No electricity no gas no flushing toilet.. .and no tractor! Could you survive a year on a Victorian farm? In this fascinating time-travelling experiment Lion Television with the BBC follow a team of historians who will spend a year recreating farm life in 1885. Accompanying the series this book follows the team as they try to run a farm using only materials & resources that would have been available to them in the Victorian era. This was a crucial period in the history of Britain
- rapid industrialization had radically changed life in the cites but rural communities used a mixture of centuries-old & pioneering modern practices. Packed with informative text & photographs from the farm year this book reveals exactly what the Victorians ate wore how they managed their animals farmed the land & organised their lives. In-depth features describe revolutionary advances in more detail including new inventions new breeding methods & advances in agricultural science. Practical projects allow you to join the historians in rediscovering Victorian crafts cookery & homecare. Providing a real insight into life on a Victorian farm this series is also a fascinating reminder of how history comes full circle. The organic diet of 1885 use of natural products for cleaning & healthcare & interests in crafts & gardening are of increasing relevance today as we look for a more responsible way of living over 120 years later.
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The bestselling social history of Victorian domestic life told through the letters diaries journals & novels of 19th-century men & women. The Victorian age is both recent & unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous & technologically advanced nation in the world people carried slops up & down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water stoves flush lavatories -- even lavatory paper -- arrived slowly throughout the century & most were luxuries available only to the prosperous. Judith Flanders author of the widely acclaimed A Circle of Sisters has written an incisive & irresistible portrait of Victorian domestic life. The book itself is laid out like a house following the story of daily life from room to room: from childbirth in the master bedroom through the scullery kitchen & dining room -- cleaning dining entertaining -- on upwards ending in the sickroom & death. Through a collage of diaries letters advice books magazines & paintings Flanders shows how social history is built up out of tiny domestic details. Through these we can understand the desires motivations & thoughts of the age. Many people today live in Victorian terraces & so the houses themselves are familiar but the lives are not. The Victorian House will change all that. ...

From the majestic rows of gleaming white terraces in West London to the grid of red-brick houses in northern mill towns the legacy of the Victorian era can be found in every area of the Engl&. Using his own drawings diagrams & photographs author Trevor Yorke explains all aspects of the Victorian house & provides a definitive guide for those who are renovating tracing the history of their own house or are simply interested in this notable period of history. The book provides a background to different phases of design throughout the Victorian age from 1830 to 1902. Various areas are considered in detail including: the layout & use of rooms; fixtures & fittings; sources of heat & lighting; domestic machinery such as kitchen ranges & laundry equipment; gardens & outbuildings. Also included is a quick reference time chart with drawings of the period details that can help date them & a glossary of the more unfamiliar architectural terms. ...

Many of Britain's four million Victorian & Edwardian houses were shoddily built & often require 'essential repairs'. Problems like rising damp timber decay bowed roofs & subsidence are well-known but how can you tell if your house has major defects or is just typical for its age? Forget 'makeovers': this easy-to-use manual shows where to look for danger signs what's 'normal' & what isn't & how to fix common defects. Equipped with this book you can talk the same language as builders & property professionals. This is the first book to cover logically all defects common to Victorian houses. ...

Within this compendium the very first knitting books have been translated from sketchy often inaccurate instructions into richly coloured exciting patterns for modern day accessories. This blend of history mystery & hands-on technique debunks myths about Victorian life as it inspires beginners & ambitious knitters alike. Included are instructions for Victorian lace as the Victorians never saw it
- in glorious detail up close & on location in & around Cambridge. The lace patterns progress from the first most basic edgings to the sophistication of real" lace. Forty patterns are included
- scarves & shawls capes & fichus
- with comprehensive information on the tools & techniques of lace knitting for beginners & enough challenges to keep experienced or ambitious knitters engaged. Delicate & decorative historical lace patterns are within the reach of todays knitters in this book of adventurous ideas with a vintage touch."


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* Ties in to a fantastic new four-part BBC series from the makers of the hit Victorian Farm * Shows how many products on sale in our high street chemists today can trace their origins back to nineteenth century formulations * Full of fascinating facts remedies & recipes to try at home * Victorian Farm sold over 40 000 copies (Nielsen Bookscan figures) This is the story of consumer medicine -- how high street healthcare emerged in just 50 years & how we still rely on hundreds of formulations & products that can trace their origins back to the nineteenth century. Sun cream treatments for insomnia dandruff or warts perfumes & soaps are all as important today as they were 100 years ago & are stocked by the local chemist. Accompanying a major new BBC series this book takes a look at which products were on offer whether they were effective & how we still make use of them today. Providing hints tips recipes & remedies to make at home & fascinating historical background this book shows that while the names of products on the chemists shelf have changed over time our hopes & aspirations as consumers remain much the same as our Victorian predecessors. ...

Public schools were in the business of producing leaders
- in national government in the Empire & in the armed forces. Their impact
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Its not all longing looks across the dining room from that high-class gentleman! Life as a Victorian servant was tough tough tough! Discover the bizarre & oh-so-strict rules one had to keep to when serving the dignitaries in Victorian Servants: A Very Peculiar History". Rise up through the ranks from washerwoman to housemaid to ladies maid & beyond but mind you dont keep any followers as boyfriends are immoral & are strictly not allowed! While you wait on hand & foot from 5.30 am to 11 pm you wont even have time to rest your own. The chamber pots are certainly not to be sniffed at & remember if the bell rings once you are wanted. Its hard work but its better than the alternative: begging returning home penniless or heading to the workhouse. Youll discover stories of suffering & household tips galore in " Victorian Servants: A Very Peculiar History"!" ...

Jeremy Paxmans unique portrait of the Victorian world takes readers on an exciting journey through the birth of modern Britain. Using the paintings of the era as a starting point he tells us stories of urban life family faith industry & empire that helped define the Victorian spirit & imagination. To Paxman these paintings were the television of their day & his exploration of Victorian art & society shows how these artists were chronicling a world changing before their eyes. This enthralling history is Paxman at his best
- opinionated informed witty surprising
- & a glorious reminder of how the Victorians made us who we are today.

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In The Victorians" Jeremy Paxman offers his personal take on the most important & influential period of our national past. Using the paintings of the era as his starting point
- in his view the one mode of Victorian art yet to be rescued from indifference
- Paxman explores themes of family urban life industry empire & imagination to uncover truths (and explode some myths) about Victorian Britain. To Paxman these paintings were the television of their day immensely popular visual narratives that attracted crowds by the hundreds of thousands: a single picture show featuring Elizabeth Butler's Balaclava (depicting survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade) drew 50 000 viewers some of them openly weeping. The Victorians shows how artists like Butler William Powell Frith Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Luke Fildes & Ford Madox Brown were chronicling a world changing before their eyes & his overview ranges across the whole of Victorian life & culture: from high gothic architecture to the birth of the football league from the novels of Dickens to the technological marvels of Brunel. Published to coincide with a landmark BBC series " The Victorians" is an opinionated informed surprising & hugely enthusiastic appraisal of the birth of modern Britain
- a glorious reminder of how the Victorians made us who we are today."


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