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500 years ago, Christmas was celebrated every bit | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
as enthusiastically as it is today. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
Mmm! | 0:00:10 | 0:00:11 | |
If anything, it was bigger. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:13 | |
Noise. Woo! | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
All work stopped on Christmas Eve, for 12 days of revelry and feasting... | 0:00:18 | 0:00:23 | |
Twelfth night cake, everyone! | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
..culminating on the twelfth night with the biggest | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
party of the year, when madness reigned. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
Our Lord of Misrule. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
Historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Tom Pinfold | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
and Peter Ginn have spent the last six months turning the clock | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
back to Tudor England, working as farmers under the watchful | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
eye of the country's biggest landowners, the monasteries. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
Now they're returning to celebrate Christmas - Tudor style. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
They must revive lost skills to prepare feasts. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:07 | |
Learn the art of falconry to catch game for a grand | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
banquet at the monastery... | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
Oh, very good. Oh! Well done. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
..while welcoming new life to their farm. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
Merry Christmas, little pigs. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
This is the untold story of how the farms of Tudor England | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
celebrated the 12 days of Christmas. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
Celebrating the Winter Solstice is a tradition that goes back millennia. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:43 | |
From this point on, the sun is getting higher in the sky | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
and the days are getting longer. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
The Romans celebrated it with Saturnalia, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
the Norsemen had Yule, and by the Tudor era it had | 0:01:56 | 0:02:00 | |
evolved into a Christian feast marking the birth of Christ. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
Oh, it has got that Christmas feel, don't you think? | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
It does, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
but let's face it, Christmas for the Tudors was 12 days of feasting | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
and fun. I know, I know, I know. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
Looking forward to that, but all the prep work we've got to do beforehand... | 0:02:13 | 0:02:18 | |
You can really feel that nip in the air. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
Before the 12 days of Christmas came Advent, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
24 days of fasting while preparing food for the feasts to come. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:28 | |
Advent's a long time, isn't it, Tom? | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
It is, but this is our prep time for the 12 days of Christmas, isn't it? | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
Well, are you looking forward to it? | 0:02:35 | 0:02:36 | |
I am. You know, it's going to be a lot of celebration, more ale... | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
Yeah. It'll be fun, but er, we've still got plenty to do beforehand. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
During Advent, no meat, eggs or cheese were to be eaten. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:48 | |
This was not just a religious observance | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
but also a chance to save food and money for the feasting ahead. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
Oh, don't say that, Ruth! | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
Ruth will be slaving over a hot fire somewhere. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:02 | |
The teachings of the Church dictated that the farmer | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
downed his tools for the 12 days of Christmas. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
So it was important the animals were well-stocked with fodder, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
Whoa, whoa! | 0:03:12 | 0:03:13 | |
The thing is, farming...it is relentless, it is a way of life, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
it is continuous, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
and even though Christmas is coming up, the farm has to continue. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
Our pigs are due at any moment, and it's going to coincide with Christmas. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:33 | |
So we've just got to keep our eye on them, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:34 | |
keep feeding them and just make sure they're healthy. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
In the early 1500s, it became popular to rear pigs to | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
sell on a commercial scale. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
You haven't started nesting yet. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
We'll keep our eyes on you, though. Keep your strength up. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
Pigs were the perfect animal for a Tudor farmer to breed. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
They not only ate pretty much anything, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
but provided many essential resources - | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
bristles to make brushes, fat to lubricate machinery. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
And almost every part could be eaten. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
I'm going to give you my big sharp knife. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:06 | |
Neal Careswell is helping Tom butcher a pig. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
Right, what you need to do is follow a nice smooth line all | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
the way behind the ear. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:14 | |
Turkey didn't become popular until the late 18th century. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:19 | |
The centrepiece of the Tudor Christmas dinner was the pig's head. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
Shall we flip it over and do the other side? OK. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
It was a tradition that dated back to the Anglo-Saxons. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
Back then, it would have been the head of a wild boar. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
But they were hunted to extinction in the 13th century. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
Now, the bit that not many people like doing is | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
you've literally just got to twist the head off. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
Are you serious? Yeah, serious. Do you want me to do it, Tom? | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
I think it's probably best. OK. I'll watch that. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
He says. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
And there we go. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:54 | |
Remarkable. Christmas dinner! Christmas dinner. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
Tom's taking the pig's head to Ruth, | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
who will prepare it for the Christmas dinner. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
Thank you... Quite a big pig's head for you. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
Oh, lovely! | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
First, the skull is removed to create a cavity | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
that will be stuffed with meat. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
As what I need to do is to keep all the flesh and the skin in one piece, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
because I'm going to re-form it into a pig's head without the skull. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:28 | |
Christmas was such an important celebration | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
that people went to extraordinary lengths for it. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
And you can see that this is not the sort of thing | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
you'd want for an everyday dinner, it just takes ages. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
It might seem strange to us, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
that it was a boar's head that was the Christmas dish, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
but I think you have to think of it in its sort of cultural context. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
To hunt a wild boar is a really scary thing to do. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
They are really feisty beasts. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
An adult wild male boar is a big creature | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
and it can easily kill a person. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
And if you've only got spears to hunt it with, | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
and that's what they used, then it takes a real degree of courage. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:15 | |
And as such, it had a very special place, you know, the boar's head, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
the trophy from such a hunt must have made a big impact. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:25 | |
Phew! That's the skull and there's my pig's head. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:34 | |
Next, the head must be pickled. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
So, I've got a blend of ale vinegars, Ale-Gar. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
And herbs, mostly bay leaf, and a little bit of mustard seed. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
And I just press it under the pickle and leave it. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
Until Christmas gets a little bit closer | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
and I'm ready for the next stage. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
The Tudors cooked everything on wood fires. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
So, in preparation for the 12 days of feasting, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
Peter's stocking up on firewood. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
Anyone who's done any cooking on Christmas Day | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
knows that some of the most stressful period of your life | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
is the three hours you spend in the kitchen | 0:07:11 | 0:07:12 | |
with saucepans here, mixing bowls there. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
Is the turkey defrosted? | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
Will it fit in the oven? | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
Ruth's got, like, 12 days of this. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
So, I've just got to make sure that this wood pile | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
is stocked nicely and she's a happy lady. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
Otherwise I might find myself sleeping in the cow shed. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:35 | |
The only way to adjust the heat on a Tudor stove | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
was by burning different types of wood. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
So, the majority of your wood pile would be made up of beech and ash, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
because they are your, sort of, mid-range burners. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
However, if you want a slightly slower, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
longer heat, you need a denser wood, like oak. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
Whereas if you want a flash fry, go for hazel. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
And there he is. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
The pig's head has been pickled in vinegar, herbs and mustard. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
Now it's ready for the next stage, stuffing with chopped pork. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
So, I'm trying to make him look, in the finished thing, | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
as lifelike as possible. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:19 | |
Tough stuff, pig's skin. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
To contain the stuffing, Ruth's sewing up the head as she goes. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
So, I've made him into a sort of floppy bag, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
now I can carry on stuffing. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
A little bit more meat there. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
She's also adding in an ingredient | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
that was a rare delicacy in Tudor England. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
Raisins. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
And I've made this raisin-y paste, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
and that's going to go right in the centre of the boar's head. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
Imported from the Mediterranean, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
they would have been very expensive and used sparingly. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
Once stuffed and sewn up, the entire head is wrapped in cloth | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
to hold it together, ready for cooking. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
And when he comes out cooked, and he's going to boil for, er, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:09 | |
about two to three hours, he'll still be very soft, | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
he'll be cooked through, but the whole thing will be very soft. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
So, I'll be able to take all the bandages off. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
And sort of re-form him into a slightly more pig-like appearance. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:25 | |
Midwinter was a dark, depressing and tough time that needed cheer. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:31 | |
So, Peter's headed out onto the monastic estate | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
with woodsman, John Roberts, to collect holly and ivy, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
which have been used since pre-Christian times | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
to brighten up the home. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
Oh! | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
Insert myself into the prickly nightmare that is this holly. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
In Pagan customs, holly was associated with the Sun God, | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
whose birth was celebrated on the 25th of December, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
a date later adopted by Christians as the birthday of Christ. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
The holly is such a symbolic tree, | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
I mean, I know that it's got the religious connotations | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
of erm, I suppose the sort of, the crown of thorns and the... Yes. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
the drop of blood of the berries. Yes. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
But it's also got much, much older Pagan connotations, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
it's a very male plant, isn't it? | 0:10:16 | 0:10:17 | |
Yes, yes, they always said in the, the sort of later Middle Ages | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
that if you want to look at the decorations in the house | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
and there was more ivy than holly, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:27 | |
and ivy was considered female, that it was a, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
a house where the woman wore the britches. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
We're going to have a lot of ivy, I think! | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
We can take these, these lower bits, yeah? | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
Yeah, yeah. They're definitely wood rather than timber. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
When you say, wood rather than timber, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
you mean there's a difference? There is, yes, size matters. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
Anything over 24 inches in circumference was timber | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
and that definitely belonged to the land owner. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
If you wanted that, you had to buy it off him. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
And below that size, it's wood. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
Which, as a tenant of the landlord, you were allowed to gather. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:06 | |
How far up do we want to go? | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
Well, I should think, to decorate the hall of the farmhouse, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
you're going to need a good ox-cart load. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
(Oh, no!) | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
Do you think we need to climb? We might need to, yes. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
Cor! There we go, oh! | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
That's fine, right. Oh! Oh-oh! | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
Is there much folklore surrounding holly? | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Oh, yes, a great deal, a lot of people believed that | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
it shouldn't be brought into the home unless it was Christmas time, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
or, in fact, you shouldn't cut it unless it was Christmas time. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
And locally, on the estate here, up until the 1960s, '70s, | 0:11:48 | 0:11:54 | |
the woodsmen wouldn't fell holly trees. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
They would pollard them, they'd trim them, but they wouldn't fell them. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
I just think it's a good excuse for them not to get prickled. Yes. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
Oh, that's satisfying. Yep. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
And it's stayed together. Marvellous! | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
Right, oh! | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
While the pig's head cooks, | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
Ruth makes a Tudor version of Christmas pudding. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
Ah! Right, I'm going to make some frumenty. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
Frumenty was a popular Tudor dish, | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
made by boiling cracked wheat in milk. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
But at Christmas, there were special added ingredients. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
Now to put in the flavouring, and this really is | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
the flavour of Christmas. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
Then, like now, the flavours of Christmas | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
were dried fruit and spices. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
Now that's quite exotic, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
all those raisins coming in from the Mediterranean. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
But the spices, they're truly exotic. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
So, I've ground up a little cinnamon bark. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
Scraped half of a nutmeg and crushed a dried ginger root. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:07 | |
These have travelled such a distance to get here, | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
halfway round the world. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
Traded hand to hand by one merchant to the next, | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
to the next and the next. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
But that's why people wanted them at Christmas, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
they're just that hint of the luxury of the aristocracy and the royalty. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
They're a taste reminder of the best, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
the most expensive experience, that you could have in Tudor Britain. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:34 | |
Decorating the house at midwinter is a tradition | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
that goes back millennia. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
So, Peter and Tom are making a 'Christmas Crown' | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
to hang from the ceiling of their farmhouse. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
Oh, that's good, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
Oh! | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
Although there are records of huge decorated crowns, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
there are no surviving instructions as to how they were made. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
Yeah, I was thinking arching, arching, arching, arching, weaving. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
So, the boys are experimenting. It's going to snap at any moment! | 0:14:01 | 0:14:06 | |
Oh! I hate this crown. Already, I hate this crown. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:11 | |
So, we've realised that to keep the tension in these vertical rods, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
we need to actually weight down the middle | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
and that way it'll be easier to weave in and out. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
I refuse to be beaten. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
If you're going to be beaten, it'll not be by something like this. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
They're reinforcing the crown, by weaving hazel around the rim, | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
using fence building skills that every Tudor farmer would have known. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
Yeah, this is just like wattle work or basketry, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
I suppose this is a giant basket. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
And as we build up, say six inches, we'll have a very solid structure. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:41 | |
Although this seems over-engineered, if you think about | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
a Tudor farmstead, you think about a Tudor cottage, | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
it's a huge open space, because you've got a fire | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
in the middle of the room. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:56 | |
And in order to fill that with greenery, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
you need something on this scale, suspended | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
and it'll be a fixture, a centrepiece. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
And there are records of people doing this. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
Not just, "Oh, some people did this," | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
this was a very, very common thing. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
The crown's structure built, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:17 | |
the boys are decorating it with foraged holly and ivy. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:23 | |
This greenery is so symbolic, it's got Christian connotations, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
it's got Pagan connotations, it puts you in the mood, doesn't it, Tom? | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
You got something that looks festive, colourful and enjoyable. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
This is our Christmas Crown. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
It's a celebration of colour and Christmas, mate. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
Shall we get it inside? | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
I think so. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
The Tudor equivalent of the mince pie was the shred pie. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
As well as containing the familiar dried fruit, cinnamon, ginger | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
and nutmeg, there was originally another essential ingredient. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:10 | |
Meat. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
It's funny, isn't it, that over 500 years, yeah, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
Christmas food has changed, but there's these little sort of threads | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
of continuity, particularly that spice and raisin mix. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:26 | |
Over time, naturally, the spice and the fruit, in particular, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
content rises and rises and rises. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
By 1600, 100 years later, you would have doubled the amount of raisins | 0:16:35 | 0:16:41 | |
and spices in there at the same sort of cost. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
By 1900, there was next to no meat left at all. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
The Tudor cook didn't have pie tins. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
The technology to make them cheaply didn't come along until the 1800s. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
So, the pastry had to be robust enough | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
to support itself in the oven. Oh, God! | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
Coming! Hands out the way. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
That goes on top, yeah. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
The pies are then baked in the bread oven. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
I've lit my faggot. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
What a way to light your oven, eh? | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
No boring pressing the button. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
It takes this oven about 40 minutes, 45 minutes, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
to get the heat just right and I gauge the temperature | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
by watching the flames. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
If you look at the moment, they're very orangey yellow, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
and very vertical, it's really cold in there, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
but as this faggot starts to burn down | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
and I start to put the other faggots in, the heat will start to build. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:46 | |
Push the last bits in. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
You might notice that there's no chimney there. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
The waste gases, the smoke and any other heat | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
has to come out the same hole that the wood goes in, | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
and that's deliberate. If you put a chimney in, you've totally ruined it, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
it won't work as an oven. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
What I need to do is trap all the heat from the fire. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
It is the SPACE that I'm heating, not the food, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
there's no food anywhere near it at the fire at the moment. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
As these stones get hot, they become the oven. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
When it's hot enough, take the fire out, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
put the food in where the fire used to be | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
and the hot stones do the cooking for me. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
In Tudor England, December the 21st was St Thomas's Day, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
when those who couldn't afford to celebrate Christmas | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
appealed to the better off for charity. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
KNOCK AT DOOR | 0:18:35 | 0:18:36 | |
Oh, that must the Thomas's. Hang on! | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
It was known as Thomasing. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
I've got a bowl prepared for them already. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Hi! Hello. Happy Christmas. I got a bowl for you already. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
Thank you very much. There you go. Enjoy it. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
Bye. Bye. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
It was the tradition for poorer members of the community | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
to go all round their neighbours, banging on the door, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
begging, I suppose, but in a nice way, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
for some ingredients towards their Christmas dinner. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
And the traditional gift was a big bowl of flour. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
The oven is now up to temperature, | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
so the fire is raked out and the pies put in. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
Christmas Eve was the last working day before the holidays began. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
So, final preparations were made for the celebrations ahead. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:30 | |
The boys are moving their crown into the farmhouse. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
But it appears they've made a rather unfortunate miscalculation. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
What do we do? Look, just tilt it. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
Yeah, OK. I'll go low. I'm humouring you. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
It's not even going to fit in sideways, Tom! | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
In, get in. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
Right, cut the strings? | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
No, you say no. Go for it, go for it. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
I promise you, I promise you. Ruth said no strings. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
There's obviously a reason why they didn't use string | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
in the construction of these things. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
Yeah, we're losing some hazel down here. Oh, are we? Yeah. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
HEAVE! | 0:20:15 | 0:20:16 | |
Finally, the Christmas Crown takes pride of place in the farmhouse. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
That's good, that's good, that's good there, isn't it? | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
Look at that. It's up there. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
I can smell the cooking, can't you? It's good, it's good. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:32 | |
In the kitchen, the finishing touches | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
are being applied to the Christmas Day feast. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
Ruth's decorated the stuffed pig's head. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:47 | |
There's also pork and ham from the pig. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
Frumenty. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
Shred pies. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
Pease pudding. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
Pickled salads. | 0:20:57 | 0:20:59 | |
And a Tudor favourite, leach, made from milk set in gelatine. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
Peter's even made some festive candles. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
Apart from the fact I've waxed my fingers to the wick... | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
That's a splendid candle. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
Christmas Day. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
In 1500, this was the first of the 12 days of Christmas. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:31 | |
Celebrations started with Holy Mass in the village church. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
Hoc est corpus meum qui pro vobis tradetum. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:41 | |
Then, after 24 days of fasting, it was time to begin feasting. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:47 | |
This is fantastic, you've made such a great job of it. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
Did you make it in here? | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
Let's go back, that would have been a good idea to make it in here. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
It's almost as good as the food, this is amazing! | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
I know, so stuff yourself stupid at Christmas. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
Might be plain, but there's plenty of it. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
Guests. Come on in, come on in! | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
Hiya. Hey, hey! Take a pew. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
Do you want to take these seats cos they're nice and tall. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
And we need that, Neal. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
Thanks for coming. Well done! | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
As was the custom, Peter, Tom and Ruth | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
have invited those who have worked on the farm over the past year, | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
to their banquet. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
Benedictus Benedicat per Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum, amen. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:31 | |
Amen. ALL: Amen. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
Meals this extravagant, with so much meat, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
would have been a once a year treat for most ordinary people. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
Hmmmm, good. Eat up. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
According to the Tudor theory of food digestion, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
the pork being the closest to the human body... Hmmm. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
..is the thing that gives the most nutrient. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
But unfortunately, it can sometimes overwhelm your system. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
So, if you eat too much pig and pork, and your system isn't up to it, | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
it can all go horribly wrong and you can make yourself very ill. Yeah. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
So, you line the base of your stomach with things particularly | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
like a pottage, and then you put the grosser meats on top. Hmm. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
And then you close it all off with cheese. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
You know, modern dinning techniques still follows that same | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
Medieval digestion, that we still have soup... Yeah, yeah. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
..followed by red meat, followed by the sort of puddingy things. Yeah. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
And then finish with cheese. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Professor Ronald Hutton, an expert in folklore, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
believes there was a good reason why Romans, Vikings and Christians | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
all feasted in December. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
All over ancient Europe, midwinter is a time for celebration. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
It's the worst part of the year, the darkest certainly, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
often the coldest and the muddiest. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
So, you need to keep cheerful. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
And there are always three components. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
First is feasting, which is what we're doing. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
You just bring out your best in order to make a party | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
at the worst of the year. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:07 | |
Second is lighting up your place, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
we got the sunlight streaming pallidly through the windows now. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
In the evening, we'll have logs in the grate, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
we'd have candles blazing. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
And the third thing is greenery, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
which is what the holly and ivy is about. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
It's bringing in whatever is still green in the woods | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
to remind us that out there life is still going on. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
It's really good therapy. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
Wassail! ALL: Wassail! | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
LAUGHTER AND CHATTER | 0:24:33 | 0:24:38 | |
Nowadays, Christmas Day is a culmination of the festive season. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
But for the Tudors, there was still 11 days to go. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:53 | |
The second day of Christmas, now called Boxing Day, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
was the feast of St Stephen. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
For farmers, although no work was done in the fields, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
there was still the animals to check on. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
How many of you are there? | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
In the pig pen, there are some new arrivals. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
We're doing minimal farming for the 12 days of Christmas. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
But we're still checking on our animals | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
and sure enough, the rustling in the back of the sty | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
has turned into the greatest Christmas present ever! | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
We have piglets. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
I mean, they're almost purebred Tamworth, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
they have been crossed with another breed | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
which hopefully will make them quite hardy and... | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
I mean, not only are the piglets healthy and running around, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
but also the mothers, they've come out the sty as well, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
because if they take to their beds for too long | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
it could be an indicator of a much more serious illness, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
maybe something like flu, which is a killer. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
But no, they're good, which means the piglets are good. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
Oh! Look what you've done with the place! You've made it all muddy! | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
The third day of Christmas was the feast of St John the Apostle. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
The fourth day was the feast of the Holy Innocence. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
Although lay folk didn't work over Christmas, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
few could afford to feast every day. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
For the monasteries however, all the main feast days of Christmas | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
were a time for communal celebration. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
Whereas the lay folks' Christmas banquet meant red meat, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:36 | |
for the monks it was very different. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
Christmas is a time of feasting for everyone in society. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:49 | |
You ate as much as you could afford to eat, | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
and that applied right across the board. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
But in the monasteries, there were still just a, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
a little hint of a nod towards the austerity of an ascetic life. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:03 | |
Too much red meat stimulated virility, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
and for monks, and indeed, nuns, that was something of a problem. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
So, the feasting that went on within the monasteries over Christmas | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
tended to be much more towards the poultry. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
Swans were quite regularly part of people's poultry yards, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
they were kept alongside the geese and the ducks. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
If we are going to help the monks to have a really great Christmas, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
we're going to need to be supplying them with a huge volume of poultry. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:36 | |
Today, swans are a protected species in England, | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
so cannot be killed for food. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
But Tudor monasteries would have raised them | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
especially for the table. Along with geese, ducks and chicken. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:49 | |
These were complemented by wild game, | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
like pheasant, partridge and woodcock. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
But catching game in an age without shotguns was not easy. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:01 | |
Falcons were deployed to intercept birds in the air | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
and bring them to the ground. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
This is exactly the kind of bird that would have been used | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
for specialist fouling, yes. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
Emma and Mike Rafael are teaching Ruth and Tom the art of falconry. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:16 | |
There were two types of falconer, | 0:28:18 | 0:28:20 | |
aristocratic amateurs, who practised it as a sport, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
and professionals who captured game for the dinner table. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
You are amazing. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:29 | |
And how on earth do you get a bird to do this for you? | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
You cannot train a bird of prey, | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
it's not got the mental aptitude to be trained. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:36 | |
So, when you go hunting, it's hunting actually for itself. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
You're more witnessing what's going on, | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
and hopefully managing to do that in an enclosed area, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
whereby when the bird has caught something | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
you can go in, swap it for what's it's caught, | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
what it's caught goes in your bag for your table, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
and then you give it some different food on the glove | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
to get the bird up to the glove. She'll actually never know who I am | 0:28:56 | 0:29:00 | |
so she'll never actually come back to me... | 0:29:00 | 0:29:02 | |
Never be any bond between bird and man... No bond at all. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
There might be between man and bird, but not from bird to man. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
It's one of these things with females, that you love them to bits. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
But you get nothing back whatsoever. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:14 | |
Not sure what he's trying to say there! | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
Although falcons cannot be trained, | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
they're hunting instincts can be controlled using a hood. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:25 | |
Ben Long makes leather hoods for falcons. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
Which can be quickly removed when the bird is required to hunt. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:32 | |
It's not like sewing, it's more of an engineering project, really. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
Covering a falcon's eyes effectively switches it off. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
So, what did they do before they had the hoods for the falcons? | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
Ah, well, that's a strange one, they sewed their eye lids up. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:54 | |
Now, that sounds awful, but it was called sealing, | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
and it was four little silk stitches on the bottom eyelid, | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
pulled up, tied nice, nicely over the head. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:04 | |
Er, but before, as soon as the training commenced | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
that was taken away, but, in fact, although it sounds barbaric, | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
it, of course, was the nearest thing that they'd got to being humane. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:15 | |
Because these are birds that only react to things, | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
so when the hood is on, there's nothing to react to | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
and therefore you're sort of switched off. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
And so if we can put the hood on and switch the bird off, | 0:30:23 | 0:30:27 | |
switch the bird on when we want the training, | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
and everything about the thing becomes easier. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:33 | |
With their eyes covered, falcons could be safely transported | 0:30:33 | 0:30:37 | |
to the hunt on a frame known as a cadge. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
If you just lift up the two bars and stand up. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
The cadge was carried by a boy or young man known as a cadger. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
And how comfortable does that feel? | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
I've been more comfortable. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
It's like being surrounded by four Samurai warriors. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
When I start moving, if they go crazy... Yeah, yeah, yeah... | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
Obviously, I've got to work in my technique. I'm in attendance. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
I'm just going to level you up a bit. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
I feel like I'm in some kind of finishing school, | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
I should have a book on my head. Try and keep it steady as possible. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
Although this was a menial job, it was an important one, | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
as the cadger was responsible for valuable cargo. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
The punishment for damaging birds were quite severe, weren't they? | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
Well, yes, stealing or damaging. Er, very! | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
Chopping off hands and that kind of thing? | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
Well, there's even, there's even talk of er, you know, er, | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
things like carving meat off your chest | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
and feeding it to the bird that got injured or stolen. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:34 | |
Falcons must get accustomed to being handled by humans, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
and learn to respond to food. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
Then the hood comes off and then he should see the lure and let him go. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
Your job is to shout, 'ho' which will get his attention. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
Ho! | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
Young birds are encouraged to fly from one falconer to another, | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
lured by a piece of meat. Fantastic. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
Next, they must practice flying free. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:01 | |
You only get one shot at this, right, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
so it's got to be spot on. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
A lure, meat on the end of a string, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
is thrown up to get the falcon used to catching game. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
When you think that they got the distance right, | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
the speed of the bird right, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
and this is all going on inside your head. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
You shout, "Ho", and then you throw it up in the air | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
and the bird takes it, like that. What could go wrong? | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
As simple as that. As easy as that. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
Hey! Well done! | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
Success! That's it. And the hood is off. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
Raise it up. And just let nature take its course. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
This is going to be a real high one. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:48 | |
Shout, "Ho". Ho. And up now, now. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
Oh, well done! That was precision throwing. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
He takes no prisoners, this bird! | 0:32:55 | 0:32:59 | |
The game birds caught by falcons | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
were taken to the monastery's kitchen | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
to be prepared for the table. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
Ruth and Tom are joining kitchen staff | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
who, unlike farmers, worked throughout Christmas. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:18 | |
When you're roasting as well, you want skin to stay whole, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
so when you're plucking you don't want to tear it if you can avoid it. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
Ah! Well. So, it's got to look as nice as it's going to taste? | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
It's got to look as nice as it's going to taste. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:29 | |
This is the expensive meat, the posh meat. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
Rather than chicken, you know you think, | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
"It's all this work for these tiny little birds." Yeah. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
But that's the point. People want to show off the whole bird, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
and they want it to turn up on the table in a recognisable form, | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
so with the beak and heads. Oh, everything on? | 0:33:44 | 0:33:47 | |
As much on as possible. So that when it turns up to table... | 0:33:47 | 0:33:50 | |
Yeah. You know they're going to go, "Oh, yes, well you know, sir, | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
"my falcon brought down those wood pop cock!" | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
You know that, that's the point. Yeah. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
And it symbolises something that the rest of us can only... | 0:33:58 | 0:34:02 | |
pluck for somebody else. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
The fifth day of Christmas was also one of the most important, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
the feast of St Thomas Beckett. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
Beckett was the Archbishop of Canterbury | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
murdered during Christmas 1170, | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
after challenging the King's authority over the Church. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
It was observed with a banquet and a Mass. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:37 | |
The choir is performing a Christmas antiphon, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
the precursor to a modern hymn. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
Professor James Clark explains its origins. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
This has evolved over centuries of Medieval Christian worship. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:57 | |
And, in the reign of Henry VII, it's really reaching its high point. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:02 | |
This was a new style of singing that was being adopted | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
in the late 1400s. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:12 | |
To create that variety of vocal sound, | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
they've brought in professional adult singers and the boys. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
And so they can have the richness of the different voice parts | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
coming together to create that wonderful, wonderful sound. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
It's a real assault on the senses. You know, you've got the music, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
you got the candles, a building like this. The smell. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
You'd be overawed, wouldn't you? You would. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
In fact we know at this time of year that they spend more on candles. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:48 | |
In parishes, they would rival each other to have the most | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
richly-illuminated church. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:53 | |
And the monks would hope that everybody witnessing | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
this sensory experience would be transported - | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
transported towards a sense of the divine and of course | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
that's what they're aiming for at this particular time of year. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
Tudor monasteries were hierarchical and strictly organised. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:27 | |
Right, boys, it's the time of year when we have to choose a boy bishop. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
But at Christmas, for one day only, rules were relaxed | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
and roles reversed. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
These are the Boy Bishop Revels | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
and the boys who attend the grammar school that the monks have | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
set up, they're being allowed to let their hair down, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
after all of their hard work, to subvert authority a little bit. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:52 | |
So this year's boy bishop is Josh. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
And we'll get you dressed. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
So they elect one of their favourite fellow school boys, | 0:36:58 | 0:37:04 | |
to become bishop for a few hours. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:12 | |
It's letting off steam a little bit. It's a little safety valve, | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
in a society that's so very rigidly ordered. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
Yes, that's right. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:19 | |
This is a society that not only has a strong sense of social | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
hierarchy but also understands that everybody has their allotted role. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
And for these boys, they've lived under that authority | 0:37:28 | 0:37:32 | |
throughout the year and now they can turn the tables. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:36 | |
Role reversal at Christmas happened throughout Tudor society. | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
In schools, pupils took over by locking out staff for a day. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:48 | |
And even the aristocracy got in on the act, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:53 | |
allowing a peasant to take charge of the celebrations. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
In the kitchens, final preparations are being made | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
for the monks' banquet. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:04 | |
Tom's been given a job at the very | 0:38:10 | 0:38:12 | |
bottom of the kitchen hierarchy - the spit boy. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
A bit of garnish. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
I'm just staying out the way. Ruth's probably angry with me over here. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
I can't do anything wrong per se. I've got the fire going. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
A spit boy rose at dawn to light the fire, | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
working all day in unbearable heat. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
I think we might need to do a bit of a rearrange. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
I've got 14 pigeons and I thought if we just | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
sit them in a nice little row... | 0:38:35 | 0:38:36 | |
This is so typical. I have everything under control - | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
nice fire, good food. Then you come along with your 14 pigeons! | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
Well, we've got to feed a lot of people! | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
So we've got all the pigeons to get through. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
We've got partridge to get through, we've got geese to get through | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
and then we got all those ducks as well. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
And there's a couple of pheasants. So you are... | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
Those monks are going to eat well, aren't they? | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
Yeah, it's Christmas, mate. Yeah. | 0:38:58 | 0:38:59 | |
In a refectory, the feast is served. | 0:39:02 | 0:39:04 | |
The centrepiece of the banquet was a magnificent swan pie. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:10 | |
Once the meat was removed and put in the pie, | 0:39:12 | 0:39:14 | |
the swan's feathers were stuffed and placed on top. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
Swan was one of the most expensive and luxurious dishes, | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
so a show was made of its presentation. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
The food just looks magnificent, doesn't it? | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
Those monks do very well. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:34 | |
Yeah, well, it is Christmas. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:36 | |
The seventh day of Christmas was New Year's Eve. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
Christmas gave people some rare time for recreation | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
and the usual restrictions on the playing of games in public were lifted. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
But there was an expectation that some of that holiday spirit | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
would be channelled into something useful, like archery. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
I suppose both Henry VII and Henry VIII put in base legislation | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
to protect archery. I suppose it was being threatened by other sports. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:20 | |
Yeah, I mean, people were starting to spend their Sunday afternoons | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
playing things like football. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:24 | |
And what happened to that?! | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
Yeah, quite! So the government is all... The Kings will say, | 0:40:26 | 0:40:29 | |
"We need you out there practising your archery, chaps." You know? | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
Archer, Derek Hutchinson, is teaching the team the basics. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
So at this short range you've got to put the point below the target. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:46 | |
One smooth motion, get there and just let go. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
Smooth and controlled, go. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
Look at that, woo! | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
So this is something that every boy and every man | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
up and down the country had to do every Sunday. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
That's it and you wouldn't want to be at that end of it. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
Men aged between 17 and 60 had to practise archery after church. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
The entire British armed forces depended upon men like you. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
And every boy in the land was expected to have a bow and arrows. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:16 | |
We get you so used to the idea that fighting is done by professional soldiers. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:20 | |
But it just wasn't. There were no such people at this date. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:23 | |
It is ordinary farming people who, if the call goes up, | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
you're supposed to turn out. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
Archery practice would take place in open spaces where targets | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
known as butts were set up. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
Derek has organised a competition for the team. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
Closest arrow to the red flag wins. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:43 | |
Go, go, go. More, more, more, more, more, more, another inch, go. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
There. Don't panic about it. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
Tudor long bows had a draw weight of up to 170 lbs. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
They're in line with the flag and they're beyond. To the right. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
That's three times that of a modern bow. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
So how far can one of these go then? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
If something like this can get that far then a really good archer... | 0:42:02 | 0:42:07 | |
John's big one will go about 220 yards. 220 yards! | 0:42:07 | 0:42:12 | |
And the record for a longbow is over 300, easily. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
That's a long way. That's with a proper heavy arrow. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:19 | |
It's time to see how the team have fared. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
Oh, look at this one! No! What? No! | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
That is... | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
two and a bit metres. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
You know the worst thing? | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
Everyone will think that we just put that arrow there for the sake of TV. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
Genuinely close as well. You were genuinely close. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
It's just, you two have won. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
The eighth day of Christmas was New Year's Day, | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 | |
another opportunity for revelry. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
Unlike today, where seeing in the New Year marks | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
the end of the holidays, the Tudors had another four days to go. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:10 | |
But the biggest party was saved until the very end, | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
on the Twelfth Night, the 5th January. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:22 | |
I've been feeding such large numbers for so many days now. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:26 | |
This is going to be the final blast of our 12 days of feasting. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:34 | |
On the Twelfth Night there was music, | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
abundant food and alcohol and an especially indulgent treat - | 0:43:37 | 0:43:42 | |
Twelfth Night cake. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:44 | |
I'm going to use eggs and butter in large quantities | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
and work them in to enrich it. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:51 | |
Italian panettone is the nearest thing the modern world has. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
And I just keep going. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:01 | |
Oh! Now I start with the flavours. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
So we're back on the Christmas flavours. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
A handful of raisins. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:17 | |
We're getting a bit low on raisins. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:22 | |
So I thought we'd have some nuts in this one as well. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
Plenty of hazelnuts. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:27 | |
And last little bits of my spice that I've been saving. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:32 | |
There's one more addition to the cake, a precursor to the sixpence | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
that Victorians put in their Christmas puddings. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
One tiny little lonely dried pea. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:43 | |
So the little pea goes in the middle there | 0:44:43 | 0:44:45 | |
and whoever finds that pea will be our Lord of Misrule for the night. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
The Lord of Misrule would lead the celebrations. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:54 | |
Like the boy bishop, he represented role reversal | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
and subverting normal social order. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:00 | |
For a few hours a peasant would have permission | 0:45:00 | 0:45:03 | |
to order his master about. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
The Lord of Misrule would dress as a king | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
and Peter's putting together a costume for the occasion. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
First he's making a crown out of felt, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
a fabric produced by matting wool fibres together. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:18 | |
Felt is such an amazing material. It's perhaps one of the oldest | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
fabrics known to man and that is essentially | 0:45:23 | 0:45:27 | |
my inspiration for making a crown for the Lord of Misrule. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
Layers of sheep's fleece are laid down with their fibres | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
at opposing angles. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
Got some red dye in there. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:39 | |
A bit of green, a bit of red, are very Christmassy colours, | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
the holly, the ivy. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:45 | |
And wisp this over the top. Like a woollen mist, | 0:45:50 | 0:45:54 | |
through which our Christmas colours will glow. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:57 | |
Boiling water and soap are poured onto the wool, | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
then Peter agitates it. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:03 | |
Oh! Hot potato. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
Oh! Jeez, that's hot. Ah! | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
There's got to be an easier way to do this. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:14 | |
Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
This agitation interconnects the fibres into a solid mass. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
The scales are opening up. They're locking together. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:27 | |
They're closing again so it's virtually impossible to unfelt felt. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
Right, so I think this is ready for the next stage of agitation. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
Just want to just keep working those fibres. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
This is going to be very, | 0:46:50 | 0:46:51 | |
very similar to I suppose a party hat you might get in a cracker. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
Perfect accoutrement to the Lord of Misrule. | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
And there we have it. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
When I sew this up, | 0:47:08 | 0:47:10 | |
hopefully we have a crown fit for a Lord of Misrule. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
Right, chaos! | 0:47:14 | 0:47:16 | |
No-one else here. Hm, right. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
Tom's visiting Sean Jones, | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
to get some instruments to play at the revels. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
In an age without recorded music, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
singing, dancing and playing instruments were essential | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
ingredients of a Tudor Christmas party. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
Reed pipes are what everybody played, through history, | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
made out of the stems of plants. This is teasel. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
So all you really need is a knife. Absolutely. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
And you have to make your own musical instrument. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
To move from this to a fancier instrument, | 0:47:54 | 0:47:56 | |
we're going to make it out of wood. It's going to last... | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
Based on the same principle as the teasel pipe, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
Sean's making Tudor bagpipes. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
First, wooden poles are hollowed out to make the pipes. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
Though Scottish bagpipes are the most well-known today, | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
they were once just as popular in England | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
and have been played throughout Europe since the 15th century. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:20 | |
Start to pare down the outside. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:22 | |
That is amazingly quick. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:24 | |
I imagine it's one of those jobs you could actually end up taking | 0:48:24 | 0:48:27 | |
too much and you're just trying to perfect. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
It's... There's no way back. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
You have to think about the shape of the thing that you're making | 0:48:31 | 0:48:34 | |
and not get distracted really from that. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 | |
So what are you doing now? | 0:48:39 | 0:48:41 | |
This is the final polish. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:43 | |
What's this material you're using? Is that sandpaper? | 0:48:43 | 0:48:46 | |
It's... Well, it doesn't exist yet. Oh! It's a piece of dogfish skin. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
Dogfish? Yeah. The scales are very sharp. | 0:48:49 | 0:48:51 | |
They only run one way, so you have to hold it the right way round. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
But it cuts nicely. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
The drone pipes are made in two sections that must be joined together. | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
Yeah. Well, these form parts of the drone which goes over | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
the shoulder and they need to be adjustable | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
because the length of the drone fixes the pitch it plays at. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:10 | |
I want to tune it to the chanter. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:12 | |
So I need to make an airtight join between these two and let them | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
still slide. And the way I'm going to do that... Thank you. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
..is with the thread, with lapping. You just wrap it round. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
Yes, lap it on and make a nice tight, | 0:49:21 | 0:49:24 | |
airtight joint between the two which is adjustable. | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
We've done all the woodwork for our bagpipes now, | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
and we're going to do the bag. How you doing that? | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
I've got an awl to make the hole with | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
and then I'm sewing with hogs bristles on the end of the thread. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:40 | |
So... It's very flexible... ..flexible but quite strong. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
Yeah, it means you can actually sew round corners. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:45 | |
The difficult part is actually attaching them to the thread. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
But once they're on, they make a flexible needle that'll go | 0:49:48 | 0:49:51 | |
through a hole as small as a thread. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:53 | |
It's thought that the bags evolved from leather water carriers | 0:49:53 | 0:49:56 | |
used by shepherds. | 0:49:56 | 0:49:57 | |
Connecting them to teasel pipes produced the first bagpipes. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:01 | |
So what does the reed do? | 0:50:01 | 0:50:03 | |
Well, the reed actually makes the noise. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:05 | |
The chanter at the end of the day is a stick with holes in | 0:50:05 | 0:50:08 | |
and a bore down the middle. The reed. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
There's two blades that beat together, erm, | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
let the air through, opening and closing all the time. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
And when we put it in the bore, the pitch of the reed drops | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
and it makes the instrument resonate. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
So it's a bit deeper this, isn't it? | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
It is. It's lower pitch and obviously the pitch of the note depends on the length of the tube. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:34 | |
So all the pieces are now made. We just got to put it together. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:37 | |
Yeah. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
Brilliant. | 0:50:57 | 0:50:59 | |
As the Twelfth Night approached, as well as preparing for a final | 0:51:03 | 0:51:06 | |
feast, farmers also got ready for the return to work. | 0:51:06 | 0:51:10 | |
To ensure a bountiful harvest, farmers asked the monastery | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
to bless a relic of a saint, and parade it across their land. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:23 | |
Professor James Clark has come to explain the ritual. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
So what would we as tenants be hoping this would achieve for us? | 0:51:32 | 0:51:37 | |
You would hope that because of the presence of the relic, | 0:51:37 | 0:51:41 | |
there would be a charge of the spiritual power. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:45 | |
That would ensure a good farming year, | 0:51:47 | 0:51:51 | |
the right climate for crops to grow and for the livestock to thrive. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:56 | |
You bring the relic and crops grow. It's almost like a magic amulet. | 0:51:57 | 0:52:01 | |
Yes, that's right, that there is a sense in which this again is | 0:52:01 | 0:52:05 | |
a tangible link to something that is very intangible, | 0:52:05 | 0:52:09 | |
something that is charged with a kind of supernatural air, | 0:52:09 | 0:52:13 | |
and there would be hope amongst the onlookers that something | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
supernatural would happen here. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:18 | |
The Twelfth Night was the culmination of the Tudor Christmas. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
In the farmhouse the celebrations are under way. | 0:52:32 | 0:52:35 | |
Twelfth Night cake, everyone. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:40 | |
Who's lucky night is it going to be? | 0:52:40 | 0:52:43 | |
With abundant food and drink consumed, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:48 | |
it's time to select the Lord of Misrule for the evening. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:52 | |
Who's got the pea? Who's got the pea? Who... | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
I have made a crown. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:02 | |
And we have our Lord of Misrule. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
Yeah! | 0:53:12 | 0:53:13 | |
For most of the year you must toil. Tonight you may make festivity. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:20 | |
Yeah! | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
I proclaim misrule. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
It's an idea that has come from ancient Rome | 0:53:36 | 0:53:38 | |
where at Saturnalia, the feast of midwinter, a slave used to be | 0:53:38 | 0:53:42 | |
put in charge of noble households in order to turn the world | 0:53:42 | 0:53:46 | |
topsy-turvy and devise party games and entertainments for midwinter. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:52 | |
The Lord of Misrule has called for a game to be played. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:56 | |
The egg game was a Tudor favourite. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
An egg was tossed back and forth as the players moved further apart. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:08 | |
The first to drop it lost. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:09 | |
Oh, Peter lost! Peter lost! I win, I win, I win! | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
Another popular game was snapdragon. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
It's fallen over. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
Raisins soaked in brandy were set alight. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
Just one Peter, just one. Ow! | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
The person who dared to retrieve the most raisins was the winner. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
Next, the revellers would head out carol singing, | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
known as wassailing, accompanied by the bagpipes. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
They're singing a Tudor carol, The Boars Head, | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
describing the traditional sacrifice of a boar at Christmas. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
Carols are something that first comes to the fore in the 14th | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
and 15th century and their heyday is just about now. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
They'd started way back in the 12th, 13th century as a sort of sun dance. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:22 | |
You sang to provide your own music as you danced in a circle. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
That's what a carol was. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:27 | |
But by 1500, the dance and the song had become separate | 0:55:27 | 0:55:31 | |
and there was this whole new crop of Christmas-orientated carols. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:35 | |
ALL: Wassail! | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Ding Dong Merrily on High, | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
In Dulce Jubilo and the Coventry Carol all have their roots | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
in this period. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:53 | |
Wassailers moved from house to house receiving food | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
and drink in exchange for good will. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:03 | |
I'll tell you what, those bagpipes sound fantastic. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
Yeah, I know. They are absolutely perfect | 0:56:09 | 0:56:11 | |
although I can't hear them over your triangle! | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
I know, I'm not sure that's music. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
Shh, shh, shh. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:25 | |
While the carol singers process round the village, | 0:56:47 | 0:56:49 | |
Tom and Peter have some important business to attend to. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
Even though it's Christmas, you've got to think about the smallest | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
members of the farm. | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
No exactly, we've got to go and check on our piglets, | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
they're going to be our sustenance, they're going to be our money. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
Dude, it's Christmas! | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
Give them a break from the butcher's knife. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
Look at that. All snuggled together with their mums. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:20 | |
We're happy. They're happy. I feel quite content. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
Merry Christmas, little pigs. We'll see you in the morning. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:30 | |
May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
ALL: Hooray! | 0:57:50 | 0:57:52 | |
The Tudor farmer would make the most of this last night of revelry... | 0:57:58 | 0:58:02 | |
..as the next day it was back to work. | 0:58:04 | 0:58:06 | |
The first Monday after Christmas was Plough Monday | 0:58:08 | 0:58:11 | |
and the farming year would begin all over again. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:13 |