Friesians in Yorkshire in the 1930s?

[Willesdon]

Aga user here. Kettle is filled with cold water, placed on the appropriate hot ‘pad’ on aga, left to get on with heating up while other tasks are done. One big advantage of an aga is that by moving it over slightly, the kettle can be left just staying hot and ready to use for multiple people and mugs. Useful when lots of people are coming in and out.

The teapot holds the teabags or loose tea to which water is added. The kettle never has tea put in it!!! Teabags (an American invention I believe) are extremely convenient for mugs but until the 1960s or so loose tea in a pot would have been used. Tea still out sells coffee in UK and Ireland

A tea cozy is a very useful thing on a big pot. I have a nice knited yellow and black bumble bee cozy for when friends are round and we are having a cuppa. I’m not certain why one isn’t used in the show, particularly if The Green Pot is enamel because those teapots get cold really quickly.

Agas are variable. Oil, solid fuel or electric available, some heat up water for house, some don’t. In our variable climate, somewhere warm and available to dry wet/damp coats, boots, dogs, people at any time is very useful. They are a bit like a beating heart in a house.

[FitzE]

Yes, our Aga is no longer solid fuel, but we had it restored and redone when we bought the house. I’m looking into having the one in the new cottage run the hot water and maybe even the heating, we’ll see. Ours is left on 24/7/365. Also very helpful in keeping the cottage walls dry, even in summer.

We also dry our clothes in the morning on top of the Aga pads (covers down, obvi) before the kids head out to camp on a summer morning. Do you do that as well? Esp good for pants, socks, swim togs, etc. that had to be washed the night before.

I use a tea cozy for my enamel pots, but a tea light for my ceramics. I have a lovely tea light from Japan that, when I lived there, was my go-to gift when I’d go back home. I find it even better than the cozy and, even when I do a single or 2 cup pot just for myself, I put my cup on the tea light! I like to drink my tea just off the boil. Old asbestos mouth here!! I note in several shots of the Farnon house that the actual kettle (white/ivory) colour can be seen on the stovetop in the background of the kitchen.

Here’s a question I cannot figure out: In the scenes in the Alderson kitchen, they have a brickwork area in their kitchen. Part seems to house the sink area, but then to the right of that is a rounded bit. It looks like the outdoor tandoori ovens I knew when I lived in India. What would that be, do you know? Would it be a beehive-like oven? A place to boil wash? I’ll try to find a picture of it as it’s been really intriguing me while we’ve been watching the programme.

[B_and_B]

@FitzE and @Willesdon I have some lovely teapots and tea cozies. My grandmother always had tea promptly at 3:30. Kettle on the stove (just an ordinary range). Loose leaf tea in the tea ball. The ‘correct’ way according to her was to warm the tea pot with a swish of hot water, then put the tea ball in, pour the hot water in, and pop the cozy on. Then the teapot, tea cups with saucers, little pot of milk, sugar bowl, and the little bowl of cookies (always Pepperidge Farm) was put on a tray and brought to the table. Even if the table was in the kitchen and not in the parlor, everything went on the tray.
I remember being very proud when I graduated from a mug to a tea cup, especially when I got to use the tea cups that were such fine bone china that you could see your fingers through them. And yes, there were lessons on holding the tea cup correctly!
Good memories!

[B_and_B]

Would love to see a picture of the beehive thing. Only thing I can think of would be a bread warmer, but that only works if the brickwork is part of the old fireplace area not the sink…

[FitzE]

I actually do a full pot of hot water for warming. The swish is not enough for me! I also use a huge strainer basket as the leaves can pack too tightly in a tea ball and then don’t steep properly. I loved Pepperidge Farm cookies when I lived in the US. That’s a quality bicky!

I do loose tea each morning and when I worked in a posh office I had my set up. At my current office things are much more limited so I admit I toss in a Barry’s tea bag and call myself lucky to have it! Covid-related remote work has been heaven for me and my morning tea routine!

@B_and_B

Would love to see a picture of the beehive thing. Only thing I can think of would be a bread warmer, but that only works if the brickwork is part of the old fireplace area not the sink…

I tried to grab a screen shot from appleTV without success. The screen shot turned out black! Maybe they have something to prevent taking screen shots?? I’ve also searched “Alderson kitchen All Creatures Great and Small” and “Alderson house All Creatures Great and Small” and cannot find a pic. I’ll go back and see if I can find the exact episode which showed it best in the first series.

[FitzE]

@B_and_B: Okay, S1 E2, Mrs. Hall is pouring tea from my favourite pot and uses a tea towel on the handle. I’d say that’s definitive: it’s enamelware!! Enamelware teapot handles are hot as the dickens. Crockery would not be. Yay!! Now I just need to buy that teapot for my collection!! DH is at once rolling his eyes at my enamelware habit and also quite happy that it is a rather cheap pursuit!

S2 E1, around 26:45 you can see the brickwork round structure I’m asking about. Just to the right of the sink/behind Helen. I’ve tried taking pics of the screen since screenshots end up completely black.

[Willesdon]

Try a wash copper for the laundry.

[FitzE]

I thought a place to boil wash. But, thank you, now I’m thinking a hot water copper! I’ve found a couple similar ones googling. Seems it wasn’t just for laundry but all hot water needs more than a kettle’s worth. The Alderson place is my favourite on the show.

[goodhors]

Thank you both for defining the unique UK household details. I will be watching how things are done much closer now. The Aga stoves sound wonderful in their variety and usefulness! I do think I would have a strong learning curve before I felt in control of it!!

[FitzE]

Agas and the like (Stanley, Rayburn, etc.) are wonderful to have but I think suited to a certain climate. I could not imagine one in a place that regularly gets hot weather. Our cottage is in such a wet, cool area that the ever-on Aga actually helps to keep the walls dry. The walls are a meter thick so a lot goes into taming the rising damp. Our ceiling-mounted drying rack is by the Aga b/c just drying clothes inside can add a lot of moisture to the inside air.

The kitchen would be incomplete without one, too. They are just always there with the kettle by the boiling plate. When I was very young we had a neighbour who even occasionally put runts or newborn lambs that were in bad shape into the warming oven (door open) of his Aga to warm them up and try to bring them round. Our kids toast marshmallows over the boiling plate sometimes. And, of course, the aforementioned drying of small items on the cover of the plates to get out the door for camp in the morning. Good times!

I’m doing a lot of research and having great fun looking for the new one as I’ve never bought one before - they were always just there in the houses we bought/lived in.

[Jenerationx]

Was it the original Black Stallion movie? They used a stallion Cass-Ole for as much as possible of that. He had some white on him that they dyed. They also used him and another stallion called El Mokhtar (also black with a white marking) for The Black Stallion Returns. Then for The Young Black Stallion, they used a bay stallion that they dyed completely named Thee Cyclone. I’m sure they used other horses sporadically for a scene here or there though. I wonder why they’d throw a mare in there when they didn’t seem to have issues finding stallions. They also forgot that a supposedly wild horse wouldn’t have shoes in in The Young Black Stallion. lol

[Willesdon]

Another digression, but as people seem interested in the kitchen details, there was a UK TV series (starting 1989) called “The Victorian Kitchen” and then “The Victorian Kitchen Garden” that are available online.

[clanter]

@Jenerationx

I wonder why they’d throw a mare in there when they didn’t seem to have issues finding stallions.

who ever was overseeing the continuity of the script did not preform their job as there was no question the horse was a mare, not a gelding or stallion. To them a Black horse with makeup to mimic the others used in the production was all that was needed, gender was optional.

This happened over thirty years ago, I really do not remember the movie’s title, personally I care little to nothing about the on-goings in Hollywood and do not waste my time with their world

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Ah, “rising damp.” I didn’t live in a flat with an Aga, but as an American living in the UK, the constant damp and how nothing got really dry is something I remember well from the UK. I lived in a flat with a coin-operated electric heater, carpeting (ugh!) and a window with no screens that didn’t really open. You also had to turn on the hot water and wait twenty minutes if you wanted a shower. The laundromat had driers, but I seldom had enough coins to get my clothes through more than one spin, which really wasn’t enough, so I always had things on the drying rack.

Even today, every hotel in the UK has an electric kettle. It’s kind of nice, and I’ve considered getting one for my US home, even though I know the boiling is slower because of AC power here.

[FitzE]

The places I lived in the UK were more modern and damp wasn’t the issue, though central heating often was.

But where we’re from it is WET! The walls are so thick, too, that you need to dry them out and keep them dry as it’s a big lift if they get wet again. Even in winter you must crack the windows or you’ll be growing science fair worthy moulds throughout the place. But, it’s home and it’s where we are most comfortable so we battle damp as our tax to live in such a beautiful but challenging place.

I did INSIST on having a real, full-size clothes dryer in the new cottage. The Aga can only dry to much.

Lack of window screens is so odd to me. I’m convinced someone could make a fortune bringing window screens to so many places around the world. Believe it or not, I lived in a village in rural south India, hotter than Hades, and no screens. I was shocked! I cut up an old mosquito net and taped it over my bedroom window as it was so hot at night sleeping with the windows closed plus inside mosquito netting.

[goodhors]

I was told that there are no pesky bugs in the UK, which is why no one has screens. I had been watching a show, Back To The Country, where people are shown homes for sale. Quite a variety of styles of all kinds of houses in rural or village settings. They also have two short bits of things found in the area, gardens, craftsmen, shepherds, historic places, trail keepers, boat rescuers! I actually found that was often more interesting than seeing the homes! But often the homes visited had all the windows wide open. So very different than our USA homes with screens on all windows. Other points were that seemingly everyone wants 3-4 or more bedrooms even when it is just two going to be living there. The other couple things were wanting very expansive kitchens and the (to me) old-fashioned, pie wedge steps to the upstairs. My Mom had our stairs changed to two short flights with a landing between after we kids fell trying to put feet on the no-tread pointy end. Have to say full tread length steps were easier moving furniture up and down when we were older and stronger!. But 99% of homes shown had the curving flights with no tread width to step on away from the wall. True even on newer construction homes. Size of kitchens was often a deal breaker on the show, many being deemed too small. They didn’t look small to me! I would need roller skates to cover the walking distances in the kitchen that made them happy! Perhaps distance is part of a stay-fit plan for the good cooks? Ha ha I have fun watching the reruns on TV, just a whole new way of seeing things. Of course no one mentions dampness in older homes, though all seem to be wearing sweaters/jumpers and there are stoves in sitting areas!

[2DogsFarm]

I watch that show too
Lots of horsy stuff, including a visit to Carl Hester’s farm, where host met Valegro
Lots of Driving shown too. Drafts foing farm work & 1 CDE type with a pair.

My 2¢ says most of the buyers have family/grandkids they want to visit, thus the extra bedrooms.
I love most of the older-style kitchens, the modernized ones, not so much.
I covet a porcelain farm sink

I would love an AGA, but not really useful for the Midwest.
If I won a lottery, and had staff…
As it is, my range is a 1920s vintage gas Roper:

No 20# turkeys for me, but a 12 would fit.

[goodhors]

My Gramma had one like yours! We think her range did “something” while baking our favorite sugar cookies. Left in or took out moisture, cooked hotter than setting was at? The recipe just doesn’t taste the same cooked in a modern stove. Still good, but “Not lIke Gramma fixed them!” I miss her cookies! Not sure what make her stove was, but white all over, maybe enameled. I loved the long legs, so graceful.

I do enjoy the show, have caught a number of the horsey features with driving, logging, learning to ride sidesaddle. So MANY unique featured places and craftsmen, like the Jean factory, railroads up and down the hills, rug and fabric weaving, kilt makers with tartan patterns! They seem endless, learn something from every one.

[atr]

We used to let the AGA out in the summer–had a separate “summer stove” in the kitchen and an immersion heater in the hot water tank.

[FitzE]

What a pretty range!