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Ruth Goodman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ruth Ellen Goodman[1]
Goodman in 2013
Born1963 (age 62–63)
Cardiff, Wales
Alma materUniversity of Exeter[2]
OccupationsBBC presenter, historian
Notable workBBC documentaries, advisor to the Victoria & Albert Museum
Websitewww.ruthgoodman.me.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Ruth Ellen Goodman[1] (born 1963[3][4]) is a British freelance historian of the early modern period, specialising in offering advice to museums and heritage attractions.[5]

She is a specialist in British social history and after presenting the 2005 television series Tales from the Green Valley,[5][6] went on to participate in several BBC historic farm series. She occasionally presents features for The One Show, and she co-presented Secrets of the Castle in 2014, and 24 Hours in the Past (2015). Since 2015 she has appeared on Inside the Factory, presenting usually two short features or ‘historic insets’ related to the main subject of the episode.

Early life and education

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She was born in Cardiff, Wales, later moving to Hertfordshire, England and went to Westbury primary[7] school[8][9] and Fearnhill School[10] in Letchworth, North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. "School...was rather pedestrian...I became a very poor student, simply going through the motions, and my academic record at both school and university indeed lacks lustre."[11] Goodman studied at the University of Exeter.[2]

Career

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Goodman is a self-taught social and domestic historian.[12][13] She has been a consultant to the Victoria & Albert Museum and to the film Shakespeare in Love.[5] She is a member of the Tudor Group, a re-enactment organisation for the Tudor period.[14][15] Since participating in Tales from the Green Valley in 2005, she has been a presenter on the BBC television educational documentary series Victorian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy, Edwardian Farm, Tudor Monastery Farm,[16] Wartime Farm,[17] Wartime Farm Christmas, Secrets of the Castle, and Full Steam Ahead.[18] She participated in the 2011 series of Celebrity Masterchef. Since 2015, she has presented segments within the BBC television series Inside the Factory.[19]

Goodman "couldn't get a job after university", so she trained for a job as railway ticket clerk for British Rail, working at Chester station for a short time.[20]

In 2022, Goodman was featured in A Farm Through Time with brothers Rob and Dave Nicholson,[21] a three-part series shown on Channel 5 that explores how farming practices have changed over the years.[22] Prior to A Farm Through Time she had appeared with the brothers on one of their nightly ...on the Farm programmes at Cannon Hall Farm, discussing alcoholic brews from the past.

Goodman said of Tudor Monastery Farm that '"Of course, there’s a slight fantasy element to the series ... but it’s not pure indulgence ... If you look at history, you realise that everything in the past has been different ... And that means that everything in the future can be different. You can be powerful. You can change the world"'.[23]

Television

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Year Title Notes
2005 Tales from the Green Valley
2006 A Tudor Feast at Christmas
2009 Victorian Farm
2010 Edwardian Farm
2010 Victorian Pharmacy
2012 Wartime Farm
2013 Tudor Monastery Farm
2014 Secrets of the Castle
2015–2025 Inside the Factory
2016 Full Steam Ahead
2022 A Farm Through Time
2023 Women in Industry with Ruth Goodman
2025 Rich Times, Poor Times 3 episodes

Audio

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Year Title Type Role Notes
2024 The Curious History of Your Home Podcast Narrator 31-episode series exploring the history of everyday objects including toothpaste, toilets and the fridge.

Personal life

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She lives in Buckinghamshire[24][25] and is married to Tudor re-enactor and musician Mark Goodman,[26] who participated in one episode of Tudor Monastery Farm.[27] Goodman has two daughters.[11]

Goodman was awarded an honorary degree in 2012 by Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, for her contribution to history education.[28]

As a result of her social history research, she has stopped using detergents in her washing machine, never eats factory farmed food and sometimes cooks on an open wood fire.[5] For a period of three months she followed a Tudor body cleansing regime and no one complained or noticed a smell.[29]

Books by Ruth Goodman

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  • Victorian Farm Kitchen: Recipes, Hints and Tips Rediscovered. Pavilion Books. August 2010. ISBN 978-1-86205-887-3.
  • How to be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life (2016). ISBN 9780241973714
  • How to be a Victorian (2014). ISBN 9780670921362
  • How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain (2018). ISBN 9781782438526
  • How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts (2018). ISBN 9781782438496 (American edition of How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain)
  • The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything (2020). ISBN 9781631497636

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 "AGES PAST LIMITED filing history". Companies House. GOV.UK. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  2. 1 2 Exeter academic guides BBC2's new living history series Tudor Monastery Farm
  3. ↑ Radford, Ceri (5 November 2010). "Tough but tranquil: life on the BBC's Edwardian farm". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 10 April 2017.
  4. ↑ Companies House Archived 27 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 1 2 3 4 Ford, Matt (4 October 2008). "The good old days of back-breaking labour". Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  6. ↑ Lane, Megan (19 August 2005). "Lessons from our ancestors about the countryside". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 November 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  7. ↑ Gill, Nick (18 January 2011). "Houses to be built on former Letchworth school site". The Comet. Archant Community Media. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  8. ↑ Gill, Nick (10 June 2011). "A fortnight of Letchworth Festival fun". The Comet. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  9. ↑ "An Evening with Ruth Goodman". Letchworth Festival. broadwayfilmgroup.org. 12 June 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  10. ↑ McDermott, Olly. "History and Alumni". Fearnhill School. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  11. 1 2 Martin-Brown, Becca (26 November 2020). "Lessons from the past". Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  12. ↑ Hubbard, Colleen (21 April 2022). "On the Absolute Pleasure of British Historical Reality TV Shows". Literary Hub. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  13. ↑ Redding, Nick (1 June 2020). "Episode —  № 128 - The BBC's Ruth Goodman is a Master Storyteller of British History". PreserveCast. Preservation Maryland Studios. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  14. ↑ "Live your life in Tudor times". Derby Telegraph. 2 May 2009. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  15. ↑ Siano, Joseph (14 June 1998). "Q & A: Tudor Tour". New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  16. ↑ "Ruth Goodman". Tudor Monastery Farm, Series 1. BBC Two. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  17. ↑ "Victorian Christmas". BBC. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  18. ↑ "BBC Two - Full Steam Ahead". BBC. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  19. ↑ "Inside the factory. Series 3, episode 1, Tea bags". OneSearch. Wesleyan University. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  20. ↑ Webb, Claire (11 August 2016). "Full Steam Ahead's Ruth Goodman on her days as a stationmaster". Radio Times. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  21. ↑ Swain, Marianka (18 August 2022). "A Farm Through Time, review: The Ant and Dec of agriculture plough straight into parody". The Telegraph.
  22. ↑ "New TV Show: A Farm Through Time". cannonhallfarm.co.uk. 12 August 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  23. ↑ Power, Vicki (13 November 2013). "Behind the scenes on BBC Two's Tudor Monastery Farm". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2026.
  24. ↑ Austin, Sue (19 April 2021). "Historian, Ruth calls in to sample The Fat Rabbit's pancakes". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  25. ↑ "Closing Presentation: Ruth Goodman". Ontario Museum Association. 4 November 2011. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  26. ↑ Thornton, Gillian (16 September 2015). "I'm A Tudor Girl Through And Through". The People's Friend Special. p. 3. Retrieved 21 November 2024 – via PressReader.
  27. ↑ "Tudor Monastery Farm, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC Two. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  28. ↑ "TV star to join BG graduation". Bishop Grosseteste University. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  29. ↑ McGrath, Carol (26 February 2022). "Did Tudors Smell Whiffy?". Adventures of a Tudor Nerd. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
[edit]
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