1970: VICTORIAN TEENAGERS reminisce | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

[@ILoveJesusMySavior]

Who else feels like a child, sitting cross-legged on the rug listening to grandma? What a lovely feeling.

[@Maki-00]

Yes!! I wish to hear more! I wonder if there is a longer version of the interview.

[@levity90]

I'm going to be 32 years old soon and I couldn't agree more.

[@justafish9618]

@@levity90 I guess it means we should also register our own mondain lives for the next generations. Not the sensational put onto social media. Just the regular perks of an ordinary life that might be lost in time...

[@joshuataylor6087]

I loved my grandmother telling stories and have always been drawn to old people telling stories from their past. I’ve never understood why some people have no time for it.

[@Renxo761]

Jesus is my saviour, too :)

[@1220b]

I can remember Victorian ladies as a child. I was born in the 1970s and thought nothing of these old ladies who were my neighbours. Now I'm almost 50 years old and it was a privilege to know these women and men. For the younger people reading this.. spend time talking to your elderly neighbours. They were young once...

[@BobMarley-vl5gl]

@Dell Wright it’s a shame now few left even from ww2 another decade and probably no one that lived through it.

[@1220b]

@Dell Wright My great grandfather was a WW1 veteran and spoke to me about his war. Even as late as 1989 my school work experience in a care home saw me talking to Victorian ladies and a WW1 solider. My friend Simon his grandmother was once kissed on the head by a woman who remembers seeing injured Soliders coming back to England from the battle of Waterloo. The distance past is closer than we think.

[@victoriatampling5049]

I was born in the 60s and this was like listening to my nan and her sisters talking about their life. I was fascinated they were girls during WW1 and talked about their dad and men going off to war. Then they were young mom's during WW2, they had some brilliant stories. They saw so much change, so much history. An amazing generation 🌟💝☮️🇬🇧

[@jarvisjames4463]

Queen vicky was a nasty piece of work!

[@user-eb4dv7py4m]

@@jarvisjames4463 hmm? How so? I wish she did more for the poor

[@faeriefire78]

It's amazing to think of all the rapid change they saw through their lifespan. From Victorian era to cars, the jazz age, electricity, two world wars, airplanes, radio, movies, tv, moon landings, hippies, rock 'n roll -- it's mind blowing really!

[@dwhitman3092]

It truly is!

[@chachadodds5860]

Absolutely.

[@jax99888]

And all that makes me wonder what will we see in our lifetimes!

[@IWishICouldThinkOfAGoodHandle]

Your right

[@IWishICouldThinkOfAGoodHandle]

@@jax99888 me to

[@jimjiminy5836]

“Where there wasn’t mud, there was fog, and in between were us enjoying ourselves”

[@ValQuinn]

marvelous turn of phrase, i expect everyone spoke like that back then

[@miochii]

sounds so poetic, right out of a book

[@paulc6766]

and dung.

[@HardgebardusSerenissimus]

@@paulc6766 DUNG! haha

[@piccalillipit9211]

beautifully put

[@stuartylad]

These are great! I had a drinking buddy when I was in my early 20s who was born in 1899. He died at just a few weeks shy of 106 in his own home, fit, smoking and drinking and living independently 'til the end. He told me once that his own grandfather remembered being a lad and making his way to London to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837. I'm still blown away to think that between that event there's only one person between the witness ro the occasion and me.

[@elysebuehrer5981]

That is an incredible thought. History is so much closer to us than we realize…

[@mildred3513]

Wow, that's great, how privileged you were to have had someone in your life that had such contact with history. My grandparents were born in the early 1890s, but unfortunately they were not ones to talk about life in their youth. I always feel sad about missing out on so much they could have told me, never mind, everyone is different, I just respected them for who they were. So glad that you had this chance in your life. 😁👍

[@trevordance5181]

@@elysebuehrer5981 You are right. A whole century contains less than One Million Hours.

[@nspector]

Yes, that's incredible.

[@maggiee639]

Sounds like a great time!!

[@Liofa73]

I wished they had talked to more people throughout the early 20th century about life in the 1800s. It's fascinating. Voices from the past.

[@adventuresafternoontea]

Me too…

[@Dushygushy22]

They did 😂 in long, drawn out books, articles, and printed diaries.

[@tomthomassony8607]

@@Dushygushy22 people were lazy in the 1800s and couldn’t be bothered to invent TikTok.

[@Posie-hg1ze]

I remember too.

[@Flipdrivel]

I wonder why you assume "they" didn't?

[@SpiritmanProductions]

What a wonderful line: (paraphrased) "London was full of mud. And where there wasn't mud, there was fog."

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

The fog was full of pollution too not just water.

[@tcm81]

I think that given all the horses "mud" may be a euphemism.

[@amazingandrea9983]

Confirmed by Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of his 9th (of 15) novel, Bleak House.

[@fuckbankers]

My mum remembers the smog

[@diannemontgomery6054]

@@tcm81 Yikes

[@wamininja]

The ladies singing and adding the hic ups of the drunk men stumbling out of their pubs really made my day

[@libragirl4471]

Love it. She remembered it as she heard it. I could listen to these women all day

[@darthbiker2311]

Oh god yes 😂😂😂

[@hiyalanguages]

Amazing storyreller!

[@anna-majandersson6716]

I was in heaven! 🤣🤣🤣

[@puppylove1985]

It made me nearly cry....You just don't get innocence like that anymore.

[@KaylaNoelle1]

Wonderful how even a Victorian father saw his daughter's talent and knew that she had to be an artist to be happy. The furthest back in history I really ever had access to was from my great grandmother who was a tween and teen in the roaring 20's she remembered a bit of the Edwardian era and she'd pinch the leg of my jeans and say "Thank GOODNESS for rational dress!" wiping mud off your skirt for hours does sound like a nightmare.

[@Pintkonan]

"wiping mud off your skirt for hours does sound like a nightmare." --> but only if you are female =b

[@wareforcoin5780]

​@@PintkonanI don't care if you are a man, if you're brushing mud off your skirt every days for hours you're probably not happy about it.

[@JohnChrysostom101]

" rational dress" ahh the beginings of cultural marxism and feminism

[@andrewtucker94]

@@JohnChrysostom101 There are plenty of men who share your view still - might I recommend moving to rural Afghanistan?

[@DanaTheInsane]

@@JohnChrysostom101 you walk around in a long skirt and see how you like it jacksss.

[@Lilimmortem]

The second lady - Berta Ruck - was an author of romance novels such as ‘His Official Fiancée’ (1918), and was married to another author who wrote under the name Oliver Onions who wrote ghost stories! He died in 1961, and she died in 1978. Love hearing both their stories, especially Effy’s story about being arrested for cycling and the magistrate being so old he was confused as to whether they were riding horses or bicycles!

[@warwickclark2143]

How did you know this??? What a great comment🎉

[@sankuperis]

One could tell she was a writer. Her language is so beautiful, and her stories just flow…

[@philippenachtergal6077]

@@sankuperis Or maybe he read the description below the video...

[@chriskoschik391]

I was JUST thinking that she speaks like a very well written dialogue in a novel LOL! Now I know why.

[@JudgeJulieLit]

@@philippenachtergal6077 The "he" (*she, "Berta Ruck") who "was a writer" is the video's Victorian interviewee, who did not live to see this podcast, nor its intro description.

[@SarahlabyrinthLHC]

I had an aunt who was alive in the 1890's. She used to tell stories of playing tennis on a grass court, wearing ankle length skirts and huge hats. And cycling for hours to visit friends and stay the night and have dancing until almost dawn. She was engaged to a young man in WWI but he didn't survive the war. She never did marry. She lived with a couple of her sisters and brothers on the farm. She described how every week she would boil up the copper to do the laundry in the little shed just across from the kitchen and she would bake 12 loaves of bread once a week to feed the family. They had an icebox to keep the meat and milk cool. They purchased the second car to be had in the district. Before then, it was travelling by horse and buggy and if the road was very winding she would get out and walk because she would get "Buggy sick"! Another of her sisters was engaged to a young man but her father made her break off the engagement as he said the young man was not suitable to marry his daughter. My grandmother as a Victorian, grew her hair long and never cut it, it was long enough for her to sit on (she wore it bunned, of course). My father told me how as a little boy he would sit on her bed and watching her comb her long hair, he found it beautiful. I never met my grandmother, she died before I was born, but I decided to see if my hair would grow as long as hers and now my hair is calf length (and I also wear it bunned). It's a little like a tribute to her....

[@jitkasuarez]

Great share! Love the mundane details of life from back when. I guess most of our grandmas wore their hair long out of habit from their youthful days. Mine looked so dignified and pretty, though she was all wrinkled and stooped and supposed to look "silly" because of her age???

[@SarahlabyrinthLHC]

@@jitkasuarez You know, I never understood this "Short hair makes you look younger as you age" thing. No it doesn't, you look old whether you have short hair or long hair, and in my opinion, long is better and more feminine.

[@shonamacdonald1054]

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I find it fascinating and so very interesting.

[@1braverat1968]

thanks so much. it wld be lovely if ppl cld put these stories up with pics for future generations

[@rubycooper5922]

My dad tells me that his grandma had really long auburn hair, and he remembers how amazing it looked when it was half grey half red as she got older. I think she worked at a hat factory in manchester and would walk more than an hour each way, not sure how many hats she owned though. It’s pretty cool to think about anyways

[@susi-emily]

Oh my, Berta is a proper card. Love her. I would never have thought that this was originally shown 52 years ago, the quality is astonishing.

[@Erinydwi]

I’d have guessed it was filmed in the early 90s!

[@drstranger7430]

RIGHT! i was wondering if this was from the 80's-90's bc of the video quality, that'd make them OLD. Then I checked its from 1970! Wow

[@pnag]

Shot on film - when scanned correctly, looks brand new :)

[@BritishEmergency]

Recorded onto metallic film. If they have the originals (which they did in this case) they can reproduce it in high quality. The low quality video of the time wasn't down to the cameras, it was the film (often tape) they recorded onto.

[@martinhawes5647]

Recording didn’t change much in that time. But broadcast and home TV sets did change a lot, which is why people remember video and audio quality improving massively during that time period. It was in fact just video BROADCAST and PLAYBACK that improved.

[@womanonabicycle]

'Indolent, feckless gal' ☺ I love it. So authentic.

[@Flipdrivel]

"Gel" not "gal"!

[@fuckbankers]

She went to Saint Trinians

[@JudgeJulieLit]

@@BipityBopityBettyBoop Chill ... you missed his wit.

[@JudgeJulieLit]

Such (sadly, ever) is the view of the narrowly (usually petty bourgeois) pragmatic-for-now mindset, deaf to poet Walt Whitman's advocated "prudence for eternity" that zooms out and sees big pictures, and for the artist aesthetic consequences, to catapult them to the best.

[@fuckbankers]

A handbag!!!

[@lepotatoes]

I’m Native American, and the stories my grandmother would tell… magical, tragic, compelling. Miss her so much and wish I asked more questions.

[@jimjiminy5836]

Hello Native American person, English person here. Hope you’re well my friend🙏❤️💐

[@zyourzgrandzmaz]

I think I'm missing something but, native American weren't victorian's?

[@ArthurMorgan08461]

@@zyourzgrandzmazthere just saying there experiences with the grandparents

[@Siouxsi-Sioux]

Sure you are 🤣🤣🤣

[@yelan1918C1hans]

@@zyourzgrandzmazwas still called the victorian age though, so ig that's what they meant

[@philliphamilton3591]

I remember as a child in 1955 being taken to see my Gt. Gt Grandmother, who was celebrating her 100th birthday. Born 1855. I have never forgotten it.

[@camshaftcasting1451]

I find it amazing that you are telling us about when you met a lady born nearly 170 years, ago. Thanks for sharing!! In 20 or so years time, you might seek out a young relative and tell them the story!

[@mikerisbridger8095]

My granny Eve was born 1889. She lived until 1969. Remarkable woman. She sobbed in Feb 1965. We'd watched Churchill's State funeral on the box. Eve explained how many friends and relatives she'd lost to the Great War!

[@woooster17]

130+ years seems a long time, but also not so much.. and yet, so much has changed. I love how well spoken they are, and how clear their memories.

[@JasonP6339]

Buddy, 1870 was 152 years ago

[@SJHFoto]

@@JasonP6339 But they are talking about the 1890s, not 1870

[@stansirlmkhope2312]

Picky

[@mellie4174]

Yes we speak really poorly now days

[@Darkstranger9232]

@@JasonP6339 buddy they said 130+ stop picking on them

[@HappyBirdsGlitterNest]

My Grandfather was born in England, in the 1890's. One day, he told me that neither man nor woman would have dared to ask a pregnant woman "How far along are you?" He said you would have been asking for a slap in the face. I asked him why and he said that was the same thing as asking "When did you have sex?" Very interesting!

[@mellie4174]

Wow! Very interesting. I think we should bring back this rule!

[@libdib83]

I hope ya'll know you still shouldn't ask a pregnant woman anything about her pregnancy. Still none of your business

[@sarah-annecarney5458]

What a fascinating notion. How times have changed! I really appreciate you sharing this titbit of knowledge.

[@HappyBirdsGlitterNest]

@@sarah-annecarney5458 Thank you! My Grandfather lived to be 103 and I just LOVED listening to his stories.

[@rogeliodoyle9168]

I've always said this lol That's why I never ask people when they are having kids or do they plan on having kids. It really is like delving into their sex life.

[@jaymac7203]

It's sobering to think that we'll never have another first hand interview with anyone from those times.

[@MrFrenchgangsta]

Think about how at some point in the future people will be saying the same thing about people who lived through the 20th century, as the last people living in the previous millenium.

[@ninamartin1084]

Prepare your own interview questions now!

[@reaceness]

Yes, or from Ancient Mesopotamia.

[@KD400_]

@@ninamartin1084 we r not qualified yet we need to be old have great grandkids and have a life worth telling

[@croonyerzoonyer]

My grandmother was born in 1931 when her mother was 45. So my great grandmother was a victorian child. Many of her ways of thought and lifestyle practices have rubbed off onto my grandmother and also onto me through my semi-victorian grandmother. They lived in Rural New Zealand and didn’t have electricity or plumbing until after ww2.

[@paulasimson4939]

My grandmother was born in 1888 in east London, a true cockney. I loved hearing her stories. She came to Canada on a warship with 2 children during WW1. She claimed the sailors chased her around the ship. She passed away in 1987 at the age of 99, making a pot of jam, still living in her own apartment. Nanny went from having gaslight lighting up the streets, to seeing men walk on the moon. Truly incredible. She was a real character, nothing uptight and Victorian about her. We have this image of women of this era being prissy and prudish, but they were anything but.

[@HayleySulfridge]

Whoa not to mention she was born near the location of Jack the Ripper in the year his killings took place!

[@elisabethrankin7702]

Thanks for sharing, that’s a great story! Not to mention how fabulous, and fortunate, to have grown up around her.

[@tiffanylove6713]

@@HayleySulfridge She was born in the place where Jack the ripper struck in the same year he struck! that's fascinating.

[@kdjoshi726]

Sailors chased her around? Lol why? Were they fascinated by her or smth?

[@mythinktube]

I think "prudish" are the woke people of today whom you can barely say anything to without them getting offended!

[@TheDarkPorkins]

I cant even form a thought as clear as these women speak at 80-90 years old

[@schoo9256]

Well tbf they both said they were feckless, indolent and mooning about the place as teenagers so clearly they developed clarity of thought and speech later in life!

[@vickyalberts6716]

I love that Berta still has a Victorian hairstyle. People often keep the same style they had in their prime.

[@ΠέτροςΓοσκ]

Her style is more 1920s

[@vickyalberts6716]

@@ΠέτροςΓοσκ That was the revival!

[@robertgronewold3326]

That hair style is 1920's to 30's.

[@tripeeblonde8309]

Not a bit of gray in Berta’s hair - my grandmother was the same way. She died at 82 yrs. in 1982

[@diehoffart]

@@sarahbartlett1196 it is indeed a 1920s hairstyle. Not everyone bobbed their hair in the 20s, but this hairstyle replicates how bobs sometimes fall around the face. This hairstyle is pretty common in silent films and fashion photography of the time… apart from that, they were young in the late Victorian/Edwardian era, as shown in the pictures, completely different hairstyles were popular

[@stoverboo]

When working in a nursing home, I knew a woman whose family had come to the west in a wagon train when she was a child. She described her father starting up the team and driving away without the children, as a joke, the same way a father might tease his children now by driving away slowly in the car.

[@diannemontgomery6054]

Wow is that ever touching.

[@KRYoung_dev]

When I started watching silent movies is when I realized that humans have always been the same. Thank you for sharing the story.

[@gothgirl66673]

Someone could create a book of dad jokes through the ages, and they’d be remarkably similar across both time and culture. Circumstances change but people don’t.

[@maddieb.4282]

This is so cute ❤ thank you for sharing!!!!

[@FabiolaRVela]

Oh wow, humans we have always been this way huh 😅😂

[@senpaiskidz4445]

"Sometimes I don't think any of us know", such a juxtaposition of humanity against the rigid nature of life in 1800s England. I don't know why this particular thing hit me so hard.

[@terenceretter5049]

I suppose we have our ideas but do any one of us really know? We think we know but....!

[@waltonsmith7210]

She was surprisingly awesome. Its good to know there were people like this around.

[@joshuataylor3550]

It's a perfect encapsulation of the human condition.

[@andrewtucker94]

@@waltonsmith7210 Honestly if you read Victorian writing, it becomes less surprising. There was just the same spectrum of humanity as exists now - people were more eloquent as well. Although they did go on a bit.

[@mothratemporalradio517]

Don't forget though that the Victorians weren't always as tightly buttoned up as first appears. Consider the drugs and pr0n just for starters! That's before we get into the weird esoterica, such as apothecaries spruiking Egyptian mummy innards as a health tonic - which, as common sense might dictate, turns out to have been based on a dodgy translation of a Persian text into Latin (from memory). In the end, that text wasn't even talking about Egyptian mummies. I just want to know how many Victorians consumed mummy innards (apparently still on sale for consumption in the early 20th century?!) and how they felt afterwards :v

[@L_MD_]

Berta Ruck was a writer and lived till 100. What a life she experienced and lived.

[@cameemz]

"Where there wasn't mud there was fog, and in between was us enjoying ourselves." I loved that little line

[@Jake_5693]

29 watching a video in 2022 of women In their 90s talking in the 1970s about their life in the 1890s. Mind blowing.

[@user-ut4zw6so6o]

I was a child in the sixties and my neighbors were born in the late 1880s and grew up poor in Milwaukee. They would tell stories of fire wagons pulled by horses with Dalmatians running alongside, being whipped in the cloakroom by teachers for some transgression, ice wagons delivering ice. My neighbor was a very kind and gentle lady who was an amazingly gifted artist. She wanted to go to art school but the money to be used for that had to be used to pay medical costs when her mother had pneumonia. When she passed away the family gave me a collection of her drawings, delicate drawings of Vargas girls, ladies in feathered hats, roses and birds. She was a fine spirit in this world and was an inspiration from another age.

[@naerwyn239]

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@christinacrimari3543]

I think we're going back to that age, you know. I'm that kind of person in spirit - only ever owned one car, once - only interested in a magical, art-filled, yet "real" and relatively simple life, and the great outdoors, landscapes, that kind of thing. It's what people need.

[@MoppinPolly33]

Well said

[@Tiffers963Hz]

She sounds like a lovely soul. Thank you for sharing. ❤

[@anastasiakallinic]

My great grandmother died 110 yo, in the 80s. She had absolutely the craziest stories of old European adventure traveling in her own private train car between Vienna and the Black Sea, through war and turmoil. She was a mean and difficult person, but I can understand why. She had very old-timers habits, like traveling around to visit relatives and stay with them for 2-3 months at a time, because that's the way ladies used to travel back then.

[@raraszek]

Blessed times. I was definitely born in the wrong era

[@nathan_408]

imagine traveling by car that age, would be crazy

[@jesusisapisces]

Her being mean is the reason why she lived so long 😂😂

[@wrinkles7741]

As of now 371,523 people have viewed this. I wonder how these wonderful ladies would react knowing that hundreds of thousands of people sat listening to them, finding them so interesting. Living on, telling their stories long after they're gone.

[@melzy00]

That’s such a beautiful perspective 🥺💖

[@MundiaKamau]

@@melzy00It is🙂Regards, Michael M. Kamau, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa, 28th December 2023.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

I imagine they'd react how they are in the video because they were being recorded and interviewed by the BBC so they already knew thousands of people would see it.

[@MundiaKamau]

@@dickJohnsonpeterI humbly disagree. The ladies were natural and unpretentious. There was nothing artificial in how they conducted themselves or how they presented themselves. Regards, Michael M. Kamau, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa, 14th January 2024.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

@@MundiaKamau I'm not saying that they weren't humble or unpretentious. I said that they already knew thousands of people would see this video. They couldn't have known about KZbin of course but they knew they were going to be on TV on the BBC. So their reactions were on display here.

[@DasTubemeister]

I shook hands with a woman aged 103 in 1985. She remembered seeing Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee procession in 1897. She lived long enough to see Prince Harry being born, Live Aid, Space Shuttles and early mobile phones.

[@dommidavros2211]

Err no, she definitely didn't get to see Mobile phones!

[@sisterjesscah]

Apparently, the first mobile phone was invented in 1973. 🤷🏻‍♀️​@dommidavros2211

[@DasTubemeister]

@@dommidavros2211 The first mobile phone call in the UK was made on January 1, 1985 by Michael Harrison from Parliament Square in London.

[@DasTubemeister]

@EternalFootman-kr6yx I was 23 in 1985. I watched Live Aid on TV, and remember seing early mobile ads on TV. The old woman was a resident in the old people's home my mum ran.

[@CiaoHandy]

“I gave my address as the office and not my home address”…What a top gal!

[@AndyJarman]

How many people are more scared of their family than their employers today? A clue to where things have gone awry perhaps!

[@DoggoStreamwatcher]

The comment by Andy doesn't quite get it. When I was a child, older ladies in my family would tell stories of how they faced a similar situation. Police would pull one of them over, as they would other young women, and would only let them go if they gave them a phone number. They learned to memorize other numbers, so as to not seem to hesitate or be making something up. No matter the incident, it could be safer for the young lady to provide an alternative address or number, rather than having the man showing up at her house.

[@tempkinvient]

This is wild. I wish they had interviewed more people about their memories as soon as film was invented

[@Flipdrivel]

It's not so much about when film was invented as when sound recording was invented (or practical).

[@Just_Sara]

There are old films of even older people being interviewed, I saw one where they interviewed an American Civil War soldier, I think.

[@Flipdrivel]

@@Just_Sara One of these men was born before Victoria even came to the throne. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYXJZWeNrMZlfNE

[@Dreyno]

There’s quite a lot of these sort of things that are slowly making their way to KZbin.

[@_the_little_mermaid_]

@@Just_Sara can you share? I love watching this content

[@walkwithmeASMR]

I love this stuff. Listening to ladies who spent their teenager years in the 1800s is incredible.

[@alyssasmith9081]

Not too far in the future they'll say the same thing about a millennial who who was born in the 1900s....

[@unholylemonpledge9730]

No its not

[@unholylemonpledge9730]

@@alyssasmith9081 no they wont

[@tiffanylove6713]

@@unholylemonpledge9730 Why are you even watching? away with you to a video about slavery or something...

[@louissanderson719]

For anyone interested… there’s footage of interview from the 1920’s of people who are 90-100 years old. Fascinating.

[@damilkk]

I could listen to these ladies speaking about their lives for hours and hours and not get bored.

[@VenusEvan_1885]

They are real women, now we don't have them

[@anntaylor4247]

It's wonderful to listen to people speaking clearly.

[@leedobson]

I was born in 1974 and as a young child attended the 100th birthday of my great great grandmother, it's amazing to think that I shared space with an actual Victorian, we aren't as distant from them as we think

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Especially if you were in the same room......

[@richardherbert9320]

In memory of my dear Grandma, born in Lanarkshire 1879, died 1963 when I was 12. A dear, thoroughly Scottish, Victorian lady, whose memory I cherish forever.

[@KateLove21]

Talk to the elderly of our generation. My grandmother passed this year. She was a teenager in Japan during WW2 right between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The stories she told. I miss my grandma so much, but I’m glad I talked to her and learned about her youth. Don’t let this time pass. Someday time will be as removed from our present elderly as we are to these Victorian women.

[@tdoran616]

My Scottish grandma was born in 1948 and her earliest memories were picking strawberries on a farm, she couldn’t read or write but had the greatest memory. My other grandparents were born in 1930 and 1937. They’re all dead now.

[@KH-rc7tl]

My grandmother died at 102 in 2012. She was a cockney born in Poplar. She had a fabulous memory right until the end and used to tell stories of her childhood. Growing up in the East End back then. Hard times. They moved around alot coz they never could pay their rent !! but she said they were happy. Life is what you make it.

[@teresalyons6297]

I was born in florida, 1973. I had many elderly neighbors from Victorian times. I loved to visit them and hear their childhood stories. I had no Idea at the time how fast the world would change in my lifetime and how lucky I was to have this connection to the past. I often think about writing their stories into a novel for future generations. We've changed so much as a society in the past 120 years..

[@GM-et4rm]

How lovely, my great grandmother was born in 1908 and lived to be 102, luckily I had some amazing conversations with her about her childhood. These videos are priceless

[@annaliese9453]

My great grandpa was born in 1876 over 100 years before i was born!

[@mxbx307]

My grandfather was born in the 1920s. He was mostly raised by his grandparents (his parents worked overseas and they sent him back for school) who were obviously old school Victorians, hence he was brought up on Victorian values that shaped his entire life going forward. This very point was noted at his funeral in 2007 after he died aged 84.

[@ifyourepeatalieoftenenough8500]

How lucky you are. I had met my great grandparents but back then i was not interested in their experience and history as i am now. But now they are all gone. I advice everyone who has old relatives to ask them and interview them as those ppl will be gone soon.

[@Distacca]

Did you record something?

[@Chelle130]

“And in between was us enjoying ourselves.” Life summed up, right there. This felt like listening to my grandmothers 🥰

[@DerkleineTrojaner]

I'm a nurse in training. Of course many patients are in the "later stages" of their lives, most are 70 to 80 years old. But when i first worked with an old lady who was born in the 1920s i had a moment where it kinda struck me how awe inspiring her age was. i imagined her life, of which i didn't know anything of course, as a long film. The viewer gets to know her well, goes through thick and thin with her and in the end sees her lying there, in a hospital bed, her body weak and old, her voice frail and quiet. And in comes the unamed nurse (Me) as an insignificant extra at the end of a very long life. We are literally from different worlds, not in space but time. And talking to old people and recording what they say is a connection, a form of timetravel to other "world".

[@elysebuehrer5981]

I have had thoughts like these before too. Such a fascinating perspective!

[@PiNKUZi]

This is why I dread getting old imagine in a few decades being operated on by a doctor that was born in 2022 😂

[@stormy3307]

I really like the picture you drew there

[@shittymcrvids3119]

My grandmother was born in 1927, we’re German and she was 18 by the end of WWII. We lived in the same house and I grew up eating strawberrys with sugar in her kitchen and listening to her stories of taking care of her 6 younger siblings, hiding in smelly bunkers and steeling her sisters English book in order to learn some English as she had to leave school early.

[@jessmercedes2669]

It's so special and amazing to think about this. And of course, how one day our humble old years will be accompanied by a totally different world and future young people, listening to our stories of time passed. It's absolutely precious.

[@somebody4244]

The shift in lifestyle and times during these ladies lifespan would’ve been incredible. They witnessed so many changes. From 1800’s slums to cars, televisions, skimpy fashions, airplanes, it’s just mind blowing

[@MrCarlSir]

How special to have captured these stories, not world events but just everyday life experiences.

[@markharrisllb]

My grandfather was born in 1880 and would have been almost an age peer with these ladies. I was lucky enough to be brought up in 'Old Peoples Homes' in the 60s and 70s. I was able to hear stories of Lancashire in the late 19th Century. I was also lucky enough to hear true Lanky Twang, a dialect that has all but disappeared.

[@myrrysmaikku]

Can you still remember any stories?

[@gooacnt707]

Tell us some stories

[@brand_warwick]

You should be sure to write down what you remember- these stories keep those times of the world, the spirit of those times, alive and well. Don’t let us all forget. I’m sure we would all feel privileged to hear what your grandfather had to say about his time.

[@kathleenchaffin2591]

Lanky Twang must be recorded, quick!

[@hrdemaio]

Oooo I have some ancestors that are from Lancashire. They emigrated to America in late 1800s. 💖 So amazing when you have stories from older generations.

[@mattdeans9873]

Wonderful. No one can teach you history like those who have lived it.

[@girlee0303]

My husband’s grandmother was born on 11/11/11. She lived through it all but never worked outside the house and never drove. She had 3 children and did all her womanly duties within the home. She died at 104 years old in 2015 now she is with her beloved husband and oldest daughter

[@JudgeJulieLit]

Housebound for 104 years ... .

[@DanaTheInsane]

That sounds completely tragic.

[@staceymarie6895]

My maternal Grandmother was born in 1897. My mom is 90. I hear stories of the old days.

[@amypatton2080]

This is just wonderful. Listening to an actual Victorian era person talk about watching the telly is a bit mind boggling!

[@JofromItaly]

Fascinating. My grandma was born in 1904, so later than these ladies, but i loved her stories. She died aged 102.

[@diananoonen2262]

2006! My great grandmother was born in 1903- Married in 1920. She passed in 1973. I as almost 13. Her stories were amazing.

[@kdjoshi726]

Mine was born in mid 1930s, so yes very later than these ladies, but I remember how in our small town back then (I still live here) she would say she'd see the British soldiers go by the streets. She's also the lady who probably saw the 50s-70s Bombay back then, a very popular sight you'd see in old Bollywood. My grandparents also travelled to Calcutta (Kolkata now) of that time although my granny would specifically mention of her seeing British soldiers here in our small town (now a large city in it's early stages) maybe because she was mere 14-15 in 1947 when we gained independence

[@emilian7052]

Gosh this is spooky! Mine was born 1904 died 2006 😳

[@L0rdOfThePies]

My great grandma would've been 101 this year, but the pandemic sorta ruined that

[@nspector]

@@L0rdOfThePies 😢

[@laysmariamoraes442]

Life runs so fast. One day we Will be the old ladies telling the 00s' history

[@OffGridInvestor]

More like the covid history. I have kept all the papers for all the essential worker movement stuff.

[@SilentCheechGaming1991]

Ill be telling my future grandkids what a scam covid was, and how the sheep panicked for no reason ​@@OffGridInvestor

[@somnolentcats]

i feel like i already forgot most of what i've lived through :( i hope i'll be able to tell stories like they could

[@emilyliles5991]

To have a memory of this time. Remembering what things looked like, how people behaved and how they spoke... It's something we can only imagine.

[@danbul5853]

But how lucky we are to be able to imagine it by listening to those who really lived it

[@pinkparasollise9646]

My grandmother, born in 1906, told me an anecdote about HER mother. Women, of course, always wore the long dresses 'back then.' When women's dresses were allowed to be cut above the ankle, well, my great-grandmother thought that was the most wonderful, comfortable thing!

[@DigitallyRemasteredMusic]

Berta is awesome. She is better than any film or tv show

[@Stand663]

I remember listening to my grandmother. She came to London down from Scotland at the age of six, with her parents. This was before there was automobiles. There were only horses for transport. The roads were covered in straw. A while later as a young woman she worked in the war factories as a munitions girl.

[@dullypuketon2932]

I LOVE busty Scottish women!

[@nathan_408]

At this time that there was a British nationalist feeling or did she die considering herself Scottish?

[@Stand663]

@@nathan_408 I think if given a democratic choice, most people would stay British.

[@_Dovar_]

Imagine seeing London during the victorian era, and seeing it now...

[@AlexanderFirth]

Being born in 1995 I feel extremely lucky that I had the chance as a child to hear my great grandmother's stories. She was born in 1905 in Yorkshire, and had vivid memories of German zeppelins flying over Barnsley on their way to bomb Sheffield. It's incredible to me now, many years after she passed, that I heard first hand stories of something that happened over a hundred years ago. I just wish I'd been old enough to appreciate it at the time.

[@girlfromlondontown.442]

Same. I was born in 95 and my great gran 1905.

[@OffGridInvestor]

My grandfather turned 21 while on the way to war. Conscript pulled out of art school. Seen a plane shot down above him at night, had a coconut crab come in his tent to grab his helmet, saw bodies rolling off cliffs, big pythons falling out of trees, had proper PTSD until he died age 94.

[@robertstewart239]

I loved this. The way that woman went from her normal accent to singing in Cockney was just fantastic. And the stories. The school one could have been in an Angela Brazil book.

[@joegen7411]

Such a beautiful glimpse into the past. I've always thought stories told by old folk are so sweet and romantic. Even the war stories are told with such tenderness of friendship and resilience.

[@nichaeloz]

I’m 57 and when I talk to younger folk about living in a pre-internet and smart phone world they look at me as if I was living in the 1890’s 🤣

[@scottianson5133]

I'm 41 and I remember. Some days it feels like it was only a few years ago rather than 25 or so.

[@jessicaable5095]

I'm only 25 but any time I mention a video tape or floppy disk to any of the kids in my family, they look at me the same way 😂

[@mollydooker9636]

I’m 54 and when my son was little he once asked me ‘ Did they have electricity when you were little? ‘ … but to be fair I still remember the gas man coming around to light the gas lights at dusk. ( Ireland in the seventies )

[@lettylunasical4766]

I'm 36 and a teacher. When I tell students I had no computer or Internet until 15 they're on the floor.

[@TK-ij2xi]

No phones in the pocket either! When I needed my mom to pick me up from a football game at school I would call collect and speak through the recording and hang up for zero charge....we lived on the edge.

[@babyg8662]

I think every generation should be taped and filmed talking about their youth and what it was like! I love the fact that we could hear firsthand what life was like for these young people back in Victorian England.

[@applied.precision]

Do you think I might dare to sing one of them now? She's amazing, wish I had grown up around the older generations like her.

[@653j521]

Interview the older people you ARE around. They have just as many stories to tell.

[@its_her8525]

I could listen to these ladies all day. Feels like home.

[@Steven_Rowe]

Born in the early 50s i knwe many people like this, but sadly when you are young as in being 20 you really dont think much about living history. Thank god this marvelous footage exists now im 70

[@susankelly5585]

My lovely Nan was a tweenie maid at that time. Never enough to eat, up at dawn, falling into bed, exhausted, just a few hours sleep. This was not how she told it, though, there was no moaning or recriminations from her. It was her life when young, and she remembered it fondly when telling stories of that time in service. She was such a hard worker, and so gentle.♥️

[@vespelian]

Fantastic generation. The old lady who brought me up in my earliest years would have been about ten years younger than these ladies. She was born in 1890 and died in 1990 and was already 72 when I was born and was very like those women in character.

[@syrus3k]

These women remind me of my great grandmother who died when I was about 5 or 6 years old (35 years ago now!) Talk to more old people!

[@vespelian]

@@syrus3k The prewar generation are either gone or very old. People born since are increasingly homogeneous. Even people n there are very much media constructs whose experiences in the years of peace and plenty are increasingly the same.

[@13ig13oots]

When I was about 5 we used to live next door to an amazing woman in her late 80's. She used to live in London and remembered seeing Queen Victoria as a young girl.

[@brick6347]

The last subject of Queen Victoria died in 2017. Her name was Violet Brown, and she was born 10 March 1900 and died 15 September 2017. My daughter just turned 9, and it blew her mind to find out that when she was born there was still a Victorian lady alive... I mean, technically, guess. I'm sure she didn't really remember anything as she was a baby! But there were people born in 1890 alive until as recently as 2006. The Victorian era seems an awfully long time ago, but it's really just about on the edge of living memory (or at least its twilight years).

[@LeanneHolloway-cy2uo]

died age 117! that’s incredible

[@trevordance5181]

Being born in 1955 I can remember many men and women that were born in the reign of Queen Victoria, some of them were still working!

[@tdoran616]

I have a co-worker who was born in 1960 and he told me he remembers when every home had an outhouse and you would bathe in a tin bath but most people used the bath room in the local swimming centre to bathe themselves.

[@raraszek]

@@tdoran616 I was born in the 1980s and my house in rural Poland didn't even have indoor plumbing LOL we used chamber pots at night and washed with boiled well water

[@The315fan]

@@tdoran616I had a middle aged ex colleague who remembered his grandmother who was born in 1898 and died in 2000.

[@JulieWallis1963]

My dear grandmother, *Nanny Marks* with whom I had lived for a number of years, (it’s on my IMDB) well, she was born in 1896. I wish I had talked more to her about her young years, about how everyday life was, about her lost love, her jobs, life in the east end of London,… but my granddaughter who is 17 thinks I’m far too stupid to know anything. I adore the second lady who sang her song. Much love to her.

[@janejohndoe3426]

Living in 2022, listening to these lovely ladies (May they Rest In Peace) about their lives, is absolutely fascinating and it’s quite interesting to learn the vast differences

[@Jayjee762]

Seeing and hearing these marvellous women recollect their younger days makes such a time seem so much closer.

[@briansaiditsoitmustbetrue4206]

RIP These old ladies ..From a better era

[@brendantownsend216]

What makes you think they're dead?

[@Jay-Kay-Buwembo]

Better era? 🤔 🤷🏿‍♂️ 😪

[@AnnaLory-l4u]

Her old timey hair style is everything! She’s so cute I love her! I live in a Victorian home so this is just fascinating hearing about life back then.

[@annmcevoy5686]

My step nan was in service, when she retired she used to meet a friend she met while they were both working in Crystal Palace.... I was amazed they always addressed each other my " hello Mrs..... Nice to see you Mrs...." never called each other by their first name. Nan only stopped working when a route master bus she was alighting moved away too fast and she slipped... she was in her late 80's then. Such a wonderful woman! She told me I would never see the things she had in her life. Queen Victoria, two world Wars, radio, men on the moon etc. She also would never buy new furniture... she said she had been bombed out twice and wasn't taking a chance! RiP Eva.... I still miss you after all these years!

[@disgruntledunicorn007]

What a treasure! Woman no.2 has such a similar voice to my great grandmother (b.1902). Heartwarming to hear this long gone voice again.

[@thecaveofthedead]

The emancipatory power of the bicycle. Even today, bicycles for transport - not sport - represent a kind of rebellion in many parts of the world, and freedom from long slogs on foot in many other parts.

[@stephenclark9917]

The bicycle was the greatest boon to the genetic health of the nations. Men could now cycle to the next village to find a wife rather than relying on the women in their own village, all of whom may be close or distant relatives.

[@mothratemporalradio517]

I feel you. Bikes can still radically empower an individual even today, especially the poor.

[@mothratemporalradio517]

@@stephenclark9917 Whereas bicycles might hold a different kind of significance to women, for example enabling greater independence of movement. The fact that Victorian women not wearing skirts to cycle were chided by strangers as voiding their chances of ever seeming attractive to men speaks very powerfully to me as a woman in the 21st century! I feel like the male experience of the bicycle is therefore, to some extent, something else, because as far as i know there was never any objection to men riding bicycles. Whereas this shows the bicycle-loving women of today some of the 💩 our forebears went through in order to participate in cycling. Their willingness to resist caving in to such social criticism paved the way for women to be able to cycle today. A very different view of the bicycle vs a reproduction enabler. Not dismissing your views, just perceiving the same activity very differently from a female perspective. Something i liked about this clip was that it wasn't focussing on women as instruments of reproduction but rather focussing on their experiences of how they changed as people owing to new developments, if that makes sense. And i enjoyed the British sense of humour about all this, including when the lady wearing her "rational" cycling get up was cheeky back to the bloke having a go at her. If not for the pluck of women of this era, my own life would be significantly different, for the worse. Going back to the perspective of men and villages, I think there is a video on KZbin about "the last cycling postman". I think that might be in Cornwall or possibly Devon. I think i might have a squizz at that after reading your comment. I wouldn't have thought villages so very far apart in the UK, partly because i am in Australia and so the land mass appears compact by contrast, but it's one of those things where living after the Industrial Revolution in a far more highly populated society could put the blinders on about certain realities.

[@thecaveofthedead]

@@mothratemporalradio517 I totally agree. For men the bicycle was (and is) an enormous labour saving device that was affordable in very poor places. But for women it was liberating in any situation - offering autonomous freedom of movement and a level of liberation from life in the home. And the threat that represented meant that it was a major act of rebellion. Today it's less gendered. But among wealthier people transport without using fossil fuels and using an affordable device represents a different kind of rebellion against capitalist consumerism and the logic of car-centric cities - even if people just start because they want to get some exercise while getting around.

[@JudgeJulieLit]

@@thecaveofthedead And bicycling makes riders stronger, more flexible and coordinated, and shapelier.

[@rhondafarmer4824]

When i was young i was a nurse aid and cared for a lot of these amazing people. The stories they told me. Gosh i wish now that i had written them down.

[@wendy6512]

I could listen to those lady’s all day long

[@mwa1254]

The bicycle story had me in stitches, especially how she has remembered his disapproval - “Oooooo” - after all those years. This type of programming is fascinating and should take precedence over anything that is remotely in the same vein as ‘Love Island’. We may have some future for the UK if we do!

[@ericherman5413]

May their memory be blessed! We are blessed to have this archive to tell us about history.

[@royalpitamamma]

When I was a child in the 80's we still had some Victorian folks alive. I was raised by a few and thank God for their influence. When she said how her teacher called her feckless...my Lord that brought me back to my own childhood. I had almost an identical conversation with folks born of the same era.

[@MisssPeachykeen]

"And in between there was us enjoying ourselves." She has such a lovely and poetic way of talking.

[@jamespiper8736]

So precious. This is a beautiful example of how important photography and media is for capturing history. Superb.

[@nocomment2468]

These women are (were) such great story-tellers! What a treasure to hear about their lives as young people in a very different time.

[@nessi777]

Lady singing drunken cockney song is adorable 🥰 😁

[@lindamcharie1264]

What a marvelous video...these ladies were brought up to respect others..sadly a thing of the past..

[@lizroberts1569]

Thank you again to the BBC for preserving this important piece of history

[@RuleofFive]

What a fascinating look at these two women's teenage lives! I'm so happy they were interviewed 52 years ago so I could learn about their lives in the 1890s. Amazing!

[@starman2089]

I love their slang words and figures of speech! It makes them so human to me, instead of those stuffy portrayals in history books.

[@karenh5239]

lessons to be learnt, But the song remains the same Heart warming I loved it.

[@donalddelano3948]

Could listen to these women over and over again! KD

[@Joanna7428]

If only we could, they were great at describing their early lives would have loved to have heard more

[@ukamerican2479]

Berta’s accent is a voice from the past. Fascinating to listen to her.

[@franticranter]

It's so humanising to here their stories, to not just see them as some monolothic ancient blob of a people

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

TODAY is the monolithic blob of people. Just visit a music 'festival'

[@franticranter]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver No group of people is a monolithic blob. That's the importance of empathy, recognising the humanity and complexity and nuance of all people and all groups in all ages

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@franticranter Nope. The 'smart' phone and social media have done nothing but to enable homogenized, conformist uniformity. Everyone stares at phones all day long now.

[@franticranter]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver Not everyone stares at the phone all day, and nor is the phone homogenising it. There continue to be significant differences between people - what sort of things they like, what their jobs are, how they relate to their friends and families, their religious beliefs etc. Nothing can ever homogenise any group, people will always be different and varied. One could even argue that in some ways, it has led to some fragmentation in people's experiences. In the past, you could ask your colleague at work "did you see the new episode of that new show last night?" and they would say yeah, and then you could talk about it. These days, any given show or video or anything I have watched online is much less likely to have also been watched by my colleagues at work, and I have more choice to fit that to my niche personal interests

[@johnhoney5089]

​@@RideAcrossTheRiverEh, I still know many people who do not use phones that often. Then again, the area I live in is still quite rural.

[@caroliner2029]

What a precious historical document, and what a delight these ladies are! I love hearing about how ladies and children lived day to day, and the details about brushing the mud off their long skirts is a wonderful insight. I think about my great grandmothers, and great great grandmothers, and feel closer to them.🇦🇺

[@CassidyClaireJ]

Amazing how sharp these women were for being in their 90s!! I love hearing these stories

[@shaunnarochelle]

the lady in pinks stories are priceless. what I would give to go back in time. how much she must have seen the world change

[@KellyVincent-f3u]

“The mug and the fog and in between was us having a good time” I love it

[@IsaacWale2004]

I'm so glad these interviews exist. They're so interesting.