Tudor Monastery Farm: Life in Rural England 500 Years Ago

In a six-part BBC2 series this autumn, popular historians Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn go back to Tudor England to experience work as lay folk on an Abbey Farm.
Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn have become familiar faces on BBC2 after their hugely popular and immersive time-travelling experiments, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm. But for their fourth series, and our accompanying book, they are taking on their biggest challenge yet, going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm.

Peter and Ruth are both trained historians, driven by new research and discovery. They are passionate about bringing period details to life, and they do that for us by comprehensively inhabiting the era for a whole calendar year, using only materials, tools and technology available at the time, to earn their living, celebrate their holidays, clothe and feed themselves and their families.

Scrupulously researched, totally authentic and with its own contemporary narrative playing out within an accurate reconstruction of Tudor England, this is a fantastic popular history format, and translates wonderfully into a book.

RUTH GOODMAN is a specialist in British social history. She appeared as a presenter on all three previous Farm series, and co-authored the tie-in books. She is also a regular expert on The One Show.


Co-author and presenter PETER GINN is a trained archaeologist and historian, and he too appeared in all the previous Farm series.