Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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116 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Secrets of the Past Revealed, 6 Sep 2001
By A Customer
Just dropped in from the US to check for another of John Seymour's books and was surprised to find this classic had not yet been reviewed by readers in the UK! Sadly, only occasional used copies are available here now. I do hope this will reprint.This is a truly rare, charming and simple book capturing lost details of the lives our grandparents and ancestors lived closer to the land. Do not be misled by the title into thinking this is just about housekeeping. Much more is included than you would guess, inlcuding keeping livestock and bees, providing water, ale, beer, wine and cider making, cheese making, textiles, chimney sweeping, gas and electrical lighting, stoves, bathrooms - everything to do with home life in old times. The text is personally and charmingly written but what holds my interest for hours with this book is that the text is accompanied by many, many well done and accurate drawings and pictures of authentic old equipment! Now I can really SEE and understand how things were done, and picture exactly how my ancestors lived - and what so many of those odd looking antiques are. Just the page on irons must have twenty drawings of old irons and equipment. The many types of tools and untensils and also the ways grandmother used to feed her family ever fascinate me but I had never seen a picture of a 'wooden moliquet' used to froth the milk and eggs that made hot chocolate. I did not know there were so many shapes and types of bobbins and spangles for lace making. Under cider and ale making you will find a rare drawing of the names and sizes of barrels - who any longer recalls that a puncheon was exactly 72 gallons! Or have you ever actually seen how people cleaned their chimneys with bunches of holly twigs? Well, there is just too much more to tell you. And, most importantly this is all conveyed in an untextbook-like very simple manner! This is definately a classic. I would recommend it for both men and women interested in the past - but especially for women; for anyone who just wants to feel closer to their own ancestors; for anyone at all who loves history; for antiques hounds you will not find a simpler resource tool; for those with an interest in self sufficiency - you will get much information; for any grandparent who wants to share with the family what they recall of their own childhood; for anyone who wants to give a child or young person an interest stimulating gift; for anyone who wishes to give the gift of a timeless resource to their public library. Remember these things lost. My praises to John Seymour for giving us a fine record that is already gone from US bookstore shelves.
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest coffee table book in the world, 23 Jan 2003
This is the most fascinating book I have ever read; it brings the past back to life in a way quite unlike any other. It carries enough detail to be used as a manual for those wishing to revive some of the lost arts, or to provide an insight into just how and why things were made, used and designed the way they were. This is accomplished whilst being concise and general enough to be a very interesting and provocative read.The sheer breadth of scale is amazing for such a small book - everything is covered from boat building to thatching, from blacksmithing to dry stone walling and everything in between. If I only owned a single book, it would be this one.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DK condensed version of the National Trust book of the same title..., 9 Nov 2007
....with an updated introduction.
`Forgotten Household Crafts, recaptures the self-sufficient life of a bygone age.'
From the introduction:-
`..this book describes the art of housewifery through the ages, buy it is not just a `museum on paper'. Many of the activities may be seldom practised nowadays - some of them are sadly dead and gone - but many of them are living activities and several of the skills that seemed to be dying are now being revived, for many people have passed right through the pimply-adolescent stage of post-industrial civilisation.
They have tired of the take-away way of living and the machines-for-living way of living.....this book records the past, and that in itself can be quite a useful thing, but it has been written also to inspire and instruct us for the future. For I am convinced that the future does not lie in the direction of fish fingers, and telly snacks, and `Formica' and other plastic rubbish.
It lies in the recreation of the real homes......'
Written with the typical John Seymour charm, this delightful book of forgotten skills is illustrated throughout in black and white.
A marvellous source for school projects when Grandma's recollections are not enough to fill two A4 sheets - but, overall, it makes us realise just how lucky we are that technology has answered some of the more arduous of chores, especially in the Laundry Craft section:-
`In these days of turbo-boost washing machines and tumble driers, it is difficult to appreciate just how arduous doing the laundry was in the last century. Washing machines were not generally available until the 1880s and even then much energy was required to operate them, as they were hand cranked. In most households, a day of the week, usually Monday, was set aside for doing the washing and the housewife devoted the whole day to soaking, pounding, rubbing, boiling, starching, rinsing and drying the family's linen. She was lucky if she could fit in the ironing, as well...'
followed by sections entitled:-
Drawing Water
Making Lye and Soap
Washing Linen
Drying Linen
Pressing Linen
Dyeing
256 high quality matt pages, split over 6 main chapters:-
Kitchen Crafts
Dairy Crafts
Laundry Crafts
Around the Home
Textile Crafts
Decorative Crafts
each sub-divided into sections, plus the introduction and index.
Sections include:-
Cooking
Salting and Pickling
Drying & Smoking
Preserves & Confectionery
Washing Up
Ale and Beer Making
Butter and Cheese Making
Making Ice Cream
Linen inc. `Wringing & Mangling', `Peg Making' & `Ironing'
Bathing & The Jakes inc. `The Privy'
Heating & Lighting
Chimney Sweeping
Spinning
Lace Making
Smocking
Knitting/Crochet
Stencilling
Festivals & Decorations
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