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Following the long-running success of BBC Two’s living history series, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm, this autumn BBC Two takes up residence in the stunning medieval landscape of Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Chichester to explore life on a Tudor Abbey Farm, complete with the greatest variety of 15th and 16th century buildings in the country.

Archaeologist Peter Ginn and historian Ruth Goodman, who is also a leading specialist in Tudor domestic life, return to front this six-part series. They are joined for the first-time by archaeologist Tom Pinfold to take on the role of the lay-folk who did the bulk of the farming and craftwork within monastic lands.

The team is turning the clock back to the year 1500 – a great turning point in British history. After centuries of war and plague, the nation was enjoying newfound stability and prosperity under the reign of its first Tudor King, Henry VII. But it also marked the last decades of the monastic system that had controlled every aspect of life for centuries.

For almost a 1000 years monasteries dominated the British landscape and were at the heart of the way medieval life was organised. Up to a quarter of the landed wealth in the Kingdom belonged to the Church and much of it was rented to farmers like Peter, Tom and Ruth.