Posted on 08/20/2005 9:03:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For a year five experts ditched theory for practice, running a Welsh farm using 17th Century methods. What lessons for modern living did they learn?
The BBC series Tales from the Green Valley follows historians and archaeologists as they recreate farm life from the age of the Stuarts. They wear the clothes, eat the food and use the tools, skills and technology of the 1620s.
It was a time when daily life was a hard grind, intimately connected with the physical environment where routines were dictated by the weather and the seasons. A far cry from today's experience of the countryside, which for many involves a bracing walk ahead of a pub lunch.
While few would choose to live a 17th Century lifestyle, the participants found they picked up some valuable tips for modern life.
1. Know thy neighbours. Today it's possible to live alone, without knowing anyone within a 20-mile radius (the same goes for townies). That was simply not possible in the past - not only did the neighbours provide social contact, people shared labour, specialist skills and produce. "And women were judged on good neighbourliness," says historian Ruth Goodman. "If you were willing to help others - particularly during and after childbirth - then others would be more prepared to help you in times of need."
2. Share the load. It was nigh on impossible to run a 1620s farm single-handedly, and the family - either blood relatives, or a farmer, his wife and hired help - had to be multi-skilled. Labour, too, was often divided along gender lines, but at busy periods, such as harvest time, it was all hands on deck.
3. Fewer creature comforts have some benefits. No electricity meant once daylight faded, work stopped in favour of conversation, music-making and knitting. And no carpets meant fewer dust mites, which are linked to asthma and allergies. "They scattered herbs on the floor which released scent when trodden on - this drove out flies and other insects," says Ms Goodman.
4. Eat seasonally. Today it's because of "food miles" and the inferior quality of forced products. In the 1620s, it was because foods were only available at certain times of year - and not just fruit and veg. Mutton, for instance, was in abundance in spring, soon after shearing time. This was because a sheep's wool quality plunges after eight years - thus animals of that age were killed after their final fleece was removed.
5. Tasty food comes in small batches. Today farmers' markets are a tourist attraction and many delight in regional specialities. For these producers play to the strengths of their ingredients, unlike, for instance, the makers of mass-produced cheese. This has to taste the same year-round, despite seasonal variations in milk quality. "So high-quality milk in the spring is downgraded so the finished product is consistent throughout the year," says Ms Goodman.
6. Reuse and recycle. Today we throw away vast mountains of packaging, food, garden waste and other materials. In 1620s, there was a use for everything, with tattered bed linens made into fire-lighters and animal fat into soap. Even human waste had uses. Faeces was a fertiliser, and urine was stored to make ammonia to remove laundry stains.
7. Dress for practicalities. Today fashion and social convention dictate our wardrobes. While polar fleeces and high-performance tramping boots may be all the rage when going rural, the wardrobe of 400 years ago proved more comfortable. "While the crew shivered in their modern garb, we never felt the cold in just two layers - a linen shirt and woollen doublet," says archaeologist Alex Langlands. Breeches meant no wet and muddy trouser legs, and staying covered up - rather than stripping off in the heat - prevented bites, stings, sunburn and scratches.
8. Corsets, not bras. "By that I don't mean Victorian corseting," says Ms Goodman. "Corsets support your back as well as your chest, and don't leave red welts on your skin like bra elastic does. They made it hard to breath walking up hills, but I get short of breath doing that anyway. And most people feel sexy in a corset."
9. Biodiversity protects against unforeseen calamity. While the developed world no longer counts the cost of crop failure in starvation and mass migration - the result of Ireland's Great Potato Famine in 1845 - the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis decimated farms up and down the country as animals, the farmers' livelihoods, were put to death. The 1620s farm had grains, fruit and vegetables, and a range of animals - if one failed, alternatives were available.
9. Reliance on any one thing leaves you vulnerable. Hence the country ground to a halt during the petrol blockades of 2000, and a shortage of coal during 1978-9's Winter of Discontent caused electricity shortages. On the 1620s farm, when oxen used to plough fields fell ill, the implements were reshaped and horses did the job instead.
10. No pesticides means a richer variety of birds, butterflies and other insects, many of which feast on pests - a result as desirable for the gardener as the farmer. And the hedgerow and fields of wild flowers of the past are today making a comeback, as these provide habitats for these creatures and allow edible plants to flourish.
\Tales from the Green Valley will be broadcast weekly on BBC Two from Friday, 19 August, at 1930BST.
Sounds like a hippy commie group to me...
"They scattered herbs on the floor which released scent when trodden on - this drove out flies and other insects,"
Ms. Goodman....two words....FLEAS PLAGUE
Very interesting.
I'm a Welsh pure blood. Both my mom and dad were pure blood Welsh. My ancestors came over to Carbondale, Pa. to work in the coal mines. Whales has a lot of them.
People who worked in the Welsh coal mines used to spend all day there, and they'd get bored. So, they started singing hymns to pass the time. That's where the Welsh choirs come from.
Be nice to us. The only harm we've ever done is to force you to hear the signing every now and then. LOL. La la la la la!
11- Dying early means you won't have to worry about retirement or social security. Have as many children as possible...that is if your wife doesn't die in childbirth. That way, labor is spread evenly among the surviving children since the infant mortality rate is staggering. Who needs abortion or birth control when you have childhood diseases?
BTTT
Oh crap. My dad was one of fifteen children. (I'm outta here!)
Fleas live in carpets. I know from experience. And they don't live on plain wood floors.
Take a walk through a graveyard from these wonderful years gone by and you'll find a different story. People died younger and plagues and famines are easy to spot chronologically. Just a few miles or so from my house, near the Mississippi river, is a graveyard that goes back to well before the Civil War. One plot is especially sobering: a young mother and twins, all died during childbirth.
Once people survived childhood illnesses (barring any plague epidemics) they often lived to ripe old ages. Even then. The idea that hardly anyone lived past 40 is erroneous.
If half the people lived to 25 and the other half lived to 75, the average age is 50. But people died, ALLOT. You think there wasn't cancer in the 1600s? There was, but people just didn't know about. And men often outlived women, because the number 1 killer of women was childbirth.
Good post!
Ping
read later bump
ping
Where is the logic? Mutton is available all year around. They chose to shear and eat it in the Spring. What a bunch of dumb collectivists.
Anyone who's seen the PBS series, Frontier House, knows that life was very hard back then. The people on the series learned very quickly that life consisted of constant work from before-sun-up till sun down. Like washing clothes take 3 days, bathing is rare, clean water is rare, etc. Yeah, this group sounds like an agenda-pushing unit.
Blaaat. Wrong. Life expectancy was 45 years of age. Some people lived longer, a lot didn't. Deaths of women in child birth at early ages was common, death of everyone of simple wounds was common because of infection, death from diseases such as diphtheria, small pox, chicken pox, typhoid, typhus, cholera, mumps, measles and many other diseases were common in children and adults. We are talking about the 17th century, which means 1600-1699. Actually this life expectancy of 45 stayed around up into the 20th century.
The ripe old age you are referring to was about 50-60. Anything over that was extrememly rare. History is written and tells the story, it is there for those that want to read it.
Or, why the ancestors left. Flogging slaves on Nevis was easier.
Ha! got ya beat, my mom was one of sixteen kids!
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