What's Actually In A Mince Pie? | Victorian Farm: Christmas | Absolute History

here in shropshire is a farm frozen in time lost in victorian rural england [Music] last year ruth goodman alex langlands and peter ginn brought it back to life as it would have been in the 1880s under the watchful eye of their landlord thomas acton they enjoyed many successes cute and cuddly and tasted failures first time in sewing a crop myself and then come the big day he's lame as their time on the farm ended it was a year that none of them would ever forget now they're returning to the farm [Music] to celebrate a victorian christmas bangs of expectation on a grand scale [Music] they'll learn new skills and be tested to the limit as they return once more to life on the victorian farm don't spoil it okay so here's to hard-working victorian victorian farmers [Music] cheers before the christmas festivities begin the team must get the farm ready for winter that means bringing in new livestock what are you looking for just to see if he's got his manly bits about him stockpiling food for themselves if you don't put your back into it you really notice the difference and the animals i think we're going to get a really good crop off of this but farmers are always at the mercy of the weather it's been a year since the team left the victorian farm [Music] they have an appointment with the estate owner mr acton and his son rupert is on his way to take them there rupert is picking us up isn't he i believe so what time did he say uh he said i think it's three o'clock it's glad to be back it's weird isn't it it is a bit strange coming back we're looking forward to seeing mr action again though yeah catching up with the uh affairs of the farm see what's happened over the last year hello what a welcome has it been a busy year while we've been gone it certainly has yes rupert's got big plans for the team we'd like you to recreate the victorian christmas at acton scott right what for the whole estate yes when rupert said you know that we're to do christmas for everybody there's a bit of me that's a bit daunted i suppose but but i'm also quite excited about it because i do like entertaining i like i like putting on a big spread so this this christmas feast you want us to lay on i mean what sort of scale are we talking about here i would think in the order of uh 30 to 40 uh individuals for me personally christmas is about coming together it's going to be about uniting a community victorians didn't invent christmas but they made it what it is today they brought us christmas cards paper decorations crackers and of course christmas trees sure i see some amazing large-scale decorations in a book as far as this victorian christmas is concerned well i remain to be convinced i'm a bit of a scrooge i really can't stand the sort of modern commercial christmas and in many ways i blame the victorians for that and there's the hall i'm looking forward to seeing mr anthony welcome [Laughter] a good firm handshake well it's certainly good to be back mr acton yes well we're just coming to the busy time of year i'm very glad to have you it's really good christmas be a few months away but preparations must start well in advance i'm sure you'll be more than capable of doing it to get through the winter a victorian farmer needed a good stock of hay to feed his animals the survival of his farm depended on it well now this is the first task right this is a meadow which is grass and clover and we want to have it made into hay for next winter's animals to live on right so hay harvest is going to be our first big job it is big job is the octopus hay is made from a combination of grasses which are cut and then dried in the field a good crop will depend on the weather and that's the main thing we want to avoid is rainfall last year the hay crop was destroyed by rain it was the major failure of their 12 months on the farm um i think i'm slightly daunted by the prospect again this year naturally well you can't dictate the weather but uh when it's right you must get on with it as quickly as you can they only have a few weeks if the hay is to be harvested in its prime the team's base for their year was a labourer's cottage which they restored from scratch but since their departure rupert has been making changes to it absolutely brings the light in oh where's my garden gone oh yes i'm sorry uh i've actually seeded your your your garden to grass but uh there is some compensation over here all that work i've actually made you a new garden in this position but it needs a bit of work yeah oh i thought perhaps you could plant some vegetables for the christmas celebrations all right yeah but the real surprise is that rupert's added a whole new room to the cottage gracious oh [Music] lovely brand new copper yes well i know how much you love doing laundry with so i've built you your very own copper coppers were used to heat water for many household tasks this one can hold about 15 gallons oh it's lovely great big big brick box with a fireplace oh it's so clean hasn't there not been a fire it's never been used yet so you'll be the first one to use it everybody thinks they're just for laundry but they're really useful cooking vessels especially when you do great big puddings and things you know a big boil in the bags and actually christmas pudding yeah seeing as i've got to do for all those people that would be perfect won't it yes go and have a look at clamper yes hello fella how are you long time no ca plumper was the team shire horse last year he went lame lovely he's lovely and smart although he's made a full recovery it's crucial he stays fit now the question is is we're going to be able to get him out and do some work with him see if we can remember how to tack him up yes the shire horse's tack was perfected in the victorian period it evolved from what was used on oxen in earlier centuries i think he's lost a bit of weight unlike us a horse-like clumper can pull around one and a half tons now this was always the difficult thing for clumper yeah because he never used to like this bit in his mouth stand still stand there that's it we go that's a tough one isn't it it's always a wrestle and the trick that myself and alex would talk put the thumbs right in the corner of the mouth there are no teeth and that makes them bite move their teeth open he's a powerful horse even if he was a bit lame last year it's good to be back isn't it yeah the boys want to see how well he's recovered by using him to pull a cart in their old farm yard i can see a little pair of ears and a fixed eye yeah but it's good to see him being used isn't it and here's the thomas corbett tip cart are you all right are you all right with the first complicated maneuver of the uh afternoon peter back back what this really is the toughest job really back clumper back good lad good lad good lad whoa good boy steady steady steady that's alright steady the tip carts loaded with manure for use in the new vegetable garden good boy as they set off all eyes are on clumper's hind legs there's no signs of stiffness there so looks like he's made a full recovery good boy how's he feeling all right yeah he's looking good though isn't it yeah we might be able to use them for our hay harvest wow look at that our cottage doesn't it look smart [Music] good lad that's brilliant that's perfect spot on stand well that saved us a lot of shoveling yeah shame you can't tip it into the car this should keep ruth happy i thought the first thing i'd do with my lovely new copper is um make some soap to do the cleaning making your own soap at home is something that people have been doing for generations um and there are in the victorian period still any number of soap recipes in ordinary household manuals all soap wherever you buy it from or wherever you make it it's just a fat and an alkali mixed together in essence the alkali releases the acids in fat reacts with them and forms soap it could be any sort of fat so i'm just using some rather old beef fat that i managed to catch off the butchers so i'm starting off by popping it in the copper and letting it all boil down into a liquid basically that's going to take quite a while the alkali roots using is caustic soda so i'm going to add my caustic soda into the water you have to be really careful when you do this because an exothermic reaction will occur which means it'll sort of boil all by itself chemically it's great something quite violent beginning to happen in there oh gosh it is well there's a nice selection of bits and pieces over here isn't there now they've seen clumper in action the boys must inspect the haymaking equipment like this yeah good for rowing up they've dug out their trusty farming bible henry stevens book of the farm for advice on what to use throughout the 19th century thousands of workers flocked from the countryside to the cities as part of this upheaval much farm work became mechanized this one here in the book of the farm and this kicks it up yeah tedding hey alex and peter will be relying on this labor-saving machinery and there's one piece of kit they'll need more than any other this is the daddy though this is the thing that we're is really going to save us some labour isn't it got the ban for taylor what a wonderful piece of kit the hayloader scoops up the hay and lifts it onto a horse-drawn wagon or dray traditionally you have a whole army of villagers pitching the hay up onto the dre with pitchforks but in the late 19th century you've got a shortage of labor so these kind of devices really are a bit of a godsend right so we'll get this out shall we yes let's give it a try so we go together yep okay i'm clear at the moment just let me right stop stop stop i mean that's heavy that's got to be heavy here it comes have i got clearance up there yet nice feet nice the bamford's hayloader weighs nearly a quarter of a ton okay i'm going to need you up here to drop this down for you really hang as that goes down okay just ever so dumb welcome back to the victorian farm yeah it smells soapy certainly no longer smells of fat i'm just going to pop a little handful of common salt in don't need a lot get a good stir oh yes look something's happening immediately there it is there's a solid forming that solid is soap this is my hard soak quite caustic so it's good for doing really filthy dirty jobs where you need something super powerful this is going to be super hard soap i can tell by the very white graininess as i push it into the mold it'll set rock solid the soap takes around four hours to set so i'm just giving this chamber pot a really good go with a more caustic it's brilliant for this sort of job yep alex and peter are struggling to get the hay loader working underneath the big complicated piece of kit this that chain is tight but it's on is that going to be too tight to give it a try now do you think ah who knows should we give it a go let's give it a go right right let's go yep and there we go that's probably excellent so we're the dre this is attached to the dre being pulled by the horse the dre is the cart that we're loading the hay on to yeah and this machine is driving these spikes which will be lifting the hay up this elevator tipping it right to the top wall over the top onto the drum onto the tray and hopefully that's going to save us an inordinate amount of work in the field it's ready to go all right do you want to put this back in then i'll go and check the other bits of kit [Music] while it's things are still quiet i thought i might get on with a couple of preparations i'm gonna get started on the mincemeat for christmas it's one of those things that the further in advance you make it the better it tastes ruth is using a recipe from the 1850s containing lemons apples raisins currants and candied peel if you go back to the medieval periods you look for mints or shred pies you'll find that they're mostly meat um and then they're just sweetened and flavored with a little bit of raisin and a little bit of spice which were fearfully expensive ingredients at the time and of course over time as these expensive imported ingredients begin to drop in price people put more and more in and gradually the meat content goes down and the sweet content starts to rise and in the 19th century for many people that meat element just falls away completely the only thing however that sort of harks back and tells you where it came from is the suet and modern mincemeat does mostly still contain suit and sewage of course is fat from a cow in particular this is a piece of what sometimes gets called a cod lie which means um the fat which hangs near a cow's cods cod is not a word for genitalia and finally last ingredient brandy the minced meat will be stored in jars to absorb the liquid becoming sweet and juicy over the coming weeks it should be really delicious and make the most wonderful mince pies for christmas a week into their return it's time for a catch-up you look like a man who needs a top up there peter thank you very much good morning get that down your neck so what state is all the home it doesn't look too bad as the grass is coming through and give it a couple of weeks it'll uh i'm sure be ready to cut but it's largely going to be a case of keeping the eye on the weather yeah what a familiar story every time we talk about making hay there's some sort of dark cloud covers over as if to say don't even try it yes so ruth what do you think of the cottage then it's so posh isn't it in comparison what it was when we were here last it's good to be back it's good to see you again cheers much good old acton cider you can feel it going down [Music] with a few weeks to go before the haze ready to cut there are plenty of other jobs to do the estates flock of shropshire sheep needs a new ram and the run-up to winter is the perfect moment to choose one the ram can then be introduced to his use in time to produce lambs for spring where better to find a top class animal than at the royal agricultural society of england's annual show the show was started by the victorians in 1839 today it's held at stoneleigh park in warwickshire dr john wilson is the society's librarian you know on the farm yourself the whole thing about the society and about the shows was this achievement of excellence the finest livestock but also the best type of farming it was very competitive it was a great distinction to have a prize not only to the owner of an estate or the owner of a farm but for the stockman the workers and so on don't forget britain at that time was the stock farm of the world the victorians were masters of animal breeding and their skills were among the most celebrated and highly prized in agriculture [Music] selecting the right ram could determine the quality of a farmer's flock and his profits for years peter's called in an old friend richard spencer to help richard has five decades experience of sheep farming i've been tasked to come purchase ram for our flock ah so i've called on you for a bit of advice responsibility big big yes okay well you've come to the right place there are quite a few different breeds here and you've got some really good examples of the different breeds and uh when we've had a look you can make your own decision then we'll take it from there okay you made the decision you're spending the money richard's lined up four victorian breeds for peter to choose from we've got two hampshires two shropshires two wednesday dales and two oxfords the oxfords are the first in line so what exactly am i feeling for here well what do you want in this sheet for you want this sheet for the meat you put your hand there the that's your sunday roast new potatoes garden peas imagine carving a slice of meat off that i couldn't wish for better mint sauce beautiful these are totally different these are a long wool breed these are wednesday dales these will melt their socks off with more milk do you get a better quality of land you may well get a faster growing land because using them on the shropshires yes that'll be the sit the shops will provide the base and these just put a little bit something different in there would you be looking for anything on the face of the sheep well if you're looking to buy a ram you want something that's masculine you don't want to run within a weak little pathetic effeminate face that's right in the right place but the ram it's not a ram has got to be macho in control ready to go to take on the flock of views and you want to run with an aggressive face all these rams have got it next they move on to the shropshires the only breed of ram peter has any experience with what's wrong there for well it's it's there to progress my flock exactly to breed what does he breed with his wedding tackle of course and there must be two of them underneath hanging level beautiful i mean you've got to make this decision i don't envy you so basically i've got a picture of the offspring from this and absolutely that's a very very difficult choice to make that is what breeding is all about [Music] back at the farm with a hayfield growing fast alex is busy preparing for the harvest hello ian he's come to see acton scott's resident woodworker ian wall um in we've got a hay harvest imminent and one of the tools we're in desperate need of is a hay rake apparently you're the man to show me how to make one i can do that the hay rake is an essential tool for gathering the crop in the field it's made from an ash log and the idea is you're going to split that with an axe and a mallet okay so you place the ax in the center and smack it with this so okay okay just done there and how how many blows do you think this is going to take well i think you'll probably do it in about ten one nine two three it's a bit like a fairground game isn't it it is five six seven eight come on go for it nine one more oh it's in right okay you failed there alex i failed oh it's not split oh it's still splitting i can hear it oops [Music] i've got the axe stuck keep going you're good move there we are i'll hold the axe i hate let's see that blunted on your leg there we are you're now looking at something that no one in the world has seen before what is the inside of this tree right fantastic and this this is the original supplement that was growing very they're very heartwood right [Music] the wood is shaved into a rectangular shape in order to make the head of the rake now this is the vise where we're going to drill the holes right okay so we've got our rake head here it will sit in there just tip it forward forward forward a bit more stop okay right so the trick is here keeping them all in a good alignment because you don't want your rake ending up buck toothed and out of that next come the teeth we're going to knock this bit of wood yeah onto this uh metal bar which is hollow yeah and as we knock it it will come through and out the other side okay so there you go your first time right okay woodworkers like ian were common in much of the victorian countryside but despite being highly skilled they were called bodgers and the work they did was known as bodging ian has a theory about this a bodger he worked with green wood he would make the legs and the spindles for chairs and because it was green they then needed to dry out and one theory is when you made the holes in the seat round hole you go to put the leg in and the leg had dried out and as it dries it shrinks and it doesn't quite fit so you could say that was a bod's job but it wasn't the bodger's fault it's mother nature's fault that's it finally the teeth have to be banged into the rake head that's it you're through here we go the moment of truth awaits okay so here we are look down the line what do you think you i can see one out of them here well one or two are drunk that's that's not as bad as i thought actually could be better well that's smashing in that really is that's a that's a work of art the finished product well you should be proud of that right pete you've seen them you've looked at them you looked at all the attributes it's now up to you to make the decision go for it tough decision it's a very tough decision i am quite drawn to the first oxford we looked at purely because of the shape of the rum i can understand that however i think mr acton did say it can be any ram as long as it's a shropshire as long as it's a shropshire yeah i think he wants to keep the breed pure okay so now i've got to go for one of two this one is slightly broader in the back i'd say yeah i wouldn't disagree probably for that reason i'd be inclined to go for this one it's not only livestock the team must bring in before the cold weather bread was a staple of the farmer's diet so flour was crucial for winter stores and alex are going to make wheat into flower the traditional victorian way oh now that's wow look at that i bet you're glad to see it carrying that lot yes i am in the mid-19th century england had around 10 000 working windmills only 50 or so are operating today wilton windmill in wiltshire was built in 1821. [Music] the first job is to get its sails turning each one is 32 feet high volunteer steve chidgy has been trained to climb them it must be pretty nerve-wracking up there is it steve yes it is when you get to the top how did you feel the first time you did this uh terrified i couldn't stop my feet from shaking mills were usually worked by just one miller helped by his wife or an apprentice just pull it snug and she's ready to go mike clark has been a miller for 15 years fourth floor so we wait for three lots of bangs right creek it's not a rush job second one [Music] when we hear the third one i just let go and the sack will come down and sit on the closed trap doors it's coming isn't it four flights up the wheat grain is funneled down again for the grinding to begin breaker please off so that was what was that that's oh that's taking the break off excellent do we go inside now i would think so yeah we can start the milling come on ramy the new shropshire ram has arrived on the farm what do you think of acts in scotland we've got the fields down here this is the hall it's going to be your new home i know don't let me down hi merle how are you hi peter i've got a ram here i open the gate merle wilson is in charge of the home farms livestock it's up to her to decide whether peter's made the right choice what are you looking for just to see if he's got his manly bits about him fair enough there's no good having a ram that can't do the job true but this one's got both of them so that's fine i'm just going to look at his mouth to see that he's got his teeth we're just looking to see that they lie nicely against the top top gum gum sheep only have front teeth in the bottom of their mouths this may make it easier for them to grab the grass with their tongues all species of ruminant including cattle antelope and giraffe lack these top front teeth yeah it's these two big teeth here yeah never look at gift horse in the mouth but if you're paying through the nose for your sheep definitely check his teeth that's right well what do you think of him anyway he's quiet that's very important because some rams can be very nasty mr acton will be very pleased welcome yours tubby good boy so what's happening here these are the millstones so the bin up there that we tip the wheat in comes down this chute feeds this hopper and this hopper is open at the bottom to this shoe and this shoe shakes the wheat and this little metal four prong thing you see is called a damsel that damsel meters the weight into the eye of the stone why is it called a damsel then that's a good question it's because it chatters away all day all day lot like a damsel but we're not allowed to say it each of the millstones weighs three quarters of a ton they can move at 120 revs a minute two turns a second but it's all dependent on the strength of the wind look how cute that's dropped away again that little gust of wind right so that's the origin of the the expression so when something grinds to a hole it's simply because there's not enough wind and everything stopped that's right so can we go and see where the flower comes out next fall down [Music] well it seems like it's totally grounds will hold now doesn't it i'm afraid it has such a funny day let's have a look at this flower then let's feel a bit in product what do you think ruth we've got a quite coarse ground haven't we right can you alter the size of the grind so you get finer grindstones are just up here right and this screw here controls the gap between the stones when she's turning you you catch what's coming down the spout put it between your finger and thumb and by rule of thumb rule of thumb or height if it's a little course just a twitch on this makes all the difference it's a really sort of organic thing this isn't it everything by touch and by smell and by feel it's all the senses used to run the mill being at the mercy of the elements the victorian farmer needed skilled judgment to know when best to sow and harvest his crops with the hay meadow in its prime peters decided to seek some advice swallows are fairly low yes mr acton has lived on the estate all his life and knows its climate intimately the victorian farmer wouldn't have had access to a daily weather forecast so how are we going to tell what the weather's going to be like when we come to make hay well he has to do the best he can with predicting from the signs that he sees right such as these swallows which are feeding on insects and they're flying very low that means that the air is moist right if it was drier the insects would go up and so with the swallows then we can look at the clouds and we can deduce a certain amount from that one over there which is becoming accumulated nimbus that's not good i know that can drop heavy amounts of rain for over 50 years the acton family has kept a record of rainfall on the estate it's a crucial tool for the farmer to work out how much moisture has fallen on his crop now yesterday there was quite a storm so we decide how much it was in terms of inches by putting it into that measuring glass and we read it 0.29 now an inch of rain is 100 tons to every acre so working down from that how would you calculate it around about the 25 tons per acre mark yeah if it's 0.29 inches that's a lot of rain yes you don't want that falling on your head if you can possibly avoid it [Music] while the hay meadow dries preparations for christmas continue christmas was given a complete makeover by the victorians to find out more peter's come to meet toymaker jeff nunnery hi jeff how are you hi peter good to see you pleasure to meet you i love these wooden toys yeah really takes me back to my childhood i grew up in germany and even today it's a wash wooden toys the victorian age saw the birth of the toy industry and since then toys and christmas have become inextricably linked so who would be the customers in the victorian period for these kind of toys well i think there'd probably be two groups there obviously the people with the most money would get these toys which are panel doors the dolls yeah these obviously take a lot of work a lot of time these are the windows for the doll's house so they were very expensive anyone with less income had the hoop and ball sort of toy which was fairly simply made less work less time less expensive even the cheapest toys though were out of reach of the working classes it was in the victorian period that the idea of giving gifts really took off as did many of the christmas traditions and one of these is father christmas but even in the victorian period his identity hadn't yet been sealed you could still see him in a number of guys a number of different robes but the image we all know and love today didn't come about until the 1930s when coca-cola had a gentleman dressed in a large red suit white beard very very jolly advertising their product i'm hoping to pick up something that the kids act and scott are going to enjoy so i'll probably take a couple away if i may no problem for the victorian farmer work didn't stop for christmas and it was crucial to have a good store of animal feed for the winter the weather's set fair for the next few days so it's time to make hay while the sun shines expert local horseman brian davis has come to help out brian has brought along his highly trained pair of shires take it away [Music] here we go [Music] the boy's job is to gather the cut grass into rows this is perfect this is good it's actually quite thick it's i think we're going to get a really good crop off of this and you won't believe it but the sun's come out as well how's your hay rake doing well it's doing very well actually and i'll tell you why it's doing well yeah because mr acton gave me a really hot tip on how to use it normally you're out in the garden you're raking your leaves like this yeah okay but that's bad for the tines you'll snap the times right you're supposed to use it like this okay i'm really getting under it just pulling it up and out yeah very nice getting it thank you [Laughter] let's chit chat more work [Music] this is only the first stage of haymaking once cut the grass needs to dry out in the field [Music] but as the day goes on the color of the sky doesn't bode well what do you think of that peter i don't think it looks good see that that's cumulus number right at the back if it rains we just deal with it so we can do we cut it now it's a lot further than we got last year it's heavy in the dairy ruth and her daughter eve are preparing for the hay harvest celebrations we're making butter so first of all cream goes in this is a great thing this victorian churn it's just a barrel really on a hinge so it spins round and then okay you're the youthful muscle of this operation so go for it be strong so what's happening inside the churn is like all the creams being sort of agitated and bashed around and it's making all the little globules of fat bump into each other and when they bump to each other they stick together joining up getting bigger and bigger and bigger it's like planet formation or something and eventually we will find that with all the fats in one lump and we'll have a complete separation a solid fat and a liquidy buttermilk so what we're listening out for is that the moment that the butter comes and that's the technical term you'll hear this sort of wet splash because it's now separated into a solid and a liquid change oh that feels different i think can you hear yeah they're splashing okay so that's our butter and our buttermilk the next stage is to remove the buttermilk it's squeezed out using a 19th century invention called a butter worker hear that buttermilk coming out this ensures the butter isn't touched by the dairymaid's hands which could melt it in fact the most prized quality a dairymaid could have was cold hands but that wasn't all they were known for dairy mates were considered to be um well a bit sexily alluring actually dairymaids have to be very very clean you have to keep the spaces around your scripture clean you have to keep your clothes curriculusly clean and gentlemen used to have fantasies about them and you see that in all the literature as well if you think reader things like tessa the derbavilles you know tess works as a dairy maid she's clean pure sweet beautiful and of course has her reputation destroyed so you watch your step then lady you see anybody posh run a mile cover yourself with dirt don't let them know you do dairying one of the mothers after these are embarrassing that'd be great for the hay harvest i hope the boys like them daddy does it the rain is holding off so alex and peter are getting on with the next stage of haymaking drying the cut grass to turn it into hay this process is called tedding the boys are keen to try it because it's featured in henry stevens book of the farm good boy looking good isn't it let's see what this beauty can do now the thing is is it's quite controversial this because a lot of the people around here have said the old way of making hay is to simply cut the grass and let the sun do the work for the first two or three days so it dries the top of the grass and it makes it that much lighter to work with but of course stevens here is recommending a new and innovative way of making hay and the idea is that with its spikes there it's tines it goes round the field just picking the freshly mowned grass up into the air and starts drying it out we just need to set these spikes so they're going to touch the ground there we go that's that's now pretty dangerous you excited i'm slightly nervous to be honest but um well this is it alex we're making hay let's make hay like alex and peter clump has never used this equipment before steady clumper steady boy steady good lad steady steady steady steady whoa just stand there something is clearly bothering him that particularly he's coming over the top here yeah he's coming over the top and hitting on the on his backside that might be the problem might very well be should i change the gears around yeah right that's now that's now going to kick it over the top ah that's more like it with the grass no longer falling on him klump is much happier now that is just great to see if he can keep his cool and i can keep my cool we will be making hay it's already drying out quite a bit i mean there's still a hell of a lot to do but you know we really are getting there steady boys that's it after a week the hay is turning golden in the field [Music] now it needs raking so that it can be lifted easily onto the wagon this is a side delivery rake which effectively combs all the hay into long rows it's a fantastic piece of kit so dare i say it seems if we have a hay crop success at last within our grass [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so but before they can bring the hay in the weather takes a turn for the worse for several days the crop is battered by rain once you've cut the hay you're committed to making hay and you can control pretty much every single element about it except for the weather and it's raining it's raining hard and if this keeps up it will be a failure and it will be deja vu basically we've come this far but with this rain it can now still be lost at the last minute of just rot on the field this is awful this is truly awful [Applause] with no hope of working outside ruth gets on with an indoor job turning the freshly ground flower into bread traditional brick ovens like this one go back for centuries and centuries and right into the victorian period with a best for baking bread what i'm trying to do is make a fire inside that will heat the bricks it's not the fire it's the hot bricks that cook the bread victorian farms generally had good supplies of fuel but most non-farmers could ill afford the firewood or coal so bought their bread from a baker when we went to the windmill um the ground in the flour nicely for us because all the bran is still in there and although it's very good fibre through your system if you have a lot of it in the bread you get a very very heavy bread that's really quite chewy and victorians were looking for a much lighter loaf where they could possibly get it so i want to take some of the bran out this process is called bolting it removes some but not all of the bran leaving behind a creamy coloured flower but in the 19th century new technology meant that all of the bran was taken out at the start of the milling process what you get out the other end is pure ground starch this began to cause problems with so many people living on bread bread bread bread and potatoes bread if you've got a bread that is less nutritious even though it's bulky you have people having problems with their diet in fact it became so much of a problem that eventually they had to introduce legislation to put nutrients back into flour for bread making next yeast water and salt are added [Music] start to come together now comes the really fun bit i get to knead it now the longer and more vigorously i need this more chance we have having a light fluffy bread like every other job this is hard work and it's one of those jobs that if you don't put your back into it you really notice the difference with the finished product after four hours the dough has risen i've got to knock it back and then start shaping my dough so the traditional shape for bread made at home in your own bread oven that's the cottage loaf so that's what i shall do now i'm going to rake out the oven this bit's always a bit frantic the fire's died down it's nice and hot i've got to get all this ash out quickly and the bread in before it starts to cool too much always a dangerous moment because you're raking burning ashes out on top of your feet here we go ready to go in traditionally ovens like these would hold 12 loaves with perhaps a 13th to make a baker's dozen 45 minutes to cook [Music] at last the sun is out the hayers survive the downpours [Music] alex has lent ruth his handmade rake and it's time to bring out the loader it looks good come on we're supposed to work whilst it's doing this here it comes okay whoa that's it's this is going to be extremely hard work coming through my legs that's novel we're trying to build like a it's almost like a wall of hay along one side and a wall along the other and all the time just trampling it down and packing it down so we can get as much on here as possible it's for me to rake up yeah that's the idea well you've got to have a job ruth otherwise you'd be in the workhouse wouldn't you is that your leg very very close sorry oh no who had money on the hay rake breaking not me you just have to get on your hands and knees now ruth oh god yep come on [Music] it's like canoeing good going peter whoa this machine is brilliant absolutely brilliant and i've only stabbed alex once with a pitchfork [Music] despite the fact that they helped save labor hayloaders weren't popular in victorian britain and peter and alex are discovering a possible explanation so this is in fact one of the reasons why this thing didn't take off because because you can't do this whilst you're standing whilst it's moving is that the dray there yeah okay that's right i'm good i'm good oh beta that is hay making done [Music] the final job is to store the crop in the hayloft ready to feed the animals throughout the coming winter their first major task in the run-up to christmas is complete it's an absolute joy to find myself almost immersed in hay because i really didn't think i'd see the day tell you what alex yeah i need a beer after all the work and worry a triumphant hay harvest calls for a party [Music] folk musician john kirkpatrick has come to celebrate with the team [Music] causing many a lad and many alaska there are making hey he's chosen one of the few haymaking songs with a wholesome theme most a much racier in tone corn harvest and hay harvest were the biggest times of the year where everyone would muck together and so you'd spend all day with people of the opposite sex and so a lot of these songs deal with sort of running off around the back of the haycocks and having a bit of a frolic in the hay and you know guaranteed a different harvest of a different kind in a few months maybe this is why they're introducing machines to get rid of labels here we go it's time for the homemade bread and butter okay my butter's nice bread no it's got something to it it's absolutely delicious but does the hay meet mr acton's exacting standards hello hello hello eric hi peter just that's on paul this is a sample yes view inspection yes not bad at all can you tell a lot from the smell for hayden oh yes you can yes yes um it needs to smell sweet if it smells musty that means uh spores of mold and uh that's not good for the animals right yes each time i smell it it smells better oh that's a good sign i think the animals will relish it during the winter okay folks we're going to do sir roger de coverley lovely old english country dance has been done for hundreds of years and fascinatingly in scotland this dance is called the haymakers jig so it's very appropriate and it's mentioned in a christmas carol as well as one of the classic country dances for christmas time so i'll get you in the mood for christmas [Music] left keep swinging keep swinging both hands back to back we now have a hail off brimming with freshly moaned hay so all done and dusted one weight off our minds two hands yeah well that hay is going to last the cattle over winter yep congratulations congratulations to back-to-back roll on christmas eh yeah cheers [Music] next time on victorian farm christmas approaches thoughts turn to presents treats and staving off the cold [Music] professional there are ten thousand bricks to be made and it's it is so tough and a blacksmith's forge to get up and running

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 174,237

Rating: 4.9125466 out of 5

Keywords: history documentaries, quirky history, world history, ridiculous history, victorian farming, victorian laundry, victorian christmas, victorian documentary, christmas on the farm, old english farming, ruth goodman, peter ginn, victorian farm christmas, absolute history

Id: HaXon-Y5AWU

Length: 58min 15sec (3495 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020