24/02/2014 Look East - East

Hello and welcome to Look East as we begin a week's worth of programmes

looking at the impact World War One had in this region. And we're

starting in the trenches. This is a film set on the outskirts of

Ipswich. And these trenches have been used in countless dramas `

everything from The Last Tommy to Downton Abbey. Our theme is World

War One at Home. All that's coming up after the news from your part of

the region. Hello and welcome to Look East and

the news from Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. In the programme tonight:

Could Suffolk Police lose its control room as the force looks to

share costs with Norfolk? Making maths add up. The Ipswich

school doing it the Singapore way. And Snodgrass helps City sink Spurs

as Norwich climb four points clear of the relegation zone.

Our top story tonight: Proposals to move the Suffolk Police control room

to Norfolk have been condemned by trade unions. Dozens of jobs would

go as part of a larger cost`cutting exercise. Staff were told of the

plans at special briefings today. But tonight both forces stressed a

final decision has yet to be made. It's a move that would save millions

of pounds but at what cost? To get rid of the Suffolk Police control

room and route all calls to Norfolk instead ` both forces think it's a

bold move. It'll go before both Police and Crime Commissioners this

week. Suffolk's PCC remains to be convinced. Our team will look at it.

Look at the different scenarios. If it's not workable, we won't do it.

I'm not hot on the idea... Not cold either. We have to make savings but

control rooms can be sensitive. It's not like a call centre. We're

talking about people's lives. Norfolk and Suffolk Police say it's

one of 15 cash saving ideas. It's certainly the most controversial.

People in Suffolk are wary. It's not good. It should be local. They've

been centralised and people have ended up in the room place! They

won't know certain things about the area. The union says such a move

would impact on 120 jobs in Suffolk. There are hundreds of years of

experience ` people who know Suffolk... They would be

transferring that out to another county. This hasn't been done

anywhere else in England. Police briefed the media hours after the

plans were revealed by the East Anglian Daily Times. Police insist a

merger would not compromise safety, but have a sound business case to

make it work. But the PCCs will have the final say.

The widow of Simon Hall ` the convicted Ipswich murderer, found

dead in his prison cell yesterday ` has told Look East she believes she

now has all the answers as to why he committed his crime. Stephanie Hall

says she spoke to her husband at Wayland prison in Norfolk on

Saturday before he was found by prison staff early yesterday

morning. This is the prison where Simon Hall's life came to an end. A

prison statement said he was found unresponsive in his cell on Sunday

morning. His window was too distressed to go on camera, but she

told Look East... 12 years ago, Simon Hall murdered Joan Albert.

Police believed it was a burglary gone wrong. A local man, he was

convicted in 2003. But for ten years he protested his innocence. There

was a high profile campaign to free Simon Hall. The BBC broadcast a

rough justice programme which cast doubt on his conviction. Not knowing

when I'm going home... It keeps me awake. But last year he finally

admitted his guilt. The detective who led the investigation said his

thoughts were with the family of Joan Albert. We always told them we

thought he was responsible. We didn't pluck him out of the sky. We

followed evidence. It led to him. They stuck with us. Finally we've

been vindicated. Stephanie Hall told me today her husband had been in a

"bad place". She now plans to write a book about him. According to the

prison service, the Independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will

now conduct an investigation into Simon Hall's death.

The Education Minister Liz Truss has been in Shanghai today, talking to

officials about new ways to teach maths. Shanghai and Singapore are at

the top of the international league tables while England is in 26th

place. We'll have more on her visit tomorrow. Tonight the school in

Ipswich is teaching maths the Singapore way. At St Joseph's

College in Ipswich, they've used the Singapore method to teach maths for

the past three years. It works by getting children to visualise and

discuss sums. It's so effective, these ten`year`olds are already

doing secondary school equations. In the past the curriculum was wide but

not very deep. They would spend a week doing one topic then a week

doing another. They didn't get the depth they needed. Today the class

are working on this problem. This is how you traditionally do it, using

equations. The Singapore method is different. Children use a bar shape

to represent the sum then add, subtract or divide. They talk about

it as they go through. Using this method has taken them further. They

visualise the problem. Singapore adopted the method in the 1980s and

now they are world`beaters at maths. This school say it's driven up

attainment. I can see it in my head. When you have the questions, it's

easier. We work together. We write it down and see which one will be

right. They teach this from reception. Ministers in China are

looking at what we can learn. This school believes it's already found

the answer. In football, there were plenty of

nerves at Carrow Road last night as Norwich City held on to an unlikely

1`0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The win moves the Canaries up to

14th in the Premier League, four points clear of the relegation zone.

We're seconds away... Victory for Norwich City! You could almost feel

the pressure lift from the Norwich camp after one of their finest

victories of the season. In a weekend that saw many other results

go their way, Chris Hughton's men held up their own end of the bargain

to move four points clear of the drop zone and take their place on

the front and back pages of today's papers. In terms of the performance

and result, the way they went about it... It was their best performance

of the season. It's been a season short of genuine highs but Sunday

was definitely one of them. While few column inches were required for

the first half, after just two minutes of the second period hard

work from Ricky van Wolfswinkel led to a chance for Robert Snodgrass.

The Scot obliged with finesse. It could have been more convincing `

the Canaries tried placement and then power with a couple of

free`kicks but neither could make the net bulge. And if you thought it

was a one`sided affair, you'd be wrong. Norwich's England

international proved how much of a team performance the win was. The

save was fantastic. It could easily have gone straight between his legs.

I suppose that's the little bit of luck... If things are really going

badly for you that drifts in. Commanding. I think he's got a nice,

settled back four in front of him now. The finger waving and the heavy

breathing will be back next Sunday, when Norwich try to build on their

victory. They have a trip to Aston Villa. The clubs are level on

points. There will be plenty more headlines written on the Canaries

again this season ` Norwich fans will be hoping to see more like

today's in the near future. And you can see what happened when

David Whitely joined the doctors on tonight's Inside Out at 7.30pm.

You'll also be able to see the latest pictures from under the North

Sea, of Europe's longest chalk reef. Now it's time to go back to Stewart

who's on a World War One film set on the outskirts of Ipswich.

Welcome back to the Trench Farm film set in Suffolk. We're here to mark

100 years since the War. There is a periscope here. Water in a petrol

can... Corned beef! Bullets as well, for the rifles. It was very cold

down here. They would spend virtually the whole day here. But

there was a new kind of warfare. And a new word too. The Zeppelin. On a

foggy night in January 1915, people in Great Yarmouth were transfixed by

an eerie noise above. A terrifying, new style of attack was about to be

unleashed by aerial invaders. People would stupidly come out of their

houses and say 'look, it's the Zeppelin!' All of those people would

be standing in their doorways when they threw the bombs out of the side

of the gondola. Three bomb were released, doing little damage, but

then a fourth one exploded, killing two people ` Martha Taylor and

Samuel Smith. Gladys and Katherine were young girls at the time. ``

Kathleen. The window was coming in. My mother was thrown onto the couch.

Mr Smith was killed. Ms Taylor too. They were killed, yes. This plaque

marks the spot of the first aerial bombardment on Britain. They may not

have done much physical damage but the Zeppelins were very effective

weapons of terror. Local press called them aerial babykillers, sent

over by blood`mad fiends. At a high altitude, the Zeppelins were safely

out of range but British pilots soon had shells which could bring down

the giant airships. In Autumn 1916, L33 was shot down in Essex. The

German crew scrambled free and were soon made to surrender. This man saw

it all. They passed the gate. There was a Special Constable who met them

in the next village. He took them in hand. In St. Peter's Church in

Suffolk, another souvenir of another downed Zeppelin ` L48. This woman

helped maintain the memories of those who witnessed the event and

the 16 Germans who perished. It burnt up quickly. There was just the

skeleton left. People for miles around saw it burning. Lots of

souvenir hunters! I think they tried to keep a lot of that away. The

local militia sorted it out, to keep people away! In four long years, as

a weapon of war the Zeppelin had failed, but as a weapon of terror it

made a lasting, local impression. I told you this was a film set. It's

a big place! Earlier today, when the sun was up, I looked at the other

parts. As you can see, they've got everything here for the modern film

set, looking back at the First World War ` about 200 metres of trenches.

This is what it would have been like in the early years, with water in

the bottom. Some of the soldiers got something called 'trench foot',

caused by standing in damp water. They'd been here for about ten

years. This is one of the trenches. Where we are tonight... You can see

people getting ready. You will have seen these in shows like Downtown

Abbey and many other programmes. There's everything here but it shows

you what life was like for the soldiers working in the trenches day

in, day out. These trenches are the brainchild of

one man ` Taff Gillingham. An expert on World War One. You're an expert.

How long did they spend here? They were all ages. People who were too

old as well as young lads. It depended on where you were. In some

places, only for a day. In other areas... Maybe a week or ten days.

It depended on the situation. In the other trench it was wet! The

soldiers were suffering? Trench foot was a real problem. They were

waterlogged. There were problems with drainage. They found a way to

fight nature. They also, about trench foot, made it the officer's

problem! This is very much a built trench. Some felt dug, in contrast.

Yes. They were built in different ways. German ones were built for

permanence. To the Allies, it was temporary. Thank you for having us.

It's been fascinating! Away from the trenches we're going

to be looking at how life changed for ordinary people during the First

World War. Tonight we're going to set the scene. What did the East

look like 100 years ago? This report is from our chief reporter Kim

Riley. In the picture files he doesn't have a name ` billed as a

typical Norfolk labourer. The year is 1912. He was one of over 200,000

farm workers across the region. At the Gressenhall farm and workhouse,

they've turned back the clock to those tough times. Male life

expectancy was 52 and wages for farm workers were around ?50 a year. Work

was seasonal and employment was casual. For some it was a life of

grinding poverty and eventually the stigma of becoming an inmate at the

local workhouse. The years of childhood were brief. Going to

school had only been made compulsory in the 1880s. There could be up to

60 children in a class. This is a typical classroom of the time. It

was compulsory for children to go to school up to the age of 12, but

there were many ten`year`olds who actually had jobs. It was very

unusual for many children to go on to secondary school. Few homes had

electricity and many had no piped water or fixed bath. Even going

through the motions of doing the laundry... Lighting a fire to heat

the water, using a washing dolly to agitate the clothes... Putting them

through a mangle and pegging on the line... It's a world away from

today's wash and spin cycles. In 1911, the world was just beginning

to become really petrol`fuelled. It's true cars were becoming common

in London, but in eastern England the bicycle held sway. With 4% of

the population owning 90% of the wealth, only 7% of people paid

income tax. Protestors from this region joined the suffragettes `

militants burned down the Bath Hotel in Felixstowe in April 1914.

Professor Jane Chapman, research associate at Wolfson College in

Cambridge, says there was still a clearly defined class structure.

Domestic service was the main employment for women but so much was

about to change. The First World War has a tremendous legacy. It really

was a turning point. Legacies we don't think about... Not just women,

but the beginning of the modern world ` the 21st century as we know

and understand it now. `` 20th. Women played a vital role in the war

effort. Children, too. Here they are, lining up to help out on the

land. Patriotism, and a belief the war would soon be won, brought men

rushing to join our county regiments. But for many, the reality

was terrible losses amidst the horror of life in the trenches.

Major Dave Walker is a soldier with Seven Para RHA. He's served in both

Iraq and Afghanistan. Trench warfare ` it's traditional. How much

relevance is there now? You'd be surprised. An awful lot has changed

but the human experience... You could transplant a soldier from 1916

and it's not that different. Trenches are still used in training.

It's not something we've experienced in Afghanistan. But in 2003, in

Iraq, I was sat in a bunker. I saw Marines stood in trenches. I think

the effects are the same. Knowing the lifeline is there, with friends

at home is a good coping mechanism. The opposite side is that that can

bring anxieties of its own. Technology has improved, and

improved those links. Afghanistan has good infrastructure. My soldiers

still discovered the art of letter writing. The big difference is they

virtually knew the people they were fighting. You rarely get up close

and personal. Rarely. But you are in and among the people. The proximity

is there, in a different context. Thank you. And tomorrow on Look East

we'll be reporting on how the shoemaking industry of

Northamptonshire rallied to help. That's World War One At Home,

tomorrow night on Look East. And there are many more stories

online.And tomorrow on Look Time for the weather now. Over to

Julie, back in the studio. Temperatures have been impressive.

We got into double figures. Most of us started with unbroken sunshine.

Thicker cloud spread in from the west. Heavier bursts eventually.

This band is now heading in our direction. Some outbreaks of rain to

come later. Some of this could be on the heavy side. The winds will pick

up too. Perhaps touching strong at times. It is going to be a mild

night. Tomorrow, the front pulls away. That takes the rain with it.

The bulk of the day should be fine and dry. It's going to be blustery.

Temperatures not as high as today. Some of us will get into double

figures. We finish with a scattering of showers. For most of us it will

be a dry end to the day. On Wednesday, showers few and far

between. On Thursday, a new weather front coming in. Brighter

eventually. Friday will see another scattering of showers. Some chillier

nights to come. Maybe even some frost. We'll keep you posted. Thank

you. Lots of stories on the website.

Thousands of men went off to war from here. There was a monument

built in 1916. On it, 72,194 names. Not those of people buried next

door, but those who were missing in action. 72,194 who couldn't be

found. Goodnight.