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- 1920 (xsd:integer)
- 1924 (xsd:integer)
- John wakes from his coma but is having difficulty speaking. Grace worries that he remembers seeing her with Bill Gibby, and Bert becomes angry at his mother. Gibby plots to flood the village with a reservoir to provide drinking water for Sheffield, despite Edmund's objections. Martha and Eyre leave the village together and go to Africa. Caro decides she wants to find her and Joe Middleton's son, who was given up for adoption without her consent. Her family thwart her efforts and tell her the boy died, and she tries to drown herself but is rescued by George and Bairstow. Bairstow learns where the boy is and informs George, who brings Caro's son back to her, an angry Edmund tries to fire him but is thwarted when Bairstow threatens to reveal his true sexuality to the Daily Mail. Grace finds out about the reservoir and vows to stop it. She reconciles with John, while Bert decides to ask Phoebe to marry him. (en)
- As John lies in a coma, gossip spreads through the village about the nature of Grace's relationship with Bill Gibby. Bairstow initiates a police investigation into the mass trespass, and Bert and Eyre are arrested for rioting. Pressured by his family, George Allingham testifies against them but has second thoughts and arranges to be found in bed with a maid in order to discredit himself as a witness and free his wife Martha to divorce him and marry Eyre. (en)
- Winter 1916. Grace meets with a union representative about working conditions at the factory, not realising that his aim is to send the women back to their homes when the men return from war. Joe Middleton comes home on leave after the Battle of the Somme and tries to conceal his shell shock from his family, but Grace knows something is wrong. Joe sets out to return to the front but is overcome by fear and is found crawling through a field by Bairstow. Bairstow had been wounded in the war and agrees not to turn Joe in but warns the family that he is now a deserter. Joe confides in his parents that he was punished for sending a coded postcard to Bert by being tied up and left exposed to enemy fire overnight. Blaming himself, Bert runs away but falls and injures his leg. Joe finds Bert and brings him home, but the military police are waiting at the farm. Joe is executed for desertion. (en)
- While John Middleton struggles to keep his dairy business going without a barn, Grace is drawn to Labour candidate Bill Gibby and goes on a bicycle ride through the Peak District with him. Joy Dangerfield comes to the village to teach the family planning methods of Marie Stopes. Martha Allingham is unhappy in her marriage to her shell-shocked husband George and takes a job at the school with Gerard Eyre. Clem Allingham is encouraged by Bairstow to find a wife for her son Edmund, who is in love with another man, Robert. Arnold Hankin decides to open a dance hall, leaving his son Gilbert in charge of the factory, where an accident causes a pregnant Agnes to lose her job. Gilbert invites Agnes to the dance hall opening, and Phoebe invites Bert Middleton but is dismayed to discover his feelings for Martha. (en)
- July 1916. Martha Lane tries to organise the women workers at the boot factory, with Grace's help. Caro Allingham's mental health declines, and a sadistic doctor subjects her to a regime that includes force feeding. When her brother George tries to intervene, Dr Wylie suggests he be sent off to war. The Middletons' baby daughter Mary becomes seriously ill with scarlet fever. John steals a small amount of animal medicine from the Allingham estate farm, but that same night one of the Allinghams' cows is mutilated. John is arrested, but the truth is revealed when Lord Allingham – who was disfigured in the Zulu War – kills the rest of the cows and then kills himself. (en)
- March 1916. Grace Middleton and other local women go to work at a new boot factory opened by Arnold Hankin. Joe Middleton comes home on leave, bringing news of the death of his friend, Paul Boden. Joe learns that Caro had his baby, but the Allinghams have given the child up for adoption without her consent. Gerard Eyre is brought before a tribunal as a conscientious objector. Bert tries to help his teacher, but Eyre is taken away, leaving Bert his camera. (en)
- January 1915. When his crop fails, John Middleton gets drunk and wanders onto the Allingham estate, where he is seen chasing a disturbed Caro Allingham in her night dress. Caro is discovered to be five months pregnant, and although she confides in her brother George that Joe Middleton is the father, her older brother Edmund calls in Detective Bairstow to investigate. John Middleton is under suspicion because in the past he impregnated his wife's sister, who committed suicide. An angry mob descends on the Middleton farm, led by another farmer, Rutter, who wants the land for himself. John tries to hang himself but is rescued by Bert and Grace. (en)
- John Middleton makes a deal to sell milk at the Hankins' shop after Rutter's herd is stricken with tuberculosis. Grace tries to help Agnes get her job at the factory back, but Agnes goes to work as the Hankins' maid until her pregnancy is discovered by Norma. On polling day, Bill Gibby wins Edmund's seat, and after a delay, a Labour government is formed. (en)
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