# Ruth Goodman

Ruth Goodman (born 5 October 1963) is a British freelance historian of the early modern period, specialising in offering advice to museums and heritage attractions.
She is a specialist in British social history and after presenting the 2005 television series Tales from the Green Valley, 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).

## Early life and education

She was born in Cardiff and went to Westbury primary school and Fearnhill School in Letchworth. "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."

## Career

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.
She has been a consultant to the Victoria & Albert Museum and to the film Shakespeare in Love. She is a member of the Tudor Group, a re-enactment organisation for the Tudor period. 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, Wartime Farm, Wartime Farm Christmas, Secrets of the Castle, and Full Steam Ahead. She participated in the 2011 series of Celebrity Masterchef. Since 2015, she has presented segments within the BBC television series Inside the Factory.
In 2007, the Weald and Downland Living Museum Historic Clothing Project was founded by Hannah Tiplady, Head of Interpretation, consulted by Goodman and historical costumier Barbara Painter.
In 2022, Goodman was featured in A Farm Through Time with brothers Rob and Dave Nicholson, a three-part series shown on Channel 5 that explores how farming practices have changed over the years. 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.

## Television

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2005 | Tales from the Green Valley | 12-episode documentary series that depicts life on a Welsh farm in 1620. |
| 2006 | A Tudor Feast at Christmas | Sequel to Tales from the Green Valley. The team recreating a Tudor banquet at Haddon Hall. |
| 2009 | Victorian Farm/Victorian Farm Christmas | Six parts to recreate everyday life on a farm in the 1880s at the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire. Followed by three Christmas-themed episodes. |
| 2010 | Edwardian Farm | Twelve parts to depict a group of historians recreating the running of a farm during the Edwardian era at Morwelham Quay, a historic port in Devon. |
| 2010 | Victorian Pharmacy | Four parts filmed at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire looking at life in the 19th century and how people attempted to cure common ailments. |
| 2012 | Wartime Farm | Eight parts to reenact the running of a farm during the Second World War. Filmed at Manor Farm and River Hamble Country Park close to Southampton. |
| 2013 | Tudor Monastery Farm | Six parts and a Christmas special filmed at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex to show live in the Tudor period – 1485 to 1603, including the reign of Elizabeth I. |
| 2014 | Secrets of the Castle | Five episodes filmed at Guedelon castle in the Burgundy region of France, joining the world’s biggest archeological experiment – a 25 year project to build a medieval castle from scratch, using only the tools and materials available in the 13th century. |
| 2015 | Inside the Factory, Season 1 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of bread, chocolate and milk. |
| 2016 | Full Steam Ahead | The Age of Steam was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life. These six episodes reveal how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the railways. |
| 2016 | Inside the Factory, Season 2 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of cereal, crisps, baked beans, bicycles, sweets, shoes and Christmas treats. |
| 2017-2018 | Inside the Factory, Season 3 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of tea bags, pasta, biscuits, a Christmas special, fish fingers, sauces, and soft drinks. |
| 2018-2019 | Inside the Factory, Season 4 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of coffee, toilet roll, sausages, curry, a Christmas special, potato waffle, frozen pizza, beer, pencils, and cheese. |
| 2019-2020 | Inside the Factory, Season 5 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of cherry bakewells, waxed jackets, croissants, mattresses, Christmas party food, pasties, pots and pans, soup, liqueurs, and cereal bars. |
| 2020-2022 | Inside the Factory, Season 6 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of cider, socks, yoghurt, Christmas cards, diggers, malt loaf, chairs, leather boots, tortilla chips, mugs, ice cream and vacuums. |
| 2022 | A Farm Through Time | A mini-series learning about what life on the farm was like in three historic periods and how old agricultural methods have shaped modern farms. |
| 2022-2023 | Inside the Factory, Season 7 | Historic insets for episodes on factory production of trains, buses, Jaffa Cakes, pork pies, crumpets, vegan sausages, rice pudding and mints. |
| 2023 | Women in Industry with Ruth Goodman | |

## Personal life

She lives in Buckinghamshire and is married to Tudor re-enactor and musician Mark Goodman, who participated in one episode of Tudor Monastery Farm. Their daughter Eve works on historic clothing and fashions and has appeared on television, sometimes alongside her mother.
Goodman was awarded an honorary degree in 2012 by Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, for her contribution to history education.
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. For a period of three months she followed a Tudor body cleansing regime, and no-one complained or noticed a smell.

## Publications

* 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