with every day that goes by the crop is losing nutritional value to cheer themselves up the team are having their first taste of the farm's honey that is absolutely stunning it's so good i'm so alive isn't it brian said there is no better tasting honey than the honey you get from your first extraction and i think i uh i think i have to agree with him while they wait for the rain to stop peter's making some provisions i'm going to make some ginger beer for the hay harvest [Music] this is the family sable ruth's book that she's given to me with the best ginger beer recipe in it it's white sugar lemon lemon juice honey ginger which we've got water and it's just basically boil it up mix in all the rest of stuff and then add some yeast and leave it it's a pretty simple recipe which is lucky because i've never done this before [Music] that i would say is bruised ginger this is honey that alex has given me so hopefully it can give it a nice flavor never been on for exact guidelines [Music] this is a very very sharp crater careful my fingers don't go the same way as the family sable yeast which i've got here it's a brewers yeast i'm going to leave these for a couple of days just to ferment let the yeast act and it all start frothing up so fingers crossed it'll work [Music] the ginger beer will be ready to drink in about 10 days time but the clouds just won't clear we've got a nice bit of sun here and we've got some wind as well so you'd think it was good haymaking weather but i'm just looking at the cloud formations and it's just starting to break up into a what we call a mackerel sky and the old rhyme goes mackerel sky mackerel sky never long wet never long dry and that's not good haymaking weather so i think we're gonna have to leave it for another couple of weeks [Music] it's midsummer's eve a night that in victorian rural folklore held powerful meaning of an evening like this in the 1880s um young women working on farms often like to sort of use a whole range of folklore practices to work out who they were going to marry who were the young men who would strike lucky [Music] many of these rituals took place in church yards at night ruth's daughter catherine has decided to try one out there are so many thoughts it really hurts [Music] can you see yeah okay okay she's got to scatter hemp seed can you remember what i'm supposed to say hemp seed seed should grow um he who will marry me come after and mo there we go there we go right i can't remember okay ready okay ready go on then um hempseed iso hempseed will grow he who will marry me um come aft and no there we go [Music] what's supposed to happen now is supposed to appear like a guest don't think it's worked which young man had you in mind no one really really no one's really known at all no little perspective um no no not at all not in the slightest well you might dream him you know might come as an apparition in your dreams that's even more creepy okay i just have to say that is hugely creepy back at the farm the cheese has been pressed while the unsettled weather continues the team are taking a trip to explore one final piece of victorian dairy technology oh doesn't that look magnificent that is the future it is the future it is the future from the 1840s onwards the railways opened up a crucial new market for dairy farmers for the first time ever fresh milk could be sent in bulk from the countryside to the town beautiful oh and the carriages too look at that right and this is where our milk goes right okay to get a flavor of this breakthrough the teams come to the tally thin railway in wales one of the few railways still preserved as it was in the 19th century okay right yeah let's get on for a ride oh so looking forward to this well i'll see you at the next station green flag alex is traveling with one of tally flynn's most dedicated drivers phil higginson [Music] well this is a way to travel it's got all its original locomotives and rolling stock right so we're on an original train i mean we're on a time capsule from the 1860s and you think about it i mean these engines have gone back and forth of this bit of line since 1865 imagine it back in the 1860s when it was the cutting edge of you know of engineering this was highly technical when the internet arrived broadband at your house this is the most fantastic train isn't it indeed yes if you think about the development in the railways within queen victoria's lifetime in 1830 the speed world record for a steam train is 30 miles now yeah in 1895 it's 90 miles now and so much more network than there is nowadays in modern britain i mean it's something like four times as many stations in 1880 as there are in the 21st century by these things they absolutely revolutionize dairy farming a whole production of raw milk going into cities and towns where before it would have gone off before you got there but now you know you can get your churns to a station yeah and it's away away off you go quickly arrives in a brilliant state sellable straight off the rocking might turn into butter that's what i was saying great wasn't it that was absolutely fantastic there it is [Music] cheers back on the farm the weather is worse than ever and the hay is now in real jeopardy fresh grass is growing up underneath the hay crop making a thick layer that would be difficult for victorian machines to cut in a brief gap in the rain the boys have decided it's now or never for the hay harvest they've called in expert local horseman brian davis to help just not cutting is it no it's not it's so thick isn't it try it again yeah come on i'm really feeling for alex at the moment he was so up for this he's put so much effort into it and it's just not working it's so thick and so wet as well it's almost it's like soapy it's what's called soapy i mean peter's ringing it out there look at that bringing it out to become hay the grass must be able to dry in the field but this grass is so wet it's more likely to rot away instead it's like a carpet for a victorian farmer this would have been disastrous a failed hay crop would leave him with nothing to feed his animals over winter so the boys aren't quitting give it a few more tries maybe brian back back back but eventually they come to a painful decision afraid we've had to give up it's just too thick this crop it's too wet and we've had to admit defeat in this situation the victorian farmer would have had to buy in his hay for the coming months that would mean raising money from elsewhere on the farm so everything now rests on the success of the team's wheat field they need a bumper and profitable crop when they harvest it in a few weeks time bloody rain rain rain rain rain rain let's hope it doesn't affect the wheat day yeah there's more clouds in the horizon isn't there every cloud has a silver lining just got to work out what it is hopefully it'll be your ginger beer my good friend hi ruth hello oh gosh you're back quick we are sad this is not to be yeah it's not to be unfortunately not today and probably not ever [Music] well we still got all this ginger beer of yours we should give it a go it looks the part it really does well here's to a better wheat harvest yes used to a better wheat harvest that's gorgeous it's not bad is it that it's delicious it really is i don't like ginger beer because that is good something's gone right thank goodness thank goodness what are we gonna do if the wheat doesn't work oh it will it will it will work we'll make it work yeah we've got to we've got two next time on victorian farm the year-long project nears its end but first the team faced their toughest challenge the wheat harvest [Music] there are urgent repairs to be made [Music] cutting edge technology victorian style yes oh no no and crucially they need dry weather otherwise a year's work will have been in vain

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 179,017

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, cricket history, victorian cricket, absolute history, victorian farm, ruth goodman, living on a victorian farm, victorian era, victorian history, queen victoria

Id: 0uleuy6I2d4

Length: 58min 21sec (3501 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020