0:00:44 > 0:00:51One of my early adventures into building is this chimney stack, which I built when I was about 17.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This was on my mum and dad's house.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57We had a chimney stack with four pots on.
0:00:57 > 0:01:05Only one was used for the water system - the back boiler and the hot water in the taps.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10The others let water run down the bedroom walls next door and ours.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15I decided that I would take it down and build a nice chimney stack.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18It didn't have a design. I had no drawings.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22I kept altering it in shape and size as it went up.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This is about 40 years ago. The people who live there now
0:01:26 > 0:01:29wanted to dismantle it,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32but the council put a preservation order on it.
0:01:32 > 0:01:38It looks nearly as good as the day I built it. I'm quite proud of it.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Really, since I were a little lad,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49I've been interested in buildings and building techniques
0:01:49 > 0:01:53and all the skills that went into building a house,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57even in the Middle Ages, all the tools, the different joints
0:01:57 > 0:02:03and the ways they had of sticking things together, soldering lead.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09Ightham Mote is one of the oldest and loveliest medieval manor houses
0:02:09 > 0:02:11in all of England.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16In 650 years, it's barely changed.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21A moat surrounds all four wings
0:02:21 > 0:02:24and all of the walls
0:02:24 > 0:02:27drop straight down into its waters.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Within these four wings,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35there's a lovely, open courtyard.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40The house looks as though it was all built at the same time,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45but it is actually the product of six centuries of development.
0:02:45 > 0:02:53Peter Leach, architect and archaeologist, has been responsible for much of the conservation work.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58The courtyard demonstrates how the house has developed over the years.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02People have lovingly added bits to it from time to time.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06What makes Ightham Mote interesting at the moment
0:03:06 > 0:03:09is the restoration work being done.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17It gives a good opportunity to find out how a medieval house was built
0:03:17 > 0:03:22and to look at the materials that were used in its construction.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26- This is the roof of the Great Hall, Fred.- Yeah.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30You can see the stone-rubble end wall here.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35On top of it, there are the tops of the rafters and the lathing.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37On top of that
0:03:37 > 0:03:40are the tiles, pegged, not nailed.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43They have holes in, for the wooden pegs.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45There's straw in that.
0:03:45 > 0:03:52I was wondering if that was put in for some kind of heat insulation,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55put in for the new tiling.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58If they can keep the original timbers, they do,
0:03:58 > 0:04:03but the great beam was so rotten, they are putting a new one in.
0:04:04 > 0:04:12This is the roof plate or beam that was under the valley gutter when we saw it on the roof.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16- It must have leaked a bit! - They didn't keep the gutters clear,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21That's why it's rotted so badly. It dates from 1605 or 1610.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23It's amazing.
0:04:23 > 0:04:30You think of the centre of an oak tree as being hard and the sap wood as being soft...
0:04:30 > 0:04:34- Yes.- ..yet the outer edges of it have survived pretty well.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39An house like this has stood up to the elements for centuries.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43How did they manage to build things that lasted for so long?
0:04:43 > 0:04:47Their materials must have been pretty good.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Until they had the things modern builders have,
0:04:50 > 0:04:55they had to use whatever was to hand - crude, maybe, but effective.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59- You want me to go in the cow muck? - Yes!
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Now, it's what? Approximately half of that?
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Half. That is the sifted cow dung.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08It's nice stuff, is it?
0:05:08 > 0:05:10That's it.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12A nice measure.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17That's rich, in't it!
0:05:17 > 0:05:19I was collecting this
0:05:19 > 0:05:24at seven o'clock this morning from our local dairy herd.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I tell you what, it takes a bit of mixing.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It isn't easy...
0:05:32 > 0:05:34to shove about.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38That's been milled beforehand with the hair put in.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42What's the idea of the cow dung, like?
0:05:42 > 0:05:48Well, it does give it more elasticity when you're spreading it
0:05:48 > 0:05:52and it also hardens it.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55I would say he's done that before, myself.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00I've mixed a bit of mortar in my time, but never with cow muck in it.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05I can't wait to smear that on the wall!
0:06:05 > 0:06:08There. It's a nice bit of stuff.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10It's a nice colour.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Yeah.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15It's lime, goat hair...
0:06:15 > 0:06:17Yeah?
0:06:17 > 0:06:20..with sharp sand.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22Well, you try it for yourself.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26- See how you get on with that. - I'll have a go.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28Have a go.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33- Do I continue in a downwards direction?- Yeah, that'd be nice.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Oh, bloody hell!
0:06:36 > 0:06:39- Let me put less on the hod.- Yeah.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41That's it.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45- Push it well in. It has to go through the lath.- Yes.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57That's all right.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59Now, that's going to be there
0:06:59 > 0:07:02for 800 years.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04So...
0:07:04 > 0:07:09It's good to think we do something that'll stand the test of time.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14- That's enough for me!- That's great. Any time you want a job...!
0:07:14 > 0:07:18It does have a tendency to stick to the floor, don't it?
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Like the proverbial whatsit to the blanket.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24We spray it to keep it damp,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27so it doesn't dry too quickly and craze.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Crack. Yeah.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32We key, as well.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34That helps to stop the shrinkage.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40- It definitely has the smell of the countryside about it!- That's right.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Lath and plaster was fine for the house of a country squire,
0:07:45 > 0:07:51but I'm on my way to see a palace that was built to entertain a king.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57Hampton Court had to be built of something more substantial but, again,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01it came down to the availability of local materials,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04so Hampton Court was built of brick.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Ightham Mote is quite a modest place,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10but at the other end of the scale,
0:08:10 > 0:08:16Hampton Court is the biggest, most splendid Tudor palace in England.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19The palace was begun in 1515
0:08:19 > 0:08:23by Henry VIII's chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28This central gateway is part of his original palace.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31It's a bit strange how history goes.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Henry gave his best minister, Cardinal Wolsey,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41permission to do some lodgings for him.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45When he couldn't fix it up with the Pope about his divorce,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Henry kicked him out and carried on building himself.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52That is most of what you see today.
0:08:52 > 0:09:00Jonathan Foyle is the Assistant Curator for historic buildings and he knows all about how it was built.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Jonathan, tell me
0:09:02 > 0:09:05which bit did Cardinal Wolsey do?
0:09:05 > 0:09:09He took it over in 1514 when he wasn't yet a cardinal.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12I've never been good on history!
0:09:12 > 0:09:15He was on the cusp of that career.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20He took over a medieval manor house. Some parts are buried in there.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24This is the best example of Wolsey's domestic architecture.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28He transformed this into a bishop's palace.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32It was suitable then for a cardinal, as he developed it,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35and for the royal family.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39The whole of this breadth between the two gables is his.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43- The other bit's Henry's? - Henry's additions.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48- When they fell out?- Even before then, Henry took the house over.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57These rooms are Wolsey's, probably built in the late 1520s,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00when he needed to retire from the King.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02He was in deep water by that stage!
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The hall is in that direction,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08the gardens in that direction.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11He may have used this fire. It's an original.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15- The ceiling's quite interesting. - It is. Yeah.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20The background's plaster, but the ornamental bit's a bit different.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23What's that made of?
0:10:23 > 0:10:25They are moulded timber ribs.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30Each one's got a groove, in which is put a length of leather mache.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33That's wet, pounded, stamped leather,
0:10:33 > 0:10:39which is gilded in the fashionable style of the day with arabesques,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41then gilded lead leaves
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and bosses at the junction.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48- Lots of lovely, old panelling. - Yes. These are quite plain.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53What you'd expect in the 16th century is the linen-fold pattern.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57- That goes like that. - We've got a lot in the next room.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04We've got two rooms here, Fred, that are covered in linen-fold.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09I like this one with the cross. It may have been made for Wolsey.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12It's quite ornate for linen-fold panelling.
0:11:12 > 0:11:18It is called linen-fold panelling because it's like folded-up linen
0:11:18 > 0:11:22or a cloth, you know, like your grandma did.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28You work with your hands. How would you make something like that?
0:11:28 > 0:11:36The timber in-between the folds would be done with concave and convex moulding planes.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40- You groove the whole length and that's done instantly?- Yeah.
0:11:40 > 0:11:47That looks like it could have been done the same as masonry, with an hammer and chisel.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50It's a bit up and downish.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52That's the effect,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55to get it to look like folded-up material.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I failed woodwork badly at school.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- I was top of t'class in woodwork. - I bet you were!
0:12:03 > 0:12:06This is Henry VIII's bit?
0:12:06 > 0:12:10This hall was rebuilt by Henry VIII on the site of Wolsey's.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I'm researching that and it seems almost certain
0:12:14 > 0:12:17that Wolsey's hall was longer and bigger.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23Henry rebuilt this from 1532 to 1535, a few years after he arrived.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27This is a wonderful hammer-beam roof above our heads.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32I always thought they came about because they couldn't get big trees,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36but there's a little more to it, in't there?
0:12:36 > 0:12:43There is, but you're limited by the length of trunk that a tree could provide for a beam.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47To span 40 feet like this, you'd need to find an immense beam.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51I've seen them in industrial premises in Lancashire.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56To get across here, it would be two feet deep by nine inches thick,
0:12:56 > 0:13:04with a queen post - two vertical posts heavily braced with iron rods, to accomplish the same thing.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07You want a feeling of lightness and space.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11If you have beams coming across, it spoils it.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14In Westminster Hall in the 1390s,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17they pioneered this technique
0:13:17 > 0:13:23of building a hammer beam straight out from the wall like a cantilever.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25That can support a central vault,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28so it's a very light construction.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31It looks like the underside of a ship.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36This was a late one. Westminster was in the 1390s. This is the 1530s.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39I think it's Henry's best bit here.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47In the Middle Ages,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50in roof construction, like hammer-beam roofs,
0:13:50 > 0:13:56the main joint in all of it were the mortise-and-tenon joint.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59That is an hole in one bit of wood
0:13:59 > 0:14:02and a bit on another to fit in the hole.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06The tools needed to form such a joint are fairly simple.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10They must have been similar in the Middle Ages.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14A big drill for drilling a series of holes in a straight line
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and a chisel and hammer
0:14:17 > 0:14:21for joining all the holes up into a rectangular one.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24We'll fix it together and see if it fits.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28This is an haunch mortise-and-tenon joint on a grand scale.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35That goes in there like that.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37Then,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39in this beam,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43the hole is slightly out of line,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46so when I knock this wooden peg in here,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50it'll pull the tenon down into the mortise hole.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Once we have got it in, we won't be able to get it out. Here goes.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03That feels very good and very tight.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09The next stage is to bash in the wooden wedges, when I can find them.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Here they are.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14One in there.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16One in there, like that.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31That is a mortise-and-tenon joint on a grand scale.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36That's how all the roof trusses in Hampton Court would have been made.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40They'd chop all that off after and make it level.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43That's what they did.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Buildings never stayed the same,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50as different owners extended them,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54added to them or converted them.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Hampton Court stayed much as it was in Henry's day
0:15:58 > 0:16:01until William III came to the throne in 1689.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06William commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild it
0:16:06 > 0:16:09and it was Wren who added this baroque palace.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Hampton Court was a place to live,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16but some great houses
0:16:16 > 0:16:19didn't begin as houses.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25I went to Lacock to see one that's best known today as the home
0:16:25 > 0:16:28of a famous 19th-century inventor.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33William Henry Fox Talbot was a great innovator,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37who was responsible for finding out, more or less,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41all we know today about photography.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46His family home, like a lot of big country houses, started life
0:16:46 > 0:16:48as a religious institution.
0:16:48 > 0:16:55Before the Reformation, this was a nunnery. After the dissolution of the monasteries,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00Henry VIII sold it to a courtier, William Sharrington.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03A lot of courtiers bought monastic buildings
0:17:03 > 0:17:06that Henry had taken over.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09The King made quite a lot of money out of it.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15When he bought this place, it consisted of a church
0:17:15 > 0:17:20and many large rooms that were cold and draughty that the nuns lived in.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27At the time of the Reformation, when Henry was selling all these places to his noblemen,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31the problem was making them so you could live in them.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33There were no central heating then.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37In the whole nunnery, there was only one fireplace
0:17:37 > 0:17:41in the "warming" room, which is next door.
0:17:41 > 0:17:48The answer for most people was to flatten the lot and use the materials to build a new house.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52It was easier than digging it out of a quarry.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54But Sharrington didn't.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58He left most of it and sort of built on top of it.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04That were a wonderful thing to do, because it preserved all these lovely arches,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06windows and niches.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12This is what's known as
0:18:12 > 0:18:15the South Gallery.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19The whole house is full of long, narrow passages,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23which follow the line of the cloisters underneath.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26The whole lot is stuck on top of these passageways.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30In the days of the nuns, the Abbess was billeted
0:18:30 > 0:18:33down that end in her private quarters.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The nuns were up this end in their dormitory.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39It was just a passageway then.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45It was the same when Sharrington was here, but he had a tiled floor.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47When Fox Talbot came,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52he put floorboards down and made these beautiful bay windows.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57That bay window is the very one where the first photo were taken.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00This was in 1835,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03when the Industrial Revolution
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and British inventiveness was at its height.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10From Lacock, I went to Northumberland to see a house
0:19:10 > 0:19:14built by one of Britain's mightiest industrialists.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21The Industrial Revolution brought a great surge in house building
0:19:21 > 0:19:26and the rich industrialists built mansions like this.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28This is Cragside in Northumberland,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31the home of the first Lord Armstrong,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35innovator, inventor, engineer and gun maker.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38In the 19th century,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42he played a major role in the industrialisation of Tyneside.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46His Elswick works at Newcastle was the heart
0:19:46 > 0:19:51of an engineering industrial empire making cranes,
0:19:51 > 0:19:53hydraulic machinery and armaments.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00Built on a hill, it was one of the most remarkable houses of its day.
0:20:00 > 0:20:07It had hot and cold running water, telephones, a fire alarm and a hydraulic lift.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13All the electricity were generated by a hydroelectric power station.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16No wonder they called it,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18"the palace of the modern magician".
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Armstrong also created a series of lakes in the grounds
0:20:26 > 0:20:31to store the water for the power to generate electricity
0:20:31 > 0:20:36and drive all the hydraulic machinery he installed in the house.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Lord Armstrong helped his domestic staff
0:20:43 > 0:20:45with his hydraulic machinery.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51He had a lift for taking up coal to the bedrooms, a hydraulic lift.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Of course, this spit is driven by a water turbine
0:20:54 > 0:20:57that's quite a way off down in the cellar.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01It works by a complicated system of rods
0:21:01 > 0:21:04and bevel gears and universal joints.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08You can move it away from the fire and move it into the fire.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11It goes round, as you can see.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Some barbecue that, believe me,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17and the biggest back boiler I've seen
0:21:17 > 0:21:20for the domestic hot water.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23This is the dining room, where he entertained
0:21:23 > 0:21:27such guests as the King of Siam and the Shah of Persia,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31who, of course, came here to buy guns off him.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37As well as using his machinery to help with the domestic chores,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41he also used it to impress prospective customers.
0:21:41 > 0:21:47The whole place really were a shop window for the inventions he did.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52This, without a doubt, must be one of the finest
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Victorian domestic English interiors.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59In the ceiling alone are a few good English oak trees.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02The fireplace is wonderful.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06It's got to be the biggest inglenook fireplace in England.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10The outer Gothic arch and the great stones going up
0:22:10 > 0:22:15have survived very well, but Sir William did a bit of overstoking,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20because there's a few nasty cracks in his mantelpiece proper.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23You can imagine him sat there,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28thinking of what he were going to do next with his hydraulics.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33This is the library, the other great Victorian room in the house.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Sir William used it every day as his sitting room.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39You can see
0:22:39 > 0:22:41where he wrote letters.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45The other interesting things are the lamps.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Originally, they were oil lamps.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Sir William had them converted to electricity,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55which came from a generator outside in the grounds.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00Sir William's first attempt at electric lighting were interesting.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02He had a vessel full of mercury.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07He lowered the bit with the bulb on into the mercury by hand.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11There were no light switches. The thing's alive.
0:23:11 > 0:23:17I don't know whether he had rubber gloves on, but it must have been a dodgy operation,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21but, with his inventive mind, he got it to this stage.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28It's interesting that a great industrialist,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32who was responsible for many major technological advances,
0:23:32 > 0:23:37chose this very traditional, old English style of building
0:23:37 > 0:23:41for a house that he filled with modern inventions.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47Was the housing for factory workers built, like Cragside, to last?
0:23:47 > 0:23:49The coming of the railways
0:23:49 > 0:23:54meant a standard range of building materials became available
0:23:54 > 0:23:58for low-cost workers' housing all around the country.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02It's hard to know what it was like to live in them.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Those that haven't been pulled down have all been modernised.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12To get a sense of what it was like, you need to come to Beamish.
0:24:14 > 0:24:21If you want to see some houses where more ordinary people live, this is the place to come.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25This is Beamish up in the Northeast, near Newcastle.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28This lovely, old town behind me
0:24:28 > 0:24:32has been dismantled in other parts of the northeast
0:24:32 > 0:24:37and brought back here and re-erected in every minute detail.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41It's new, but the bricks are old and the window frames are old.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46When you come here, you get a lovely feeling of long ago.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48It's interesting.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02This fine Georgian terrace is called Ravensworth Terrace.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05It was taken down in Gateshead
0:25:05 > 0:25:09and brought back here and re-erected.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13A lot of rows of houses in Bolton are like this. It's so sad,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16that during the last great conflict,
0:25:16 > 0:25:22they pinched all the railings off these lovely Georgian garden walls
0:25:22 > 0:25:26and melted them all down.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29These are not repros. They've survived.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35These are lovely Georgian windows, with little panes of glass.
0:25:35 > 0:25:41As it's raining, I'll see how Miss Smith's piano lessons are going.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43I'm off. I'll see you later.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52- Good morning.- Good morning.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54- A splendid parlour.- It's nice.
0:25:54 > 0:26:01It's a cut above the others with the semi-circular arches. I've got a fireplace like that
0:26:01 > 0:26:04at home in one of my bedrooms.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07About 1850, that were made.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10The lovely sash windows,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14with the panelling and shutters and everything.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Not very long later,
0:26:16 > 0:26:22they made rooms similar in proportion, but they lacked
0:26:22 > 0:26:26the Cornish moulding and even skirting boards
0:26:26 > 0:26:29at t'turn of century in worker houses.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31This is posh.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36Next door to the music teacher is the dentist's house.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41He must have been well-to-do, because he could afford a servant.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Good morning. A bit like home from home for me, this.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50The Victorian cast-iron fire grates were the centre of the household.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Everything happened here.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58Bread were baked. The boiling water dried all the clothes on this rail.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03From about 1900 onwards, if you didn't have a lot of money,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07you'd buy a terraced house, like the type in Coronation Street.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12The bedrooms were barren, just a square box.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16The only form of lighting were one single gas bracket,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20nearly always screwed to the chimney breast
0:27:20 > 0:27:23or often, I never worked out why,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26to the side of a window frame.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Where the light come in, the gas bracket were there!
0:27:40 > 0:27:45Just like the town, they've created a complete pit village,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50complete with an engine, an engine house, the headgear, the screens,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55the village school and a beautiful row of pitmen's cottages.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Behind me is the Methodist chapel - that means no drinking!
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Subtitles by Catherine Fowell, ITFC, for BBC Subtitling - 2000