What Life Was Like For An Edwardian Farmer | Edwardian Farm EP6 | Absolute History

daily life in the Edwardian countryside had a rhythm routine of its own grief has discovered a remarkable source of information about this now for dot way of living goodness I've been given this set of letters they were found in a box and a house down here and they were written 1907 they really give such a picture of what it was like the little things that people deal with all the time and this one you get so a bit the the local gossip really Harry's wife has got another baby which makes eight children Hey the eldest has gone to London in a situation so some poor little kid has disappeared off to go and work in service this letter rings so true this is exactly what we're going through the moment the days are so very short now that it does not give 1/2 enough time to do all I should like to do that's February it is a fearfully hard winter for everyone but I suppose it will be better soon it's all these sort of little things in life easy to forget when you read a big history then this sort of letters really sort of remind you the daily daily thoughts going through people's heads the daily little nichols and worries and the concerns that's obviously these letters meant a lot to somebody they kept them very safe I ought to write to my family really I'm spending my mum for ages I'm a bad daughter don't keep in touch anywhere near enough [Music] sorry I haven't written for so long you wanted to know what it's like down here well I'm going to tell you what we've been up to today so then you'll have a picture of a day in [Applause] [Music] this morning I was up before dawn I am NOT a morning person thankfully had wooden underwear is very capacious the money faucet vessel a Victorian course it was all about making the tiny little waist and compressing the sort of this area but left all of that completely untouched as as if an Edwardian course it's just a lot lower so actually I'm really quite unsupported at the top [Music] state level my petticoat dragon in the mud [Music] it takes some getting used to this really does this job of the day before we can put the kettle on before we can think about breakfast I've gotta get the range sorted out every tiny little popper I need us to come from this beast as of course just the heating for the house pretty much the center of all wants and cancer this is a common Edwardian practice brushing your teeth with certain brush I have here made out of bone and Badger bristles pretty much resembles a modern toothbrush and as any dentist to probably tell you it's the action of brushing teeth that makes up the majority at 90% of keeping your teeth clean this is no different from brushing your teeth with toothpaste the only thing that you're missing is the minty freshness of it every morning Alex and Peter's first job is feeding the animals but with the winter dragging on as store of hay is running dangerously low let's take that Ricki sounds yeah yeah let's hope it sounds they've built a rig to store extra hay in case this situation arose waffling why isn't it the whole thing does move it's covered in straw mats to keep rain out and prevent the hay from rotting now they must cut into the Rick and see if the hay is survived well some of these signs are pretty ominous here look I pull that out you'll see that's actually a mushroom as he growing so mushrooms mean damp and warm which is not really what we wanted then why mate it's gonna come good PA don't worry no cows are looking on like distinctly unimpressed what have they done many Edwardian farmers were dependent on income from livestock in the 1900s meat and dairy were one of the most profitable areas of Britain's agricultural output with the welfare state yet to provide a safety net if his livestock failed a farmer his family could end up in the workhouse so the team's animals are their most valuable asset and to feed them they need hay Cuddy well my boy oh you can see all the mold under there look it's black right at this moment I can't really see there's a lot of dry here there's dry here but there's nearly as much damp and I'm slightly worried about the angle there because that means it's tipping into the middle of the RIC so I think it's all we've cut off all the way down to the bottom yeah it won't really know the desperate for hay now we've really got to the bottom of our resources up in the hayloft if the winter looks like it's gonna stretch on into March we are gonna really struggle [Music] by seven o'clock I was on my knees with a scrubbing brush the amount of Filth forgets walked in is quite unbelievable [Music] not just be working on the farm so it's got to be cleaned drawing the outside because it's at the wind because it looked really dry that the thing is kept walking past it thinking God that Rick's down well it's brilliant off the inside it's a festering rotting compost it's not even good for comfort we'll see maybe I'm being a bit negative Peter wait a minute wait a minute Peter what are you saying what that is the top - the top layer that's all right look I mean that he's look Peter look at that that looks lovely it's good hey it's dry hey I'd say that proves that those mats were an absolute success they must have been fit as butcher's dogs those boys [Music] Oh God that's the one not so bad after all Peter around half past seven having washed the floors it was time to wash myself I needed it all the first jobs due today are extremely dirty Heidi was such an important issue and had hold him Brittany Anderson a period of time when people going on about the great unwashed they're becoming increasingly sniffy about cleanliness of the body mostly that sneering about other people's uncleanliness as is always the way the majority of adult movie nerd Audion Britain probably hardly ever best I mean just how many times could you find when you were alone in the house and you could take all your clothes off nothing was something for children for boys over men waters looking pretty gray [Music] it's a beautiful face once you cut it all these bucks coming out so I could really neat that it was just bad luck that we actually started cutting in at this point and when I was stood on there and I could actually hear it squelching on the foot I thought oh my god we've got just an enormous pile of rotting hay but this is bone-dry now we've got more than enough hay to last us through to when the spring grass starts to grow yeah this is a lot of hay it's been any just trying to work out how to do an Edwardian hairstyle because every photograph you see absolutely everyone everybody has the big hair on top nobody has roof hair which is skinny in little you see I mean that's how my hair really wants to go up in a bun notice how there isn't very much of it so I have to think about how an earth an ordinary woman would have achieved that if she had hair like mine because not everybody has big wavy hair and the more I looked into it and more adverts I kept finding for things to help you moremore not so much things in bottles which of course is a modern approach to the problem more about hair pieces so I got somebody else's plat this is real hair I tried everyone still didn't work how do used to and it's just way too skinny it was something of a rite of passage wearing your hair up and Edwardian England girls wore it down loose or in a sort of ponytail thing and then in your teens you had a sort of half way sort of a hairstyle anyone you really what counted pretty much as a grown-up did your hair go up great breakfast on [Music] their workouts demo cows go Moo cows well this is some of the the hay that came off the top of the Rick and in fact well I'm hoping it's edible of course the proof is in the pudding these are our calves there we go fellas see what they make of it but nice going down that's good news that is good news actually the thing about good farming particular when it comes to livestock it's spending the time watching the animals it's such a crucial feed it's not a case of just turning up mucking out feeding and walking off you know each time you want to be counting obviously doing the headcount and also looking at condition looking at the way they're moving you want to see an animal move every day if not twice a day and that way you stay on top of the livestock you don't get any nasty surprises you know you don't come out the field and find one of them's lame or you dead it's nonstop work with the animals we've got the sheep to tend to the horses to look after and the cattle to fatten then there's the pigs [Music] if we were farming pigs on a commercial basis then pig farming is in the Edwardian period men's work but when it's just a cottage Pig just one it sort of falls to the loss of the woman part of the routine muscle forget the chickens Alex's favorite there's one thing on a frosty morning that's going to warm your hands up it's a chicken and last but not least the geese we've had to be extra vigilant with the animals through the winter there's plenty of predators around here who would like to get their claws into them back got one of our geese and she's been he's got by the Fox just in here when I saw the Fox the other day he's big when I say big I mean you know now it's been so cold they're so hungry and they've just been after the poultry we've had a couple of chickens been got I know this one and she's not looking very well geese were expensive in Edwardian Britain and to lose one would be a real hello it's got a bit of fighting huh I think she's almost too weak to feed herself I mean to a certain extent the fact that she's been got by the Fox means that we failed her house goosey they know to be honest no 5050 5050 yeah she's got fight enough yeah but she doesn't seem to have a mobility in her right heads drooping can tree walk properly right so javis do our best to keep a warm try and feeder I'm thinking we should get some some security guards in some ganders I know you don't like galas a week yeah Nick your heels all days you're trying to feed him but they'll keep the Fox away weren't they my heels I'm worried about it anyway the big job in the morning is mucking these cars out okay Peter I'm just gonna poop it this one yeah I'm just gonna focus in here for you just get all this out of here around eight o'clock it was time to start on breakfast I love this dish it's called brought a turd fry around here you're working man's breakfast managed to find myself a nice bit of blackthorn which has miraculously grown in the perfect shape for a human yoke so this is the equivalent of three slices of bacon for half an onion each and the rest of the breakfast would basically be potato and obviously after you've already done a couple of hours work for breakfast it's Darvin there's light bowl of cereal is not gonna cut the mustard a few roots from the Market Garden we're just gonna chop up for the the calves water routes I'm just about ready for my breakfast now yeah for sure Oh lovely though oh no it's one of my favorite I'm expecting bigger eggs benedict this is such a wonderful meal no I love what a tea fry mm-hmm Peter has had a difficult warning nursing goosy - yes one of our geese has got by the Fox what did no no just close to dead here severely demoralized it's just really been sort of daily grind really just just to keep the animals alive and in good health and in good spirits really isn't there I have to say frankly it's the same with the people I was gonna say as a daily annoying keeping their own spirits going hmm so I brought adaptive cheer myself up oh god I needed this this morning [Music] after breakfast the farrier came to look at our two lovely shire horses Tom and Prince he gives him a regular checkup every six weeks and the farriers job is basically keeping his horses feet fit and in a fit state to work farriers are specialists in caring for horses hooves and making horseshoes the job has existed for centuries but in the Edwardian period it was becoming formal honest with farriers taking exams and joining an official register Ian Mortimer has been a qualified farrier for sixteen years it was a very important craft because unlike today in Edwardian times horses weren't so much kept for pleasure they were kept specifically to work they were still a backbone of British motivepower British economy really at home was very much dependent on me at that time it was still very very dependent on the draught horse in particular so I suppose a big question here is when are you looking too soon when you when you not the condition there's two main reasons for sure that the main one is if the horse is wearing his feet out faster than they're growing right you're gonna end up with a lame horse and you you absolutely have to shoe yeah the other thing is grip the horses sometimes if you know on slippery ground slightly sloppy grain you do need the extra grip that if you'll give them right so it's basically like studs on a football boot right it does make a difference Prince is the younger of the two horses Rhaenys loosens he hasn't been pulling his weight and being three years old so it's a sort of equivalent of being a teenager he's just sort of clumsy bored generally saw didn't we sort of them fed up with life on the farm kind of thing Ian's discovered a possible reason for princes attitude this horses let Daenerys and even unbalanced feet she has been pushed across that way yeah see you know but you know you have to pull it out to see there yeah the whole foot is leaning that way so that would mean this side was split here yeah and this side would has been in the past packed with gravel just because he walks hard on the outside doesn't take enough weight on the inside and it just flares away so this isn't getting worn away which is why you can see it's it's it's starting to lie over so this is crucial actually isn't it yes if I was being sort of brutally kind of economic and my choices make your living from this horse you think might might have two years then you'll go late I probably would but it's the only thing I could do if I could bring a farrier in so let's say I've already got the horse can I bring a fairy can the farrier do anything about that that's right in balance there in the book yes you could do a little well I can but you know the time in time that will still be his weak point but I showing it you'll you'll put that off right just trying to get some water lots of some food down our neck just mix up some feed and some water let's make a very sort of soup she's had some you know certainly has enough strength to sort of be worth worrying about better just try and keep a warm keeper in here keep us safe many time will tell [Music] by mid-morning I was getting on with the main work of the day it's a constant round of chores just to keep the cottage going three or four times a day it's only when you don't have running water that you realize how much we take it for granted and people often stress the health benefits of having piped clean water which of course is extremely important there's also the amount of timely work involved but you've never known until you've loved it all yourself I have become obsessive about hot water as the stoves empty it ought to have pans for water on it just always need hot water and of course you have to plan so far in advance always washing up stop really burn on this one left it a bit long and it's caught on the stove most Edwardian housewives just used a bit of sand cloth free disposable environmentally friendly scouring pad in the same way I get really really paranoid about hot water I get just the same about dry kindling notice how much hurry there is at this tummy here the day is so short and rushing all the time every job trying get it done as fast as possible I'm gonna move on to the next one once I get this dinner on pretty much everything else is now under control housework wasn't the only daily tasks for Edwardian women across Britain around 5 million Edwardian women were employed outside their homes but working conditions often varied with their marital status for a long time in industries where married women were working you find that there is a later start hour for married women than there is for single women so in the laundry industry for example nobody expected a married woman to be in before 8 o'clock even though unmarried women might have started you know it's sort of half 6 because a married woman to do everything and everybody knew that I can just leave that to simmer our white-faced dartmoor sheep are expecting lambs in a few weeks so it's vital for the boys to make sure they're in good health suppose handling this even regular basis you really get to know the characters yes you always get one or two just stand at the back of the flock yeah okay we've only got a small flock but they stand right at the back and they're always position themselves at the back like I sort of shy child at a wedding you know they're always hiding behind the rest of the flock seeing what's gonna happen maybe the wise ones maybe the clever ones to be honest and then there's the ones that will just come to the bucket you've only got a wave a bucket in front of them and they're all yours oh look at that one this is this is this might be our problem sheep look at that it's turned over almost entirely problem with these Dartmoor sheep is that their natural habitat in many ways is a breed is is up on up on the moor you know where it's also quite stony and they would actually wear a lot of this down but where we've got them down on that we've had them down very close to water Meadows so really isn't the driest land in the area so it's up for us to step in and I'm hoping that one's gonna be all right that one that one didn't look too pretty it has to be said okay see I don't know if you want to just quickly little waxy deposit there that's just coming out that means people have pregnant she indeed so I think we should be confident now all of these have been serviced by old several take back everything we said about it yep sorry Jill you've clearly been doing the job okay that next one out they keep the wind out nice to meet you local hurdle maker ian Roper has come along to make a batch for the farm just put in the sales in at the moment sales yes al so basically that's your upright post okay okay so we want a couple of our best and longest rods and they want to be about eight foot long yeah at least I'm gonna tie in the bottom of the hurdle is over and under round and round right so you're not just leaving Europe you're platting them as well yeah at each end the hazel must be turned back on itself without snapping again that's very much technique more than strength rope just amazing this really is the way the wood has actually turned through a rope Ian's twisted it so much that the fibers are separated making it flexible pliable wonder of wood all right so that's the bottom of the harowin the middle of the hurdle is built up with tightly woven split wrong so these hurdles are gonna be instrumental when it comes to lambing and the beauty about the wattle hurdle it keeps the wind out and when it comes to lambing season fishing places like Dartmoor it's imperative that they don't get cold wet and then chilled by the wind finally the hurdies held together with a single rod twisted around both end and there we have it that's the law there we go out of the mold bin man William cheers thank you very much Alex good job around midday I popped into the village shop we needed a few supplies [Music] well it's first up with bread please by the start of the 20th century consumerism was taking hold of society the number of shops grew massively from 300,000 and 1875 to over 450,000 by 1907 an Edwardian shop is such a different place from a modern one for style I get to sit down if you just sit nicely on chair and they serve you she's very pleasant thank you very much oh is that gold sir yes ma'am we'll have a syrup sponge I think can I have a thinner that various oh yeah more and more and more companies were producing things in a branded package and selling it with a great big bright logo and a name that everybody recognized the same products right across the country yes the railway network is so completely up and running everywhere is connected food can be shipped from one part of the country overnight so many of these foodstuffs could have come from well anyway they're not local at all of there's foods here from Leicester Shearer from Redding all transported right across the face of Britain down to a place you know Devon and Cornwall that's a really new idea that food should move around like this and particularly some of these things could easily have been made here I mean there's no reason why the flour for example sitting there couldn't be local flour but it's not and that's very much an Edwardian story which might bring this email it wasn't just locally the food that was being pushed out of the high street individual transmen one for blacksmith and the candle maker were disappearing unable to compete with new big brand names among those feeling the pinch was the village shoemaker until the mid 19th century shoemakers carried out their work by hand usually in a workshop in their own home they enjoyed a huge amount of freedom deciding what hours and days they worked then in the 1850s machines for shoe production started to appear many shoemakers went to work in new large-scale factories it was the end of their independence Alex's brother Tom is one of the few people in Britain carrying on the tradition of making shoes by hand shoe making is often called the gentle craft quite therapeutic it's quite relaxing he's come to fix Alex's boobas start with an apple this is an old up I've taken off and this is as you can see it's it stitched together so that this can be pulled over the last and the last especially a wooden block that you pull the leather over in order to shape the shoe they they come in a variety of sizes I've got some men's they're down to little children's there as you can see here I've pulled the leather over the last and narrowed it on so then it's tight over the top of the last it's taken the shape of the shoe next the soul is built up hard wearing layers and then in here I will put the shank metal or wood and that will sit in here and just give the strength underneath then this area here will be filled with caulk and on top of all of this our then place the midsole and the soul itself by the end of the accordion period specialist shoe shops selling a factory made shoes for the common sight the final nail in the coffin if the First World War and during that time I think the factories of Britain made nearly 60 70 million pairs of boots for their forces that will fighting around the Empire so the factories take hold and they're churning out boots cheap boots that people can afford and this type of work becomes very expensive she makers have to adapt so they're becoming what's called a cobbler and a cobbler for somebody who men's shoes you don't make shoes [Music] beyond the High Street Edwardian manufacturers often use travelling salesmen to get their goods deep into the countryside come and show you know two items I've just bought up from London sure okay avid collector Morris Collins names over four hundred historic inventions presto please come to the farm armed with his it Wardian words do you have chicken sir we have a lot of chicken what if I may like to show the very latest item that we are using for farms and I was placed this right over here sir yep and you will find that this will grade your eggs the chicken drops its egg it rolls down ah when it ever gets to the appropriate weight it is been graded well but certainly something Alex might be interested in let me just show you one or two other items now I know you get up very early in the morning yeah hold I am sure and even wear this fill it with hot water place it around your belly makes me looks like a large I already am does it matter so at 5:00 in the morning no cows don't care this in fact it is what they call a propeller spoon that you would actually mix your food the propeller stirs it in the opposite direction giving you double the result from half the effort this is a bird caller which bird is that well to be honest we haven't quite established that sounds like Alex and morning let's see what else we have that might be of interesting and this in fact is the boot and shoe all right in this instance you do not have to take your boots off one step at a time no that's that's quite something and finally I would like to show the very ultimate in it Audion technology it's something that perhaps is going to sweep the country and you are in at the beginning this is teas made eighteen thirties amenities made and run may I say by it clockwork this item is based upon a clockwork situation of your clock what you do is set the alarm of appropriate time that you wish to arise but imagine is about 5:00 in the morning at 10:00 in the morning yeah 5:00 in the morning what would happen is you would actually fill the night before yeah your kettle with the water what soon as the time arrives this would automatically fly across there the Emery cloth were then to strike on the match which will wipe that heater and when the kettle is born it was tilt like that into the teapot and then this iron would flash back and cut out the burning flames that is actually fantastic you have a vast selection of items here is there any one that you feel that would satisfy your immediate needs the hens eggs sorta perfect for our chicken concern the boot warmer perfect for my frozen feet I mean I I want all of them I need none of them but I would quite like to possibly purchase this I mean how much is this gonna set me back well around about two pound an involved in labour probably earning roughly around 20 shillings a week right so 20 shillings is for a pound and this is just over 2 pounds this is over 2 weeks wages but sorry well worth while it gives you the height of fashion in terms of domestic wear and for you we will do it paid on the never never will send a man round to knock on your door to click the money don't tell Alex Ruth darling thanks I think I'm yeah good good all finished result new he'll Hobbs as well Mike's like a brand new pair of boots I think we agreed on price we did yet I wear with mum true sure it thought you had a gash around one o'clock they all sat down for a quick bite of lunch it was a chance to catch up on the day so far how's the gusto meter she looks as if she's starting to go on roads recovery might as good news current lives at this will get a gander Alex had a surprise in store for the afternoon Peter always put a little treat lined up for you we've lined you up mm-hmm with a special fixture it's a football match we're playing Plymouth Argyle legends a team that went professional in the Edwardian age okay we're up against them we got nine men I'm 10 as a space for you Peter I think we're gonna get a heinie because these guys were once semi-pro but I've cast on you Pia you're behind me I've seen pictures of Edwardian footballers does that mean you get the ridiculous shorts nothing will get the ridiculous everything okay that's where I mean you and I are both men of Scottish heritage hmm and what does Scotsman drink of football matches bt-50 I think we need to make some beef tea for halftime yeah these Peter you're gonna have to be at your very best don't worry Alex I'll be on it I have read somewhere that in mourning in the awarding period the sort of concept of the fowl was yet to be introduced I must admit I might actually come and watch you do very funny after lunch the boys got on with jobs for the cottage like collecting firewood the cobbles now Quincy just you take it easy stand there boy this is all of the hedgerow wood that we cut out earlier in the year when we did the hedging so it's had a couple of months to season so all of that hopefully will make fire lighting here down at the cottage much easier over there yeah same place I reckon the source of energy a source of fuel with something back in the Edwardian period that was something you've got yourself you know wasn't the case of just flicking on switches here and there it brings you that much closer doing this to experiencing life back then you know it's hard hard fought stuff this really is I thought I do so put in for supper again it's something I can stick on now and leave so it's just flour and some shred suit some raisins at its simplest it's quite a stodgy basic thing it's really just a dumpling isn't it about at its finest a British pudding I mean what could be quicker than that frankly take you longer to get the packaging off some read email [Music] the injured goose is feeling better and the team's latest purchase should make the farmyard a safer place is this him this is him I had to outbid a few old boys at the auction for him when there he was on his Tod he was only gander there so at the fair a few quid for him he's she's a lucky girl but this boys gonna protect you now you can see he's been a bit of a fighter look hmm that's what we want the things with this type of bird is it it loves a rock dogs foxes they'll go for them there one of them flapping their wings and to be honest most foxes have we put off and this is a big Fox and he's really really hungry most of them weep off there's too much hassle to deal with them a lot of farmers keep them for that purpose and that purpose alone that's a lot of humans off as well yeah it's a lot of noise us a lot of violet yeah that's really problem is pure I've bought a very very antisocial creature into the farmyard once he gets confident he'll be snapping at you here I was fooling you and the farm barking and barking just our truce yeah there he goes there he goes Samuel chapter farmer he goes [Music] half time we're getting this down our neck safety we're gonna go get one oh if even if we're down at halftime this is going to turn it round for us select one pound of nice fleshy beef without fat cousins in the small pieces about the size of dice and put it into a clean saucepan with about one pint of cold water and bring it to the boiling point it's done so look there we go ready to strain yeah so it's green doesn't it doesn't look very beefy and it's quite watery I'm gonna take some selling this is and that is beef tea got to give it a try though place of beef stock doesn't actually that's quite a good you know if I have my eyes closed I was watching Plymouth Argyle the legend was cold February afternoon and I was drinking this I think that was a good cup of beef extract that mmm slightly concerned that we've got enough maybe for a sort of cap full of au jus she like so I put another one on the boil this will be the week of variety yeah like you really so easily get really thirsty second half that'd be really past which point we can come to life my boy is to go over the kitchen your granddaughter Eve came around to see me good we got into the sporting mood with some calisthenics a proper Edwardian exercise for ladies standing straight feet turned out I do that now this is a chest expanding exercise calisthenics originated in ancient Greece okay so the nice expanded chests but it became popular in the late 19th century when the middle classes began to believe it was a suitable exercise for women it's really odd isn't it how all the top half yeah it's all shoulders and it is it's all the upper body they're still worried and there's a sort of an old hangover of the ideas that women shouldn't move too much of this part of the anatomy there was a lot of worry about women's wombs not being fixed but being sort of mobile within the body so people are still a bit concerned about the whole idea that women really shouldn't shouldn't move about too much you know running around was not considered healthy for centuries that the whole part of the body was not to be too shaken up so this is sort of the beginning of that whole loosening you know becoming more free anyway enough talk more action so one two three it's not really ones idea with energetic exercise there is a little bit you know yes you can oh for goodness ain't your winner [Music] right do you want me to give you a punch up still see ya government okay I'm already it's a great setting for formation it's a fantastic setting although football had been widely followed in the 19th century in the ordinary it became the people today the most popular spectator sport the first crowd of a hundred thousand was in 1901 and the first thousand pound transfer fee was paid in 1905 but Edwardian rules were very different from modern ones including no offside no substitutes and no red or yellow cards football historian David Goldblatt has come along to explain how it worked it's most of it clear and they're clearing the picture up guys I'm David hello Daniel I'm Alex Alex nice to meet you nice to meet you so a lot of this on the pitch yeah well there's a few more here it's certainly in the penalty area trying to get that as clean as possible you see this shows you just how important or how big football is in it woody in England you play come 20 years earlier yeah who's playing in the countryside football's an urban game right but now by 1908 everyone in England is playing you so even out here in Devon in the world of carroll's yeah yeah we're playing football because there's professional net right so we got formations but it's not like today where it's got four at the back four in the middle is the standard you know playing a completely different game right right it's two at the back three in the middle five at the front five forward very attacking then oh it is attacking what we don't have is a lot of training there isn't a lot of training going on in between well that's funny because we've you know we've we stay true to that have you been drinking reasonably regularly and getting some tobacco down you as well okay you're in perfect condition for Edwardian professional football your heads your tail Anthony [Music] I was inoculated against all forms of sport at school so I'm in totally ignorant well I'm afraid that's what was telling to happen in Edwardian England is that sport was not for girls sport with something I need and men played turned you into a man but thankfully a few Edwardian women have worked out the sport is for them and so you've got the beginnings of a women's football culture really but the really big move is to come in about five or six years after this game is meant to be played the First World War arrives and of course you know the men are all sent off to the front when I'm coming I'm working in factories what do they do the same as the men they create football teams and so by you know seven or eight years after this game is played you've got teams like Dicker's ladies from a munitions factory in Preston and they're playing charity games in front of 25,000 people really by 1921 they're playing in front of 50,000 people and in fact the Football Association actually gets so worried about women entering men's domain that they say to their clubs if you allow women to play on your grounds even your training grounds you're out and that's women's football over for 50 years that's quite shocking isn't it [Music] my lungs are bursting my lungs are absolutely bursted why get stuck in see what they make of our beef tea then [Laughter] bring me BT thank you the taste that revives with the boots bit slippy but is this the end oh I can't consume to actually control Paul I'm not sure that's technologically I think it's the legs actually take a rest you've done well boys it's a good recreate and I'm impressed thanks ever so much for coming down my pleasure [Music] after the match it was back home to put the animals to bed and have a bite of dinner are you very not Peter not bad I can still make it to the pump ma I'll make it back again then a quick drink to round off the day it's been public houses for centuries I mean ale and beer is our national drink isn't it but for centuries they were just a house literally a house that was open for the sale of drink so they really look like somebody's front room because that's what they were and it's only really from about the 1830s onwards that you start to find buildings specially built to be pubs and of course the early ones well particularly in the towns and they tended to be really rather glamorous sorts of places if you went into an urban gin Palace or part of it in sort of the mid Victorian period you'd expect to find it all beautifully tiles great big mirrors are all gleaming and shiny whereas out in the countryside it carried on being somebody's front room [Music] and end up another long day I think from all the diary extracts I've read of the period we you know we've really sort of started to experience something of that that the daily grind during the winter mothers yeah and you're just praying that things are gonna warm up one thing I'm gonna say is the public house is a haven from daily life always has been always will be yeah a little moment out well at first and foremost Cheers there Dana life of an Edwardian farmhouse another one now I'm off to bed now so best finish up whatever happens the worst of the winters behind us and spring is definitely in the air the daffs are out and it'll be lambing time soon then we'll be busier than ever take care of yourself lots love race PS you'll never guess what Peter bought you up yeah and I got teased made up a fool

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 610,507

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, edwardian, edwardian farm, health and safety, dangerous edwardian, edward vii, edward vii documentary, edwardian period, british history, living in a farm, dangers of 20th century, absolute history

Id: f3K27qvCrjY

Length: 56min 27sec (3387 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020