Victoria to the Present Day

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Episode 6 of 6

Duration: 1 hour

Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.

In this final episode, helped by today's villagers Michael uncovers the secret history of a Victorian village more colourful than even Dickens could have imagined. Recreating their penny concerts of the 1880s, visiting World War I battlefields with the school and recalling the Home Guard, local land girls and the bombing of the village in 1940, the series finally moves into the brave new world of 'homes for heroes' and the villagers come together to leave a reminder of their world for future generations.

  • Ep 6 Artefact: Letter written by Nellie Taylor, 4 March 1912

    Ep 6 Artefact: Letter written by Nellie Taylor, 4 March 1912

    Nellie Taylor of Smeeton Weserby was a Suffragette and one of over 200 women arrested in early March 1912 during a window-smashing campaign in London. Nellie was given a three-month sentence for breaking the windows of a Knightsbridge Post Office along with two fellow suffragettes. This letter, written by Nellie from Holloway prison to her “dearest Tom and precious children”, reveals a loving wife and mother driven to extreme measures by her faith in the suffragette cause. It was perhaps more than just a wry joke when she entered her religion on prison documents as ‘Votes for Women’.

    Watch the clip showing Nellie's letter

Credits

Presenter
Michael Wood
Writer
Michael Wood

Broadcasts

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Available on: DVD

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