Tue, Feb 09 2010
Are you a shopkeeper with a trade that can be traced back generations? Perhaps you are a butcher, baker, grocer, dressmaker or even a blacksmith who is fascinated by the history of your trade?
Image taking your work and your family back to the glory days of the High Street. Could you show modern customers what good old fashioned service really means? Would you like to explore the recipes, techniques, technology and opening house of the past? Could you and your family rise to the challenge of living and trading your way through 100 years of British history?
The search is on to find shopkeepers in a variety of trades to travel back to the 1870's to experience the heyday of the British High Street. They'll all be setting up in an existing parade of shops that has been completely kitted out as it would have been in Victorian Britain. Each family will run their shop as authentically as possible. But they will have to master more than corsets, candle making and crumpets because each trade will be fast forwarded through a century of change and the shopkeepers will have to run their shops in six key eras of British history. The makers of Edwardian Country House, Who Do You Think You Are? and New Tricks are looking for shopkeeping families to take part in this unique living history experience. Our shopkeepers will begin their experience in Victorian Britain at the birth of the High Street. Like the craftspeople before them, they'll make much of their produce on-site, so the baker will be baking bread in wood fired ovens and making muffins for market day. The butcher will be introducing modern customers to traditional meat cuts and the grocer will be roasting coffee beans and hiring apprentices. By the time they reach the Edwardian era, customer service should be second to none. This was the golden age of shopping and standards will be high. When the shopkeepers and their families reach the 1920s and '30s, new technology and motorised vehicles will make working life easier and exotic new foods will arrive from around the Empire. World War Two sees the shopkeepers at the forefront of Britain's war effort when the challenges of war-time rationing, coupons, gas masks and identity cards hit home. It's all change in the 1950s when Americana, self-service and teenagers hit the High Street for the first time, and the traders will have to step into a radically new era of shopping and selling. In the 1970s it's all a little bit more familiar; decimalisation and the supermarket arrive, as do frozen food, and flares. By the end of their experience, the shopkeepers will have navigated through 100 years of history and will be able to reflect on the highs and lows of their experience. The series will be filmed during the summer of 2010 and the shopkeepers will relocate for the duration of the filming to a picturesque High Street in a modern day market town. Would you and your family like the opportunity to experience life in six different eras of British history? Maybe run your own business? Perhaps you are in a trade which goes back several generations and you'd like to step into your ancestors' footsteps? Perhaps your a baker who is fascinated by the history of your produce? Or a family grocer who's be up for the challenge of ration books and good old fashioned service? Or maybe your a professional butcher who thinks the nation has forgotten about meat which doesn't come in plastic packaging? Do you have a family who'd relish the challenge? Ideally you'll have at least two children between the ages of eight and eighteen. Whatever the case, do get in touch to find out more. For more details on this exciting opportunity, please contact Michael Fraser on 020 7241 9349, or email michael.fraser@walltowall.co.uk
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