Handmade in Hull

It's almost like if you spend enough time with Hull and it trusts you

enough to open itself up to you, all of these gems start coming out.

Hull has this really interesting history of community spirit and

community connection

and working with tools and working with materials and hand making.

Not everybody can use these sophisticated machines but everybody

can use their hands to make something.

As with anything handmade, people are not just buying the product.

It becomes an obsession, while you're working.

It's a fever, sort of thing.

There's only one way to do it and that's properly.

I don't think we get a lot of help from anybody.

They just get on with it in Hull.

For me, the most interesting thing about Hull and the most special part

about Hull are the people that make it.

I am fascinated by people using tools and people who find their

sense of belonging through using their hands.

And I wanted to look at different ways,

different craft techniques or different materials can relate and

give a sense of place.

It's all about stories, isn't it?

That's what makes it important.

HUMMING

Any particular job, if you are engrossed in it...

..you can get lost in what you're doing.

And everything else doesn't matter.

Because there's a lot of pressures in life,

it can become a therapy.

-VOICEOVER:

-The Mariner's compass is distracted by other magnetic bodies

and some corrective means have to be found.

In front of the compass is the Flinders bar

which rectifies the magnetic pull of the ship's funnel.

And around it is grouped a massive iron to counteract the pull from

other metallic parts of the ship.

It's a scientific job for the compass adjuster.

A final examination,

a little adjustment here and there and the compass is ready for a

practical test under working conditions.

In our heyday, we used to make about 80 of these a year.

Every time you come in the door, there's something different to do.

So I might be a week on the lathe downstairs, turning the big castings.

Then a week on the small lathe downstairs turning the small parts.

And then after that, I'll be assembling for a week.

And then I'll be finishing off and spraying.

So it's a process that's from start to finish,

so you're never going to get bored of it.

The compass has a liquid in it

to stop the directional system from vibrating.

If you didn't have it in spirit, it would be vibrating all over the place,

picking up every movement of the ship.

So I put it in the test rig and I'm able to view it from eyelevel,

to see that it's completely balanced

and it's also central.

And that it's pointing the right direction.

When I left school...

..I sort of had a choice of about three or four jobs but this was the

only job where I could do an instrument from start to finish.

That's the main thing because very few jobs where you get that

satisfaction.

I started in 1968 here.

So that's...

68... 50...

I can't work it out. It's a long time.

A very long time.

It was a five-year apprenticeship then

and by the age of 21, you was expected to be able to make one,

you know, from start to finish.

To me, apprenticeships was a good thing because...

..if you was learning from a chap who had all the knowledge,

you was obligated to that chap and you would respect him because you

wanted his knowledge.

So you learnt character from that chap...

..and that's how apprenticeships worked.

So if you didn't do your job, you got a right...

Well, you got a right telling off in them days.

And that's how you got respect for the job.

Before they built that building,

I used to be able to see the adjusters going up and down the river on the

boats. They used to give us a wave when they went down the Humber.

And I could see them

and we used to wave to each other.

And you could see them as clear as day waving away.

We used to say, it makes men out of boys, when they go to sea.

You either get used to it and you adapt to it and you toughen up,

or you don't go to sea any more.

You had to watch yourself what you was doing, you could soon get

knocked over the side. But in general,

the major loss of life obviously was to the weather conditions,

to the ships capsizing because they iced up and ran aground

and that kind of thing, you know.

We went to the Arctic,

so you obviously were going to get bad weather conditions.

And you got a lot of icing up

where the superstructure on the ship bridge, the masts and everything,

used to collect ice due to the conditions.

Difficult to clear it off, could become dangerous.

You were fishing the Arctic so you weren't going to get

Caribbean weather, were you?

From starting as a young deckhand,

the things you had to know was how to gut a fish, how to clean the fish.

How to repair the net and fix the net together and the main thing was

actually hauling and shooting the gear because it was a dangerous

thing in lots of respects.

And it was the most important thing,

that you got the gear up and down as quickly as possible.

You know, cos time meant money.

When the trawl get snagged on the bottom, you can do considerable damage.

You know, you might have a rip down the trawl that's about 20-25,

30ft long and you've got to start repairing that.

The whole purpose of this is to make sure that you repair the hole and

that every mesh has got four sides to it,

as it should have.

If you've done a lifetime at sea, on board of a trawler,

you mend nets regularly, you repair nets regularly,

so it just becomes second nature.

It's automatic. Probably do it with my eyes closed, you know.

Fishing, it brought prosperity to Hull.

In particular West Hull.

West Hull was the hub of the fishing industry,

and Hull Hessle Road.

It was such a vibrant area, you know.

There's a saying by a local author, it's a village within a city.

You know, this was the place where, you know, every fisherman...

I wouldn't say everyone was born and bred on this road but once you

entered the fishing community,

this was where you gravitated to most of the time.

We didn't think of ourselves as being heroic for going to sea.

We didn't think about it or talk about it much.

And I don't know anybody who did.

No, no. But we lost many, many friends.

-Yes.

-I should imagine I lost maybe a third to half of the people that, you know,

I'd grown up with and first gone to sea with.

If we could turn the clock back, we'd all probably do it again, you know.

Even knowing what we know now.

We would probably do it again, wouldn't we?

Yeah, yeah. If you could get a Zimmer frame aboard the trawler!

People have always had fish in Hull.

Part of their identity, right?

Filleting is a specialised job.

You might not think it, but it is a specialised job.

Once you've learnt a trade, it's just like riding a bike, isn't it?

It's no different to riding a bike.

You learn them skills, you can always get work.

And that's how it is, that's how life is.

It took me round about three years. That was to get to do it properly

and cut every type

of fish that was available to cut.

So it's not a quick process.

But that's just the way I was brought up.

The key thing about a knife is never to be frightened of it.

You know, get a good grip on the handle.

Don't be frightened of the knife.

If you're going to get a cut, you get a cut.

I've had some really bad cuts in my time.

I've took the full top of my thumb off once.

You know. That's how it goes.

But you know...

Get on with it, do you know what I mean?

Just get on with the job and that's it.

Done.

-What are you after darling?

-Who, me?

-Yeah, what do you want?

-Er, can I just have two boxes of batter, have you got any?

-Yeah, one here. How many do you want? One?

-Two.

-Two.

-Nice morning.

-Lovely.

-Going anywhere good?

-No.

-Oh, well.

-Not today.

-Don't be mardy.

People love shopping round this area.

You get a personal touch,

you get a conversation about the fish, if you want it.

You can ask any question.

But we are struggling, competing with supermarkets.

I mean, things move on in life, do you know what I mean?

But it is sad in a lot of ways.

And, you know, especially Hull now, just like...

It's a crying shame because, you know, it could be better.

I first started when I was 15.

That's all the work there was at that time.

Either an apprenticeship or go down the docks.

I chose to go down the docks.

That's where I ended up.

It was hard work but I enjoyed it. It was good. It was good fun.

And it was exciting, do you know what I mean?

You felt... You weren't stuck in a factory, you felt free.

Actually. Do you know what I mean?

There was a great community spirit,

especially if you were from this side of the town.

You'll have heard people talk about Hessle Road and that was a big community.

We've had the whaling industry, we've had the fishing,

and I suppose it's bred a sort of tough type of person here.

The gentleman that used to do this job before me,

I was so fascinated with what he did,

I mistakenly asked if I could just try it when he was on a quiet period.

And once he retired,

"Julie, can you go do this?"

And I've been doing it ever since.

I always find when I'm talking to people,

they might ask me, "Well, where do you work?"

And I tell them.

"I've seen that place."

"What do they do there?"

And people have thought...

At one time, somebody thought the place manufactured eggs because it's

got the lion - British Lion - eggs.

No, no. We do heraldry.

I'm actually carving a centrepiece for a large coat of arms that's

going to be on the side of a train.

It's going to be actually cast in metal and we are just doing a

master mould, if you want, for the resin centrepiece.

I suppose I'm one of the old hands here now, you know,

doing all this sort of thing.

I suppose after 44 years, I should know it now.

Although, you can learn something new all the time,

like most jobs.

It's rather a strange job it is,

in the fact that I don't know anybody that does this sort of thing.

And the difficulty is looking at the picture and realising which part is

going to be the most prominent and that's got to be the deepest part in

the plaster. So it's a little bit trial and error sometimes,

especially with the eyes.

I get them like that...

..and then I've got to put all the detail on.

So I get them as a silhouette and I've got to put all the detail on...

..and I have to cover up all the mistakes.

And I'll ink it on because it gives it a finer detail.

That's how it goes.

What was I doing?

Hull has its good points and its bad points.

It's no different to anywhere else.

Everywhere has its scruffy places, everywhere has its posh places.

I don't think we get a lot of help from anybody.

They just get on with it in Hull.

You know. We just don't whinge.

We just get on with it.

I personally think everybody's got some sort of artistic skill.

I know you hear people say, "I can't do that."

But there's some artistic skill in everybody, whatever it is,

even if it's a piece of abstract art or anything.

I'd like to be a lot better than I am but I've still got the interest

to carry on learning and trying to find out new things.

I've always worked next to the Humber.

I was born here. I feel its moods, as well.

It's a moody river. It's the most beautiful river in the world for me.

It's a big sky and it's never the same.

Ever the same.

I'm often called a sculptor and I'm not.

I'm called an artist, I'm not.

I do what I do.

In the old days, there were the shipyards, where there were always ship's carvers.

Great furniture workshops.

They're all gone. They're not fashionable now.

You see there are not facilities for carvers,

it's just a decorative thing nowadays, mostly.

The first thing anybody ever says is, "Oh, how long does it take you?"

And the answer is I don't know.

And the other thing they ask me,

"What happens if you knock a bit off and you shouldn't?"

I've got it all planned in me head.

In order to make a real mistake,

I've got to give it 20 or 30 blows in order to make that mistake,

haven't I?

So...

And now the finger is starting to go under, very nicely now.

When I'm doing the detail and I'm doing the under carving and the bits

that I like to show off with and people think,

"How the devil has he got in there?"

I've made a tool to do it and just for a few cuts.

And I have a lot of tools.

I recognise them all, I know where they all are,

and I recognise them.

I don't know how. But by the handles and whatnot.

I love my tools and I do take great care of them.

I have to. And they are an extension of me.

This particular piece is part of a 600-year tribute to the

Agincourt archers.

I had the privilege to shoot on my birthday at Agincourt for the 600th

anniversary. So I am an archer and that was the inspiration.

I do like to see beautiful things and I like to express myself in wood

but I don't think that I'm an artist,

from most of the artists I've met I'm completely different.

When I'm working, I work to the radio.

I work to music or I work to Radio 4,

unless there's some daft plays on that drive me mad.

But I can't work in complete silence.

Sometimes I go back to the work and I remember the piece of music.

So there must be something instilled in the wood.

Plus the other thing is it helps with the thinking process

As I'm working,

I'm working it out because it's not always obvious where I'm going to go

with it.

It sort of reveals itself.

Rather like a crossword puzzle.

You get a clue here and a clue there and eventually it all gradually comes together.

It becomes an obsession while you're working.

It's a fever sort of thing.

But I quite enjoy it really.

It's not a bad thing.

I guess it all started with my dad because my dad restored an 1884 Hull

sailing trawler.

And I guess my dad, with having wooden boats, maybe angled me

towards Lowestoft College

so he had a son that good fix his boats.

The actual building process is pretty...

You know, it's one foot after another because that's the traditional way,

you know. But then there's a final approach where you just say, "That's

right," you know. And it's an eye thing and so that's where I think the

artistry comes in.

It's nice that people are interested in it.

The fact there is still people wanting to spend money on vessels like this, really.

You know, I'm lucky in that respect.

And everyone here who works here actually likes what they do.

Projects like this, it's got to pulse with the owner's wallet, really.

And you know, we're into this just over two years now.

So yeah, this one is

probably going to span five years, actually, in the end.

It's the first time we've copper-bottomed such a big vessel.

And they chose to do it, A, because it was originally coppered,

and B, because it's the best anti-fouling you can have.

There's what, 29,000 copper nails in that.

12,500 pounds worth of copper.

Expensive to do,

but in the long term, it will probably last about 30 years.

The fact that it's actually a machine that you're making and it is going

to go to sea and people's lives depend on it then, means that there's only

one way to do it and that's properly.

MUSIC: Coming Home by Leon Bridges

It's a hard thing to do is to keep that, you know,

positive attitude about what you're doing, because it is a big project.

They are all big projects, you know.

But you get big satisfaction out of bringing something to completion,

for sure.

I think if somebody said you had to either make boats or go sailing and

you couldn't do both and what would you do?

I think I would make boats, you know.

Flowerpots are quite different to sort of studio pottery.

Most flowerpot makers are able to easily turn out half a tonne of clay a day.

Half a tonne of pots.

If they had to, they'd be able to do a tonne of clay in an eight-hour,

nine-hour day.

People would look at this and go, "It's a very creative job", but it isn't, really.

I'm an artisan.

There's no art in what I do,

it's just craftsmanship.

It's just, you know...

I'm making things that other people want.

Although, yeah, you do take care and you've got pride in your work...

It's a flowerpot at the end of the day.

You'd make around about 500 of these in a day.

Something like that. Depends on the size of the pot you're making.

So, these are a very quick and simple pot.

Got to try and do it in so many moves.

Sometimes it's quite a difficult pot to talk to because you

lose slight concentration and you lose the pot.

There's pots that are suited to our clay.

This is quite a rough and ready...

Our clay is a wild clay.

We use it as dug.

So this is pretty much straight from the ground.

The main tool we use is the rib, which...

The name is derived from the fact we would have used animal ribs,

originally.

The ones that I use in particular are titanium

and they were made unofficially in the Jaguar factory many years ago by

an apprentice's father-in-law, who was a panel beater there.

So I've got some quite special ribs.

Normally we'd use

the end of a stainless steel spade,

and cut that.

As you come across the bridge,

you'll see a myriad of ponds all over the place.

So there was at one point up to 18 yards.

And most of the yards were on the banks.

So coal would come in for firing the kilns

and tiles would be taken away, all by boat.

MUSIC: River by Leon Bridges

Those machines are what we call stupids.

So, originally they would have had where you saw the small... the crank handle, where the

electric motor is now.

The guy would have cranked that round.

So that probably

would have had to be quite stupid

to do that. So hence the name stupids.

So if you go to any tile works, what machines do they use?

Do they use an extruder, wod box or a stupid?

And everybody will know what it is.

There is still a call for this type of tile, so we'll get a small premium

because it is a handmade product.

As with anything handmade, people are not just buying the product,

not just buying that,

they are buying also a little bit of their experience of having been here,

met you, talked to you, seen the clay that you use, how you use it,

what you make it in, and what you make.

If yards like this cease to exist, you'd be losing a lot of skills,

skills to actually manipulate clay, to move clay.

There's not many people with my sort of levels of skills left.

You know, we're all getting old and there's no-one really

coming up behind us.

It will be a real shame if that's lost, if that's gone.

My work generally consists of making tools

and doing an artwork that is based around traditional heritage craft

or a traditional material from the location where I am.

Tools are the best way, for me, to make objects that talk about caring

for a public space.

So I'm interested in this rallying cry of looking after things and working

with your hands and finding a sense

of yourself and finding a sense of yourself,

and finding a sense of place through working with your hands.

Making tools and showing them in an exhibition...

..can be problematic, because you're making an art object, almost a

fetish object of something that's practical,

so there's a balance there, there's a line to walk really.

But my fond memories of Hull are the

people that I've met and the chats with people I've had so what I wanted to do

is to make a tool for each of the people that I've met and to make

something that's actually useful for them, so it's not an art object,

so to speak. It is something that actually they want

and it's useful for them.

For Julie, it's a bit of a hybrid

between carving tools and ceramic tools

and you know she's kind of borrowing from lots and lots of different

disciplines, which is quite interesting because she's got that freedom and

that kind of spirit to just grab what she needs from

lots of different places.

So I want to work with that and make some tools for her that fit

the bill perfectly.

I'm making Brian a

set of vessels which he will use to pour the liquid that he uses to fill

the compasses.

Brian is a man who knows what he wants and can probably make it

himself in lots of instances.

So it needs to work really well for him so actually all of that kind of

design element is quite important because you can't have something that

looks beautiful that basically doesn't do the job properly.

And then Gabriel has some tools that he really likes, which are called ribs

and he has a set of them that are titanium.

But he's missing some of the shapes that he now wants with the different

things that he's making.

You can look at something and you can unpick it,

you can understand what it could have been for.

You know, even if you've never seen it before,

you can imagine what's been made with that or what you could make with that.

And so they're really special objects.

People feel quite emboldened to just interact with things in Hull.

So, there's this incredible spirit of no-nonsense,

for sure, no-nonsense,

and resourcefulness and just a practical nature.

Having that sense of power and sense of strength to be able to use your

hands to make things if you want to, means that you can connect with an

environment in a different way.

And you are more of an active participant in the world,

rather than a consumer.

Hull is this really, really knotty ball and it actually takes a little

while to get through that first layer and as soon as you do, you know,

it rewards you.