From brewing beer to rearing animals, taking part in religious parades to making clocks, a team of historians are being put through their paces as they recreate 16th-century life for a new BBC TV programme.

The Weald And Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester is home to the greatest variety of 15th and 16th-century buildings in the country. Bayleaf – a timberframed hall house from the early 1500s – is being used as the centrepiece for BBC Two’s Tudor Abbey Farm, a six-part series which follows in the footsteps of the Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farms.

Archaeologist Peter Ginn and historian Ruth Goodman, who is also a leading specialist in Tudor domestic life, return to the series, joined by archaeologist Tom Pinfold, to take on the role of the lay-folk who did the bulk of the farming and craftwork in the 1500s.

Through living as those people would have done, the trio attempt to shed new light on a period widely considered to be a turning point in British history. After centuries of war and plague the nation was enjoying newfound stability and prosperity under the reign of Henry VII.

But, as producer David Upshal explains, it also marked the last decades of the monastic system that had controlled life for so long.

“For almost a thousand years monasteries dominated the British landscape and were at the heart of medieval life. Up to a quarter of the landed wealth in the kingdom belonged to the Church, and much of it was rented to farmers like the ones Peter, Tom and Ruth portray.”

The presenters learn sheepfarming, wood-carving, fashioning a printing press and building a Tudor clock, to give viewers a blow-by-blow account of what life would have been like in this period.

As well as exploring daily life, the series looks at the intricacies of social hierarchies and the relationship between the monastic community and the wider world.

“Tackling not just a new era but also a whole new way of life, scrupulous contemporary record-keeping and the latest archaeological finds will allow the team to pull this longforgotten world into focus and explore early Tudor life in microcosm,” adds Upshal.

It’s not the first time the museum has provided a backdrop for TV. In 2012, Bayleaf featured in the Henry IV episode of The Hollow Crown, a series of films made by Sam Mendes for Channel 4.

“It’s our film star house,”

laughs the museum’s filming coordinator Julie Aalen.

“Although the crew have made a few alterations and brought in some of their own props, it’s been used pretty much as it is.

We’re perfect for these sort of programmes because although you can find buildings of this age elsewhere, the interiors are unlikely to be authentic and they’re not necessarily in the right setting. Out here in the countryside there are no pylons or street lights to spoil a shot.”

Many of the museum’s historical interpreters have already been roped in as extras, while the director Richard Pailthorpe appears in one episode as a friar – not your average day at work.

“It’s been very collaborative,”

says Aalen, “We’ve learned from the team’s suggestions and we’ve also been able to help them out with props and expertise.”

She’s pleased about the continued popularity of “living history” programmes such as Tudor Abbey Farm. “It’s a trend we’ve been aware of at the museum for a few years now.

People seem very interested in how people lived in the past and that’s something we can really bring to life here by recreating the sights, sounds and even smells of different periods in history. It’s an engaging and accessible way of understanding what life would have been like for our forefathers.”

*Tudor Abbey Farm will air on BBC Two in October (date TBC). For more on the museum visit www.wealddown.co.uk.