Britain’s Rural Heritage – The Shepherd’s Hut

Restored 19th Century Shepherd's Hut in the grounds of Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey, Hampshire.

‘The little speck of life he placed on a wisp of hay before the small stove, where a can of milk was simmering. Oak extinguished the lantern by blowing into it and then pinching the snuff, the cot being lighted by a candle suspended by a twisted wire. A rather hard couch, formed of a few corn sacks thrown carelessly down, covered half the floor of this little habitation, and here the young man stretched himself along, loosened his woollen cravat, and closed his eyes. In about the time a person unaccustomed to bodily labour would have decided upon which side to lie, Farmer Oak was asleep.

The inside of the hut, as it now presented itself, was cosy and alluring, and the scarlet handful of fire in addition to the candle, reflecting its own genial colour upon whatever it could reach, flung associations of enjoyment even over utensils and tools. In the corner stood the sheep-crook, and along a shelf at one side were ranged bottles and canisters of the simple preparations pertaining to ovine surgery and physic; spirits of wine, turpentine, tar, magnesia, ginger, and castor-oil being the chief. On a triangular shelf across the corner stood bread, bacon, cheese, and a cup for ale or cider, which was supplied from a flagon beneath. Beside the provisions lay the flute, whose notes had lately been called forth by the lonely watcher to beguile a tedious hour. The house was ventilated by two round holes, like the lights of a ship’s cabin, with wood slides.

The lamb, revived by the warmth began to bleat, and the sound entered Gabriel’s ears and brain with an instant meaning, as expected sounds will. Passing from the profoundest sleep to the most alert wakefulness with the same ease that had accompanied the reverse operation, he looked at his watch, found that the hour-hand had shifted again, put on his hat, took the lamb in his arms, and carried it into the darkness. After placing the little creature with its mother, he stood and carefully examined the sky, to ascertain the time of night from the altitudes of the stars.’

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (1874) – Chapter 2

Interior of a 19th Century, restored shepherd's hut at Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey, Hampshire.

This is a charming description of the life and living conditions of a fictional shepherd (Gabriel Oak) in nineteenth century rural England.  Thomas Hardy’s description of the interior of the hut is pretty accurate. The life of a shepherd was tough, solitary and rewarding.  Shepherd’s huts have been part of rural life in this country since the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1.  In the pre-industrial age, many farms had pastures that were inaccessible to the manure wagons which contained the vital nutrients to fertilize the soil.  Sheep were kept in enclosed wooden hurdles, a process known as ‘folding’.  The animals would leave their droppings, the shepherd would pack-up the hurdles and they all moved on.  The fertilized soiled was then ploughed and crops of wheat, barley or oats sown.  The nineteenth century was known as the era of ‘The Golden Hoof’, shepherds were much in demand and their huts a common sight in remote parts of the countryside.  The huts were not cheap, often costing the equivalent of six month’s wages for one shepherd.  This was a cost borne by the employer and not the shepherd himself.  The huts were a huge, but nonetheless important, investment to a farm or estate.

View from one of the tiny windows in the restored, 19th century shepherd's hut at Mottisfont Abbey. The shepherd would have kept a close, watchful eye over his woolly charges.

After the First World War advances were made in farming practices and Ammonium Nitrate, instead of manure, was used to nourish the land.  Tractors were now commonplace on farmsteads, powerful enough to reach the previously inaccessible pastures.  In World War II the British were encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory’ and many meadows were ploughed over for this use.  The Homeguard used the huts as outposts and Prisoners of War were often housed in them.

In the twenty-first century, restoration of the traditional shepherd’s hut is now big business.  In the last few years, so many companies across the country have been set-up to rescue and restore these charming mobile structures.  The restored huts are not cheap, with prices ranging from £8,000 to £12,000.  At Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey there is a beautifully restored example of a nineteenth century hut. However, there are no original fixtures and fittings now left inside.  The hut was found at Cadbury Farm on the Mottisfont Estate and has been restored with help of funds from the Reading National Trust Association. If you can’t afford to buy one of these huts, then there are plenty of opportunities to stay in one for a mini-break or holiday.  If you stay on a b&b basis, some places offer you the option of sleeping in the hut and then having a full English breakfast brought-out to you in the morning. Now that is my idea of a perfect weekend break, bring on the Summer weather I say.

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Britain’s Rural Heritage – Cider and Cider Making

Cast-iron cider pulper made at Mark in Somerset, called a Wensley. Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire

‘Collect the fruit when well-ripened, either as it falls without much violence in separating from the tree, keep it in heaps, either in the open or under cover, till quite mellow, or even tending to decay; strain the liquor from the press, set it in an open vessel to ferment, and when white cliffs or fissures may be discovered on the head (formed on it as on beer under similar circumstances), skim off the thick part on the surface, and remove the liquor to the cask with as little motion, and in as clear a state as possible.  Let the cask stand in a cool situation, perhaps above ground may be the best, and having filled it to within a few inches of the head, but not to the utmost, stop it close immediately; after sometime has elapsed, strew fine sand on the head, in order to prevent all access of air to the liquor, and in the spring remove the cask to an underground cellar, or bottle off its contents.  The object I have in view by requesting the attention of the society to the subject of cider is, that a premium may be given, wherever its funds will admit of it, for liquor made of any one seedling variety, as the means of obtaining a succession to the old and almost extinct choice kinds of fruit for the press.’

The above quotation is from a report by the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, December 1820.  From the late eighteenth century and continuing throughout the nineteenth century, the art of English cider making began to decline due to major agricultural, social and political changes.  Cider traditionally formed part of the farm labourer’s wage and it was not uncommon for them to consume three or four pints a day.  The emergence of the temperance movement in the nineteenth century did have an impact upon alcohol consumption amongst the lower classes.  England’s liberal alcohol laws now came under pressure to reform.  One of the changes to come into effect was an amendment to the Truck Act of 1887 which meant that it now became illegal to part-pay workers with alcoholic beverages.  The Truck laws had been set-up to legislate the common practice of part-paying workers for their services with a variety of goods which included alcohol. The Truck Acts are better known these days as the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The exact date when cider was first introduced to Britain is not known. Some historians believe that the Romans encouraged cider drinking during their occupation here.  Others disagree and believe that cider was first produced and consumed in the Iron Age and some academics are convinced that Cider may have even been introduced after the Norman Conquest. However it first came to our shores, it has had a long tradition of being part of rural community life on farms, estates and inns.

Since the Middle Ages, monasteries derived part of their income from making and selling cider to the public.  Kent was the heart of cider making during the medieval period.  Cider was at its most popular in the seventeenth century before its slow decline.  In the twentieth century cider became popular once more, with new factory techniques helping to increase production levels.  In the twenty-first century, cider making (and drinking!) is enjoying a revival, particular in the South West of England.

Wooden cask and shovel used in traditional cider making. Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire

The tools involved in traditional cider making include: an apple pulper; cider press; wood shovels; barrels and of course apples.  Circular stone mills were sometimes used and had been introduced into Britain in the seventeenth century.  These were horse-driven with a large crushing-wheel which turned the apples into a pulp.  Whichever method was used to pulp the apples, the next stage involved a large, heavy wooden press where the pulp was piled high in layers between mats known as ‘hairs’, because they were often made out of horsehair, pressure applied and the juice released.   These stack of hairs were known as a ’cheese’.  The collected liquid is then transferred to casks to ferment.  It could take up to a year before that season’s crop was considered fit to drink.

Traditional twin-screw cider press with stone trough from Somerset. Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire

I have found a very interesting clip from the BBC’s Victorian Farm (2009), an historical observational documentary series. The clip shows the process of cider making on a traditional farm in rural Victorian England.  The farm used for the series was the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire. The clip also shows historian Ruth Goodman making preserves, pickles, boiled mutton and cooking on a Victorian range. CLICK HERE for series clip.  I have put at the bottom of this posting Mrs Beeton’s advice on boiled mutton.

Wassailing still takes place in parts of the South West and Somerset.  This Pagan tradition is carried-out on the 17th January, which is twelfth night on the Julian Calender.  Wassailing is a ritual associated with cider apple tress, to help protect them from evil spirits and encourage them to bear a plentiful crop.  The word ‘wassail’ is derived from the Anglo Saxon ’wes hal’, simply meaning ‘good health’ or ‘be whole’.  Communities gather around the tree, sing the Wassailing Song, pour cider over the tree’s roots, make loud noises to scare away malevolent spirits and then give thanks to the tree in the form of a toast.  The action of pouring cider over the tree’s roots symbolises the carrying over of the crop cycle from one year to the next.  A piece of cider-soaked, toasted bread in the fork of the tree is supposed to encourage good spirits to come to it.  In Herefordshire Morris Men also take part in the celebrations and dance around the tree.  Incidentally, Hereford is home to the wonderful Cider Museum which is open all year round.  CLICK HERE for more information.

Below are two lovely extracts from the short story The Seven Poor Travelers by Charles Dickens.  The story was first published in 1854 in his Household Words journal and is set at Christmas time in a Rochester almshouse:

‘I was possessed by the desire to treat the travellers to a supper and a temperate glass of hot Wassail; that the voice of Fame had been heard in that land, declaring my ability to make hot Wassail.’ (Chapter 1)

‘It was high time to make the Wassail now, therefore I had up the materials and made a glorious jorum.  Not in a bowl; for a bowl anywhere but on a shelf is a low superstition, fraught with cooling and slopping; but in a brown earthenware pitcher, tenderly suffocated, when full, with a coarse cloth.’  (Chapter 2)

I also found another clip from the BBC’s Victorian Christmas (an offshoot of Victorian Farm) in which archaeologist Alex Langlands shows you how to make a traditional Victorian Wassail Punch.  CLICK HERE for clip.

Mrs Beeton’s Advice on cooking a Boiled Mutton

‘The leg, neck and breast are the parts usually selected for boiling.  When intended for this purpose, the meat should not be allowed to hang many days, for the least taint spoils the flavour of boiled mutton.  Too often the natural flavour of a boiled joint is overpowered by the flavour of the vegetables with which it is cooked.  To avoid this, only the quantity sufficient to impart a slight flavour should be cooked in the liquor, and the remainder boiled separately.  The flavour of the meat is thus preserved, and the vegetables are a better colour when cooked more quickly than is possible if their rate of cooking is adapted to the meat.  The side of the joint intended to be dished upwards should be put downwards in the boiling pot, for however gentle the ebullition of the water may be, its action somewhat spoils the upper surface of the meat.  Moreover, any scum that is not removed during the process of cooking is apt to fall on the upper surface of the meat, and impair its appearance.’ (p. 579, 1915 edition)

Mutton fell-out of favour with chefs and the general public in the twentieth century.  However, I am delighted that it is coming back into fashion again as it makes for a very tasty dish indeed.  In 2004 the Prince of Wales launched The Mutton Renaissance campaign to help support British sheep farmers.  The Mutton Renaissance has an excellent website with historical information on mutton, facts about mutton, listings of shops in Britain where you can purchase mutton, recipes and much, much more.  CLICK HERE for more information.  How about a nice glass of cider to accompany a delicious, roasted shoulder of mutton for your Sunday dinner this weekend?

Cuts of mutton illustration from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition.

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Britain’s Rural Heritage – Beekeeping

Traditional Bee Skep. On display at Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire.

I am enjoying the new 15 part BBC 2 series, Britain’s Heritage Heroes. It airs Monday to Fridays at 6.30pm.  The presenters, John Craven and Jules Hudson travel around Britain meeting with individuals who are dedicated to saving historic homes, national monuments, making traditional foods and keeping alive skills that are involved in rural craftsmanship.  There are a large number of Museums up and down the country dedicated to preserving and exploring all aspects of Britain’s rural heritage. Living history television series such as Tales from the Green Valley (2005), Victorian Farm (2009) and Edwardian Farm (2010-11) have all helped to rejuvenate interest in this fascinating historical subject.

There is written evidence to suggest that the Romans kept bees in Britain and that beekeeping was a part of Anglo-Saxon and Norman life. It wasn’t until the medieval era that beekeepers began crafting structures to house their bees. These structures were either made of either wood or stone.  In mid-nineteenth century Britain the movable-frame hive developed.  Previously, beekeepers had used the basket hive or skep.  Traditional skeps were made of grass or straw and sometimes these were forced through a cow horn which would help to tighten the ’round’ of material.  The finished skep would be bound with split bramble stem, after the thorns had been removed.

Hackle used as a cover for a bee skep. This one was built for use in the filming of Thomas Hardy's 'Woodlanders'. Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire.

The skep was housed in a hackle.  This was conical in shape and thatched to make it weatherproof.  Hackles were, at one time, a common sight across the British countryside.  Straw skeps are much smaller than the modern hives. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries apiarists preferred to use the skeps. An eke or ring of coiled straw would sometimes be added underneath the skep so that the bees could expand honeycomb production into it. The bees would attach comb to the sides of the skep. The only way to collect the honey, was to first kill the colony by drowning or suffocation and then to cut the comb away.  The skeps were then cleaned and re-used the following season. Skeps could also be found housed in bee boles. Bole is a Scottish word that means a recess in a wall.  The bee boles protected the skeps from extremities of the weather and were usually located in south-facing walls. Bee boles were known by a variety of names in the different regions across Britain: bee shells; bee keps; bee niches; bee walls; bee houses; bee garths and bee boxes are some of the regional variations.

Honey was a valuable rural commodity and often used as currency to pay for rents and tithes.  Beeswax was highly prized by the church for its candlemaking properties. It was not uncommon for beekeepers to talk to their bees.  It was thought that if they were not kept-up-to-date with all that was happening in the main house or cottage, they would swarm.

Honey extractor. Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire.

In 1862, a new wooden hive structure, invented by the American Reverend L. L. Langstroth, with removable rectangular frames that hung downwards and remained clear of the walls of the hive by a bee-space, were introduced into Britain.  This frame structure is still the basis for modern hives today. Beekeeping continues to thrive in the 21st Century.  The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), founded in 1874, currently has 20,000 amateur beekeeper members.

Here are a couple of lovely honey recipes from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1915 edition) that you may like to try:

Honey Cake

Ingredients: 1/2 of a breakfastcupful of sugar, 1 breakfastcupful of rich sour cream, 2 breakfastcupfuls of flour, 1/2 a teaspoonful of carbonate soda, honey to taste.

Method – Mix the sugar and cream together; dredge in the flour, add as much honey as will flavour the mixture nicely; stir it well, that all the ingredients may be thoroughly mixed; add the carbonate of soda, and beat the cake well for another 5 minutes.  Put it into a buttered tin, and bake it from 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour, and let it be eaten warm.  Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Honey Pudding

Ingredients - 4 ozs of honey, 6 ozs of breadcrumbs, 1 oz of butter, 1 oz of florador, 2 eggs, the grated rind of 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 a teaspoonful of ground ginger, 1 gill of milk.

Method – Cook the florador in the milk for 10 minutes, then pour the preparation over the breadcrumbs, add the honey, lemon-rind, ginger, warmed butter, and the yolks of the eggs, and beat well.  Whisk the whites stiffly, stir them lightly into the rest of the ingredients, and turn the mixture into a well-buttered plain mould.  Steam gently from 1 and 3/4 to 2 hours, and serve with a suitable sauce.  Takes about 2 hours to make and is sufficient for 5 to 6 persons.

Photograph of a beekeeper gathering a swarm of bees. He uses a skep and notice he is not wearing any protection. Bees normally swarm towards the end of May, beginning of June. Breamore Countryside Museum.

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The Bedgebury Panels

Windows at the east end of Christ Church, Kilndown, Kent.

Several months ago I was staying in Kilndown near Cranbrook in Kent.  Whilst partaking in a Sunday constitution around the pretty little hamlet, I came across Christ Church, the local parish church.  The Church was built by one of the Duke of Wellington’s generals from the Napoleonic Wars, Field Marshal Viscount Beresford.  Beresford had purchased the nearby 2,300 acre Bedgebury Park estate in 1836 and the church was built as a chapel of ease for the area of Goudhurst.  It was consecrated in 1841 and in 1843 Kilndown became a separate parish. Stepping inside there is much to admire and plenty to fascinate the historian.  Architect Anthony Salvin designed the church as a plain sandstone box. Over the years the interior was gradually transformed into an outstanding example of ‘Gothic Revival’.

During the Second World War, all the glass in the south windows was destroyed but the panels have been subsequently restored.  At the east end of the church there is a stunning example of a fine stained glass, three-panelled window.  In the centre panel there is a depiction of the Virgin and Child and either side there are panels depicting St. Peter with his keys and St. Paul with the martyr’s sword.

One of the most remarkable gems, just inside the church, are the free-standing marquetry panels known as The Bedgebury Panels.  The Bedgebury Park estate had its own workshop including a sawpit.  The workshop produced high quality examples of marquetry.  In the 1860′s marquetry was known as Tarsia or Intarsia, a craft that originated from Italy.  Records are not clear as to where exactly the skill of marquetry was learnt by the Bedgebury craftsmen.  However, between 1865 and 1881 the workshops on the estate were dedicated to perfecting its complexities and George Parks was their lead craftsman.

The panels were originally created in the mid 1870s for the chapel at Trinity College, Cambridge. They were removed from there in the 20th century to make way for a memorial to the fallen in the Great War.  The abandoned panels were found gathering dust in a cupboard beneath a set of stone stairs. It was suggested that the panels be returned to the parish in which they were made and be placed in the church at Kilndown, which is where they remain today, on permanent loan. The panels underwent restoration in 1986.

Each of the panels contains a medallion head of a Biblical character, surrounded by arabesques, flowers (including: buttercups, daisies, daffodils, fox gloves, water lilies and violets), fruit and birds (including: a green woodpecker, barn owl, finches, wagtails and kingfishers).

The Synagoga depicts four leaders of the Hebrew nation, all of which are from the Old Testament: Levi, Judah, Joseph and Benjamin.

The Bedgebury Panels. The Synagoga. From left to right, Levi, Judah, Joseph and Benjamin.

The Ecclesia depicts the first recorded disciples of Jesus from the New Testament: St. John, St. James The Great, St. Andrew and St. Peter. All of the eight men are pairs of brothers.

The Bedgebury Panels. The Ecclesia. From right to left, St. John, St. James The Great, St. Andrew and St. Peter.

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Mrs Beeton Goes Vegetarian

Illustration of vegetarian dishes, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition

‘A Vegetarian Society has been founded at Ramsgate by a gathering of vegetarians from many parts of the kingdom.  Its objective is to promote the use of a farinaceous and fruit diet, in preference to the use of flesh.  At the head of the Society is Joseph Brotherton Esq, MP who stated that he had abstained from eating animal food for the last thirty-eight years, during which he had enjoyed excellent health.’

The Preston Guardian, Saturday 20th November, 1847

In 1847 the first Vegetarian Society was founded.  The inaugural meeting took place on 30th September, 1847 at a Physiological Conference staged at Northwood Villa Hydropathic Institute in Ramsgate.  The first public meeting of the society was held in Manchester the following year.  The Society had 889 members in 1853 and by 1897 membership had swelled to 5,000.  In 1908 The International Vegetarian Union was founded to oversea the growing number of individual Societies.  Mrs Beeton acknowledged this increasingly popular food movement and included a chapter on ‘Vegetarian Cookery’ in the 1915 edition of her Book of Household Management (first published in 1861). One of the key publications that influenced much of The Vegetarian Society’s early doctrines was John Smith’s (of Malton) Fruits and Farinacea – The Proper Food of Man. Smith also wrote a book on vegetarian cooking called Vegetable Cookery, published in 1866.

Vegetable illustration from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition

At the Vegetarian Society’s annual dinner in 1848 the members were treated to an extraordinary meat-free spread:

• First course – savoury omelet; macaroni omelet; rice fritters; forcemeat fritters, onion and sage fritters; bread and parsley fritters; savoury pie; mushroom pie; potatoes; peas; cauliflowers; beetroot;
• Second course – plum pudding; fruit tarts, moulded rice; moulded sago; cheese cakes; blanc mange; custards; creams; sponge cakes; grapes; currants; gooseberries; figs; nuts; almonds and raisins.

Mrs Beeton said of Vegetarianism: ‘In England the question has come to the front on the ground of dietetic reform, and a number of persons known as “Vegetarians” abstain from animal food altogether, or take it only in such forms as milk, cheese, butter and eggs. The stricter adherents, however, abstain from the use of some or all of these products.  Other people, while not classing themselves as vegetarians, consider that a less quantity of food than is generally eaten is sufficient to keep the body in good health, and avail themselves of the various dishes tastefully served at the numerous vegetarian restaurants which are now common in London and other large towns.’ (p. 1317, 1915 edition).

Vegetable illustration from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition

Here a few of my favourite vegetarian recipes from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1915 edition):

Hotchpotch Soup

Ingredients – 3 ozs of pearl-barley, 1 small cabbage, 2 carrots, 1 turnip, 2 onions, parsley and herbs, 2 ozs of butter, salt and pepper, 3 quarts of water.

Method – Put the barley on the fire with the cold water.  Scrape or grate one of the carrots, and put it aside in a little water.  Chop all the rest of the vegetables very small, and when the water boils put them in with the butter, salt and pepper.  There should be enough vegetable to make it rather thick.  Boil it all for 2 hours, then add the scraped carrots, and boil for another 30 minutes. Takes 3 hours to make and is sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Spinach souffles from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition.

Asparagus Soufflé

Ingredients – 50 green asparagus heads, cooked and well-drained, 2 ozs of butter, 1 1/2 ozs of flour, 2 ozs of grated Parmesan cheese, 2 yolks of eggs, 3 whites of eggs, 1/2 a pint of milk, salt and pepper.

Method - Heat the butter in a stewpan, stir in the flour, and add the milk.  Beat and cook the mixture over the fire until it leaves the sides of the pan, then add the yolks of eggs, and a little salt and pepper.  Beat well, add the cheese, stir in the stiffly whisked whites of eggs, and lastly the asparagus heads, or the pureé thereof.  Turn into a well-buttered soufflé dish, and back in a moderately hot oven for about 20 minutes. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Macaroni and Cream

Ingredients -1/2 a lb of macaroni, 2 ozs of Gruyère cheese grated, 2 ozs of Parmesan cheese grated, 2 ozs of butter, 1/3 of a pint of cream, salt and pepper, triangles of fried or toasted bread.

Method – Break the macaroni into short lengths, throw them into boiling salted water, and boil rapidly for 20 minutes, or until tender.  Heat the butter, drain and add the macaroni, stir in the cheese and cream, and season to taste.  Make quite hot, and serve garnished with sippets of bread.  Takes 1/2 an hour to make and is sufficient for 2 or 3 persons.

 Onion Pudding

Ingredients – 8 ozs of flour, 2 ozs of breadcrumbs, 3 or 4 ozs of butter (1 tablespoonful of olive oil may be substituted), 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 1 saltspoonful of salt, water.  For the mixture: 3 or 4 large mild onions, 2 tablespoonfuls of breadcrumbs, 1/4 of a teaspoonful of sage, salt and pepper, 1 or 2 ozs of butter.

Method – Cut the peeled onions into small dice, place them in a pie-dish with the breadcrumbs, butter, sage, and season with salt and pepper, cover closely, and bake gently for 1 hour.  Rub the butter into the flour and breadcrumbs, add the baking powder and salt, and sufficient water to form a rather stiff paste.  Line a basin with the paste, put in the mixture when cool, cover with paste, and afterwards with 2 or 3 folds of greased paper, and steam for 2 hours.  Service in the basin, and send brown sauce to table separately.  Takes 3  1/2 hours to make and is sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Savoury Semolina

Ingredients – 4 ozs of semolina, 2 ozs of grated cheese, 2 ozs of butter, 1 teaspoonful of made mustard, pepper and salt, cayenne, breadcrumbs, 1 quart of milk.

Method – Boil-up the milk, sprinkle in the semolina, stir and cook for 15 minutes, then add the cheese, butter, mustard and pepper, salt and cayenne to taste.  Turn into a buttered gratin dish, or several china scallop shells, sprinkle liberally with breadcrumbs and cheese, and add a few very small pieces of butter.  Brown in a hot oven, and serve.  Takes 1/2 an hour to make and is sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Vegetable Goose

Ingredients – 1/2 a lb of breadcrumbs soaked in cold water, 1 onion, 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley and herbs, 1 oz of butter, pepper and salt.

Method – Squeeze the bread nearly dry, and mash it, mix in the other ingredients, chopped small.  Butter a Yorkshire pudding-dish, put in the mixture, and bake in a good oven for about 3/4 hour. Serve hot and cut in squares.  Takes about 1  1/2 hours to make and is sufficient for 2 persons.

Lentil Porridge

Ingredients – 3 ozs of lentil flour, 1 pint of water, salt, butter.

Method – Put the flour and salt in a basin, with a little cold water, add the rest of the water boiling, put it on the fire, and boil for 20 minutes.  Stir in the butter just before serving.  Half lentil and half barley or wheat-flour is preferred by some, and makes a close imitation of the Revalenta Arabica, so much-advertised for invalids.  Takes 10 minutes to make and is sufficient for 2 persons.

Pea Fritters

Ingredients - Cold brose, or lentil porridge, breadcrumbs, herbs, onions, seasoning, flour, frying-fat.

Method – Mix the cold porridge about its own bulk in breadcrumbs.  Add a little chopped onion and sweet herbs, and seasoning  taste.  Shape the preparation into flat cakes, flour them, and fry a nice brown in the frying-pan.  Takes 10 minutes to make.

‘In strict vegetarian cookery suet is replaced by one of the nut batters, now so plentiful on the market.  In Italy and Corsica a flour made from dried chestnuts is much used. It is of a dark-brown colour, and richly nitrogenous.  Carefully used, it makes excellent puddings and cakes.’ (Mrs Beeton, p. 1342, 1915 edition)

Gingerbread

Ingredients – 1/2 a lb of flour, 1/2 a lb of golden syrup, 2 ozs of butter, 1 teaspoonful of baking-powder, 1/2 a teaspoonful of ground ginger, 1 egg, salt.

Method – Mix the baking-powder and ginger with the flour, rub in the butter, add the treacle and the egg, well beaten, and mix all together; flour a pudding cloth, put in the mixture, and boil for 1 1/2 hours, serve with butter sauce.  Takes 2 hours to make and is sufficient to feed 2 or 3 persons.

Pastry Without Butter

Ingredients – 1 lb  flour, 1 teaspoonful of baking-powder, a small wineglassful of salad-oil, water.

Method – Mix the flour and baking-powder.  Add the oil to cold water, and stir the paste to a proper consistency for rolling.  Fold it over and roll it out 2 or 3 times, place on a baking tin, and bake immediately.

Vegetable illustration from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1915 edition.

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The Real Bonnie and Clyde

1932 Austin 7 - Box Saloon. Bonnie and Clyde used a car similar to this, the 1934 Ford Model 18 - V8, 730 Deluxe Sedan. This Austin 7 is on display at Breamore Countryside Museum, Hampshire.

Following on from Carolyn Hair’s  great articles on the popularity of Bonnie and Clyde as cultural icons, I have been researching the life (and death) of the real-life duo.  The pair terrorised small-town America between 1932 and 1934, preying upon ordinary people ranging from travellers to small-business owners and killing 12 persons, including a number of police officers.  The duo met a violent and gruesome end at the hands of law enforcement officers who had been trying to track them down for sometime. So who were the real Bonnie and Clyde?

Clyde “Champion” Barrow was born Clyde Chestnut Barrow on March 24th, 1909 near Ennis, Texas.  He lived in extreme poverty with his parents and seven siblings.  Aged 12, the family moved to West Dallas where they lived in a squalid neighbourhood along the Trinity River bottoms, which was known as “the Bog”.  He dropped out of school in the 5th grade.   His brother Marvin “Buck” Barrow was often in trouble with the law and Clyde looked-up to him.  Clyde was frequently in Juvenile Court and spent several years in a Houston “reform” school before he committed his first crime, a car theft, aged just 13. By the time he was 21, he had been arrested five times.  Clyde was handsome, with dark, wavy hair and brown eyes.

Bonnie Parker Thornton was born Bonnie Elizabeth Parker on 1st October 1910 in Rowena, Texas.  She came from comfortable circumstances but when her father died in 1914, her mother and Bonnie’s two siblings were forced to move to a rough neighbourhood on the outskirts of Dallas, known as “Cement City”.  She was bright and did well at school but never finished her education. She left when she was 16 to marry Roy Thornton.  Thornton was not faithful to Bonnie and in 1929 she threw him out of the house that they were sharing with her mother.  Bonnie and Roy never got divorced and she wore her gold wedding ring right-up until the day she died. Bonnie was pretty, almost doll-like, with long, blonde, wavy hair and bright blue eyes.

Clyde allegedly first met Bonnie when she worked as a waitress in a Dallas cafe, January 1930.  There are also reports that their first meeting took place at a friend’s house during the same year.  Apparently, Clyde walked into the kitchen where Bonnie was making some hot chocolate.  There was a dangerous and strong attraction between the two right from the start.  In March 1930, Clyde was in Waco jail awaiting transfer to the State Penitentiary following a conviction on multiple counts of car theft and burglary.  Bonnie managed to smuggle a gun into the jail and Clyde escaped.  His freedom was short-lived, he was captured not long after and sent to one of the prison farms affiliated to the State Penitentiary at Huntsville.  In February 1932 he was released with a pardon and joined Bonnie in Dallas.

The ‘Barrow Gang’ formed around this time and the duo were joined by Raymond Hamilton.  The Gang robbed small stores and stole cars throughout the countryside and killed their first victim on 23rd April 1932, a store owner by the name of J.N. Bucher.  Hamilton eventually left the gang and was soon replaced by William Daniel Jones, a 16-year-old from Dallas.  In March 1933, Clyde’s older brother, Buck, was released from jail and together with his wife Blanche joined the Gang. Blanche and Buck did not last long on the run. Buck was wounded in a gun shoot-out and died a short while after in a local hospital.  Blanche was captured and received a lengthy sentence which she served in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  In October 1933, Jones left the Gang and was arrested a month later in Houston.  Bonnie and Clyde still alluded the lawmen and in January 1934 they even helped Raymond Hamilton escape from the Texas State Pen.  It was this last act that signalled the beginning of the end of Bonnie and Clyde’s killing and crime-spree. The Gang had now increased in number and included Hamilton, his girlfriend Mary O’Dare, Henry Methvin and Joe Palmer.

The duo’s end was a gruesome one.  At 9.15am, on May 23rd 1934, they were driving south on Highway 154 between Gibsland and Sailes in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.  A series of incidents led to lawmen: Frank Hamer; Ted Hinton; Bob Alcorn; Manny Gault; Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Oakley finally catching-up with them and springing an ambush.  Driving in their tan-coloured V-8 Ford, which the pair had stolen in Topeka, Kansas from the driveway of Jesse and Ruth Warren,  Bonnie and Clyde were almost shot to pieces.  Frank Hamer declared that, ‘we just shot the devil out of them, that’s all.  That’s all there was to it.’

The car had 150 bullet holes in the bodywork. Bonnie and Clyde sustained approximately 50 gunshot wounds between them. Clyde was found slumped over in the front of the car with his, unfired, pistol still in his hand and Bonnie had a half eaten sandwich at her feet. It was reported at the time that Bonnie’s body was decimated by bullets to a greater extent than Clyde’s.  The car was found to be full of illegal weapons, a dozen car license plates, road maps, detective and romance magazines, a saxophone and assorted tinned foods. You can view, on You Tube, newsreel footage of the death scene, taken by an amateur photographer five minutes after the shootings.  The footage does contain images that you may find upsetting. If you wish to view, then please CLICK HERE.

At the time Bonnie was killed, she was wearing two diamond rings, a gold wedding ring, a small watch, an acorn brooch, a Catholic Cross under her red dress and a red pair of shoes.  Immediately following the deaths, nearly 200 cars parked-up along the highway spot to catch a glimpse of the bullet-ridden duo. The scavengers and souvenir hunters set to work, hacking hair from Bonnie’s head and cutting material from her blood-soaked dress. One person even tried to cut-off Clyde’s trigger finger.  People were on their hands and knees searching the scene for empty shot-gun cartridges.  Eventually the car, with the duo still inside, was towed away to the nearby S.A. Conger & Son Furniture store in Arcadia which became a makeshift morgue.

By this time the crowds near the store were becoming increasingly impatient to view the bodies, some even tried to scale the building’s walls.  In order to maintain some degree of crowd control, so that the pathologist, Dr James L. Wade was able to carry out the autopsies, the undertaker sprayed embalming fluid over the masses. After the autopsies were done, the bodies were embalmed and dried blood swabbed from the corpses. The pair were covered to their necks in white sheets and then rolled-out into the furniture store so that the public could get their long-awaited viewing.  The viewings continued for 6 hours and the queues didn’t thin-out until well after midnight.

The autopsy revealed that both bodies had a number of tattoos and Bonnie had scars on her right leg as a result of third degree burns received from a car fire the previous year.  Clyde had two toes missing from his left foot.  Apparently, whilst in prison he had asked a fellow inmate to cut them off with an axe so that he could get out of doing prison chores.  The bodies were finally laid to rest in separate cemeteries at the request of their respective families.  This was against the wishes of Bonnie and Clyde who, knowing perhaps for a while that their fate was sealed, had wanted to be buried together.

The story of Bonnie and Clyde has always attracted film-makers.  The first ever movie of the duo’s life appeared in 1937, You Only Live Twice by John Houseman and starring Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda.  Later on this year The Story of Bonnie and Clyde will hit our cinema screens.  Directed and written by Tonya S. Holly and starring Lindsay Pulsipher as Bonnie Parker and Sean Faris as Clyde Barrow. I am sure there will be further movie adaptations in the coming decades as the legend continues to intrigue.  In Gibsland, Louisiana there is even a museum dedicated to the historic 1934 ambush, aptly named The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum.

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Vintage Fashion Movie Icons – Part 2 – Bonnie and Clyde by Carolyn Hair

Welcoming back guest blogger Carolyn Hair with Part 2 of her Vintage Fashion Movie Icons series.  This time she advises on how to recreate Faye Dunaway’s fashion look from the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

FAYE DUNAWAY IN BONNIE AND CLYDE – HOW TO GET THE LOOK

By Carolyn Hair  

Bonnie and Clyde DVD cover from 1967 film. Warren Beatty (Clyde) and Faye Dunaway (Bonnie)

Bonnie’s vintage fashion looks to steal

The best compliment I ever had was being told that I look like Faye Dunaway playing outlaw Bonnie Parker. Well, I was wearing a copycat tan beret over a blonde bob with a dash of black eyeliner at the time. Now I’m no Faye Dunaway but I’ll take it anyway as this glamorised character, with her Depression era style mixed with Left Bank chic, is one of my vintage fashion movie icons.

The Bonnie look which is recreated again and again in fashion spreads, sees its most recent incarnation in pop-star, Rihanna’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ shoot in UK Vogue. It’s easy to recreate bits of the look to suit your figure without going all outlaw.

Beret: School uniforms and spies aside, I feel berets have moved beyond cliché. If you dare to join me, there are lots to choose from the high street to vintage.

Fitted jumper or cardigan: Along with berets, cardigans got a huge sales boost from this movie. Whilst they can seem twee at first glance, they never really go out of style whatever your shape. Play with colour, style and neckline to suit.  Check out Movie Knits for a Bonnie-inspired jumper: Movie Knits.

Midi-skirt:  All the rage on the catwalk, they can be difficult to wear if you are shorter (like me) but add some heels and it’s a surprisingly flattering look.

Mary-janes: How can you go wrong? High-heeled brogues could be a bang-on-trend alternative.

Silk scarf: Ubiquitous in vintage shops. Rummage to find one to suit.

Slips: The no-underwear part of Faye Dunaway’s look is perhaps not for everyone but it’s easy to pick-up vintage slips which could be worn with midi-skirts or even as a dress under chunky knitwear.

Tea-dress: This versatile dress is very big at the moment, so you can pick up a high street reproduction or an original in girly floral print or more muted tones.

Jewellery: Go low-key! I don’t advise the full-on excess of the Goldiggers of 1933 (1933) whom Bonnie impersonates in the mirror using her own necklace as a prop.

Here’s Kate Moss wearing an updated version:

http://mamasarollingstone.com/hot-buy-ben-amun-long-coin-necklace/

and check out this pretty necklace which recycles rifle range remnants:

http://ecosalon.com/lustables-bullet-casing-petal-necklace/

Bags: For bank-robber chic, what about the Gladstone bag or variations on this 1930s classic? Or, although it may not seem practical at first, a large clutch could be good to grab and go.

Trench:  Bonnie wears a checked suit in the movie with a high-waisted belt, which can be updated to the fashion staple that is the trench. It never tires and suits all shapes and budgets. For the more patient amongst you, hunt classic styles and brands in charity and vintage stores.

Just as this movie played with period to create a timeless classic, the best way to wear vintage is to mix styles and period, and new and old.  So have fun with the look – just add attitude!

Try out Faye Dunaway’s outlaw style and let us know how you get on.

About Guest Blogger – Carolyn Hair

• Carolyn works as an online marketing officer for an environmental charity based in Bristol, UK.
• She blogs at Culture Darling (www.culturedarling.com) where she writes about vintage and eco fashion, film, photos, books and any other cultural trips that take her fancy.
• Talk fashion and film with her on Twitter @carolynhair

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Vintage Fashion Movie Icons – Part 1 – Bonnie and Clyde by Carolyn Hair

I am delighted to welcome my first, fantastic guest blogger, Carolyn Hair. Carolyn works as an online marketing officer for an environmental charity based in Bristol, UK.

Carolyn blogs at Culture Darling (www.culturedarling.com) where she writes about vintage and eco fashion, film, photos, books and any other cultural trips that take her fancy.

Talk fashion and film with her on Twitter @carolynhair

VINTAGE FASHION MOVIE ICONS – PART 1 – BONNIE & CLYDE

By Carolyn Hair

Bonnie and Clyde DVD cover from 1967 film. Warren Beatty (Clyde) and Faye Dunaway (Bonnie)

Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

What makes Faye Dunaway’s style so memorable in the 1960s movie Bonnie and Clyde? Its place in fashion history is won as it teaches about vintage style itself – how to manage that tricky balance of distilling the essence of period whilst updating with elements of the contemporary. Bonnie’s look reworks 1930s Depression era fashions with 1960s French New Wave chic.

Bonnie to ‘Brigitte’ Parker

To understand the power of the look, let’s go to France and Brigitte Bardot’s recreation of Faye Dunaway’s Bonnie Parker (rather than the ‘real’ Bonnie Parker) in Serge Gainsbourg’s song about the duo. Whilst the US film looked to French New Wave or Nouvelle Vague cinema (Truffaut and Godard were prospective directors), the costume design combined rustic 1930s with 1960s French style. So just as fashion recycles we go full circle; from the true-life story with its roots in American folk history to the 1960s US cinematic version influenced by the French New Wave (which itself played homage to the 1930s Hollywood gangster film) and finally inspiring French pop and movie stars.

Creator of the movie’s style – Theadora van Runkle

Revisiting this vintage movie look is timely with the death late last year of its creator – the self-taught designer and Oscar nominee, Theadora Van Runkle.  Bored of working as a commercial artist, a chance meeting with Oscar-winning costume designer, Dorothy Jeakins, and a subsequent job offer couldn’t have come at better time. Although Jeakins dismissed her after only a month (Theadora later said it was jealousy) she suggested Van Runkle for the Bonnie and Clyde post.

Warren Beatty, who produced the film and played Clyde, rejected her first designs as too faithful to the 1930s, whilst Faye Dunaway felt that her look was rather low-key.  According to Van Runkle, “Faye thought I didn’t care how she looked. Faye thought I was trying to make her ugly.” (8th November 2011, The New York Times)  How wrong Dunaway would turn out to be and the pair formed a firm, fashion friendship with Van Runkle designing for the actress in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and her 1968 Oscar appearance for Bonnie and Clyde.

Playing with period

The Bonnie Parker style works because it plays with period. Van Runkle uses the 1930s as a foundation and adds European 1960s chic resulting in timeless appeal. Attention to period detail through costume and set design in cinema often adds to its veracity bringing the world alive for us. However in the case of Bonnie and Clyde, just as the film plays with their ‘true’ story – reworking it for a 1960s audience – the fashion does the same.

So how did the design play with the times? The first outfit Dunaway wears shows 1930s rustic style ─ a long, figure-hugging, white button-up tea dress, nipped at the waist with ties. In the 1920s women’s greater freedoms were expressed through fashion: shorter skirts, casting off the corset and the looser, drop-waisted flapper dress. The 1930s brought a return to a more feminine shape in clothes with a slimmer, fitted look though the bias cut.

The longer length skirts of the 1930s contrasted sharply with 1960s film-goers’ micro-minis. Van Runkle played against the hemline index. It seems that as our purse-strings tighten, skirt lengths get longer, whilst when our economic confidence grows, so does our desire to show more leg. After the Wall Street crash of 1929, it’s said that skirt lengths increased almost overnight. Thrift was a necessity and fashion invention came up with adding extra fabric to update the shorter skirts of the 1920s. Jump to the economic boom of the 1960s and of course we get the era’s defining style – the mini. The recent revival of the midi skirt, a key part of the Bonnie look, perhaps nods to the current world financial crisis.

The essence is Depression era vintage but Dunaway’s outfits would look just as fitting on a young student on the Left Bank. After Bonnie and Clyde, 1930s styles met a new audience with cardigans and berets noticing a post-movie boost. A beret was worn by the real Bonnie Parker but in this context it adds Parisian New Wave style. Bonnie’s back-combed hair styling and kohl eyed make-up adds a finishing touch of Hollywood via Nouvelle Vague chic.

Time and space shift to create this movie fashion look. Both the director Arthur Penn and van Runkle turned to France for inspiration. Just as Penn drew on French New Wave film techniques, van Runkle channelled the attitude of disaffected French youth into her Depression era look. There may be issues with the film taking liberties with the reality of the Bonnie and Clyde story and further mythologizing it but in fashion it’s spot on.

Who is your favourite movie icon? Is Faye Dunaway as Bonnie one of your style heroines too? Get in touch and let us know.

In Part 2 – how to get the look!

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Call The Midwife – An Historical Perspective

The hit tv series, Call The Midwife, is a real gem in the BBC’s Sunday night viewing schedule and its popularity is supported by viewing figures topping nearly nine million. I am not at all surprised that a second series has just been commissioned.  The series finale is on Sunday 19th February, BBC 1 at 8.30pm. Based on the books by Jennifer Worth (formerly Lee) about her own real life experiences as a newly qualified midwife in London’s East End during the 1950s.  I am currently reading Call The Midwife and will then move on to In The Midst of Life.  There are two further books, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End.  These books are well-written, fascinating, at times heartbreaking and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of medicine.  Worth decided to write down her memoirs after reading an article ‘Impressions of a Midwife in Literature’ that appeared in the January edition of Midwives Journal, 1998. The article struck a chord with her, why were, as Coates concluded, midwives virtually non-existent in literature? Worth immediately decided to rectify this and thus her wonderful books and the subsequent television series was born.

The history of midwifery is a complex subject and when conducting research for this article, I discovered that there is definitely a shortage of academic books on this highly skilled branch of nursing.  I have listed a few at the end of this article which you may be able to source through your library or view at a specialist medical library.

During the 17th century, City of London midwives had to serve a seven-year apprenticeship before delivering a baby on their own.  Historically, midwives have had a strained relationship with physicians, who would often viewed their practices with suspicion.   Debates surrounding the creation of strict guidelines for the practice of midwifery are often found in contemporary newspapers and medical journals.  In a number of the examples that I found, it struck me just how vulnerable the midwife was at the hands of the law if a delivery went tragically wrong or simply that the midwife was poorly trained in the first place.

In one such example, from an 1845 edition of Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, a thirty-five year old carpenter’s wife had died soon after giving birth and an inquest was launched into the circumstances surrounding her death.  Her medical history indicated that in two previous pregnancies she had suffered from retention of the after-birth and in her current pregnancy the scenario had occurred once more.  She was attended by a legally qualified practitioner who was an admitted licentiate of the Apothecaries’ Company since 1822.  This was a home birth that took place in a tiny rural English village. Following the woman’s death, the body was examined and found to be missing the entire uterus together with several feet of the large intestine, both of which had been forcibly extracted.  A verdict of manslaughter was put forward by the coroner and the midwife practitioner committed for trial at the next assizes.  This case had highlighted, once again, the need for a regulatory body to be established for all practitioners engaged in midwifery procedures.  A Petition was subsequently put forward to parliament.  The Petition read:

‘That your Petitioners, in the pursuit of their professional duties, have frequently witnessed and deplored the evil consequences ensuing from the indiscriminate practice of Midwifery, not only to themselves, but to society in general, for the want of some adequate legal protection or recognised body to test the competency and qualifications of those who practice in that peculiar department of the medical profession, the existing medical candidates for their diploma as to their obstetric knowledge; and your Petitioners are of opinion that the practice of Midwifery has not hitherto received that degree of attention from the Legislature, or protection from the Government, which is commensurate with its importance.’

In the UK today practicing midwives are governed by strict legislation and guidelines set-out by The Nursing and Midwifery Council which was established in 2002.

Historically, a majority of working class women gave birth at home, if this wasn’t possible then they would be admitted to a ‘Lying-in’ hospital.  The reason for this was often social rather than medical and the most common type of lying-in hospital would have been found in the work-house.  St. Thomas’ Hospital in London had lying-in wards during the fifteenth century and was set-up by a charitable donation by Richard Whittington for unmarried mothers. However, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the number of non-workhouse lying-in hospitals in London was on the increase:

• General Lying-In Hospital, York Road, Lambeth.  Originally, opened in 1767 as the Westminster New Lying-In Hospital in Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth.  Single mothers as well as married women were admitted.  In 1818 it changed its name to the General Lying-In Hospital and moved to York Road, Lambeth in 1828.  The Hospital closed in 1971 but this fine-looking building still exists today.  Florence Nightingale took a particular interest in the Hospital’s midwifery training programme;
• Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, Goldhawk Road.  The Hospital opened in 1809, moved to Marylebone Road in 1813 and Goldhawk Road in 1940.  The Hospital admitted both single and married women;
• City of London Lying-In Hospital, City Road, Finsbury.  Opened in 1750.  The building was badly bombed in 1940-1. Eventually the Hospital was moved to Hanley Road, Islington and closed in 1983;
• British Lying-In Hospital, Endell Street, Holburn.  Opened in 1749 and closed in 1913.  Only married women were admitted;
• New General Lying-in Hospital, Oxford Road, near Hanover Square.  Opened in 1767 under the name Queen’s Hospital.  It moved to Store Street near Tottenham Court Road, where patients did include single women.  The Hospital closed in 1800.

These hospitals were predominantly intended for the “wives of poor industrious tradesmen or distressed House-keepers and the wives of soldiers and sailors”.  London teaching hospitals did not admit women for childbirth before the late nineteenth century.  Medical students and staff sometimes delivered women in their own homes.

19th century midwifery instruments. Bottom right a 1850 copy of the Midwife’s Vade Mecum by Aristotle.

In the 18th century, male surgeons would often intervene in the delivery process and a new group of medical men emerged, men-midwives or ‘accoucheurs’. Developments in obstetrical instrument design helped to improve the chances of a successful labour, particularly for those women whose babies lay in different positions in the birth canal.  Pain relief options for women were limited and included, opium, brandy and after 1847, chloroform. The pioneer of the use of chloroform in childbirth was Sir James Simpson.  Ergotamine was also given to women to stem the flow of blood.

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is an important figure in the history of midwifery and pressed for midwifery as a career for educated women.  She established a training school for midwives in King’s College Hospital at the end of 1861.  A fully-equipped maternity ward was set-up at the Hospital and the physician accoucheurs agreed to give six months’ training to the midwives.  The midwives were trained to work in hospitals and also to deliver women in their own homes.  The tuition was provided for free but the students had to pay for their own board and lodging.  However, after just 2 years the scheme suffered a devastating blow – an outbreak of Puerperal Sepsis in the lying-in wards, following the delivery of a woman suffering from Erysipelas.   This event forced the training programme to be shut down.  Florence Nightingale was devastated and she immediately launched an investigation into the incident, writing to numerous physicians to seek opinion and advice.  She wanted to establish a set of reliable statistics of mortality in childbirth for women who gave birth in the lying-in wards.  She soon discovered that this information would be extremely difficult to come by.  The medical profession viewed her ‘interference’ with suspicion and many would not co-operate with her repeated requests for data.  However, Florence was not of the disposition to give-up easily and eventually, with the help of Dr John Sutherland (of the Sanitary Commission), was able to publish a slim volume of her findings in 1871, titled, Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions.  She calculated that the death rate for women giving birth in the lying-in institutions was 33.3 per thousand and the rate for home births was 5.1 per thousand.  The conclusion was drawn that death in institutions was due to the prevalence of Puerperal fever, an infection caused by insanitary conditions.  Florence advocated smaller hospitals, individual rooms for delivery, scrupulous cleanliness, shorter stays in hospital and banning medical students from attending births immediately after visiting the dissection room, which was common practice at the time.  She believed that in taking these measures the huge morbidity figures could be drastically reduced.

Puerperal Sepsis, or childbed fever as it is often referred to, has claimed the lives of many women over the centuries, including a number of famous individuals such as Henry VIII’s wives Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr, Mrs Isabella Beeton and Mary Shelley’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft.  The disease is a iatrogenic disease, caused by doctors and remained a common cause of death in childbirth until the early part of the 20th century. Infectious organisms on the hands of the birth attendants are transferred to the woman’s uterus.  The most common organism is  Streptococcus, the virulent beta-haemolytic (group A).  The disease usually begins on the third day after delivery.  Typical symptoms include: high temperature; severe headache; raised pulse; severe abdominal pain; vomiting and diarrhoea.  Death occurs when the infection spreads, resulting in peritonitis and septicaemia.

Obstetric forceps first appeared in the 17th century and many of the instruments were named after the obstetrician who invented them.  In each set of delivery instruments there would be two or three forceps, often with ebony or ivory handles, perforators, cranioclasts and decapitation hooks.  When there was no safe way of delivering a live baby, the delivery was obstructed and the mother’s life hung in the balance, gruesome measures were resorted to.  The perforators were used to open the baby’s skull, then the cranioclasts were brought in to crush it and finally the hooks were employed to remove the deceased infant in parts. The vectis, half a forcep, was a popular delivery instrument during the nineteenth century.  The vectis was used to manoeuvre the foetus into the normal position for child-birth.  Technically it converted the impassable brow or shoulder positions to the normal vertex (top of the head) presentation.  On the left of the image below you can see the spoon-shaped vectis with its wooden handle, metal shaft and elliptical hole in the scoop.

19th obstetric instruments. Vectis forceps shown on the left. The Old Operating Theatre Museum, London.

Caesarean Section is now a much practiced form of delivery in the UK, with nearly 163,000 procedures performed in 2010-11. Caesarean delivery dates back to ancient times with Egyptian and Roman law sanctioning its use after the mother’s death in order to allow the infant a chance to survive. In medieval Christian times it was believed by some that those infants that survived such a procedure were in possession of great strength and special powers.  Although many medieval Christians also viewed this practice with suspicion and as an ‘unnatural’ birth.  In the Renaissance, midwives were brought in to perform post-mortem caesareans. The first successful caesarean on a live woman took place in 1500. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there were even reports of women performing the operation upon themselves.  A midwife called Mary Donelly was the first to perform a successful caesarean operation in Ireland in 1738.  Although popular, the caesarean remained a rare procedure until the late nineteenth century.  Eduardo Porro (1842-1902) was an Italian obstetrician who pioneered a technique to minimize haemorrhage and sepsis risks in caesarean operations by removing the mother’s uterus at the same time. During the 1950s, when Jennifer Worth was practising as a midwife, the caesarean section rate was 3%.  Today the rate is approximately 25%.

Nipple shield and baby’s feeding bottle on display at The Old Operating Theatre Museum, London.

In 1928, Sister Mary Laetitia Flieger, R.N. published a report in The American Journal of Nursing on current midwifery practices in the UK.  She reports that pregnant women were instructed to take care of their breasts by washing them with hot and cold water, morning and evening, then rub the nipples with a rough towel.  In the last month women were told to clean the nipples with soap and water using a soft nail brush.  Sister Flieger reported that diet was taken seriously by the British midwives, who suggested that no red meat should be allowed during the last month and only a little chicken and rabbit, together with plenty of fish should be consumed.  Once labour had commenced, unless it was to be a breech delivery, a forceful enema would be given.  She also mentioned that The Central Midwives’ Board (the then governing body for UK midwives) recommended that the number of intimate examinations given to the women should be limited in order to avoid the dangers of sepsis.  It is interesting to note that by the 1920s the practice of infection prevention is taken seriously. Thanks must go to the hard work and research that Florence Nightingale conducted nearly seventy years previously.  Flieger also reported on the delivery style in the UK for a non-breech delivery.  The woman should lie on her left side and an assistant raise the woman’s leg to affect delivery.  If there is a pendulous abdomen, breech delivery or forceps delivery then the women is delivered on her back.  During the puerperium (lying-in period) the woman’s perineum is swabbed about five times a day with a weak solution of iodine or lysol under thoroughly aseptic conditions.  She also gives UK childbirth mortality rates for the mother in 1928 as being approximately 3,000 deaths in relation to 800,000 babies being born.

• If you want to find out more about the BBC One series, Call The Midwife, click here;
• The Florence Nightingale Museum, in the grounds of St. Thomas’ Hospital London. For more information click here;
• If you want to visit The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, London, which I strongly urge you do if you are interested in the history of medicine, then Click here for further information.  I only feature museums on my blog which I believe are exceptional in terms of visitor experience.   This Museum is one of those and ranks in my top five.  I took a friend with me who is a nurse and we simply didn’t notice the time fly by as the exhibits are so engrossing and the staff, particularly the Curator, are helpful and friendly.  The museum is very small and can only accommodate a limited number of visitors at any one time.  You may find that you have to wait at the foot of the stairs before you are escorted up to the Museum, which to be honest actually adds to the whole experience.  It might be an idea to phone on the morning of your visit to check when would be the best time to arrive that day.  On the day we visited, we had to wait a while before going in as there was a large group of medical students booked in.  Also on that morning Channel 4′s Time Team had been filming there.  Please do persevere, you will be very glad that you did.

Suggestions for further reading

• Ehrenreich, Barbara and English, Deirdre (2010), Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers, Feminist Press at the City University New York;
• Pam Lieske (2007) (12 Volumes), Eighteenth- Century British Midwifery, Pickering and Chatto;
• Mangham, Andrew (2011), The Female Body in Medicine and Literature, Liverpool University Press;
• Reid, Lindsay (2011), Midwifery in Scotland: A History, Scottish History Press;
• Rutherdale, Myra (2010), Caregiving on the Periphery: Historical Perspectives on Nursing and Midwifery in Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press;

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Myrtle – By Royal Command

Terrace at Osborne House, Isle of Wight.

‘Her lovely lace veil worn off the face, was arranged flat on her hair, and held in place by a narrow chaplet of myrtle leaves and a white rose at each side.  The bridesmaids wore no veils, and their wreaths of myrtle leaves were bound low on the brow, and held in over the ears with roses and white heather.’

Description that appeared in The Lady magazine, Thursday 26th April 1923, of the wedding of The Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to The Duke of York

Last year, I watched the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on a huge outdoor screen at Osborne House, East Cowes, Isle of Wight.  An enjoyable experience and great atmosphere to boot.  I felt that Osborne House was the perfect backdrop to experience this momentous occasion.  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the estate in 1845, with the aim of creating a summer retreat and place to escape from court life in London and Windsor. There is so much to see and do at Osborne but I was particularly curious to locate the famous myrtle bushes in the grounds.  The Duchess of Cambridge’s shield-shaped bouquet contained stems from the myrtle at Osborne together with a sprig from a plant grown from the myrtle used in The Queen’s wedding bouquet of 1947. 

View of lower terrace and The Andromeda Fountain, Osborne House, Isle of Wight.

I was particularly thrilled to track down the exact bush that had offered up its stems for the Duchess of Cambridge’s bouquet.  I knew I had the correct bush because the lovely lady in the tea kiosk opposite informed me, proudly, that she had watched through the window when officials had cut sprigs from it in the previous week.  I purchased my own little piece of history from the gift shop, a cutting from the myrtle bushes at Osborne and this has now been duly planted in the garden.

Myrtle bush that the Duchess of Cambridge's sprigs were cut from at Osborne House.

Myrtle (Myrtus communis) is a small evergreen shrub, producing fragrant white or pink flowers.  It can be planted out-of-doors if you live in a mild climate or if not, then kept in a pot and protected throughout the winter.  It thrives in a warm, sheltered position in full sun, ideally close to a south or west-facing wall.  The soil must be fertile and well-drained.

Upper terrace at Osborne House, showing Clock Tower.

It is a tradition that all royal bridal bouquets contain a sprig of myrtle from the grounds of Osborne.  The myrtle originally found its way to Osborne by way of Prince Albert’s grandmother, the dowager duchess of Saxe Gotha and Attenburg, who gave Queen Victoria a nosegay with myrtle during a visit to Gotha in Germany in 1845.  The myrtle was planted against Osborne’s terrace walls.  When Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, married in 1858 she began the tradition by incorporating myrtle into her bouquet.  Princess May of Teck (Queen Mary) wore a diamond diadem adorned with orange blossom, myrtle and white heather when she married Prince George, Duke of York on the 6th July 1893.  Lady Diana Spencer had myrtle from Osborne in her Edwardian-style shower bouquet.

Myrtle has been popular since ancient times.  Medieval brides used to wear a crown of flowers each with a meaning, good luck, long life and to ward off evil spirits.  Aphrodite was often seen pictured wearing a myrtle wreath on her head.  Roman bridegrooms also wore wreaths of myrtle.

In Germany, Myrtle is seen as a symbol of the innocence of the bride. The Language of Flowers for wedding bouquets in the UK is as follows:

• Myrtle = love, the emblem of marriage;
• Orange blossom and wheat = fertility;
• Veronica = fidelity;
• Heather = good luck;
• Rosemary = remembrance;
• Ivy = fidelity, marriage, wedded love, friendship and affection;
• Lily of the Valley = return of happiness;
• Sweet William = gallantry;
• Hyacinth = constancy of love.

For opening times and visitor information on Osborne House, please click here.

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