Tudor Monastery Farm: Life in Rural England 500 Years Ago

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 have joined forces with Tom Pinfold to take on their biggest challenge yet: going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm. Peter, Ruth and Tom are 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 months, using only materials, tools, and technology available at the time, to earn their living, celebrate their holidays, and clothe and feed themselves and their families. Follow them as they discover how to build a pigsty, brew their own ale, forge their own machinery, and keep a Tudor household. Scrupulously researched, totally authentic, and with its own contemporary narrative playing out within an accurate reconstruction of Tudor England, this is a fantastic glimpse into history, as it was lived. This is set to be Peter, Ruth, and Tom’s most ambitious historical assignment yet.

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. Peter Ginn is a trained archaeologist and historian. He studied at University College London and has a passion for making the past accessible to all. Tom Pinfold is the latest addition to the Farm team. A military historian, he has worked on a number of naval events in Liverpool in conjunction wtih the Royal Navy, and has also worked as an archaeologist at the Museum of London.