Craig Revel Horwood Who Do You Think You Are?

Here we go. Now, this is where the red carpet begins

and as you can see it's treachery.

Mind yourself. And that brings us to the backstage area.

This is Strictly Come Dancing Live.

Joy of joy, my favourite thing, a feather fan. Look at that!

Fantastic! Showbiz everywhere and then we enter,

and as you can see, we make our way down these wonderful stairs.

And you can feel and breathe the electricity in the room.

Dancer and choreographer Craig Revel Horwood is best known

for his straight talking as a judge on the hit TV series

Strictly Come Dancing.

..Anywhere near a four. You were mincing around that stage,

darling, like you were in an episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Craig has lived and worked in Britain for 26 years,

but he was born in Australia.

His father, Phillip Revel Horwood

was an officer in the Australian Navy.

My father, unfortunately, and quite sadly, died just over a year ago.

Now, all the questions I should have asked him

about our family was too late.

It really set my mind to thinking to I'd love to know more.

The only thing I really know are my immediate grandparents.

My father's side of the family intrigued me the most

because I think I get a few more traits from them,

particularly my grandfather, Revel. And we called him Moza,

because he was such a character, a bit of a clown.

And my grandmother, Phonse.

Her real name's Phyllis, a very loving, a very quiet

and unassuming lady.

I only know that she was in an orphanage for some reason.

I would love to know her family history.

I often wonder because I was the only person out of my family

really to take up anything theatrical.

I would love to know that there might be some entertainer

or something like that in my past.

I'm hoping to find out something wonderful about my blood line.

Maybe they did something amazing!

Craig has flown to Melbourne,

not far from his family's home in the city of Ballarat.

He's on his way to see his mother, Bev, and sister, Sue.

I do love Australia.

I love coming back.

This is, of course, the first time that I've been to Ballarat

since my father died and it does evoke all the fond memories.

I have a wonderful sister, Sue,

who has always been interested in family history and tree

and all of that stuff. She's done a bit of digging around.

She thinks we were related to a convict that came out from England.

I think she'd be really able to point me in the right direction.

Craig, his brother and three sisters were raised in the Ballarat suburbs.

This is my old neighbourhood, called Brown Hill, Ballarat.

And this is my mum's home.

It's very sweet and very Australiana.

I love that. I love the veranda, it's just gorgeous

and here we go, I'm home!

Knock, knock, knock.

Coming, in coming.

-Who's this then?

-Me.

Hello, little brother.

Long-lost brother.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-You look lovely.

-Thank you.

-Gorgeous.

-You look lovely as well.

-Gorgeous.

-Oh, look!

-The first ever show you were in.

-Making Music.

-Yeah.

-Wow!

-Making Music.

Wow, those tap shoes!

I thought I was faking the tap in that!

I must have learnt it!

I do love that shot.

Grandad, Moza.

-Yes.

-And our grandmother, Phyllis or Phonse, on Dad's side.

-Yeah.

-Phonse and Moza.

Funny how we called them Phonse and Moza.

-That was like a nickname. Where did that come from?

-I have no clue.

You on Phonse's lap.

There's me on Moza's lap, with a big finger in my mouth.

Nice! He was a clown, wasn't he?

And he loved riding his Penny Farthing.

I know! That Penny Farthing!

So there's another character in the family who is our great,

-great grandfather.

-Yeah.

Moses Horwood. He was a convict.

One of the early convicts that came across from England.

Interesting character.

Moses was having a drink at the Queen's Head Hotel in Cheltenham

one night with a few mates.

Thought he might go and steal a few things out of someone's room.

Moses was hauled in and he was charged for burglary.

To think that we come from convict stock!

How exciting's that!

Exciting. Absolutely!

Hardly royalty though, is it?

Have a look at this.

Deaths in the district of Ballarat East.

And this is dated 1881.

Oh, yeah, Moses Horwood.

Look how many children he had!

-Wow!

-But the one I want to show you is Charles.

That is Revel's father.

Moza's father was called Charles.

And this is Charles.

He looks really dapper, doesn't he?

He does. It's an amazing photo.

This is an amazing photo.

-They look wealthy.

-Does look a wealthy photo, doesn't it?

I mean, you don't have outfits like that if you're not wealthy.

-No.

-No.

-So maybe they did well.

Who's he married? Do we know?

I know he married into the Tinworth family.

But I don't know much more about...

-You don't know about her.

-About her.

So what relation are they to us?

-Our...

-Our great grandfather and great grandmother.

-Yeah.

-It would be really interesting to know more about Charles, I think.

I agree. Because I mean, this is quite close, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely!

Craig has discovered he's descended from an English petty criminal,

Moses Horwood, who was transported to Australia as a convict in 1841.

He's intrigued by the photograph of Moses' respectable looking son,

Charles Horwood and his wife, Craig's great grandparents.

To find out more about them,

Craig's come to Ballarat's heritage reading rooms

to meet genealogist Helen Mollison.

-Hello. Pleased to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you too.

Do you want to just come up here?

I want to know a little bit more about this man,

who is my great grandfather, Charles.

I don't know who he's with, mind you.

Well, maybe if you had a look at this document here.

Marriages.

Oh, here we go. Charles Horwood, is that Lizzie Belle Tinworth.

And that's Charles and that's Lizzie.

-And that's Lizzie.

-In that photograph.

So, that's who he married.

On March 17th, 1891.

And then, of course, on his side is Moses Horwood and Mary Horwood,

so they're his mum and dad.

Her mother and father, James Tinworth and Elizabeth Tinworth.

And they were hotel keepers.

It was the mining era in Ballarat.

It was just enormous.

There were thousands of people coming and going.

Owning a hotel was a very good occupation.

Wow! Hotel keeper.

I like that.

Craig's great grandfather Charles Horwood had married well.

His Tinworth in-laws were running a hotel

at the height of Ballarat's gold rush.

In 1851, a chance discovery of gold had brought thousands of prospectors

to Ballarat, all hoping to strike it rich.

We can now look at this birth certificate.

Oh, here we go. Lizzie.

Her father, James Tinworth.

Name and surname and profession of James's father, so Charles Tinworth.

-Labourer.

-Yes.

And something in England.

That's Elmdon.

Elmdon, Essex.

Oh, yeah, Essex. Essex!

Oh, no! Really?

-Essex?

-In England.

-There you are.

In England.

Craig's great grandmother Lizzie Tinworth

was born and raised in Ballarat

by her hotel keeper parents James and Elizabeth.

But James's parents, Craig's great-great-great grandparents

Charles and Elizabeth Tinworth came from Essex.

But now I have no clue how or why they came here.

Here we are with some shipping documents that might

be able to help you.

Sailed from Southampton on 5th February, 1854.

Tinworth. Charles and Elizabeth.

Here we are. What does that mean?

That's an ag-lab.

Which is an agricultural labourer.

Someone that digs dirt.

Works on farms. Works on farms. Yes.

-OK.

-Male, was 20, and the female was 24.

There we go across.

By whom engaged.

-Mrs Smith.

-So in other words,

who was he going to work for when he came to Australia.

Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For employment.

-Employment, yes.

-So they sailed from Southampton on the 5th of February.

-Yes.

-They arrived - February, March, April, May - three months later.

Literally, almost exactly, on the 4th of May, in 1854.

-Yes.

-And they sailed into Geelong.

But they must have wanted to do that.

Yes, because Australia was a new country

and we desperately needed people.

The Government would pay for their fares on the ship.

Oh, I see.

As well as sending convicts to Australia,

to help build this new colony, the British tempted young couples

like Craig's great-great-great grandparents

with the offer of a free passage.

So he came out, sort of fully paid.

That's wonderful and got fed.

-And got fed.

-And Geelong's quite nice, isn't it?

And didn't have to go via Van Diemen's Land, has he? As a convict.

That's true.

That's nice to know.

Now, this here might surprise you.

Births in the district of Ballarat in the colony of Victoria.

OK, Charles obviously moved to Ballarat

because this is where the child was born. This is a Tinworth, isn't it?

Edward, father.

Charles Tinworth.

And Elizabeth Revel.

And it says Charles is 26.

-Yes.

-And a miner.

That is most interesting.

So that may have been actually the driving force

behind the whole reason why he left Essex in the first place thinking,

OK, I hear there's gold, let's get a way out there,

without having to break the law.

That's right. He did doing the work for...

Doing the work for Mrs Smith.

Perfect! Love that.

Oh, well done him!

They chose to come to Australia when they were 20 and 24,

like a young couple that decided to come and work the land.

They moved to Ballarat for the gold rush because he became a miner.

To find out more about Charles Tinworth's life as a miner,

Craig's arranged to meet Dr Clare Wright,

an expert on the gold rush in the state of Victoria.

It's lovely to meet you.

Lovely to meet you, too.

It's gorgeous up here, isn't it?

Isn't it beautiful, this is Black Hill.

Yeah. I used to come here as a kid, actually.

The reason I'm here is because I'd like to find out a little bit more

information about my great-great-great grandfather

Charles Tinworth.

I can't imagine what life would have been like, actually,

-in the gold rush.

-When Charles and Elizabeth arrived here,

they would have arrived to a tent city of about 40,000 people.

-Wow!

-So, can you imagine everybody living under canvas,

not just on 40 degree days with these northerly hot winds,

but also in the freezing cold of winter.

Snow. Well I've lived through that and I've lived through the icy,

freezing mornings, you know, when I was doing my paper round.

Tens of thousands of miners

like Craig's three-times great grandfather,

Charles, brought their families to live in tents

near the Ballarat gold fields.

Crowded together with no sanitation,

diseases like dysentery and typhoid spread quickly.

Charles and Elizabeth were raising their three young children

in these tough conditions.

For the families that came out here, it was incredibly difficult.

And Elizabeth herself didn't have it easy.

We have the hospital records.

There's a Tinworth.

She's 34 years old at this stage.

Birthplace Essex, of course.

She's been hospitalised for a condition called menorrhagia.

-Menorrhagia?

-Excessive menstrual bleeding.

-Oh, no!

-Which may have been actually a miscarriage.

She was in hospital for 37 days.

That's a long time.

Oh, my God! That would have been awful.

That's really sad. I mean you don't often think of that, do you?

You think of people striking it lucky, striking it rich.

Great big gold nuggets,

everyone celebrating and you forget the hardships

that they actually went through.

Clare has brought Craig to an area by the Yarrowee River,

where his three-times great grandfather used to mine.

Watch your step!

Prospectors could get to work after they'd paid a licence fee to the

Government for what was known as their claim.

Charles would have been entitled to a 12-foot claim.

So it's not a large piece of land, 12 by 12.

-No.

-In terms of the kind of mining that Charles would have been doing,

this gives a really good indication of what it would have looked like

on the banks of the creek.

-But it is an awful lot of equipment.

-That's right.

So every miner would have had to purchase that equipment and

bring it out here. Hot, heavy, labour-intensive work.

Not for the faint hearted.

At the start of the Ballarat gold rush, in the 1850s,

miners could find loose gold close to the surface

of river beds and creeks.

They'd dig here, using pans and cradles

to separate the dirt from the precious metal.

After all of the sand and the rock has been dislodged and poured away,

then what's left is...

-Gold!

-Is those.

-The flecks of...

-The flecks of gold left at the bottom.

Wow! It's a lot of hard work for what seems very little reward.

It begs the question, did Charles strike it lucky and rich?

Have a look here.

This will show you what actually happened to Charles

-and Elizabeth.

-OK.

Insolvency jurisdiction.

-This is 1865.

-1865.

-It's a little hard to see there.

Charles Tinworth.

Charles is filing for bankruptcy.

Oh, no!

The details actually give us a pretty good indication

of what's going on in Charles and Elizabeth's life

over that ten years.

Grocers... Oh, that's what they owe them.

Oh, grocery goods, 38 quid and 10.

Butchers, 17.

Bread, boots.

-And this one.

-Oh, dear!

-Medical.

-Medical attendance.

-Look at the price there.

-18 quid!

That would have been a fortune!

Oh, what's that? Cash loaned.

-Cash lent.

-Oh, God, he's borrowing cash.

More cash. Like £10.

Another £5.

So, here, James Tinworth lent him £10.

-Oh, so James...

-So this is his brother.

-And Joseph.

-Also his brother.

Brother. So he had two brothers here in Ballarat?

Wow!

I mean, when you look at this, the whole total's £107.49.

What on earth would that be in today's money?

Well, it's a lot of money.

I mean it's roughly between £5,000-£8,000.

Clearly he knew he had no way of being able to pay this off.

Yeah, and then just had to go into bankruptcy.

-And start again.

-What a nightmare!

What on earth happened to them?

Charles and Elizabeth,

I was particularly moved by actually,

because I thought they're real,

what we would call here Aussie battlers.

They really battled on and battled on

until they could battle no longer.

But you know, good on them for trying.

I think that's something to be definitely proud of

and something that I can relate to.

I'm hoping there is only one way on the wheel of fortune

when you're down on it, and that's up.

So, I'm hoping the next part of the story might lift me up

out of this little bit of glumness I feel today,

you know, about their lives.

After a decade searching for riches in the gold fields,

Charles Tinworth had lost everything.

To find out what became of his three-times great grandfather

after his bankruptcy, Craig has come to the old mining exchange

to meet historian Joan Hunt.

-Hello.

-Hello, Craig. Pleased to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you, too.

-Come with me.

I've just recently discovered that my great-great-great grandfather,

Charles Tinworth, and his wife, Elizabeth,

became bankrupt after ten years, bless them, of mining.

I just wondered if you knew anything about that?

Well, I know that they became bankrupt in 1865 and,

you might be interested to read this follow-up.

That was 1865.

So is this from Geelong Advertisers.

Thursday, April 29th, 1869.

"Before his honour Judge Forbes, commissioner in insolvency.

"The following is a list of the certificate meetings.

"William Vowles, Ballarat, Thomas Hanson, Charles Tinworth..."

Here we go. So, what's that mean?

Four years after he became insolvent...

-Yeah.

-He has now been cleared and has a certificate.

So he's now OK.

Oh, that's good. So, four years later.

-Yes.

-Well, what did he do for four years?

We do know that the two brothers James and Joseph Tinworth

were with Charles and they had started mining together.

Interesting.

By the late 1860s when Charles joined forces with his brothers,

most of the gold near the surface

of the river beds around Ballarat had gone.

Like other prospectors,

the Tinworths had to invest in more equipment so they could mine deeper

into old, buried riverbeds.

They really got to a point where the buried rivers were being depleted.

So it's very likely that maybe in six months or maybe next year,

that will be pretty well worked out.

And they're going to have no more gold.

-What a life.

-They had a lot of ups and downs.

Yeah, they did. They really, really did.

20 years after gold was discovered in Ballarat, the boom was over

and by the early 1870s, many miners had left.

Those who stayed moved into a more dangerous and costly type of mining.

They wanted to get at gold buried deep in deposits of hard quartz,

a common mineral in rocky higher ground.

Craig wants to know if his three times great-grandfather

and his brothers took to this new type of mining.

He's come to the Whitehorse Ranges on the outskirts of the city to meet

mining scientist Curtis Noice.

-Hello.

-Hello, Craig.

-Yeah.

-Curtis, how are you?

-Curtis, lovely to meet you.

So, I hear you're chasing some information about your family.

Yes, I am.

Well, actually, I've been doing some research into the area

and see if the Tinworths did have any success with their mining.

This is a map just showing you

how much activity actually occurred underground.

I've just seen Clarke's and Tinworth Mines,

here in Ballarat East. That is...

Although not your family's, it's very close to this area.

So it would be a very similar operation.

That is huge.

I mean, this is a massive progression

from when they first started.

This is proper mining, isn't it?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Industrial.

To get at the gold-bearing deposits of quartz,

Charles and his brothers had to build a shaft

reaching hundreds of metres underground.

They'd haul the heavy quartz to the surface

and crush it to extract the gold.

So, where we stand today is actually where your forebears were.

-Really?

-And, in fact,

I discovered a couple of depressions and I thought

I'd better have a closer look.

So, there's a slight depression through this area...

OK. Oh, yes.

..that had me interested. So I came looking and I actually discovered,

just here, a footing of what I believe to be the shaft.

-Wow.

-It was a eureka moment.

I noticed this tiny piece of concrete.

And what I noticed that was different about the concrete

is that it's full of quartz.

Which means it's not modern concrete.

-So they're using the materials that are available to them.

-That are available, yeah.

-So I believe that has been put there by your family.

-Wow.

Tinworth quartz.

-Absolutely.

-I'm going to build a house out of it.

That's amazing, actually.

Well done. This is a little bit of history right there.

In fact, a huge bit of history.

Hasn't been uncovered for years.

How exciting is that?

I'm not sure if you're aware, Craig,

but today we're mining directly under here.

And if you'd like to come underground,

I can show you the base of this shaft.

I'm getting goose bumps.

I mean, this is ridiculous.

This is about gold mining.

-Absolutely.

-This is about mining. And I'm actually starting to...

-It still exists.

-Wow. Underneath this now?

500-600 metres below the surface, we are mining today.

That is insane. I love it.

Curtis is taking Craig underground into a modern mine

to see the remains of a shaft from the 1870s.

The Tinworth mine was only metres away from this site.

-So, off to our left, there we have...

-Wow. That is tiny.

-Yeah.

-That is unreal.

The shaft, you'll just see some timbers in the background there.

-Yes, I can.

-So, that's where the cage would come down with the men.

-Oh, OK.

-And because it's the sort of bottom of your work space,

you'll have to bring out your wheelbarrows and tools for the day.

So, this level, and the entrance, if you are doing it

-with a pick and shovel...

-Oh, my...

It's as wide as it has to be cos

you've got to haul all of that rock back up.

It's laborious, isn't it?

I mean, they must have worked tirelessly on that.

So, one of the risks working underground, obviously, is the collapse.

So, while you're tunnelling away,

they won't have all of the ground support in.

And a number of men lost their lives.

Oh, God. I know you hear of like old mines caving in, don't you?

-Yeah.

-You know, when I look at that and I think that my ancestors,

you know, my family, were down in among that,

looking for a new future, you know.

And what they were prepared to do, to get that new future is beyond me.

Living on a pipe dream.

-You know, living on...

-With no guarantees.

With no guarantees. And it's just incredible.

-It's a big commitment.

-Yeah. A massive commitment.

I mean, you're risking your life...

..just for a better future.

Curtis is taking Craig a further 400 metres underground

where miners are still extracting gold from quartz today.

So, this is the end of the line, it seems.

That's right. You'll see that the grey rock is waste.

-Waste.

-The white is the quartz which is what hosts the gold.

But all quartz doesn't have gold in it.

See, that's the big shame, isn't it?

That's right. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

That's right. So what did they do in the old days, then?

So to reduce your work effort,

they'd be chasing what was often referred to as an indicator.

In fact Charles' son Edward was looking at minerals quite closely

and trying to identify the correlation between certain minerals

in the rock and the gold-bearing quartz.

It's amazing.

By the time he had moved into deep mining, Charles Tinworth

had spent 20 years searching for gold.

His sons had joined him in this risky business

and Craig wants to know if the struggle ever paid off.

He's come to Ballarat's Gold Museum to meet historian Jan Croggin.

My great-great-great-grandfather's son, Edward,

discovered some sort of mineral way of finding quartz and gold

and mining it. I was just wondering whether or not, number one,

he was successful at it.

And how he went about it.

Edward Tinworth, son of Charles, your great-great-great-grandfather,

is actually responsible for one of the things that made it possible to

make a lot of money. He was only 13 years old.

He worked out that if you could find where the quartz intersected

with slate, you've found a lot of nuggety gold.

Now that became more or less a rule.

-You've probably heard of the indicator.

-Yeah,

I've heard the word but I've never fully understood it.

Edward Tinworth found the indicator for the Ballarat East Goldfield.

-Wow.

-So that's pretty exciting.

It is. That's an upturn, I can tell you.

I've been in the doldrums, darling, you know,

-and then they come up with it. That's brilliant.

-They did.

Oh, that's exciting.

And, of course, the second question you asked me was, was it helpful.

Have a look at that. And see what you think.

It's a geological survey of Victoria.

Oh, I see. List of nuggets found in Victoria.

Ah, here we go. Tinworth's party and that was from the indicator.

-And how much did it weigh?

-This was in 1880.

And it weighed about...

-250.

-250 ounces.

-That's huge.

-Yeah.

-It is huge.

-How much was that actually worth?

-On today's prices, it would be £1,000 an ounce.

-Wow.

So that's £250,000.

A quarter of a million...

-Pounds.

-Oh, that's brilliant.

They must have absolutely been delighted.

I mean, they'd been through so much hardship.

I mean, to finally win the lottery.

If you'd like an indication of what a nugget might have looked like...

Yeah, I would love that.

-We can show you. This is a bit special.

-You're kidding.

-Would you like to...?

-Yeah, I want to hold it.

Of course I do.

This nugget...have a feel.

29 ounces.

That is really, really heavy.

It's amazing.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

The one that Tinworth found, the 250-ounce nugget,

is about nine times bigger than that nugget.

I mean, the stuff that dreams are made of, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Seriously. Obviously they must have gone on,

and were finding nuggets and all of that stuff

but please don't tell me it all ends in disaster.

My stomach couldn't take it, darling.

My heart couldn't take it.

-What happened next?

-If I could put before you this...

The last will and Testament of Charles Tinworth.

"The said Charles Tinworth had at the time of his death real property

"in the state of Victoria not exceeding in value

"the sum of £7,820.

"And personal property in the said state

"not exceeding in value the sum of £13,615."

So around £21,000, on current prices today,

probably £1.5 million. So he died a wealthy man.

-And if you read...

-A millionaire.

-That's right.

-Well done, him.

-Next question.

-Yeah, what did they do with it?

What did they do with it? If I can find you, can you read that

where it starts there?

"And I also give and bequeath the sum of £300 to each of my grandsons,

"James Tinworth and William Tinworth."

The important bit is here.

"Son of my late son James."

-Yeah.

-What happened to that?

-He died before?

-Yeah.

You're absolutely right.

Well, that's...that is a huge shock.

Yeah. It is.

His son died before him.

Craig's great-great-grandfather James died from kidney failure

when he was just 48 years old.

His father Charles, who outlived him,

left his huge fortune to the remaining living children.

He also left money to James's sons, but not his daughters,

including Lizzie, Craig's great-grandmother.

The thing that sticks out in my mind at this juncture is the fact that

Charles in his will left the money only to the boys.

The grandsons in the family, not the granddaughters.

One of which, of course, is my relative, Lizzie.

That's right, yeah. Your family didn't inherit the Tinworth fortune.

-Yeah, the Tinworth huge wealth...

-Damn!

-..and fortune.

So...what a shame.

That's just truly unbelievable, isn't it?

It's a really sad twist of fate.

Wow.

And particularly sad because we have discovered that the Tinworth mine,

between 1871 and 1909, when they closed it down,

they actually found 30,000 ounces of gold,

which would be roughly worth, on current prices, about £30 million.

So...yeah.

Lizzie!

Don't you just hate history.

Pretty disappointing.

No, it's great, it's amazing, really, it's amazing.

It does make me wonder what my father, who recently died,

may think of this journey,

because I'm sure he knew nothing about all of this.

The idea that Charles Tinworth had 20 years

before he really achieved his dream

was showing great determination and great human nature

and that's what I love.

And my dad, I think, would be so proud of his forefather

in that way too.

I just wish that he was here now to see all of this, you know.

That would be good.

I think it's time to actually find out

about my grandmother's side of the family.

I called her Phonse.

I don't ever really get to see my grandmother that much.

Last time I saw her was literally four years ago.

And since then, my father has died, of course, her son,

so she's probably been dealing with that.

I can't wait.

Craig is flying 2,000 miles west across Australia

to see his grandmother, Phyllis,

known in the family as Phonse, who lives in Perth.

Phonse turned 100 last month.

I mean she was born in what, 1917, for goodness' sake.

Which is just outrageous.

I really know very little about my grandmother's upbringing.

The only thing I really know is that she was in an orphanage.

Phyllis lives with her grandson, Craig's cousin Logan.

DOORBELL RINGS

Hello.

-Come in. How are you?

-Logan!

-Come on in.

-So good to see you.

How lovely, long time, eh, come in.

-You're looking well.

-Thank you. And you.

-Gorgeous.

-Come in.

-Oh, look, here we are.

It's been ages since I've been here.

-Couple of years, I think.

-Oh, it's the Queen Mother herself, darling.

Sure. Let me bow down before you.

Oh, thank you, darling.

-How are you?

-How are you?

Oh, isn't it lovely to see you?

It's lovely.

You look fantastic.

-Thank you.

-It's lovely to be here.

I'm glad you could come.

I believe you got a little card from the Queen herself.

I sure did, would you like me to show you?

I would love it.

Have a look at that.

Wow. "Mrs Horwood,

"I'm pleased to hear that you are celebrating your 100th birthday.

"My sincere congratulations and best wishes

"on this very special day. Elizabeth."

Ah, how fantastic.

-It's beautiful.

-So, Phonse,

I haven't, over the years, asked you much about your life.

Your roots. I don't know whether you have any photographs of your

-mum and dad, by any chance?

-I've just got one.

And here it is.

It's a beautiful photo of them.

That's my mum and dad.

-Ah.

-That's Julia and that's Harry.

She was gorgeous.

-She was.

-He is very striking as well, isn't he?

Really square jaw line.

-Wow.

-Strong-looking man...

-Yeah, he looks like a rugby player.

My mother, I was there the day she died.

She had the baby at nine o'clock and that was it.

Your mum died in childbirth, was it?

She died with childbirth.

-Nine children.

-Boy!

And she died at 40.

When my mother died, I think they all got together, and I thought,

they decided what they were going to do.

After a big discussion, they decided they'd take us to Emmaville.

Went to the aunties and the uncles and they had us for about a month

and I suppose we got too much for them.

And so what did they decide?

They decided to put us in the orphanage.

What was life like at the orphanage that you can remember?

It was rigid, it was regimental, but glory be,

Christmas Day was the best day of the lot.

Christmas Day.

It was the same routine, up at six o'clock in the morning,

and down to Mass at seven.

You come out into the dining room for breakfast.

There on your plate was one sausage.

LAUGHTER

One sausage, believe it or not.

You could pick it up in your fingers,

and you could sit and eat this sausage.

Isn't that incredible?

What a fantastic story.

It was unbelievable.

They fed us, they clothed us and they educated us.

What more could we ask?

-Yeah.

-And that was because your dad couldn't do that for you?

That's because my dad couldn't do it.

-No.

-He would never have been able to have looked after all of us.

Is there any more information that you have about your dad?

I've got his birth certificate.

-Wow!

-If that would be of any help to you.

Yeah, come on.

OK, here we go.

-October 5th.

-Is that 91?

-1871.

-71.

At Clarevale Station near Emmaville.

On a station? He was born on a station?

What, a platform?

No, no, a sheep station!

Made Phonse laugh!

-So where they run the livestock.

-OK.

There is the father's name, occupation, age and birthplace.

You've got that.

Harry. Harry Shaw, 31 years...

Ashton-under-Lyne, England.

Ashton-under-Lyne.

England? British too!

Ashton-under-Lyne had a big industry of cotton mills,

and that's originally where he worked.

Wow! So, OK...

I would love to know what you might remember about your grandfather,

-Harry Shaw.

-I might have a photo of him.

That's him.

-This is Harry.

-Yeah.

That's my grandfather, but I don't remember him at all.

Do you know anything about Harry?

Well, he worked all around the north New South Wales area,

and obviously around this station where his son was born, this Harry.

He was referred to as Harry Macklin Shaw.

Amazing.

Well, that's exciting, isn't it?

It's very exciting.

-Thank you.

-That's all right.

Thank you.

Craig's discovered that his great-great-grandfather

Harry Macklin Shaw was another Englishman,

from the cotton mill town of Ashton-under-Lyne,

who came to Australia to work on a sheep station in New South Wales.

Today I have embarked on a whole new family once again.

I mean, it's just brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

I was really surprised to find that my grandmother's side of the family,

the Shaw side of the family, came from north-west England,

up near Manchester.

Harry Macklin Shaw, my great-great-grandfather,

was living in the north of New South Wales.

I mean, I've never been there.

Craig's travelling back to the east of Australia, to Glen Innes,

the place where his great-great-grandfather

Harry Macklin Shaw settled.

He's come to the sheep station where Harry used to work.

Local historian Bill Oates has been looking into Harry's life here.

-Good morning, Craig.

-Good morning, Bill.

I'd like to know about this man, who was my great-great-grandfather,

who came out from Greater Manchester,

and his name is Harry Macklin Shaw.

Harry came out to Australia following his brother, William,

who'd arrived in the colony sometime earlier.

-Oh, OK.

-There was a shortage of labour up here,

whereas the mills were struggling in England at that time.

So, there were many people making similar decisions.

-Right.

-I have got a photo here from the early days.

-I'll be needing these!

-Clarevale was a head station,

it would have been over 50,000 acres at this stage there,

and they would have run about 20,000 sheep.

That's big, isn't it, really?

It is, and they're communities in themselves.

I can imagine it would be quite a tough life.

It would be a tough life.

It's also interesting to note

that there's still a pretty good social life

that goes around here as well.

-OK.

-Probably a good time to show you this one here.

Oh, the Oddfellows' Ball.

This is from the Glen Innes Examiner,

Tuesday, November 23rd, 1880.

"The Oddfellows gave a grand ball in Ezzy's large hall in the evening,

"at which there were about 70 couple present."

That's quite a lot of couples, isn't it?

-It is.

-For a little ball.

-Yeah.

-"The Glen Innes String Band presided,

"and discoursed some very sweet music.

"We were greatly struck with the uniform manner

"in which everything in connection with this ball was carried out,

"which was certainly due to the untiring energies of Mr H Shaw,

"who officiated as MC.

"Dancing was kept up till daylight."

He was an MC, a master of ceremonies!

If you're going to have a party, you've got to have it running till daylight!

Well, you do, don't you, I suppose?

That was brilliant!

Wow! So he was MC-ing this whole thing,

so he was obviously some sort of out there type performer, in a way.

-Yes.

-Well, had a personality that could sustain that, for a community.

-That shows through.

-Yeah!

When you consider someone that's a labourer,

you wouldn't think that there's going to be...

There's no business like show business!

But, if you consider that he was master of ceremonies

at local dances, he had to have some sort of showman in him.

And he must have had a little bit of chutzpah and verve,

and that's what I love.

Craig wants to find out more about his extrovert

great-great-grandfather, Harry.

He's come to Glen Innes's History House to meet archivist Eve Chapel.

Craig, Eve Chapel.

Hi, lovely to meet you.

Now, Eve, I was just wondering about my great-great-grandfather

Harry Macklin Shaw, and whether or not you had any other information

-on him at all?

-We do have.

Have a look at that article there, "Good Templary at Vegetable Creek."

"The annual anniversary of the Nil Desperandum lodge..."

OK. "..The singing and recitations were not up to expectations

"owing to some imperfections in the stage fittings."

Everyone's a critic, darling!

Everyone's a critic.

"Harry Shaw's step dancing..."

Oh, step dancing!

"... And recitation were well rendered."

-So he was dancing a bit, and acting a bit.

-Yes.

And reciting.

Yeah, and reciting stuff.

"Dancing was indulged in until the early hours of the morning."

He has a reputation for that, because I read a little bit where,

you know, he was MC-ing a ball, and it closed at sunrise, you know.

You can see he's one of these people who's right in with his community.

-Yes.

-And he's going to enjoy himself.

How fantastic.

There's more. This is 1877.

"A very acceptable performance was given to this club

"on Wednesday evening last at the Royal Assembly Rooms.

"These clever performers sang a number of songs

"in a creditable manner.

"The ex-champion clog dancer of New South Wales..."

No!

"... Mr H Shaw."

An ex-champion clog dancer!

You've got somebody famous in your family!

That's hilarious! Clog dancing!

That is brilliant.

Clog dancing was a hugely popular pastime

in late 19th-century Australia.

A forerunner of modern tap dancing, performers wore wooden soled shoes

and tapped out steps in complex rhythms.

I never really considered anyone in my family to be part of theatre,

at all. So this is finally ringing some bells, darling.

We're loving that!

I'm really intrigued about old Harry getting his clogs

out and dancing around.

And I just found it really fascinating

that there is finally some theatricality in my blood.

Craig knows that his great-great-grandfather

danced in Emmaville.

He's been put in touch with local historian Anne Fairbanks.

Hello, you must be Anne.

I am. Hello, Craig and welcome to Emmaville.

Oh, lovely. This is lovely, isn't it?

Sweet little town.

I'm here to actually find out a little bit more about my

great-great-grandfather Harry,

and I thought I had to absolutely come here to see where he performed.

-You may be interested in this little bit.

-Oh, the Sydney Morning Herald.

That's a big old paper, isn't it, darling?

-That's like a proper one.

-Yes.

"Challenge. I, Harry Macklin, am open to dance any man in Australia

"at Hornpipe Dancing for 20 quid -

"which dances the most steps, dances them the cleanest

"and keeps the best time.

"Man and money ready at Westmoreland Street, Forest Lodge."

Wow. So is this like an advertisement?

-Yes. He's challenging...

-He's actually challenging someone.

Challenging people for 20 quid. That's quite a lot of money back then, isn't it?

And this is 1871. You know, 20 quid back then was about a thousand dollars.

-Yeah, that's a lot.

-That's a lot of money.

I just can't imagine putting an ad in, "I will dance!

"I'm open to dance any man in Australia at Hornpipe Dancing."

But who's judging him? This is the thing.

He's probably going to judge himself.

Yeah, but he must be! "Man and money ready".

-That is brilliant.

-It's good, isn't it?

I mean, he's really throwing it out there, isn't he, to make money?

But not only that, to get to Sydney from here,

he would have had to travel overland to Grafton,

which would have taken three or four days by horse,

and then from Grafton he would have gone to the coast

-and caught a steamer to Sydney.

-Yeah.

Just to go down there to perform.

-That is amazing.

-I have another little one here too.

-Have a look at the date.

-Friday January 26, 1872.

-Which we know is Australia Day.

-Yeah, Australia Day.

So he's hopped off to Sydney for Australia Day.

"At half past four o'clock,

"the champion clog dancer Harry Macklin in his celebrated dances."

It's just insane!

It gets even better, Craig.

Now have a look at this.

That building there is the one that he performed at on Australia Day.

It actually made the London News.

So the rellies back home could see how well he was doing.

Did he tell the relatives back there "Oh, I'm going to

"be a champion clog dancer and I'm going to be performing

"almost equivalent to the opera house?"

He probably sent that when he left home.

-He said, "You'll be hearing about me."

-That is amazing.

I mean, to think actually how on earth

he learnt any of that is beyond me.

You know, to become the New South Wales champion for clogging

is just insane.

What I find interesting in the parallel that I can draw

is he moved from this really sleepy town of Emmaville,

he went to the big smoke to make it.

That was Sydney of course and I was in Ballarat

and I moved to what I call the big smoke, which was Melbourne.

So to think that my great-great-grandfather

has done the same thing is just madness!

I can't get my head round it just yet.

I really need to go to Sydney to find out a lot more about him.

Craig's retracing his great-great-grandfather's journey

to Sydney to try to find out how Harry became

such an accomplished clog dancer.

Craig's come to meet music and dance expert Heather Clark.

-Hello.

-Hello!

You must be Heather.

Yes, you must be Craig. Lovely to meet you.

-I am indeed. Lovely to meet you too. Have a seat.

-Oh, thank you.

I have come all the way to Sydney to discover a little bit more about my

great-great-grandfather Harry Macklin Shaw,

who I have discovered became a bit of a clog dancer.

And I'm just thinking where on earth would he learn it?

Where would he practise it? And all of those sort of things.

Clog dancing developed in the north of England.

The story is that they mimicked

the rhythms that the machines were making.

That makes sense.

Cotton mill workers wore wooden sod clogs

because of the damp mill floors.

The rhythms they tapped started as a way to keep warm

but developed into a popular new style of dance.

When he came to Australia,

he still would have been in a community

where people were dancing and he would have picked up more steps.

You know, you see a step you like and go "Oh, I'll have that one."

-Yeah, that's true.

-Yeah.

You know, you sort of build on it and there's also accounts of

people like shearers and miners,

they would take a little board with them

so when they had a break at lunch time or whatever,

they would practise their steps.

They're not set routines.

Well you improvise, don't you?

Like they did, I suppose, on the streets of New York.

The tap dancing. You put a board down, you get your taps out...

That's exactly the same tradition.

I have heard references, of course, to Harry, you know,

that he became New South Wales champion.

I actually have something here which is hugely significant,

not just in your family but in Australian dance history as well.

Darling.

I need my glasses.

What's this?

"Born 5th of July, 1840.

"Oh, Ashton-under-Lyne."

Yes.

"Harry M Shaw, champion of Australia."

-Is that Australasia?

-Yes.

-Australasia?

-Wow. Clog dancing.

-Mm, so he must have been fabulous.

This is the 5th of October 1871.

Wow.

That is extraordinary!

That is something, isn't it?

-It is.

-That is amazing!

It is. It's fabulous, isn't it?

It's incredible!

I had absolutely no clue whatsoever.

That is a little gem of histoire right there...

in my hands.

That makes it all real actually.

-It does.

-It really does.

Oh, I want to learn clog dancing.

Well, I can help you there.

Oh, no. Are we going clogging, darling?

-Yes.

-How excellent.

Well, I can't guarantee I'm going to be any good at it

-but we'll have a go.

-Well...

-How exciting.

Come over this way.

Now what I have here for you are a lovely, lovely pair of clogs.

Oh, they're a bit special.

-There's not a lot of movement in those.

-No. Really solid.

I'll sling them on.

They are solid as...

Not only are we going to dance but we're going to dance to live music.

-Wow.

-So here they come.

Oh, no, here they come.

So if you were competing,

you'd probably stand with your back to your musicians.

So it's the break.

It goes step, shuffle, step, step, shuffle...

Step, shuffle.

Yep, that's it.

Break.

Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. And then to the break.

HE SINGS A TUNE

-Shall we give it a bash?

-OK.

Oh, dear. This is like throwing me one, isn't it?

On the spot.

OK.

Break.

Oh, that's the break.

OK, try it again. That was terrible.

So I'll just copy you. And I'll fudge it to the end.

I'm sure you're very good at that.

Yeah, good at fudging.

Good. Well done.

-Nailed, darling!

-Yeah. Plenty of nails in there.

These hurt!

-Thank you, darling.

-That was fabulous.

I'll practise that. I'll take these away.

-Yes, they're yours!

-Oh!

It was just brilliant to see Harry Shaw, you know,

take that crown for Australasia clog dancing.

I mean, who would have ever dreamt it?

And I'm so proud that he made something of himself.

Harry and Charles Tinworth, two men - very, very driven,

two very powerful men, in a way, that went against all adversity

and really came out on top.

I started feeling strongly that I was very much like them.

I wanted to follow my heart, my passion, my dreams of dance,

and it's just amazing to know that that actually runs in the family

and in the blood.

Cos it really has put a new twist on who I think I am.