1900 Island - Episode 1

Good morning!  Today I am going to feature the 1900 Island.  This is a historically based reality TV series.
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Four families are heading back to 1900 and living in a small fishing village.  The men will go fishing and the women will take care of the home.  The children will be educated in the 1900 schoolhouse.  So what hardships will these families face living this lifestyle?  Will the families come together to help each other?  Will they fall in love with the past?

In this first episode, we meet our four families and they are on an Island off of Anglesey living on an island on the Irish Sea.  Nobody lived on the island for the past seventy years.  Now four families are going to experience life on the 1900 Island.  They will experience the harsh realities of a fishing village.  One family has seven members while another has five members and speaks Welsh.  One family has experience living off the grid.  Another family is a retired couple and is an experienced fisherman.  Each family talks about the challenges they will face and what they think they will learn from the experience.

The weather is proving to be a challenge on the families' first day as they approach the island.  Eventually, they make it to the island the cottages they are going to live in.  Each of the cottages has the family name on it.  There is a community hall and a boathouse.  They will have a small amount of money at the start and will have to use an outhouse or a chamber pot.  They will be living on this island for a month.  The families explore the cottages.  For one family the cottage will be a squeeze.  It was common for the children to share a bed.  One cottage is sparse with few possessions and it is owned by the man of the family.  Living in the 1900s will be a challenge for the children.  How will modern children cope with the changes?  Will the community come together to help each other?

The biggest change the families will face will be the clothing.  The families remove their Twenty-First-century clothing and change it into the clothing of the 1900s.  Quite a few people are finding the clothing amusing.  Not everyone is finding the clothing amusing.  The clothing would have been made from wool and would have been for warmth.  The corsets and the layers of clothing are proving to be a challenge to the women. 

The weather proves to be stormy so the families shelter in the cottages for the night.  They prepare to fire up the stove for the first night.  The stove will be the source of heat and cooking.  The families will also have to rely on candles for light as well.  The weather prevents the men from fishing for the day.  So they will help the women adjust to life on the 1900 Island.  In 1900 the women and girls were responsible for the household chores.

The families will have to live frugally as well and stockpile provisions to see them through.  With rationing, it should see them through the next few days.  There is also a small vegetable patch available.  With the weather against them, they will have to be careful with their food situation.  Will the men be able to find work besides fishing?

So how will modern families cope on the 1900 Island?  What will they learn about their experience?  Watch this series to find out about life on the 1900 Island.

This is a fascinating history-meets-reality-TV series that could be shown in a history classroom.