Life on a Victorian farm...coming to a living room near you!

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 03 Jan 2009, 20:50

From the people who brought you Tales From Green Valley (farming in 1620), comes farming in 1885

Yorkshire post Farming Pages wrote:This time, the same team has spent a year bringing 1885 to life on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire...

The filmed record will make a six-part prime-time tv series, Tales From A Victorian Farm, which is lined up for BBC2 in 2009.

...The programme will explain the impact of science, which popularised the four-stage crop rotation known as the Norfolk system

I thought it pre-dated the Victorians. Well you live and learn!

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 03 Jan 2009, 21:13

I suppose programmes like that are one of the downsides of not having a telly, or a fast enough internet connection for iPlayer. It's a bit like living in the 1880s really

. I don't wear braces though

.

tattercoats · Post by **tattercoats** » 04 Jan 2009, 16:11

Oh, we are looking forward to that *so much*. Ruth Goodman and the two chaps whose names escape me... I adored 'Green Valley', they all got such a kick finding out how this old stuff worked.

That and Lark Rise to Candleford will be our TV for this year.

phobos · Post by **phobos** » 04 Jan 2009, 16:12

taken from http://www.radiotimes.com/

Victorian Farm
Thursday 08 January
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC2

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year. Historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn move into a Victorian smallholding on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire. Their first task is the restoration of the cottage, including the installation of a new range. They also help thresh the previous summer's wheat crop, learn shepherding, make cider and explore the challenges of Victorian cooking.

VIDEO Plus+: 7137

Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-described

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 08 Jan 2009, 17:58

9pm tonight, for those so inclined.

Victorian Farm (BBC2)

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year. Wearing period clothes and using only the materials that would have been available in 1885, historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn are going back in time to relive the day-to-day life of the Victorian farmer.

The project is based on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire - a world frozen in time, lost in Victorian rural England. Its buildings and grounds are cluttered with antique tools and machinery collected by the Acton family who have lived on the estate since the 12th century.

Working for a full calendar year, Ruth, Alex and Peter are rediscovering a lost world of skills, crafts and knowledge assisted by an ever-dwindling band of experts who keep Victorian rural practices alive.

The team move into a Victorian smallholding on the Acton Scott estate that has not been used in nearly half a century. Their first task is the restoration of the cottage. As incoming tenants, they help thresh the previous summer's wheat crop, their first experience of steam-powered machinery. Alex attempts to sow a wheat crop using horse-power. Ruth and Peter install a range in the cottage and take a trip to the canals to load up on coal. It's time for the apple harvest so Alex and Peter turn their hand to making cider. Ruth explores the challenges of Victorian cooking by making preserves ready for winter and cooks her first meal on the range. And the team must learn shepherding skills the hard way as the first livestock arrive on the farm - a flock of Shropshire ewes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gn2bl

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 08 Jan 2009, 22:20

What a stunning program!

I was born in the wrong era!

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 08 Jan 2009, 22:26

Vortex wrote:What a stunning program!

I was born in the wrong era!

Of course no one would have naughtily put it on a DVD would they

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 08 Jan 2009, 23:48

Very good! Something worthwhile on the telly for once.

I had several fears about the programme and none of them turned out to be justified:

1. The agricultural life (1885) as some sort of utopia, rather than bloody hard and uncertain.
2. Farming as an unchanging world (i.e. no historical context).
3. A random family blundering about in a reality TV type of way

I look forward to next week.

RevdTess · Post by **RevdTess** » 08 Jan 2009, 23:57

Ben wrote:Very good! Something worthwhile on the telly for once.

I had several fears about the programme and none of them turned out to be justified:
1. The agricultural life (1885) as some sort of utopia (rather than bloody hard!)
2. Farming as an unchanging world (i.e. no historical context)
3. A random family blundering about in a reality TV type of way
I look forward to next week.

What a brilliant programme!

I particularly liked the fact that they had experts living out how things were done, rather than a suburban family with needy parents whining that their kids weren't getting enough calories and demanding a Tesco trip (as per your fear #3 above!).

It makes me wonder about 'appropriate technology' and how much I'd like to keep and how much I wouldn't mind losing in a post-peak world. That threshing machine was amazing, but it put thousands of farm workers out of a job. Massive mechanisation means a small number of people can keep more resources for themselves, making others dependent on them. Such a path leads right back to growth and hierarchy, and wider gaps between rich and poor.

Fascinating to realise though that the 'oven' was developed as a direct result of the desire to keep coal smoke away from the food, unlike woodsmoke which tastes lovely.

Very much looking forward to the next episode.

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 09 Jan 2009, 02:52

Damn - IPlayer TV only available in the UK

I'll have to put my tech-head on and try and work out a way around that
(ironic really - the amount of technology I'm using to try and view a programme on Victorian Life)

zigspider · Post by **zigspider** » 09 Jan 2009, 12:32

andrew-l wrote:Damn - IPlayer TV only available in the UK

I'll have to put my tech-head on and try and work out a way around that
(ironic really - the amount of technology I'm using to try and view a programme on Victorian Life)

have the same problem here. Am downloading from
http://extratorrent.com

Jerry

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 09 Jan 2009, 12:50

The best thing about the program is the way it shows how a common-sense approach to technology can be used.

You use centralised factories to make basic - but well designed - ploughs, tools, ranges etc.

However there are NO plastic bags, polystyrene beads, throw-away goods etc.

Paretos Rule at work: with just 10% of the technology you get 90% of the benefits.

I suspect that society in an energy deficient future would look something like this ... plus mobile phones & the Web.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 09 Jan 2009, 15:54

andrew-l wrote:Damn - IPlayer TV only available in the UK

Not to everyone. It doesn't work at 45kbps, and even if it did I don't have enough free disc space

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 09 Jan 2009, 20:54

zigspider wrote: have the same problem here. Am downloading from
http://extratorrent.com

Jerry

Thanks Jerry - am getting it now!

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 09 Jan 2009, 21:23