Episode 3 Tudor Monastery Farm


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500 years ago, England was emerging into a new era.

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After years of war, plague and famine, the kingdom was enjoying

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peace and prosperity under the reign of the first Tudor King, Henry VII.

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A new class of business savvy farmer was thriving,

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boosting food production...

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And then over she goes.

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..while wool from their sheep was generating half the nation's wealth.

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Many of the nation's farms were under the control

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of the biggest landowner in England after the King - the monasteries.

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Their influence could be felt in every aspect of daily life.

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They were not just places of religion.

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They were at the forefront of technology, education and farming.

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But with the daily lives of monks devoted to prayer, they depended

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increasingly on tenant farmers who worked and tended their lands.

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There thee go.

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Now, historian Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Tom Pinfold

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and Peter Ginn, are turning the clock back to Tudor England -

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here at Weald and Downland in West Sussex -

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to work as ordinary farmers

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under the watchful eye of a monastic landlord.

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-Here.

-That's the way, nice.

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To succeed, they'll have to master long lost farming methods.

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Watch those flanks, they're going again.

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And get to grips with Tudor technology...

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Quite noisy.

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Wow, it's a really violent process.

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..while immersing themselves in the beliefs...

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ALL: Amen.

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..customs and rituals that shaped the age.

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This is merry England, for heaven's sake, so to speak, let's enjoy it.

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This is the untold story of the monastic farms of Tudor England.

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It's late spring.

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The team have been running their Tudor farm for two months.

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They've set up a pig enterprise,

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breeding Tamworths to pay rent to the monastery...

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..sheared their Southdown sheep and sold the fleeces,

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a big earner for the monastic farmer...

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..and they've mastered driving oxen, the tractors of the age,

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to sow a pea crop.

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They're fast, they're faster than I thought they'd be.

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Now, they're turning their attention to making the staple foods

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of everyday Tudor life - bread and ale.

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Records show that it wasn't unusual for a person to consume

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a 2 lb loaf and 8 pints of ale a day.

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It's amazing how much of the diet bread and beer made up.

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Yeah, 80% of Britain's total calorific intake was between bread and beer.

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-Yeah.

-You know, grain-based. Which is quite, that's just one,

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really it's just one little tiny group of foods providing the main sustenance.

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It's your carbohydrates, isn't it? That's your energy to get you through the day,

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doing everything you need to do.

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And it's going to be cheaper than proteins.

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There's going to be the same amount of calories in a pint of beer as half a loaf of bread.

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So, when things look like that...

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That is a third of your calorie intake, isn't it?

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Which, when you consider that many people are on the edge, and that's

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pretty much all they're eating, that's an enormous part of the diet.

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Tudors drank ale, not just for the calories,

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but because water from wells was often contaminated.

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The alcohol killed any bacteria, making it safe to drink.

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Dieticians, sort of, analysing this these days would say that

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the only thing that's missing from this diet is a bit of vitamin C.

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But it doesn't take much, you only have to have the occasional leaf

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now and again from something edible -

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you know, the, the odd apple,

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the occasional bit of cabbage, and you've sorted that problem out.

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To produce a daily ration of bread and ale,

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six acres of wheat and barley were required,

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per person, per year.

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Failure of these crops could quickly result in famine.

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And, in Tudor England, one in four harvests failed.

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People had little understanding of agricultural science,

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so, to ensure a good harvest, they were guided by age-old superstitions.

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But, most of all, they turned to God.

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Prosper the work of those who enable us

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to supply the resources of our small world.

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ALL: Amen.

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Right, onwards and upwards.

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It's 40 days after Easter, Rogationtide,

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when farm workers processed around their parish boundary,

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praying for a successful harvest.

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It was known as "beating the bounds".

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But there was another purpose to this ritual.

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In 1500, parish maps were virtually non-existent,

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so beating the bounds reminded everyone of landmarks

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that divided their parish from the next.

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Folklore historian Professor Ronald Hutton

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has come to partake in the ritual.

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We have to pass the knowledge down to the younger

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members of our parish.

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How, how do we get these guys to remember?

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Here's the bad news -

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it's a mixture of pain and pleasure to make it memorable.

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Pain, because young boys were regularly beaten

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or hung up and down by their legs and bounced on the ground.

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And then, when you'd made them remember bitterly what this place was and why it was special,

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you'd give them treats, like cakes, afterwards to cheer them up.

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Now, young Edmund, come on.

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Right, this has happened to every parishioner,

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male parishioner, in the past - they need to remember this tree.

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Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

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Look, being dangled upside down!

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-There's the tree, see the tree?

-Er, yeah.

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-See the landscape?

-Yeah.

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-Tree. Going to remember?

-Yes.

-Yes, that's the right answer.

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-Raar!

-Ow.

-Ooh.

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You think he remembers what's going on, what's the pay-off?

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The pay-off is cake. It's fruit cake.

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Oh, yummy.

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Another generation sorted.

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The better-off supplemented their diet of bread and ale with meat.

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The Tudor age saw tenant farmers begin to breed pigs

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commercially for the first time.

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The farmer's under the... the control of the monasteries.

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These pigs represented, essentially, a pig factory. The little ones

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are ready to go, get the boar in, get them pregnant, carry on.

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No longer are we subsistence farmers -

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we are now business farmers.

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The farm has two sows that will produce around 12 piglets a year

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between them, a useful addition to the farm's income.

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The piglets are ten weeks old

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and should now be ready to wean from their mothers.

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Once the sow stops producing milk, she'll be ready to breed again.

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-All right, guys?

-Yeah, we're good, thanks, Neil, how are you?

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-How are you getting on, all right?

-Yeah, not bad, how are you?

-Right, you ready for it?

-Pretty much.

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Farmer Neil Kerswell

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is helping the boys lure the piglets away from the sows and into the sty.

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The secret to any wean is not to get them too stressed -

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if we're calm, they'll be calm. Come on then, in you go, in you go.

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Come, this way, Georgie, Georgie, come on.

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Look, it's home, what's in there?

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-In.

-Four in.

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Don't even try and...

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Five in. Six in.

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Yeah!

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Yes, yes, yes. Six small pigs in there.

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-Well done.

-Two big pigs over there.

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But their joy is short-lived.

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-Come on, come on.

-An escapee.

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-Are you struggling?

-Oh, no, boys!

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Our little piglets have found out that they can burrow

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under our makeshift hurdles.

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Now another one.

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It was close, we almost got there. My mistake entirely.

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It's always like this, Peter, and, don't worry,

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it never ever goes to plan.

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And, do you know what, there's always one.

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Look, I'll reason with it, look.

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You're currently marking your cards as the one we're going to eat.

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You know, that's not reasoning - that's threatening.

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You've really, you've really got to go in there.

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Finally, after much cajoling, the piglets are separated and taken to the woods.

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Come on, piggies. Come on, pigs. Come on, pigs.

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In Tudor England, piglets were often fattened on common land, in forests.

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Here, they could eat fallen acorns, beech nuts and chestnuts.

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This ancient rite was known as "pannage".

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Keep calling.

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I'm over here.

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-You're not lost.

-Tudor farmer, putting his pigs in the woods.

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It's... Not only are you clearing that land out, it's essential,

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for free... to put on the weight to these guys.

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That is exactly what they need. And they'll be up here about...

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I don't know, three months or so.

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Erm, and get 'em right up to weight, and they'll absolutely love it.

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There's loads of things for them to explore.

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-Come on, then, guys, come on.

-Hup. Come on. Up you go. Go on.

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Come on, greedy pig.

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As tenant farmers, Tom, Peter and Ruth

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would have employed workers to tend to the animals and crops.

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It was the farmer's duty to accommodate and feed his staff,

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and the farm would have produced its own bread and ale.

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Essential to both was yeast.

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It made the bread rise and, in ale, turned sugar to alcohol.

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It was made by capturing bacteria from the air.

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I've come to see how my plan to capture some wild yeast is going,

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and it looks like I might have some success.

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The idea is that I'm trying to harvest the wild yeasts

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that are in the air all the time.

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I mean, they grow naturally on grain,

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they also grow on the skins of fruits.

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And these can start you off in your brewing and your baking.

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So, I've got a bowl of flour and water, and there's tiny,

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tiny little bubbles, which suggests that fermentation has begun,

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which means there must be yeast present.

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Making money from the pig enterprises

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relies on a continuous supply of piglets being bred.

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With the large litter fending for themselves,

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it's time to reintroduce the boar to the sows.

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-Come on.

-He is huge.

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He is a big boy, he is a big boy.

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However, he is only 18 months old.

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-Oh, really.

-Yes.

-Wow.

-Yes.

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He looks very different, though. Is he, is he a Tamworth?

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No, he's not a Tamworth - he's still a very old English breed.

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Yeah. A breed called a Oxford Sandy and Black.

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Now he's in the pen, you might find there's a...a bit of scrapping,

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a bit of fighting going on - it's just them figuring out who's boss.

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They'll figure out very, very quickly that he's the boss.

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And then, once these girls are pregnant, it's going to be what,

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three months, three weeks, three days?

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It is, yes, it is. Now she's obviously only just weaned.

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She'll probably take about three to five days to come back into heat.

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And once the boar takes an interest in her, which he certainly

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will once she comes back into heat. Yeah, I think

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we're looking at not very long -

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three months, three weeks, three days.

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-Fantastic.

-You'll be a proud father.

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A farm this size would have employed around ten workers,

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together drinking up to 300 gallons of ale a month.

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The job of producing these vast quantities often fell to women.

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The raw ingredient was barley.

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The first stage was to turn starches in the grain into sugar,

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a process known as malting.

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Seeds store their energy, through the winter, as starch.

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But, come the spring, a new process begins inside the grain.

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And those starches get transformed into sugars,

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and it's that sugar we want to capture.

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So we actually need to start this grain growing but only just so far.

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And then we'll kill it and use that sugar to make our beer.

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But I think we've still got a lump there, look.

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-Ah, you're a perfectionist, aren't you?

-I am a perfectionist.

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Putting me to work here.

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Water stimulates growth in the grain.

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Having let the grains swell, now what we're trying to do is,

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sort of, I don't know, recreate the conditions of spring.

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We, they, they've got all the water they need

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and then they need a little bit of warmth.

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Over the next few days the barley is heaped into a smaller,

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deeper pile, to contain the heat.

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And you can feel the warmth from it, can't you? And that smell.

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Yeah.

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They always say, if you start thinking now about what

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you're actually making, then you get that really pungent, then...

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Absolutely.

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Making ale was a time consuming job that had to be

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fitted around tending to the crops and livestock.

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Despite this, most Tudor farmers had little real concept of time -

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they simply worked from dawn till dusk.

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Life in a Benedictine monastery, however,

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was based around a strict routine.

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Tom and Peter have come to meet Abbot Aiden Bellenger

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to find out how time was managed.

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What would a typical day be like for the monks?

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Every day of the year, the monks' gathering have seven services

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during the day and one at night.

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So, one would be talking about getting up in the morning

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as soon as it's light and then carrying on until dark.

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And then getting up once during the night for a night prayer,

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which is the eighth prayer of the day.

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There would be time for silence, time for reading,

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time for eating, even time for talking.

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So, I suppose, a time-measuring device is, actually, almost essential.

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That's right, yes.

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Because one of the things St Benedict says the Abbot has to do

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is keep everything regular.

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To remind monks when to pray, a bell rung out across the monastery,

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dictating the rhythm of life.

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Monasteries often had their own foundries where bells were cast.

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Tom's come to the foundry to help Andrew Lacy

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make a new bell for the monastery.

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He begins by making a mould.

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First, you've got to design the shape of the bell.

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So, to do that, we cut a shape like this, OK.

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So, you can see the design of the outside of the bell just cut into a piece of wood.

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Put it onto a blade like this, which is a strickle, and you literally

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get some daub, which is clay, and hair

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and sand, and then you just keep

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swiping it round until it makes the right shape.

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This forms the inside of the bell.

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Then Andrew builds up layers of wax, which,

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when smoothed off with a larger strickle, forms the outside.

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-So, the wax is on top of a initial mound of daub.

-Yep.

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-We're going to put more daub on...

-Yep.

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So, the thickness of the wax is, effectively, the thickness of our bell.

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The wax will be melted and replaced by our bronze.

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That's exactly it.

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Everything that's wax now is going to be bronze later.

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This is the lost wax method, and it's typical of the Tudor period.

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The wax is covered in daub then fired in a kiln.

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This not only hardens the daub, but it melts away the wax,

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leaving a bell-shaped cavity.

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This is the mould, this is the bell mould, and it's erm, ooh,

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quite a heavy lump.

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So, all the wax that was in there that made up the bell has been drained away.

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-Right.

-So, there's now a cavity where that wax was.

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-Where our metal will go?

-Exactly.

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Bell metal, a type of bronze, has been around

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for over 3,000 years and is an alloy of tin and copper.

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Which kind of composition are we looking for?

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Well, ideally, it's going to be 20% tin,

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so the rest of it's going to be copper.

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And when we mix those two together you get this lovely bronze.

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-What kind of temperature are we going to get to?

-About 1,100.

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-It's serious heat, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

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-I think we're ready to pour, I think we're totally there.

-Right.

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I think this is spot-on.

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Andrew has just one chance to get this right -

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an air bubble in the bronze will ruin the bell.

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Bells are so central to religious life that the Abbot would

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actually come onto monastic land,

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where the bells are being made, and bless the kilns.

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Shows how important these were.

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Yeah.

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-I'm hoping that's perfect.

-It felt good.

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You know, when, when it feels right, it, kind of, intuitively,

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intuitively, it IS right.

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Knowing when to ring the bell was vital.

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Early medieval monks relied on sundials or water clocks

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to tell the time.

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The problem was someone then had to ring the bell by hand.

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What was needed was a way of automating the process.

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And it was in a 13th-century monastery

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that a mechanical clock was invented.

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Peter's meeting Alan Midleton,

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from the British Horological Institute, to see how it worked.

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I suppose we take measurement of time very much for granted.

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But this must have been amazing at the time.

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It was an enormous breakthrough, the mechanical clock.

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Before the Industrial Revolution,

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clocks were the most complex mechanisms ever, ever made.

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But, at the time, it would have been miraculous.

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Completely miraculous, yes.

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The key to the mechanical clock was a device called the foliot.

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This ensured it ran at a constant rate

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so time could be measured reliably.

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Er, the foliot's is mounted on what's called a staff -

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the staff has two flags or pallets on it, and as the tooth of this

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gate wheel drops off one pallet, it lands on the next one,

0:19:520:19:56

and, erm, and so it goes backwards and forwards.

0:19:560:19:59

And this controls the rate at which it unwinds.

0:19:590:20:02

-If that wasn't there?

-The wheels would spin around at high speed,

0:20:020:20:04

-and the clock would stop in a couple of minutes.

-Oh, right.

0:20:040:20:08

But there was a complication to this system.

0:20:080:20:11

In monasteries, religious services were split between those

0:20:110:20:15

observed in hours of light and those during hours of darkness.

0:20:150:20:18

So day and night had to be divided into 12 hours each,

0:20:190:20:23

regardless of the season.

0:20:230:20:25

This meant summer daytime hours would be longer than 60 minutes

0:20:260:20:29

and night-time hours shorter.

0:20:290:20:32

In winter, the reverse was true.

0:20:320:20:34

This is the genius of the fellows up here,

0:20:360:20:38

because you've got these two weights on here.

0:20:380:20:40

As you can see, this is for either

0:20:400:20:43

a long summer's day or a long winter's night.

0:20:430:20:46

It goes...it goes quite slowly.

0:20:460:20:48

By moving the weight in towards the centre of the foliot,

0:20:500:20:53

the clock runs faster,

0:20:530:20:55

making each passing hour shorter for a winter's day or summer's night.

0:20:550:20:59

Erm, that, that is quite a strange concept to me,

0:21:010:21:03

in terms of you are actually altering your clock in order

0:21:030:21:07

to delineate time based on the seasons.

0:21:070:21:10

You're still quite tied into those seasons.

0:21:100:21:13

Yes, we are. This is the way in which they operate,

0:21:130:21:15

and their clocks had to... had to work to that standard.

0:21:150:21:19

It's amazing to think

0:21:190:21:20

that need to regulate prayer throughout the day,

0:21:200:21:23

the impact that that has had on future societies.

0:21:230:21:26

It's absolutely crucial. It's one of the greatest machines ever devised.

0:21:260:21:30

Peter's installing a mechanical Tudor clock at the monastery

0:21:330:21:37

-to call the monks to prayer.

-Oh, wow!

0:21:370:21:41

He's setting it up to automatically ring Tom's bell.

0:21:410:21:45

Well, hopefully, it'll sound amazing when it's struck.

0:21:450:21:49

I'm really pleased with this, to be honest.

0:21:490:21:53

As this goes round, it's going from the one to the two,

0:21:580:22:00

then it just kicks the arm round, which rings the bell.

0:22:000:22:03

Close to the...

0:22:030:22:06

But Peter's installation has disengaged the all-important foliot.

0:22:060:22:10

You might be calling all the monks to prayer

0:22:150:22:18

a little more often than they want.

0:22:180:22:20

Calm down. It's very temperamental.

0:22:230:22:26

After some adjustments, the clock is running properly.

0:22:260:22:29

That's good.

0:22:290:22:31

This clock is set now to ring eight times a day,

0:22:310:22:35

calling the monks to prayer -

0:22:350:22:36

so seven times during the daylight hours and once at night.

0:22:360:22:40

I mean, that is such an important development, isn't it?

0:22:400:22:44

But it all started in the monasteries.

0:22:450:22:47

Mechanical clocks spread from monasteries to church towers

0:22:490:22:53

across the nation, and time became fundamental to people's lives.

0:22:530:22:58

Back on the farm, Ruth's producing ale for the farm workers.

0:23:030:23:07

The barley's been malting in warm, damp conditions for a week.

0:23:070:23:11

Well, it's happened, the barley has sprouted.

0:23:110:23:14

I need to stop this straightaway before it sprouts any more.

0:23:140:23:17

But the smell has changed too. That is ready for the kiln.

0:23:170:23:21

The malting process has turned starch in the grain into sugar.

0:23:270:23:31

To stop the process, Ruth's heating it in the bread oven.

0:23:310:23:34

I haven't got my oven as hot as I would for bread -

0:23:360:23:39

don't need that sort of temperature.

0:23:390:23:41

I just need to dry out the grain, to kill all that shoot.

0:23:410:23:46

The sugar rich barley is ready to be turned into ale.

0:23:460:23:49

I'm not making beer, I'm making ale.

0:23:500:23:53

Beer is technically ale plus hops,

0:23:530:23:56

and there's going to be no hops involved in this.

0:23:560:23:59

Beer was a Continental, particularly a Dutch thing,

0:23:590:24:01

that eventually comes over to Britain.

0:24:010:24:04

But in 1500, almost all of us are completely drinking ale.

0:24:040:24:09

Next, the malted barley is boiled in water to release the sugars.

0:24:090:24:14

Water from wells was often contaminated and dangerous to drink.

0:24:140:24:19

But this process made it safe.

0:24:200:24:23

Now this has to come up to the boil

0:24:230:24:25

and then simmer for about half an hour.

0:24:250:24:27

And this, of course, this boiling is what makes the beer

0:24:270:24:30

so safe to drink - it's sterilising the water.

0:24:300:24:34

And then the alcohol that we're going to produce will keep it sterile.

0:24:340:24:38

Farmers provided food and drink for their small workforce.

0:24:390:24:42

Pop the lid on, come back in half an hour.

0:24:420:24:46

Monasteries, on the other hand, had to cater on a much larger scale,

0:24:460:24:50

not just to monks but all the lay folk who worked there.

0:24:500:24:54

So, their brew houses and bake houses

0:24:540:24:57

produced vast quantities of ale and bread.

0:24:570:25:00

Peter's helping out in the monastery's bake house.

0:25:010:25:04

First, he's sourcing the main ingredient - wheat flour.

0:25:040:25:08

Hi, Peter, you all right?

0:25:080:25:09

This was ground, on demand, at one of the monastery's mills.

0:25:090:25:12

If you wouldn't mind just holding that why I shin up.

0:25:120:25:16

Rather you than me.

0:25:160:25:18

Peter's come to High Salvington Windmill in Sussex

0:25:180:25:21

where miller Peter Casebow begins by setting the sails.

0:25:210:25:25

Tie on there.

0:25:250:25:27

Although this mill dates from the 1750s,

0:25:290:25:31

it's of similar design to a Tudor mill.

0:25:310:25:34

-That's it. There we've got it nicely spread, OK?

-Yep.

0:25:360:25:40

And that should now catch the wind nicely.

0:25:400:25:43

The trouble is with the wind is it can be, I've just taken

0:25:430:25:46

the brake off now, OK, and we've lost the wind.

0:25:460:25:49

Well, I suppose, you're, you're at the mercy of the wind.

0:25:490:25:52

We'll have to turn the mill round and see

0:25:520:25:54

if we can find some wind from a slightly different direction.

0:25:540:25:56

-So, what we're going to do now is to lift the steps of the mill.

-Right.

0:25:560:26:00

-So, I'll do that by pulling up this lever, which will do that.

-Wow.

0:26:000:26:05

And the...the steps are now clear off the ground.

0:26:050:26:08

So, this, this whole thing is going round.

0:26:080:26:11

It's just balancing on a post, then...?

0:26:110:26:15

-Well, there's something like 26 tons there.

-26 tons?

0:26:150:26:18

See if we can get a bit more power out of her - she's going quite well now.

0:26:180:26:21

She is.

0:26:210:26:22

The wheat is carried up to the grindstones by a winch powered by the sails.

0:26:280:26:32

I'll take that off, and you can see the stones underneath there.

0:26:370:26:40

You have one at the bottom called the bed stone,

0:26:400:26:42

-and that's wedged tight into the floor.

-So, that doesn't move?

-So that doesn't move.

0:26:420:26:46

-Right.

-Er, because there's quite a bit of friction when you're grinding.

0:26:460:26:51

And then you have the runner stone, which is the one on the top,

0:26:510:26:53

and that runs with a slight gap above the bed stone.

0:26:530:26:57

The surface of a mill stone is carved with deep furrows.

0:26:570:27:00

Now, the bed stone has them cut in the same as the runner stone.

0:27:000:27:04

And when they, sort of, the two come together, you can

0:27:040:27:07

-imagine they act rather like a pair of scissors.

-Yeah.

0:27:070:27:10

And they shear the grain and create the flour that way.

0:27:100:27:13

It's supposed to be better than, you know,

0:27:130:27:16

crushed, like the modern mills.

0:27:160:27:18

A miller was at the mercy of the wind,

0:27:210:27:24

and so far there hasn't been enough to grind.

0:27:240:27:26

But Peter's sensed a change in the weather.

0:27:260:27:29

-Let's get this thing going, shall we?

-OK.

-Put the brake on.

0:27:290:27:32

And that will enable us to then put this in gear.

0:27:320:27:35

-That's right. OK, here we go.

-Oh. Is that in?

0:27:350:27:41

Yeah, that's in.

0:27:410:27:43

I'm just doing up the sprattle. Cor, it's actually... You're going to grind.

0:27:430:27:48

We're going to grind on this.

0:27:480:27:51

OK, brakes coming off.

0:27:540:27:56

Yes, she's running.

0:27:590:28:01

We've got some stuff coming through now.

0:28:050:28:08

Oh, yeah, yeah, I can see it. Oh, look.

0:28:080:28:10

-And we'll actually test the quality of the flour by the rule of thumb. OK?

-Yeah.

0:28:100:28:15

I can tell whether it's the right sort of consistency.

0:28:150:28:19

So, that's where the saying comes from, rule of thumb?

0:28:190:28:22

Yes, and if it's fine enough, then that's it.

0:28:220:28:25

I'm no expert, but it feels fairly fine to me.

0:28:250:28:28

-Little bit of...

-It's not too bad, here you are.

-A little bit of granular.

0:28:280:28:32

I mean, it's like a wholemeal, isn't it?

0:28:320:28:34

It is wholemeal, yes. As we say, "Mice and all."

0:28:340:28:38

Another commodity required by the monasteries was wax,

0:28:470:28:49

essential to make church candles.

0:28:490:28:53

Candles represented the light of God,

0:28:530:28:56

and those made from beeswax rather than animal fat

0:28:560:28:59

were particularly special, as they burned with a pure, clean flame.

0:28:590:29:03

To produce a continuous supply, monasteries kept their own bees.

0:29:040:29:09

Tom's helping beekeeper Paul Ham

0:29:110:29:13

harvest the wax, which came with a useful by-product, honey.

0:29:130:29:19

The honey was the only form of intense sweetener that they'd got

0:29:190:29:22

in those times, but the beeswax was the only form of wax.

0:29:220:29:25

Today, we've got paraffin wax and lots of different kinds of wax.

0:29:250:29:28

But then, for making ink, for lost-wax casting for jewellery,

0:29:280:29:32

for all sorts of little processes, that was a major industrial product.

0:29:320:29:36

You've given me some gear here.

0:29:360:29:38

-A little bit of protection.

-A little bit of protection.

0:29:380:29:40

This is my overalls, is it?

0:29:400:29:43

So, that will cover everything, including your codpiece.

0:29:430:29:46

So, that will, sort of, er...

0:29:460:29:48

And you've got a wicker mask on there,

0:29:480:29:51

which I'm not sure how much you'll see.

0:29:510:29:53

But your face is obviously the bit that you want to protect

0:29:530:29:55

more than anything else.

0:29:550:29:57

We'll just turn them up gently.

0:29:570:30:00

Tudor bees were kept in skeps - upturned wicker baskets.

0:30:000:30:04

Oh, I mean, that, visually, that's amazing.

0:30:040:30:07

This was the way bees were kept for over 2,000 years,

0:30:070:30:11

until the invention of the modern beehive in the 19th century.

0:30:110:30:15

You can see they're really quite dark bees, almost you'd say black.

0:30:170:30:20

But this is the British black bee - this would have been the bee in Tudor times.

0:30:200:30:24

-Right, so, this actually has a heritage.

-Oh, definitely.

0:30:240:30:27

And it was only in Victorian times that people went off

0:30:270:30:31

to Italy and round on their Grand Tour.

0:30:310:30:33

They saw their golden bees out there and thought, "Oh, we'll have some of those."

0:30:330:30:36

And then we've got different kinds of bees now.

0:30:360:30:38

But people are keen to get back to the original Tudor bee,

0:30:380:30:42

cos they're very suited to our climate.

0:30:420:30:45

The bees build wax honeycomb to contain their larvae

0:30:450:30:49

and stores of pollen and honey.

0:30:490:30:51

That's incredible.

0:30:530:30:55

Goose, just to, sort of, brush them off.

0:30:570:31:00

And the goose feather, basically, is like a very safe way...

0:31:000:31:04

Well, a brush might get their legs stuck in it.

0:31:040:31:06

So, if it's hairy, this has got nothing to catch for the bees.

0:31:060:31:09

So, we'll pop that on there and let's see

0:31:090:31:11

if we can get a little bit more.

0:31:110:31:14

So, why do bees make honey from wax?

0:31:140:31:17

Well, this colony and the queen in here,

0:31:170:31:19

she could live for as long as nine years.

0:31:190:31:22

So, they've got to have enough stores for the winter,

0:31:220:31:24

so the honey is their food for the winter.

0:31:240:31:27

But bees, they're geared to produce lots of honey,

0:31:270:31:32

and, if you give them space, this colony will go on

0:31:320:31:34

and produce maybe 40, 50 lbs of surplus honey in a year.

0:31:340:31:39

Once the honeycomb has been extracted the two products,

0:31:390:31:42

honey and wax, must be separated.

0:31:420:31:46

Just break off the comb and pop that into here.

0:31:460:31:50

And then you crush that with your hands?

0:31:500:31:53

-It just runs out.

-Yeah.

0:31:530:31:55

I just want to taste some.

0:31:550:31:56

You can see that the caps on there, that's sealed, proper honey.

0:31:560:32:00

It's still warm from the hive, and er, to me, that's the best way to...

0:32:000:32:04

That's, that's amazing.

0:32:050:32:06

My lips are almost stuck together, but...

0:32:060:32:09

Cos sugar's lovely and sweet,

0:32:090:32:12

but honey has an amazing flavour with it as well,

0:32:120:32:16

something really quite magical.

0:32:160:32:18

It is fairly stunning stuff.

0:32:180:32:20

It's so good.

0:32:220:32:25

Peter's brought the flour to David Carter,

0:32:310:32:34

in the monastic bake house, where three types of bread were produced -

0:32:340:32:39

unleavened Communion bread for use in church,

0:32:390:32:41

fine white bread for the Abbot,

0:32:410:32:44

and maslin bread for the monks and lay people.

0:32:440:32:47

Maslin is a derivation of the French "masseline",

0:32:500:32:53

and that means a mixture.

0:32:530:32:55

And, hence, what we've got here is a mixture of flours.

0:32:550:32:59

To Peter's wheat flour, barley and rye flours are added,

0:33:000:33:04

then mixed with salt.

0:33:040:33:06

Salt not only flavours and preserves bread, it works with gluten

0:33:070:33:11

in the flour to give the dough strength and elasticity.

0:33:110:33:14

So pop it in, into the middle.

0:33:170:33:18

To make it rise, they're using Ruth's yeast, produced in the barley field.

0:33:180:33:23

In Tudor times, yeast was regarded as something really quite magic.

0:33:230:33:28

Nobody really understood what it was or why it worked.

0:33:290:33:34

And, in fact, in a book from 1469 called The Brewer's Book,

0:33:340:33:39

yeast was referred to, in a single word, "God is good."

0:33:390:33:43

And it wasn't until the 1800s that yeast

0:33:450:33:49

was fully understood as an organism on its own.

0:33:490:33:53

-On the board?

-On the board, yep.

0:33:540:33:58

Yeast reacts with sugars in the flour to produce carbon dioxide gas.

0:33:580:34:02

This is trapped in the gluten of the dough, making it expand and rise.

0:34:020:34:07

If it fights back, show it who's boss, Peter.

0:34:070:34:10

You're going to eat the bread - the bread's not going to eat you.

0:34:100:34:14

The dough is left to rise, or prove,

0:34:140:34:16

then knocked back to redistribute gas bubbles produced by the yeast.

0:34:160:34:20

Just liberally dust the top with a bit of flour.

0:34:230:34:26

I like that flourish -

0:34:280:34:29

it's the sign of a good baker, a good flourish.

0:34:290:34:32

Great. Lovely, one, two, three, out.

0:34:320:34:35

After it's proved a second time, it's ready to bake.

0:34:360:34:39

Unveil the magnificent loaf. Hey, wow, look at that.

0:34:410:34:44

I'll scrape out the oven.

0:34:440:34:47

You scrape out the oven, I'll bring the magnificent loaf.

0:34:470:34:50

The oven is heated by lighting a wood fire inside.

0:34:500:34:54

Once it's up to temperature, the fire is scraped out...

0:34:540:34:57

Let's get this in the oven.

0:34:570:34:58

..and the bread bakes using the residual heat.

0:34:580:35:01

And we're going to give it a push and a pull. And there we are.

0:35:010:35:04

Oh, nicely done, nicely done.

0:35:040:35:06

Let me, ooh. Ah, ooh! My feet are hot.

0:35:060:35:14

At the farm, Ruth's following an ale-making recipe

0:35:170:35:21

that goes back to Neolithic times.

0:35:210:35:24

The malted barley has been boiled

0:35:240:35:26

to produce a liquid rich in sugars, known as wort.

0:35:260:35:30

And I can draw this first batch off.

0:35:300:35:33

So, this batch of beer will be the strongest.

0:35:380:35:41

And once I've drawn all this water off, I'll put another

0:35:410:35:44

load of water on the same grain and boil it up again.

0:35:440:35:47

And that will make a much weaker beer.

0:35:470:35:50

So, this is more your, sort of, evening drinking,

0:35:500:35:52

getting drunk beer, and the next batch would be your, sort of,

0:35:520:35:55

daytime drinking beer, when you're thirsty

0:35:550:35:58

but you need to still have your wits about you.

0:35:580:36:00

Now it's time for the flavourings.

0:36:030:36:05

So, in goes my elderflower and in goes a small amount of honey.

0:36:050:36:11

Just a little bit.

0:36:140:36:15

Stir that through.

0:36:170:36:19

And while the beer's still hot like this,

0:36:190:36:23

the flavours of the herbs will be drawn out into the liquor.

0:36:230:36:29

Now that it's cooled, I'm just straining,

0:36:330:36:35

cos, naturally, I don't want any organic matter

0:36:350:36:37

which would introduce bacteria into the beer.

0:36:370:36:41

Finally, ale balm, a yeast,

0:36:410:36:43

is added to turn the sugar from the malted barley into alcohol.

0:36:430:36:47

So, a little bit of my ale balm, from the last brew, into that pot,

0:36:470:36:51

and the alcohol within the liquid will keep it sterile.

0:36:510:36:55

At the monastery, the beeswax has been separated from the honey

0:37:060:37:09

and melted, ready to make church candles.

0:37:090:37:13

Paul starts by making the wick.

0:37:160:37:18

If you go into church, you'll see these impressive candles that,

0:37:180:37:24

you know, don't smell bad. They last. yeah.

0:37:240:37:27

-And a beautiful, clean, white light.

-Yeah.

0:37:270:37:31

I mean, to us, they may look slightly...

0:37:310:37:33

but compared to, say, LEDs or something, but compared to yellowy,

0:37:330:37:38

spotty tallow candles, the clean light of beeswax,

0:37:380:37:42

-it was very clean and very bright.

-Yeah.

0:37:420:37:46

The wick is repeatedly dipped into the beeswax,

0:37:470:37:50

slowly building up the layers of the candle.

0:37:500:37:52

-It's dripping down.

-Yeah.

-That will solidify fairly quickly.

0:37:520:37:56

And we want it as straight as possible,

0:37:560:37:59

cos that's the centre, the core of our candle.

0:37:590:38:01

It is, it's the centre, and if it burns off, then it'll drip down the side, so if you get it nice

0:38:010:38:06

and straight, then you'll get a nice clean, even burn.

0:38:060:38:08

So that's now almost solid, so then we can dip again.

0:38:080:38:13

-Pretty well enough for a light read.

-So, that'll be good enough for the monastery.

0:38:310:38:35

Yeah, I think so, they'd got through a chapter, perhaps.

0:38:350:38:39

Finally, the ale is stored in butts where the sugar will continue to ferment.

0:38:480:38:52

That's another batch in the butt...

0:38:520:38:55

in its butt, in the buttery.

0:38:550:38:58

And that's what this room is for - it's for storing all my ale

0:38:580:39:01

and everything to do with drinking. So all the jugs and the cups

0:39:010:39:04

and everything come in here.

0:39:040:39:07

And then, next door is my pantry, and that, of course,

0:39:070:39:09

is where we store all the bread and things to do with eating -

0:39:090:39:13

you know, bowls, spoons, napkins, candlesticks, that sort of thing.

0:39:130:39:17

Together, they form the sort of service end of the house.

0:39:170:39:20

Ale brewed with malted barley was drunk by everyone,

0:39:220:39:26

but the type of bread you ate was determined by social status.

0:39:260:39:30

At the monastic bake house, Peter's making some of the finest

0:39:330:39:36

quality loaves exclusively for the Abbot - manchet bread.

0:39:360:39:40

This is going to be made with white flour.

0:39:420:39:44

It is exactly the same as the wholemeal wheat flour

0:39:440:39:48

that went into the last loaf, except it's been sieved or bolted.

0:39:480:39:53

And it was that sieving process that, in fact, made the flour

0:39:530:39:57

so expensive, and that is why it became associated with high status.

0:39:570:40:04

Now, that is so much finer against my fingers -

0:40:040:40:07

it's like mixing a cloud.

0:40:070:40:10

The whole thing about manchet loaves was they were very much lighter,

0:40:100:40:14

they were greater in volume,

0:40:140:40:16

they were softer and not as hard to eat as the maslin loaf.

0:40:160:40:22

This time the raising agent is ale balm,

0:40:220:40:25

the same yeasty foam Ruth used to ferment the ale.

0:40:250:40:29

-Often the brew house and the bakery were next door to each other.

-Ah.

0:40:290:40:33

Because the baker would rely on the brewer to provide him

0:40:330:40:37

with the balm to make the bread.

0:40:370:40:39

-It is such a tactile process.

-It is such a tactile process.

0:40:420:40:45

After proving, the dough is cut into portions for baking.

0:40:470:40:51

-Do you think this is ready, then?

-I think so, Pete.

0:40:540:40:57

I'm looking forward to this. This is going to be a proper treat.

0:40:570:41:00

Meanwhile, the brown maslin bread for the ordinary monks

0:41:000:41:03

has been baking for an hour and should be done.

0:41:030:41:05

Phwoar, that is fantastic, that looks so appetising.

0:41:050:41:09

There's a nice dull, hollow sound, that's definitely baked.

0:41:090:41:13

And the baked manchet loaves are ready to be delivered to the Abbot.

0:41:150:41:18

Some fantastic bread. I've managed to stop Tommo eating it on the way.

0:41:180:41:21

It looks brilliant, it looks enough for two of us for one meal. Very generous.

0:41:210:41:25

It's really good.

0:41:280:41:31

Tudors drank ale, because water was often contaminated.

0:41:400:41:44

They also feared washing with water.

0:41:440:41:47

Instead, grease and sweat were removed from the body with just a dry cloth.

0:41:470:41:52

This was an era, after all,

0:41:520:41:54

in which ordinary people like you and me did not bath.

0:41:540:41:58

They were scared that if they water-washed, that it would open up

0:41:580:42:02

their pores, allowing infection in.

0:42:020:42:05

And if you lived in a world where the Black Death and the sweating

0:42:050:42:08

sickness was carrying people off in droves, you too would be pretty

0:42:080:42:12

scared about undertaking something that exposed you to disease.

0:42:120:42:16

Hair, too, was cleaned without water.

0:42:170:42:20

You might think that without shampoo, everybody had filthy, disgusting hair.

0:42:200:42:25

You would be wrong.

0:42:250:42:27

This is remarkably effective if used regularly, and that's the point.

0:42:270:42:32

You do have to comb thoroughly twice a day with a very fine-toothed comb.

0:42:320:42:37

I mean, that side's all very well for getting out the knots,

0:42:370:42:41

but it's that side that's going to do the cleaning for me.

0:42:410:42:45

If you were to do absolutely nothing to your hair, if you were

0:42:450:42:48

just to abandon it for three months or so, yeah, the amount of oils

0:42:480:42:52

that was produced would slow down, but it would smell disgusting.

0:42:520:42:55

Because all the dead skin would be trapped, the oils would be

0:42:550:42:58

trapped next to your scalp, it's not a good place to go.

0:42:580:43:03

However, if you don't wash it but you do comb it,

0:43:030:43:07

you've pretty much solved the problem.

0:43:070:43:10

It's early June, Peter and Tom have returned to the farm.

0:43:150:43:18

In two weeks, it will be the summer solstice, the longest day.

0:43:210:43:24

Hopefully, the boar has done his job and the sows are pregnant.

0:43:270:43:31

The cereal crops, essential to make bread and ale, are also thriving.

0:43:350:43:39

But all is not well with the peas.

0:43:410:43:43

Something's eating our pea crop. Pretty much everything's had a bite taken out of it.

0:43:450:43:50

-I think we're talking deer here.

-Deer? You don't think rabbit?

0:43:500:43:54

Well, probably both.

0:43:540:43:55

Before potatoes reached these shores in the 1580s,

0:43:550:43:59

peas and beans were an important source of carbohydrate and vitamins.

0:43:590:44:03

-Well, what can we do?

-I mean, in Tudor times, I think you couldn't really do much.

0:44:040:44:11

This situation really emphasises the fact that,

0:44:110:44:13

I mean, you are at the mercy of nature, you are at the mercy of God.

0:44:130:44:18

And you really have to... There's not much you can do, apart from pray.

0:44:180:44:23

Tudor trades set up religious guilds to pray for prosperity in business.

0:44:280:44:34

The team have established their own guild with St Benedict,

0:44:340:44:37

the patron saint of farming, presiding over them.

0:44:370:44:40

Masses would have been said to pray for special causes,

0:44:430:44:47

like the success of a crop.

0:44:470:44:48

As the service is in Latin,

0:44:500:44:52

most people couldn't follow word by word what was going on.

0:44:520:44:55

But if you attend church one day a week every week of your life,

0:44:550:44:59

you quickly get an idea

0:44:590:45:01

of the sort of shape of the service.

0:45:010:45:03

You know, words you recognise as the cues for when to kneel,

0:45:030:45:07

when to look up.

0:45:070:45:08

And you can follow the service in a sort of vague form,

0:45:080:45:11

even if you don't manage to follow every single word in meaning.

0:45:110:45:14

The most solemn part of Mass is Holy Communion.

0:45:210:45:24

The priest blesses unleavened bread, the Host.

0:45:260:45:30

Medieval Christians believed that this had now transformed it

0:45:300:45:33

into the body of Christ, a process called "transubstantiation".

0:45:330:45:38

To receive it, you had to be free from sin.

0:45:430:45:46

Most people felt they were unworthy,

0:45:460:45:48

so they took blessed ordinary bread known as "panis benedictus".

0:45:480:45:52

But there was another, more controversial, use of the panis benedictus.

0:46:000:46:03

Records show that some farmers took it from the church

0:46:030:46:06

and sprinkled it on their crop to ensure a decent harvest.

0:46:060:46:09

Accounts at the time thought that this, the panis benedictus,

0:46:110:46:16

had magical powers.

0:46:160:46:17

I mean, it could perhaps heal the sick

0:46:170:46:20

or it could fend off caterpillars from your garden

0:46:200:46:23

or, perhaps, it could rejuvenate

0:46:230:46:26

your deer-eaten, rabbit-nibbled, weather-beaten pea crop.

0:46:260:46:33

Who knows?

0:46:330:46:35

And as that sun sinks in the west, and there's no more we can do

0:46:360:46:40

to protect this for another night, I'll take all the help I can get.

0:46:400:46:44

Peas were an important food crop,

0:47:000:47:03

but sheep were the real money-spinner for the Tudor farmer.

0:47:030:47:06

-Which way?

-Oh, that one, that one, that one, that one.

0:47:080:47:11

Yep. That one.

0:47:110:47:13

Woollen cloth accounted for 75% of England's exports.

0:47:130:47:17

Should have had her.

0:47:170:47:19

The farm's flock of Southdown sheep have been sheared,

0:47:210:47:23

and now the boys are giving them a once-over

0:47:230:47:26

to ensure they're healthy, starting with their feet.

0:47:260:47:29

Pack it in.

0:47:300:47:32

Right, what I'm trying to do is, just where the hoof is starting

0:47:320:47:36

to fold over, just trying to get rid of that so it doesn't get infected.

0:47:360:47:41

Sheep are designed pretty much for living on

0:47:410:47:45

quite rocky outcrops and nibbling away at the grass that grows there.

0:47:450:47:49

As soon as you move your sheep into

0:47:490:47:52

a downland environment like this, they're on quite soft land,

0:47:520:47:54

so there's nothing to wear away, effectively, what is their toenails.

0:47:540:47:59

So this is pretty much a sheep pedicure.

0:47:590:48:03

Although if I had a pedicure like this,

0:48:030:48:06

I'd be demanding my money back.

0:48:060:48:08

Right, I think it's time to let her go.

0:48:100:48:12

OK, going out that way, yeah. Ah.

0:48:120:48:15

Right, candidate number two.

0:48:150:48:18

Oh, this is going to work well for us.

0:48:190:48:23

The main purpose of breeding sheep in the 1500s was for wool,

0:48:240:48:29

but any sheep past their prime

0:48:290:48:31

would be slaughtered and eaten as mutton.

0:48:310:48:34

I'm going to roast the mutton. A bit of a treat, that,

0:48:340:48:36

rather than boiling it.

0:48:360:48:39

And that trick of boning it out,

0:48:390:48:41

which is a much more efficient way of roasting...

0:48:410:48:43

You can roast with the bones still in, but there are problems with it.

0:48:430:48:47

If you think, yeah, there's the shoulder,

0:48:470:48:50

the bones that I've taken out of the shoulder...

0:48:500:48:52

And you can see that, you know, that constitutes quite a barrier to heat, moving through

0:48:520:48:57

the meat, which makes roasting it evenly a bit of a challenge.

0:48:570:49:03

If you take the bones out and roll it into a joint - much easier.

0:49:030:49:08

And that's why, traditionally, roast meat is a rolled joint.

0:49:080:49:11

So what I need to do is turn this

0:49:110:49:14

into that perfect cylinder of solid meat.

0:49:140:49:17

Will you give me a hand putting this on the spit?

0:49:260:49:29

Okey-doke.

0:49:290:49:32

Push up as much as you can.

0:49:360:49:39

My spit is on the spit... in front of my brand irons,

0:49:450:49:48

where the burning brands are.

0:49:480:49:49

And I've built a fire, which is going to give me a sheet of flame,

0:49:490:49:53

in front of which I'm going to be roasting.

0:49:530:49:55

If you roast over the fire,

0:49:550:49:57

the fat from the meat drips into the fire, encourages

0:49:570:50:02

huge great fat flames to come up and scorch the outside of the meat.

0:50:020:50:05

So you're going to end up - or there's a strong danger of ending up -

0:50:050:50:08

with it black on the outside and raw in the middle.

0:50:080:50:11

Roasting was always considered to be a really luxury method

0:50:120:50:16

of cooking, because it takes so much time, it's so much labour.

0:50:160:50:20

To put this much meat in a pot and boil it, well, you know,

0:50:200:50:22

I could put it on and leave it, couldn't I?

0:50:220:50:24

I could get on with half a dozen other things.

0:50:240:50:27

But if I'm going to roast meat, I actually have to be here,

0:50:270:50:30

casting an eye every now and again, giving a little turn.

0:50:300:50:33

But I also can use that attention, the fact that I need to be here,

0:50:330:50:37

to add in flavour during the cooking, and this is the thing

0:50:370:50:41

that really marks out the good roast meat of old Britain.

0:50:410:50:45

Ruth's basting the meat alternately with its own fat and dredge.

0:50:470:50:51

Dredge was breadcrumbs and flour or oatmeal flavoured with spices.

0:50:540:50:58

What I should be able to do is build up a really deeply flavoured,

0:51:000:51:05

crispy coating around the meat.

0:51:050:51:08

It's a week since the guild Mass for the pea crop, and the boys

0:51:140:51:16

are curious to see whether there's been any improvement.

0:51:160:51:20

I have to say that this pea crop is looking, touch wood, pretty fine.

0:51:200:51:25

-It's looking very healthy. I think the weather's really helped.

-Yeah.

0:51:250:51:28

But, also, it seems like some of the animals that were attacking it

0:51:280:51:30

when it was sort of weaker, smaller...

0:51:300:51:33

they've laid off a bit, and we've just got this massive growth.

0:51:330:51:36

A little secret - I took a piece of the panis benedictus from the Mass

0:51:360:51:39

and I sprinkled it in tiny pieces across the entirety of this crop.

0:51:390:51:43

And I have to say, it's worked a treat.

0:51:430:51:46

Yes. Sun and rain, might have been in there as well.

0:51:480:51:52

But good work.

0:51:520:51:55

-Let us be thankful. Amen.

-Amen.

0:51:590:52:02

It's 11 in the morning,

0:52:020:52:04

and the farm workers have assembled for the main meal of the day.

0:52:040:52:08

Having risen at dawn, this would keep them going until evening,

0:52:090:52:13

when they would eat just bread and ale.

0:52:130:52:15

I don't want the offal. This mutton is absolutely fantastic.

0:52:170:52:21

-Oh, I love roast meat.

-And here we are at the top of the table.

0:52:210:52:24

Head of our household. Good, isn't it?

0:52:240:52:27

And you'll notice that we haven't got any of the mutton on the other tables.

0:52:270:52:30

-Not yet, anyway.

-Not yet, anyway. So, it's up to you, really.

0:52:300:52:34

If you think somebody deserves a slice of meat,

0:52:340:52:37

then you send it to them, and it's a really public message.

0:52:370:52:40

Everybody in the room would notice. They'd all know that not only were you giving a reward,

0:52:400:52:44

-but it's a very public reward.

-You could also shun someone, couldn't you?

0:52:440:52:47

-You could make a marked statement...

-Oh, definitely.

-..in another way -

0:52:470:52:51

-that person, that person, but not the person in the middle.

-Yeah.

0:52:510:52:54

That's one of the reasons why this whole meal is so formal.

0:52:540:52:56

This is the sort of central ritual of household. I mean,

0:52:560:53:00

you're making a whole load of social statements.

0:53:000:53:02

And this daily ritual of dining reinforces all those positions.

0:53:020:53:06

I think we need to curry favour with all you guys, to be brutally honest.

0:53:060:53:11

But, in the modern vernacular, I am going to say, ladies first,

0:53:110:53:14

-so Helen...

-Yes.

-..if you fancy coming up, please.

0:53:140:53:19

-Yeah.

-You could take the whole lot.

0:53:190:53:21

Yeah, take the whole lot!

0:53:210:53:23

Thank you, thank you. We've obviously been very good.

0:53:230:53:26

Working very hard.

0:53:260:53:28

It's midsummer's eve. Tomorrow will be the longest day,

0:53:380:53:41

and the sun will be at its highest point in the sky.

0:53:410:53:45

For thousands of years,

0:53:510:53:53

this has been regarded as a special and mystical time.

0:53:530:53:56

Peter, Ruth and Tom have come to a nearby hill to celebrate.

0:53:580:54:03

They are joined by people from their parish and folklore expert, Professor Ronald Hutton.

0:54:030:54:07

The sun rises and sets at different points on the horizon

0:54:100:54:13

through the year, which is why days get shorter and longer.

0:54:130:54:16

But it slows down at midwinter and midsummer -

0:54:160:54:19

and for a few magical days,

0:54:190:54:21

it appears to rise and set at the same points on the horizon.

0:54:210:54:25

So the laws of nature and the divine are suspended.

0:54:250:54:29

Human beings can become magical. The fairy folk can wander among us.

0:54:290:54:34

Potential is limitless.

0:54:340:54:36

Tonight, the last night of the solstice, midsummer's eve,

0:54:360:54:39

you, Tom, can find a fairy mistress.

0:54:390:54:43

Tonight, Ruth, you could find your divine opposite number.

0:54:430:54:47

And you, Peter, and I can enjoy a drink.

0:54:470:54:49

Fire was at the heart of midsummer celebrations,

0:54:540:54:57

-and jumping through flames was believed to bring good luck.

-Ruth, would you do me the honour...

0:54:570:55:02

-Ooh!

-..of leaping the midsummer fire with me?

0:55:020:55:05

-All right, I'll try.

-The rest of you get back a bit.

0:55:050:55:08

-Oh, my goodness.

-One, two, three.

0:55:080:55:10

ALL: Hooray!

0:55:120:55:13

It was believed that at midsummer, evil spirits roamed free

0:55:130:55:18

and fire would ward them off.

0:55:180:55:19

In truth, it wasn't evil spirits in the air - it was disease.

0:55:210:55:26

ALL: Hooray!

0:55:260:55:28

Back where we are now, the Tudor period, this is the time

0:55:280:55:31

when fleas breed, and fleas brought bubonic plague.

0:55:310:55:35

This is the time when mosquitoes breed, and they brought malaria.

0:55:350:55:39

Lice brought typhus. The corn is growing,

0:55:390:55:42

it can now be flattened by storms or catch disease.

0:55:420:55:45

And it's the time when the sea is calm, the rivers are low,

0:55:450:55:48

the roads are dry, which means that armies and brigands can move easily.

0:55:480:55:53

We are in danger of being plundered.

0:55:530:55:55

We're looking at stark, lethal danger, and fire will keep us safe.

0:55:550:56:00

There was one fire that was especially effective

0:56:010:56:04

at warding off evil - the bonfire.

0:56:040:56:08

A fire made entirely of bones is a bone fire,

0:56:080:56:11

from which we get the word bonfire. They smell dreadful,

0:56:110:56:14

and the pungent smoke drives away evil spirits.

0:56:140:56:17

So, Peter's convinced, after a few ales, he's actually seen a dragon.

0:56:210:56:25

Certainly scare away evil, traditionally.

0:56:250:56:28

And as for seeing a dragon on some ale, can you hear it?

0:56:280:56:32

It's a roaring night -

0:56:320:56:34

out there in the winds, we hear the voice of the dragons.

0:56:340:56:37

As well as warding off evil, fire was also used to predict

0:56:430:56:46

the farmer's fortune with a burning wheel.

0:56:460:56:50

There's moisture in the air, and the ground's damp -

0:56:500:56:53

do you think this will make it to the bottom of the hill still alight?

0:56:530:56:55

I have no idea, no-one's done this for decades.

0:56:550:56:58

But if you want a wonderful summer, get that darn wheel down that hillside.

0:56:580:57:02

-We need all the luck we can get.

-Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

0:57:020:57:06

A cartwheel, wrapped in straw was set alight and rolled down a hill.

0:57:090:57:12

If it reached the bottom still burning,

0:57:120:57:15

a good harvest was assured. If not, the crops would fail.

0:57:150:57:19

LAUGHTER

0:57:190:57:23

Pick it up and throw it!

0:57:270:57:30

Bloody wheel!

0:57:430:57:45

Full marks for trying.

0:57:450:57:47

That is what is known as a roaring success.

0:57:470:57:50

I think you need a smart lawyer to convince any deity

0:57:500:57:54

that was rolling a wheel, but, for sheer ingenuity,

0:57:540:57:58

you are the pride of our species.

0:57:580:58:00

Next time on Tudor Monastery Farm...

0:58:100:58:12

how monasteries made money beyond farming.

0:58:120:58:15

From mining lead...

0:58:170:58:19

This is hard.

0:58:190:58:21

..fishing...

0:58:210:58:23

And if it does, I can't!

0:58:230:58:24

..and running inns for weary travellers.

0:58:240:58:29

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