500 years ago, England was emerging into a new era. 500年前，英国走进了一个新时代。
After years of war, plague and famine, 经历了连年征战、瘟疫和饥荒后，
the kingdom was enjoying peace and prosperity 王国在第一任都铎国王亨利七世的统治下
under the reign of the first Tudor king Henry VII. 被和平与繁荣所笼罩。
A new class of business-savvy farmer was thriving, 农民，这一具有商业头脑的新兴阶层正茁壮成长，
boosting food production... 极大增加了粮食产量。
And then over she goes! 这样它就翻身了。
..while wool from their sheep was generating half the nation's wealth. 而羊毛业则占据了全国财富的一半。
Many of the nation's farms were under the control
of the biggest landowner in England after the King - the monasteries. 大量的农场都由除国王之外英国最大的地主所控制,它就是修道院。
Their influence could be felt in every aspect of daily life. 在日常生活中，修道院的影响力无处不在。
They were not just places of religion,
they were at the forefront of technology, education and farming. 它们不仅是宗教场所，更引领着技术、教育和农业的前沿。
But with the daily lives of monks devoted to prayer, 然而道士将生活的大部分时间都献给了祷告，
they depended increasingly on tenant farmers 因此他们越来越依赖那些在他们领地上工作
who worked and tended their lands. 并照料农田的佃农。
Steady, girl. 稳住。
Now, historian Ruth Goodman 现在历史学家Ruth Goodman
and archaeologists Tom Pinfold and Peter Ginn 以及考古学家Tom Pinfold和Peter Ginn
are turning the clock back to Tudor England 要让时光倒流回都铎时代，
here at Weald and Downland in West Sussex, 在英国西萨西克的威尔德镇和唐兰德镇，
to work as ordinary farmers under the watchful eye of a monastic landlord. 在修道院地主的监视下，像普通农民一样劳作。
Gi'away. 驾。
That's the way! Nice. 就这样，很好。
To succeed, they'll have to master long-lost farming methods... 要想成功，他们必须重新学习失传已久的农耕方法。
Those flanks are going again! 看好那些羊，它们又跑了。
..and get to grips with Tudor technology. 深入掌握都铎技术。
ALL GASP （尖叫声）
MAN: Quite noisy! 很吵。
- RUTH: - It's a really violent process! 这个流程真是简单粗暴。
..while immersing themselves in the beliefs... 同时投身于具有时代特征的信仰、
customs... 习俗、
and rituals that shaped the age. 以及宗教仪式。
This is Merrie England for Heaven's sake, so to speak, let's enjoy it! 这么说来，这真的是，受上天保佑的快乐英国， 让我们尽情享受吧。
SQUEALS AND LAUGHTER （尖叫声和笑声）
This is the untold story of the monastic farms of Tudor England. 这就是都铎英国时代修道院农场的未知故事。
Ruth, Tom and Peter are travelling to their new farm Ruth，Tom和Peter正在前往他们新农场的路上，
at Weald and Downland in Sussex on England's south coast. 这座农场位于英格兰南岸苏塞克斯郡的威尔德和唐兰德地区。
In 1500, England was 15 years into the rule 至1500年，英国已被第一任都铎国王亨利七世
of its first Tudor king Henry VII. 统治了15年。
The previous two centuries had seen the country ravaged 在过去的两个世纪这个国家饱受
by war, economic depression and plague. 战争、经济危机和瘟疫的摧残。
The Black Death had cut England's population from four million 黑死病使英国人口从400万
to just two-and-a-half million. 锐减至仅仅250万。
But under the new Tudor dynasty the nation was slowly emerging 但是在崭新的都铎王朝的统治下，
from the darkest of times. 这个国家渐渐从最黑暗的时代中走了出来。
This is our marketplace. 这是我们的集市。
This is our little town. 这是我们的小镇。
What a day to start out on, eh? Look at it - blue skies! 在如此美好的一天开始工作真是太棒了！看，蓝蓝的天！
- Welcome to Tudor England, eh? - Morning! ——欢迎来到都铎英国！ ——早上好！
The early Tudor world is a Catholic world, 早期的都铎时代是一个天主教的世界，
suffused with religious thought. 到处充满了宗教思维。
Even very practical stuff, it was always there. 即便对于一些非常实用的东西，宗教总是在那里。
Whatever you did, whatever you talked about, whatever you thought - 无论你做什么，说什么，想什么，
there was no other system of understanding the world. 除宗教外没有另一套解释世界的体系。
It was undisputed. 宗教是不容置疑的。
In 1500, monasteries were almost as powerful as the state itself. 在1500年，修道院几乎和国家一样权高位重。
They exerted their influence over the entire population, 它们对每一个人都产生了极大的影响，
not only in matters of religion, 不仅在宗教方面，
but in every aspect of daily life. 而是在生活的方方面面。
This was a God-fearing nation. 这是一个敬畏上帝的国度。
People believed they risked eternal damnation, even social isolation, 人们相信如果一星期一次教堂都没有去，
if they didn't attend church at least once a week. 他们就有永远被诅咒，甚至被社会孤立的风险。
In this period, most people were living in small wooden structures 在那个时代，大多数人住在小型木结构的房屋中，
focal point of these communities were these massive cathedrals 整个社区的焦点是那些巨型大教堂，
- awe-inspiring, stone built, dominating the landscape. 它们由石块建造而成，令人敬畏，占有主导地位。
And this shows how central the church and religion were 这也展现了教堂和宗教在人们的日常生活中
to people's everyday lives. 占据了何等核心的位置。
It was a time when religion rather than science 在那个时代，人们相信能解释一切的
was relied upon to explain everything, 不是科学，而是宗教，
from the weather and the growth of crops 从天气到庄稼的生长，
to health and well-being. 到健康问题，都由宗教来解释。
Our lives, this country, the values we have, the laws we have, 我们的生活，这个国家，人们的价值观和法律，
the way we approach life - 我们接近生活的方式，
it's all shaped by the past. 都由过去所决定。
I mean, this is one of those periods 我的意思是，
that really forges the identity of England. 这是真正在英国特质上留下烙印的时代之一。
Professor James Clark, an expert in medieval monastic life, 中世纪修道院生活专家James Clark教授
is introducing them to their new farm. 正在向他们介绍他们的新农场。
What was the relationship between monasteries and farms such as this? 修道院和这样的农场之间的关系是怎样的？
By the early Tudor period monasteries are preferring, increasingly, 到了早期都铎时代，修道院越来越倾向于
to put out a large proportion of their agricultural property to tenants. 将很大一部分农业用地租给佃农。
So we're not employed directly by the monasteries, but rather 所以我们并不直接受雇于修道院，
a sort of little enterprise paying rent to the monasteries, 而更像是某种向修道院支付租金的小型企业，
and we're taking all the business risks? 同时我们也承担所有商业风险？
Absolutely so. 完全如此。
And it's down to your ingenuity, 你必须依靠自己的聪明才智，
and perhaps your ability to read the dynamics of the market, 依靠你自己的能力来掌握市场动态,
to make a success of it. 从中取得成功。
As well as having a good head for business, 除了要有商业头脑，
monastic farmers needed shelter - 修道院农场主还需要房屋，
not just for themselves, but also to accommodate and feed their workers. 并不只给自己居住，还用于安置和养活他们的工人。
It's huge! 真大！
- Hm. Heating bill's going to be a bugger, isn't it? - LAUGHTER ——嗯。取暖费将成为一件麻烦事，对不对？ ——笑声。
Wow! 哇！
RUTH: This is a house! Wow! 好棒的房子！哇！
How many people would've lived in here? 在当时会有多少人住在这里？
There'd be the tenants and their immediate family, 会有佃农和他们的直系亲属，
but there would also be live-in domestic servants. 住家佣人也会住在这里。
So, maybe eight to ten in total. 所以总共大概会有八到十个人。
This was the heart of the house, where the farmers would eat, 这里是整栋房子的心脏，农场主们会在这里吃饭，
carry out business, and house extra labourers at harvest time. 开展业务，并在收获季节用于安置临时请来的工人。
Wow, so where do we sleep? 哇，那我们睡在哪里？
RUTH: Well, that'll be, for us, upstairs. 嗯，我们会睡在楼上。
The upper chamber, called the solar, 顶楼房间，也叫阳光房，
was the farmer's private bed-sitting room. 是农场主的私人卧室兼起居室。
It's started already! 开始动手啦！
And a pull-out truckle. 一个可伸缩轮床。
- A truckle? - Yeah, yeah, it's on wheels. ——轮床？ ——是的，没错，它装了轮子。
It shoves underneath during the day. 在白天推到床底下。
- That's where you'll be, Peter! - On the truckle. ——你就睡这里了，Peter！ ——在轮床上。
To pay their monastic landlords, 为了向修道院地主支付租金，
Tudor farmers had to turn a decent profit. 都铎农场主们必须赚取可观的利润。
Their farm has five acres of enclosed fields, 他们的农场有五英亩圈起来的土地，
as well as access to hundreds of acres of common land and woods. 还能进入几百英亩公共土地和林地。
They have cows to pull ploughs and carts, 他们有牛来拉犁和推车，
a barley crop, poultry, 还有一种大麦作物，家禽，
and a flock of Southdown sheep. 以及一群无角短毛羊。
What kind of farming are we going to be doing then? 我们会怎样经营我们的农场？
Your main focus will be sheep. 你们的重心将会是这些绵羊。
And here's where the relationship between the tenant and the monastery 此外处理好佃农和修道院之间的关系
is absolutely central to your productivity. 对于你们的生产力而言非常重要。
Your wool crop may well be required by the monastery, 修道院很可能需要你们的羊毛作物
to satisfy the merchants that it's under contract with. 来满足签了合同的商人。
- RUTH: - But we can't be completely wool-specialist, 但我们不可能完全变成羊毛专家，
we do also have to grow arable crops...? 我们还要种庄稼?
Yes, certainly, you'll probably have a barley crop, for example. 是的，当然，你还可能有一种大麦作物。
Also, at this time, we see tenant farmers taking up pig farming - 另外，在当时，还有些佃农养猪，
in a small way - as an additional small enterprise. 小规模地，作为一个额外的小生意。
Peter, I think we should definitely get some pigs. Peter，我想我们一定要养些猪。
Well, if we're getting some pigs we need to place to put them. 好的，如果我们要养猪的话我们需要地方安置它们。
This project, right there. 这将是一项工程。
It's spring. 现在是春天。
Ruth, Peter and Tom have to get their money-spinning enterprises Ruth，Peter和Tom必须让他门能够赚钱的企业
up and running as soon as possible. 尽快建立并运作起来。
They have just a few weeks to sow crops, 在复活节来临前，他们只有几星期时间
and get in livestock before Easter. 来播种、安置牲畜。
Wool was central to the early Tudor economy. 羊毛是早期都铎时代经济的中心。
It was known as the jewel in the realm, 它被称为王国的珍宝，
as it generated half the nation's wealth. 因为它产生了整个国家一半的财富。
Sheep were the backbone of the British economy - 绵羊是英国经济的脊梁骨，
for clothing, mostly - and not just for us. 最常用来织布，不只给我们自己。
British wool was clothing most of Europe. 英国羊毛为大半个欧洲提供了布料。
It was the finest quality. 它们的质量是最上乘的。
Come on, girls. 来吧，姑娘们。
It was all about grazing - 这都是关于牧场，
the quality of grass influenced the quality of the wool. 牧草的质量影响了羊毛的质量。
The British system involved quite a lot of moving sheep about. 英国牧羊方法经常需要转移羊群。
In the winter months, you wanted them down on your arable land, 在冬天的月份里，你想把它们转移到山下的耕地里，
nibbling at the weeds, dropping their dung on your fields, 啃掉杂草，把粪便留在土地里，
but come spring he moved them up into the hills, 但到了春天你会把他们转移到山丘上，
into areas where he can't run a plough. 转移到那些你不能开垦的地方。
There the grass has come fresh and lush and will sustain your sheep through the summer 在那里，新鲜茂盛的牧草能让羊群渡过夏季
and allow them to grow that perfect coat. 使他们长出完美的羊毛。
Only when the sheep are sheared in a couple of months' time, 只有当人们几个月后给羊群剃毛时
will they know the quality of the wool. 他们才能得知羊毛的质量。
Most Tudor households kept a pig. 大部分都铎家庭会饲养一只猪。
Since pigs ate almost anything, 因为猪几乎什么都吃，
they were a good way of turning kitchen scraps into meat. 它们成了把残羹冷炙变成鲜肉的绝佳妙器。
But in the early 1500s, monastic farmers began rearing pigs 然而在16世纪早期，修道院农场主们开始养猪
to sell on a commercial scale. 用于商业规模的销售。
I suppose, modern age, you've got a lot of pig breeds, 在现代，我们有很多品种的猪，
but the closest to the Tudor breed is the Tamworth, isn't it? 但最接近都铎时代的品种是泰姆华斯猪，不是吗？
Yeah, a little tamer now though, aren't they? 是的，不过它们现在是被驯服了的。
Much wilder, more aggressive back then. 当时的猪要大得多，也更具有攻击性。
SUDDEN SQUEALING （突然发出尖叫）
The monasteries laid down strict rules for their tenants. 修道院给佃农制定了严格的规定。
It was forbidden for pigs to run free, 禁止让猪到处乱跑，
as they could destroy crops and attack people. 它们会毁坏庄稼，攻击人类。
So Peter and Tom must build an enclosure. 因此Peter和Tom必须建造一个围栏。
I suppose pigs... I mean, they're forest dwellers, 猪原本是栖息在森林里的，
so to keep them inside, they'd want to get out... 如果把它们圈养起来，它们就会想跑出去，
- So it'll be a proper construction project. - Yeah. - No messing around. 这将会是一项大工程。没错。不能乱来。
The monasteries most valuable asset, was their land.
In an age when almost every craft relied on wood,
management of the coppices was essential.
John Roberts looks after this coppice
and is helping Tom cut some hazel to build a pig enclosure.
This is all based around the broadleaf's ability
to regenerate very quickly, isn't it?
Yeah, basically it releases all sorts of hormones
that kids it into thinking it's young again.
So can make it virtually immortal.
After the wood is cut, new branches quickly sprout
and within a few years it will have produced another crop of hazel poles.
As a tenant farmer, how much wood can I actually take?
Well, that would sort of depend on your tenancy, really.
And, like today, you gets what you pays for.
So the more rent you're paying, generally, the more rights you have.
They might restrict you to how many cartloads you can take,
or they might restrict you to how long you can be in there cutting for?
- You're just spending your time basically. - Time and effort. - Yes.
Materials gathered, Peter and Tom begin to build the pig enclosure.
Tudor farmers had to master all types of building skills to survive.
These things are never as easy as they look.
They've found an area that's already fenced on three sides,
so they just need to close it off.
We're making good progress with this, Peter.
It's hard work, but it's satisfying.
Between these stakes, the coppiced hazel is woven
to create what is known as a wattle fence.
So you need to start there.
- Yeah. - OK.
Bob Holman is an expert at building Tudor fences.
- Do you think this will hold pigs? - Oh, yes! Without a doubt. - Yeah?
This would hold an elephant by the time we've finished it.
So what we're going to do is put our first wand in there,
and then weave this through these,
pushing it down all the time.
Push it down with your feet.
- Give it a good shove. - Yeah. - And that's the first wand in.
- The next one, of course, or go on the other side. - Right.
So in that one goes - all the butts will then go on the inside.
So we follow that process through,
right the way through to the other end.
Commonly known as cockerel nobbler.
- Cockle nobbler? - Cockerel nobbler.
To sort of polish a cockerel off, you'd give it a tap on the head.
- Oh, cockerel nobbler! - A nobbler. Yes. - Oh, I see.
It's just an expression of speech, but it's good for tapping ends in.
PETER "SQUAWKS" That's right!
The other side of the pig pen
is enclosed with a different type of Tudor fencing.
A dead hedge.
Rotten wood, isn't it? It's just rotted away.
That's just come out!
Ruth and Tom are making some repairs.
Instead of using valuable coppiced hazel
otherwise unwanted twigs could be used.
Basically two rows of posts or stakes, driven into the ground,
then we take all the stuff that, on the face of it, looks like
it's not needed - hawthorns, brambles, a bit of blackthorn there.
Look at the thorns on here -
about an inch long, they're sharp as well - they're going to hurt.
So if you're an animal trying to force your way in,
you've got something to contend with.
- You can't, can you? - No, it's going nowhere.
- Throwing yourself against it, and nothing happens. - Exactly.
I think your aim will improve as time goes on, Peter.
- I think that is about there. - No pig's getting through there, is it?
He he he he....!
After just a day's work, the enclosure is complete.
This fence is as secure as it's going to get.
So, hopefully - pigs contained.
That's the great thing about Tudor building,
it's all about sourcing your materials from your landscape.
To the monasteries, farming was a sideline.
A way of earning money.
Their primary purpose was to perform religious worship
on such a scale that its spiritual power would benefit
every Christian soul.
SPEAK LATIN PRAYER
The oldest of all the monastic orders were the Benedictines.
Established by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century,
they were bound by vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience,
and followed a demanding daily routine of worship, study and prayer.
Peter is visiting Downside Abbey, a Benedictine monastery
to meet its abbot Father Aidan Bellenger.
Hello, Father Abbot.
- Hello, Peter. Very good to see you. - You, too. - It always is.
Tudor tradesmen formed religious guilds
to ensure prosperity in this life and safe passage to heaven in the next.
Peter wants advice on setting up a guild for farmers.
Which patron saint do you think a guild of farmers would adopt?
I think, in general, the most likely patron for a farmer
- would actually be St Benedict himself. - Right, OK.
And one I'd particularly like to think goes in hand with St Benedict
is St Benedict's sister St Scholastica,
who is often seen as the patron saint of good weather.
And I think that must be very important for any farmer.
Every area of life was represented by a different saint.
As illustrated by this medieval prayer book.
They begin with calendars -
and the months are the same as the months we have now -
but many people would identify the day less by the day of the month,
than by the saint of the day.
And some parts of the year are absolutely full of saints,
which gave people an excuse for jollification
and having a good party, but they were also a reminder
of the way in which the Church and God and the saints
intervened in everyday life.
HE CHANTS
The first stage in establishing the guild of St Benedict,
is to create a register of its members.
Inspired by the prayer book,
Peter is commissioning a richly illuminated document.
Monasteries employed lay folk to do domestic work,
like cooking and laundry,
and skilled workers to do stone-carving, bookbinding,
and calligraphy.
Josie Brown has begun the calligraphy on vellum
made from calfskin.
So how are you getting on with our manuscript?
It's coming along very nicely.
I remember making a quill,
but mine had quite a lot of feather on it.
Absolutely.
You very often see the romantic idea of using a pretty quill,
but we don't use them like that.
We cut the ends off, because they get in the way,
and we strip the barbs and use them like that.
Not quite so attractive,
but much more authentic.
Are you squeezing that to suck ink into this,
or are you simply dipping it in?
I'm simply dipping it in,
but that's also why the board is set at an angle,
because if you are writing flat gravity will take over
so you want your pen almost horizontal, to stop the ink flooding.
Once the calligraphy is finished, the document will move on to
an artist within the abbey to illuminate the text.
The Tudor farmer's day began at sunrise.
Brush the grit off my feet -
I don't want a little stone in the bottom of my hose.
Now these are made out of sheep's wool, hence the pure whiteness of them.
The doublet here, is what's going to hold the hose up.
The doublet is just like a jacket essentially.
I sew myself together.
But being laced into clothing, created problems all its own.
The book of manners which essentially tells a page boy
how to dress the squire,
suggests that he first makes sure that the privy is available,
because the implication is that once you're sewn into this
you'd much rather have used the facilities
before you did up all the stitches than afterwards.
And it's certainly something you start considering.
We talk about rhythms of daily life,
well, I've certainly established my own rhythms for my own daily life.
Once in the morning, twice in the evenings,
in case you are wondering.
To preserve modesty, a flap of fabric known as a codpiece
was worn on the front of the hose.
It's not something you're used to coming across in modern life.
And it's tied at the top here
so that you can undo the ties and go to the loo.
It's essentially a fly.
So it's just like the zip on your jeans,
so it's functional and, surprisingly, comfortable.
For the woman of the house,
the first job of the day was to light the fire.
I've got my flint and my steel - struck together they spark.
The trick so is to catch one of those sparks and keep it alight.
Ah, there!
You see it?
A little spark.
Ruth uses charred cloth for tinder
which will catch light from a tiny spark.
Now, we surround it...
and we have fire.
Farmhouses had no glazed windows, because glass was expensive.
To keep warm, a fire was essential.
One of the things you may notice
is that I am not doing this in the middle of a hearth,
you know with a chimney. There are several reasons for that.
Most important, is probably to do with fuel efficiency -
the heating of your home.
About 70% of the heat of a fire goes straight up a chimney.
That means if I wanted to keep a house like this warm,
I would have to have nearly three times as much fuel -
day in, day out, day in, day out - with a chimney,
as I do with a little fire in the centre of the room.
So this is really, really fuel-efficient.
For the men, the first job was to feed the livestock.
Peter and Tom are sourcing water from the farm's well.
- Look at this! - Wow, look at that.
The water is over 20 feet down.
Blimey, that is...
That is deep.
To reach it, some ingenious Tudor technology is called for.
I think slow and steady wins the race here, Peter.
HE GROANS
Treadwheels were the engines of the day.
Used to power cranes to build cathedrals, monasteries and castles,
as well as to drive machinery.
Slow it down, Peter? I'm applying the brake.
OK, let's get this into the buckets.
OK.
Oh! That was close!
THEY LAUGH
This is going to be ideal water for our cattle, isn't it?
But humans back then...
You've got to keep yourself healthy, haven't you?
So you need to purify the water, and the best way of doing that is making beer.
Which suits us very well, I think.
Yeah, let's get these to our cows.
Since water from wells was often contaminated,
people drank ale all day, every day.
The alcohol killed any bacteria, making it safe to drink.
How are these tight clothes working for you now, Peter?
Animals, on the other hand,
have better resistance to the bacteria in dirty water,
so were less likely to get ill from drinking it.
Perfect.
I like that treadwheel.
It's really cool.
In a world without electric light,
work indoors like writing accounts or mending clothes,
had to be done during daylight hours.
The only illumination came from dim lights
made from rushes and sheep fat.
What I want to do is, end up with pure fat.
So that means I got to cook out
all the little bits of blood vessel, skin...
The easiest way to do this is to just boil it all up.
I want to boil it until all those great big solid lumps of tallow
have dissolved.
The fat needs to boil continuously all morning.
As well as breeding sheep, pigs and geese,
the Tudor farmer also cultivated crops.
The farmer's already growing barley
used for making bread and ale.
Another essential Tudor crop would be peas.
I mean, obviously, peas are a crop you associate with a garden.
Yes, but all the text and evidence that's come down to us
shows that they were using it as a field crop, as well.
On a smaller scale than the barley and the wheat,
but nonetheless something that you have out in the field
- for your livestock and for yourselves. - I think it's ideal.
In modern Britain we rely quite heavily on potatoes, don't we?
Whereas in Tudor Britain, or Tudor England, there are no potatoes.
That is a good point.
That is a very good point. Yeah.
Potatoes didn't arrive in Britain until the 1580s.
To sow their peas
they are seeking guidance from a Tudor farming manual,
FitzHerbert's Book of Husbandry.
If we're following the advice in this book,
then we're following the ideas and the farming practice of this era.
In Tudor English, spelling was yet to be standardised.
As Peter is discovering.
- "How will you know... - The "seasonable time".
Yeah. "..seasonable time to go upon the land that is ploughed...
- "and if it... - "Sing". - Oh, yes.
"..and if it sing or cry or make any noise under thy feet,
"then it is too wet to sow.
"And if it makes no noise and will bear the horses,
"then sow in the name of God."
You're listening to the land. That's the idea, isn't it?
So if it's absolutely saturated with water, or anywhere in between,
it's going to make a noise - be squelchy or squishy or...
It's going to "sing or cry".
You'll hear sticky noises. Yeah.
But as soon as the noise ceases, that's when you hit it.
That's when you sow.
This certainly isn't singing or crying under my feet.
- Looks pretty darned dry to me. - Mm.
Before sowing, the land must be ploughed to turn over the soil
and return it to bare earth.
In Tudor times, the plough would have been pulled by cattle,
often oxen, rather than horses.
Gwen and Graceful are one of the only pairs of cattle left in Britain
trained to pull a plough.
But they haven't worked for a couple of years
so the boys will have to break them in again.
Hello, old thing. Hello, biddy.
- Hi, Charles. - Hi, Peter. - Pleased to meet you.
They have called on someone with a lifetime's experience
in working with cattle - Charles Martell.
This is Gwen. She's on the nearside.
GWEN MOOS LOUDLY
The short name is on the nearside of a pair of oxen.
And then she's Graceful - double syllable -
so eventually they respond to their name.
They don't actually understand English too well,
but they can hear the difference in the length of the word.
Gwen, Graceful.
For the first time in two years
Gwen and Graceful are being fitted with a yolk.
One yolk.
All right, there you are, so just hold it so she doesn't walk away.
Held in place with oxbows,
the yoke is what the plough will be attached to.
They almost look happy.
This is the easy bit, it's when we get out in the field
and see open grassland, and you might not see them again.
Of course they haven't seen grassland for the best part of winter.
Oh, dear, don't say that. THEY LAUGH
Steady, steady, steady.
It's like the bloody circus, isn't it?
All right, old biddies. It's all right.
That's just got the edge off them now.
We need to convince them to do some work, before they get their food.
Get them into a routine. Here they come again.
Yeah, I don't think we should let them out, actually.
- I'm afraid, that's what they're after - their grub. - Yeah.
So, because I'm afraid if they do go
they'll think it's a great laugh and we might not catch them tonight.
They can smell their grub there.
That's what it is. That's what it is.
MOOS
So why exactly did people move away from ploughing
- with oxen and cattle towards horses? - Two things, I think.
First of all, fashion. It played a big part in that.
- Really? - You go and see a farmer now... Careful what I say -
but the tractor's got to be the latest one,
the modern one, a bigger one,
and oxen were regarded as lowly and poor beasts.
And the other thing is speed.
Horses were more expensive, but they were fast.
So that's why we're in this situation today, where
working oxen in Britain - this is probably one of the only pairs.
And I think it's a great shame.
The sheep fat has spent the morning boiling,
and has been left to cool leaving pure tallow on the surface.
Ruth's reheating it to make the rush lights.
If you think about modern life,
we get sort of fats and oils from a huge number of sources.
Things like olives, sunflower seed, linseed, rapeseed,
as well as crude oil and all its various derivatives.
But if you were living in around 1500,
then the animal fats are pretty much all there is.
And those animal fats have got to do every food job,
every light and energy job, every axle-grease job.
Anything that needs fat has to come from...animal fats.
And this is the other ingredient, rushes.
The sort you want are those that have a sort of solid, pith-like centre.
And what I want to do is to soak the fat into the pith.
And then that little bit of green rind will act as the wick,
which helps that to burn.
Right. All I want to do is to soak that just briefly in the fat.
And that pith draws the fat into it.
That is a rush light. It's really simple, isn't it?
It's the moment of truth for Gwyn and Graceful.
They are about to work for the first time in years.
Whoa!
Once in the field, Charles' fears are realised.
Oh, dear!
But look at them now. You can see they're not the least bit upset.
They had their little run. They're quite fat, so it wasn't very far.
- Just need to work out what stop is, then. - Yeah.
We've got to get a plough into that soil in the next week or so,
otherwise we're not going to get a crop.
Before the plough is attached,
Charles has suggested letting them pull a much lighter implement.
It's vital that the ploughed furrows are absolutely straight
to ensure every inch of land is turned over.
So Tom and Peter must persuade Gwyn and Graceful
to walk in a straight line.
Move on, move on.
Come on, come on.
- Come on. - There we go.
Just need to tap them ever so gently and they move. It's amazing.
They look kind of happy. They're earning their food now.
Come walk, come walk. We'll keep them moving.
That's the trick, apparently. Don't let them stop.
(Come on.)
Come on. Oh! Come on.
Come on! Come on! Come on!
Well, there we are, they're working. I'm amazed.
Pete's a bit noisy. You don't need to shout at them like that.
They've got quite good hearing, oxen.
I'll tell him about that in a minute. Hah!
I'm impressed. It's lovely.
And, er...the next stage is ploughing.
Well done, girls. Well done.
As night fell, with the farmhouse plunged into darkness,
the Tudor farmer would go to bed.
About the same as a candle flame, isn't it?
Not much different.
It smells a lot worse. SHE LAUGHS
There ain't much work you can do by rush light.
BIRDSONG
Beautiful day!
It was believed that devotion to a patron saint
through a religious guild was the key to success.
At the monastery,
the calligraphy on the Guild of St Benedict register is complete.
Next, a painter illuminates the text.
As with all trades of the day,
it wasn't only creative skills that were required,
but also craft skills to make the tools for the job.
Artist Mark Goodman begins by making a brush from a feather.
The simple way to get a point on it
is just to cut it through just over halfway.
We've now got a point on our feather.
We can cut the feather off.
We can then...make a tube.
And then we can push the feather through the tube.
And as you see...there we have a brush.
Then the only last bit you've got to worry about is your stick,
which you can get anywhere. And there we have it, a paintbrush.
To paint these very fine details,
the Tudor artist had an ingenious solution.
Just a glass globe full of water.
If it's not full of water, nothing happens with it really.
As you can see there. The trick is filling it with water.
As soon as you fill it with water, it becomes a large magnifying lens.
This one's around about 16 times magnification.
Illumination was a complex and expensive process,
so reserved only for special books and documents, like this register.
After many hours of delicate work, the register is complete.
An indelible record of the Guild of St Benedict's paying members.
The Guild would have funded an altar in the local church
dedicated to their cause.
LAUGHTER
Pre-Reformation churches look completely different.
Look at all the imagery on the walls.
This chapel at St Fagans
has been restored to how it would have been in 1500.
In the late 1520s, Henry VIII broke away from the Roman church
and formed the Church of England.
Beginning a process that would see the monasteries destroyed
and parish churches like this one stripped of their splendour.
This is the side altar of our guild,
the one that we maintain and look after.
And here, we, as ordinary lay folk,
pay for a priest to come and do additional masses
for the souls of all of us within the guild
for now and for ever-more.
These are in need of some TLC, aren't they? Look at that!
Not only covered in wax, but filthy. So that's a job for me.
Tom and Peter have spent the last week
getting the cattle used to working again.
We've got five willing participants at the moment, I believe.
Ruth's happy, Peter's kind of happy.
There we go.
Now they're ready to take the plough for the first time in years.
- OK. - This is the moment of truth.
These cows are getting restless, they want to get on with some work.
OK, Tommo, we're in your hands. Walk on!
Straight line, Tommo, straight line.
- This is good, I think. - It's a start.
Yeah. We are...we are experimenting here.
It's vital that Gwyn and Graceful plough in straight lines.
- Gee away. Gee away. - Gee away!
Now, that's nice! That's good!
Keep that straight line. Gee away.
We're going straight, what are you doing at the back?
Are those cows straight?
- LAUGHTER - They need a line to follow.
- Really? - Unfortunately for us... - LAUGHTER
- Look at it! - ..we've got a bit of spaghetti ploughing.
Spaghetti ploughing? It's worse than spaghetti ploughing.
But the ploughing goes from bad to worse.
Walk on! Oh!
- You all right, Tommo? - We've got a revolution here.
- Walk on. - We've got cow mutiny! - Walk on.
Gwyn and Graceful are exhausted after just a couple of furrows.
Come on!
Oh, dear. The problem is, they're really hating this, aren't they?
They're not used to having the equipment. They're not happy.
Once you've got that pressure of pulling the plough,
when we're trying to go deeper, it's too much work for them.
Walk on!
Getting the peas in the ground within the next week is crucial.
Otherwise, the crop will fail.
Also pressing is the pig concern.
Well, there we go.
Timber!
The enclosure's complete, but now they must build a shelter within in.
Pigs don't like draughts, so if they're to breed successfully,
the shelter must have solid walls.
They're basing the design on medieval buildings
they've excavated as archaeologists.
But constructing the walls without nails is proving tricky.
- This one is high. - Yeah. - I might need to get the axe. - Or we could bash it.
Tom and Peter have rather different ideas as to how it should be built.
You split that timber...
What?
I think, basically, it should be shaped slightly with the axe,
and Peter's just enjoying hitting stuff with a piece of wood.
That one's fat.
- Are you damaging my timber? - Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, ooh!
Right!
Move that across like that. There we go. Boom!
I'm so impressed by this, Tom. You really have outdone yourself.
- Friendship still intact. - Just.
It's two weeks until Easter.
For Tudors it was preceded by Lent, 40 days of fasting
and reflection, ending on Easter Sunday.
The church dictated that no meat or fish be eaten,
and in this God-fearing society it was a practice
observed by almost everyone.
Vegetables from the garden were essential for survival.
The whole point of gardening at this period of history is to have
something to eat every day.
And if you look around you, you can see just how hard that could be.
Oddly enough, you might think the hungriest period of the year
is in the dead of winter, but that's not quite true.
It's really sort of now that we call traditionally "the hungry gap".
That part of the year between your supplies, your stores
beginning to run low and the new harvests arriving.
There are just leeks, parsley and a vegetable that's long
since disappeared from the kitchen.
This is alexanders.
I think the Romans brought them over to begin with.
They're very versatile.
These young leaves are edible just as they are,
and these are a real treat.
Can you see the flower heads in here, just forming underneath?
Poach just those, they're absolutely delicious.
This is a real favourite of mine this time of year. Primroses.
Delicious salad.
You just pull the petals,
so you just get that bit out and they are so lovely.
And if the sun's being on them they're really sweet.
Mmm. They're really tasty.
SHE LAUGHS
Here we go...weavy, weavy, weavy...
To construct the pig shelter walls,
Peter and Tom are using a building technique has been around
for over 6,000 years - wattle and daub.
Thin hazel sticks are woven around the uprights to create a fence.
Then a mixture of clay, horse dung and straw is daubed onto it,
creating a solid, draughtproof wall.
Look out easily that just works into the earth, into the wattle.
That's amazing.
The stickiness comes from the manure.
Sorry, this is really quite horrible.
Probably, it can be as strong as bricks.
All the pressure is spread out over all the different bits of wattle.
All this is going to dry, go solid.
You know, it's not hard to work with, it's just unpleasant.
500 years ago, this was the way most houses were built.
Our farm cottage, you can see the timber structures
and the panels in between. They are all wattle and daub.
Beautifully smoothed off.
We're building pigsties in exactly the same way that
that Tudor cottage was built.
Ruth is equipping the farmhouse with utensils and tableware.
In Tudor times these were sourced from local craftsmen
and most villages would have had a dish-maker.
Today, there's just one professional wooden dish-maker
left in Britain, aptly named Robin Wood.
Right, here we go.
- Right, so this is what you're going to make ours out of. - Yeah.
Out of each log like this I get three dishes.
So we're not making them out of slices that way.
- It's not like that's the bowl? - Exactly.
All the strength in wood is the fibres running along this way.
So if you just cannot a ring off like this,
then they'd all be very short fibres and it would just break apart.
The dishes are hewn from a hardwood, such as beech.
Nice! Let's see. Let's see what we got. There it goes.
The dish is roughly shaped using just one tool, an axe.
- And these are your chisels. - Yes. I forge all these myself.
Traditionally, forging your tools would have been
- part of the apprenticeship of the job. - Right.
Then it's turned, using a foot-operated pole lathe.
It's a device so simple and ingenious that it
saw use from the 10th century right through until the 20th.
- Clunk! - Clunk! SHE LAUGHS
I love the way it's turning it around.
It really is as simple as that.
Throughout history these wooden dishes have gone
in and out of fashion.
In the Roman period they all ate from ceramic.
And then we had about 1,000 years when people ate from wood.
And then it was really the 18th century when the Stoke potteries
started mass-producing very cheap ceramic,
that we went back to being a ceramic culture.
Oh, there we go.
- There we go, all finished. - Wow. That is beautiful.
Probably 1,000 years of accumulated knowledge handed down
through the generations has gone into that bowl.
In the 1500s people ate their main meal at 11 o'clock in the morning.
Having risen at dawn,
by then the farm workers would have been ravenous.
Taking pride of place on the Tudor table was the salt.
Without salt, people, for centuries and centuries and centuries,
would have found living in the northern climes nigh impossible.
Salt allows you to preserve meat, it allows you to preserve fish.
Like most things in Tudor life,
even setting the table was laden with Christian symbolism.
You might look at it and think it looks rather like an altar
in a church, and that's what many people in the period thought too.
They made the connection between dining and God's table.
There was something of the sacred
in the daily ritual of eating a meal.
Something of remembering Christ.
Something of an echo of the Last Supper.
And people were quite conscious of that.
They wrote about it at the time. They talked about it at the time.
And they quite deliberately made the most of it.
It's the week before Easter.
If the peas aren't planted now
they won't have time to germinate and grow.
Peter and Tom have spent the week getting
Gwen and Graceful used to working again.
Whoa! Blimey!
- They're fast! They're faster than I thought they'd be. - That's good.
Go on, girl. Walk on.
Finally, the field is ploughed and harrowed to break up the soil.
I'm just give them a little helping hand here,
taking a bit of the pressure off.
Whoa! Whoa!
Steady!
The peas can now be sown.
Peter's taking advice from the book of husbandry.
"Let thy left foot before... and take a handful of peas...
"And when thou take up thy right foot...
"..thou can throw...
"..thy..." Hang about.
- "Thy peas." - Just throw, Peter. Just throw.
BOTH: one, two, three...
Hand-broadcasting seed was inevitably haphazard.
It wasn't until the invention of Jethro Tull's seed drill
200 years later that seeds could be sown in regular rows, evenly spaced.
By putting your left foot forward and then throwing to the right,
left foot forward, throwing to the right,
it does mean that you are trying to get them
broadcast as evenly as possible.
Come summer, they should have a crop to harvest.
It's Palm Sunday, marking the last week of Lent.
It commemorates Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem,
when palm leaves were laid before him,
days before he was betrayed and crucified.
Peter has a key role in the celebrations.
Palm Sunday, starting around 1490,
people used to dress up as prophets.
Basically, a yeoman or a respected member of the village,
but a layperson, such as myself,
would don the outfit of a prophet, and the more dramatic the better.
Such as John the Baptist emerging from the wilderness.
Records show that villages would actually hire in beards
so that they could dress up their prophets accordingly.
It wasn't meant to poke fun.
Tis I, John the Baptist!
Right!
I wonder if they will recognise me.
CHANTING
The most important ritual of Palm Sunday was Holy Mass.
HE SPEAKS IN LATIN
Delivered in Latin, the text would not have been understood
by the congregation, but its rituals were.
HE SPEAKS IN LATIN
Central to the mass was the blessing of greenery,
symbolising the palms that were laid before Jesus.
ALL: Amen.
Then the blessed branches were turned into crosses,
symbolic of the crucifixion.
Finally, the congregation processed from the church with their crosses,
which would then be taken home to protect them for the year to come.
Professor Ronald Hutton, an expert on English rituals, explains
the importance of Palm Sunday celebrations in early Tudor England.
You get three things in one.
You get people reminded of what the Christian message
and the Christian story is all about.
You get the greenery, which symbolises spring and hope
and new life, and you get something which is actually going to
protect your house and your family and your farm.
And all this in one symbolised in this procession with a layman -
that's Peter up there, dressed up as a prophet - to dress this up as fun,
make it something people can engage in and which they can make their own.
It's just a totally brilliant way of giving religion to the people
and enabling them to share in it.
By the 1500s there was a new, raucous side to the celebrations.
The truly insanely wonderful thing about Palm Sunday ritual
is that it ended in a kind of spring version of a snowball fight.
And it's a wonderful example of the way in which
religion round about 1500 introduced an element
of just sheer merrymaking at the end of something solemn and profound,
to remind us that we are alive and being alive means having fun.
LAUGHTER
Good shot!
Being a prophet has its advantages.
I'm staying well out of the melee.
This is the last ritual of Palm Sunday,
but it's a really important one.
It's where we take the crosses woven out of our consecrated greenery
and put them over the doorway of your home to protect it for the next
year against witchcraft, curses, demons and general misfortune.
It's the ultimate security system circa 1500.
- Does it work? - Apparently so, England is still here.
LAUGHTER
Can't argue with that.
Have a nice Tudor Easter!
- Thank you kindly. - Bye!
Bye-bye.
It's late spring. The pea crop is coming through.
It's a really healthy-looking crop, isn't it? The sun is really helping.
Just look out there, that's very impressive, if I say so myself.
But the pigsties are still not finished.
Without a shelter they can't introduce pigs
and breed them for cash.
This is all we've been doing.
This project could happen like that, but we've got the field to sort out
and we've got the farm to sort out, we've got the animals to sort out.
Everything needs attention, everything requires time.
- We sweated, we bled... - We've argued. - We've argued!
We've road-tested not only our skills but our friendship.
From here on in, you and I can do anything. Absolutely anything.
For the roof, they're making shingles, wooden tiles.
That's pretty good, actually. But I think it'll shed water.
Well, they are pigs, so they can't be too fussy.
- It's time to get the pigs in. - Yeah, I think so. - Cool!
As soon as Lent was over meat could be eaten once again.
And at this time of year, it's one particular kind of meat.
This is veal.
You have to kill a young calf if you want to have cheese
for the rest of the year, so Easter is all about veal.
Rennet from the calf's stomach is essential in cheesemaking.
With the meat, Ruth's cooking a Tudor favourite, pottage.
This, with its Easter veal, and its fresh, young alexanders
and last year's leeks and last year's beans,
it's just typical of this couple of weeks of the year.
In two or three weeks' time I won't be able to make this pottage.
Half these ingredients won't be around.
So although in some ways a diet in the late-medieval,
early Tudor period can sound a little boring - bread and pottage,
bread and pottage, next day, bread and pottage, next day,
bread and pottage -
nonetheless, those words actually hide quite a lot of variety,
as week by week by week, that pottage changes all through the year.
Local farmer Neal Kareswell is delivering two Tamworth sows
and six piglets.
Tamworths can be dangerous,
but Neil's got some advice on how to move them safely around.
If you try and push a pig from behind,
they're a lot bigger than you, are a lot stronger than you, and if
they don't want to do it, they will just come through the other way.
So, if you try and use psychology more than brute strength,
you'll be a little bit more successful.
The best thing to do is convince them that you're brilliant
and you've got some food.
As you can tell, they are definitely enjoying that.
They're not taking a blind bit of notice of us.
Which is a good sign, Peter.
- It's amazing how much they complete this area. - Yeah.
It's been quite sterile up until now and all of a sudden it's,
like, "Ah! That's why we've been doing all the work."
Lord, let us remember just how much effort goes into putting
food on the table.
Amen.
ALL: Amen.
By 11 o'clock in the morning, with the livestock fed and watered,
workers would head to the farmhouse for their main meal of the day.
It's not every day you find yourself in a Leonardo da Vinci painting,
- is it? - The Last Supper!
LAUGHTER
It does, doesn't it, have that sort of religious feel?
- Echoes just how much the church influenced society. - Yes, absolutely.
It's sort of embedded and ingrained through absolutely everything you do.
Powers have changed, kings have come and gone,
but the church has always been there.
Yes, it was the one way you understood where you came from,
where you were going to, how you related to the natural world.
We should see our farming through that lens,
how the crops grow, what we are doing on the land.
If we want to get into the minds of people in 1500
we should be trying to see that through the lens of the church.
Next time on Tudor Monastery Farm,
the team explore how farms made money to pay the rent.
Oh! That was a good dunk!
By farming sheep...
The question is, are you going to buy our wool?
- As we say in the monastery, you have to have faith. - We certainly will!
..adopting new technology...
Ruth: Wow!
..and trading their wares.
Geese for sale, people! Anyone want a goose?
If you don't want a whole goose, we've got parts of geese.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd