Edwardian Farm
A strange as it my sound, I’m a huge fan of historical documentaries. I never used to be. I used to be all about technology and anything modern. As I got older though I found an appreciation for history. With that being said, I recently found a show on TVOntario (or BBC) called Edwardian Farm. It’s a historical documentary where three people lived the lives of Edwardian Farmers (1900 – 1915) in Devon Engalnd. The three people where two archeologists and one historian, so they knew what they where getting in to. But, they did have to live the way they did back then and keep the farm going and turn a profit. They took on the all the odd jobs too that farmers would have done to make extra money too.
Every episode showed one month in this experiment so it only ran 12 shows. During that time there where a whole list of experts that still kept to the old ways to show them exactly how things where done or how to use the antique machines. It was absolutely amazing to see how things where done and how hard they had to work to survive. I often would wonder what I would have done if I was alive back then. I’m not much of a farmer, but I think I could have been an artisan of some sort, metal or wood work of some kind.
Anyway, if you dig historical things I highly recommend you check out the show. There are actually more to the series. There is Victorian Farm, which I’ve yet to see, and Victorian Pharmacy. Which was got me hooked on this whole series. You can watch other Edwardian Farm episodes here at TVOntario. Not sure if people outside of Canada can watch these episodes. I hope so because they are awesome.
Play Asia
May 9th, 2012 at 2:27 am
I grew up on documentaries, but I tend to gravitate toward the ones about technology and history.
Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of a series called “Great Planes” on YouTube. It’s got a nice, laid-back style to it, while also having bits of awesome 80’s music here and there.
May 11th, 2012 at 1:57 am
Sounds like a pretty cool show. If you’re really into that type of documentary you should try & find a show that used to air on PBS here in the states a few years ago called “Frontier House”. It took a bunch of volunteer families & made them live for a couple of months in Montana as closely to the pioneer lifestyle of the 1880s. It sounds pretty close to what you describe except these weren’t archaeologists but just regular people who volunteered. They followed that show up a little while later with “Manor House”. A group of people who volunteered to live in an Edwardian manor house as servants, abiding by all the rules of Edwardian society. Fascinating stuff.
Quick search & I found the old sites for the shows:
http://www.pbs.org/manorhouse/theproject/making.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse/index.html
You should check them out if you can find them.