August brings the climax of the farming year - and the end of 12 months on the Edwardian Farm for archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and historian Ruth Goodman.
The team must harvest their oat crop, but everything depends on the weather. Constant rain is making the job impossible. It is crucial to be able to predict when a dry spell will come so that they can be prepared to swing into action. They investigate ways of forecasting the weather and embark on creating a weather vane. Peter tries his hand at the art of repousse to make a copper cockerel for the vane, and the team heads for the woods to do a traditional charcoal burn in order to smelt iron for the compass points.