What Was Normal Life Like In A Medieval English Village? | Tudor Monastery Farm | Chronicle

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] it's July Ruth Peter and Tom are more than halfway through their time on the farm the Pea crop has flowered and very soon it should be producing a harvest I am flabbergasted with just how many peas are on each plot it's staggering isn't it the barley cereal crop is also thriving as are the Sheep and the pigs are you all right but farming was not the only way monastic land was exploited to make money the monasteries encouraged other Enterprises and would send representatives to meet with tenants who wanted to expand into new areas Professor James Clark an expert in medieval history has come to meet Tom and Peter to explain the Abundant opportunities on the land of course it's important to remember that the monastery's economic interests are not just confined to farming the monastery owns a huge diversity of landscape and it's specially interested in the natural resources that that landscape contains and perhaps the preeminent interest in this period in in that regard is is Led lead mining with Farms like us be involved in these commercial processes then we know that just prior to the dissolution a number of tenants are beginning to Branch off into into those areas they can't rely for a secure income on the produce of of farming alone the church imposed itself on the landscape of medieval England great Abbeys and Cathedrals were built to stamp the church's Authority across the country vital to their construction was led its malleability and resistance to corrosion made it perfect for roofing guttering and windows this created huge demand for the material following in the footsteps of Tudor Farmers the boys are heading off to mine their own lead areas around the pennines Derbyshire and Shropshire were the biggest centers of lead mining in The Tudor period [Music] the mines are now long abandoned and overgrown Tom and Peter are meeting with experts Colin Richards and Nick Southwick to reopen one right Peter here's your lead mine ah brilliant Colin it looks a bit more like a rabbit Warren or something yes we've got to do a little bit of dig in to actually get into the mine but uh the mines in this area haven't been operated for 130 years the word Farmers be doing this sort of thing oh yes because in any age if you could sort of gain extra money you could improve your life you could get a better horse better clothes better wine so it could make all the difference between a subsistence existence and one where you could have a few luxuries I suppose it was a metal very much in demand specially with the monasteries of what they were using it for you could sell all you could extract so you know you could turn your labor into money very easily farmers who turned their hand to mining in the summer months could earn up to four pounds in extra income the equivalent of buying 80 extra sheep for the farm I think it's getting big shovel this out Pete yeah then I think we can get a body in should I do that I'm a bit felter than you are Peter you are a little homunculus Tom you'll get you down there he goes push he's going all right opens up quite quite a lot actually yeah it should do is there room for another one I reckon just follow on it widens out a bit so probably fit that wheelbarrow in if you like now thank you all right here we go you lad's okay as one of the Kingdom's largest landowners monasteries owned vast waterways that were full of another valuable resource fish the church encouraged people to fast from meat three days a week creating a high demand for fish Ruth's setting out to catch one of the most popular fish of the day eels the first job is to make an eel trap with help from basket maker Simon Cooper whoops what's that lovely uncertain things yeah nice and bendy look at that they're using willow a tree commonly found besides streams so we're using the twinning technique which means we're using two at once yeah that's it woven one of the other around we twist them each time they go around go around the state yes just get it tight otherwise we'll lose anything we might be catching history hit is like Netflix just for history fans with exclusive history documentaries covering some of the most famous people and events in history just for you with familiar faces such as Dan Jones and Dr Eleanor janega we've got hundreds of documentaries covering the greatest figures and events of medieval history we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Chronicle that's the traps are made from two woven cones one slotted inside the other yes oh yeah you can see it this is this is a very open design one and you can see the eel we're going through the front here right so the elk swims in gets through that Gap nice and easily but because it's all spiky you can't turn around and go back around and go out no this method of laying traps for fish is a technique that goes back thousands of years and is even mentioned in the Magna Carta and of course one thing with the eel as well is very easy to keep alive out of water as long as it's damp so you can transport them in damp sacking sacking yes yes you didn't really need Refrigeration because um they they almost breathe can almost breathe through this their skin this then is going to be dropped into here yeah and then we need to try and weave the whole wheat the whole lot together yeah see what you mean about needing to be really firm yes we hope our basket work isn't too open so the year will find a way out because they're very very good at finding little holes with the mine reopened the team are navigating the passages that should take them to the lead all monasteries granted leases to those who wanted to mine for lead on their land so Colin how far are we going in at the moment well we need to go in about sort of 300 400 yards whoa that is fantastic this is a lot bigger than I thought it would be so when it was in sort of full production there would have been men on platforms all over this space this is the first time the mine has been worked for over a century so what we what are we actually looking for Connor you're looking for those silver specks in the Rock which are the sort of Galena the lead to see where you've got a concentration where you've got the richest ore deposits and then work from there miners worked in pairs and removed the lead ore by hand using Hammers and chisels the scale is hitting the Chisel without hitting the holder oh yeah [Laughter] [Music] the veins of lead all were often set at 45 degree angles in the Rock making for tough working conditions I feel like we're going quite far in is this yeah I think you've broken off a decent piece there the weight of the rock was the key indication of lead ore being present what are we thinking Tom how's it feel Weight Wise no have a feel it's like a feather I think we would have made very very we're just going to orient oh look at that that's actually a lot heavier you fulfill the extra weight can't you compared to the other bit what does that look like oh yes that's that's what we're looking for I'll be finished then is that is that enough you know when are you looking at about 50 Barrel loads a day we've got one lump in the bottom at the moment about to pick up the pace [Music] let's give that a go oh no that's what I'm talking about Tom look at that that is a piece of little whole families often worked in the mines every day they face dangers from flooding and long-term inhalation of poisonous lead dust [Music] every little bit counted so you know the the small children would be down here sort of as bits were flying off putting them in the barrows and taking them to the surface there was um you know nothing wasted lift with your legs straight back that was like the creaky in the barrel or you it's amazing how much they must have had to have shifted Colin this is hard hard work to exploit their natural resources above ground monasteries leased out the fishing rights on rivers foreign [Music] the next job is for Ruth and Simon to set them in the water it's it's it's best to set these these traps in the evening because the EOS through the heat of the day they tend just to to lurk in the shadows and then in the cool because they don't like getting too too hot really so so that just drops in that's a drop in and we need to just tie tie a tie a mark so we'll read somewhere eels are drawn to Dark Places so the traps must be left in the shade I wondered if we perhaps headed off over there to under that Shady Tree because it looks sort of you know a good place with yours might lurk so we wait this pot so it sits on the bottom yeah yes so the yields work can swim straight into it that's it parallel to the bank that's lovely the ends of the traps are filled with dead fish an eel's favorite food nice stinky fish stinkier the better something to smell it oh my God that'll attract them what hey I just plug at the top so that it's not just to keep the bait in but it's to stop the ears getting out I always want to call them pots but that's not the right name for them is it down here we tend to tend to call them Hutchins but I know all around the country there's there's Griggs Wheels there's almost an indicator really we're truly ancient craft isn't it when the tools have all these Regional names of course they all had different shapes as well depending on the maker really sink is this Branch gonna hold it I think so the lead ore has been brought to the surface of the mine now it must be smelted to extract the metal from The Rock this is done by heating The Ore to 600 degrees Fahrenheit to achieve these temperatures the Tudor smelter would make use of their natural environment [Music] furnaces were placed on Windy hilltops to help fan the flames a super fuel known as white coal was used it was made by simply drying out wood in a kiln so it's like any kind of oven really like you have bread oven or anything very much it's very similar to a bread oven in that you heat the stone up and then it's the heat in the mass of the oven which dries the wood heating the wood removes moisture and impurities allowing it to burn hotter that's the one we've been looking for the kill must be airtight so gaps are filled with clay [Music] so I've put a little fire in here and then if it's completely sealed the only smoke will be coming out the entrance right if I was you Tom I'd get a handful of clay I'm not sure I need to but sure I'll indulge you come okay I think we get a few gaps here Tom but I can still rescue this quickly it's already atmospheric I might owe you an ale the best wood to convert into white coal is Oak almost my fingers your plenty of wood there I see here we go is this going to change much Colin no it won't change appearance much but any residual moisture will be driven off through the heat in these stones to help the lead melt more quickly The Ore is smashed into small pieces give it a whack put your arms into it while you have to smelt it see there you go brilliant so how much of this is going to be lead 80 that high yeah that's that high yeah it's a good return on our effort absolutely very good very good the wood having dried for four hours in the Kiln is now white cold I'm not gonna light here it looks pretty similar well it's incredibly dry the next job is to build a furnace to smelt the lead ore at the base Colin is making a half where the lead will collect we just need to spread it so that it goes up the slope a little bit more so this clay lining is going to firm up during the firing process and it will actually be our bowl of lead at the end of this melting on top of the half a fire is built by a stacking layers of Timber and we'll lay these as close together as we can right the furnace is finished with layers of hot burning white coal onto which the lead ore is placed oh yeah okay that's pretty heavy excellent exploded gosh there's some weight in that should just leave it in the sack yeah look at that glinting in the sunlight we'll fold this over and we put the white coal over the top and that heat wrapped round our ore is going to be the final sort of almost turbo boost to smelt it and melt it and be the conclusion of this big Inferno [Music] eels were a staple food in monasteries that owned Rivers but for Lay people who needed permission to access these Rivers they were a luxury [Music] Simon and Ruth are heading out to check the traps do you have to um change the places you put the traps or do you just use the same spot it hasn't caught anything for a day or so we'd look for somewhere else because after a while you tend to find the places where the eels like to run no I can't see anything there nothing I'm pretty certain that's empty one down six more to check let's hope we have a bit more luck on the next one fishermen were expected to give a proportion of what they caught to the monasteries anything else they could keep just there I can see the string entering the water there we're going to be lucky this time yeah well that's my hope gosh there are you are yeah you can are they Keen there's one there it is look gosh it's hard to see this one there it is yes there's two oh three oh my goodness three three is he safe in there I need something to knock him back I'm sorry it's too snake like I can't I was gonna try and be all hard oh there you go he was quite sweet when he came out no it was nothing sweet about it you like you oh my toes are all curled now so you're looking forward to catching some more now are you Judah Farmers relied on the landscape to provide them with their tools [Music] some other dry plants such as Moss were used for Tinder on fires [Music] as night falls the natural Tinder is put to the test on the smelting furnace so this can light our Kiln can it well I would think so should we just try it yeah then we'll do the tray put a good Handful in there oh look at that it's amazing it's starting to take hold now Tom it's gonna go from say 20 degrees up to 600 Degrees could we achieve that kind of temperature just wood not so quickly you know that extra boost with the white coal is going to you know be the icing on the cake really that final boost to take it from a rock to a molten metal as the temperature rises the lead should melt from The Rock and trickle down into the Hearth at the base tell you what this is this is one of the fierce fires I've ever felt when you're smelting can you tell from the color of the flame what's happening oh yeah yeah very much so as it starts to drop down you know the various gases can off it can you see that blue oh yeah just forming up on the right hand side yeah it's really visible actually but after a promising start things begin to go dangerously wrong that wind coming up the hill it's making the fire burn hotter on one side and it's starting to tilt we're trying to rectify it with a couple of Timbers but we may not end up smelting all our lead if they don't work fast all their hard work will be destroyed the top [Music] the fire has been rescued for now you know it's collapsing but more or less within its own footprint which is what we wanted it's definitely reducing as well isn't it as they reduce in size there's greater opportunity for the lead to actually go through the gaps into our bowl that we created at the moment you know I'm quite happy the way it's going the fire will continue to burn overnight only in the morning will they find out if it has worked [Music] Laird was one of the most important materials in building medieval Cathedrals and churches and integral to making stained glass Christians saw light as symbolic of God's power and aimed to build churches that would be open to as much light as possible Ruth's come to Lincoln Cathedral to meet Glazier Richard still who's making stained glass let's play about with with this piece right the first thing that they did was score the glass with a flint so we've got a bit of wood we've rubbed it with powdered chalk and the designs drawn out with just some charcoal so you can just Trace through because glass being so helpfully see-through very crude and hard to control and then some little sort of Moon shaped cross hatching just to encourage the glass to break away we would like it to break okay so lots of little nibbly yum sort of and actually when glacier's workshops have been excavated they've found fragments of glass with these little cross hatch marks on have they so we you know we can be quite sure this really is the technique yeah it really happened foreign ER and it is simply breaking the glass um and it's a case of using this tool this is this is a grossing iron uh grossing meaning to crush and and that's really all we're doing is crushing the edge of the glass so we sort of nibbling away nibbling away is that way up that's right fingers nibble glass was expensive in Tudor England because producing it was so slow and labor intensive I'm doing very tiny nibbles because I'm scared stiff you're right to be scared you can't really put it back once you take it away can you you can't it's a once and forever process it's so unpredictable so hard to control a lot of glass must have been broken where you didn't want it to be broken I can imagine many an apprentice is getting a severely clipped ear yes for breaking an important yeah and it always breaks just right at the last minute when you think everything's almost perfect that's looking pretty good isn't it it's a slow process I'm pretty impressed [Music] in the 1500s England was producing up to 500 tons of lead a year Tom and Peter are returning to see whether the smelting fire has been successful in producing lead ah wow the remains of our Kiln is just burnt down to Ash I mean I'll clay bowl at the bottom I thought it was going to break up in the heat but that's actually just gone solid that's amazing look at the color is metal oh look oh look we've got loads of lead there Tom have you got a bag there have you I have I came prepared at least one of us did whoa look at that look at that that down get it in the middle [Music] the lead must now be refined Colin has made a refining Kiln in the woods this process requires a much more controlled temperature than smelting so it must be sheltered from drafts just tip it in yeah but these are called black working hearths or black working ovens because the lead that you brought is got a bit of Ash mixed in and there's a sort of dark tinge to it you know the the first burn is taking it from The Rock here we're getting rid of the impurities the main impurity that's removed is sulfur driven offers hazardous fumes okay Colin Moment of Truth eh yeah right it's like Christmas as I am wrap it here okay here we go nice while the lead is being refined the team make molds for ingots using wet sand so I'll be gentle here yeah it's almost pumping the Bellows and we're taking interns to just get this furnace absolutely raging and the lead it's coming out the bottom you can just see it is trickling out like a silver stream and he's collecting it in an iron Crucible he's just about pour it into the mold so you don't want it spilling all over the place because it burns and it sticks as well so not wishing to put any pressure but you're in the hot seat right okay there's feral weight in this in there yeah okay the quality appears so much better it looks cleaner looks more polished even than it did before it was refined I know I in my mind lead is not silver lead is a kind of dull color but I suppose that's oxidization with the air isn't it it is and looking at this though it's shiny and it's bright and it looks like it is worth money the ingots will weighed just over two pounds and will go towards making a father the unit for just over a ton of lead it was worth up to eight pounds right supposed to take our fingers out kind of warm so warm but we've got that kind of rough sand indentation on the sides this is one of the characteristics of sand casted metal you get that sort of indentation of the sun which gives it a slightly rougher surface and it's one of the means of identifying you know sort of medieval lead work really that has come from that that was hard work these are tricky But ultimately a success I think we need to get this to the monastery [Music] at the Cathedral Ruth's shaped the pieces of stained glass and is returning to complete the panel some of the largest and most elaborate windows were commissioned during the medieval period all held together with lead survey at the time estimated that monasteries held some 20 000 fathers of lead in the 1530s Henry VII targeted this valuable material during the dissolution of the monasteries it was ripped out melted and sold so here's the panel the the the the that we're working on we've got a horseshoe Nails um around you've cut this piece this last piece to go in beautifully I have to say so what you're going to do is is take a piece of lead and this is the scaffolding that holds the window together strips of lead made from ingots were then melted and poured over reeds this is called the tame a c-a-m-e I know this seems odd but it's like modeling in marzipan yes it's sort of got that same when marzipan's cold it sort of seems to behave in much the same way there's a resistance there's a resistance so presumably I need to get an angle on that corner first take an angle of 45 degrees just there yep foreign let me help here because I'll put a finger there right uh and what you're going to do nails is use a couple of nails to hold just to hold yep and then we have to solder it we have to solder it diffuse the lead together it is soldered by melting another metal onto the join animal fat known as Tallow is applied to the joints first yep perfect Josh it's not much is it it's not much it's just enough for the Tallow to melt and form a layer between the air and the lead okay you'll probably find a little bit of warming yeah and touch and let it melt through that's it that melted through fairly quickly hold and come straight up straight and that's beautiful okay fantastic fire oh that's made quite a nice little round bead yes so what you've got to remember is that this joint is an integral part of the structure of the window if this comes apart in five years or ten years or 50 years or 100 years the window falls apart okay moment of truth I suppose is it actually gonna hold together yeah and there we go what do you think do you like it is it a thing of beauty well it's funny isn't it down flat on the board it looks rather dead and plain but as soon as you've got light coming through it it seems to sort of come to life it comes alive doesn't it it does it's completely different and this handmade glass with its Ripples and its Bubbles and its imperfections are a part of that yeah it's it's not just a slab of transparent stuff and and that's the beauty of the material after three days away at the mine the boys are returning to the farm that lead mining's knackered me I'm a Broken Man well yeah you me both here we go over there good girls on Long Journeys Travelers would stop to spend the evening at an inn where their animals could also be housed for the night monk sought as their Christian duty to provide Hospitality to Travelers monasteries would land on major pilgrimage and trade routes also seized this as a business opportunity building Inns which could be leased out for Revenue ah welcome to the end what's your drinks order water I'm gonna have to come in with you I know you are okay girls you've done well we'll be back in a bit let's see how much parking costs Inns were busy places bringing together the old and the Young sometimes preachers could hope to capture an audience priests give themselves to feasting and banqueting spend themselves in vain babbling woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain things like this were originally designed to be accommodation blocks but having built them for that purpose they quickly became spaces that really lent themselves to public speaking such as our Friar is doing and and to entertainment too and this shape forms a sort of natural Auditorium and informs the architecture of theaters for generations to come round in the Delights of this world patronize those who cater for their pleasure [Music] a wide range of social functions would take place at the Inn from religious to commercial it was a microcosm of Tudor life [Music] I mean if you could hire a room at a place like this for your private party you could have your wedding reception here you know or a chrysling party business meetings loads of people came to in for business meetings which really makes sense doesn't it you know well I guess the on the same Roots as trades they're in the hearts of major towns and Market centers where people are coming together anyway so of course you have your business meeting at this sort of place it's a conference center Inns were also places to have fun and drinking games were popular such as the puzzle cup can you drink out of that without spilling it [Laughter] for a second now oh another one as well okay so these puzzle cups yeah oh here we go yeah I found that bit you have to cover up managed to do that thank you yeah and then we're ready foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] push you off the tire foreign accommodation could vary depending on your budget from communal rooms to private Suites this is nice one's big One's little most in rooms were crowded places if you're a single chap traveling you would expect to share the bed with somebody else who might be a complete stranger if only I had that luxury they're not exactly bouncy aren't they these birds they're all right though so what kind of quality are we dealing with this this is pretty good for an end this is how many stars are we looking at here four four I can see him through the roof on move over very more common ways make a wish tommo it's your lucky knife Peter get your knee out of smoke back shut up over there [Music] It's Late July a time when Farmers need to keep a close eye on their crops as they neared harvest Tudor Farmers would also use this time for haymaking weeding and checking the progress of young animals who would provide valuable income later in the year The Woodlands owned by monasteries were a perfect place to rear young pigs tenants would seek rights from their monastic landlords to pasture pigs in the forest known as panitch the team's six piglets have been foraging in the woods for a couple of weeks Peter and pig farmer Neil Caswell have come to check on their progress big big you reckon I'll come to our call hey piggies a piggy look how big they've become they have grown up they've done well they've done a good job of clearing this wouldn't it not only do the acorns and Roots provide Rich sustenance for the piglets but their foraging also clears the undergrowth allowing young trees in the Woodland to thrive but that's what they would have used them for they're you know fantastic excavators they would have pushed them into sort of land like this and you've noticed that they've not touched any of the cops anymore so they'll clear everything else um and then the woman used to be able to come in and it was ready for them pork was in great Demand by both the monasteries and the lay Community as pigs were inexpensive to keep and the meat easy to preserve keeping pigs was a useful money spinner for the ambitious Tudor farmer oh shoot a farming Bible so you got your Bible a book of husbandry what's this island well you tell me I find it hard to read okay about four it is an old say that he hath both sheep swine and beans each one of these he may Thrive because he has these things that most profit of in the shortest space of time this is basically saying we'll get the most amount of profit out of these guys you're up for the least amount of investment by Scavenging like this a piglet could grow quickly allowing the farmer to slaughter them young so a Tudor farmer couldn't sustain these pigs through winter and feed but due to Farmer could sustain himself I suppose on the the meat from the pigs definitely they would have looked at trying to get as much Slaughters and as much preserved dried smoked and stored ready for the winter rather than feed the animal through the winter yeah definitely these guys I mean are they ready to slaughter you um you can shake you can have a feel of their spine if you go along their spine and just have a feel of the two fillets either side yeah if the spine's very very protruding then you know it's underweight and these guys are fine you know there's no no bone sticking out yeah they're good size they're very uh they're very boisterous that's always a good sign but no I think we've got a while to go yet obviously still hungry that I feel a bit like the witch out of Hansel and Gretel I call it going on holiday so we'll maybe use that term from now on so they don't hear us hey chaps I think we're really really On Target they're looking fantastic [Music] The Farmhouse was not just where the farmer his family and staff lived it was also a business center where deals were made and meetings were held so Ruth's considering some Home Improvements appearances were important and aspirational Farmers would want to emulate the tastes of wealthy Tudors through their decorations at the top enter Society people really enjoyed bold strong color and pattern and they covered their walls in Fabrics in paintings the most expensive thing that you could have in your Palace in your Castle in your Abbott's lodging was a tapestry so as somebody of more modest means imitating tapas history was a really socially upwardly mobile sort of thing to do so many people went to the painters or stainers in order to achieve it and a stainer is somebody who paints on cloth to produce a wall hanging for The Farmhouse Ruth's visiting artist Mark Goodman in his Workshop the materials used by stainers were sourced from their surroundings so the Pat the pigments they vary so you've got cheap ones um for example that's just a red ocher that's just a clay that's actually just dug out of the ground it's relatively cheap so I think it can have any sort of brown color for very little yeah Reds Browns yellows those sorts of colors and a more interesting one is lead white and so obviously lead mined but then to get it into that form there soaking it in vinegar and then making sure it's coated in vinegar Steam for about three to four weeks and then right you get those little white crystals on the top pigments were mixed with glue made from boiled animal fat known as size or distemper once the paint has been made it needs to be kept warm to prevent the glue from solidifying seems really weird doesn't it having to keep your glue you paint hot yes and you notice when it's not because it just doesn't it just workflow does it you are just sort of more or less putting one layer on and staining the canvas you're not sort of building up layers like an oil painter would do so these can be just churned out these can be created very quickly scenes from mythology and folklore were popular on wall hangings Ruth's helping Mark produce a stain of George and the Dragon it's a bit paint by numbers this isn't it yeah it's a cartoon yeah but we're not going to do it so uh I'm not going to try and make it realistic or put a lot of effort to making it realistic that takes time obviously and hence it costs more so this one's just going to be some nice bright colors we'll put a little a bit of shading in in various places and that's about it really [Music] hundreds portraiture was moving away from stylized caricatures this period saw a transition where more realistic art developed and flourished during the Renaissance it also brought about advancements in technology changes were made to the ancient camera obscura Tom is sitting for the artist Sigrid Holmwood to experiment with this technique okay Tom so I think you might have to come a little bit closer if you can yeah oh no too close bit feather away that's it okay great stay still okay so what you need to make a camera obscura is firstly a darkened room camera obscure actually means dark room and then you block out the window um and you put a hole in it daylight bounces off Tom and passes through a lens which flips the image upside down onto the parchment early camera obscurers used a pinhole to project the image onto the canvas but in The Tudor period lenses were adopted for the first time making the image brighter and clearer even the tiniest movement shows up a lot on this I'm going to see how this looks soon but I've Got a Feeling we might have to try it again okay Tom thing is you moved a bit um yeah so if you didn't manage to get your nose it's going all weird um yeah exactly and um your whole head's a bit compressed um because you're probably moving in One Direction after I'd done that so I can't lose weight so this isn't the way to do it they need a way of keeping Toms still [Music] [Laughter] it's just like Victorian photography you need to be as still as possible okay great that's looking much better now okay keep still it's like a Race Against Time okay so in this case um we've got his nose and his eyes and his mouth really nicely in Focus but actually his ear and the top of his head and his hat are kind of receding and quite fuzzy you've got this area of focus in the center and then you've got this area around the outside which gets out of focus and this creates distortions and scale it's quite controversial amongst our historians how much the camera obscure was used by artists in the past there's a lot of resistance to the idea because people think it's cheating I certainly feel that it was used more than people think this is a bit like being at the dentist the moment you're told not to move everything itches you can feel insects on your face that probably aren't there you want to cough with uh yeah it's nice to sit down on the farm rather than be working sort of [Music] in the last few weeks the Farm's kitchen Garden has burst into life but unlike modern Gardens the Tudor farmer would have let the weeds Thrive as well because they too had their uses now this little patch here is actually my crop it may look like a weed patch but it isn't this is cleavers and I'm deliberately growing it I know for many people who spend half their lives trying to take it out of their Garden this may seem Madness but this is my Cleavers crop and it's useful because well you can eat it again it's not delicious but it's all right but it's also really useful as a a filter or sieve if you lay the stems one way and then you lay them the other you get a really useful filter which you can use in the dairy you can use in your Brewing using your kitchen Ruth is also letting the weeds flourish amongst her vegetables think about this lovely set of beans if only half of them are germinated and I'd done a really good job of the weeding I'd end up with some empty dead ground but I need to eat oh yeah I need a meal out of this patch every single day of the year many of the weeds that have grown are edible particularly important to the Tudor farmer when the main food crops aren't yet ready to be harvested The Fat Hen this one's not just put upable with this one's actually quite nice I quite like fat head there's also land cresses in amongst all here it quite a lot of landcrest actually and the point is that early on in the process I allow the weeds a little bit of leeway and only when I know I've got an established crop will I start taking them out the land crests and fat hen Ruth's picking will become a Tudor salad with the outline of the image completed sea grid can now paint the portrait if the camera obscure doesn't actually give you the whole picture as it were how come you don't just paint me from scratch well it's a lot easier to correct something that's already down there than start entirely from scratch but most importantly um it's the it's the relationship between your eyes your nose and your mouth and the very subtle little shapes there which really make the difference in getting a likeness so the camera obscure is almost like a stencil from which you start your work yeah it's a starting point you really need to still have lots of drawing skills lots of artistic judgment to be able to use it properly it's not like taking a snapshot it isn't that easy to use painting was viewed as a craft rather than art in Tudor England but that would change with the influx of artists from Europe so I would ask this travel from like Village to Village looking for work or in terms of portraiture there would actually be artists would travel from country to Country so there were a lot of artists from the low countries that traveled to London and were commissioned to do portraits so an example is Holbein so he's a little bit later than our period more active around the 1530s but he was from Germany and came to London and when I look at holbein's drawings I think they probably were used done using a camera obscura those little telltale signs for instance there's a very large head and then with incredibly small shoulders coming off it during this period the Mona Lisa was completed and artists strove to mirror the soul of the sitter in their work during this time you start to get a shift towards the more humanist philosophy where you start to look for God in nature and start to look for God in man and so therefore it becomes much more important to try and capture what things look like naturally it's actually much more people's views changing and then it makes their art change art would decorate the walls of Tudor dining rooms and fish would dominate the tables Ruth has brought her eels back to The Farmhouse to make the most of this delicacy so now I've got to get the Slime off my eels like all fresh water fish they have a sort of protective slime coating salt rubbing and water I hate this I don't know why it is but the slime on fresh water fish and it gives me more squeamish I think then anything else freshwater fish was hard to come by for people living away from rivers and was only eaten on feast days it's one of those differences really between the monastic community and the lay Community People Like Us eels are an occasional treat in a monasteries they're almost a staple for us fish means saltfish salt Cod it means pickled fish it means pickled herring in the monasteries fresh fish is possible and indeed quite probable on a daily basis Ruth is cooking the eels as part of a stew known as brewet she makes a sauce from parsley breadcrumbs and beer which gives the dish its name again the texture writers half the bottle eels are cooked separately and added to the sauce later cook like this you can see why I've left the skin on it gives me perfect organized little gobbits the period word stock from the eels is added for flavor it does upset me that when you're watching this you'll be judging it entirely on what it looks like as opposed tastes and this isn't Posey Telly food this is real food and it tastes great and it smells fantastic fresh fish may have been a treat for the farmer but pork was widely eaten at both the top and bottom of Tudor Society fat was an essential commodity particularly for monasteries that used it for cooking candle making and even shining their shoes to make money and keep up with demand the farm must have a continuous supply of pigs a few weeks ago there bore Turkish was introduced to the sows does Turkish here have to Fancy the pigs and makes with no not necessarily a boar will follow his red-blooded primeval instincts Asar would be introduced to a boar before reaching a year old and a farmer would regularly check for signs of pregnancy a positive indicator is when she doesn't show signs of wanting to mate this is easily tested by the farmer there's the standing heat test do you know anything about that which is putting all your weight on there on their back here for sure um which sort of simulates mounting of the ball and they will stand so they will sort of position themselves get themselves in a position where they're they're ready to to be served so should we give it a go we can give it a go yeah you're comfortable with that so we we don't want them to stand if we put our weight here yeah if you put their weight there and they they oh see I don't think she is I mean she's oh she's not she's not covered she's she's looking for a food yeah she's not really interested in what I'm doing I've ever go with Georgie because I think George is um looking a bit more of a Surefire are you all right yeah you think about that then hey I'm after your women turkey now Turkish is a bit confused now competition asari is pregnant for just under four months and the farmer would want her to give birth before winter to give the piglets a better chance of survival timing was critical oh he's a he's a he's a good boy and I think you've I think you're probably right I think he's done his job yeah I think he has done his job keep an eye on it after all their exertions the team has returned to the newly decorated farmhouse [Music] served at 5pm and was normally a simple Affair of cottage with vegetables but tonight the boys are in for a treat to water fish I'll get involved because holds the protein good for the brain yeah [Laughter] something of a luxury and go lovely good isn't it yeah yeah it's good I like Brewing nice change it is a nice change and it also represents quite a a luxury dish really for Lay people because to own the fish to own the rights to The Ponds and the rivers and tenants very rarely do that's all land owners not tenants like us don't you think you know everything we've sort of done in the last couple of weeks it's all been under monastic control hasn't it yeah you know I mean even that in we stayed in was owned by the monastery yeah I thought those are the best things we've done I really enjoyed that and all these stresses of the form and the pressure for the monastery wasn't quite there but it was still part of that mastic picture well I can't help notice that you know well I've been away you've dawned the place with some beautiful artwork free feminate night there is that you I think I look Noble yeah well you certainly you got that off into a distance a thousand yards there thinking about farming foreign next time on Tudor Monastery Farm team go to work for the monastery restoring accommodation this is going to be this is going to be a fantastic floor I can feel it washing their Linens does it and learning the art of monastic Hospitality I want to stress I did not drop the custard Castle [Music] [Music] in the early 1500s no help for the poor was available from the state those in need relied solely on the charity and Hospitality of others Hospitality was a vital social virtue the measure by which any good Christian would be judged and at the heart of this culture of hospitality and giving were the monasteries beyond their Gates they ran arms houses and within the monastery they accommodated everyone from the destitute traveler to the wealthiest Noble for what we're about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful amen amen James quite interesting Portage well I'm sure it's good for the soul monastic expert Professor James Clark is joining the team for a meal did the monasteries do much entertaining or Hospitality absolutely it's really essential to the monastery's service to society the charity that is in a strict sense loving kindness to your fellow man is really at the heart of the monastic vacation at the lower end it would be akin to a kind of back as hostile but at the other end of the scale for the most distinguished guests there would be really lavish accommodation and food would be laid on for the monks hosting an esteemed guest wasn't just hospitable it was profitable entertaining nobility was an excellent way to encourage large donations to the monastery the Nobles believed that supporting a monastery would guarantee that they went straight to heaven when they died the Abbott is planning A Feast for a wealthy Patron and James is enlisting the team's help to prepare for the visit well I have some particular tasks in mind for you uh there's going to be a lot of preparing of Fiddle in it so that does mean laundry and there could well be a need for some assistance in the kitchen because lavish meals are expected um nice as pottages [Laughter] [Music] as well as monks and workers the monastery also accommodated other members of society on a permanent basis part of the monastery's remit was to provide care for some of the elderly their retired staff or their most generous donors James is enlisting the team to renovate a room in the outer Precinct of the monastery as part of something known as a corady corady he's a grant which is really like a kind of pension it provides an individual with accommodation and food over the course of a year and the monastery might grant that to one of their long-serving um lay servant and after 20 or 30 years service instead of a gold watch they're granted this corridi which is really going to give them room and board to live out their their days in their Twilight years so it's going to need a bit of renovation room I mean there's flaws is is looking past its best it's worth remembering of course that they expect something of high quality this is a valuable um retirement home I'll have a chat with the boys especially about the floor see what we can do [Music] before the boys set to work on Renovations they must attend to an urgent matter on the farm the Pea crop [Music] well if we look closely we've still got a crop oh yes please that is absolutely beautiful other taste good taste of Summer peas were important in Tudor England has both food and animal fodder unlike Garden peas field peas were left to dry on the plant until they were harvested it made them easier to store but also vulnerable to birds this is the thing if we start trying to scrub out here all the birds are going to be looking at and going they've laid on a pea Buffet let's get in there it's gonna be a proper feast bird control was a serious business in the later Tudor period Bounty payments of a penny for three birds heads were offered and Farmers often employed children to frighten away the pigeons and Rooks Tom and I erecting a bird scare we're putting in Hazel poles we're going to tie some string between them and onto that string we're going to hang some shells Tudor style wind chimes so we're taking advantage of the wind making sure all the shells just bounce off of each other making some noise that's the thing being a Tudor Farm or being any farmer you can't afford to lose a crop but especially in Tudor times these peas were your sustenance right I'm going to stick another steak in Tom am I going to get in trouble if I walk across the peacock if you don't walk the birds will eat I'll be delicate [Music] oops Ruth has begun preparations for the Abbott's feast starting by making butter for the table [Music] now the reason I've transferred my milk into these dishes is to help the cream separate anybody who's a little bit older remembers the days before homogenized milk and they remember that in milk bottles it always used to rise and you always used to get a bit of cream on the very top that's what's Happening Here each day a new bowl of milk was settled and Ruth is starting to process yesterday's batch look see how thick that cream is I'm super thick looking Not only was butter an important source of calories it was also considered good for the health and a cure for chest complaints LED on to minimize splashing hear that knowing what stage you're at is all about listening to the sounds that it makes in the churn and now it's all a matter of time a volume of cream like this can turn into butter and as little as 15 to 20 minutes butter along with other Dairy produce was known as a white meat most commonly consumed by poorer members of society after all everyone had a cow the point was you could graze a cow even if you had no land yourself you could graze it on the common land you had a right to put a cow on the common which meant that you had access to some milk you could make your own butter you could make your own cream you could make your own cheese white Meats therefore were a very Democratic food everybody had them and the rich sneered the dairy produce wasn't The Preserve of the poor for long by 1500 landowners were taking back farmland and also common land to establish parks for hunting it meant peasants could no longer graze their animals for free now you've got to actually rent a field to keep your cow on and that meant that increasingly from 1500 onwards cows and cow's milk became something associated with the wealthier sort of peasant it all feels a little bit stiffer so I'm really listening now [Music] you can't really predict where there is seconds away or another five minutes we did you hear suddenly it sounds wetter [Music] that noise has changed doesn't it oh yes look at that now that looks good there we are the butter [Music] the final stage is to squeeze all the butter particles into a solid lump now obviously doing this with your hands there's a problem the warmth of your hand starts to melt the butter so instead one uses a pair of wooden hands [Music] once the buttermilk is removed Ruth adds salt which is a preservative and indeed if I put enough salt in it I can even make a product that can survive for a full year in an edible not necessarily a tasty but in an edible fashion foreign do you think Ruth has got us into now hello it's Bruce T oh dear [Music] Peter and Tom are Keen to get on with their monastic restoration project and the priority is laying a new floor it'll be made from a mixture of lime putty and Ash known as lime Ash which was strong flexible and a good heat insulator the boys have come to collect some Limestone from the forest to produce their own lime putty this is the key ingredient to our floor it's chalk we're going to heat it up that's going to dry off the carbon dioxide we're going to put that in water that'll turn it into a putty then we're going to lay it in our floor and as it dries out and reabsorbs carbon dioxide it's going to turn back into chalk back into a stone and make our floor absolutely solid to turn the Limestone into the lime and Ash mixture needed for the floor it must be roasted at a temperature of over 900 Degrees Celsius just need to make sure that every piece of that chalk hits that magic number of 900 Degrees chalk or limestone while the Anglo-Saxons had built with wood the Tudors needed lime to make mortar for their stone-built castles City walls and churches them lime Ash was normally gathered from the bottom of Kilns where Limestone was burnt limekilns really take off in The Tudor period and that's the reason why in 1500 there's a massive surge in the fashion for lime Ash floors however Farmers like ours who might not be too close to a Lime Kiln could make their own such as this it's a real crossover in technology [Music] in Tudor England the shadow of plague and disease was ever present people worked hard to keep a clean living environment there were even systems for waste removal [Music] centuries before germs were discovered cleaning was a surprisingly rigorous affair especially in the dairy with the butter made Ruth needs to wash her equipment a two housewife had three lines of Defense in her battle for Hygiene in the dairy and not one of them included soap first and foremost came salt used with a damp cloth it helps to scrub but it also of course kills bacteria she then turned to the second line of defense boiling water all the dairy utensils are finished off by being scolded over all of their surfaces and her last line of defense was sunlight more specifically the UV element of sunlight she might not have known why it worked but she knew that it did in fact the UV kills bacteria so on a nice day like today you'd have seen a very common sight outside any woman's Dairy all hydera utensils lined up in the sun getting a good sterilizing dose of sunlight foreign the Limestone has been roasting for three hours driving off carbon dioxide and leaving a highly volatile product called quick lime it's then put in water for a process known as slaking so if we just pop that in there it goes look at it look look at these things it appears to have worked if I bring that back up there we go look at that oh that's a dangerous bit so that is that is lime slaking and it's turning into a putty the fire dries off all the carbon dioxide and it makes uh the chalk very very volatile when it goes in the water the water is absorbed and there's an exothermic reaction so this isn't the heat from the fire that's doing this this is the chemical reaction that's heating up this water and you can hear it and it's slowly turning into a putty look at that that is lime putty on my shovel [Music] continue to slake in the water overnight [Music] in 1500 the shape of England's waterways and wetlands was unrecognizable from today before the extensive land drainage of the later 16th century these regions provided a wealth of resources from fish and wildfowl to peat used for fuel and something without which no Tudor home would have been complete rushes Ruth has come to meet Rush worker Linda Lemieux the rushes they harvest will be made into floor mats for the room the team are renovating Russia is a rather ignored resource in modern Britain aren't they yeah you look at the domestic Interiors of the late 15th and early 16th century and you can spot rushes Here There and Everywhere true to England they use them for their mattresses their chair seats their cushions their flooring the flooring hats baskets rushes were commonly cut between May and September as near to mid-summer as possible because it's a harvest we've got to do it in a certain four or five weeks of the year that's all we've got all right these will all die down if you come to the river in in October you won't see a theme right and you come to the river in April you won't see a thing so they all die down right back into their rhizome in the mud [Music] before Ruth finishes harvesting the rushes she'll need a decent floor to put them on [Music] Peter and Tom are combining their lime Ash putty with sand clay and Flint to give the mixture strength this is really good a lime putty mixed with the ash the boys are adding a special ingredient to bind their floor whoa curdled milk that smell you or the milk ah it's a little bit of both Tom I mean that should go as the floor ages so we don't have to worry about it too much used in concretes like this since Roman times sour milk contains a protein called casein which bonds with the lime to make it durable and waterproof we like tiny little Bakers making a giant cake aren't we once all the ingredients are combined they can start to lay the floor if we just get it in there and Stamp It Down and flashing it off later with Spades feeling good feeling good it's getting there [Music] nice cutting before the rushes can be used they must be dried out we if we use them straight they're so bristle they'll just snap straight away like that so what you have to do is let the cell structure dry out so here's a couple that I cut about five weeks ago and now they don't snap and if I try and just tear that I can't to make the floor mats the rushes must be platted together I'll hold it for you just over under us right I like the feel that's developing yeah that's that's tough isn't it that's strong but it's still got a certain soft and bounciness to it now if you imagine your mattress might need about 100 feet of this flat should we do a Kids one hygiene dictated that the floor mats be replaced every year so there was scarcely a time when plating rushes wasn't on the to-do list It's the final push to finish the renovations the boys are polishing the floor with milk to give it a hard waterproof coating this is gonna be this is going to be a fantastic floor I can feel it and Ruth has almost completed the sleeping mats I've made loads of the plats I should probably have to make some more but still and then I'm sewing them together into a mat this floor looks so much better that's not bad I think you made a really good job oh thank you right where do you want your mats oh yeah stick them out the way for a minute because I've got the hygiene to sort out first okay I've got a whole load of herbs to scatter on the floor and they've served two basic functions the first thing is about smell people in this period believe that disease was carried by Evil miasmas by bad smells in the air and if you breathe that evil miasma you would get sick so wherever you lived wherever you were spending time you wanted it to smell a sweet and clean as possible but then there's also a role for insecticides things like my tansy and my wormwood fleabane they're for keeping insects out of the house things like flies or ants or or body lice fleas anything like that can be driven out and it will make the whole living experience not only healthier but much pleasanter do you want to stick these mats down then I've got a little layer down yeah in addition to the room and a provision of food the corridi might include firewood and some cooking equipment is that the last one yeah I think the floor makes a huge difference you know this is easy to keep clean to look after to be comfy isn't it home sweet home yeah [Music] relax foreign [Music] the influence of the church on the people of Tudor England extended far beyond its role as landlord and Welfare provider they also controlled the spread of ideas [Music] major centers of learning with extensive libraries the monasteries were the custodians of knowledge monasteries commissioned Deluxe books costly and prestigious objects as gifts for their most distinguished patrons and Tom will be making one to present to the Abbott's feast historically books had been written on Vellum a material made from calf skin but by 1500 another medium had taken over paper expert Jim Patterson is showing Tom how paper was produced what we've got in here is a mixture of linen and water they're the ingredients for Tudor paper making you would start off with with waste rag it would be a recycling process and that's the pulp that would result there's no wood involved at all none whatsoever not till much much later in history now you're going to form a sheet on a hand mold okay there we are by dipping it in below the surface go in like that that's it that's it in you go below the surface flood the mold and bring it up clearer bring it clear of the vat up now Shake It Forward can you see right side to side forward back and you'll see the sheet actually forming and it's leaving the fiber on the surface a little bit uneven should I go again no I think that'll pass for Tudor paper and the next stage is Kuching from the French cusha delay just placing that on there that's right bring it up right this was the job for the assistant this was the non-technical non-technical fair enough yeah I'm just going to roll that up roll it from one hand to the other and it should come away now ah you see you see it's not as easy as it looks not enough weight okay we'll make another one okay more weight next time dig in deep the first paper mill in England was established around 1490 but at the time paper was mainly imported from Europe making it extremely costly firmly and with confidence with confidence and manufacturers could be recognized by their watermarks not too bad there's quite a deep indentation here when the papers pressed that will pretty much all come down to the same thickness and you really shouldn't be able to see it on the surface but when you hold it up to the light the display's fibers will will show as a watermark the paper is pressed for an hour [Music] we'll take the press off now and see what we've got quite excited for this after 50 years the novelty wears off that's the first of our Bits of Paper that's brilliant can you see the watermark paper making Tudor style thank you very much [Music] foreign the daily running of the monasteries required many lay workers leaving the monks free for worship prayer or study usually these workers were men but certain jobs were open to older women considered by the monks to be Beyond The Temptations of the flesh they helped with gardening cooking and the washing of Linens [Music] which is what Ruth has been commissioned to do my main cleaning chemical throughout all my housework is wood ash it's particularly good at dealing with grease with dissolving it so that you can wash it away but when you're doing the laundry you don't necessarily want pure Ash in your best napkins so what I'm going to do is filter the chemical within the ash out into a nice clean liquid inside a bucket with a hole in the bottom Ruth makes a filter of river gravel and straw and then the ash just goes on top and this is you know just out of the fireplace and then I just need to pour some water through and let that seep through leeching out every last bit of chemical into a really strong lie solution the word lie after all is just a short form of alkali Tom and Ruth attending to monastic matters Peter is keeping the farm running the cows have eaten all the grass and there is a shortage of food to Source a Tudor solution Peter has come to meet Ted green who looks after the woodlands at NEP Castle in West Sussex hi Ted how you doing yeah not bad how are you well really really pleased because I've just found this tree which is going to really work for a ladder for us you're making a ladder out of this tree yeah oh Christ well there you go I'll bring the tools you bring the tools I'll bring the ladder right in front of you Ted is Reviving an ancient farming practice which has existed ever since animals were domesticated harvesting hay from trees it's a perfect solution for the dry months as trees keep their leaves hydrated so the hay will provide a good source of moisture it's something which actually predates grass it's only in modern times that people start thinking about grass animals never never only grass we made them eat grass which trees are we looking at cutting in this particular case we've got two trees which are ash which they absolutely love it's one of the top trees for animals right I've been lugging this ladder around okay where do you want it well we're going to try and rest it in that tree for it just there you go there we go no no no no no over your way a bit over set you're in great I don't mind that go and try it I'm not over convinced about this um yeah okay right um so you're up yeah for now okay so what am I going for here Ted what am I looking for this year's growth which should have leaves right down the stem to near the trunk that's brilliant and that's a good that's a good size as well that's lovely for for storing these leaves Ted so they're gonna are they gonna hold their nutrients yep yep that because we're cutting them this time of the year obviously when they fall off in the Autumn the tree has put all the minerals and nutrients back into itself but by doing this we're trapping them all in the in the leaves unlike copper Singh where material is cut from the base of the tree harvesting tree hay like this is known as pollarding the leaves are cut and regrow above the height of the animal's head which meant Farmers could control the crop it was one of the earliest forms of Woodland management well Pete that no say you got most of it off to me yeah I think so wonderful as well as laundering the linen for the upcoming abbots Feast Ruth is also tackling some more personal garments While most lay people had little time for bodily hygiene for monks washing was a matter of religious discipline demanded before meals and the duties of the day foreign clothes was essential [Music] a monk was supposed to wear his Woolen tunic next to his skin and he had his Woolen scapula over it a Woolen gam and a Woolen Hood but by 1500 lay people wouldn't have dreamed of wearing wool next to the skin they all wore linen underwear something that could be laundered regularly and the monks wanted some of that comfort and cleanliness themselves so there are records of monks buying underwear and there are also records of them having it laundered so I've put a load of sheets in if I just keep piling up coming up and up and up until the basket's full it'll all compress down and I have real difficulty getting my lie to move between so once I've got a layer and make a shelf the Shelf will support the next layer of linen saving the bottom layer from being crushed foreign [Music] for my extra strong lie pour this lie on it's going to slowly filtrate its way through all the greasy dirty things dissolving any grease that's there so on it goes Tom is overseeing the production of a book which the Abbot will present to his Patron at the feast in medieval England hand-copied books were still a precious commodity mainly The Preserve of nobility and the monasteries but by the reign of Henry VII a new technology from the continent was changing this the printing press with movable type developed by a German Craftsman Johannes Gutenberg the Press allowed individual letters to be set into text and rearranged with ease printing expert Nick Smith is setting the type for the Abbott's book so when you put these letters in you're not actually putting them in as you would read them now the letter on the end of the piece of type is going to be upside down and backwards as far as the compositor is concerned so he has to be able to read a line like that just to check that there are no errors in it and that of course means that when it's turned over Inked and pressed into paper it'll come out the right way around printers used to refer to these types of sorts if you run out of the stock of a particular character you can say you're out of sorts once a page of type is set it is carefully transferred to a metal frame called a Chase and held in place with wedges known as Furniture those letters move in a millimeter it becomes a smudge it does yes you can't afford to have the type moving at all in fact some of the inks we use are so sticky the different type is at all loose the sticky ink will actually pull it out of position and that's a lot of work to put that can be a disaster so these are the ink balls these are the ink balls yeah pick up ink from the ink block there [Music] now a sheet of paper then goes on here now I'm turning the frisket down this is a a light metal frame covered in paper and this is basically a mask only the areas that want to print are going to touch the paper [Music] provide the pressure by pulling on this bar I'll have to move the Press bed in again so it's a double printing process a double printing process and the reason for that is simply that with this simple screw mechanism it's not possible to develop enough pressure to print a whole sheet in one go foreign sheet look at that so how many of these sheets would you expect to print in an hour they should print 250 in an hour but I can't really imagine that they ever managed that for long period you could make it a little bit faster if you had a boy who was known as a princess devil taking off the printed sheets because that that required no skill at all well you've gone unskilled laborer here so we've got to get on with the next sheet then yep foreign [Music] this new printing technology was developed by entrepreneurs not the church as the century progressed they made more and more affordable books which ordinary people might own it was an invention that would change the world once the LIE has removed all the grease from the laundry it's time to wash it [Applause] common washing places like this all over Britain for hundreds of years every Community had to have somewhere to do their laundry the key to Tudor laundry was Brute Force hard work work with this but that's the point that is what does the job for you isn't there chemicals involved it is purely mechanical action what you're doing is forcing molecules of water under tension through the fibers and it just physically mechanically dislodges the dirt fishing that does it [Music] once thoroughly rung out the laundry is laid on the grass to dry the combination of water and sunlight produces a bleaching effect so the monastery sheets are about six shades whiter than ours [Music] the Abbott's book is nearly finished it just needs binding Apprentice bookbinder Eve Goodman is showing Tom the process one of things with printed books is you've got to be really really careful to make sure you don't get paid without water you look at the originals and there are quite a few where a Pages upside down where an apprentice has not been quite paying attention once all the papers are folded they are sliced in half it should be one continuous movement bring the knife towards you and Fold It Again to form sheets making sure that all the pages are the right way up I've got a nice stiff paper it's high quality I tell you this date The Binding was working was you had a book binding shop and people would come in with their Pages having had them printed and hand them over and say I want you to bind those this is the the point at which industrious book binding is happening where suddenly people can afford to go and buy their pages and take them to a book binder I suppose the ability to mass produce books of this type means that when the Reformation occurred Henry VIII was able to print the Bible in English and get it out there making that sort of break from Rome so much easier because obviously a lot of the Bibles were printed in Latin and he needed to have that separation exactly a small press was used to hold the pages in place while their spines were marked out and a series of slits cut right this is the vital part this is the part that holds all of the book together this is sewing on the core so a series of chords are lined up with the slits in the spine and the whole book is sewn together [Music] so you are literally just stitching a book yeah you're sewing it together look Sashi is very precise isn't it yeah it starts to feel like a book at this point yeah a proper present next the book needs to be cut to size it's called plow you see there's a blade here [Music] [Applause] and you'll see as soon as I got through this lot just how silky smooth the edge of the book is if you were on your finger down there it squeaks foreign that's unbelievably smooth that's amazing [Music] fine is rounded using a hammer you can see that there's that there's a curve on it there's a bit of a curve and all books have got that and it's all about making sure that the spine is as stable as possible this also forms a ledge for the book's cover to sit on so you can see the rounding over of the spine is so that you get this seamless curve originally covered in plain vellum by 1500 luxury books had fine leather covers craftsmanship required to make a book emphasizes really why they were such Prestige gifts doesn't it and finally the book is put in the press to set overnight Minneapolis we'll be very proud to give that to his Patron thank you for letting me observe oh that's all right hey Turkish hey Georgie hey Mildred back on the farm the pigs are flourishing Peter's tree hay is going down well she absolutely loves it I'm a convert tree though it's fantastic it's your food stop playing with your dinner and with the crop finally dry it's time to bring in the peas well our P scare has definitely worked we still have a crop I mean I think there's a lot of peas on there there's an awful lot of people we were trying to pick these by hand we'd be here forever [Music] the team are using sides first developed in Roman times by the Medieval Era they had spread throughout Europe it smells amazing isn't it Tom it is but it turned out quite easy as well [Music] loading the peas into our wagon and these dried piece we can thrash to get the peas out but the stems we can feed to our cows [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] making friends down there pizza making friends for the Tudor farmer a good crop would have been a godsend [Music] feeding them and their animals and even making a little cash if there was extra to sell [Applause] the crop will be beaten with sticks to release the peas the process known as thrashing isn't it fantastic so completely full of one of our crops yeah I know look at that there are hundreds of peas yeah this is good so I don't know if it's a weather or what but this has been a really good crop I think it's all down to our Tudor farming techniques to be honest or maybe enough time spent on our knees in church foreign [Music] Feast is just days away but the elaborate food he will be serving was a far cry from the simple meals of ordinary monks Benedictus Benedict every meal began with Grace foreign talking was forbidden so instead the monks communicated over the dinner table using sign language each monk had a daily allowance of two and a half pounds of bread and a gallon of Ale and two pounds of fish a fundamental part of the monastic diet but fish wasn't only important for the monks the church decreed that for three days a week and on many holy days lay people should not eat meat only fish oh while the general public had to make do with dried or salted fish the monasteries had become expert fish farmers they engineered elaborate systems of ponds to grow salmon Pike and carp which will be served at the abbots feast Ruth has come to the monastic kitchen to prepare the food starting with the carp this would have been a luxury food it's fresh water fish and for most people you know that was in itself a sign of wealth and of privilege only those who had the rights to the fishing could take the fish so fresh water fish carried a certain social cache you knew if you were served any of the freshwater fish that you were being given the produce of the owner of the land Ruth Stuffs the fish with anchovies bread herbs and spices a valuable commodity in Tudor England the monks obviously tried to keep a really close eye on what they were using and spending in their kitchens just the same way as they were keeping a close eye on the way their lands were being farmed so monks were supervising Chefs of they were in charge of the stores of keeping count of food going in and food coming out Ruth makes a cage to support the fish during the roasting [Music] the church was instrumental in the advancement of fine dining the frequent travels of the clergy meant new ideas and cooking methods spread throughout Europe Ruth is trying out an elaborate pastry dish I'm building a pastry Castle according to a menu from 1500 the bishop of London served just such a thing at a dinner it started with a moat of custard and then within it was a great pastry castle and in each of the turrets of the pastry Castle there'll be a different filling and I rather thought well you know it's good enough for the bishop of London maybe it's good enough for our rabbit Peter has turned his attention to drinks for the feast in the 1500s wine was an expensive commodity here we go pop that back on there one way to make it last longer was to distillate into a spirit distiller Jack Greene has made a still the apparatus needed to produce Brandy so as I blow air into the coals here they heat up that heats the wine but what happens then we need to slowly bring it up yeah until we come to the boiling point of the alcohol which is lower than the boiling point of water the alcohol evaporates goes up into the condenses on here and run down this channel here and then down the spout essentially the the alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than the rest of wine yes uh little last little sophistication is we've put this wet blanket on it oh like a little tea cozy but the opposite so rather than keeping it hot cools it down right okay so we're getting we're getting a few drips coming out of here yes the first alcohol that comes over is methanol and methanol is the bad stuff what happens if I drink that well you'll probably go blind methanol has a lower boiling point than ethanol so the first drops that come over are the methanol and we discard those when do you know that you've changed from methanol to ethanol you just have to guess just have to go right okay when the ethanol starts to come through the spout is connected to a long tube which is cooled in a bucket of water this will help the ethanol fully condense we're getting some already that's fantastic so that is now the ethanol coming through a bit faster now a bit faster it's a very delicate business right the reason it's called spirits is that this is the body yeah and the spirit Rises and this is the spirit that's why the Holy Spirit sort of thing so carry on so the The Vapor of alcohol is the spirit leaving the body of wine yeah by the way I'm looking forward to trying it oh yeah she'll be the first I'll put my thumb over the spout and uh it smells good how does it taste just a little sip don't drink it all that's really nice that is really nice good good [Applause] the food is prepared and the brand is distilled but there's one more job to do before the feast Peter and Tom have been called upon to serve at the banquet and they need a lesson in Tudor etiquette you have no idea what an honor this is you know this would have been gentleman's Sons who've been carefully trained from childhood in how to be gracious how to Bow beautifully how to serve a table with exactly the right etiquette that have special carving lessons I mean so that they could do it precisely and cleanly and quickly we've gone up in the world exactly exactly this is your serving towel right you put the serving towel on for serving dinner it's a symbol of what sort of role you play at dinner because he's gonna have a slightly different to you so you get two towels because you're carving again Badge of office I mean the Posh of your servants were the posher you were and the better turned out your servants were the more it reflected on you what your bowels like come on let me see your Bells bowing or genuflecting yeah it is more like a genuflect yeah you want to be doing the particularly when you're serving the food you want to be able to come down with the trays held in front of you yeah that's the sort of thing you're doing that in two moves I think go and have another go I thought it was pretty good the first time you see try not stepping quite so far just keep it really small and then that knee can come right into your heel better you're gonna go in there elegant you're going to be lovely we're going to do you proud you are God don't be gorgeous [Music] it's the day of the Abbott's feast and the monastery's most important Patron will be dining more than just an expression of hospitality it was a vital chance to win favor and donations as a sign of humility following the example of Christ senior monk would wash the feet of the guests before dinner Benedict Dominion nurse at hate to a donor created to a larger tarte Summers per christum dominant nostrum amen the seating plan was meticulous only the most distinguished guests would sit on the high table with the Abbot the further away you sat the lower your social status each of the elaborate dishes Ruth's pastry castle with a custard moat sugar platters decorated with gold and the carp along with many other dishes would be ceremonially presented to the Abbott for approval before being served carving calf for the monastic table it's not a case of filleting the fish instead I'm running my knife around the outside of the fish cutting off the fins and and the tail and the head and then the body I'm going to cut it into equal sized portions complete with bones because when it's served it will still look like a fish but each piece can be picked up and eaten as bite-sized morsels [Music] the drinks served in cups were kept on a board the origin of the word cupboard they would be offered to the top table with the server waiting for the guest to finish before removing the cup and Tom's prestigious gift is presented a token of our gratitude I would like to present you with this book a life of Saint Edmund in English thank you so much any scraps of food were put in an arms Bowl to be given to the poor the monasteries were so dominant in the provision of welfare that it was only after the dissolution that the government was forced to confront the issue [Music] with the dining over the guests were entertained Into the Night by musicians revelry was not uncommon even within the monastic walls this has been a real insight into how those above us actually live it's really different I mean when you think our dining seems quite formal we'll put our best club around and we all sit there and behave ourselves but this is a whole scale above and also the sheer amount of food being consumed it's more crazy isn't it it is crazy I mean I know everything there gets eaten by somebody but that initial huge groaning board is quite a sight to see I want to stress I did not drop the custard Castle because I thought I was going through a couple of times despite how much wine you drank but this sort of event it was what kept the monasteries funded yeah for their stuffed and so they're coffers foreign Monastery Farm it's harvest time this has taken us four and a half hours and look how much more there is produce a vital Tudor resource did you think of salt as a basic ingredient having to process it down just adds so much labor and enjoy some Tudor entertainment I always knew that this Scythe was meant for more than just harvesting peas from here they shall not pass [Music] it's September the beginning of Autumn and the days are getting shorter the team are preparing for the end of their farming year and their time as Tudor farmers Ruth Peter and Tom need to make Provisions for the winter the Pea crop has been collected and stored yeah this is good flabbergasted was just how many peas we've got yeah it's time to bring the animals back to the farm from their summer grazing [Music] and The Barley crop is now ready to be harvested in The Tudor period the Harvest was the climax of The farming year if the Harvest failed or the weather turned it could lead to malnutrition and even famine it's a lot of barley isn't it it's a lot of work but it looks amazing like the color is just incredible as one of England's largest landowners monasteries owned vast amounts of agricultural land most Fields were open and not enclosed by Hedges unlike today so tenant Farmers would be given strips of land to cultivate Within These large areas so I suppose as much as this would be a huge open field we would just have this strip here wouldn't we and also probably another strip over there and another strip over there but everyone would be growing the same crop and all be all hands to the pump yeah definitely well that's why school holidays take the form they do isn't it because even students had to come out and do harvesting yeah we need bodies [Music] the team are discovering just how backbreaking the Harvest would have been for the Tudor farmer it's amazing how often we have to actually sharpen our tools I mean you think metal versus barley it'd be an easy win but it's not once it's cut it needs to be bound into sheaves traditionally it's the men harup and the women who bind so you run along behind the blokes picking up all the loose stalks and then binding it into a sheath see it's so much easier to control once it's bound like that every last grain from the Harvest was precious even the smallest amounts would be gathered by those less well-off a practice known as gleaning well if I've heard poor people it was a really important source of food I mean for anybody that extra bit makes the difference isn't it you know if you think this is your Year's crop that little bit that's gleaned by the kids it's the last week's food yeah and you can get pretty hungry in that last week don't we know it if it rained then all the barley they had gathered would be ruined to prevent this the sheaves were stood upright on the ground known as stooking which allowed the grain to dry off it is the most incredible amount of work this tiny little piece that we've done of our Strip This has taken us four and a half hours to do they're looking like more there is waiting for us [Music] as well as bringing in the crops it was crucial in the Autumn to prepare meat for the winter the essential ingredient for doing this was salt Ruth's learning the job of a Waller the women who were in charge of making salt was one of the most important Commodities of the ancient world and also in the medieval it was one of those things that you simply couldn't do without it was necessary for survival it was an important item of trade and a huge industry however it was one of the basic Staples of Life which you basically to purchase for cash it was part of the cash economy unlike say carrots which you could grow your own in Tudor times the majority of salt was imported from France or Spain but pockets of England were highly productive especially areas in the north that had natural brine Springs the team have reconstructed the equipment used in this period what I've got here are two different parts a furnace and pan now the pan is made of lead flat bottomed to evaporate off as much of the water to produce the salt but that has sort of technical difficulties lead is a very soft metal it means that under the weight of the water there's a danger that it would collapse downwards so that's what this Frame over the top is for it's actually for supporting the pan the area is set up for salt production were known as Walling yards hence the name waller for the women who work there the pans were left boiling 24 hours a day serious boiling to turn brine back into salt but it is beginning to happen the surface is crusting over it's becoming so concentrated bucket after bucket after bucket a brine reduce reduce and there it is salt forming as a skin on the surface foreign [Applause] Autumn the Tudor farmer would make Provisions to ensure all their valuable animals would survive winter we're coming up here because the weather's turned it's got cold we need to look after our flock we need to protect our investment the best way to do that is to get them back to our Homestead to get them back to the farm you can even sleep above your animals to get the heat coming up if you so need to you're not enjoying the cottage then the farm said not good enough we won't snuggle [Applause] the monasteries flocks could number thousands tenant farmers face the daunting task of herding their sheep from the fields back to their Farms [Music] so we've got sheep up there and sheep up there ideally getting down the middle work them down here Pence movement pincer movement foreign I'll see you in about an hour don't fall asleep [Music] at the end of the monastic era the monastery's land was sold so flocks were broken up and large common fields were enclosed this is good they're going it was the last time these huge flocks grazed together changing farming Enterprises and the landscape of Britain Go On it's going really well this field is massive it's an open field but the secret is not to go in there too hard and heavy we're just slowly pushing them tickling them here tweaking them there and they're all bunching together in a mammoth flock [Applause] [Music] Tom I've got you Peter I've got you [Music] [Applause] the brine has been boiling for four hours enough water has evaporated for Ruth to attempt the next stage of the process extracting the salt the very best quality salt is this first scum if it's clean and there is one thing I could do to make sure that it really is clean what I need to do is throw a load of proteins in and then those proteins will bind with any impurities that are there the cheapest was Oxblood but I haven't got a huge supply of that I'm going to try with some eggs just give them a good stir up it's certainly Gathering bits together in larger clumps and then the sort of leaves and twigs it's not doing much too but it does look like it's taking some of that funny color out prices were sold varied depending on its Purity and whiteness there were different grades of salt with the greatest and cheapest used for household cleaning and the whitest being reserved for salting cheese that is looking much cleaner Ruth is experimenting with forming salt in a traditional wicker cone these would have been used for draining and transporting it will be taken back to The Farmhouse to be used for her winter preparations before the weather Turns The Barley needs to be safely stalled or the crop will be ruined to ensure it is kept safe the boys are using an age-old technique picking Gauss so what we're going to do is actually make a layer of this course in the bottom of our barn and these spikes will keep all the mice and the Rats of the bay keep them out of it but also raising the barley off the floor we'll just get some air underneath keep it nice and dry protect our investment protect our crop although this is not a job I'm enjoying it seems going to be one of our easiest tasks but uh at the moment bleeding now prickling my ankles I know it's like taking an angry dog for a walk isn't it [Music] Autumn was the time for slaughtering animals as it was harder to feed and look after them in the colder months the tenant farmer would want to make their meat last for the months ahead Ruth is trying a Tudor technique for preserving beef using the salt she's produced you know nowadays we cut up beasts according to certain joints we want to get out but a Tudor butcher was looking for something rather different he was looking to be able to fill his Barrel with equal sized pieces of a portion for a man nobody really worried too much when they were butchering whether one person got mostly meat and another person got mostly fat as long as you got your two pound weight it's not exactly easy though butchering it up into beautiful pieces foreign the meat for winter was usually the job of the Tudor housewife I am really pleased with my salt cone but I can tell you it's a heck of a lot of work after the salt has been crumbled it is then rubbed onto every surface of the meat and what I'm hoping to do by this process is to dehydrate the meat I'm going to try and draw out all the juices within it because they are what allow infection in once the blood and other fluids have been drawn out of the beef it is ready to be stored in brine a mixture of water that has been boiled with salt and herbs this will move the salt further into the tissues of the meat okay now just need to leave it in the brine for three days for that brine to really penetrate once this has happened the meat can be packed into a new barrel of dry salt for the final stage in preserving during the winter pieces of the meat would then be taken out and rinsed when required for cooking [Music] so I'll jump over PC you pass it over yep let's get this course down nice prickly prickly stuff if I pop it over there and you can spread it with that foreign [Music] not only have we brought our sheep and our cows in but also bring in our Harvest and by doing so we're leaving stubble Fields so we're taking away the home of the rats and the mice and we're creating a food store for them so they're all going to come here looking for food so we need the schools down here to protect it otherwise we're in stock this barley would have been used throughout the year to make two of our Staples bread and ale so it's very important [Music] thank you well one more load to get and then we can have our Feast I'm looking forward to it let's crack on it's Mickey Mouse a feast day to Saint Michael the protector of the Christian church it marks the shortening of days and the end of the yearly farming cycle Ruth is cooking goose traditional meat eaten at this time of year [Music] I mean nowadays many people only ever eat goose if they eat it at all at Christmas and that's a Madness from a farming point of view utterly ridiculous is completely out of season there are two points in the year when it makes sense to eat goose one is towards the end of Summer at that moment they are at their fattest and their juiciest and it used to be called a green Goose a grass-fed goose however if you want to keep them through to mythamous then there is one more source of free food to fatten up your goose you set your geese free on your stubble lands and they pick about and then you've dropped grains they feed on and fatten up a second time and that is a stubble this just ready for mykleness [Music] The Last of The Barley is being brought in to be stored it was customary once the last field was reaped for people to celebrate marking joy and relief after the hard work that had gone into the farming year the celebration took the form of harvest home and was steeped in rituals as communities across the kingdom thanked God for helping them with their Harvest this almost religious it's like every single grain is precious the amount of work and effort has gone into this thank you thank you Professor Ronald Hutton has joined the team to help bring in the Harvest so this year the fact that we've got such a good crop this really is a moment for celebration let's consider the alternative there was a disease in Tudor England called the bloody flux in modern times we thought it was some infection that had died out only with our relief work in Ethiopia and the Sudan the late 20th century did we realize that the bloody flux is the last stage of starvation when your body is famished Beyond a certain point the wall of your intestine gives way in a massive Hemorrhage that kills you off and that's the alternative to getting in a good harvest or even a harvest that's pretty Stark [Music] with the dark Prospect of famine avoided the farmers would have been able to rejoice once the cart was filled with the last of the barley the community would choose a harvest Queen a maiden from the local Village who would be carried on top of the card as it made its way back to the farm ER [Music] come on come on here she is congratulations Mary that's a pretty unanimous you get the honor of a crown and riding the cards they're going to Grace our last Harvest foreign [Music] one last little ordeal for you yes there are generally games involved in bringing home triumphantly the last cart from the field uh usually guys versus gals one which lasted for centuries after the tutor era was for the men that's you I'm afraid to try and get a small Sheaf of cereal each into the bar now you see the ladies are lined up behind you armed with water who will try and empty the water over as you do so so this is speed and intelligence ready three [Laughter] [Music] and your crazy ideas this is history that does it to us I'm just the messenger and you're dry the rituals were followed by a great feast to reward the Harvest workers for their toil is over it was a time of year which marked relief expressed by giving thanks for farming success it's michaelness the feast of Saint Michael and all Angels which marks the real end of the Agricultural year that's why we're celebrating so hard and the monastery has rewarded us for our labor by a customary extra gift to the goose which we roast for michaelness to show that not only are we getting on well with each other but we're getting on well with our landlord but before we do anything would you please speak the grace [Music] Benedictus Benedict pearlism christom dominum nostrum this Goosey is fair carve away [Music] [Music] [Applause] I have movies [Music] well Ronald it is good to be alive it certainly is right now remember in 1500 we have winter ahead of us hypothermia Darkness and above all boredom we're going to have to wire away those long nights with lots of stories well as the beer is Flowing we'll have a few stories that is a wonderful wonderful idea here's to you [Music] with the Harvest safely stored the team have completed their farming obligations for the monastery for the previous 800 years monasteries had been at the Forefront of farming education and Technology as well as a hub for a range of craft and Commercial activities monasteries wanted elaborate beautiful buildings to display their Devotion to God and skilled Masons were in high demand Peter has come to Gloucester Cathedral to meet with Master Mason Pascal mccallison who is restoring the stonework [Music] what are you working on at the moment a canopy but is this this for Gloucester Cathedral yeah a canopy that's the stone which is covering a statue the head of a statue it always amazes me Cathedral so they're so beautiful and they're so ornately carved and I suppose one of the few buildings that were built out of stone in the period so yeah when we we talk about Stone architecture we talk immeasurable time we talk almost exclusively about religious architecture yeah that means the Masons uh their Patron were the church and very soon most Mason would be out of a job after the dissolution of the monastery yeah Mason would Trace design floors and use basic geometry and rules of proportion to create buildings that have lasted for centuries what is extraordinary with the measurable medicine on pseudomations is what they did with almost nothing and using very very little tools and mostly they use their width right and that's the tool they built at all with a pickaxe that's all they had so you could anyone become a Mason the modern equivalent to understand that spot on is you go to a football Academy either you can kick the ball or you can't it's ruthless but fair system of meritocracy it's at the end of the day either you can have the skills of building the ax or you can't well I've kicked a few balls of my time they've never gone in the direction I want them to but hopefully if I hit a few blocks of stone I can uh yeah but we we can have a little demonstration building was usually done in the spring and summer months the Mason would work with stone that was fresh from the Quarry and contain natural sap that made it soft and much easier to carve Stone could be put in place and left to set in the winter all right that cuts looks absolutely fantastic um and you're doing that all by eye great eye I'm a train Mason so it would be sad if I couldn't do it you make it look so easy have a go okay and this this finger this is basically for guidance is it this piece of stone will be placed in the cathedral when complete you see you've got to control the getting younger so you got yeah straight away it's coming yep out like that so I need to so what took the ax slightly up like that it's amazing the difference that the index finger makes it does give you contact control Tudor Stone Mason would traditionally serve a seven year apprenticeship a system which still operates today and what is nice too is medial Mason didn't need to go to the gym keep your fit or based on a very very little bit of me yeah chopping with a standoff do you think I've got potential to be able to cut kick a football in your your Stone Academy yeah I think we can put you on a three month trial right and we'll see hopefully you won't regret that [Music] the beautifully embellished monasteries were not just places of prayer they were also places of refuge and many monastic orders were involved in looking after the sick in the local community Ruth has come to the monastic herb garden to pick plants that were believed to cure ailments common to the winter months this is my last chance to harvest the medicinal herbs ready for the winter and this is a job that you'll have found going on in pretty much every household all over Britain you needed a stock of household medicine to keep you going medical knowledge in medieval times was quite limited relying on herbs and folklore remedies in about 1500 the Renaissance makes it to Britain and what this really is is a rediscovering of ancient Greek texts it was changing the way people understood the plants around them if you were to be an intellectual in 1500 one of the forefronts of research was in Plants the Botany of this age was the science of the day [Music] monasteries were often large complexes of Gardens dormitories and areas for prayer all of these areas were rich in decoration great tiled floors were costly and were another craft that thrived thanks to the patronage of the church and monasteries Peter has come to The Abbey to meet with Karen Slade from the company of Artisans who will help him make tiles for a church to how do you make one well you have to start with some clay then you can take a wire and you can cut it from a block and you can then wedge that up and put that into a tile frame so this is a frame that just helps you get everything the same size the tiles would then be decorated so if you'd like to make a 1500s tile this one is a pattern from Hales Abby in Gloucester and was made in about originally in about 30 15 36. so that's a fleur-de-lis that's a fleur-de-lis yes and the three petals that you see here they symbolize the Trinity so you've got the father-son and Holy Ghost and very popular symbol they're also write in thinking that Henry VII yes he did yes he did okay so I just line this up yes that's it line it up nice and square okay that's it hit it with a hammer no one getting hard you hit it relatively hard in the middle first and then Each corner [Music] [Applause] that's it and then just hit it just about there just level it up that's it brilliant and just have a look and see how that's come out oh there we are that's perfect certainly ready to use the sunken areas on the pattern are filled in with another form of clay known as slip which will then turn yellow once glazed and fired and this is the only thing that they used to have to pay for so you can see how little I'm using compared with the red clay the red clay was free you could dig that up but this white clay isn't found in very many places so it's precious and then that's it and then that's it so the next stage we need to do is to just have a go at scraping off surface now that it's stiff you're trying to get a clean Edge in between the two colors so if I just start with just this tiny piece at the top here just so that you can begin to see that lovely clean Edge how long does this take you oh it takes ages it takes about takes about 20 minutes um per tile I was going to say the sort of process of making a tile did seem ridiculously fast and I knew there had to be a snake there is a snag this is the snack so if you want to have a little go you want to take over you just need to scrape it flat one thing I never thought I'd be doing was shaving the file they will not know if the pattern has worked until it's been fired I think that one's almost done but that's what we'll make an entire floor is it so no we have we've got a few more I know you better get going haven't you in Tudor England the threat of fatal disease was ever present such as the sweating sickness and the Bubonic plague the average life expectancy was just 35 years and it was important to store them over the winter [Music] Ruth's using the hyssop she picked to attempt a Tudor remedy that's a load of honey bruising the first of many batches of hyssop and I'm going to seize the hiccup in the honey hyssop is one of those plants that we use really quite extensively in the period it's not so much now if you went to a modern herbalist they wouldn't be all that impressed by using hyssop but in 1500 it was considered to be an important medicinal plant medieval medicine was based on the theory of the four humors it's centered on the balance of four liquids in the body blood phlegm black bile and yellow bile illnesses were believed to be caused by an imbalance of one of these humors and medicines would aim to restore the balance and every plant out there was assigned to one of the particular humors to a lesser a more or less degree so hyssop which is the one here this is hot and dry it's ideal for counteracting for balancing diseases of phlegm anything where you have too much phlegm can be cured according to this ancient Greek idea by hyssop oonful of hyssop mixture mixed with hot water was viewed as a useful remedy firmary was a space within a monastery where the elderly and the infirm of the community could be cared for whether they were there because simply of old age or you know whether it was a particular ailment it was an area of the monastery that was heated unlike the rest monks were allowed to not take part in all the offices of the day so that they wouldn't get too exhausted and they also were allowed to bypass some of the dietary rules there was a bed there was warmth there was food but more importantly in the eyes of the 15th and 16th century there was spiritual care [Music] under the reign of Henry VIII many of these monastic hospitals were closed in their place came the Civic and Parish Provisions which laid the foundations for modern social welfare [Music] Peter and Karen have come to the church at Hales Abbey to see their tiles put into place on the reconstructed floor these these look a lot smaller and when we're making them oh yes they do they shrink quite a lot you have to think about that when you're making a pattern um oh wonderful look at that I'm bringing you more tiles um it's looking pretty good though I mean is it are they fairly quick to lay the fairly quick to lay by using the lime screed to start with that gives you a level base right and then you're simply just buttering on the bedding material so the tiles can be more or less flat anyway tiles could feature the crests of the benefactors paying for the floor as funding works on religious buildings was viewed as a way of avoiding Purgatory other designs had more religious overtones so this is our tile so that's it after it's been scraped and then dried and then fired with a glaze on top and the glaze has changed the color from White pure white to a yellow color Yes on this side so you have to really have to come out there I think it's fantastic good the distinctive yellow and red tiles were phased out from the 1540s with the influx of Tyler's from the continent bringing new styles all of a sudden you've got wonderful Italian tilers and French tilers and people from Holland making delftware making blue and white yeah and as soon as people see blue and white tiles on the floor um they don't want brown and yellow anymore suddenly their floors were in HD that's it they don't want they don't want them anymore the final process is to use a dry mortar mixture of lime and sand brushed over the tiles into the cracks water is added to set the mixture and keep the tiles in place at the point of dissolution large monastic houses were still spending money on embellishments such as these tiles or ornate stone work when they really didn't see it coming oh [Music] thank you [Music] in 1500 the monasteries under Henry VII were thriving even rivaling the power of the state but when his ambitious son Henry VIII came to the throne the new monarch came to resent the monastery's power their wealth and their control from Rome the king also questioned the religious purpose of the monasteries influenced by ideas from Europe that monks no longer needed to pray on behalf of society individuals should now pray directly to God to ensure their own salvation in the 1520s the wheels were put in motion for the king to break away from the Roman Church and dissolve the monasteries Professor James Clark an expert in medieval history has come to discuss the dissolution of the monasteries I just find it utterly amazing that so enormous shift happened with remarkably little protests it is remarkable uh this is carried out in in four years or so they are in fact continuing to embellish their churches and the the buildings of the convent at the very moment that the king's Commissioners arrived there's one uh scene at one Monastery where the king's Commissioners are literally picking their way over the The Trenches that are being dug for the foundations of new walls and and so on what was the impact to The Wider Society the institution that has really made and shaped many people's living and working environment is removed monasteries provided care for the sick through Hospital foundations they had school foundations and these are closed at the dissolution this is Uncharted Territory for many Village and town communities across England the team's time as tenant farmers of the monastery is coming to an end the farmer's calendar was punctuated with religious festivals earlier in the year the team set up a religious Guild a group that monitored its members piety to ensure the salvation of their souls guilds often put on mystery plays a tradition that was to be largely lost after the dissolution of the monasteries a representative from The Guild would be in charge of organizing the play and recruiting locals to act and help build the sets the team are meeting with drama expert Dr Eleanor Lowe to find out what's involved what do we mean by Mr play in the first place well the word mystery links to the Latin word mysterium which means a guild or a craft so these plays were very much linked to the the guilds who who put up who were responsible for each of these plays and each of the guilds would be asked to put on their own section of the story so these these mystery plays were a cycle of plays several different plays Each of which told a sort of little snapshot moment from the Bible they tell the story of the scriptures from the creation right through to the harrowing of hell so it's education and entertainment at the same time all at the same time are we talking professional actors then or people giving it a go no so these are amateurs as part of the guild performing on the street in front of their fellow townspeople and trying to communicate a message Bruce is in charge of making a popular Tudor drink for the audience at the play using forgotten fruits from the countryside [Music] sugar was only known as a sort of rare Spice in early Tudor England so you can possibly make jam or bottle fruit or any of those sorts of methods that later on in history people use for preserving fruit through the winter now in the 490s and 1500 fruit had to keep all by itself so what you were looking for was varieties which would do exactly that a fruit was expensive to preserve any that could last for longer in the Lada would be most welcome bullises are ripe on the bullish tree a really ancient fruit one that sort of gets rather forgotten about these days a little sort of type of Plum a little bit sour but I mean you can eat them raw if you like sharp flavors a little bullet being a more solid flesh less watery sort of a fruit will keep for three or four weeks after it's been picked as tastes changed and sweeter varieties of plums such as damsons became more popular the bullish Plum was largely forgotten but what that means is it becomes something of an indicator species if you're out in the countryside and you come across a great line of bullish trees you're almost certainly at the site of ancient settlement they're as much a part of our heritage as any church or other building to impress the audience of the play guilds would pull out all the stops to produce a memorable performance Tom has come to see Alchemist Jack Greene to experiment with making Tudor pyrotechnics [Music] Jack he looks like you're about to start cooking here we've got pestles and mortars got ingredients but this is actually what we're going to use to make Tudor fireworks fireworks yes although they had been used in China since the 10th Century in England it was not until the 13th century that a Churchman called Roger Bacon first studied how to make fireworks so Jack what's our first ingredient uh charcoal is what we need no great cost easy accessible yes foreign this is basically the the principle of grind all the ingredients down and mix them isn't it yes and they're finally grind them they're more intimately mixed they are the more powerful fire Works were produced by adding other minerals to the charcoal like salt peter so what is soul Pizza uh well it's a salt and it's a salt that accumulates in manure heaps it uh helped ignition there's also an element of risk creating gunpowder I imagine it's not something people wanted spread about that knowledge between a modern scientist a modern chemist and a medieval Alchemist is that a modern chemist believes in publishing results Alchemists had exactly the opposite attitude all Alchemists wrote in code and the fascination of alchemy is to work out what the symbols mean the Tudor period was the first time these ratios of ingredients were studied and gunpowder was made to be as explosive as possible Jack and Tom are trying their own ratios very good that goes in there this is fulfilling funnel okay and this goes in the top I do have a secret ingredient for this I have here I will put a little of it in and I go sand the bottom does it yeah well uh when I get uh finish with a flourish you see layers of the powders need to be built up to create different effects Jack's experimental layer of gunpowder will hopefully make it go with a bang a little more of this it must be there by now surely I know you're the boss well you're the man with the eyes no we put the fuse in start it off that should be good there we have it so there we are good luck for the mystery play trust me he's going to bring the house down I hope not [Music] Ruth is experimenting with an ancient recipe to make an alcoholic refreshment for the audience to enjoy it will be made from the freshly picked bullises whenever people talk about monks and monasteries the word Mead comes up of course the truth is that monks mostly drank beer and they drank an awful lot of beer but now and again in party mode there was a little bit of mead floating around your basic need is just some honey and some water and you allow it to ferment but if you flavored it with fruit you called it melamel that's what this is so I'm just crushing up the fruit in order to release the juice and then that just goes straight in my Brewing vessel and along with that the honey now the more honey I use the stronger it'll be there we go and then the water you'll have noticed that I didn't wash the fruit first and that's deliberate I want the wild yeasts on the skin of the fruit to be in there working feeding on the sugars from the fruit and from the honey quietly turning the water into alcohol it's basically it Ruth will leave it in the sun allowing the fruit to ferment and hopefully create a tasty drink [Music] [Music] it's the day of the mystery play [Music] [Applause] for mankind shall dwell ever more in Bliss that never fails Within records give some details of how plays were put on and the team have converted a farmyard cart into a stage from which these mobile players would be performed across towns so what's really interesting about these plays is that you know they're very popular in the 14th 15th century and then by the time we get to the 1590s they've really been censored out of fashion and you know that's partly to do with the dissolution of the monasteries because of course they're you know very much tied up with the Catholic Church calendar date you princes of gills chose a play that reflected their interests Carpenter's guilds as Woodworkers would naturally put on the crucifixion and the team's Farmers Guild has chosen a place centered on the salvation of souls by Jesus the harrowing of hell oh my brethren oh I think our health is near and soon mystery plays were similar in style to Modern pantomimes Tom is playing Beelzebub and the bad guys arrival on stage is marked in the same way it is today with a bang I am Prince and principle from here they shall not pass records of the plays show accounts of pulley systems and elaborate sets being used Peter is in charge backstage using whatever he has to have [Music] yes exactly and then in the 16th century we get the foundation of the permanent theater structures um and professional theater companies I guess I thought I sink into my tits [Music] [Applause] Jesus has saved the souls and banished the devil lightning down lightning oh peace and love here we go praise His glory [Applause] [Music] well done guys it's well done awesome that's brilliant well done go take the praise the festivities will carry on for many hours and Ruth's melamel has turned out to be a hit with the audience [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] Henry VII made himself Supreme head of the church breaking away from Rome it marks the beginning of the end for the monasteries it would be the last time that religion and farming was so entwined over the course of the next four years monasteries were pulled down their valuable land and materials stripped and sold off [Music] the great structures that had dominated the landscape for centuries were left as empty shells they're really Melancholy places these aren't they we are standing in a monastic graveyard we were standing in the end of an era that was just so total it's important to remember it's not just the Lost these buildings it's the social services that are lost by the monasteries closing down the education the caring for the old and the sick the employment and it takes near enough a generation to replace this I suppose monasteries are a victim of their own success they are these institutions of wealth and power of craft and Industry of raw materials and Henry VIII looks at them and says I want that it is a lost age you know lost past and you think what a huge turning point it was in our history [Music] it's the last day on the farm the boys have come to say goodbye to their faithful oxen Gwyn and graceful and give them their winter feed these girls have worked so well yeah haven't they we have been a team guys you have been our farm done our plowing you've done our harrowing you've moved carps of wool you've kept us in check haven't you well they really have been steady performers haven't they yeah that's the thing well someone had to be yeah indeed they picked up the slack where we've Let It Go [Music] yes you'll get some food in a second gonna miss you guys without them we could have got Health stuff done and we built up a working relationship and some real insights at just how Reliant a Tudor farmer would have been on their livestock without these guys you don't have a farm without a farm you don't have a livelihood well being emotional best of luck girls [Music] in 1500 the monasteries had been at the peak of their power and influence they were one of the largest landowners in England controlling waterways and Farms and holding a virtual monopoly over the world trade I thought they were supposed to be white sheep these ones they were the dominant spiritual and cultural focus in Tudor Society [Music] dissolution transferred the power of the monasteries and wealth to the crown some aspects of monastic Authority would be taken over by the state and private Enterprise others would simply disappear and the farming landscape of Britain was changed forever [Music] amazing working on a Tudor Monastery Farm I mean turning up it was just hustle bustle the marketplace everything was going on it was just idyllic everything's been fun but it's definitely been hard work you know awaits dropped off a little bit you know a few aches and pains bruises sores but it's been fantastic I wouldn't change anything [Music] foreign I felt this year almost a sort of nostalgia that we were living a life that was about to slip away this is such a pivotal moment it's like the deep breath that Britain takes ready before it suddenly launches into new way of living thank you

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 759,877

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, chronicle

Id: 5EuVCNwHlJ4

Length: 168min 46sec (10126 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2022