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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00through the door for the first time that was just for us you know it was like is this for us
00:00:08and it was worst moment walking out the door at the end that was sad
00:00:17meet the boner family royal marine paul school inspector joyce 11-year-old twins ruth and hillary
00:00:34catherine 16 and 9-year-old joe they volunteered to go back in time to wash dress eat and live every
00:00:45intimate detail of domestic life in the 1900 house for the bowlers there is plenty to celebrate
00:01:01this christmas 1999 has been an eventful year after the family left the 1900 house they moved into their
00:01:14very own turn-of-the-century home in september paul and joyce became grandparents when eldest daughter
00:01:21connie gave birth to baby paul and for three extraordinary months the rest of the family
00:01:28turned time traveler they left their west country house behind and moved to the london suburb of
00:01:37charlton where a unique property awaited at 50 elliscombe road
00:01:42inside all traces of the 20th century had been removed no electricity tv or modern medicines
00:01:54it had taken four months to recreate a typical lower middle class home of 1900
00:02:00this living experiment was set up to demonstrate just how different domestic life was a hundred years
00:02:06ago seen through the eyes of a modern family
00:02:09a spring sunday morning and time to say goodbye to the modern world the first to shed 20th century
00:02:25appearance was catherine when i got dressed this morning it would just felt so special it was great
00:02:34and we were just prancing around twirling my skirt it was lovely she's got the pretty age in which
00:02:41will come down to the bottom
00:02:42from the comfort of their modern home the bowlers now review the experience once again
00:02:50it's a skirt gives a rustle because the idea of rustling underwear underneath a skirt was supposed to be
00:02:56very sexy
00:02:57very sexy
00:02:57very sexy
00:02:57oh god
00:03:01oh don't you look fantastic
00:03:04yeah i think that first first time we tried everything was really special
00:03:11yeah it was very nice
00:03:12we all looked so we never looked like that again why did we never look so lovely
00:03:15my ears are very thick as well
00:03:18a victorian royal marines uniform had to be specially made for paul an original in his size could not be found as the average height of a marine in 1900 was only five foot six
00:03:31so um how do i go to the blue you undo all the buttons all the way through right button up for decency
00:03:39oh yeah it's then kind of pulls apart and then you can do whatever you need to do
00:03:44okay aiming straight
00:03:46right okay
00:03:48one thing we didn't have time to show in the program and people don't know is that very often
00:03:54myself and i think catherine we left our drawers off completely
00:03:57so we were terrible victorian ladies really because they were so fiddly to go to the loo in
00:04:04and by the time you'd walked very sedately downstairs when nature called and made your way out to the outside loo
00:04:10you know the fact that you then had to delve under all these skirts to do all these buttons and things
00:04:14it was just like no forget it so i'm afraid we didn't
00:04:17i feel completely different though it's so it's amazing
00:04:29i haven't been this excited and felt this way since my wedding day
00:04:39i had a funny tummy and i felt quite sort of sick and excited
00:04:43so are you ready to go yeah let's go yeah we look ready to go
00:04:48the people of elliscombe road gathered to welcome the family to their new home
00:05:01you can't take away that feeling can you that with that very first day it was so exciting and so
00:05:20new and fresh
00:05:21you're like the laughing cow i was the bowlers were about to see the 1900 house for the very first time
00:05:34before we got to the house i'd thought about what it would look like
00:05:59um i imagined it a lot smaller i got the i had a couple of dreams as well about it i got the front
00:06:04door on the right side with a bay window so i dreamt that bit but as in most dreams when you go
00:06:10through and you get to a certain point i could come through the front door and i just had this sort
00:06:13of dark there was a dark feeling which was very much like it was when we went in
00:06:16everything we'd been looking at was black and white so i expected to be everything to be black and
00:06:30white that's what i expected all the photographs all the pictures that we'd seen i expected to be
00:06:36black and white and it was like vibrant with colors and perhaps real beautiful it's beautiful so much
00:06:47better than i thought it was going to be it's just wonderful like a real home isn't it it feels like
00:06:51a real home it doesn't feel like a museum or something that's been artificially put together
00:06:56i think we were a bit like too excited when we got up there
00:07:07i think we were just like
00:07:08this is it
00:07:10oh my god
00:07:15secrets to be told here
00:07:18small video diary cameras set up in the bedrooms were the only modern technology in the house
00:07:28i'm going to be using this one a lot yeah okay hello this is my video diary for monday when we
00:07:36first got into the house i said where are there any other cameras and we actually searched looking
00:07:41for cameras because i said there's i bet there's a hidden camera somewhere so we're on our hands and
00:07:46knees going under you know under the beds and i was thinking now that's ridiculous we did that
00:07:51and uh we didn't find any and i don't think there were any were there no isn't that funny
00:07:56as the first night fell a new pattern of life began
00:08:06all we had was like one candle in each room and when we went up to bed it was just so dark you just
00:08:14had to go to bed because it felt like it was like the middle of the night but it wasn't it was
00:08:19just like eight o'clock or something
00:08:21these are stiff aren't they i've got loads of them
00:08:30there we go lovely
00:08:32right to tell you i think you've probably got to wear these again tomorrow
00:08:36should we say a bit cheesy
00:08:39um not too bad we've got to take that off as well
00:08:43it's lovely isn't it
00:09:02hmm
00:09:038 15 and the bowler family woke up to their new life as an ordinary family of 1900
00:09:11paul's first triumph was keeping the kitchen range burning through the night
00:09:23it was now the family's only boiler kettle cooker and here's my first piece of toast
00:09:30done um in the 1900 house on the fire on the range
00:09:35tubes of toothpaste had just arrived in 1900 but no ordinary family could afford them
00:09:45they had a choice of salt
00:09:47or neat bicarbonate of soda
00:09:50applied with a hog bristle brush
00:09:54oh my god it's laughing
00:09:56oh my god
00:09:59i've literally been in that house one night not even 24 hours
00:10:03and um there was a camera stuck in front of me to clean your teeth
00:10:07so i picked up what do i do put it in some white powder i didn't know what it was for
00:10:14i didn't know my dad's shaving i could have been even anything
00:10:16and um it was it was it was huge and you couldn't
00:10:22it was just like filled your mouth and then i had too much in it
00:10:25it was like oh my god
00:10:27it was disgusting
00:10:30it was horrific
00:10:31was that a magical moment
00:10:32oh yeah that was a magical moment
00:10:34that it just sort of started to realize that i didn't know what i was doing
00:10:38and there was a lot of things in the house which i think i had to find out before i attempted anything
00:10:42that was foul
00:10:47okay breakfast time what are we going to have this morning
00:10:50um we haven't got any milk i'm afraid the milk turned into a bit of a yogurt overnight
00:10:54i don't know what time the milk is actually going to be coming today
00:10:56and then can you wait for breakfast are you starving
00:10:59a bit of toast perhaps while we're waiting
00:11:01perhaps the magic started to diminish i think the next morning when there was no one around
00:11:08it was just the bowler family and it was like what do we do next
00:11:13do i need a shower well you probably do need one darling but you can't have one
00:11:21um you can't have a bath either because we can't get enough hot water yet for a bath
00:11:31oh yeah
00:11:31but you can stand up like we've all done take all your clothes off and have a strip wash in the bathroom
00:11:36do you fancy that
00:11:38for the first time joyce had to squeeze unassisted into her corset
00:11:47get the better of this if it kills me
00:11:53in an age when women were generally flatter chested corsets bolstered the bosom up and nipped the waist in
00:11:59petticoat number one whilst two petticoats padded out the bottom
00:12:05oh god i thought so much effort goes into just getting dressed
00:12:10oh yuck
00:12:14smells not i'm not looking at it it smells
00:12:19in the safety razor wasn't invented till 1901
00:12:41paul's only option a cutthroat
00:12:51paul's having a shave he's obviously having a really bad time
00:12:58i don't think the blade's sharp enough or it's too sharp i don't know i think he's cutting his face off
00:13:06it's scary isn't it
00:13:14you've been in there ages
00:13:16it's uh taking longer than i expected
00:13:19is it really sharp
00:13:21extremely sharp
00:13:22extremely sharp
00:13:23right so
00:13:24i'm not going to be using it then for
00:13:26legs and armpits
00:13:28i'm just going to have to get hairier and hairier
00:13:31oh god
00:13:32three days into it um i have a birthday and i jumped out of bed in the morning and was thrilled
00:13:42to bits and announced how old i was to the nation
00:13:45good morning it's my birthday i'm 44
00:13:48oh a portrait
00:13:50thank you
00:13:51oh did you make this
00:13:55yeah
00:13:55you didn't
00:13:56i did
00:13:57is that when i was born
00:13:59yeah
00:14:001855
00:14:01within the space of that day i'd gone from
00:14:05severe clinical depression to hysteria hysteria back again
00:14:09the trouble began with the arduous task of cooking lunch on the range
00:14:14why did you put more coal on now i've lost a boil
00:14:17why did you do that
00:14:18i thought i got the timing right
00:14:20you know what this is this is too many cooks spoil the broth
00:14:23look it's not boiling
00:14:24it's nearly it's getting there
00:14:26old helpful harry has set the range back by about 20 minutes
00:14:30just leave one alone
00:14:32yes all right i'm sorry
00:14:35mum and dad have been talking shouting a lot at each other because they can't work things
00:14:40out
00:14:41and we're relying on them and they should understand that if they don't grow up if they don't just
00:14:49grow up then we don't know what we're gonna do
00:14:53i mean i just don't got enough hot plates and things and for something that would at home take me about 20 minutes
00:15:01are they my favorite sausages yes they are your favorite so kevin give me a hand
00:15:04it's fine
00:15:06does it taste better than it looks
00:15:08does it taste better than it looks
00:15:10okay
00:15:11eat some watercress because it's got iron in it
00:15:14yeah
00:15:14yeah
00:15:14i cooked myself i've cooked nothing
00:15:20what in there stood over the range the macaroni didn't do but i did god
00:15:29the hob wasn't hot enough to cook the macaroni but soon it was scorching
00:15:34Joyce's carefully prepared compote of rhubarb stuck to the pan and burned
00:15:39i was really angry with paul because he was being quite smug about it because i mean he's been
00:15:49out on exercise in you know the middle of nowhere desert wastes the frozen north he's been everywhere
00:15:54and you know he can cope with these things he just has had a lifetime of training and i was
00:16:00doing i felt like i was doing everything and i was cooking things and i was keeping people happy
00:16:05and i was oh it just it was just it just exploded
00:16:09and he was sat there in the kitchen i could have smacked him really because he was sat there in the
00:16:15kitchen you know oh well you know what does it matter if the rhubarb burnt
00:16:18i think that was a real turning point for me because when i went out in the garden
00:16:45and i knew i was being filmed i damn well wanted to be filmed because i wanted everybody to know
00:16:49that i'd suffered and i was i got to this point and it was it was three rotten days
00:16:54i'm really cross with myself
00:16:57it wasn't i knew it was going to be tough and i knew
00:17:01it wasn't supposed to be so quickly i thought i was going to be much better than this
00:17:07i really wanted to make do this properly i really wanted to make it a success and
00:17:13i've got joe sitting there and he won't eat anything so he's going to starve to death
00:17:17paul shouts when people don't when joe doesn't eat all the children don't like it when paul shouts
00:17:23i have a go at him he has a go at me we're all sat around the table all on top of each other
00:17:27i've produced something i wouldn't give to a pig
00:17:31the reactions i've had from people having seen that extract is
00:17:46they all all the women empathize with me they all say oh i was in tears when i saw that and then they
00:17:52all say oh and when joe came up wasn't that lovely when he put his his arm around you and
00:17:57i think everybody all the whole family was scared because it was like what's up with mum
00:18:01why is she doing this why is she out there and i actually in the program you see very little of
00:18:05it but i was ranting and raving in the garden for quite some time
00:18:07probably scaring the neighbors
00:18:11scared myself
00:18:14it was actually quite scary seeing mum shouting because she doesn't do it at her home she doesn't
00:18:22do any things that she did on her birthday so it was really really scary seeing mum and then dad
00:18:27was shouting as well for the couple of weeks so it was actually
00:18:31things looked up later in the day when joyce received her main birthday present
00:18:41while joyce was out at the greengrocers paul had built a chicken run for the new occupants of number 50
00:18:49and then she was like oh my god you've been busy oh my god you've been busy oh i'm so horrible to you this morning
00:18:56oh i love them come here come here let me pick you up yeah yeah mum it's all right it's all right
00:19:06you can call her mcdonald mum and we can eat her after you've finished
00:19:10it was one hell of a day and for it to be my birthday as well because you sort of think
00:19:25it's my birthday this is my special day and uh you're hoping it's going to be a birthday you're
00:19:31never going to forget well it is a birthday i'll never forget for various reasons i think next year
00:19:36will be interesting because i'll probably be doing something very mundane and i'll think crikey
00:19:42remember last year
00:19:44in part two hygiene gets personal in the 1900 house and a newcomer the maid elizabeth talks frankly
00:19:54about master-servant relations every time i took that food in and out i was so tempted to just put
00:20:01it over his head or in his lap or just throw it at him
00:20:05feather been dirty smelly and greasy and skanky
00:20:22i don't want to go home
00:20:24after almost a week no one in the family had had a decent wash because the kitchen range which should
00:20:38have provided hot water had barely produced a drop
00:20:41the range has been bugging me for days and days and days it's not been producing what i wanted it
00:20:47produce i can see this fantastic glowing heat producing gallons and gallons of heat and gallons and
00:20:53nothing else
00:20:55it's great for warming this room it's great for cooking on but it's not it's not good at heating
00:21:00water not in any quantity i mean it you can get some i don't mind having a strip wash in lukewarm
00:21:05water
00:21:06well no that's been fine that's been fine but we have a bathroom that bathroom obviously would have
00:21:10been used it's a there's a bath there but i feel like i feel like i'm climbing up everest and i've
00:21:14got i've got to base camp and i've got the wrong boots i've forgotten my coat no oxygen i've yeah you've
00:21:21you've you've taken all the oxygen um we've had a big row desperate now desperate this house is killing me
00:21:33it wasn't just the lack of hot water that was getting everyone down with itchy scalps and greasy hair
00:21:39everyone wanted a good hair wash but until the discovery of detergents almost 50 years away
00:21:45there was no such thing as shampoo the 1900 option grated soap
00:21:51oh it's producing a lather
00:21:53well it would because it's soap isn't it
00:21:55it feels like shampoo
00:21:57oh don't
00:21:59god
00:22:00i just want to show you the results of my disgusting soap
00:22:05shampoo episode where i thought i'd
00:22:07be never so clever and made some wonderful shampoo
00:22:11my hair is just revolting i mean i can stand most things
00:22:15and i know it's really early days
00:22:17but i really really need something to wash my hair with
00:22:21in most households this would be headed for the frying pan
00:22:27but joyce received an alternative suggestion from the 1900 house historian daru rook
00:22:33dear joyce when you wash your hair you might try something i found listed in an 1860s household encyclopedia
00:22:43it recommended whisking two egg yolks and the juice of a lemon then massaging it into the hair thoroughly
00:22:51i suppose it would be like a protein wash and should be quite good
00:22:55you ready
00:22:57mm
00:22:59i think the egg and stuff just kind of sticks to the soot and the soap and the grease and the dirt
00:23:19it's quite cold isn't it
00:23:21yeah which is good because obviously if you've got it any hotter you might have big lumps of um
00:23:25scrambled egg suffering for the price of fashion it's not even vanity it's just to feel nice
00:23:29it's basic cleanliness isn't it
00:23:35i just smell very sort of omelette-y i think
00:23:37sort of like a legend
00:23:43i know i know
00:23:45eventually i will look like the wild woman from borneo
00:23:47and it'll be like
00:23:49why don't we just go through the larder
00:23:51and use everything golden syrup
00:23:53now there you are
00:23:55there's lots of people that wash their in golden syrup and they had lovely hair
00:23:57my old granny used to wash her hair
00:23:59in olive oil
00:24:01i'm still the people telling what their old grannies used to wash their hair in
00:24:05with the range barely producing hot water
00:24:09and the prospect of three months of egg shampoos ahead
00:24:13the temptations of 1999 were proving irresistible
00:24:17i shouldn't have been surprised that it was shampoo that broke my 1900 resolve because
00:24:25i'm addicted to going to the hairdressers i buy every new hair product there is going i have
00:24:31people know me for having different styles and colors and i just
00:24:35it's just my hobby really my hair
00:24:37um and quite an expensive one so perhaps i should have thought about that before i went into it
00:24:41the bowlers had an account with the local co-op just as they would have had a hundred years ago
00:24:47although it was fine for them to browse the shelves
00:24:49they had agreed to buy only products available in 1900
00:24:53but just one week into the experiment
00:24:55temptation got the better of them
00:24:57now it's confession time
00:25:07we put the shampoo
00:25:09in the basket
00:25:11and i looked and i waited and i thought in a minute he's going to say
00:25:13yes you can have all these things but i'm afraid you know this isn't allowed
00:25:17but he didn't you know he just kind of rung it through
00:25:19and i turned to katherine and it was like
00:25:21yes we've done it you know we're through we've got whatever you know
00:25:25we've got the extra 500 cigarettes through customs
00:25:31not only did i buy the shampoo but
00:25:33you know it was some
00:25:35buy one get one free
00:25:39behold
00:25:41the elixir of life
00:25:43i've washed my hair
00:25:45with shampoo
00:25:47isn't it wonderful
00:25:49isn't it silly
00:25:51it's not silly
00:25:53but Joyce had to deal with the guilt of breaking rules she'd agreed to live by
00:25:57your hair's not an issue
00:25:59what the issue is
00:26:01is the 1900 experience
00:26:03well my hair's chosen not to have a 1900 experience
00:26:05and i'm sorry my feelings are valid
00:26:07and if they don't suit other people
00:26:09then hard cheese
00:26:11maybe it's like people that give up smoking
00:26:13you know who think
00:26:15i can do this
00:26:17and then
00:26:18they
00:26:19no it's just it it was just totally irrational
00:26:21but it made such enormous sense at the time
00:26:25we've actually come to a conclusion that i'm going to
00:26:27pour these down the drain
00:26:29and um
00:26:31i am going to
00:26:33start again
00:26:35the bowlers resolved to live without shampoo
00:26:43but they weren't giving up on the range
00:26:45after almost a fortnight without hot water
00:26:47they called in the plumber
00:26:49who'd installed it originally
00:26:511900 ranges were dangerous and often exploded when they got too hot
00:26:57so as a precaution
00:26:59this one had been adapted to modern safety standards
00:27:03now all these modifications were stripped out
00:27:05i just wanted to come upstairs and sing glory hallelujah
00:27:09because we've got hot water
00:27:11in the pipes
00:27:13and it's
00:27:15it's only half eleven
00:27:17so it's bloody marvellous
00:27:19it's a bit definite really having a midday bath
00:27:29you've got to catch it
00:27:31before the you know once the hot goes
00:27:33it goes cold straight away so
00:27:35now you've got to catch it and get in very quickly
00:27:37ooh
00:27:43quite hot actually
00:27:45although victorians said cleanliness was next to godliness
00:27:49i don't think they bathed that often
00:27:51and they weren't
00:27:53in favour of hot baths
00:27:55not the way we are
00:27:57but they must have enjoyed it just the way i am
00:27:59just to be able to get out of those clothes
00:28:01and to get into this water is just fantastic
00:28:03having said that you must see the water
00:28:05it's absolutely filthy
00:28:07absolutely filthy
00:28:11once a week is a treat when the house is empty
00:28:13i should be giving myself a proper bath
00:28:15i've managed to wash my back with the loofah
00:28:17and you know i feel clean all over
00:28:19having said that the bath is full of scum
00:28:21the first visitor to stay overnight at the 1900 house was the bowler's eldest daughter connie
00:28:35the first time when i went there i can just remember thinking as i walked through the door how dark and horrible it was because i'm not very keen on victoriana i find it a bit spooky i thought it was a bit scary and also it's absolutely stank of gas the whole house smelt of gas and i mentioned it to mum and she was going oh does it i can't smell anything so she was obviously
00:28:41used to it
00:29:17when i went to visit them i just i just felt so dirty and horrible i just felt sorry leaving them there having no showers
00:29:25but there were there were definitely some tensions there just i think it was from frustration because it was so hard work and everything was so laborious and washing up just took forever and boiling the kettle just took ages even if you just wanted to make a cup of tea
00:29:39um i remember once when i came to visit mum said oh we're gonna have jacket potatoes for tea and i arrived in the morning and her putting them in in the morning and i was thinking what's she doing they're gonna be black she said oh they take ages to cook and then when it came to tea time they weren't even done
00:29:55as connie witnessed even the simplest tasks took hours in the 1900 house when joyce's skirts needed repairs she had to struggle with yet another piece of 19th century technology
00:30:07can't see it can't move
00:30:19it's just i don't know why but everything you know everything takes three times as long like the cooking and everything but it's just
00:30:27a simple thing like threading a needle or rewinding a bobbin it's just a mammoth task
00:30:35yes
00:30:55quite frankly i feel like all the joy has gone out of my life
00:30:59frustrations of victorian life sometimes reached boiling point and the bowlers began to offload their anger to their video diary cameras
00:31:07morning
00:31:09on this occasion joyce had just tried to do some washing
00:31:13whether this is an oversight i don't know
00:31:15so i get the washboard down
00:31:17and clean the one in the sink and i lay a bit of the pulse best thing on the side
00:31:25you know i'm really going there i can see the end is in sight maybe another hour maybe i'll be there and i turn it over and the washboard is filthy
00:31:33okay
00:31:35now i know this is my only way of communicating with you
00:31:39and at the moment i am bloody fuming
00:31:41i can't watch myself do this because it looks like i'm pretending
00:31:45what i mean to say is that washboard would have been clean because i would have been using it day in week in week out it would not be dirty
00:31:53you are making my life impossible
00:31:55you are setting up things in front of us that are making things impossible
00:31:57do you know what i really want to do
00:31:59i really want to say sod it
00:32:01and i really want to just get out
00:32:03go for a nice walk in the sunshine
00:32:05stop myself going stark staring mad
00:32:07i just think this poor woman
00:32:09who must have been chained
00:32:11you can't even sit in the nice rooms
00:32:13you could spend hours getting the nice rooms nice
00:32:15but you can't sit in them you can't enjoy them
00:32:17oh watch this this is terrible
00:32:21well it's disgusting
00:32:27oh god
00:32:29that was really painful
00:32:31that shows how real it got
00:32:33i think that clip
00:32:35i would like i'd forgotten doing that
00:32:37but that actually shows
00:32:39how real it had become to me
00:32:41because it was so important because it was a lovely sunny day
00:32:43i couldn't go for a walk because i had all these little jobs to do
00:32:45little jobs they were taking me hours weren't they
00:32:47when i said i might be finished in an hour or so
00:32:49the end i'd forgotten
00:32:51i'd forgotten about that
00:32:53it's very um uncomfortable to watch
00:32:55and i'm really cross aren't i really cross
00:32:57hmm
00:33:03joyce battled with the domestic routine for the first month
00:33:07but then she decided that things had to change
00:33:11god it all comes back in
00:33:13quite frankly the thought of just all
00:33:15all i am doing is keeping this house clean
00:33:17is just
00:33:19so boring
00:33:21i think i'll just go start staring mad or i'll just leave
00:33:23her solution
00:33:27was perfectly in keeping with 1900
00:33:29getting someone else to do the dirty work
00:33:31i've got a few questions i'd like to ask you
00:33:33okay
00:33:35and i expect you'll have some questions
00:33:37having placed an ad for a general domestic
00:33:39two women came to be interviewed
00:33:41may i see your hands please
00:33:43yes
00:33:45yes you're obviously
00:33:47used to lots of hard work
00:33:49this is one of the things i've been advised to ask for
00:33:51i've worked in factories
00:33:53i've done a lot of cleaning
00:33:55things like that
00:33:57washing up the breakfast dishes
00:33:59emptying the slops in the bedrooms
00:34:01and dusting and sweeping from the top all the way down
00:34:03cleaning out any grates that we've used
00:34:05which will probably be this one
00:34:07yeah
00:34:09we don't have any detergents
00:34:11obviously you haven't got a hoover
00:34:13grade above the uh
00:34:15working class
00:34:17yes
00:34:23here she is
00:34:25both applicants were well qualified
00:34:27but joyce chose elizabeth lillington
00:34:29in 1900 almost every middle class home
00:34:31employed a maid of all work
00:34:33who performed a wide range of domestic duties
00:34:35good morning
00:34:37good morning elizabeth come in
00:34:39thank you
00:34:41how are you
00:34:43thank you
00:34:45would you like to take your coat and hand
00:34:47yes please
00:34:49i'm 29 i'm 30 this year
00:34:51most of my life i've been doing cleaning
00:34:53so as my mother's and my mum's mother as well
00:34:55so i'm like the third generation of a cleaner in my family
00:34:59oh great
00:35:01i curled my fringe off
00:35:03thank you
00:35:07i wanted this job because
00:35:09i've always been really interested in history
00:35:11especially women's history
00:35:13and when i found out they had reconstructed this house
00:35:15i couldn't wait to get here
00:35:17because i feel like i'm living and breathing
00:35:19and wearing
00:35:21the same things that my great grandmother
00:35:23probably would have worn
00:35:25oh right sunlight soap
00:35:27excellent one
00:35:29there's no better household soap
00:35:33part of me is thinking oh good
00:35:41oh good i don't have to do
00:35:43all the horrible um
00:35:45cleaning
00:35:47and part of me is saying um that's awful
00:35:59you know you've got somebody else
00:36:01a woman at that
00:36:03cleaning up after you
00:36:05i want to be a benevolent employer
00:36:11i suppose i'll be giving her cups of tea
00:36:15um free access to the outside toilet
00:36:17i mean what else can i give her
00:36:19there aren't really enough perks to this job
00:36:21um as much fluff as you can take home
00:36:23i enjoyed it
00:36:27yeah i did enjoy it
00:36:29um the hardest thing
00:36:31about it was
00:36:33was um sort of going to the house
00:36:35and and knowing
00:36:37that that mrs bowler was embarrassed
00:36:39of having a maid
00:36:41that was the hardest thing for me
00:36:43because i always felt like i was in her way
00:36:45sort of thing you know
00:36:46but apart from that
00:36:47i enjoyed everything about it
00:36:49you know especially like living history
00:36:51Elizabeth
00:36:53come and see what i've got
00:36:55the carpet sweeper was invented by an american asthmatic called mr
00:37:07bissell in a bid to contain the dust which inflamed his lungs
00:37:11it was first marketed in england in 1887
00:37:15is that my present
00:37:17my new toy at the moment because it saves me practically an hour when i'm cleaning the carpets
00:37:29so i know that uh feminism helped women gain their liberty but if you ask me i think it was more the carpet sweeper and domestic appliances that gave women their liberty because it saves so much time working
00:37:47all went well with elizabeth until the day when the man who created the 1900 house historian darryl rook came to assess the family's progress it was a testing day for the household the constricting detail of victorian etiquette proved to be a challenge
00:38:05instead of just cleaning for her usual three hours elizabeth stayed on to serve dinner to their guest
00:38:23i was supposed to be very glad you're gonna show this along
00:38:25you're doing very well so lovely to see you again
00:38:27as the day wore on tensions between her and paul grew
00:38:31i thought that mr bowler was just sort of um
00:38:37picking up on things that was was just you know irrelevant
00:38:41you know at the time and i i thought that he thought that i wasn't doing a good enough job
00:38:46like it really aggravated me you know it was really tense that night
00:38:50i don't know how i'm gonna lift it up because it's so sticky
00:38:54i've got no utensils at all so i'm just gonna have to throw it onto the plate like that
00:39:00what a woman at the time in your position would not have been socially that different to the person who was your maid
00:39:06so in order to mark that distinction you may well have been pretty nasty
00:39:11to make her to the maid in order to stress that difference
00:39:15Elizabeth when you could you come back and get us another jug of lime please
00:39:19yeah and then get your cone hat
00:39:21i don't know i don't
00:39:23that's so funny
00:39:25i'm having to stop myself from going into the kitchen
00:39:27i'm having to stop myself from cuffing around the back of the air
00:39:31she's cursing
00:39:33i know i bet she is
00:39:34i won't come in here again
00:39:35personally i think that paul is a pain in the neck
00:39:41because i mean basically if i was alive a hundred years ago my life would be as comfortable as he wants to make it
00:39:48and this is the 90s and he's not making my life very comfortable at all
00:39:52where is she she hasn't taken the cheese away for goodness sake
00:39:55just come back in again to get the tomato sauce to be a horrible
00:39:58she's a maid of all work paid to do jobs
00:40:00he's not a slave either
00:40:01he's not no
00:40:02so why are you treating me like that
00:40:04he's just being worried
00:40:05i think he's just being a fuss
00:40:06i'm just being i'm doing a bit of role playing
00:40:09at first i thought that he was role playing
00:40:12you know i really did i thought that he was just doing that because that is what a master would have done in those days
00:40:19but then when he started to say things like get your hat and coat and stuff like that
00:40:23and that that really hurt me because i was working really hard
00:40:27i think that mr bowler paul bowler slipped into the role of master of the house quite easily
00:40:33and he kept giving me a bad attitude throughout the whole night which his son joe picked up on
00:40:39and he kept calling me maid all night which thoroughly upset me because he knew my name
00:40:44so i think the snob in there of both the men of the house came out right you know quite suddenly
00:40:51i did feel there was a victorian man coming out because it was so formal and i wanted to impress
00:40:58i wanted to show off what we'd achieved i wanted to show off my beautiful children their lovely dresses
00:41:03you know i wanted to show off my wife and i wanted to show off my maid of all work
00:41:07we were all sat down there talking to this man who'd created this house for us
00:41:13i just wanted to say look this is it this is what we've achieved look at what we've done
00:41:17yeah it was it was it was it was it was if you clear the table and then bring in the other stuff that'd be fantastic
00:41:24that'd be fantastic because the rhubarb and everything will be enough to go on with anyway
00:41:29the whole elizabeth and the maid will work thing is actually very interesting because after we'd
00:41:33read in cassell's about employers and when you think about the class of person that we were
00:41:38you know this new we could newly afford all these wonderful things but we hadn't employed people
00:41:43before so that would have been a whole new thing so maybe that dinner and the way we mismanaged
00:41:48our servant or otherwise wasn't such an unusual occurrence i think maybe up and down elliscombe
00:41:56road there were families you know putting their foot in it left right and center i've still got
00:42:00the washing up to do my back's killing me the corset's too tight my feet hurt my hands are sore
00:42:06all i want to do is go home and go to my bed by the year 2000 women will have got the vote
00:42:12they're having a party downstairs and doing some shows i don't know what's going on because i
00:42:20haven't been invited because i'm just the maid people have said to me afterwards why did she
00:42:24expect to go to the party she was the maid of all work it would have been as if she'd been sat at the
00:42:30table and i'd been in the kitchen it would have been daft i was actually quite surprised that she
00:42:35did expect to come to the party i did feel quite dejected a couple of a couple of times while i was
00:42:41working there it did it did for once in my life it did make me feel um that i was under under the
00:42:50bowlers that i was of a different class you know and that that was the first time that i've ever felt
00:42:55like that you know and i didn't like it at all in part three liberation for elizabeth and the bowlers take
00:43:04a dip
00:43:11anything you pop yourself into this awful
00:43:19thing instrument of torture the stupidity and wickedness of this custom is scarcely possible to
00:43:25exaggerate it not only ruins the health of those who practice it for joyce and catherine the daily
00:43:31ritual of dressing was becoming a bind and then this is where you give yourself a waist
00:43:38so you pull it as tightly as you can without passing out the tender bones and muscles are pinched
00:43:46squeezed crimped and confined so that the complicated internal organs which are so wonderfully constructed
00:43:52and so marvelously fitted to their work are interfered with and pushed out of place
00:43:59by reading a victorian advice book catherine discovered that wearing tight corsets were
00:44:03seen to carry dangers even in 1900
00:44:13as they were suffering from shortness of breath joyce called in dr long the local gp
00:44:21to check what was happening required a respiratory test
00:44:24blow blow blow blow blow is that it i'm sorry yes okay
00:44:32so your peak flow was 300 which is actually quite low do you smoke oh that's okay i'm sure that's to do
00:44:39with the corset
00:44:40the same test was then done without the corset blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow blow okay
00:44:55420. that's a bit better isn't it it really is constricting you isn't it and all for the sake of
00:45:01fashion i've actually got a book that i've discovered um which was actually written in 1890 and there's
00:45:07actually a section in this book it's called the heart of beauty and it says what stays cost us
00:45:12and it's basically describing you know what you've noticed in that um these women that wore the
00:45:19corsets for a long time their actual body shape changed and if you can see the ribs tended to become
00:45:24more elongated the waist became much more nipped in the ribs cover lots of internal organs and the
00:45:32internal organs can actually you know become abnormally shaped as well they have to move obviously
00:45:37if i can show you here how the lungs the heart and the liver can actually become very very
00:45:44distorted in shape from the pressure you know even then they knew all the effect the effects
00:45:49um of course a tree and and yet you know women still still wore them i hate it i hate the bloody
00:45:57thing i absolutely hate it to think that i would have to wear this for the rest of my i mean from my adult
00:46:03life i can't not wear it because the clothes won't fit i won't be the right shape i look ridiculous
00:46:12on average women's waists in 1900 were five inches smaller than they are today
00:46:17rigid corsets would have to be worn for another 20 years
00:46:20the bowlers eventually found some freedom from the constraints of victorian dress
00:46:30in their advice manuals they discovered that swimming was a popular pastime in 1900
00:46:35so they spent some of their weekly budget on turn-of-the-century bathing suits
00:46:39public baths were originally built in the 1850s before people had plumbing in their houses
00:46:52as well as swimming pools they had areas for washing and de-lousing
00:46:56but some of the bowlers were missing out
00:47:11catherine and i are outcasts from society we can't go swimming we're singled out
00:47:16why oh because we're women
00:47:27joyce and catherine had both started their periods in 1900 most women had to make their own sanitary
00:47:33towels out of cotton rags i'm just making this circular belt and then i'm literally pinning them
00:47:39front and back like that like a little hammock like a nappy comes around the front you make sure
00:47:46you don't get it too sort of bound up with your suspenders or your corset or whatever because you
00:47:50can't go to the loo then and you just trust in them really doctors in those days believed
00:48:00menstruation was caused by blood escaping from the womb which they thought was a weak organ the real cause
00:48:07the monthly shedding of the womb lining was not understood until 1908
00:48:13they don't have all this kind of dry weave top fabric or you know plasticky bits in the middle
00:48:17or any of that stuff you know there's none of this they've got no wings and they can't do anything
00:48:20fantastic the liquid just literally goes into them and seeps out the other side
00:48:26colloquially known as the curse women were told to rest for the duration of their periods
00:48:31i've had numerous accidents i'm now i've now come to the conclusion that i need i cannot sit down
00:48:37i have to stand on most occasions otherwise i'm having terrible accidents i'm soaking them in a
00:48:43bucket i've yet to wash the blasted things um my heart bleeds i just can't believe that she also had
00:48:51to go through everything that i've been bemoaning up until now and she had to cope with these before i went
00:48:59to the 1900 house i wasn't particularly a feminist i wouldn't say i was a um that kind of a person
00:49:05i think for individuals you should do what you feel comfortable with so when
00:49:10i went into the house and discovered that so very recently um within the last hundred years women's
00:49:16lives were so different to how they are today it was a real it was a real eye-opener for me
00:49:21and i i it suddenly became more important
00:49:36assertiveness comes in many shapes and forms and i'm afraid i don't think i've got it when it comes to um
00:49:44reprimanding employees
00:49:46i'm very new to this game and um i haven't had a maid of all work for very long
00:49:54she's actually half an hour late and i was just thinking about what do you say to somebody who's
00:50:01persistently half an hour late being the bowler's servant had given elizabeth an appetite
00:50:08she was curious to find out more about the working conditions of maids in 1900
00:50:12do you have any uh social history books about uh history of women gone 10 o'clock now um what do i say
00:50:20when she turns up i'll just say hello um hello bad traffic lovely to see you and then she goes off and does the
00:50:32cleaning
00:50:37i got this book which was about victorian working women and it actually had in it the diaries of
00:50:44this victorian gentleman who was called arthur munby he actually had a fascination of finding out
00:50:52what sort of work women did in the victorian times and especially hard manual work
00:50:59arthur munby actually married uh hannah who was a maid of all work in a victorian house
00:51:06and it was her diary that he encouraged her to write
00:51:13hannah's diary records that domestic servants had few rights
00:51:17millions of working-class women were employed on low wages and worked in appalling conditions
00:51:22and with no social security the fear of being thrown into poverty kept them at the beck and call
00:51:30of their mistresses i suppose she could be ill but she's been late every day
00:51:37she did get lost a couple of times you can't keep getting lost though can you i don't know
00:51:42oh morning morning come in thank you right today after you've done your usual in the scullery yeah
00:51:56dishes and bits i wondered if you start the spring cleaning yeah fine and we'll do the girls room
00:52:01first right fine yeah great get on with that then we'll do you'll do we'll do oh god i'm not doing it
00:52:12i think i started to kick against things and get bolshy when i realized i had i had a choice
00:52:21i could either spend three months being incredibly unhappy and unfulfilled and bored cleaning and i'd have
00:52:29a lovely house and you know you know and at the end of it people say well what did you do for three
00:52:32months and i would say i i kept this house beautifully clean and um made a cake yeah the world of 1900
00:52:41opened to me and i could see as a woman i didn't have to stay in and do those things there was a choice
00:52:47hey i'm free i wasn't being good anymore
00:52:54joyce's bid for freedom triggered a desire to learn more about women's struggle for equality
00:52:59in 1900 british women whatever their class did not have the right to vote
00:53:05eager to know more joyce arranged to meet diana dorley the granddaughter of a suffragette
00:53:12the suffragettes you see had their own um magazine things which they sold um they weren't allowed to
00:53:18stand on the street to sell it they had to stand in the gutter otherwise it was counted as obstruction
00:53:25and all these women get together and yet still they're ignored it's not the lone voice it's not
00:53:29it's not as if it's some eccentric few
00:53:35that's a belt that they put round their waist and chained themselves to railings
00:53:39you see i think the chain would have been attached there and then they chained themselves to the
00:53:44railings so that they couldn't be got off and they then would get arrested and put in prison
00:53:50and they were brutal to them when they put them in the um black mariahs and things it's not just
00:53:54getting the vote is it it's the whole thing the whole thing for women that's right definitely it's
00:53:59just fantastic for me to be holding this and somebody wore this and i think if i hadn't touched
00:54:04on the women's rights issue and the way things were changing for women at that time i would have
00:54:09been doing a disservice to all the women that lived in that street who lived at that time if i'd ignored
00:54:16what was going on and it it was happening locally there were local meetings and rallies and things
00:54:21i know if i'd lived then that would have been what i've been interested in alongside joyce's
00:54:27political awakening came uncomfortable thoughts close to home as elizabeth cleaned her house
00:54:34joyce took a swim and came to a big decision
00:54:38just floated about for a bit and then i started to swim i suppose i suppose i was thinking about you
00:54:43know the freedom and it was lovely to have the freedom and the time to be able to come swimming
00:54:47and then i was thinking well it would only have been certain people possibly that would have gone
00:54:51swimming and my maid will work that poor little thing wouldn't have been able to go
00:54:58and i felt a real hypocrite basically i think if i was listening to myself going on and on about
00:55:03women's rights and about this that and the other and liberation and and you know and stuff like
00:55:08that and then i end up with a maid it's like i beg your pardon what the hell are you going on about
00:55:18what i want to say is i'm liberating elizabeth i'm setting her off free into the world to find her
00:55:24way and do her own thing i just can't have someone else coming in and cleaning up my house
00:55:37joyce's liberation of elizabeth was unpopular with viewers
00:55:42now six months on she can explain more of her reasoning i think the whole maid thing didn't
00:55:48work for me i think whoever had been our maid of all work should have come in with us from the
00:55:53beginning should have lived in the house with us should have stayed with us 24 hours a day worn the
00:55:59clothes just as we did all the time and lived with us it didn't help that she went home and could do
00:56:06other things and could change into her own clothes and have a shower and come back it that was unreal
00:56:13for me and while being in 50 aliscombe road became increasingly real at the only in the year 1900
00:56:20it and that's why i i don't think it ever that's why one of the reasons as well as thinking oh i can't
00:56:27have a maid in my house that was that's another factor as to why um she didn't continue to the end
00:56:32unable to face elizabeth with her decision joyce broke the news by letter i'd like to see what the
00:56:40house looks like in another couple of weeks when i'm not there you know before they move out i'll
00:56:46bet you any money now before they move out that house will look like a tip like it was when i first
00:56:52started you know so i don't know what they're going to do if they're going to clean it themselves good luck to
00:56:58them in our final part we uncover the dark history of elliscombe road in 1900 and the griffiths family
00:57:11runners-up in the selection to live in the house give their verdict on the bowlers i hope that as a
00:57:17family we would have coped differently and that we wouldn't have moaned quite so much especially
00:57:21not so early on i think we might have tried to see it as a challenge hello we're the lee family
00:57:36we are the takahashi family we are the dickinson family in the search to find the residence of the
00:57:431900 house 20 families were auditioned the runners-up were the griffiths family of gloucestershire
00:57:51having seen the series they gave their views on how they would have coped i'm sure the griffiths
00:57:56family would have moaned at times but possibly not quite so dramatically and we would have tried not
00:58:03to last a bit longer and perhaps chunter to ourselves or moan but at the same time try and
00:58:08make the best of it and get on with whatever it was that was causing the problems if we were choosing
00:58:13for the 1900 house i don't think mum if one of her puddings went wrong we'd be screaming out in the
00:58:19garden because like she's used to that anyway and no thank you and then like with um joe
00:58:27when he wasn't eating anything and i think mum's used to that as well because people some people
00:58:33are a bit fussy in our family well i'd like to think we would have been a little bit more resourceful
00:58:37and a little bit more adventurous and perhaps gritted our teeth with some things but then that's very
00:58:42easy to say because until you're in that situation you don't really know how you're going to react
00:58:45it's very very difficult and i think a lot of people think we moaned a lot but what they don't
00:58:51understand is is the impact the culture shock it is not just like going on a caravan or a camping
00:58:57holiday and perhaps forgetting the camping stove because you can pop down the road even if it is a
00:59:02three-mile walk in your wellies and you can get one we were in another century we were in another time
00:59:08we had completely different rules to live by i don't think i would have liked to do it after
00:59:13watching the series because of all the things that i would have missed such as the television the radio
00:59:20magazines toiletries modern day music and i can sympathize with the bowler family i'm sure they
00:59:28would have missed that especially the girls and the older girl especially if i'm at home i have the radio
00:59:33on perhaps have the television news on and the quiet all day i think would have been very difficult
00:59:40very strange to start with the other thing i would have found very difficult would have been the
00:59:44sanitary towels i think i might have been tempted to cheat i know for certain that if i had been in
00:59:49that situation i would have cheated with a cutthroat razor and there's no way that i would have adapted
00:59:54to use adapted myself to use that and i would have cheated i would have used a safety razor i think if i
01:00:00could have whispered into joyce's ear part way through i would have said something along the
01:00:04lines of keep trying to forget that you're a 1999 woman with a full-time job outside the home don't
01:00:13sap the maid because the 1900 people had the maid so keep your maid because that is part of the experience
01:00:20and then go from there and try not to moan so much be more positive enjoy the challenge if people
01:00:27feel that we have failed to be good victorians then i think they've misunderstood yeah they've
01:00:35misunderstood the whole object of what we were doing yeah because if we'd gone in there and known what
01:00:40we were doing and done it all it would have been really boring for us because it would have been very
01:00:45everyday and really boring for everybody else to watch it because you know it would have been like
01:00:51somebody living their own life really it just because the point of us was because we were we
01:00:57would i think we were chosen because we are modern and we're not victorian and so it would have been
01:01:03the contrast that's what it was the contrast yes well when they say you weren't a good victorian
01:01:09what is a victorian they don't know what a victorian is they've just read about them
01:01:13they haven't done it for themselves so they can't really say that
01:01:22letters some of the things that people have written in following the program let's see what
01:01:26we've got since the series was broadcast many people have written in reaction to the bowler's
01:01:32experience older viewers especially felt the family should have tried harder with victorian
01:01:38living it's obvious joyce is not aware of such a thing as black lead grandma's range gleamed and
01:01:42woe betide anyone who dropped dripped a spot of water on her white stoned half we had no copper right
01:01:49but we were not dirty we did not have greasy hair and we used our brains when mrs bowler acquired a
01:01:55maid it seemed odd that she did not use some of her spare time to make jam pickle or bottle fruit which
01:01:59was commonly done at home perhaps a more religious family would have have coped better why didn't you
01:02:05research a golden oldie like me i think a lot of people were cross with us because we didn't
01:02:11fulfill that image of them they wanted that image of victoriana they wanted paul to be the stern
01:02:17victorian father they wanted the children to be seen and not heard and they wanted me to be a whiz
01:02:21in the kitchen and um you know i'm sorry i'm very sorry but what we actually i'm not sorry forgive me
01:02:33for breaking your conceptions of of what life was like then but you didn't you haven't lived then
01:02:39we haven't really lived then but we've got as close to it as we could and for us this was the way it was
01:02:44for us and we can only give you that we can only share that with you if you don't like it well i'm very
01:02:49very sorry back to kent for you my son
01:02:58the bowlers stay in 1900 came to an end in early june despite the agonies they'd experienced saying
01:03:06goodbye was difficult josh and i said we're very sad to leave this house we've created our little
01:03:13world here be it good or be it bad and people said would you continue and there are some times when
01:03:21i've said no there's nowhere i can still stay but today i could stay forever
01:03:32it sounds ridiculous it sounds like i'm making it up or
01:03:35i'm being silly but i honestly feel like i will leave part of myself here
01:03:55it's been a real privilege to do this because i've not only discovered lots about the period about
01:04:01history but about myself as well and so i don't think it's the real me but a side of me that i've
01:04:10sat on perhaps before are only allowed out now and again i've been allowed to indulge that
01:04:18so for me oh i'm nearly crying
01:04:23so for for me especially at the end of this
01:04:33nothing will ever be the same again and uh i'm gonna let real joyce out and i'm just gonna be me
01:04:46i feel a lot happier about who i am actually my one of my sisters rang and she
01:04:50she said that um she cried when i did that little bit she said because she thought oh god it's taken
01:04:56her you know all this time she's 44 and even only now can she feel that she can be herself
01:05:01and it's not as if i'm saying blow everybody else so i'm going to do what i want but that
01:05:07i can actually be myself and just say this is me
01:05:10unlike the ceremony of their arrival the bowlers chose to leave the house quietly
01:05:23the time travel process came full circle with the return of their modern clothing
01:05:27i can't believe how small my underwear is
01:05:40oh my god oh my god they're nice
01:05:46i've done the best you
01:05:47let's do a comparison tomorrow and there we are look at that's what i've been wearing for the last
01:05:51three months and now they expect me to wear these there you go
01:05:57it doesn't look like enough clothes i'm gonna be cold so where's the rest of it then
01:06:01royce and paul took one last look around 50 elliscombe roads
01:06:10I was still here all along look you go wherever you want to go
01:06:26Joyce and Paul took one last look around 50 Ellescombe Road
01:06:31it all felt real no it doesn't seem real does it I feel like a visitor I think it's definitely the
01:06:44clothes you know I feel like a completely different person you know I'm taking this
01:06:50it has been your incarceration isn't it for three months leave it here okay after the
01:06:59series finished we were asked what things we would like to keep if we want there was just
01:07:03a little something from the house we wanted to bring back and even though it became increasingly
01:07:11an instrument of torture really for me I chose to keep my corset and I think it was great on
01:07:18the bedroom wall like an enormous moth it's a lovely reminder really there are hundreds of best moments
01:07:26yeah I think that one of the obviously the best moment was walking through the door for the first
01:07:30time that was just for us you know it was like is this for us and it was
01:07:38worst moment
01:07:42walking out the door at the end that was sad
01:07:48we became very fond of the house and I still am and it it's a very special house
01:08:11it was like the house has given to us it was like the house was made for us and we had to give
01:08:22it up at the end and it was yeah hard work
01:08:27six months on 50 elliscombe road has been stripped bare as it awaits the next occupants since the programs
01:08:42were shown people with their own memories of the street have come forward a fortnight ago the house
01:08:48was reopened to a visitor who hadn't been inside for more than 50 years I'm calling Gidden and when
01:08:56I first saw the very first program of the 1900 house I was completely gobsmacked because it turned
01:09:04out to be my grandmother's house mrs. Moore who lived here right from the very beginning of the houses
01:09:10history Joyce's forerunner the original woman of the 1900 house was school teacher Florence Moore
01:09:17she moved here when the house was first built in the 1890s we used to come here possibly late 1920s
01:09:31right through into the 30s as far as the beginning of the second world war and so it was very interesting
01:09:39to watch the team's attempts to recreate those early days which I think they did very well
01:09:46going through the house and then into the sort of scurry where there was that funny old sink and
01:09:56I can remember being scrubbed by my grandmother with a very stiff brush and I used to scream say you're
01:10:01rubbing my skin off which she didn't take very much notice of the outside toilet was a sit down and beg one it was
01:10:13there was no flush toilet and lots of spiders which scared me rigid proper toilet roll and no spiders
01:10:21absolutely marvelous but going down there in the middle of the night was quite a scary little operation I
01:10:29must admit it is just like time travel really does exist the rooms of course look smaller than I did when I
01:10:39was a boy but it brings back more memories than I'd even thought of I think the bowler family did exceedingly
01:10:50well and I'll take my hat off to them for their forbearance and resilience I think they all deserve medals quite
01:11:03honestly but they did recreate the atmosphere of the house I think that they brought the house alive in a
01:11:11very similar way to what I remember a darker story has also emerged exactly opposite the house stands number 53
01:11:26Elliscombe Road where an extraordinary incident occurred in the year 1900 I'm Kevin Robinson and about eight
01:11:37weeks ago I was reading the Saturday paper and I picked up the article on the 1900 house that sort
01:11:45of things always interested me and I started reading it and saw the address Alicecombe Road that rings a
01:11:52bell somewhere in my background and then further down seeing Charlton as well I thought definitely now
01:11:57went out and got my family records and sure enough in July 1900 my great-great-uncle Andrew Robinson
01:12:06was shot dead by his wife at 53 Alicecombe Road well it appears from the newspaper reports of the time the
01:12:15lodger had been shooting with a saloon rifle in the back garden Florence picked the gun up pretending to
01:12:23shoot at her husband and in fact did fire the gun and really not realizing how she could fire it he fell
01:12:31down and she thought he was shamming and didn't go to him for a couple of minutes but when she did she
01:12:37found that he was bleeding from the head came rushing out of the house to get a doctor when the doctor came
01:12:44found that he was in fact dead the police were then obviously called and effectively took into custody the
01:12:52wife having shot the husband Florence Fanny Robinson was let off on the basis of misadventure although the
01:13:05judge did say that very little more would have actually led to a charge of manslaughter for that
01:13:10to have to my family is unbelievable well that just proves my points doesn't it if there was a
01:13:18shooting at number 53 the people that lived at number 53 were very different to the people who
01:13:22lived at number 50 and so they weren't your stereotype Victorian family were they
01:13:26all right
01:13:33six months on from the 1900 house life is returning to normal for the bowlers but they feel the experience
01:13:43has changed them I think mum and dad have really learned from the whole experience that they did and
01:13:50they I think they found a different side to their personalities I think I've made a better
01:13:56relationship with my mum and while we in the house I did I was mostly helping mum out and I
01:14:02decided I wanted to become one of the more the adults of the house rather than be one of the
01:14:07children and so me and mum sort of formed a bond I feel like we know each other better and not
01:14:15just as mother and daughter I think that's brilliant I think it's great Paul is a happier person for the
01:14:22experience I've taken a lot away from it and personally I think I'll keep talking about it
01:14:30I'll keep thinking about it and I think I'll use it wherever I go when we did it was just an amazing
01:14:38experience I was really good so I definitely guess um if someone came up to me go oh we're gonna be a
01:14:451900 family I'd just tell them to do it because it was so much fun for us it was quite a revelation
01:14:51really I suppose I could have I could have gone through um lots of very expensive therapy to
01:14:56discover that I'm okay with me and I'm not I'm not that bad a person I'm all right so it took three
01:15:02months living is um in a Victorian house to come to that conclusion so it has had a lasting effect
01:15:08this story ends where it all began in Charlton 50 Ellescombe Road went on the market in November
01:15:21with no modern facilities a lot of decisions face the potential new owner Heather Stanton put in an
01:15:28offer well basically it's the size of it it's just the size I was looking forward it has four bedrooms
01:15:34and that is the bottom line the fact that it is the 1900 house was sort of irrelevant if I managed
01:15:42to buy it I think I will make it a lot more comfortable to live in I'm going to have to
01:15:47decorate the whole place from top to bottom I need to put in a new bathroom the bath is beautiful but
01:15:54it's impractical I think for me this range is is wonderful because because it works that I would
01:16:03keep it and hopefully I would light it well I wouldn't intend to cook on it and for the rest
01:16:09of the kitchen arrangements well this very wonderful thing here I think it's going to have to go I can't
01:16:16imagine washing my clothes in that so I'm afraid it's just going to have to be demolished and hopefully I
01:16:24would get as much as possible in here I want a dishwasher washing machine fridge freezer and if
01:16:32I could get them all along there it would be probably the best way of doing it and I would
01:16:38for there where the very unpleasant sink is I'd have to have a new one so that would go there and then I
01:16:47sort of work have a work surface on the cookery bit here I think I'm not sure since we filmed with
01:16:58Heather she has withdrawn her offer on the house for personal reasons so as we approach the next
01:17:05century the future of the 1900 house remains uncertain
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