Edwardian Farm

Do you think The Good Life could be remade, with me or Dave playing Tom Good (maybe not!)? If you have seen something on TV or heard something on the radio recently that you want to talk about, tell us here.
User avatar
Millymollymandy
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 17637
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 6:09 am
Location: Brittany, France

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221145Post Millymollymandy »

Guess I must have nodded off by that point. :lol: Actually now you mention it they were doing some watercolours or something, in fact he was making paint wasn't he? I do find it a bit zzzzzzzzzz-y at times. :lol:
boboff wrote:Oh and just for MMM, :hugish: (thanks)
http://chateaumoorhen.blogspot.com/

User avatar
bonniethomas06
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 1246
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:24 am
Location: Wiltshire, UK

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221147Post bonniethomas06 »

Hahaha, that episode with the paintings made me laugh. The delectable Peter Ginn tried to sell them to the tourists, who looked a bit unimpressed. He ended with saying "well you can just have it if you like" :lol:

I love this series, although I was a bit shocked that even in the edwardian age, our farming industry had already started struggling because of cheap foreign imports (even for things we cold produce ourselves) and mass produced goods.

But it is a fantastic series and I hope there are more like it. Not sure what they could do next though....Mediaeval Farm? Stoneage Farm?
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"

My blog...

http://www.theparttimesmallholder.blogspot.com

User avatar
red
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 6513
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:59 pm
Location: Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221377Post red »

finding it a little weird cos we too are local ish to the place.

i hate the falsehoods.. like them sailing up the river and 'oh gosh look at this place' - well.. i knew they were going to film there.. so im sure they knew....

and the one hours walk to cranmere pool on the moors. the place is famous for (before military roads were put in) being the furthest point from the road in all of England. This is why it was the first place to have a letter box - and a visitors book.. it was a big deal to get there, you would have the stamp on your map with pride. walked there once. took all day. longer than an hour!

a friend of mine is in the series.. playing music :)
Red

I like like minded people... a bit like minded anyway.. well people with bits of their minds that are like the bits of my mind that I like...

my website: colour it green

etsy shop

blog

oldjerry
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 2101
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:57 am

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221385Post oldjerry »

I've watched all the programmes,and some of it (as mentioned above)was a bit annoying.Once,the dressing up bit would be for childrens programmes,primetime evening viewing it's just typical of the way the BBC patronizes it's audience.Shame really as the 3 presenters were quite engaging,at least the shouty woman isn't some ex-model who's suddenly developed an interest in cooking/horticulture/history etc.
Following the Victorian/Edwardian ages perhaps they'll do a quick programme on contemporary farming(an hour of those 3 superannuated children on Top Gear racing round in big Tonka toys)followed by a more interesting series on post - apocolypse farming.
My prediction,watch this space for begging posts from TV production companies you've never heard of.(Me first,it was my idea OK?)

User avatar
Millymollymandy
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 17637
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 6:09 am
Location: Brittany, France

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221388Post Millymollymandy »

I'm up to the cherry picking now and although I found the woman a little bit on the irritating side, now having read these last posts I found her incredibly irritating all of a sudden! Especially out fishing with the boys. Oh dear I'm glad I'm nearly at the end!
boboff wrote:Oh and just for MMM, :hugish: (thanks)
http://chateaumoorhen.blogspot.com/

grahamhobbs
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 1212
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:39 pm
Location: London

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221415Post grahamhobbs »

I like these programmes and unlike Oldjerry I like them dressing up. Seeing women working in the fields and scrubbing floors in their long dresses was very much part of life then (why did they put up with it for so long?). Although as others have said the 'acting' grates at times, I think seeing programmes that show what people created with their hands and brain, what skills people can have, is great. Being in the building trade I am very concious of how we are all slowly being de-skilled. Each generation is being turned more and more into unskilled workers and docile consumers, who's only creative outlet is playing games. How great to see in a very practical way how you can make something right from lumps of iron ore; things don't just come from shops. What understanding of the world we inhabit and delight this creativity brings, that most are now denied.

User avatar
Green Aura
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 9313
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:16 pm
latitude: 58.569279
longitude: -4.762620
Location: North West Highlands

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221427Post Green Aura »

I thoroughly enjoyed both series.

I particularly liked that the presenters were academics extending their knowledge in a practical way not just from books. I think the dressing up part was necessary - they couldn't get a real flavour of how life was in those times if they were working in modern synthetic fleeces and jeans.

And I loved all the information about how they had to have so many different revenue streams to make a living - just like living up here. :lol:

I am slightly worried that they're becoming TV celebs though - did anyone else see Peter Ginn in the seated "invited" audience on Jools Holland's Hootenanny at New Year? :roll:
Maggie

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin

User avatar
red
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 6513
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:59 pm
Location: Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221470Post red »

Green Aura wrote: they couldn't get a real flavour of how life was in those times if they were working in modern synthetic fleeces and jeans.
oh that reminds me... washing a sheeps fleece. just pop it in a stream, pound it about it a bit and then pop it in the sun for a couple of hours. job done. er. no. that wont clean it much, and drying a whole soggy fleece will take days and days. spect they threw that one away after they finished messing with it.

cut to the mill (i love cold harbour mill) and suddenly the fleece is whiter than white....

i like to watch factual programs, but when i know they are not getting the facts right in areas I do know something about - even little things like the right mess she made of making brawn in the last series, including a lot of shrieking about sticking a pig's eye in the sloppy disaster she dished up, and no doubt giving the a false idea of it to loads of viewers who will now never touch the stuff, let alone have a go at making it, having seen the program - well then i doubt the rest of the program.

yes im grumpy about it. i think they had a great opportunity, and not done it right.
Red

I like like minded people... a bit like minded anyway.. well people with bits of their minds that are like the bits of my mind that I like...

my website: colour it green

etsy shop

blog

yvette
Living the good life
Living the good life
Posts: 279
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:27 pm
Location: East London
Contact:

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221544Post yvette »

I think one of the things they got right was the constant constant work involved for the women in providing the basic necessities of life - keeping a fire in the range, heating water, trying to make cheap or sparse ingredients into something palatable and sustaining. I missed the wider view of the household work that you got with the Victorian farm (making soap, doing the washing, making clothes and bedding) but I did think that the way in which the woman was tied to the house was quite accurate. I really liked the episode where Ruth Goodman got the bicycle - I think her glee at the freedom a bicycle gave her might have been quite authentic!
I was also struck by the diversification required to make a living - it seems to me that we are all having to do a bit more of that these days, and that having just one income stream is likely to get less and less effective.

User avatar
Helsbells
A selfsufficientish Regular
A selfsufficientish Regular
Posts: 908
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:32 pm
Location: Berkshire
Contact:

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221568Post Helsbells »

I really enjoyed this programme, especially because hubby and I stayed in Morwellham on holiday a few years ago, so we knew the area. Nothing like a bit of "been there" Shouted every few minutes!

User avatar
growingthings
Living the good life
Living the good life
Posts: 396
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:54 am
Location: East Norfolk
Contact:

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221591Post growingthings »

bonniethomas06 wrote:The delectable Peter Ginn
:wink: :wink: Glad I'm not the only one! :icon_smile: :icon_smile:

Hubby lets me watch it in peace now - though for the life of him he can't understand why I like the 'endurance model' so much! :lol: :lol: :lol: (I think he should take a look in the mirror now and then :cooldude: :lol: )

I am fascinated by domestic history, and Ruth, I can't remember her website, has an incredible job working within this field. It's well worth a look - and at least you won't have to suffer the squawking!

They all did do a series on medieval farming called 'Tales from The Green Valley' which was on a few years ago now....

Lorna x

nickiecc
margo - newbie
margo - newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:16 am
Location: Brussels, Belgium

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 221606Post nickiecc »

Hey all! Just to let you know about another programme you might be interested in.

Victorian Farm actually had a predecessor, called Tales of the Green Valley. Ruth, Alex and Peter plus two other historians live on a Tudor/Jacobean farmhouse near the Welsh border for a year. The programme had much the same structure, but I actually prefer it to the Victorian Farm. It has, for example, ploughing with a wooden plough and a team of oxen; baking in a bread oven; brewing March beer; harvesting with a scythe and threshing the grain by hand; building a cowshed with wattle & daub walls and a thatched roof; and cooking in front of an open fire. It's only available on DVD, unfortunately. Maybe a mass campaign to email the BBC to repeat it would bring it back to screens?

Another interesting programme, going even further back, was one more in Channel 4's style, where a group of volunteers lived in an irpn-age village for a year. This programme was made years later and summarises much of what they did, and how useful the skills turned out to be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e7ZLWz3UMw

flaja
margo - newbie
margo - newbie
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:37 am

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 238524Post flaja »

If an American cousin can be allowed to butt-in I’d like to ask if anyone knows where online I can watch your TV?

I found parts of “The Victorian Kitchen Garden” with Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson on youtube earlier this summer. But I cannot find complete episodes for October, November or December.

I can find even less of Thoday and Dodson’s “Victorian Flower Garden” and “Wartime Kitchen and Garden”, and there practically none of “Victorian Kitchen” online.

I have managed to watch Goodman/Langlands/Ginn “Victorian Farm”; “Edwardian Farm” and “Victorian Farm Christmas” in their entirety. Only bits and pieces of “Tales From a Green Valley” can be found online and the videos on the “Victorian Farm Christmas” website are blocked in the U.S. and only part of them can be found on youtube.

I’ve developed an utter fascination with Victorian/Edwardian technology and maybe someday, if I am ever able to start a farm, I’d like to have something of a museum to demonstrate this low-tech technology.

MKG
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 5139
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: North Notts.

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 238529Post MKG »

Hi Flaja ...

The book which was the bible for the cast of the Victorian Farm (and, I believe, the Edwardian Farm) and which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of (I downloaded it and, for the life of me, can't find it either :iconbiggrin: ) is available on the net for free. It was either on Google Books or Project Gutenberg, both of which are well worth a browse.

Not very precise of me, I know, but it might point you in the right direction.

Mike

EDIT: Ahaaaa!!!!

http://books.google.com/books?id=WxhJAA ... f+the+farm

On the far right of that page is a pdf download button. Enjoy.
The secret of life is to aim below the head (With thanks to MMM)

flaja
margo - newbie
margo - newbie
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:37 am

Re: Edwardian Farm

Post: # 238561Post flaja »

MKG wrote:Hi Flaja ...

The book which was the bible for the cast of the Victorian Farm (and, I believe, the Edwardian Farm) and which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of (I downloaded it and, for the life of me, can't find it either :iconbiggrin: ) is available on the net for free. It was either on Google Books or Project Gutenberg, both of which are well worth a browse.

Not very precise of me, I know, but it might point you in the right direction.

Mike

EDIT: Ahaaaa!!!!

http://books.google.com/books?id=WxhJAA ... f+the+farm

On the far right of that page is a pdf download button. Enjoy.
I appreciate the link. I’ve downloaded the book, but I haven’t talked myself into printing it yet.

I’m curious though. If someone was a 19th century farmer, wouldn’t it make sense that they came from a farm family so they would learn farming from their family? If your parents were farmers, wouldn’t you already know most of the books could tell you? Was their a Victorian era back to the land movement? Were books like Stevens’ aimed a city people who wanted to take up farming for the sake of leaving the city?

Post Reply