0:00:05 > 0:00:07Modern Britain loves its heritage.
0:00:07 > 0:00:13It's become a vital part of how we define ourselves as British.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16The fascination that people show for history,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18I think it's extraordinary,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21but I think it comes from a really deep human need
0:00:21 > 0:00:24to understand where we've come from, why things matter
0:00:24 > 0:00:28and, actually, to help us locate ourselves in the present.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32But it could so easily have been a different story.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38It's taken a revolution
0:00:38 > 0:00:43to make us a nation that values our ancient buildings and monuments.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47And, even now, it's an ongoing argument about what to save
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and what to let go.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Heritage isn't really about the past, it's about the future.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56And it's about what you do with the future
0:00:56 > 0:00:59and what bits of the past you want to take with you into the future.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01That's quite a tricky subject,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04because what's important, particularly about the recent past,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07to one person, it's not important to another person.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13Britain now has some of the most powerful conservation laws in the world.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18But in the 19th century, hardly any of our best-loved landmarks
0:01:18 > 0:01:21were protected or even valued.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It was a dangerous time for old and ancient buildings
0:01:25 > 0:01:29caught up in an age of industry and profit.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32TRAIN WHISTLES
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Because Britain was expanding
0:01:35 > 0:01:38and was, therefore, beginning to destroy the material past,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40there were visionaries who realised
0:01:40 > 0:01:45that the landscape, the built environment, represents memory
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and memory was something that shouldn't be lost.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52The pioneers of the movement were clever,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55passionate and argumentative.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58They changed the history of this country by saving it.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Sometimes, they looked like antiquities themselves.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07But they all challenged society in surprising ways.
0:02:10 > 0:02:11The fascinating thing is
0:02:11 > 0:02:15that the conservation movement has been, at times,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19really, really radical, even to the point of being quite revolutionary.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Some chose Parliament to further their cause.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Others campaigned in pressure groups.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Many supporters were rich and powerful,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33others took to the streets to make a point.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36Some were freethinking civil servants,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38a handful even operated undercover,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42theatrical in their stunts to save history.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49This is the story of how the heritage movement was ignited
0:02:49 > 0:02:53by the modern science of evolution and archaeology,
0:02:53 > 0:02:59of how a century of astonishing change nearly wiped out the past.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02And the ghastly fallout of war.
0:03:04 > 0:03:05SIREN WAILS
0:03:05 > 0:03:09It's about who decided what was worth saving,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11why they did it
0:03:11 > 0:03:16and how they shaped the Britain we recognise today.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18CHEERING
0:03:35 > 0:03:40We boast that an Englishman's home is his castle.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43But for centuries, it has been this very belief
0:03:43 > 0:03:46that threatened the survival of Britain's past.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Every historic site belonged to someone
0:03:49 > 0:03:53and that someone could do whatever they liked with it.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57There's a number of terrible examples
0:03:57 > 0:04:00of buildings being demolished by their owners,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02just because people were interested in them.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05New Place, in Stratford-on-Avon,
0:04:05 > 0:04:06Shakespeare's house,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10was demolished in the 1750s by a... He was a clergyman...
0:04:10 > 0:04:14because he was irritated by people coming to see it, and so, he pulled it down.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19And, of course, you have wonderful Vanbrugh
0:04:19 > 0:04:21pleading for the preservation of Woodstock Manor,
0:04:21 > 0:04:26which the ghastly Duchess of Marlborough was going to demolish.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28At the beginning of the 19th century,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Turner, the great painter,
0:04:30 > 0:04:31who'd just moved to Twickenham,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34was furious to find that Pope's Villa nearby
0:04:34 > 0:04:38was just being demolished by Baroness Howe,
0:04:38 > 0:04:41who again was irritated that people were curious
0:04:41 > 0:04:42and wanted to see this house.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45There's a terrible history of this sort of thing -
0:04:45 > 0:04:47of private individuals thinking they have the absolute right
0:04:47 > 0:04:49to destroy something just cos they own it,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52even if they are of, you know, wide interest
0:04:52 > 0:04:54or indeed of national importance.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58For centuries, the right to own property
0:04:58 > 0:05:01without interference from the state had been at the heart
0:05:01 > 0:05:03of the British Constitution.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08To compromise this principle would be revolutionary stuff.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Why was Britain different from the rest of Europe?
0:05:11 > 0:05:13They'd had revolutions.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Revolutions that eliminated private property.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18The state had taken over responsibility in France
0:05:18 > 0:05:21for ancient monuments, for forests and so on.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24In Britain, private property was all and there was a general feeling
0:05:24 > 0:05:26that was the key to Britishness, why we were a success,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28as we were perceived as being then.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30It's cos we respected people's property.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34In the 19th century,
0:05:34 > 0:05:39Britain controlled the largest empire the world had ever seen.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Queen Victoria had even added the title Empress of India
0:05:41 > 0:05:43to her property portfolio.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47At home and abroad,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52the idea of British land rights had never seemed stronger.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Yet, in the summer of 1873,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57they were about to be challenged
0:05:57 > 0:06:00in, of all places, the House of Commons.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07The battle for heritage began with John Lubbock,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Liberal MP for Orpington, in Kent.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15He was 39 years old, the son of a London banker and baronet.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19He was posh and rich
0:06:19 > 0:06:24and a hyperactive champion of loopy causes.
0:06:24 > 0:06:25Lubbock loved nature.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28He even kept a pet wasp,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31still lovingly preserved by his descendants.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34The cartoonists had a field day.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38He even claimed to have taught his dog to read.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40But he won popular support
0:06:40 > 0:06:44when he introduced Britain's first bank holiday.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46It was such a hit
0:06:46 > 0:06:49it was nicknamed St Lubbock's Day.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56As a boy, he never stopped drawing and cataloguing the natural world.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59His great-grandson Lyulph and grandson Eric
0:06:59 > 0:07:01have dug out his scrapbooks.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Some of these are more primitive than others.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07- Butterflies.- Butterflies.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11- But he was interested in butterflies long before that.- Indeed, yes.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14- From the age of what, four? - I think so, yes.
0:07:14 > 0:07:15I mean, there's a nice tale of him
0:07:15 > 0:07:20saying his earliest memory is of an insect under glass,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22and Queen Victoria's coronation,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26so that gives us a nice date of 1837, when he was three-and-a-half.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31What would prove to be a fateful moment for British heritage
0:07:31 > 0:07:34came when Lubbock was 14.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37A neighbour was appointed to be his private tutor.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39It was none other than the man
0:07:39 > 0:07:43who would turn the Victorian world on its head -
0:07:43 > 0:07:47scientist and philosopher Charles Darwin.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Darwin was yet to publish his great work, On The Origin Of Species,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55but he'd already developed his ideas about evolution,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and the young Lubbock eagerly lapped them up.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02What do you find of Darwin in the book?
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Later on, in this book, you'll see parts of insect appendages
0:08:06 > 0:08:10and this particular insect is called Labidocera Darwinii.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12And that's actually an insect
0:08:12 > 0:08:15that John discovered at High Elms in the ponds there.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19And he named it after what, by then, I think he regarded as his mentor.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Darwin ignited in the young Lubbock a passion for archaeology,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31a science still in its infancy in the 19th century.
0:08:31 > 0:08:37Darwin knew it was the key to unlocking man's past.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Calculations based on the Old Testament
0:08:39 > 0:08:44meant that most people believed the world was only 4,000 years old,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48so the much older fossils and bones being dug up
0:08:48 > 0:08:50were the new wonders of the age.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54The first steps to building up a true picture
0:08:54 > 0:08:56of man's prehistoric past.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04John Lubbock was gathering evidence of human antiquity
0:09:04 > 0:09:07to give a sense of evolution over time
0:09:07 > 0:09:09and over geography,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12of the human mind, of human culture,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14of human innovation,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17which was all part of the extension for him
0:09:17 > 0:09:20of natural selection in animal species.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25In a museum in south London,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29we can still see Lubbock's passion for archaeology.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35Such finds inspired him to write his first book - Pre-Historic Times.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38It quickly became a bestseller
0:09:38 > 0:09:41for the growing number of amateur archaeologists.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45We were really very lucky
0:09:45 > 0:09:46when the Lubbock family
0:09:46 > 0:09:48very kindly decided to donate
0:09:48 > 0:09:49some of John Lubbock's items.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53We have here a hand axe.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56This is actually 300,000 years old.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59They'd have used it for killing and gutting their animals,
0:09:59 > 0:10:00taking the skins off.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03But if you look at it, it fits in your hand so beautifully,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05it's been made so well.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07We've also got one here,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10in fact, from Orpington, and this is 60,000 years old.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13So big, big difference, but you can still see
0:10:13 > 0:10:16just how Stone-Age tools were evolving and changing.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21And what we also have here is not such a local find, of course,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24but these things here, these are Neolithic.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28When John Lubbock published his Pre-Historic Times in 1865,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32the main reason why the Pre-Historic Times book now is so well-known
0:10:32 > 0:10:35is he came up with the two terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38which means old and new Stone Age.
0:10:38 > 0:10:39So this is actually Neolithic,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41you can see all the intricate details on it.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43We're not quite sure what they mean,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45what they represent,
0:10:45 > 0:10:46we assume it's something to do
0:10:46 > 0:10:48with someone's standing in society.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50If you had this beautiful bit of carved stone,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54it meant you were quite an important person.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Lubbock was inventing the science of ancient history
0:10:57 > 0:11:01by giving it its own language for the first time.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Next, he would put flesh on prehistoric bones.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10He commissioned the first illustrations
0:11:10 > 0:11:12of how life might have been
0:11:12 > 0:11:14for prehistoric man in Britain.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And, astonishingly, his pictures have stood
0:11:17 > 0:11:19the academic test of time.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Ancient man hunting,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26ancient man working with tools,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28building shelters.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33And Lubbock's work encouraged interest beyond mere bones.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38The architectural remains of ancient Britain were suddenly big news.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45One of the great things he did was to arouse a national attention
0:11:45 > 0:11:48into ancient monuments,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52into Stonehenge, the world of Avebury, of stone circles.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55And this was hugely important,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59because this was about the roots of our identity.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Who first settled these islands?
0:12:01 > 0:12:03How the British developed?
0:12:03 > 0:12:06And what really mattered - who were we?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12But Lubbock knew Britain's prehistoric remains
0:12:12 > 0:12:14were disappearing fast.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18They got in the way of efficient ploughing
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and, what's more, they were a free source of building materials
0:12:22 > 0:12:26for landowners keen to cut corners.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31Prehistoric sites that he saw being destroyed on a daily basis
0:12:31 > 0:12:36through farmers building fences with stone
0:12:36 > 0:12:38or ploughing fields and so on.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44Every time that he went and visited those sites,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46he saw them whittled down further.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50And it was that threat
0:12:50 > 0:12:52which would destroy the evidence
0:12:52 > 0:12:55that Darwin had told him was so important
0:12:55 > 0:12:57in all his work to date.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01It was that threat that really...is what he was concerned about.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05In 1871, Lubbock heard
0:13:05 > 0:13:08that the land around Avebury village, in Wiltshire,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11the site of Britain's largest prehistoric stone circle,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14was about to be sold at auction.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Already subject to damage and dereliction for years,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21the future of the stone circle looked perilous.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Lubbock decided something had to be done.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28His great-grandson and grandson remember the story.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32He got a letter from the vicar here
0:13:32 > 0:13:35saying that there was a threat to the stones
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and urgently could he come down and have a look.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41They were basically knocking them down and using them to build structures.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43- People wanted them for building material.- Yes.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45They're valuable original materials
0:13:45 > 0:13:48for houses and others sorts of buildings.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51And they had been ravished over a period of years,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55but this was a sudden onslaught against the few remaining stones.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57What they liked were these big ones,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01cos they could then just take a slab like that
0:14:01 > 0:14:03and create a house around it.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05And people outside Avebury were coming in
0:14:05 > 0:14:07and chipping bits off as well,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10so it was just getting out of control, so something had to be done.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Lubbock moved fast.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19He persuaded local landowners, mostly farmers,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22to sell their land to him.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25The stone circle was saved.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Inspired by what he'd achieved at Avebury,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Lubbock decided to go into battle
0:14:31 > 0:14:35on behalf of ALL Britain's fragile prehistoric sites.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37And, as an MP, he knew
0:14:37 > 0:14:41the only place the battle could be won decisively was Parliament.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51His Ancient Monuments Bill of 1873 proposed sweeping Government powers
0:14:51 > 0:14:57to confiscate any prehistoric site deemed at risk from uncaring owners.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01It was a revolutionary proposal.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08As a Liberal, perhaps he felt
0:15:08 > 0:15:12that he could challenge the whole notion of property rights,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14but the Tories certainly weren't having it
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and many Liberals weren't either.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20And the notion that, in some way, the state could intervene
0:15:20 > 0:15:25and could possible take from a freeborn Englishman his property
0:15:25 > 0:15:28was anathema, it really was.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36For eight long years, Lubbock tried and failed to get his bill through.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39By the 1880s, backbench wags were even calling it
0:15:39 > 0:15:42the "monumentally ancient bill".
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Then, at last, in July 1882,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50the bill was voted into law.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54But victory had come at a price.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59The original bill had been hopelessly watered down.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06When the bill was eventually passed,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09it'd lost its edge, because it had lost the element of compulsion.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13And without compulsion, it was nothing, really.
0:16:13 > 0:16:14Because what it meant was
0:16:14 > 0:16:18that people had to voluntarily give their monuments to the Government.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25The new act listed 68 prehistoric sites
0:16:25 > 0:16:28the Government wanted to take over.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32Lubbock knew it was going to be a challenge.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36But he also knew just the man for the job.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments
0:16:42 > 0:16:45was to be Lieutenant-General Augustus Pitt Rivers,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48a retired soldier turned archaeologist.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51His mission - to persuade owners
0:16:51 > 0:16:54to hand over their prehistoric structures
0:16:54 > 0:16:58in return for the Government taking on the cost of repairs.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Using the rapidly expanding rail network to crisscross the country,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Pitt Rivers and his team set out on their tricky mission.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14And as they travelled the country,
0:17:14 > 0:17:19they recorded the look and condition of every monument they visited.
0:17:19 > 0:17:20TRAIN WHISTLES
0:17:20 > 0:17:25The records they compiled have only recently come to light.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Here we have an album which is titled Our Ancient Monuments.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Most of the album is made up
0:17:34 > 0:17:36of these watercolour images
0:17:36 > 0:17:38and also the site plans.
0:17:40 > 0:17:41In a number of examples,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43we have members of the team
0:17:43 > 0:17:46who were depicted actually in the field.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51The sheer number of sites and monuments which he visited
0:17:51 > 0:17:54and also worked on and surveyed is immense.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04Pitt Rivers and his team travelled the length and breadth of Britain.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07From Kent to Cumbria,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09from Newport, in Wales,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11to the Hebridean Isle of Lewis,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15photographing, drawing, painting.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17And there were even cork models
0:18:17 > 0:18:21showing how monuments sat in the landscape.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26The sites range from sort of cairns,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30to sort of dolmens, to chamber tombs.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33And so, the documentation that we have here,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37the models and the watercolours and the site plans and the photographs,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40I think is to show the historic condition
0:18:40 > 0:18:42and to show how vulnerable it was, really,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47to names been scratched into the stones
0:18:47 > 0:18:49and to other forms of damage.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55The first monument Pitt Rivers visited,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59a Neolithic burial site in Kent, known as Kit's Coty,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03was already badly defaced by graffiti.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08But its owner willingly surrendered control to the Government.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12It was a good start, but, almost immediately,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16the complications of heritage became apparent.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19When Pitt Rivers asked for money to erect protective railings,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21still standing today,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24the Treasury kicked up a fuss.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29The bill was just £100.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34In the first year,
0:19:34 > 0:19:3824 monument across England, Scotland and Wales
0:19:38 > 0:19:41were taken into the protective custody of the Government,
0:19:41 > 0:19:46safe for ever from the hands of unsympathetic owners.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48But, after the first year,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53the rate of monuments handed over slowed to a trickle
0:19:53 > 0:19:56as landowners showed their contempt for the act.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Worst of all, Stonehenge remained in private hands
0:20:01 > 0:20:04and seriously at risk.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07The rubbish left by Victorian picnickers
0:20:07 > 0:20:09encouraged rats and rabbits,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11which undermined the monument.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14One of the uprights had fallen over
0:20:14 > 0:20:16and a lintel had broken in two.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22Within a few years, it would be up for sale for just £125,000
0:20:22 > 0:20:26amidst rumours of it being shipped overseas.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Pitt Rivers felt powerless.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32He found it terribly, terribly frustrating
0:20:32 > 0:20:34that he was given this highfalutin title,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Inspector of Ancient Monuments,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38he was given a budget that was totally inadequate
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and he was endlessly arguing with the Treasury about it.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45But, despite all that, he really couldn't make an impact.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47It was a bit of a poisoned chalice, to be honest.
0:20:47 > 0:20:53And, in the end, he more or less gave up, disillusioned.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57And when Pitt Rivers died in May 1900,
0:20:57 > 0:21:02nobody even bothered to appoint a replacement inspector.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07The parliamentary initiative had failed.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10The heritage movement seemed over before it had begun.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19But for the ideas of heritage to get a hold,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23it would need to gain support beyond Parliament.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27It would need a prophet to win hearts and minds.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31In fact, it already had one
0:21:31 > 0:21:35in the form of Victorian art critic and aesthete John Ruskin.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Ruskin was speaking, I think, in a new way
0:21:42 > 0:21:45and seeing buildings as part of a national culture
0:21:45 > 0:21:47and suggesting that no one generation
0:21:47 > 0:21:49has the right to destroy or to alter,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53that historic buildings belong to a future.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57With Ruskin, the idea of what we now call Heritage begins
0:21:57 > 0:22:01and he was the first person to say, effectively, publicly,
0:22:01 > 0:22:02"We do not own these things.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"They belong," he says, "partly to the people who made them
0:22:05 > 0:22:07"and partly to the people who come after us.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10"And we are just custodians and we have to think very carefully
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"about what we're going to do with them while they are in our hands."
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Ruskin grew up on the outskirts of south London.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25His father was a successful wine importer.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29But it was a family with intellectual and philanthropic interests.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34But the Britain of Ruskin's early years was changing fast
0:22:34 > 0:22:37and, by the mid-19th century,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40there was industrialisation and urban expansion
0:22:40 > 0:22:43on a scale never before seen.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51To Ruskin, it seemed as though Britain had taken a wrong turning
0:22:51 > 0:22:55to embrace ugliness and deprivation.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03It's almost hard now to imagine the impact it had.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06I mean, we all have some sort of vision of dark satanic mills
0:23:06 > 0:23:07and smoke and railways,
0:23:07 > 0:23:14but this was such a sudden, dramatic, huge change in human life,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17human endeavour, human history and our common culture.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20It truly ripped people away from the countryside, from rural values,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24it urbanised people in a way that was...
0:23:24 > 0:23:26at the speed of an express train.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28TRAIN WHISTLES
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Ruskin realised that the landscape,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38the built environment represents memory,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41and memory was something that shouldn't be lost.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Ruskin saw a world that was going to lose its memory,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49lose its texture, lose its essence, in some way.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53So he was revolutionary,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56but that revolution involved turning back to the past
0:23:56 > 0:23:59and using the past as a way of stabilising the present.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Ruskin spread his gospels through a string of books
0:24:04 > 0:24:06and packed lecture tours.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08And he went even further,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11preaching that unlimited industrialisation
0:24:11 > 0:24:13would result in catastrophe.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21What he talked about then fiercely was the fact that now we had to act.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Our buildings are being spoiled by, basically, pollution,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26we were breathing filthy air.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28And as he gave those lectures
0:24:28 > 0:24:32and as the newspapers said the man's a nutter,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35he's an idiot, he's a fool, he's dangerous, he's a radical,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37what history tells us is fascinating,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39is that he was absolutely spot-on.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47Ruskin also forged a link between the environment and politics,
0:24:47 > 0:24:53arguing Britain's cities were out of control because, as he put it,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55"We want one man to be always thinking
0:24:55 > 0:24:59"and another to be always working.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"And we call one a gentleman
0:25:02 > 0:25:05"and the other an operative,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08"whereas the workman ought often to be thinking
0:25:08 > 0:25:12"and the thinker often to be working."
0:25:12 > 0:25:16What he saw was that, as the Industrial Revolution moved on,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20combined with a political economy that was ruthlessly capitalistic,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23where money mattered most of all,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25the profit motive mattered more than anything to do
0:25:25 > 0:25:27with the heart or the soul or the spirit,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29that old buildings, old customs,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32old ways of living would just be swept away.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Karl Marx, of course, was talking about the same thing in different words at the same time.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38THUNDER CRASHES
0:25:41 > 0:25:46In some ways, Ruskin's radicalism went even further than Marx.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49He believed it was the right of everyone
0:25:49 > 0:25:52to live in a beautiful setting.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54And fulfilling his own prophecy,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57Ruskin would repair to the Lake District.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01He bought a humble Georgian cottage overlooking Coniston Water,
0:26:01 > 0:26:06which he hugely, and not very beautifully, extended.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Here, he would come to think about the things that mattered
0:26:10 > 0:26:15and try to escape the encroaching Industrial Age.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Brantwood was really the place that Ruskin almost fled to
0:26:21 > 0:26:24to skip celebrity.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27In his 50s, he had become celebrated
0:26:27 > 0:26:31but also, in a way, pursued by the demons of his own creation,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34his commentaries on social justice and so forth.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36And he needed to come back to nature,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38to come back to the environment,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41that, in a way, had been the wellspring of all those ideas
0:26:41 > 0:26:43and inspiration in his youth.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45He'd been not to Brantwood specifically,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48but to this field down in front of the house as an 18-year-old,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50and sat and drawn the landscape opposite.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52So it was somewhere he knew.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56And the Lakes, of course, represented the heritage of Wordsworth,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58the Romantics, the Picturesque movement
0:26:58 > 0:27:00the great landscape tradition of British art,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03all of the things that Ruskin absorbed in his youth.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08It was here Ruskin entertained sympathetic friends.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11Darwin came to supper three times.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16But, even here, Ruskin fell prey to fits of gloom,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20overwhelmed by the immensity of all that was wrong with the world.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24So this is Ruskin's bedroom.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28It's really the smallest little room in the house,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30right on the age of the 18th-century cottage.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34And a single bed, which reminds you, in a way,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37of just how single and lonely Ruskin was,
0:27:37 > 0:27:42but surrounded by the glorious colour of his Turner watercolours.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45These were the most precious and prized paintings that he had,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47that and a painting by his father,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49which was particularly special to him.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53So it's a room loaded from the beginning
0:27:53 > 0:27:55with a certain emotional symbolism
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and it was also a room that became, for Ruskin,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02the centre of the breakdown that he had
0:28:02 > 0:28:04when he had been here for six years.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08And the room became a place, in a sense,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12both of fear as well deep emotion to him,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15and he wasn't able to sleep in here in later years as a result of that.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18One thing he did use throughout that period
0:28:18 > 0:28:20was the wonderful turret that he built on the corner of the bedroom,
0:28:20 > 0:28:25because he converted this small, dark little Lakeland room
0:28:25 > 0:28:28into a room that looks out, in a sense, on infinity.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33And Ruskin needed a beacon,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35a distant and romantic cause,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39free from the confusion of chaotic Britain,
0:28:39 > 0:28:41where arguments would crystallise
0:28:41 > 0:28:45around absolute beauty facing total destruction.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50And he found it in Venice.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53A place he called "the golden city".
0:28:57 > 0:29:01In Venice, the great questions about the past,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04the present and the future collided.
0:29:04 > 0:29:10It was simple - if nothing was done, Venice would be lost.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13As Ruskin wrote, "The rate at which Venice is going
0:29:13 > 0:29:16"is about that of a lump of sugar in tea."
0:29:20 > 0:29:23So he made Venice the first conservation crisis
0:29:23 > 0:29:24of the modern age.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29And he went further.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32History had to be saved in the right way
0:29:32 > 0:29:35or it was worse than doing nothing at all.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Already, one of the city's most spectacular medieval buildings
0:29:40 > 0:29:42had been changed for ever
0:29:42 > 0:29:45by an overzealous and fanciful restoration.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51If you look at before and after photographs
0:29:51 > 0:29:53of the Fondaco dei Turchi,
0:29:53 > 0:29:59you see a building which is turned into a kind of...
0:29:59 > 0:30:03a bleached skeleton of a building.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11"It was unforgivable," as Ruskin put it,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15"to lose a building's golden stain of time."
0:30:16 > 0:30:22Ruskin actually says that restoration is a lie,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25that you cannot restore a building.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28All you can do is prop it up...
0:30:29 > 0:30:32..if you want to actually preserve its essence.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Now, that is a very, very radical position
0:30:36 > 0:30:38and it's not a very practical one
0:30:38 > 0:30:42because, obviously, buildings, you know, keep having to be repaired.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47But that has the key difference between the 19th-century desire
0:30:47 > 0:30:51to restore, according to certain imaginary principles,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54and the Ruskinian principle, which is much more the modern principle,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57is that you conserve...
0:30:57 > 0:31:01and, if possible, your conservation is actually reversible.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09For the first time, Ruskin was making the treatment of old
0:31:09 > 0:31:12and fragile buildings a moral issue.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17Making it an absolute responsibility to get history right.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26In Britain, there had always been people who cared passionately about the past.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28They were called antiquaries.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35The problem was their grasp on history was often...shaky.
0:31:37 > 0:31:4018th-century enthusiasts for Stonehenge
0:31:40 > 0:31:44got the date wrong by several thousand years
0:31:44 > 0:31:47and incorrectly attributed it to the Druids...
0:31:50 > 0:31:54..but at least antiquaries knew the past mattered -
0:31:54 > 0:31:58a bigger problem was their habit of trophy-hunting.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03What better souvenir than a chip off the old monument itself?
0:32:03 > 0:32:05The idea that historic things
0:32:05 > 0:32:09should remain in the place from which it came
0:32:09 > 0:32:13was still not the view taken by a lot of people.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16There was a, kind of, going round and shoving into your satchels
0:32:16 > 0:32:17things that you found
0:32:17 > 0:32:19but, you know, that attitude is incredibly prevalent.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22I always think of the Indiana Jones movies when, you know,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Indiana Jones was plunging into some temple and grabs an idol
0:32:26 > 0:32:28and says, "This should be in a museum!"
0:32:28 > 0:32:30and puts it in his bag, and off he goes.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35In Holborn, in central London,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38is the house of architect Sir John Soane.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43It is still home to his great collection of ancient artefacts
0:32:43 > 0:32:49and curiosities, many of them taken from historical sites.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54It shows what Ruskin was up against
0:32:54 > 0:32:58because, even for a brilliant man like Soane,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01when it came to treasures and great monuments,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04he had more of a passion for shopping
0:33:04 > 0:33:07than a sense of place or authenticity.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13All around are little, you know, rather resonant fragments
0:33:13 > 0:33:15of Roman antiquities or, in this case,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18you know, possibly even a little Egyptian piece -
0:33:18 > 0:33:21probably a leg of a great throne or altar.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25And then, coming round, you have a selection of friezes
0:33:25 > 0:33:28and a selection of Greek and Roman busts as well -
0:33:28 > 0:33:33all perched on the balustrade - and you look down and there is,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36possibly, Soane's most splendid acquisition,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39the sarcophagus of the Egyptian King Seti I,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41about 3,000 years old...
0:33:43 > 0:33:46..and then in the colonnade yet more trophies,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50and a particular favourite is this splendid idol.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52It's a statue of Diana of Ephesus
0:33:52 > 0:33:55in this strange, sort of, quasi-Oriental garb.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58A very splendid thing that Soane acquired in the 1820s
0:33:58 > 0:34:01and he was inordinately proud of it.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04The generation before Ruskin
0:34:04 > 0:34:07revelled in its dilettante attitudes.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09The first great collectors,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12even in the way they organised their treasures,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15had a different attitude from the one we know today.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20During that period, what an object looked like and how it made you feel
0:34:20 > 0:34:24was absolutely as important as what it actually was.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28People were not so bothered by how old something was.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30What they wanted to do was to use these objects
0:34:30 > 0:34:35to create romantic interiors, which concerned the past
0:34:35 > 0:34:38but which were not historical reconstructions.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Well, here we are in the Monk's Parlour,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45in the basement of Sir John Soane's Museum.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47And this is a very atmospheric room
0:34:47 > 0:34:50that was devised by Sir John Soane in 1824,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53and he created here a very strange room
0:34:53 > 0:34:56which he used as a kind of sanctuary, shall we say,
0:34:56 > 0:35:02for the medieval and Gothic objects that he'd acquired.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Indeed, I think the only practical use
0:35:04 > 0:35:07to which we know this room was ever put,
0:35:07 > 0:35:08he used to have people to tea here,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11but otherwise it is a completely frivolous thing.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Ruskin was determined to overturn such attitudes
0:35:18 > 0:35:21but it would fall to a more pragmatic disciple
0:35:21 > 0:35:23to achieve results.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30William Morris was a painter, textile designer
0:35:30 > 0:35:32and libertarian socialist.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35A supporter of the Arts and Crafts movement,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37he looked for practical ways
0:35:37 > 0:35:40of reconciling history and modernity.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43And in an increasingly machine age,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47he set himself against factories and mass production,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51which he believed diminished people and their creativity.
0:35:51 > 0:35:58Hand made was best, medieval craft skills the very best.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08One summer day he set off from his home on the Cotswolds
0:36:08 > 0:36:10in a horse and trap.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15For Morris, any Cotswolds jaunt was an inspiration -
0:36:15 > 0:36:18the finest in vernacular architecture to enjoy.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23He could not know he was set on a collision course
0:36:23 > 0:36:25with a Cotswold cleric.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Today, the fine medieval church of St John the Baptist in Burford,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35on the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire border, looks peaceful enough
0:36:35 > 0:36:41but, not for the first or last time, a Church of England figure
0:36:41 > 0:36:47had taken ancient architecture into his own inexpert hands.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52Morrison's driving around the countryside near Kelmscott one day
0:36:52 > 0:36:57and he sees at Burford Church, this was in 1876,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00the vicar undertaking a part-demolition of the building
0:37:00 > 0:37:03and he tries to find out what's going on, and he even goes inside
0:37:03 > 0:37:06and sees the vicar removing some of the painted walls,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09the medieval wall paintings from the interior of the church.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12And he demands to know what's going on, and the vicar is said to have
0:37:12 > 0:37:15replied, "This, sir, is my church and I can do what I like in it.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18"I can even stand on my head, if I want to."
0:37:18 > 0:37:20And Morris is so outraged
0:37:20 > 0:37:24at the thought that people are having this attitude towards buildings
0:37:24 > 0:37:26that they have inherited from the past
0:37:26 > 0:37:29that he decides something must be done about it.
0:37:33 > 0:37:38Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings -
0:37:38 > 0:37:40SPAB, for short.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43It was Britain's first effective pressure group
0:37:43 > 0:37:46devoted to saving old buildings.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57SPAB sent emissaries out across Britain
0:37:57 > 0:38:00to identify buildings at risk.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05It held public meetings to protest against overzealous restoration
0:38:05 > 0:38:09and, most importantly, it supervised sympathetic rescue work
0:38:09 > 0:38:12in a manner Ruskin would have approved.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19It's important to remember that
0:38:19 > 0:38:23S-P-A-B stands for the Society for the PROTECTION
0:38:23 > 0:38:25of Ancient Buildings,
0:38:25 > 0:38:30not the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. And...
0:38:30 > 0:38:34what he, Morris, saw
0:38:34 > 0:38:38was ancient buildings being given makeovers,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40literally, by...
0:38:41 > 0:38:44..ingenious amateurs who...
0:38:44 > 0:38:49literally, scraped everything off the...
0:38:49 > 0:38:53any evidence of the past was scraped away, everything was made to look
0:38:53 > 0:38:55as new and nice as possible,
0:38:55 > 0:38:59and he regarded this as... as, essentially,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02the destruction of the evidence of time.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06You can still see really horrible examples of this in churches
0:39:06 > 0:39:09all over the country, where they scraped off the plaster,
0:39:09 > 0:39:13thinking that the stone would be more authentic but, of course, it isn't.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I mean, that kind of rubble stone looks really rough
0:39:16 > 0:39:18because the builders never intended it to be seen.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21And a lot of the plaster they were scraping off was medieval,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and some of it had the remains of medieval wall paintings.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32The SPAB approach is still practised today
0:39:32 > 0:39:36as one of the most sensitive ways of dealing with an old building.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40At a terraced house in Waterloo, south London,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44owner and SPAB consultant Stephen Bull
0:39:44 > 0:39:47remains true to William Morris's principles.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53The SPAB ethos is that everything should be reversible
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and you should be using materials which are sympathetic to the build.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00When you start using modern cement, then it's really detrimental
0:40:00 > 0:40:02to the structure of the building. It just...
0:40:02 > 0:40:04The two should not really go together.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07If we have a look at the doorframe, for example,
0:40:07 > 0:40:10the doorframe has been damaged over a number of years.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13So, what we've done here is, instead of using any modern fillers,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16we've put inserts of timber in.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18You know, they look lovely and they are perfect.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20You know, you couldn't get a better finish on that, really.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25These are the handmade nails
0:40:25 > 0:40:27and what William Morris wanted, more than anything else,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30was just to have that simple handmade nail
0:40:30 > 0:40:32that's made by craftsmen.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34And when you look at it, it's a thing of beauty.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38You know, we're not using nail guns here and we're not talking about...
0:40:38 > 0:40:41kind of, sabre saws. I mean, everything has its place
0:40:41 > 0:40:44but I do draw the line at a nail gun and I think there's something
0:40:44 > 0:40:47humble about a handmade nail and applying it with a hammer.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50I mean, you couldn't get more basic than that.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55As far as the works we're doing here at the moment,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58it's essential that the house is put back into good heart
0:40:58 > 0:41:01and it's a real priority to me that we are using
0:41:01 > 0:41:04the materials as near as possible to the way it was actually built.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06So, it's a repair that we're doing here -
0:41:06 > 0:41:10we're not doing a restoration, we're doing a conservation and repair.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15If I just show you the door knocker on the outside... We don't want
0:41:15 > 0:41:17to replace this. This is part of the history of the house.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22It has so many bashes on that, that every mark tells a story
0:41:22 > 0:41:24and I've got great affection towards this door knocker.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27Everyone says, "Well, why don't you replace it with a new one?"
0:41:27 > 0:41:30To me, this is absolutely fabulous.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36The last few decades of the 19th century
0:41:36 > 0:41:41saw more urban expansion and more pressure groups springing up.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47One in particular, though not directly concerned with old buildings,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52would help shape the birth of the heritage movement.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54The Commons Preservation Society
0:41:54 > 0:41:59was dedicated to saving urban green open spaces
0:41:59 > 0:42:00from being built on.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Influential in the movement was the formidable
0:42:05 > 0:42:07figure of Miss Octavia Hill.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13As the Bishop of London said of her, "She spoke for half an hour.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16"I never had such a beating in all my life."
0:42:16 > 0:42:20Born to a family of Victorian philanthropists,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24Hill began her life's mission buying a row of tenement houses
0:42:24 > 0:42:29and setting herself up as a landlady with a conscience.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38Her philosophy on housing was very much that people needed decent places to live
0:42:38 > 0:42:43and needed then to take responsibility for those decent places to live.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47So, she had no hesitation in throwing people out who didn't look after
0:42:47 > 0:42:50their houses and who didn't work,
0:42:50 > 0:42:54and who were idle or inappropriate tenants, but if they did work
0:42:54 > 0:42:58and they did take responsibility, she was an incredibly good landlord,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00and she knew all her tenants intimately by name,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04she took interest in them, she tried to get jobs for the children,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and to give them a sense of, you know, decent lives.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10She was quite remarkable for her time,
0:43:10 > 0:43:15you know, dealing with people in a way that women simply didn't.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Even today, Hill inspires a devoted following.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26In Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire, Hill's birthplace,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31another performance of An Evening With Octavia Hill is about to begin.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Linda Ekins, Jo Sherry and Lorraine Carver
0:43:36 > 0:43:41assume the identities of Hill, her sister and a close friend.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44You were a bit emotional then, weren't you?
0:43:44 > 0:43:46I know, I had to write her another letter
0:43:46 > 0:43:50to explain why I was in such a state, so that she wouldn't worry.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Seeing the letters, I found that I could actually get an insight
0:43:56 > 0:44:00into her personality and the characters that she interacted with.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04You know, these poor people would benefit from open spaces,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06to help them feel human.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13I think she was a selfless person who saw a need
0:44:13 > 0:44:18and knew what to do about it, and went ahead and did it.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23I think we want four things -
0:44:23 > 0:44:28places to sit in, places to play in,
0:44:28 > 0:44:33places to stroll in and places to spend a day in.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38When it came to doing something that she was passionate about,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41when she was campaigning, when she was writing letters,
0:44:41 > 0:44:45when she was meeting people and talking about the things
0:44:45 > 0:44:48that she wanted to do, she didn't stand for any nonsense.
0:44:48 > 0:44:54"Give the fountain, you who will have the sea, plant the plane trees,
0:44:54 > 0:44:59"place the seats, you, to whom the woodlands will soon be accessible.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03"You, who know that soon, below your feet,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07"will lie stretched the whole expanse of the sunlighted plain
0:45:07 > 0:45:14"and over whose head will bend the great space of fair summer sky.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19"I am, sir, yours truly, Octavia Hill."
0:45:22 > 0:45:25The biggest battles were inevitably in the most overcrowded cities,
0:45:25 > 0:45:30so the battle to save inner London green spaces was the toughest.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Hill lost her fight to save Swiss Cottage Fields,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37but she resolved to fight harder.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41She managed to save, in London,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields from development and, today,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47those are two hugely loved areas.
0:45:47 > 0:45:53Visitors to London can hardly imagine Hampstead Heath not being there.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58When Octavia Hill started trying to save Hampstead Heath,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01she was widely felt to be getting in the way of capitalist progress.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04She was doing something terrible, but she believed very strongly
0:46:04 > 0:46:07that there was such a thing as philanthropy.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12The humorous magazine Punch depicted Hill's Open Spaces
0:46:12 > 0:46:16campaign showing the urban poor in rapture.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Not to Hill herself,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23but the rather more seductive figure of Nature personified.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Such successes spurred her on.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33On 16 November 1893,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36at the offices of the Commons Preservation Society
0:46:36 > 0:46:41in Great College Street, Westminster, Octavia Hill,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45together with Lake District cleric Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley
0:46:45 > 0:46:48and post office solicitor Robert Hunter,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51hosted a meeting for the great and the good.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55Their aim - to set up an organisation that would address
0:46:55 > 0:47:00the plight of historic sites and natural scenery.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06It would be called the National Trust.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10THUNDER CRASHES
0:47:10 > 0:47:14Today, we associate the trust with country houses.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18At the start, its focus was more radical -
0:47:18 > 0:47:22to loosen the stranglehold of private ownership on the countryside
0:47:22 > 0:47:24and increase public access.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30One of the trust's first big campaigns was to save
0:47:30 > 0:47:33part of the Lake District from development.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Brandelhow on the shores of Derwentwater in Cumbria.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43There is nothing a hot bath can't sort out here, is there?
0:47:43 > 0:47:49In order to acquire the Brandelhow Park in the Lake District,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53the trust needed to raise about £6,500 in about six months.
0:47:53 > 0:48:00They took their rattling cans to the cities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03and they were gathering donations from ordinary working people
0:48:03 > 0:48:07who were desperate to have places to go tramping at the weekend.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10They received money, lots of money, this way.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15That is the site of Manesty salt well
0:48:15 > 0:48:22and this was in continuous use as a spa, believe it or not.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25I should imagine, on a nice day, it would look...
0:48:25 > 0:48:28To relax and look around, but, on a day like today, perhaps not.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Octavia Hill, together with Rawnsley and Hunter,
0:48:33 > 0:48:38used the Lake District campaign to put the National Trust on the map.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42- It's gorgeous, isn't it? - It meets the eye.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44You come round that bend and, suddenly,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47you are presented with this magnificent view.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50It takes a bit of imagination on a day like this.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52So far, so good.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57In addition to the support from factory workers and miners,
0:48:57 > 0:49:01there was backing from the most influential, too,
0:49:01 > 0:49:05not least in the shape of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise.
0:49:06 > 0:49:12It was an early example of how the cause of heritage can make for unexpected bedfellows.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Here we are. We are surrounded by four oak trees.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21They each represent one of the three founding members
0:49:21 > 0:49:25of the National Trust, plus Princess Louise, who was here
0:49:25 > 0:49:28when Brandelhow woods were handed over to the National Trust.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30She was part of that ceremony.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Brandelhow was safe.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39The infant National Trust was all about landscape,
0:49:39 > 0:49:44but then, almost by accident, buildings were on the agenda.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49From a small church in Sussex, an anxious vicar put pen to paper.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55He had begged the trust to rescue a broken-down medieval building
0:49:55 > 0:49:59known locally as Alfriston Clergy House.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01The trust was keen.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05It represented another rapidly disappearing part of the landscape -
0:50:05 > 0:50:08the rural domestic dwelling.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14There was this real sense of the vernacular buildings being lost.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Alfriston Clergy House was strongly felt to
0:50:17 > 0:50:19be in need of saving.
0:50:19 > 0:50:20It was in terrible condition.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27The baby National Trust was able to buy it for £10.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30It has cost a lot more since then, I can tell you.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34Alongside the open spaces was this strong sense of the importance
0:50:34 > 0:50:38of vernacular architecture and nobody else being able to save it.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43The National Trust would choose its now world-famous oak leaf symbol
0:50:43 > 0:50:48from a finely carved detail on one of the building's medieval timbers.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55But, alas, not many buildings or open spaces came as cheap as £10.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Five years after the trust was formed, its membership
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and its resources were still pitifully small.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09A new century dawned.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Queen Victoria died in 1901, and the era promised change
0:51:14 > 0:51:19and modernity. Time to forget the past and look ahead.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25Across the Atlantic, a young and vibrant economy was on the rise.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29In America, self-made millionaires were in the mood to found
0:51:29 > 0:51:31a dynasty or two.
0:51:31 > 0:51:36What better way than going shopping in ye olde England!
0:51:36 > 0:51:39There were plenty of people keen to sell.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43Ancient architectural features and half-timbered medieval buildings
0:51:43 > 0:51:47were bought up and shipped across to the States.
0:51:49 > 0:51:54The cause of British heritage was in need of a new champion.
0:51:58 > 0:52:03Not this time a backbench MP hampered by Parliament,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07nor the well-meaning folk of charitable pressure groups,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10but a heavyweight.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Enter the former Viceroy of India
0:52:13 > 0:52:16and High Tory, Lord Curzon of Kedleston.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23Nathaniel George Curzon had enjoyed a typically harsh
0:52:23 > 0:52:26but privileged aristocratic childhood.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31His superior bearing even inspired poetry.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35'My name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37'My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39'I dine at Blenheim twice a week.'
0:52:41 > 0:52:47Curzon had been Viceroy from 1899 to 1905 and, in those six years,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51he had enjoyed absolute power over the lives of more people than
0:52:51 > 0:52:55any other ruler on Earth.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59In his time in India, he also worked tirelessly to save beautiful
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and ancient structures all over India,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05including the Taj Mahal.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Curzon had introduced into India
0:53:10 > 0:53:14protections that didn't exist in England.
0:53:14 > 0:53:20When he left, as Viceroy, Nehru was to say of him,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24"After memories of all the other viceroys have vanished,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28"Curzon will be remembered because he cared for all that is beautiful in India."
0:53:30 > 0:53:35Back in Britain, it wasn't long before Curzon's blood was up.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40One of the most important buildings in the country was in peril.
0:53:40 > 0:53:45The rare and wonderful brick-built medieval castle at Tattershall
0:53:45 > 0:53:49in Lincolnshire was up for sale, and the Americans were sniffing round.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56Tattershall had been in decline for centuries.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02It had even been used as a cowshed and, by the 20th century,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05the moats been filled in.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10The castle keep was pretty much all that was left
0:54:10 > 0:54:12and demolition looked likely.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18But its greatest treasures were still intact -
0:54:18 > 0:54:22the huge medieval fireplaces, with their fine carving.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31In 1910, the castle came up for sale.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34An American syndicate looked interested
0:54:34 > 0:54:38and one American buyer bought the fireplaces.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43They were torn out and hacked up,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45ready to be shipped to the United States.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50We're not sure what was going to happen to the rest of the castle.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53One story was that one of these American gentleman wanted it
0:54:53 > 0:54:54dismantled brick by brick
0:54:54 > 0:54:58and transported to the States, which I think would have been quite
0:54:58 > 0:55:01an undertaking, given the size of the building.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04Letters appeared in the Times newspaper.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07There was still a chance to buy back the castle.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10But the infant National trust couldn't afford it.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15It was Curzon's moment to raise the conscience of the British Establishment.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19Lord Curzon stepped in at the last minute.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22He, literally, was given a 24-hour window of opportunity,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24after which the fireplaces were gone
0:55:24 > 0:55:26and the castle would no longer be available.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31He paid the princely sum of £2,750 for the castle
0:55:31 > 0:55:32and the eight acres of land.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Although the fire surrounds had already been carted away,
0:55:38 > 0:55:44Curzon was determined to intercept them and bring them back.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47He used his power as an MP, some say, to have all the docks
0:55:47 > 0:55:50and the harbours in the country watched and monitored.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55It was all very elusive and dark and sinister what had happened to them.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01At the 11th hour, the fire surrounds were discovered in a mews
0:56:01 > 0:56:05in the East End of London and brought back to the castle.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08They were paraded triumphantly through Tattershall village
0:56:08 > 0:56:10to much local rejoicing.
0:56:12 > 0:56:18Curzon felt at last the time had come for Parliament to take effective action.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Curzon, more or less single-handedly,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28guided through Parliament a bill that was intended to stop
0:56:28 > 0:56:32the desecration of a building like Tattershall Castle ever happening again.
0:56:34 > 0:56:40In March 1913, the Ancient Monuments and Amendments Act was passed,
0:56:40 > 0:56:44giving the Government real powers to act when ancient monuments
0:56:44 > 0:56:47and medieval buildings were at risk.
0:56:52 > 0:56:54Curzon's bill - and I think it was his bill -
0:56:54 > 0:56:58enabled the Government, through a complex procedure, to step in
0:56:58 > 0:57:03and prevent a private owner from desecrating an ancient monument.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Of course, it reintroduced the idea of compulsion.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10The idea that was originally in Lubbock's act and had been biffed
0:57:10 > 0:57:13by everybody in Parliament because they thought it was intolerable.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16That was put back in. That was a very big change.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22Appropriately, John Lubbock,
0:57:22 > 0:57:27the MP who had started it all lived to see the bill become law,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29dying just two months later.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33As he had always wanted,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38now landowners who abused the ancient monuments and medieval buildings in their care
0:57:38 > 0:57:43could be forced to repair them or be fined.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46Unpaid fines could even lead to imprisonment.
0:57:48 > 0:57:55At last, Britain had taken steps to protect its heritage. Even so,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59the legislation excluded anything built later than the medieval age
0:57:59 > 0:58:02and any inhabited building.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Some people saw it as little more than a ruins charter,
0:58:07 > 0:58:13but, at last, the freedom to do what you liked as a landowner was over.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20In next week's programme, the clever men from the Ministry
0:58:20 > 0:58:24who put the Ancient Monuments Act into practice after World War I...
0:58:26 > 0:58:30..the revolutionary impact of the motorised lawnmower...
0:58:31 > 0:58:36..the fight to save the English country house...
0:58:36 > 0:58:40and Hitler's plan to destroy Britain's best buildings.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47To find out how English Heritage is celebrating 100 years
0:58:47 > 0:58:49of protecting the past, visit...
0:59:14 > 0:59:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd