0:00:02 > 0:00:07Across Britain, bakers work to feed our passion for bread and cake.
0:00:07 > 0:00:12But where did this four billion pound a year industry come from?
0:00:12 > 0:00:16To find out, four professionals are going back in time.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18They're baking through 63 years
0:00:18 > 0:00:22which transformed their trade and our diet forever.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25The age of the Victorians.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27From the rural bakeries of the 1840s,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30where baking had barely changed for centuries.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32To the sweat and toil of the urban bakery
0:00:32 > 0:00:35at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40To luxurious high street retailers at the dawn of the 20th century.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43So far, they've explored wholesome country baking
0:00:43 > 0:00:46in the earliest years of Victoria's reign.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Oh, gosh, that is lovely.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Now, they're moving to the town and the middle years
0:00:51 > 0:00:53of the Victorian era.
0:00:53 > 0:00:54The physical exertion
0:00:54 > 0:00:56just to get the damn stuff made
0:00:56 > 0:00:58is pretty much sickening.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00At the height of the Industrial Revolution,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02bakers took desperate measures.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05This is potassium aluminium sulphate.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07Doesn't that cause brain damage?
0:01:07 > 0:01:11It's got this grittiness about it which is just awful.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12We can't have people doing this.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15If this is what they did, then who am I not to do it?
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Do you want that on your gravestone?
0:01:17 > 0:01:20It's just heartbreaking.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Neither baking nor Britain
0:01:22 > 0:01:23would ever be the same again.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25This glimpse into their world
0:01:25 > 0:01:29has made me realise just how hard they would have had to work
0:01:29 > 0:01:32feeding the nation as it was growing.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Four modern bakers are reporting for duty,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50deep in the industrial heartland of Victorian Britain.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52They've come to one of the very few
0:01:52 > 0:01:54places in Britain which still
0:01:54 > 0:01:56has a 19th-century bakehouse
0:01:56 > 0:01:57in working order -
0:01:57 > 0:02:02the Black Country Living Museum near Birmingham.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04It's very different from the rural setting
0:02:04 > 0:02:06of their previous Victorian bakery.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08They've moved forward in time
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and during the three decades that have passed,
0:02:11 > 0:02:16Britain's population has increased by 20% to over 30 million.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20We've become the world's first urban economy.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23By the time we get to the 1870s, you've got over two thirds
0:02:23 > 0:02:27of the population of Britain living in towns and cities.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30People were flooding to the cities to work in factories
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and in various emerging industries, and this boom in population,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37of course, created a need for food.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40You're also in an urban environment in an industrial age
0:02:40 > 0:02:42which means that as bakers
0:02:42 > 0:02:45you'll be working longer hours for less money.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48SHE SIGHS You can see how it's going to go.
0:02:48 > 0:02:49It's going to be hard.
0:02:49 > 0:02:50It's going to be very hard,
0:02:50 > 0:02:55- but we should show you the bakehouse first, so come this way.- Let's go.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59Urban bakers fed the workers
0:02:59 > 0:03:02who staffed the factories which supplied the world.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Britain manufactured and exported more than any other nation.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09By the 1870s,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11the Industrial Revolution had already been underway
0:03:11 > 0:03:14for nearly a century and almost two thirds of our economy
0:03:14 > 0:03:17was classified as industrialised.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20This figure had doubled since Victoria began her rule
0:03:20 > 0:03:22just 33 years earlier.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24The astonishing rate of progress
0:03:24 > 0:03:28is a hopeful sign for modern factory owner John Foster.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31I'm expecting to see a little bit more equipment.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33That would be nice.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Will we get any controls on our oven?
0:03:35 > 0:03:37It would be rather nice
0:03:37 > 0:03:38if there was a mixing machine
0:03:38 > 0:03:41and we didn't have to mix it all by hand.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44- There we have it.- Wow.- Bit small.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be.
0:03:46 > 0:03:47And where's the bakery?
0:03:47 > 0:03:51So although you might think of Victorian Britain as a place
0:03:51 > 0:03:53of big factories and children up chimneys,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55baking really hadn't caught up.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57This is about the same size
0:03:57 > 0:04:00as the bakehouse you were used to in the 1840s.
0:04:00 > 0:04:01Half 100 weight of coal outside,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03it's, you know, a bit different to usual.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05But in terms of how baking worked
0:04:05 > 0:04:07it's still very much a lot of brute force.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11- So...in we go. - Come and have a look inside.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Sorry there aren't any fancy machines for you, John.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15- Yeah. - But...
0:04:15 > 0:04:18- I'll sing the blues music.- Yeah. - ALEX LAUGHS
0:04:18 > 0:04:21This is grubby as anything.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24- I know what this is. - That's a big ass tray.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26- HARPREET: Wow. - Full sack.- Yeah.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29This is where we get to know how strong we all are.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32'Annie and I are on hand to explain how a bakehouse like this
0:04:32 > 0:04:35'would have worked in the 1870s.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38'But we're depending on the bakers' expertise
0:04:38 > 0:04:40'to turn historical theory into practice.'
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Bread is still very, very much the staple of life.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48We know that in Birmingham, there were about 340 bakeries and that's...
0:04:48 > 0:04:49That's a lot.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Bakehouses like this, small bakehouses like this,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56would probably use sacks of around 280 pounds' worth of flour.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01So you're probably working towards between 90 and 100 loaves.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02And on top of those loaves,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05one of the things they really developed a taste for,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Victorians, was fresh little rolls
0:05:07 > 0:05:10that you're also going to churn out for first thing in the morning.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13So that means, without a doubt,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15you're going to be working through the night.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16Nothing changes.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19You're not scaring us. Not scaring us. Not a problem.
0:05:19 > 0:05:20One final point, as well,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22there is a hierarchy within the bakery.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24That means a foreman.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26- Yeah, I'll tell everybody what to do.- Yeah.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28A second hand, a third hand and then the fourth hand.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33And they earned about two and a half times less than the foreman
0:05:33 > 0:05:35so you're looking at quite a wage differential, as well.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37I'm basically coal shoveller for the night,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39that's pretty much it, isn't it?
0:05:39 > 0:05:41- That's where you're going to start.- Yeah.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Bakers' shifts usually started at around 11 in the evening.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49- And since we are about on that now... - We'll let you get to work.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52- Thank you.- Thank you very much. - Catch you later.- OK.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Since ancient times, baking had been seen as a valued trade,
0:05:57 > 0:06:02a venerable craft handed down through generations.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04I tell you what, guys, this is...this is chuffing heavy.
0:06:04 > 0:06:05Ohh.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07But in the new industrial towns,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11bakers were increasingly treated as little more than unskilled muscle.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Right, shall we have... Oh, actually,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17- I'm not allowed to talk, am I?- No. We've got to...
0:06:17 > 0:06:20- I'm just the coal shoveller.- We've got to figure out how to do the
0:06:20 > 0:06:23- dough.- Yeah. - And how to get these ovens lit.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26The rapid development of Victorian Britain
0:06:26 > 0:06:28would have been impossible without coal.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32We mined 200 million tonnes a year of the stuff
0:06:32 > 0:06:35and the industry employed one in ten working men.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40But it's not something you'd ever see in the bakery
0:06:40 > 0:06:43owned by 21st-century artisan Duncan Glendinning.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Having to fire up the oven with coal,
0:06:49 > 0:06:50this is just a nightmare.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53I mean, being conscious, running my own bakery
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and conscious of the cleanliness
0:06:56 > 0:06:58with which we have to tackle bread making,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01the idea of me turning my hands to some dough
0:07:01 > 0:07:04with the hands in the state that they're in
0:07:04 > 0:07:06is a little bit scary.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Fifth generation baker John Swift sets to work with the flour,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16aided by couture cake creator, Harpreet Baura.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18A typical bakery of this size would get through at least
0:07:18 > 0:07:21two 20-stone sacks a night.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23John's great, great aunt Harriet,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27who founded his family business in 1863,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30has one at the ready just behind her.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33A pre-dough is already fermenting.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Normally the foreman would have come in earlier in the day
0:07:36 > 0:07:38to set the sponge
0:07:38 > 0:07:40by mixing a little flour with yeast.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42- It's good. - It's looking pretty lively.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Then water is added, along with the rest of the flour,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49and it's time to mix the dough, manually.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Ugh.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54The team found this tiring enough in their rural bakehouse,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58where they were making much smaller batches for a much smaller oven.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Though the amount of staff employed by a typical bakery
0:08:01 > 0:08:03didn't increase during Victoria's reign,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07the amount they were expected to produce multiplied fivefold.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11This is about as difficult as getting the dog off the bed.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Ready?
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Ugh.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19I mean, they must have been fitter than us.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22We rely on machines or sizes of dough.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25- HARPREET:- We're not used to it. - 20st of dough by hand.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Bakers now are strong.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Bakers back then must have been ferociously strong.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33The dough is so dense and heavy,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36that John Foster decides a different approach is needed.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39This is the one and only opportunity in my life
0:08:39 > 0:08:43I am going to get to knead dough with my feet, I am not missing it.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47But we will be hygienic.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49There are some horrified Victorian accounts
0:08:49 > 0:08:54of bakers using their feet to knead but most used their hands.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Someone must have looked at this and gone hang on a minute,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01we're mixing 20st of dough, it's killing us.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03It's killing me now, I tell ya.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06- HARPREET:- You all right, John?- Yeah.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08- He's actually really enjoying this. - DUNCAN:- John.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12- I think he's got some... - CREAKING
0:09:12 > 0:09:14- HARPREET:- Ooh, something, something's creaking.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Yeah, something's creaking.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19The bakers might think this is the best approach,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22but the kneading trough is feeling the strain.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27So what, what we got in here?
0:09:27 > 0:09:30We got 20st of flour, so we got like 25st now, with...
0:09:30 > 0:09:32with John in, yeah?
0:09:32 > 0:09:33Are you coming out? Is that it?
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Yeah, that's it.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Even using his feet, John is out of breath
0:09:38 > 0:09:40and coated in sweat within minutes.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Can I ask you a question, if you don't mind answering,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45- how old are you?- 53.
0:09:45 > 0:09:4953. OK, the average life expectancy for a baker
0:09:49 > 0:09:51in this period is 42.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54There you go, see, you're pushing your luck as it is.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57- You'd be, you'd be... - Dead man walking! Dead man walking!
0:09:57 > 0:10:01- The thing is - you're past it at 30. - Yeah.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03How long are you going to have to knead this for?
0:10:03 > 0:10:06What are we looking at? Hour maybe?
0:10:06 > 0:10:08- Give or take, yeah. - If not an hour and a half.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10- You've done five minutes and you're knackered.- Yeah.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15So you're starting to get an insight into the working conditions.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17One of the things you've got here that you just wouldn't have,
0:10:17 > 0:10:22really, in most bakeries, urban bakeries in this time,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25- are these things - windows.- OK.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27OK. And I can feel the draft coming through here.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Now we know from accounts that the large percentage of bakeries
0:10:32 > 0:10:34were actually underground, they were in cellars.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Imagine doing this down in a basement with no ventilation.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40- No wonder they died early. - Well, exactly.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Though a baker's life had always been physically demanding,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48before the mid-19th century
0:10:48 > 0:10:51when the majority were still based in the countryside,
0:10:51 > 0:10:52they at least had clean air
0:10:52 > 0:10:56and a ready supply of fresh, local produce.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59If I could have this life and still make a living
0:10:59 > 0:11:00I would choose so.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Rural bakeries were also most often family owned and run.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12But in the ruthlessly competitive mid-Victorian city,
0:11:12 > 0:11:15bakeries were more likely to be owned by businessmen
0:11:15 > 0:11:16or absent landlords,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20who would cut their costs by renting cheap cellar premises.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Individual bakers rarely had the capital
0:11:22 > 0:11:24to buy their own place in towns,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27so they increasingly became freelancers for hire,
0:11:27 > 0:11:28known as journeymen
0:11:28 > 0:11:32with little control over their working conditions.
0:11:32 > 0:11:33Right.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Time to get some shuteye.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40You two on the floor.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42I'm on the top of the tub.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47You're the first woman I've slept with in 11 years that isn't my wife.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Accounts of the time describe how the journeymen
0:11:50 > 0:11:52would grab a little sleep in the small hours
0:11:52 > 0:11:54while the dough proved.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56They wouldn't have had time to get home for this.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Besides, in many places,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01they were actually locked into their bakehouses by the owners.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06We all know that the Industrial Revolution
0:12:06 > 0:12:08led to appalling conditions
0:12:08 > 0:12:09but, surprisingly,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12bakers had it worse than nearly any other profession.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17One Victorian philanthropist argued that only a job in the bleach works
0:12:17 > 0:12:19was more damaging for your health.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24The air in Victorian cities was already pretty polluted
0:12:24 > 0:12:28due to industrialisation but it was even worse for bakers
0:12:28 > 0:12:32in their underground bakeries, surrounded by flying flour dust.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35One study showed that of 111 bakers,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40108 were suffering from severe or moderate lung disease.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45The flour would make the baker wheeze,
0:12:45 > 0:12:47cause asthma and a dry throat
0:12:47 > 0:12:48that would often bleed.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Some cellar bakeries had toilets in the middle of them,
0:12:54 > 0:12:56or even sewage running through them.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58So the risk of cholera was particularly high.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Skin diseases were common too.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04A government sanitary commission found that over two thirds of bakers
0:13:04 > 0:13:06had health problems.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13And for the few hours a baker did get away from work,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15they may well have returned to a slum.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21These were also the conditions in which many of their customers
0:13:21 > 0:13:22would have lived.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27A small room like this could very easily have housed a whole family,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31sometimes several, along with various lice and bedbugs,
0:13:31 > 0:13:32rats and mice.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Sanitation was very limited.
0:13:34 > 0:13:35There was no running water
0:13:35 > 0:13:39and the bathroom probably just consisted of a couple of pots.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42The other problem for everyone's health
0:13:42 > 0:13:45in the Victorian industrial town was what they ate.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47And what they didn't.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51You might have a little bit of meat in your diet if you could afford it,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54some dripping, perhaps some bacon, maybe a sausage.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57But the meat would usually go to the breadwinner,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59the man of the house, and then perhaps the children.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Women nearly always lost out.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05And your cooking facilities would have been very limited, as well,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08so even if you did manage to get hold of something to vary your diet,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11perhaps some potatoes or even some cabbage,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15you'd have to work out how to cook it on a very, very small fire,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18no oven, and, really, very little else.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22In this kind of context, it's no surprise
0:14:22 > 0:14:25that the major source of calories for working people
0:14:25 > 0:14:27came from the bakery.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Bread was still the main part of the working-class diet.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Certainly your diet depended on exactly how much money you had,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36but it's still fair to say that along with coal,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40bread really did fuel the Industrial Revolution.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48After considerably less than 40 winks,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50the bakers get back to work.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Come on, guys.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- Ugh. I'm not used to that. - Come on.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02I actually feel worse having stopped and laid down.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06The coal has brought the oven to the right temperature
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and the dough is ready to be weighed out
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and moulded into the 90 or so loaves
0:15:12 > 0:15:14which a 20-stone sack of flour would usually make.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Oh, it feels nice, it's just a four-pound lump of dough.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22The quartern was double the weight of a modern sliced loaf,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25and a working man would get through four of these
0:15:25 > 0:15:26four-pound whoppers a week.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Looking good.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33The dough is the most basic household variety,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36the shapes are plain mounds like giant baps.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41This was no-frills, utility bread, basic fuel for hardworking people.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43Right, first one's going in.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Are you ready?
0:15:45 > 0:15:48From this side, guys, is that what you want?
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Like virtually all bread in Britain at the time, though, it's white.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54From the start of the 19th century,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57that's what even the poorest customers demanded.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Each loaf would be sold for eight pence,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05roughly a third of a typical worker's daily wages at the time.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07Damper shut.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Well done, everybody.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17It's five in the morning, but the shift is far from over.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20The main reason bakers now had to work through the night
0:16:20 > 0:16:23is that urban customers expected fresh morning rolls
0:16:23 > 0:16:24with their breakfast.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26- Are you ready?- Yeah.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32These belong to a class of products called fancy breads.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Not something rural bakers had much call for.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37This is fresh milk, got cream on the top, as well.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39- JOHN FOSTER:- Hello. - Good morning, everyone.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42- Good morning! - JOHN SWIFT:- Good morning.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Now, you've baked what to me looks like
0:16:45 > 0:16:48a very respectable night's baking,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52but here you are still baking on, making these fancy breads.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55But this in many ways is a bit of a moneymaker for you.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57- What the customer wants... - JOHN SWIFT:- Customer gets.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00If you think about towns and cities, OK,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02you've got the people at the top of the pile
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and then you've got the working classes.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07But what you do have emerging within the towns and cities
0:17:07 > 0:17:08is that middle class.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12You know, every warehouse, every factory,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14not only does it have its people working on the ground,
0:17:14 > 0:17:15but it's also got its clerks,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18all its admin staff and all its money people.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20So you've got this developing middle class
0:17:20 > 0:17:23and they've also got money to spend, they've got disposable income.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26What they want to do is they want to spend that income
0:17:26 > 0:17:27on the things that they like.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29And one of those things would be fancy breads.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31You know, slightly sweeter breads
0:17:31 > 0:17:34but they want them first thing in the morning,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37cooked nice and fresh, of course, as we all do today.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40These are going to be small.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Made with more expensive ingredients like fresh milk and eggs,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46fancy bread was a little like brioche.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Yeah, and I'll peel them over to you and you just...
0:17:50 > 0:17:53And as with premium or artisan ranges today,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55for this slightly more elite line,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58bakers could get away with charging a bigger mark up.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04By 8am, the first night's bake is finally done.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08- So just the two slices, yeah? - Yeah.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11- Left side and right side. - You can have that. Let's have a...
0:18:11 > 0:18:12Smells lovely.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15- Crusty bit. - Oh, no, it's really lovely.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22It doesn't taste anywhere near as coaly as I was expecting.
0:18:22 > 0:18:23Mm.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26The amount of coal dust is just ridiculous.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29You can feel that this is workers' bread though, I think.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31I mean the size of these loaves just...
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Just...this is a man's bread, basically.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37This is what is fuelling the factories of Birmingham
0:18:37 > 0:18:39at this point.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42One of the things that the poor used to put on their bread was treacle
0:18:42 > 0:18:45which is basically the goo left when you start to refine sugar.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47At this point in time, if you're a manual worker,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49you're needing anything between five and a half
0:18:49 > 0:18:52to six and a half thousand calories a day.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Your calories have got to come from somewhere.
0:18:54 > 0:18:55And if you are on the breadline
0:18:55 > 0:18:57if you're a journeyman baker, you know,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59and you really have no idea
0:18:59 > 0:19:00whether or not you've got work tomorrow,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02then you go for what's cheap
0:19:02 > 0:19:05and what's cheap is sugar-based calories.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07It's 8.30 in the morning
0:19:07 > 0:19:10but the end of baking did not mean the end of the shift.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13As the most junior bakers,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Duncan and John are now expected to deliver to customers.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18- Hello.- What a whopper.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20The idea of bakers selling in their own shops
0:19:20 > 0:19:22still wasn't standard in the 1870s.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Last to be loaded are the oven-fresh fancy breads.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29- Don't forget these.- Wow.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31OK.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35I don't want to eat all our profit, so I'll just have a go at that.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37- Hmm.- Smell funny.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42They are a much higher class of bread.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Delicate, white, suited to the middle-class palate.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48- I quite like them. - It tastes awful.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50That's eggy and...
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Yeah, well, that's the point, innit?
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Ooh, it's delicious.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58The sweetened bread isn't to the taste
0:19:58 > 0:20:01of sourdough loving Duncan but refined white rolls
0:20:01 > 0:20:04were exactly what aspirational Victorian customers
0:20:04 > 0:20:06would have paid a premium for.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09- Good morning! - Good morning, madam.
0:20:09 > 0:20:10- Good morning. - See what you think.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15They're like an English Victorian take of a brioche, really, you know.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20- This is really nice. - Ah, thank you very much.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23That's made the night worthwhile.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26By law, Victorian bakers were obliged to weigh each loaf
0:20:26 > 0:20:28in front of the customer.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Right. And fingers crossed.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Well there you go, we've been very, very generous last night.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40If it was underweight or you were caught not weighing it,
0:20:40 > 0:20:42you could be fined up to five pounds,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46which would be 40 times your weekly wage.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Bread would also be delivered to factories,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54so junior bakers were sometimes still working
0:20:54 > 0:20:5718 hours after they'd started.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01Some lovely loaves for you.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04I'll get this one, you want to get that one?
0:21:04 > 0:21:05Let's go.
0:21:06 > 0:21:1018 hours in that environment with that soot,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13lifting those weights, you know,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15I literally take my hat off
0:21:15 > 0:21:20because quite frankly I don't think many people can do that any more.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24This tiny glimpse that we've had into their world
0:21:24 > 0:21:29has just made me realise just how difficult
0:21:29 > 0:21:30their lives would have been
0:21:30 > 0:21:33and how hard they would have had to work to put,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36you know, bread on their own table,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39let alone feeding the nation like they've done as it was growing.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45From the mid-19th century onwards, legislation limited the working day
0:21:45 > 0:21:51to ten hours for an ever increasing number of trades, but not baking.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Fresh bread for breakfast
0:21:53 > 0:21:55had come to be seen as an essential service.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59A series of bakers' strikes demanded better pay, conditions
0:21:59 > 0:22:02and an end to overnight working.
0:22:02 > 0:22:03But with no success.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07In a freelance industry with 14,000 journeymen
0:22:07 > 0:22:12competing for jobs in London alone, employers had the upper hand.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16You could hardly blame bakers
0:22:16 > 0:22:19for spending what little free time they had down the pub.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23"Exhausted by the inordinate amount of work exacted of them
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"how strong is the temptation during the brief periods
0:22:26 > 0:22:28"which they can snatch from labour and sleep,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32"systematically to repair to the alehouse,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37"to stir up their languid frames by means of stimulating draughts.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40"No wonder then, if in the course of time
0:22:40 > 0:22:44"they abandon themselves to dissipated habits."
0:22:44 > 0:22:46- Have you got any dissipated habits? - I have many.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50I have literally, I've got a whole closetful of 'em I think.
0:22:50 > 0:22:51I think we all have.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54I kind of feel a bit depressed for them
0:22:54 > 0:22:56because I can go back to my life.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00And even though that's a lot of hours, difficult,
0:23:00 > 0:23:05it's not this, you know, it's not the drudgery of 18 hours
0:23:05 > 0:23:10through the night, 20st, caked in all sorts of muck.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11- It was dirty.- HARPREET:- Yeah.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14It wasn't about the quality of the product.
0:23:14 > 0:23:15It was purely about the volume.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19People at the top are wanting more and more money, more profit,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and are pushing us harder and harder.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28In the mid-1870s, bakers' hands
0:23:28 > 0:23:31earned between 12 and 20 shillings a week,
0:23:31 > 0:23:33often less than an average male factory worker,
0:23:33 > 0:23:35but they worked more hours.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Despite this, bakehouse owners were struggling to make a profit
0:23:40 > 0:23:45as they tried to hold on to business amongst hundreds of competitors.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48The biggest challenge came from the so called undersellers
0:23:48 > 0:23:51which, much like supermarket chains today,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55won custom by competing ruthlessly on price.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58They were sometimes owned directly by milling firms who,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02by cutting out the middleman, could supply cheaper flour.
0:24:02 > 0:24:03We move into a time where really
0:24:03 > 0:24:07in order to make a profit, you have to start cutting corners.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09One of the ways in which you can become competitive
0:24:09 > 0:24:11is to become an underseller.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13Now there's all sorts of ways in which you can do that.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17You can cut costs through labour, cheaper labour, longer hours,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19but you've already kind of experienced that.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21But there are other ways within which you can do it
0:24:21 > 0:24:25and that has to do with adulteration of the flour itself.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28We're going to turn out around the same number of loaves
0:24:28 > 0:24:32as yesterday, but we'd like you to use a lot less flour.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34You're going to be making one full sack of flour,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37the aim of which is to bulk it out.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39We'll give you what you're putting into it shortly,
0:24:39 > 0:24:41and then a half sack of flour,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43where the aim is to really work on the whiteness of the loaf.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Here we go again.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Let me get in there, John.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53- HARPREET:- Shall I get the water, guys?- That sounds good, yeah.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Beautiful sponge and what are we about to add?
0:24:56 > 0:24:58What a travesty.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00For much of the Victorian era,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02there wasn't effective regulation in place
0:25:02 > 0:25:05to check whether food or drink were being sold in a pure state.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08So there was little to stop traders adding ingredients,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10usually with something cheaper.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14A common act of adulteration was watering down milk.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19Flour was by far the most expensive outlay for any bakery.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21A single sack cost five times as much
0:25:21 > 0:25:24as a junior baker's pay for the week.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28So using less of it would massively reduce the owner's running costs.
0:25:28 > 0:25:29Here...
0:25:31 > 0:25:33..is your first adulterant.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36- Chalk. HARPREET:- What is it?
0:25:36 > 0:25:37- It's chalk.- Oh.- Lovely.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41We know from accounts that people were adding about 10%.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45So what we've done is taken out 10% of the flour.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Here's 10% chalk.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49I can't believe that this went in there. I mean, I'm...
0:25:49 > 0:25:52It's got this grittiness to it, it's incredible.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54The texture of it is just ridiculous.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56My God!
0:25:56 > 0:25:57Pfft!
0:25:57 > 0:25:59It's so dusty.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02- JOHN FOSTER:- This is not guys, this. This is not good.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Welcome to the future.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06It smells like it's a mortar mix,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09like you're mixing up like plaster something, it genuinely does.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11There's nothing that smells of bread in here.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13It's got this grittiness about it
0:26:13 > 0:26:16which is just...awful.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22There's nothing that's right about this
0:26:22 > 0:26:25and the idea that they would have reached this level
0:26:25 > 0:26:29of trying to eke out, you know, as much as possible
0:26:29 > 0:26:33from their ingredients is just, it's just crazy.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38I know it's a test but I feel ashamed even though it's a test
0:26:38 > 0:26:42which is...which I didn't think I would do.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47We're doing it not from any moralistic point of view,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49we're doing it because we're cheating.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51That's the issue, it's cheating.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53That's...there's no other word.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57The trough was slightly damaged by John's feet kneading
0:26:57 > 0:26:58the night before
0:26:58 > 0:27:02so this time the bakers will stick to using their upper bodies
0:27:02 > 0:27:05which they soon appreciate is much, much harder.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11The whole thing is pretty much sickening, in all fairness,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and the physical exertion
0:27:14 > 0:27:17you've got to put just to get the damn stuff made,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20I've got an oven to the back of me and...
0:27:20 > 0:27:22A baker to the right.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25It's just ridiculous that even though we're making all this effort,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29there's absolutely no way you'd want to stick it in your own shop.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32It's just...
0:27:38 > 0:27:41- What a thankless task. - It's just nuts.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43Right, I'm sweating buckets.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45- It's dripping into the trough. - Every time you sweat...
0:27:45 > 0:27:47- Look at this. - You have to move aside,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49wipe yourself, you'd never get it mixed.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54- HARPREET:- I think everyone's feeling quite low
0:27:54 > 0:27:55because you don't mind working hard
0:27:55 > 0:27:57when you're excited about the end product,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00but the level of excitement about this chalk bread
0:28:00 > 0:28:02is just on the floor.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04I've never kneaded this quantity.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09Come on!
0:28:09 > 0:28:14This level of physical exertion would be illegal in a modern bakery.
0:28:14 > 0:28:1520st.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18I mean, you're only allowed to lift, by today's standards,
0:28:18 > 0:28:2416 kilos, which is like two and a half stone.
0:28:24 > 0:28:30Here you are in a trough, next to a furnace, you know.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33You can't have people doing this.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36At the moment, not only do I want to throw up
0:28:36 > 0:28:39because I'm leaning over this...
0:28:40 > 0:28:43..my back's hurting, my legs are hurting.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Then might I suggest it is time to stop?
0:28:46 > 0:28:47- Never.- Yeah, well...
0:28:47 > 0:28:50The reason I came here was to see what my family did.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54If this is what they did, then who am I not to do it?
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Do you want that on your gravestone?
0:28:56 > 0:28:57No matter how much you mix that,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59you're not going to pull it together.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01But are you talking from a... I mean, love you to bits,
0:29:01 > 0:29:03but are you talking from a health and safety point of view
0:29:03 > 0:29:06or just the fact you like us and we don't want to be dead?
0:29:06 > 0:29:08- Not dying is a bit of a bonus, but...- Yeah.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11..but I still don't think that you're going to pull together,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13to get the type of dough that you're expected to get.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15- All I want to do is not give up. - Yeah.- I don't give up.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Eventually, John accepts he needs a break.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29My shirt is literally...
0:29:29 > 0:29:31I'm going to have to peel this off later on.
0:29:31 > 0:29:32If it gets any hotter in here,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36it's going to be naked bakers central.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38Many bakers did knead topless,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41another cause for Victorian concern
0:29:41 > 0:29:43about what was being added to their bread.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Leading food writer of the period Eliza Acton
0:29:46 > 0:29:49described how the violent exertions of bakers
0:29:49 > 0:29:51who were overflowing with perspiration,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55led to torrents of sweat pouring into the bread.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59She summed up the conditions bakers worked in with a simple word -
0:29:59 > 0:30:01killing.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05So she campaigned for what today seems the obvious solution
0:30:05 > 0:30:09to both the poor hygiene and the human misery.
0:30:09 > 0:30:10- Where are the machines?- Yeah.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12It's the Industrial Revolution, where are the machines?
0:30:12 > 0:30:17It's still nowhere near where I thought we'd be.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Victorian science and industry
0:30:19 > 0:30:21did invent some bread making machinery,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23as early as the 1850s
0:30:23 > 0:30:27but the first models caused as many problems as they solved.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31You've got to work out how you power your machinery.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34When you consider that most of the bakehouses are this kind of size,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36where are you going to site the machinery?
0:30:36 > 0:30:37And the capital cost is immense.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39And then you look at things like this.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42- It's not just the fact that labour's cheap.- Is that steam? Electric?
0:30:42 > 0:30:44- What's that?- It's hand-cranked. Hand-cranked.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46So it's still using the labour they've got.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49You've got to fill the machine by hand, you've got to turn it by hand,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51you've got to get the dough out by hand.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53When you've done all of that you think,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55"Well, what is the point in spending all this money?
0:30:55 > 0:30:57"I might as well just do the whole thing by hand."
0:30:57 > 0:31:00- Um, and when you've got people like...- Cheap labour.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03- Yeah, the journeymen bakers... - Expendable.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05- Yeah. It is expendable... - It always comes back to that.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07What's the one thing that they can afford
0:31:07 > 0:31:13to use, abuse, burnout and turnover, it's...it's people.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16The other thing is that journeymen bakers themselves
0:31:16 > 0:31:17resist mechanisation.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19And their argument is, well,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22if you bring in a machine, it does away with the jobs for all of us.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24- JOHN FOSTER:- They're scared. - Mm.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29So put sacredness on top of this,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31you're going to work your arse off, aren't you?
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Your guts are going to come up doing this,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36cos you don't want to be out of a job.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39What a horrible, horrible situation to be in.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Although the average small scale bakery didn't mechanise,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50a few large factories found more success at this time.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56This machine was capable of converting two sacks of flour
0:31:56 > 0:32:00into 400 two-pound loaves in just 40 minutes.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03It would take our four bakers all night to do the same.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06And the resulting bread was 20% cheaper.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10No wonder the company who owned it
0:32:10 > 0:32:12became a household name to Victorians.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Today, they have largely been forgotten,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19but you can just make out traces of the Aerated Bread Company
0:32:19 > 0:32:23over there, in the street signage of Fleet Street.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26None of their extraordinary machines survive,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28but at the university of Huddersfield,
0:32:28 > 0:32:30there's a food scientist who can recreate the bread
0:32:30 > 0:32:32once enjoyed by millions of Victorians,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35but which barely anyone has eaten for a century.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39And as Professor Grant Campbell explains to me,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42the ABC machine marked a revolutionary break
0:32:42 > 0:32:44with millennia of bread making.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49For thousands of years, we've been getting bubbles into bread
0:32:49 > 0:32:52using yeast to slowly, slowly produce the carbon dioxide
0:32:52 > 0:32:54and that makes our dough piece rise.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56We put them in the oven, we bake it into bread,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58we've got this nice aerated loaf.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02But the Victorians had discovered what carbon dioxide was
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and how to produce it themselves
0:33:04 > 0:33:08and how to make carbonated water, soda water with that.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13- OK.- Now, here we have some carbonated water.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16If you then mix that with flour to create a dough,
0:33:16 > 0:33:18- keeping it all under pressure... - Right.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22..then you'll get a lot of carbon dioxide dissolved in your dough.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25When you release the pressure, your dough expands.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27You can put it straight in the oven and bake it
0:33:27 > 0:33:29and you haven't had to wait around for the yeast
0:33:29 > 0:33:31to produce the carbon dioxide.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Though Grant's aerating machine clearly isn't steam-powered
0:33:34 > 0:33:38like the original, it does replicate the process
0:33:38 > 0:33:42of forcing carbon dioxide into the dough mix under pressure.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45And even on a small scale, you sense what an appealing alternative
0:33:45 > 0:33:48it must have seemed to handmade bread.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50This was sold, in part,
0:33:50 > 0:33:52that it was pure and it was hygienic
0:33:52 > 0:33:55and that you were no longer, when you were eating your bread,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58eating quite a lot of bakers' sweat.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00I would have bought this new bread for that reason alone.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03The Victorians were simply very experimental.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07It was a time of massive social change and industrial change
0:34:07 > 0:34:10and they wanted to try new and modern things
0:34:10 > 0:34:12that made business sense, as well.
0:34:12 > 0:34:13There was an element of -
0:34:13 > 0:34:16the science and the engineering allowed this.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Oh, wow. That's grown.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22That's raising.
0:34:22 > 0:34:23Another reason why Victorians
0:34:23 > 0:34:25were trying to make bread without yeast
0:34:25 > 0:34:29was the work of contemporary French scientist, Louis Pasteur.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31For thousands of years,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35the action of whatever it was that was making bread rise
0:34:35 > 0:34:38was mysterious and a bit sinister.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42And then Pasteur comes along and shows it's a living organism
0:34:42 > 0:34:43and not only that,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46it's the same sort of stuff as germs which make you sick.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49Some Victorians began to worry
0:34:49 > 0:34:52whether yeast itself was another dodgy additive.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54The growing temperance movement
0:34:54 > 0:34:57were also suspicious of it because, like booze,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59yeast relies on fermentation.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04So why isn't aerated bread still on sale today?
0:35:05 > 0:35:07Right, here we go then.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16It's bread.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22It's missing something and it's...
0:35:22 > 0:35:25- ..it's...cloy-ey.- Mm.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28- I am missing the yeast.- Yes.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31- It's not inedible.- No.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35But I don't know whether that's a go-to bread for me.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41It's a fantastic taste of Victorian Britain,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43- a taste of scientific...- Yes.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45..and technology-driven Victorian Britain.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48But I don't know that it's a taste
0:35:48 > 0:35:50that would necessarily take off today.
0:35:50 > 0:35:51Possibly not.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00But in the 19th century,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03unadulterated aerated bread was stealing sales
0:36:03 > 0:36:06from independent bakers,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09making their lives harder still.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11How many more?
0:36:11 > 0:36:16By 3am, the bakers have their chalky dough in the oven.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20They still have another 50 standard loaves to bake and for those
0:36:20 > 0:36:23they're going to experiment with a different additive.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Ah, that looks beautifully white.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28- JOHN FOSTER:- Yeah, lovely. - Oh, my God, it's horrible.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32I'd be quite careful with this one if you've got cuts on your hands.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36This is the adulterant par excellence -
0:36:36 > 0:36:38this is alum.
0:36:38 > 0:36:39Alum?
0:36:39 > 0:36:42- Which is potassium aluminium sulphate.- It stinks!
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Doesn't that cause brain damage?
0:36:44 > 0:36:47- Not immediately.- Ah.- Oh, OK.- No.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51This was an adulterant that was in really common use.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54We know from the examinations of bread done by The Lancet,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57every single loaf of bread in London had this in it.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00The point of alum is really threefold.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02One is it is supposed to be a flour improver,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04another is that it's supposed to help you
0:37:04 > 0:37:06to add more water to the dough
0:37:06 > 0:37:09and the other is that it whitens flour.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14The bakers fetch the flour they'll supposedly improve with alum.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19It feels gritty, it actually is really smelly
0:37:19 > 0:37:21and precisely as Annie said,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24I've got a cut on this finger that I managed to do yesterday
0:37:24 > 0:37:26while scaling off, and it's starting to sting a bit.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31So there's that immediate change that you can tell
0:37:31 > 0:37:33and we are not happy bakers today.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37Jeez, it stinks.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Stinks. It's very dry. Most of it's in my...
0:37:42 > 0:37:44- JOHN FOSTER: - Get all of that water in.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Just smell it, there's something just not right about this.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58When mixed with alum, flour becomes more absorbent.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01That means the weight of each loaf the bakers sell
0:38:01 > 0:38:04will come more from water and less from flour,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07so they save on their most expensive ingredient.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10- JOHN FOSTER:- You want more water in? - We'll have more water.- Fantastic.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13- But I don't think we need the... - Water's...water's free, innit?
0:38:13 > 0:38:15- DUNCAN:- Fantastic. Thank God for alum!
0:38:15 > 0:38:17Yeah, yeah, good old alum.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Water's free, so, from a historic point of view,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22we're in the money, guys.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24We're in the money.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28From our 21st-century perspective, it'd be easy to think
0:38:28 > 0:38:31that bakers who behaved like this were unscrupulous villains.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36But the reality of adulteration was more complex.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Though adding alum to bread was technically illegal,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41buying it certainly wasn't.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Every pharmacist stocked it.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47The Victorians would have come to a pharmacy like this one
0:38:47 > 0:38:49to buy their medicines
0:38:49 > 0:38:51but also to buy things for culinary use -
0:38:51 > 0:38:53chrome yellow, for example,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55which was used to give colour to Bath buns.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59That's not an additive we'd allow today because it contains lead
0:38:59 > 0:39:03and in one particularly unfortunate case from 1859,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05a baker in Bath accidentally poisoned
0:39:05 > 0:39:08six customers because when he'd reached for the chrome yellow,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13he'd ended up using a similar-looking pharmaceutical product - arsenic.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16The point is that although chemistry was flourishing,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20food regulation was really in its infancy.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Bakers added all sorts of things to their bread and many of them
0:39:23 > 0:39:25weren't harmful at all.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Things like pea flour and bean flour and potato flour -
0:39:28 > 0:39:30they were just a lot cheaper than flour
0:39:30 > 0:39:32and helped to bulk out the bread.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Even when it came to things like alum
0:39:34 > 0:39:36which we'd certainly avoid today,
0:39:36 > 0:39:38the most it would probably do
0:39:38 > 0:39:40is just give you a bit of an upset stomach.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Indeed, bakers argued that it wasn't even really an adulterant,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47it was more of an additive, an improver.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51And why did bakers feel the need to improve bread?
0:39:51 > 0:39:53Because that's what customers wanted,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56according to Britain's leading medical journal.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00The Lancet, which regularly analysed the amount of adulterants in food,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04pointed out that consumers were apt to complain.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07"Lord Baker, how brown your bread is today"
0:40:07 > 0:40:11And yet they still demanded cheap, white bread.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14So consumers, as well as producers,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16were to blame for the food adulteration scandal
0:40:16 > 0:40:18in the Victorian period.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21The same still rings true today.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25There just comes a point where food cannot get any cheaper
0:40:25 > 0:40:28without someone, somewhere fudging it.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Horse meat burger, anyone?
0:40:31 > 0:40:36Many Victorian consumers would never have tasted unadulterated bread,
0:40:36 > 0:40:40and bakers would have become skilful in the artful use of additives.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45But our 21st-century bakers can't draw on the same experience.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47It's just like foam, like sludge.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51The Victorian accounts are vague about quantities and techniques.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53The bakers may have added too much alum
0:40:53 > 0:40:55and misjudged the flour quality.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Really, really strange to work with.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02- There's nothing to actually to do. - To do, yeah.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Just, yeah. But this is better, apparently.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08Something's happened to this, definitely,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10because there's just no stretch to it,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14it's not, it's not bread as we know it.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18But Victorian customers judged bread not on stretch, but on appearance.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21By the end of the shift, the bakers have successfully turned out
0:41:21 > 0:41:25150 decent-looking white loaves.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28How much repeat business they'd have got is harder to say.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33So, this is what I've been most interested to see,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35is what it tastes like.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37Here we are. You start off, Duncan.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39- I'm the guinea pig, am I? - Go for it.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41- JOHN SWIFT:- If you choke, we will all run.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Now this is the one that's got the chalk in, isn't it?
0:41:44 > 0:41:47- Yeah.- Oh!
0:41:47 > 0:41:49- Have you just hit the chalk? - Ooh, it's gritty.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52There's a grittiness about it.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Ah.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57What do you think?
0:41:57 > 0:42:00It tastes like bread but there's a...
0:42:00 > 0:42:02That would grind your teeth down.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05It would bring a new definition to the meaning of a sandwich,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07wouldn't it?
0:42:08 > 0:42:11- It is awful. - The thing is it's whiter, so...
0:42:11 > 0:42:13- It's whiter, definitely. - ..what you have achieved
0:42:13 > 0:42:15is something that is marketable.
0:42:15 > 0:42:16- Mm.- Yeah.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19In terms of how it appears.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20It's time, I think.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24Still a bit of warmth in this one.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27This makes me sound like a diva, but I don't even want to try it.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29You're not even going to try it?
0:42:29 > 0:42:31And it's not really the health thing, it's just, I mean,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34this has been really upsetting, having to make this.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36And it's kind of more what it represents to me.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38- You're not going to try it? - I'm going on strike.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40- OK, I know John will try it. - Yeah.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44John, verdict?
0:42:44 > 0:42:46- Barley bread.- Really?
0:42:46 > 0:42:47Just like barley bread.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50- Barley bread with fizz. - JOHN SWIFT:- Does it fizz?
0:42:50 > 0:42:53- Yeah.- There's fizz in that. - There's fizz.
0:42:53 > 0:42:54Cor.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58- That is actually disgusting. - Ugh, when it hits you.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00It's, it's sort of borderline rancid.
0:43:00 > 0:43:01And then you get that fizz, don't you...
0:43:01 > 0:43:04- Can you compare it to anything that you've ever...?- No.
0:43:04 > 0:43:05I can't compare that to anything
0:43:05 > 0:43:08I would put in my mouth and enjoy eating in any way, shape or form.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11- That's disgusting. - There is an extra twist to this.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Now, millers are renowned for adulterating the flour
0:43:14 > 0:43:15before you even get it.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18So I don't know how much you picked up on it
0:43:18 > 0:43:21because I know you were so appalled by the fact you were using alum,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25but there's a substantial portion of sour flour in here,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27properly off, rancid flour.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30So some of that sour note is due to the fact that we,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33or rather our miller, had adulterated the flour before it even got here.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Which means the baker really can't win.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38Well, that explains it.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41So by the time that that loaf will get to the customer,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44if we've adulterated it and the miller's adulterated it,
0:43:44 > 0:43:45what are they going to get?
0:43:45 > 0:43:47They get...it's basically nothing.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49Alum was used to improve flour,
0:43:49 > 0:43:51but this bake was impossible to salvage.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Today it's just been a kind of a travesty to my trade,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00my craft and sort of everything I stand for
0:44:00 > 0:44:02as sort of a modern artisan baker.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05We've actually been looking at this real dark side
0:44:05 > 0:44:08of the baking industry in the Victorian era.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10And that's something I've never come across before
0:44:10 > 0:44:13and that's been really interesting.
0:44:13 > 0:44:19To be this tired, having done nothing valuable,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21is just heartbreaking.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24John Swift's family bakery was started in this period,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27exactly the time when adulteration would have been rife.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29I reflected and thought, you know,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33have my family at some point used these methods -
0:44:33 > 0:44:35the chalk and stuff?
0:44:35 > 0:44:39And there may have been a chance that we actually didn't do it,
0:44:39 > 0:44:41but there is a massive chance that we did.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I mean, they were living in times where, you know,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46if they didn't eat, they died,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48if they lost their job, they were at the workhouse.
0:44:48 > 0:44:54So, you know, when push comes to shove, who knows? They may have.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01In the 1880s, things finally began to look up for bakers.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04They benefitted at last from some technological progress,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06though it didn't happen in their premises.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10In the USA and Canada,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12vast areas were now growing far better wheat
0:45:12 > 0:45:13than Britain could produce
0:45:13 > 0:45:16and harvesting it with efficient new machinery.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Transcontinental railroads brought the grain to port.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Huge cargo ships brought it cheaply across the Atlantic.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30And in Britain, the sophisticated new technology
0:45:30 > 0:45:34of steam-powered metal roller mills turned the wheat into purer,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37whiter flour than had been possible with stone grinding.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44By the mid-1880s, this purer, stronger imported flour
0:45:44 > 0:45:46was also 50% cheaper than home-grown.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49To bakers, it must have seemed miraculous,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52but it was all thanks to technological progress.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07- Good evening. - Good evening.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10Got something else to add here to your trolley.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13You're very, very lucky because Britain has access
0:46:13 > 0:46:18to enormous supplies of cheap grain coming in from the United States.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21It would be milled in ports like Liverpool, Manchester,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24and then brought down to places like this on the barge,
0:46:24 > 0:46:26but, of course, also on the railway lines, as well.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28So you've got good, cheap,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30unadulterated, pure flour to work with.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32- Success.- Yes.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33And the other thing you've got is sugar.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37Sugar comes down enormously in price during Victoria's reign
0:46:37 > 0:46:39and, of course, consumption of it goes up
0:46:39 > 0:46:41in direct relation to the price of it.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43So we know that sugar consumption pretty much doubles.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47From the beginning of Victoria's reign till in the 1880s,
0:46:47 > 0:46:52we're consuming around 80 pounds per head, per person, per year.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55So tonight, not only are we going to be baking loaves,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58we're also going to diversify and that's where the sugar comes in.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02We're going to be baking that great 19th-century classic - buns!
0:47:02 > 0:47:05- Let's make our way to the bakehouse. - At least it's edible.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08British baking was turning a corner at last.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12- Now that's finer. - That feels so good.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Look how white that is. Mm.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16- HARPREET:- I'm really excited to work with this.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18And I'm pretty sure this hasn't been contaminated.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26As soon as the bakers start working with the flour,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28they notice the difference.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Do you feel like there's a buzz in the bakery?
0:47:31 > 0:47:33- Yeah, I mean, we're definitely all upbeat now.- Yeah.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36Cos we've got something decent to work with
0:47:36 > 0:47:38and I don't feel like we're going to make something
0:47:38 > 0:47:41that's going to kill children.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43God, this looks so much better.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46This is so good from where we've been.
0:47:46 > 0:47:47This is, yeah.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51It's literally, it's, it's so familiar, as well, the way it feels.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55- It is, yeah.- I'm even considering catching my sweat,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57so it doesn't go into it cos I'm thinking,
0:47:57 > 0:47:59"I don't want to ruin the dough."
0:47:59 > 0:48:01North American flour is naturally high in gluten,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03making it perfect for bread,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06and it's still widely used in British baking.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09I would really, really like to be able to buy, you know,
0:48:09 > 0:48:11the lovely spelt that is grown
0:48:11 > 0:48:14and milled literally ten miles down the road from me.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18But the reality is there has to be some compromises.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22I'm a big believer in local but only when it works for my business.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24- So we buy local when it's better. - Yeah.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29By the end of Victoria's reign, 90% of British flour was imported
0:48:29 > 0:48:31and our wheat industry came close to collapse.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34We're doing this, we're killing ourselves...
0:48:34 > 0:48:36- But it's for a purpose. - ..third day in a row.- Yeah.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40But at least it feels like we're making something decent again...
0:48:40 > 0:48:42- Yeah.- ...yesterday. - What a difference a dough makes.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44JOHN FOSTER LAUGHS
0:48:44 > 0:48:46I didn't hear much laughing yesterday.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50- HARPREET:- That's cos yesterday we were bloody depressed!
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Better flour wasn't the only example of technological progress
0:48:54 > 0:48:57finally improving life for 1880s bakers.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01I think we can safely say that the Industrial Revolution
0:49:01 > 0:49:04has finally arrived in the bakehouse,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07heralded by the advent of tins.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10And these things, I think, are a progressive step in the sense
0:49:10 > 0:49:14that you can just get more in the oven with tins.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16It's a lot cleaner because we're still on the er, floor.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18- Yeah.- We're still firing with coal.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21- Yeah.- We're still getting that dirt, so using these...
0:49:21 > 0:49:22That'll definitely..
0:49:22 > 0:49:25It's cutting out the amount of filth on the bottom of the loaf.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29I can sense the sort of morale is lifting in the bakehouse.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32- HARPREET:- Morale could not possibly have been any lower yesterday.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35- Yeah. - DUNCAN:- Excellent.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37This dough is really different.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39From the moment you cut it out the bowl,
0:49:39 > 0:49:41you can tell it's got that elasticity,
0:49:41 > 0:49:44where you can really pull it out without it breaking
0:49:44 > 0:49:46and you've got that, that stretchiness.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48Seam on the bottom, seam on the bottom.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50Of course.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56Average wages for working people began to improve in the 1880s.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Even a humble factory worker could afford the occasional bun,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02which is good news for cake baker, Harpreet.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04Doesn't it feel good to be working with sugar again?
0:50:04 > 0:50:07HE LAUGHS
0:50:07 > 0:50:08OK, that's about right.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11And then we want a pint of milk.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15For centuries, bakehouses only sold bread,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18but as the price of sugar fell, bakers increasingly diversified.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Buns weren't too big a leap from standard bread dough,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24still reliant on yeast for their texture.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29- Whoa, that is awesome. - Isn't that fun?
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Just leave me here guys. I'm in heaven.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35So this really is a sweet treat.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38- This is when you come into your own then, Harpreet?- Definitely.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43So, now, to the sponge we're adding this fantastic peel,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46which is the best thing I've smelt in days,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48- other than Duncan, of course. - Ooh, that smells nice.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52- Mm.- This is for the Bath buns?
0:50:52 > 0:50:54Yeah. Well, they're known as London buns.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57They have their origins in the Great Exhibition,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00which was sort of the generation before, really - 1851.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04This huge exhibition set up by Prince Albert,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07to kind of showcase British industrialism.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09So you can imagine this Great Exhibition,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11six million visitors,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13all of them needed feeding.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15And there were lots of food stalls put on.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Schweppes, they were one of the contractors,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20providing food for people there.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22I've got an appendix here which lists all of the foodstuffs
0:51:22 > 0:51:23that were sold.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Soda water, lemonade and ginger beer -
0:51:26 > 0:51:27over a million bottles.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31But most importantly for our purposes - Bath buns. OK?
0:51:31 > 0:51:33So this bun had come from the West Country,
0:51:33 > 0:51:35from your homeland, Duncan.
0:51:35 > 0:51:42934,691 Bath buns.
0:51:42 > 0:51:43- That's...- That is insane.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47I mean, that's nearly a million buns.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51The Bath buns sold at the exhibition were reputedly cheaper
0:51:51 > 0:51:54and sweeter than the traditional West Country variety and so,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57according to some, the London bun was born.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58It's turned into a bakery.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00This is, this is the nice bit.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03We've got certain jobs being done in certain places,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05it's...it's like, you know.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08And the environment we're in is, isn't exactly a modern bakery,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10but the actual systems in place
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and the ingredients coming in, it's starting to feel like more
0:52:13 > 0:52:14of a modern bakery.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16It's starting to feel like what we're used to.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19And you can tell that by everyone's faces
0:52:19 > 0:52:20cos they're all smiling.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25It's just really nice working with a dough
0:52:25 > 0:52:29that you just know is packed full of delicious stuff,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33and they must have loved this back in the day. Eggs...
0:52:33 > 0:52:34This would have been the height of luxury.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36- ..butter...- Peel.- ..mixed peel. - Sugar.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40Yeah, all these exciting ingredients coming in.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43It's just great.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46So I'm kind of feeling excited cos I know that they...
0:52:46 > 0:52:48they would have been excited by all of this.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52- JOHN FOSTER:- Smells lovely. - Smells like Christmas.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Smells lovely now, doesn't it?
0:52:56 > 0:52:58With new ingredients and improved flour,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01pride is returning to the urban bakehouse.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05- There you go.- Oh, wow.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07I cannot wait to tuck into that.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10That is just the business.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13- DUNCAN:- That, I mean, you could sell that in a shop in the 21st century.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15You can see you've got the flour line,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17where you've put it on and it's moved.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20You've got...it's, it's jumped. It looks good.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23- DUNCAN:- Great, let's get the rest out.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30- Are you going onto the racks, yeah? - Yeah.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34- Nice colour on them. - Let's pop these underneath.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36They smell amazing.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38- Job done.- London buns.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40They do look pretty good.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44For the first time since arriving at the urban bakehouse,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48the bakers are excited to taste what they have produced.
0:53:49 > 0:53:50That's lovely.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53Best we've ate.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57I'm actually really impressed that we made this in this kitchen.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59Right, who's up for trying these buns?
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Really delicate, really lovely. Mm.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08I think it's really helped with the peel and the sugar on top.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10- That's actually really nice. - Good work!
0:54:10 > 0:54:12- JOHN SWIFT: - What a difference a day makes, eh?
0:54:12 > 0:54:15BRASS BAND PLAYS
0:54:15 > 0:54:16With the last shift
0:54:16 > 0:54:18in the industrial bakehouse at an end,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21the bakers are finally getting some fresh air
0:54:21 > 0:54:26and enjoying time off 1880s style with a brass band in the park.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29Alex and I have also dressed in the fashion of the time
0:54:29 > 0:54:34to join the bakers in a new commemorative ritual of the period.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Photography was becoming cheaper and more widespread
0:54:37 > 0:54:40towards the end of the 19th century.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42And bakers were among the tradespeople
0:54:42 > 0:54:45who lined up to be captured on film.
0:54:49 > 0:54:50Here we go.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55My, God! Oh, wow!
0:54:55 > 0:55:00- That is literally bonkers. - We look like the real deal.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02That is absolutely bonkers.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05- That looks superb, doesn't it? - Yeah, that is fantastic.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Captured the moment of a wonderful week's baking, I think.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Don't be using words like wonderful.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12- But we took you to the brink. - Yeah.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14- DUNCAN:- You literally did.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Although the working through the night isn't very nice,
0:55:17 > 0:55:19in terms of the physicality of life
0:55:19 > 0:55:21and in terms of the expectations on people
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and in terms of the fact that if you fail, there is no safety net,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26I think this is very reflective
0:55:26 > 0:55:29of the working-class experience in late Victorian Britain.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I have a massive respect for my family now
0:55:33 > 0:55:37because they were baking at this point with these...
0:55:37 > 0:55:38these conditions.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40And for my family to have gone through
0:55:40 > 0:55:43what I went through last night,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46it's just humbling and quite emotional.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Let's face it, they are aware they were going to go back
0:55:49 > 0:55:53to a world that has a welfare state and a health service so...
0:55:53 > 0:55:54- Yeah.- Actually, you know,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57they've just scratched the surface of what it would have been like.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59And our hands are not dirty, it's soot.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02I actually don't think I could have been a Victorian baker
0:56:02 > 0:56:05because the level of graft that was required
0:56:05 > 0:56:07in terms of kneading those doughs,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10I was just physically not strong enough to do it.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13So I think that I definitely would have got sent to the workhouse.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17When I look at a bread mixer in future,
0:56:17 > 0:56:19it will hold a special place in my heart
0:56:19 > 0:56:21because I know what it's doing.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25It really is taking that backbreaking,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28arm-aching, horrible work out of it.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31I think I'm going to go back to my bakery and hug a few things.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35The Victorian period - everything was expanding,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39everything was growing and if you could make money somewhere,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42you would, but there was always a price to pay
0:56:42 > 0:56:44and I think it's opened their eyes to that.
0:56:46 > 0:56:47I've been quite militant with my approach
0:56:47 > 0:56:52to bread and my not wanting the other types of bread,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55the commercial stuff to even really be in existence
0:56:55 > 0:56:57but I understand that we've kind of gone through
0:56:57 > 0:57:02periods in history where it was a genuine need to feed the nation.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Bread is what the industrialisation
0:57:05 > 0:57:07was kind of fuelled on.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10They didn't want to adulterate that bread, but the reality is,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12if you had family members at home,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14if you had a wife and children at home
0:57:14 > 0:57:17and you had to keep your business going, you would have had to.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20And these are still arguments we're having today.
0:57:20 > 0:57:21What goes into our food?
0:57:21 > 0:57:23What price do we need to pay for things?
0:57:23 > 0:57:26- Mm.- How much is too much? How cheap is too cheap?
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Physically, I hope it gets easier cos I think I'm done.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39Next time - the bakers experience the end of the Victorian era.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42Welcome to the future.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44This doesn't complain, this won't die
0:57:44 > 0:57:46and this can work 24 hours a day.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52Everything on the table is just shouting to me - high-end.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58It was a case of how bling can this cake be?
0:57:58 > 0:58:00This stuff isn't sexy.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06Sorry, that's not going to pass.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08These guys would have lost their minds.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11This is harder than kneading the dough by hand.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Oh, wow. That is phenomenal.