0:00:04 > 0:00:07"Fire is elemental and primitive,
0:00:07 > 0:00:11"the most miserable situation clears up when somebody gets the fire going.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16"It should be lit, burn up and boil a kettle within 20 minutes."
0:00:17 > 0:00:19Well, it's taken me a bit longer than 20 minutes
0:00:19 > 0:00:22but I didn't write those words.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24They come from Food In England,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28published in 1954 by Dorothy Hartley
0:00:28 > 0:00:30and I use this book the whole time
0:00:30 > 0:00:35in my work as a historian and a curator. It's just brilliant.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39It's packed full of the most extraordinary, intriguing,
0:00:39 > 0:00:42fascinating little things you didn't know about history.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Food In England was the product of more than 30 years of research.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Its 600 pages are fabulously well-written.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57They describe how food and kitchen utensils and cooking techniques
0:00:57 > 0:01:01were central to the lives of every single person in Britain,
0:01:01 > 0:01:03rich and poor.
0:01:03 > 0:01:09And the book's also full of Dorothy's own lively illustrations.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12I've been a big fan of Dorothy Hartley's best-known book
0:01:12 > 0:01:13for a long time
0:01:13 > 0:01:18but I have to admit I don't know much about the woman herself.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21In this programme, I'm hoping to find out
0:01:21 > 0:01:24who this elusive and eccentric author really was,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26and what she achieved in her life.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35To do this, I'm going to meet some of her many and fervent admirers.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Look at all the detail, it's just so remarkable.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43- Don't tell anybody this, will you? - LUCY LAUGHS
0:01:43 > 0:01:46I forged her signature and posted it off.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:01:48 > 0:01:50- Let's go! - ALL: Yes!
0:01:50 > 0:01:53I'm going to recreate parts of the lost world
0:01:53 > 0:01:56she describes so well in Food In England.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59Oh, he's opened his little eyelid!
0:01:59 > 0:02:00Oops!
0:02:00 > 0:02:03BLEATING
0:02:03 > 0:02:05I haven't finished, come back!
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And I'm going to follow in her footsteps, from the Yorkshire Dales,
0:02:09 > 0:02:14all across the Midlands to her final home on the borders of Wales.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16I can't promise you
0:02:16 > 0:02:18that I'm going to sleep in the hedgerows like she did,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22but I AM determined to discover who she was,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25why she wrote this book and to pinpoint
0:02:25 > 0:02:30just how big a contribution it makes to the history of what we eat.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Food In England is a treasure trove, it's a reference book
0:02:49 > 0:02:52but also a thoroughly good read.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57It ranges from Saxon cooking, to the Industrial Revolution
0:02:57 > 0:03:00with chapters on everything from seaweed to salt.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03But to me, it's not a conventional history book.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08It hasn't got proper references to source material or footnotes
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and historians like me worry about things like that.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Does this really matter, though, when the heat's on in the kitchen?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20I'd like to know what cooks think about Dorothy Hartley.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24To find out, I've come to ask the award-winning chef
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and food writer, Rowley Leigh.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30I'm interested in Food In England because of what it tells us
0:03:30 > 0:03:35about the history of food, but what interests you in it as a chef?
0:03:35 > 0:03:40I love her concentration on what the food means.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Not in terms of mythology but in its place in the culture and...
0:03:45 > 0:03:47When she talks about mutton, for example,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51she talks about half a dozen different types of mutton,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55when they're at their best, where they come from, what they feed on,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58what gives them a different flavour.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01And the cooking element is just how to exploit that.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05What sort of impression has Dorothy Hartley made on you
0:04:05 > 0:04:07and your cooking?
0:04:07 > 0:04:12I think she's reinforced, really, my ideas about food.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16I bang on about seasonality and context.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20I want to eat asparagus in May, for example,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24not because that's the best asparagus - although it is -
0:04:24 > 0:04:30not just because it's English and not French - although it is -
0:04:30 > 0:04:33I want to eat it then because that's when it feels right
0:04:33 > 0:04:38as part of that rhythm. It's spring, it's a shoot
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and it comes after the deprivations of Lent and everything else.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44It's that celebration.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47If you have asparagus at Christmas, you've just lost that.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51You know, that's an integral part of her thinking, I think.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Rowley is demonstrating that very principle.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59He's cooking two dishes that Dorothy reckons are perfect in spring -
0:04:59 > 0:05:04red mullet and roast duck with fresh peas.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06- Phwoar, it's pretty hot. - It's quite warm.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10What I like is although this is a hugely hi-tech thing, actually,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Dorothy shows a picture of meat
0:05:12 > 0:05:14- being roasted in exactly the same way.- Absolutely.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18- With a vertical wall of flame. - This is what roasting means.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22When people put something in an oven, it's sort of baking with steam.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25This is proper, old-fashioned roasting,
0:05:25 > 0:05:27where it's only cooking in its own fat,
0:05:27 > 0:05:32you just get the flavour of the meat itself on an open fire.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The duck will take another hour but the mullet's ready.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Wrapped in paper with butter and seasoning
0:05:42 > 0:05:46and baked whole for just 30 minutes. Dead simple.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49- Do you want to give it a go? - Yes, please.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Wow, that's really salty and anchovy-like. Bleurgh!
0:05:54 > 0:05:57That's not what I was expecting at all.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01Mmm, that is super-delish.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04- And you did hardly anything to it at all?- I've done nothing, yes.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07It's a respectful way to treat a beautiful fish.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09- Absolutely.- Yes.- Yes.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11What would you say to Dorothy Hartley
0:06:11 > 0:06:13if she were to walk into the room now?
0:06:13 > 0:06:15"Have some of the mullet, lass."
0:06:15 > 0:06:16Ha! Very good.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34"Please consider this book as an old-fashioned kitchen,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36"not impressive, but a warm, friendly place,
0:06:36 > 0:06:40"where one can come in any time and have a chat with the cook."
0:06:43 > 0:06:46This book is an amazing treasure trove of information.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48Not only history,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51but tradition and anthropology and culture in society.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55And it's also a book about Dorothy herself.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57It's quite autobiographical.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01Here is a picture of her own grandfather's egg cosy,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03with its knitted pom-pom on top.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05She said it was "just like a woolly nightcap."
0:07:08 > 0:07:11"The breakfast egg was a Victorian institution.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16"Really nice homely families kept their eggs coddled in hot water
0:07:16 > 0:07:18"under a china hen."
0:07:21 > 0:07:24"According to superstition, empty eggshells
0:07:24 > 0:07:28"should always be broken up, lest witches make boats thereof."
0:07:33 > 0:07:36The first chapter is her memory of all the different kitchens
0:07:36 > 0:07:38that she's used throughout her lifetime.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40The earliest of them are in Yorkshire.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44She was born in Skipton, so that's where I'm off to now.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Skipton is a busy market town
0:07:54 > 0:07:57at the southern end of the Yorkshire Dales.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The Hartley family were based just up the hill from here.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But they didn't live in an ordinary house.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08This is the place where Dorothy was born.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10It's a pretty gloomy and austere-looking place
0:08:10 > 0:08:12for a little girl to grow up.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15It was and it is the local boy's grammar school.
0:08:15 > 0:08:16Her father was the headmaster.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18He came here in 1876,
0:08:18 > 0:08:23and his third child, Dorothy, was born in 1893,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27probably in his own private rooms, part of the main school building.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Today, some of the boys are going to have a go at recipes
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Dorothy would have eaten here at the school in the 1890s.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36And, at lunchtime,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39'the rest of the pupils are going to try what they've made.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43To be honest, I'm not sure how well it's going to go down.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46- What are you going to be making? - We're making stargazy pie.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Now, what is that? People won't know what it is.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50It's basically herring pie,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52but you've got the herring heads sticking out the sides.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54The heads are sticking out.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57- Do you think this is going to go down well in the canteen?- No.
0:08:57 > 0:08:58Go!
0:09:01 > 0:09:05'All these recipes come from Food In England.'
0:09:06 > 0:09:10- I think it'll taste better than it looks.- I think you're right.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12'The desserts are oatmeal pudding...
0:09:14 > 0:09:15'..and that's semolina.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20'That's mutton broth made of sheep's' bones,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22'a staple here in Dorothy's day.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26'And this is the dough for Yorkshire teacakes.'
0:09:30 > 0:09:31'And finally, stargazy pie.'
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Why do you leave the heads on them?
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- If we cut them off and we cook them, we'll lose all the oil.- OK.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43That's what it's going to look like.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53While the students are cooking,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56I'm going to find out what late Victorian life was like
0:09:56 > 0:09:59at the school for Dorothy and her family.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02So this room that we're in, now it's the library,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06it used to be The Big School, it's called in 1896,
0:10:06 > 0:10:08What went on in here? Is it a big classroom?
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Yes, it's really the main teaching room.
0:10:10 > 0:10:11How many boys are we talking about?
0:10:11 > 0:10:16You're talking about 80 boys overall, of whom about...
0:10:16 > 0:10:19never more than 30 in this period would've been boarders.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24So here is Dr Hartley, the headmaster,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Mrs Hartley, the Hartley kids
0:10:27 > 0:10:29and that's little Dorothy there.
0:10:29 > 0:10:30What sort of a man was he?
0:10:30 > 0:10:32He looks very respectable here in his mortarboard.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Yes, you have to remember
0:10:34 > 0:10:37the headmaster of the grammar school had a real status.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41It was a minor squirearchy, so there was that sort of distance
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and respect, in a way.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47I have to say, Dorothy, in all these pictures, looks a little bit grumpy.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51- Yes.- Would you like to share your childhood home with 80 boys?
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- I'm not sure I would. - I don't think so, I don't think so.
0:10:54 > 0:10:55Dorothy's mother, Mrs Hartley,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58she was involved in the running of the school, wasn't she?
0:10:58 > 0:11:02She was, I think pretty well the sole runner of the school.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05There's nobody but a matron, which they can't always afford,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08- plus a sort of odd-job man...- Oh. - You see.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11So, Mrs Hartley, she's essentially the head of catering.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14I think she's probably the only caterer, really, most of the time.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16- Oh, golly.- From the finances,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18I can't see how it could've been run in any other way
0:11:18 > 0:11:21without her doing almost all the work herself.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Producing food for 80 boys.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25And this made an impression on Dorothy. She remembers it.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27She describes the school kitchen here.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30She said it was "masculine and enterprising."
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I guess they had to be enterprising to feed all of those boys.
0:11:34 > 0:11:35She talks about home-made bread,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38"Rising each week in a huge tub set before the fire."
0:11:38 > 0:11:43And, "Piles of Yorkshire teacakes came daily from the baker."
0:11:43 > 0:11:45DOROTHY: "It was here that I first realised
0:11:45 > 0:11:47"the specialities of England...
0:11:47 > 0:11:52"bilberries from the mountains in leaking purple crates.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54"From the east coast, came barrels of herrings.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58"Oxfordshire sent crates of wonderful fruit.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01"From the north, came sacks of oatmeal."
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Roll up, roll up, get some stargazy pie.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Fish heads! Fish tails! Herrings!
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- Do you have to eat the head and the tail?- No, you're not,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14but they're there to give it extra flavour.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15OK, can I have a bit, please?
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Which one would you like, sir?
0:12:17 > 0:12:20I don't even like fish!
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Get some stargazy pie.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24- Can I have some of that? - Get it whilst it's warm.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26- Going to eat it all? Promise?- Yes.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'They'll eat anything you put out for them.'
0:12:29 > 0:12:31They like to come to school, have a bacon sandwich
0:12:31 > 0:12:35and then, at break time, they come out with big slices of pizza,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40then they come and have big bowls of pasta and home-made cake.
0:12:40 > 0:12:41And then they go home and eat again.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Imagine Mrs Hartley, then, the headmaster's wife,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47catering for 80 growing boys. How did she do it?
0:12:47 > 0:12:48I don't know.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52She must have worked from five in the morning till ten at night.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58It's nice.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01Yeah, it's nice.
0:13:01 > 0:13:02Normal food's nicer.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Normal food is nicer. Oh, OK.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Verdict on the semolina?
0:13:07 > 0:13:09- Good.- Good.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12THE BOYS CHATTER
0:13:16 > 0:13:18The Hartleys ate pretty well at the school.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Not so, people in the poorer farming communities nearby.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31'In Food In England, Dorothy writes of families in the Dales,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34'whose diet depended on what they could produce
0:13:34 > 0:13:37'from the land around them.'
0:13:39 > 0:13:42'If you came here 100 years ago,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44'you would've seen a different sort of farming.'
0:13:44 > 0:13:46It would've been more of a mixed farming.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48There would've been sheep and cattle,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51but there would've also been crops, particularly oats
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and a variety of barley that does well at this altitude called bigg.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00You're about 800 feet above sea level here.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Wheat is just not going to succeed.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Most villages were surrounded with oat fields.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Mmm. It's kind of got more boring, in a way, hasn't it?
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Well, we had to be self-sufficient and, of course, we aren't any longer.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17- Yes, no, no.- And that's really what this sort of food was about, really.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20- Self-sufficiency.- Yes. - Northern grit.
0:14:20 > 0:14:21Survival.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25'Dorothy visited the Dales regularly as a child.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28'Later, she described how oats
0:14:28 > 0:14:30'were the basic ingredient of meals up here.'
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Oatcake and porridge were the two staples of this region
0:14:36 > 0:14:38and every farmhouse, every village,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42every area developed their own ways of making various oatcakes.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44They often went by their Norse name,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48they were sometimes called "haver-carke," or "have-a-cake."
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Does it not mean, "Have a cake, help yourself"?
0:14:50 > 0:14:55No. The word "hafer," or "haver," is a Norse word meaning oats,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58so haversack is a bag for putting your oats in.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00Ah, so it is.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05- I've already made some batter. - Batter. What's in the batter?
0:15:05 > 0:15:09It's a mixture of very, very fine sifted oatmeal,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12milk, water, a little bit of salt and some yeast.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15- Easy-peasy then?- Yeah. If you bring the bowl over
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and get as close as you can without burning yourself...
0:15:18 > 0:15:23OK? I'm going to ladle that on to the girdle like that.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27And I get the scraper and I...
0:15:27 > 0:15:29go like that with it.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33There you go. We just let that cook.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40This is really food that has absolutely vanished and disappeared.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43You dip it in your soup, for your evening meal,
0:15:43 > 0:15:44you'd wrap up cheese in it.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48It's very nice. Really good stuff. Well worth reviving, I think.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50- Don't burn yourself.- Thank you.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Yes, that's it. Use your fingers. That's it, perfect.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00- OK? Shall I hang that up for you? - Er, I can do it.
0:16:02 > 0:16:03- Ooh!- Brilliant.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06What do you think of Dorothy Hartley?
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Where does she fit into the history of food for you?
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Dorothy is part of a group of people who started to actively
0:16:13 > 0:16:16try to investigate disappearing customs.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20People like Cecil Sharp, who was collecting folk songs
0:16:20 > 0:16:23and folk dances in the early 20th century.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28There was also a contemporary of Dorothy Hartley called Florence White
0:16:28 > 0:16:32who was a founding member of the English Folk Cookery Association
0:16:32 > 0:16:35and I think all of them realised they were living at a time
0:16:35 > 0:16:40when rural customs were vanishing rapidly.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42And I think the whole point of their activities
0:16:42 > 0:16:46was to try and record these things before they entirely disappeared.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50- That's what's really valuable, her work as an oral historian.- Yes.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52That's the richest part of the book,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56is where she actually talks to a ploughman or a shepherd.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58It's when you hear the voice of a lady
0:16:58 > 0:17:01who's describing how she scrapes the bristles off her pig
0:17:01 > 0:17:04after she's killed it with a candlestick, you know.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07It's that kind of thing that's so marvellous about it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10- That is the best bit of the book. - That's the world we have lost.- Yes.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13DOROTHY: "In old-fashioned country houses,
0:17:13 > 0:17:18"no housemaid's box was complete without a couple of goose pinions.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23"Those strong, firm plumes which were so excellent for dusting ledges.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28"A stiff, trimmed goose pinion is also kept by the lady's maid
0:17:28 > 0:17:30"for taking the dust from velvet."
0:17:34 > 0:17:36SHEEP BLEAT
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Dorothy remembered the Yorkshire Dales
0:17:41 > 0:17:43from her very earliest childhood.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47But, at the start of the 20th century,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51she and her family moved down to the warmer landscape of the Midlands.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58By 1904, Edward Hartley was losing his eyesight.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59He had to give up his job
0:17:59 > 0:18:02as headmaster of the boy's school in Skipton.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07Instead, he became a rector in Rempstone in Nottinghamshire -
0:18:07 > 0:18:10quite a small parish - and the family moved south.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12They ended up living here,
0:18:12 > 0:18:17in this Elizabethan, rambling, impressive house.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18And this is only the back!
0:18:23 > 0:18:27DOROTHY: "A lovely old house, with every medieval inconvenience.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30"The nearest shop was five miles away and we had no car.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34"A butcher called once a week. A grocer, once a fortnight."
0:18:41 > 0:18:45'Dorothy was 11 years old when her family arrived here.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48'And now she had a room of her own at the top of the house.'
0:18:51 > 0:18:54"It was a double turn of wooden stairs
0:18:54 > 0:18:56"and a low door into a little room
0:18:56 > 0:19:00"and a second door up wooden steps to a further attic.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03"The old thatch was rotting and full of birds' nests
0:19:03 > 0:19:08"and there, crouched and cold, I worked from dawn.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10"I loved that room.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14"It was my citadel against all the hard work of long days
0:19:14 > 0:19:20"and, in it, I wrote my first book and got my Master's art degree."
0:19:21 > 0:19:25So this is the very place that Dorothy would work,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28between dawn and the time she had to leave to go to art school
0:19:28 > 0:19:32and she used to feed the starlings out of the window here.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34And we know that for a fact,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37because, many years later, she wrote letters about it.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Do you think she's being a bit melodramatic here
0:19:43 > 0:19:45when she talks about how the old thatch
0:19:45 > 0:19:47was rotting up there in the attic?
0:19:47 > 0:19:52- No, because it was very much like that when I bought it!- Oh, OK.
0:19:52 > 0:19:53It wasn't thatched, but..
0:19:53 > 0:19:57'Felicity Fletcher-Wilson bought the rectory in 1999
0:19:57 > 0:20:00'and, during renovations, she discovered a secret stash
0:20:00 > 0:20:03'of Dorothy's letters, written to the previous owner.'
0:20:03 > 0:20:06What's great about these letters is that they're very personal,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09they're her reminiscences about her life.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11I think that's what's nice about them,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13because you read in the book about the house,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15and it doesn't mention the name or anything,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17but you can put the letters to the book
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and come out with a completely different story
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and something that's very, very personal, actually.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27I like the description of how she prepares her workroom.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31She scrubbed the oak beams in the wall with hot vinegar.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34It's not what you'd expect a teenager to be doing -
0:20:34 > 0:20:37- scrubbing old beams with hot vinegar.- No, not at all.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Dorothy quickly became a professional artist, didn't she?
0:20:40 > 0:20:44I think, at this time, she was already doing artwork.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47I found some illustrations of Dorothy's
0:20:47 > 0:20:49in a book by Geoffrey Henslow.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54And there are some 90-odd illustrations in here,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58which goes to show what a busy girl she was.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00They seem to just set up all the things
0:21:00 > 0:21:02that she's going to be interested in.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05There's a real attention to historical costume,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09- and also there's a lot of landscapes and countryside.- Yes, there are.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13These are just the things that captured her imagination.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Now, this letter's really interesting because it's about food.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21We've got a sort of edible history of Edwardian Rempstone village here.
0:21:21 > 0:21:22Yes, we have.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25I really like the fact that, in the cottages,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27she says people don't have scales and they can't write.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29So when she says "How much of that?"
0:21:29 > 0:21:33They say, "About as much as Jim could eat at a meal"!
0:21:33 > 0:21:34"That much!"
0:21:48 > 0:21:50"After the bleak North,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54"everything in the Midlands seemed warm, rich and ripe.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58"The mutton was fat, the cakes full of eggs,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02"and, in September, we made wonderful wines and jams and rich preserves."
0:22:16 > 0:22:18By comparison with life in Yorkshire,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21this village must have seemed like a living larder, really.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24There's just so much food here.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27And so much of it.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Just behind there were the pigsties, where Dorothy's pigs lived,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and they must have eaten these pears off this tree above me.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38'Like sensible thrifty country people,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42'the Hartleys wasted nothing when their pig was killed.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45'Including his head!'
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Follow the cut down the middle and split the head into two pieces...
0:22:48 > 0:22:52'I'm helping pig keeper Tom to make a kind of pate called brawn,'
0:22:52 > 0:22:55'in Dorothy's kitchen and using her own recipe.'
0:22:55 > 0:22:58- SAW SCRAPES BONE - Oooh!
0:22:58 > 0:22:59Did you feel that against the bone?
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I shouldn't have thought about cutting someone's leg off!
0:23:05 > 0:23:08- I think you're going to have to give a demo.- Right, I'll give it a try.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Going a little bit off course.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12Yeah, it's not going down the middle, is it?
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Should be OK, though. It's all going to end up in the same place.
0:23:18 > 0:23:19That's it.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Yay! Well done! Look at that.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28- I think I think we've got it. - Oh, look at his teeth!
0:23:28 > 0:23:29Look at his brain!
0:23:29 > 0:23:32This bowl here, we'll put all the nasty bits in
0:23:32 > 0:23:34like tongue, brain, eyeballs. Things like that.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Got to get the eye out next.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39Best way to do that is if you feel around,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41you can sort of feel an eye cavity...?
0:23:41 > 0:23:46- Round the bone. - Oh, he's opened his little eyelid!
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Put the knife in and follow the bone all the way around.
0:23:49 > 0:23:50Try and cut underneath the eyeball,
0:23:50 > 0:23:53so you take the eyelid and everything out from underneath.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Oh, my goodness, that is so frightening and horrible!
0:23:57 > 0:24:00There we are. Very good.
0:24:00 > 0:24:01Oh!
0:24:01 > 0:24:05This is a curious mixture of disgusting and wonderful.
0:24:05 > 0:24:11This seems like a really horrible, alien, strange experience.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14But I suppose that, as modern people, we're the odd ones out,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16we're the ones who aren't familiar...
0:24:16 > 0:24:18Ooh, there's his eye! ..with this.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22But, for centuries, people would have just been used to doing this.
0:24:22 > 0:24:23They would've been.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I think we've become quite detached in recent years
0:24:26 > 0:24:30from how our food is prepared, made and where it comes from.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Killing the pig in the autumn, everybody did it?
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Yes, everyone would club together,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and they'd have a pig processed in a day.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41They'd do all the brawn, all the butchery, make sausages, cure bacon.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Everyone would club together and get it done really quite quickly.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07So we boiled it for a couple of hours and then let it cool down.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11And now we're picking off all the meaty bits.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13I'm an natural scavenger.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15There's something brilliant
0:25:15 > 0:25:18about finding something that others have overlooked.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And then we're going to pour in that leftover stock,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and then, as it cools, it will form a solid jelly.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26- Then we'll be able to make it into slices.- Yes.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Then eat it - with mustard, very important. Must be with mustard.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31That's what Dorothy says.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35So I'm pouring in the stock. How long do we have to leave it?
0:25:35 > 0:25:38I'd want to leave it in a cool place overnight for it to set firmly,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and then it'll be something nice to have for lunch tomorrow.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49- It has set into a proper glistening jelly, hasn't it?- It has, yes.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51For you...
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Now, I'm really torn. I'm actually quite hungry. It smells nice.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Mmm... That's all good!
0:25:58 > 0:26:00But what's flashing into my mind
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- is cutting out the pig's eye with the knife.- Really?- Yeah.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06I think the best thing is to give it a try and see what it ends up like.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11That's not bad. The mustard certainly helps.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Mmm, I quite like that.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26- I've overdone the English mustard! - THEY BOTH LAUGH
0:26:26 > 0:26:29- You're wolfing it down here.- It's quite nice. I'm quite enjoying it.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35I'm sorry, I don't like it.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36That's all right.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39I'm sorry to say, I think it's really disgusting!
0:26:39 > 0:26:42I've done my best to try and like it.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Why doesn't anybody eat brawn these days(?)
0:26:45 > 0:26:47- There are reasons - it tastes awful. - LUCY LAUGHS
0:27:03 > 0:27:08Dorothy left the rectory in the early 1920s, and moved to London.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14The capital gave her room to develop her talents as an artist and writer.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19She gave art lessons at Regent Street Polytechnic,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21but spent her spare time in the British Museum.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27She was exploring the whole world of medieval England.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34I've come to meet the food writer and journalist Adrian Bailey,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36who met Dorothy in the late 1960s.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39I'm hoping he can shed some light
0:27:39 > 0:27:42on her fascination with medieval history.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Dorothy's father was a Chaucerian
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and that was very likely where Dorothy's interest
0:27:49 > 0:27:53in the medieval world and the 14th century came from.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55What was she really like?
0:27:55 > 0:27:58She was very hospitable, quite funny,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00very elegant, in fact.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03She used to write to me and she would sign it,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07"Yours truly, D Hartley (Miss)"
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Just to establish the fact
0:28:11 > 0:28:14that here was a spinster you don't mess around with.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16SHE LAUGHS
0:28:16 > 0:28:18She was extraordinary.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22But some of these papers ARE old love letters.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25They contain clues about one quite serious relationship
0:28:25 > 0:28:27with a man called Mickey.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30He, though, was a heavy-drinking, elusive loner,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32who worked as a ranger in Africa.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Marriage was never on the cards and he died young.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39He says, "I will never settle now
0:28:39 > 0:28:41"and the next time I go home back to England,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44"I shall wander all over the British Isles with a toothbrush."
0:28:44 > 0:28:46..which is what she would do.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Which is what she would do, so they're two of a type, really.
0:28:49 > 0:28:50Absolutely, yes.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53I think that, deep down in her heart,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56she didn't really want to be married.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00She didn't have time for a domestic life.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02She fought off proposals.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04There was one Mr Barham.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07- He proposed to her by letter... - Mm-hmm?
0:29:07 > 0:29:15..and she replied with a long discourse on Viking burial customs
0:29:15 > 0:29:17and said, "That'll see him off."
0:29:17 > 0:29:21- She put him off with the Viking burial customs?- Yes.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23- That's one way of doing it. - That was typical of her.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27I rang her one day and she picked up the phone and,
0:29:27 > 0:29:29without asking who it was, said,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31"Can't talk to you now, I'm in the 14th century,"
0:29:31 > 0:29:35and put the phone down. It could have been anybody.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37But that was her, she was like that.
0:29:37 > 0:29:42Somebody that had a great love for what she did
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and she wanted to convey that to her readers
0:29:45 > 0:29:50and greatly succeeded, because here we have Food In England.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53What's your opinion of the importance of this book?
0:29:53 > 0:29:58It is the product of a lifetime's experience.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01It is a history book. It isn't a cookery book.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05And she goes back in history to the Victorian period
0:30:05 > 0:30:07and then back through to the...
0:30:07 > 0:30:11ending up in the Tudor world, which she loved.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Dorothy's engagement with history bore fruit in 1925,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22when she published her first book -
0:30:22 > 0:30:25Life And Work Of The Peoples Of England.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37While researching it, she came across a writer
0:30:37 > 0:30:39who was to have a profound influence on her life...
0:30:40 > 0:30:44..a Tudor farmer and poet called Thomas Tusser.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01Thomas Tusser keeps cropping up in Food In England.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Dorothy was clearly very interested in him.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06He spent his life in 16th-century Suffolk
0:31:06 > 0:31:08and she tracked him down there.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13This photo shows her standing up to her ankles in a bog
0:31:13 > 0:31:15and it says on the back,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18"Me on Tusser's marsh."
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Well, I think I need to visit Tusser's marsh
0:31:20 > 0:31:22and Tusser's landscape
0:31:22 > 0:31:25to see what they might tell us about Dorothy herself.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42This is the spot, in what's known today as Constable Country,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44where Thomas Tusser's house once stood.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49He was born in Rivenhall in Essex in about 1524.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53A Hundred Good Points Of Husbandry
0:31:53 > 0:31:56is his rhyming book about agriculture.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31HE GEES THE HORSES
0:32:31 > 0:32:33Good lads. Right...
0:32:33 > 0:32:35'Tusser was one of the first writers
0:32:35 > 0:32:39'to record the experience of ordinary tenant farmers.'
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Are you going to go each side of the sticks?
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Yeah, those should straddle. Get up!
0:32:43 > 0:32:47'Suffolk farmer Roger Clark works land very near to Tusser's farm
0:32:47 > 0:32:50'and does it in a way that Tusser would have recognised
0:32:50 > 0:32:52'five centuries ago.'
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Tell me a bit about Suffolk Punches, then,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58these enormous horses. Are they especially for ploughing?
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Yeah, because if you look at the legs
0:33:01 > 0:33:03and you compare them with the Shire Horse,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06which has a mass of feather, you'll see how clean they've kept
0:33:06 > 0:33:08and that's why we call them clean-legged.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10So the Shires get all muddy when they go up and down,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12and that's no good?
0:33:12 > 0:33:15The Suffolk Horse was bred as the...
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Well, the perfect agricultural horse.
0:33:18 > 0:33:19- He is a human tractor.- Yeah.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Not a human tractor, an EQUINE tractor.
0:33:22 > 0:33:23Absolutely, yeah.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28I have the oldest recorded pedigree, bar the thoroughbred.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31- Going back to...- 1750.- Wow!
0:33:31 > 0:33:33I've always tried to keep Suffolk Horses,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36because they are an endangered species.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39In fact, there's more giant pandas about than there are Suffolk Horses.
0:33:39 > 0:33:40- No, really?- Yeah.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42But not only, I think,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45it's important to maintain the horse as a breed,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47but to maintain the skills that went with it.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49I can see that this is an art.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Yes, yes, and it would be tragic if all these things -
0:33:52 > 0:33:55like ploughing, like harness making and all things like that -
0:33:55 > 0:33:57were finished.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00Thomas Tusser was ploughing with oxen.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02How do you think that would have worked?
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Well, you'd...
0:34:04 > 0:34:06As I can see it, you had the oxen,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09but you also had a boy with a sharp stick to poke them along.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11To poke them along?
0:34:11 > 0:34:13With these, you don't need that.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14THEY LAUGH
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Tusser tells us, "Look well to thy horses in the stable, thou must.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24"Let not your hay be foisty or your chaff full of dust,
0:34:24 > 0:34:29"nor stone in their provender or feathers or clots,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33"nor feed with green peason for the breeding of bots."
0:34:33 > 0:34:35So, don't let the hay be foisty...
0:34:35 > 0:34:36..which was mouldy.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39- He doesn't eat foisty hay. - No, he certainly doesn't.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43- No stones in the food. - No. No dust in the...- No dust.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46- What are bots?- Bots is the larvae of a gadfly...- Ah!
0:34:46 > 0:34:49..and they attach themselves to the stomach
0:34:49 > 0:34:51and then they come out through the skin.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53I mean, today, we worm horses in November,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55because that gets rid of the bot larvae.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59- Now, I'm worried about Jester getting cold.- That's it.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02- Do we need to warm up, do a bit more?- Yeah, well done.- Right, OK.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05HE GEES THE HORSES
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Having visited Thomas Tusser's home and learnt a bit more about him,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29I can see why Dorothy was so attracted to him.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31He was like the Tudor version of her.
0:35:31 > 0:35:37In 1931, Dorothy published her edition of Thomas Tusser's poem,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41it's called Thomas Tusser And His Farming In East Anglia.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Both of them were interested in crops and the land
0:35:44 > 0:35:46and seasons and how things were done
0:35:46 > 0:35:48and both of them had the ability to express it
0:35:48 > 0:35:51in really simple language.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59Dorothy clearly shared Tusser's interest in everyday things,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03and she did probe really deeply into his life and work.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09I'm beginning to realise her research into Tusser's world
0:36:09 > 0:36:11shows that despite my earlier misgivings,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14she really was becoming a serious historian.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22In the 1930s, she travelled the country,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25documenting and illustrating rural ways of life
0:36:25 > 0:36:30in three books and a regular column for the Daily Sketch newspaper.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36I've come to visit someone who's spent many years
0:36:36 > 0:36:39researching this period of Dorothy's life -
0:36:39 > 0:36:42the potter and artist Mary Wondrausch.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46And she's making me lunch.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52We're not cooking it, because it's already been smoked,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56and that is in a sense cooking it.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00- How do I get it out, like this? - No, you don't.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02No, there's a trick.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The trick is this.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Oh, look at that! It lifts up.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11'Mary's warmed up some Arbroath smokies,
0:37:11 > 0:37:13'smoked haddock from northeast Scotland,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17'which Dorothy describes in one of her Daily Sketch articles.'
0:37:17 > 0:37:19So there's our lovely smokie,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22and I'll tell you what it's supposed to be like.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25It's supposed to be "a gold bronzed fish,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29"smoke-dried, redolent with the savour of the peat."
0:37:29 > 0:37:32- And mind the bones.- Mind the bones.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Mmm. That's very good.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39- You certainly need the butter with it.- Mmm.
0:37:39 > 0:37:40- It's delicious.- What do you think?
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Mmm, very nice. It's delicious, but I don't think
0:37:43 > 0:37:46we should be eating it in your lovely, warm kitchen.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48We should be in a smoke-filled cottage in the middle
0:37:48 > 0:37:49of a peat bog in Scotland.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54I can see you're a romantic, Lucy! Yes.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59Because you're an artist, what do you see in her as a fellow artist?
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Well, really, I see her
0:38:01 > 0:38:06more as an illustrator than as an artist,
0:38:06 > 0:38:12and her drawings are so wonderfully accurate,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15so what really fascinates me
0:38:15 > 0:38:19is the way she makes it absolutely clear
0:38:19 > 0:38:25what everyone or everything is doing,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27how it's made, the detail.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31And despite from being so accurate,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33they're not boring at all.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35They're all lively,
0:38:35 > 0:38:39and her observation is acute.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42Look at all the detail,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46the tool you're using, and the plaiting, and...
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It's just so remarkable.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52What do you think is the most important
0:38:52 > 0:38:55thing of all about Dorothy Hartley?
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Well, it's the breadth of her interests.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02She was really a very adventurous woman,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05and very hard-working,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and one of my theories is
0:39:08 > 0:39:11this was because she wasn't married,
0:39:11 > 0:39:16didn't have children, or some fractious husband,
0:39:16 > 0:39:19and that whole focus went on
0:39:19 > 0:39:24whatever she was researching at the time.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33"By the time coal cooking came into fairly general usage,
0:39:33 > 0:39:35"the fireplace had moved
0:39:35 > 0:39:37"from the middle of the room to the side wall.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42"Chimneys had been built climbing up the older houses
0:39:42 > 0:39:45"like hollow caterpillars clinging to a leaf."
0:39:49 > 0:39:51Tell me a bit about your amazing cottage.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53How long have you been living here?
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Well, I bought the house in 1955.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02My husband...I was going to say "buggered off",
0:40:02 > 0:40:06- but you can't say "bugger", I believe.- I think you can!
0:40:06 > 0:40:09- He went off. - I think if you want to.- Yes.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13And so I was left with two children,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16and my third child was born here,
0:40:16 > 0:40:18but I'd never lived in the country
0:40:18 > 0:40:22so I had to learn about how to do it,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26and it was reading Hartley
0:40:26 > 0:40:31that I began to get some idea about cooking on the fire and so on.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34So the chapter in here about fuels and fireplaces,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37for you that was like an instruction manual to your cottage?
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Absolutely. It really was, yes.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45I was fascinated to see all her wonderful illustrations
0:40:45 > 0:40:50of the different ways of cooking on the fire.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Dorothy devoted no less than 30 pages
0:41:06 > 0:41:09to fuels and fireplaces in Food In England.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13She researched the book as she roamed the countryside,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15sometimes by car, sometimes by bike.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Sleeping rough under the stars, she relished the hardships.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25"I was freezing on the Pilgrim's Way.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29"My fingers were claw-curled with cold inside my gauntlets.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35"Almost, I could hear the ghosts of Chaucer's riders,
0:41:35 > 0:41:39"their horse bells tinkling down the path like melting ice."
0:41:51 > 0:41:54Throughout her travels, Dorothy made connections
0:41:54 > 0:41:56between the past and the present.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00When she saw canal workers, or bargees,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02cooking a one-pot meal on their barges,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06she recognised how closely it was related to the medieval cauldron,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08and sure enough, there it is,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11in the chapter on fuels and fireplaces.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17The food writer Rose Prince is going to cook the bargemen's dinner,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19just as Dorothy described.
0:42:20 > 0:42:21It's ancient, this dish is.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23I love the cross-section in her drawing
0:42:23 > 0:42:27where you see all of the vegetables with the meat on top
0:42:27 > 0:42:30all layered up, and look above and you see the cauldron
0:42:30 > 0:42:33and there are pieces of meat and fat wrapped in cloth.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36So much of what she saw had to be taken from history books.
0:42:36 > 0:42:37This was the real thing.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39Right, turnips first?
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Turnips at the base for sweetness.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Fresh belly of pork.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49A little bit of smoked salt pork to add flavour.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52On top of that, carrots and parsnips. Now, she says water.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Just gain a little bit of extra flavour
0:42:54 > 0:42:58if you have some nice gelatinous broth like this.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02On top of that, a huff paste, which was a suet crust, essentially,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04acting as an insulating layer.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08- On top of that, some sliced potatoes. More huff paste.- OK.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11- On top of that, some apples.- Apples! - If you're going to have a pudding.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13- Yeah.- That will fuel the bargee.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18It's such a simple but powerful idea, isn't it?
0:43:18 > 0:43:22Once you've made that preparation, it cooks itself.
0:43:23 > 0:43:24Great!
0:43:24 > 0:43:27- Into the water, do you think?- There we go.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37The brilliant idea here is that the one pot
0:43:37 > 0:43:39will cook the main meal and the pudding
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and anything else you want slowly in the boiling water.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46It'll be ready to eat after about two hours,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48or you can just leave it to bubble away all day
0:43:48 > 0:43:51until the boatman, Tim here, gets hungry.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58- Oh, they're cooked! It's worked! - They have cooked.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01- That is true cooked food. - And look, the pastry's cooked.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04- Oh, it looks cooked. It looks like a suet pudding.- Yeah.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07The apples have kept their shape nicely, haven't they?
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Needs a bit of custard on there, I think.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12There it is. Bit of turnip.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16- Now then.- Great!
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Thank you very much. Smashing.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20You got a fork there?
0:44:23 > 0:44:26That warms the cockles of the heart, doesn't it?
0:44:26 > 0:44:27Well, I think it's great.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Just the sort of thing you need at the end of a day.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33What are your final thoughts, then, on Dorothy, Rose?
0:44:33 > 0:44:34What does she mean to you?
0:44:34 > 0:44:38I think she's the most interesting writer
0:44:38 > 0:44:40to have covered British food
0:44:40 > 0:44:42for a simple point that she is the person
0:44:42 > 0:44:45who found out what everyone is eating.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47- So often we know what kings ate.- Yeah.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50And we know what ladies in Tudor households
0:44:50 > 0:44:53prepared for their big kitchens, but we don't know what people ate,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56and through her very forensic investigation
0:44:56 > 0:45:01into all the equipment and the animal breeds and the landscape,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05she found out, and that marks her out above everyone else.
0:45:10 > 0:45:11I agree with Rose.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16It's Dorothy's interest in ordinary people that's really extraordinary.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21And I'm beginning to appreciate
0:45:21 > 0:45:23that she was a chronicler of her own times.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Food In England isn't just a history book.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28It also paints a picture of the England
0:45:28 > 0:45:30she criss-crossed between the wars.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37In her newspaper articles and photographs, her fascination
0:45:37 > 0:45:42with the way people lived and worked on the land is plain to see.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45She devotes no less than 29 pages of Food In England
0:45:45 > 0:45:48to the very mundane subject of sheep.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55"An old shepherd and myself spent one summer mapping the moorland.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58"It was a curious piece of work,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01"and very enlightening as to the mentality of mutton."
0:46:04 > 0:46:09Dorothy writes really romantically and evocatively about farming life,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13but she also includes lots of utilitarian information too,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15like absolutely everything you can do
0:46:15 > 0:46:20with absolutely every single part of a cow or a sheep.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24She brings to life the annual spectacle of the sheep-shearing.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27This is Manor Farm, a hill farm right up above Wharfedale,
0:46:27 > 0:46:32and it's a good day to be here, cos it's shearing day.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Chris Akrigg's family came here as tenant farmers
0:46:44 > 0:46:47in the Yorkshire Dales just after the Second World War.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51These days, Chris runs the business with his three sons.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05'My turn now.'
0:47:06 > 0:47:10First we're just going to practise cuddling a sheep...
0:47:11 > 0:47:13Just grip it well. That's it.
0:47:13 > 0:47:14- I've got him. Got him.- Excellent.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17I love sheep. I love you!
0:47:18 > 0:47:23No, don't pull the wool. Always pull the thing back, that's right.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27- I'm so worried about hurting him. - No, you're not hurting.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35That's it...
0:47:35 > 0:47:38There you go, you're done!
0:47:38 > 0:47:41Ooh, dear. That's not brilliant, is it?
0:47:41 > 0:47:44- It's not too bad, actually... - I haven't finished! Come back.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50We don't need a dog when we have Lucy.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55- It's pretty good.- No, it's dreadful compared with the others!
0:47:55 > 0:47:58- Distinctive anyway, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01So what was it like in Dorothy Hartley's childhood, then,
0:48:01 > 0:48:05in the late Victorian times? What was the sheep shearing like?
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Traditionally, people would help each other do it.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10And, of course, it was much quieter.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13I remember an old chap telling me once that he was the very first one
0:48:13 > 0:48:17to take a machine round to one of these parties.
0:48:17 > 0:48:18You'd do it with your neighbours
0:48:18 > 0:48:21and perhaps invite some other people to come,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23and they'd have a clipping session. He went with his machine.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25The others couldn't hear each other talking,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27so they never asked him again.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29- That's modernity for you!- Exactly.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35Farming in the Dales has changed beyond all recognition
0:48:35 > 0:48:38since Dorothy Hartley's day.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Over the years, Chris has had to take on more and more land
0:48:41 > 0:48:43to make a decent living.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46He now farms around 2,000 acres.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50It's not just us that's done this,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53lots of farms in the Dale have all expanded
0:48:53 > 0:48:56and taken over another farm, and it's a shame,
0:48:56 > 0:48:58because it's depopulated the Dale.
0:48:58 > 0:48:59On the social side especially.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02There aren't as many jobs, though, for human beings.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05No. My grandfather milked ten cows, kept poultry,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08a few turkeys at Christmas, 20 pigs and a few sheep.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11And employed a man and a boy. And made a good living.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14But that would be a sort of part-time job today.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18That's the difference, you just need so much to make a living nowadays.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25"At sheep shearings, baskets of beef sandwiches were carried around.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29"Each with a mustard pot tied to the handle.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32"No-one eats mutton at a sheep shearing."
0:49:34 > 0:49:39- Right, I'm having mustard. - I'm going to have onions, I think.
0:49:39 > 0:49:40Go on, then.
0:49:40 > 0:49:41Any excuse to eat beef!
0:49:41 > 0:49:44'Dorothy's writing is so compelling -
0:49:44 > 0:49:46'partly because she's capturing a world
0:49:46 > 0:49:48'just on the cusp of destruction.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52'She described the lifestyle of Chris Akrigg's grandfather
0:49:52 > 0:49:56'and others like him even as it began to fall apart,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58'with mass production and mechanisation.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04'Two generations and a World War later,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07'it was a way of life that would be lost for ever.'
0:50:12 > 0:50:16"Bracken used to be cut for bedding for farm animals,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20"for covering in root crops, and for weaving into shelters and hurdles.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24"Quantities were used by the slate and heavy earthenware industries
0:50:24 > 0:50:27"to pack their ware for road transport.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29"Now, it is not cut,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32"and has become a desperate weed instead of a useful growth."
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Most of the research for Food In England
0:50:41 > 0:50:44was done during her wandering years.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48But after 1945, Dorothy settled down here in North Wales
0:50:48 > 0:50:50and this is where my journey ends.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56She lived in the village of Fron
0:50:56 > 0:50:58in a house she'd inherited from her mother
0:50:58 > 0:51:00overlooking the Llangollen Canal.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08'It was here that 30 years of painstaking observation
0:51:08 > 0:51:11'came together in her magnum opus,
0:51:11 > 0:51:14'the book that's her greatest achievement.'
0:51:17 > 0:51:23'Food In England was published in 1954. Reviewers loved it.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25'Harold Nicolson, writing in The Times, said,
0:51:25 > 0:51:31'"Miss Dorothy Hartley's Food In England will become a classic".
0:51:31 > 0:51:35'He was right. Food In England has never been out of print.'
0:51:44 > 0:51:47'By the time it was published, she was well into her 60s.'
0:51:49 > 0:51:53'I've come to her house to meet four people who remember Dorothy
0:51:53 > 0:51:57'from these last years of her life, including Malcolm Wiles,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00'whose father, Teddy, helped her to move in.'
0:52:00 > 0:52:04"Wiles, Wiles, Wiles," she used to call my dad, didn't she?
0:52:04 > 0:52:09"I want you to go to so-and-so." Not "can you", "I want you to go."
0:52:10 > 0:52:14'Malcolm's wife, Rosemary, still has the letter that Dorothy sent
0:52:14 > 0:52:16'with instructions about moving.'
0:52:17 > 0:52:19'This was just like Dorothy.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22'Instead of listing her furniture, she draws it.'
0:52:24 > 0:52:28First of all in her mind was her work desk.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31This was where her writing was done and she had put that first.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34- This is the most important item of all.- That's what I thought, yes.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36The desk where she does the writing?
0:52:36 > 0:52:39- Yes, that's right. And herself last. - Yep.- With the cat.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42The sewing machine, cycle, cat - there he is.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45- Yes, Mark.- Mark the cat.
0:52:45 > 0:52:46And here's Dorothy herself.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50She's carrying a packet of sandwiches,
0:52:50 > 0:52:51a trifle cutter.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55- And it also says she's carrying a small garden spade.- Yes.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58Would you describe her as easy to get to know?
0:52:58 > 0:53:00- Well,- I- found her easy to get to know.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03She didn't phone, she arrived by the door, didn't she?
0:53:03 > 0:53:05The Welsh are...
0:53:05 > 0:53:07Well, "Come day, go day."
0:53:07 > 0:53:09That's the slang word, isn't it?
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Anything will do, tomorrow will do, there's no rush,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14but that wasn't Miss Hartley. It's now, isn't it?
0:53:14 > 0:53:18- That was Miss Hartley. Now. - Was she generous?
0:53:18 > 0:53:21Money-wise, no, because she hadn't got any.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24- But as I say, she'd do anything for you.- Yeah.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27- She'd never see anybody in trouble, would she, now?- No.- No.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29Never see anybody in trouble.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31And she didn't want the world to know
0:53:31 > 0:53:34that she'd done this, that or the other for them.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38- She asked me to type a letter for her.- Yes.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43Rickety old machine and she dictated it to me, you see.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46She kept changing her mind. "No, no, no, cross that out."
0:53:46 > 0:53:50So I'd cross it out. X it out, no Tipp-Ex in those days.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54And ended up with a whole paragraph X-ed out.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58I said, "I'll type it nicely for you." "No, no, no."
0:53:58 > 0:54:03She signed it, "Just post it on your way home." So I thought...
0:54:03 > 0:54:06So I'm afraid I stole a piece of paper from her study
0:54:06 > 0:54:10on the way home and I typed it on my machine.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12- Oh, you typed it properly? - LUCY LAUGHS
0:54:12 > 0:54:15And... Don't tell anybody this, will you?
0:54:15 > 0:54:18I forged her signature and posted it off!
0:54:18 > 0:54:21THEY LAUGH
0:54:21 > 0:54:24What's the most personal item of Dorothy's that you own?
0:54:24 > 0:54:27I think probably the most interesting one that came out
0:54:27 > 0:54:29of all the boxes and files and papers
0:54:29 > 0:54:31was her handbag, which I have.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35Her handbag, look at this! The handbag of Dorothy Hartley.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38It's more or less just as the contents were in there.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41That seems to me exactly the sort of thing I would imagine her carrying -
0:54:41 > 0:54:43something big that you could knock people on the head with
0:54:43 > 0:54:44if you wanted to.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46- Can I open it?- Please do, yes.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50- That such an intimate thing to do, to look into a lady's handbag.- Yeah.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53It feels wrong to look into somebody's handbag.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Oh, she wouldn't mind.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57I guess she'd have done the same thing, wouldn't she?
0:54:57 > 0:55:00If she found our handbags lying around, she'd be right in there.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03If there was something hand-crafted in there, she would.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06Now, here we've got a little knife.
0:55:08 > 0:55:09Little horn penknife.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15Oh, look, this is so characteristic.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18It's her ticket to the reading room of the British Museum.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21"Miss D Hartley, not transferable."
0:55:21 > 0:55:24That's just the sort of thing I would have hoped to find.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Oh, and we've got another one.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29The Departments Of Manuscripts at the British Library.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32Here's something else incredibly characteristic.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34She's carrying around an atlas.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36It's an atlas of the British Isles,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40- so she always knows where she is and where she's going next.- Yes.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43That really is the woman in a bag, isn't it?
0:55:43 > 0:55:45- All those things together there. - Yes.
0:55:45 > 0:55:52I'll tell you now, Lucy, I walked in here today and it affected me.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54I've not been in here since the day of the funeral
0:55:54 > 0:55:58- and when I come through that door... - And she's not here...
0:55:58 > 0:56:01- ..there was a lump in my throat.- Mm.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03We weren't close, not anything like that,
0:56:03 > 0:56:10no more than doing things for her. But I still... But I still felt...
0:56:10 > 0:56:12You know, as I say, there was a lump in my throat.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Having followed Dorothy's journey to its very end,
0:56:21 > 0:56:23I'm surprised and impressed
0:56:23 > 0:56:26to find a respectable schoolmaster's daughter
0:56:26 > 0:56:29following such an unconventional course through life.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33I've come to realise she's more than a great writer.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36I think she's an admirable human being.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Dorothy died in 1985 and it was Malcolm
0:56:42 > 0:56:48who brought her body up from the house here to the churchyard.
0:56:48 > 0:56:50I was really moved by how much Malcolm
0:56:50 > 0:56:53and her other friends still seem to miss Dorothy.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56They regret the fact that she didn't leave any children
0:56:56 > 0:57:00but, instead, she did leave us this amazing book.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03And as I followed her up and down the country -
0:57:03 > 0:57:07from Yorkshire to Leicestershire, to Suffolk, to Wales -
0:57:07 > 0:57:09I've really come to appreciate
0:57:09 > 0:57:13just how magnificently eccentric she really was.
0:57:13 > 0:57:19She devoted her whole life to this mad quest, to capture a lost world.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21And thank goodness she did.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25The world needs these crazy, passionate people like Dorothy.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35There's just one more piece to put into the picture -
0:57:35 > 0:57:40a home movie showing Dorothy doing what she loved to do,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44working in the garden and digging up potatoes for dinner.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03"If everything I possess vanished suddenly, I'd be sorry,
0:58:03 > 0:58:08"but I value things unpossessed -
0:58:08 > 0:58:13"the wind, and trees and sky and kind thoughts - much more.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24"What a poetic old party, eh?"
0:58:51 > 0:58:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd