Edwardian Farm - Season 1 - Eps 9: May
It's May and, with Empire Day approaching, a very special boat comes to the valley. The paddle steamer Monarch is arriving: one of only three in the country that are still operational. It's the first time such a vessel has arrived at Morwellham Quay in 80 years. Back in the Edwardian period, thousands of tourists began coming to the Tamar Valley by paddle steamer every summer. The combination of reduced working hours and greater mobility encouraged a new form of tourism - day-tripping. Workers from towns and cities like Plymouth flocked to rural spots like Morwhellham Quay for festivities. Local farmers cashed in on the visitors, selling them cream teas, fresh fruit, postcards and anything else they could think of, and also used the steamers to send their produce to market. So historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn pull out all the stops to put on a party for the tourists: they've got to milk a cow who has never been milked before, take lessons in traditional clotted cream making from the instructors at a 'travelling dairy school' and learn to make a special Devon accompaniment to cream teas - the highly popular 'cut round', ie a Devonshire version of a scone. On top of that, they must harvest their strawberries to get them to market on the paddle steamer. They must also come up with more things to sell: drawings of the Tamar Valley, bouquets of flowers and ice cream - not easy to make when you don't have a freezer.
About Edwardian Farm
Title: Edwardian Farm
First Air Date: 2010-11-10
Last Air Date: 2011-01-19
Status: Ended
Rating: 9.5/10 (from 2 votes)
Language: EN
Seasons: 1
Total Episodes: 12
Network: BBC Two
Genres: Documentary, Reality
Production Companies: Lion Television
Synopsis
Edwardian Farm is an historical documentary TV series in twelve parts, first shown on BBC Two from November 2010 to January 2011. It depicts a group of historians trying to run a farm like it was done during the Edwardian era. It was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television and filmed at Morwellham Quay, an historic quay in Devon. The farming team was historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn. The series was devised and produced by David Upshal and directed by Stuart Elliott. The series is a development from two previous series Victorian Farm and Victorian Pharmacy which were among BBC Two's biggest hits of 2009 and 2010, garnering audiences of up to 3.8 million per episode. The series was followed by Wartime Farm in September 2012, featuring the same team but this time in Hampshire on Manor Farm, living a full calendar year as wartime farmers. An associated book by Goodman, Langlands, and Ginn, also titled Edwardian Farm, was published in 2010 by BBC Books. The series was also published on DVD, available in various regional formats.
Cast
Ruth Goodman
Presenter
Alex Langlands
Presenter
Peter Ginn
Presenter
Stephen Noonan
Narrator
