Catch up TV

Episode 3

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year. Wearing period clothes and using only the materials that would have been available in 1885, historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn are going back in time to relive the day-to-day life of the Victorian farmer.\n\nThe project is based on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire - a world frozen in time, lost in Victorian rural England. Its buildings and grounds are cluttered with antique tools and machinery collected by the Acton family who have lived on the estate since the 12th century. The team have resurrected this lost world and brought it back to life, as it would have been in the 1880s. This was a time that saw a revolution in British agriculture. But it also meant centuries-old crafts and skills were being lost to industrialized farming. It is a period that marks the crossroads between the old and the new.\n\nWorking for a full calendar year Ruth, Alex and Peter are rediscovering a lost world of skills, crafts and knowledge assisted by an ever-dwindling band of experts who keep Victorian rural practices alive. Each month and season will bring pressing priorities, from tending to livestock and repairing buildings to raising crops, preparing food and crafting furniture and tools. Can they make a success of farming the Victorian way? It is the New Year and the farm needs emergency repairs. So the team go back to DIY basics, with the help of the woodsman, the blacksmith and the basket maker. Ruth has a go at some traditional potions and remedies. When the wheat crop comes under attack, its time for some pest control, Victorian style, as Alex and Peter join a pheasant hunt. Alex goes out catching rabbits with a team of Victorian poachers. And with spring around the corner the first baby animals are ready to be born.

Source: BBC 2