0:00:07 > 0:00:11The First World War had seen conflict and destruction
0:00:11 > 0:00:14on a scale never before imagined.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Mainland Europe lay horrifically scarred,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21both in terms of its dead and its landscape.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26But as the last months of war dragged on,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30there was a significant symbol of hope and renewal in Britain.
0:00:32 > 0:00:38In September 1918, Britain's most famous monument, Stonehenge,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41was given to the nation by a Mr Cecil Chubb,
0:00:41 > 0:00:43a lunatic asylum proprietor
0:00:43 > 0:00:47who'd bought the stones at auction a few years before.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50After centuries of vandalism and neglect,
0:00:50 > 0:00:55Stonehenge would at last be protected and restored.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Fallen stones righted
0:00:57 > 0:01:00and lintels repositioned.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02In a land fit for heroes,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05it heralded a new age of government responsibility
0:01:05 > 0:01:08for the nation's heritage,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12when the men from the Ministry would command a massive rescue operation.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17But, at the same time,
0:01:17 > 0:01:22and not so very far away from the nation's ancient sites,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25the cities of Britain were modernising
0:01:25 > 0:01:29and expanding haphazardly into the countryside.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32The motor car, newly affordable, was on the rise.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38And a crisis faced the country houses of Britain.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41Most frightening of all,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Hitler would target our finest old buildings
0:01:44 > 0:01:48in the infamous Baedeker raids of World War Two.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51New heroes rallied to the cause
0:01:51 > 0:01:54as the fight to save Britain's great buildings
0:01:54 > 0:01:57reached a new intensity.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17There is one symbol of our national history
0:02:17 > 0:02:20that is so familiar we have come to view it as timeless.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23The ruin.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Many are the remains of the nation's greatest mediaeval buildings,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30set on a path of ruin
0:02:30 > 0:02:35in two of the most dramatic periods of upheaval in Britain's history.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Religious buildings caught up in the violence of the Reformation
0:02:39 > 0:02:41in the 1530s
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and castles that fell victim to the English Civil War
0:02:44 > 0:02:46in the 1640s.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50These ruins have a familiar look.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53The bare stripped stone,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55the glassless Gothic windows,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57the bowling-green lawns
0:02:57 > 0:03:00and the metal plaques telling us what we need to know.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05But it's a look very different from how it used to be.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11For centuries, the ruins of Britain
0:03:11 > 0:03:15had to take their chances against relentless nature.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18And nature often won.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22In the 18th and 19th centuries,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25ivy-clad and tree-infested,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27they inspired Romantic poets and artists
0:03:27 > 0:03:31to ponder the fleeting nature of human endeavour and existence.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39But by the 1920s, the world had changed.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43For a Britain emerging from the horrors of the First World War,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47the ruin had truly lost its romance.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53The First World War was a time of mass destruction,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55destruction of human beings, of British youth
0:03:55 > 0:04:02and a time of mud, carnage, filth, despair and futility.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05And I think, very importantly,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08guiding some of the spirit
0:04:08 > 0:04:13of the new official, public attitude towards conservation and heritage,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17was the belief that we needed to cleanse away, clean
0:04:17 > 0:04:20and set up this bright new world.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26The bright new world dawned in Whitehall,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31in a government minister called the Office Of Works.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Thanks to the new Ancient Monuments Act of 1913,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38government officials now had the power to declare
0:04:38 > 0:04:41there were ancient buildings of such importance
0:04:41 > 0:04:45their owners could no longer neglect them and allow them to fall down.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And in return for handing them over,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54the government would foot the bill for repairs and maintenance
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and open them to the public.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02The law extended only to historic buildings that were uninhabited
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and, in practice, that meant ruins.
0:05:05 > 0:05:11But it was a huge advance from the neglect of the previous century.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16And, in 1918, many great ruins were on the verge of collapse.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19The Office Of Works had to move fast,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23the inspectors set out on their mission right across the country.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28What this whole Zeitgeist, if you like,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33enabled to take place was a massive collecting spree,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35which the Office Of Works went on
0:05:35 > 0:05:39and they went round the county taking into their care
0:05:39 > 0:05:43all the major ruined buildings,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47the mediaeval abbeys, castles, they could possibly get their hands on.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51One or two they didn't take, one or two they wanted, they couldn't get.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56But hundreds and hundreds of buildings came into their care.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Success would come down to the vision and willpower of one man,
0:06:02 > 0:06:08Charles Reed Peers, the new Inspector Of Ancient Monuments.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Peers was a very different man from the 19th-century heritage pioneers
0:06:13 > 0:06:18whose sensitivity towards a building had outlawed drastic intervention.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23They had preached a gospel against scrape and clean
0:06:23 > 0:06:27preserving what they called "the golden stain of time".
0:06:27 > 0:06:31But Peers had a crisis on his hands.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33And out of the ruinous confusion,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36he wanted clarity and order to emerge.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42His house, at Chiselhampton, in Oxfordshire,
0:06:42 > 0:06:47still boasts a calm symmetry of classical order and nature tamed.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Peers was a great gardener.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53He, like everyone in the Office Of Works,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55had been to either Oxford or Cambridge
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and had been used to seeing historic buildings
0:06:57 > 0:07:02set against beautifully-mown green grass in the college quads.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04And I think this aesthetic of ruin
0:07:04 > 0:07:06against the calm of the grass
0:07:06 > 0:07:11was seeing as something that was extremely attractive.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13How those ruins could be set,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18not in the sort of the fields of mud of the trenches,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21but in something that anchored them
0:07:21 > 0:07:25in this sort of conception of England.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Peers was an architect and an archaeologist.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34He was charming and energetic.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37He inspired loyalty in his team,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39but he did not suffer fools gladly.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44His family called him "the squire".
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Peers had a clear vision
0:07:47 > 0:07:50of what the nation must do with its great ruins
0:07:50 > 0:07:55and it was not just a matter of rescuing them from collapse.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00Above all, he wanted them to speak to the nation,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03to tell a clear and accessible story.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09You needed to be able to read the nation's history in the stones.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12And that meant getting rid of later accretions,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14that meant taking down the ivy,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16that meant taking down later buildings
0:08:16 > 0:08:18that were built up against the mediaeval walls,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21meant simplifying them, printing plans of them,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23clear guidebooks with clear phases,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27putting labels on each individual part of the building.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29So this was a great exercise
0:08:29 > 0:08:33in explaining to the nation its own history.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39His mission was high-minded and it was commercial.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41If the ruins spoke to everyone,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44more visitors would come.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47He would make ruins into popular textbooks,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50the flat pages would be the green lawn
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and the stones would be the text.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58But first, he needed a vital bit of newfangled technology.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Before the motor mower, achieving the perfect lawn
0:09:05 > 0:09:09had been an expensive, labour-intensive process.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13You needed a small army
0:09:13 > 0:09:15with scythes and rollers.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Then, came the horse-drawn mower,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21followed by the steam-operated contraptions
0:09:21 > 0:09:23that never quite caught on.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25But the mass-produced motor mower
0:09:25 > 0:09:28would change the look of heritage for ever.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32It's a 1920s Atco standard.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34This is a 14-inch model.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38This machine gives a perfect bright finish,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40which was ideal for formal lawn.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47This machine at its time would have been
0:09:47 > 0:09:50the height of technology at an affordable price.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54And it was sort of like an industrial revolution,
0:09:54 > 0:09:59instead of having to push the machine up and down, it went on its own.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03It was so easy to use and extremely reliable.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11And to make the castles and stately homes more pleasing to the eye,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13they would have used a machine like this.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21Beautiful, formal British dried lawn that this machine was designed to do.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26And it would do sterling work for miles and miles of cutting grass.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30And you'd finish with a finish as good as a carpet.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39So Peers issued a bible to his busy workforce.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43And his commandments were to be followed to the letter.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47Ivy, that most active and insidious enemy of old buildings,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49had to be uprooted.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57Buildings not part of the original medieval structure must be removed.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00The accumulation of soil and rubble must be cleared
0:11:00 > 0:11:03to reveal the building's foundations.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09And up went the signs telling you precisely what was what.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Today, the successor to the Office Of Works is English Heritage.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Keith Emerick is an Ancient Monuments Inspector in Yorkshire.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26We're still the government adviser
0:11:26 > 0:11:30on all matters of cultural heritage and historic environment.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37He's on his way to Rievaulx Abbey, in North Yorkshire,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40the first major site to get the Office Of Works' treatment.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Rievaulx was founded in 1132
0:11:44 > 0:11:49and became one of the richest religious institutions in England.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53So when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in the 1530s,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55it was high on his hate list.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Henry took its treasures
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and stripped the building of anything valuable.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07The king ordered Rievaulx to be rendered uninhabitable.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Which it has been ever since.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Rievaulx was handed over to the Office Of Works
0:12:16 > 0:12:19by the Feversham family after the death of the Earl
0:12:19 > 0:12:22at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34- Hiya!- Hi!- I just came to have a quick look around the site, if that's OK. - Indeed.- If there's anything...
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Have you noticed anything at all, any bits falling off?
0:12:36 > 0:12:40- We did have a tree fall, a branch fell the other day, yeah.- Right, OK.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42- It didn't hit anything? - No, thankfully not.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44OK, thanks. Thanks a lot.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46When the Office Of Works took over Rievaulx,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48it was on the brink of collapse,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50and after the recent bad weather,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Keith is here to check all is well.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59What I'm looking for is just evidence of what's called spalling,
0:12:59 > 0:13:04where kind of frost action and the water getting behind the stone
0:13:04 > 0:13:07or the detail of the stone has then expanded as it's frozen
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and forced pieces of the decorative details off.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Or whether there's something actually more catastrophic that might be going on,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16but I doubt the latter is the case,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20but there's usually...once you get into the start of the winter season
0:13:20 > 0:13:24we might expect to see some spalling,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27and it's always good to keep an idea of, keep a sense
0:13:27 > 0:13:29of how much there is or how little there is.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34In accordance with the Peers bible,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Rievaulx was shorn of its ivy,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41post-mediaeval accretions, even picturesque cottages,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43were pulled down
0:13:43 > 0:13:45and the ground made even
0:13:45 > 0:13:47to reveal foundations.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51But there was an immense structural challenge here -
0:13:51 > 0:13:53the monument was top heavy,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56with the upper stories leading out alarmingly.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Peers and his architect, Frank Baines, authorised major surgery
0:14:01 > 0:14:05on the very innards of the abbey walls.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08When the Ministry Of Works came to the site,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11the whole of the east end was moving quite considerably.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16The upper part of the building was actually hanging out
0:14:16 > 0:14:19about two feet or more beyond its base.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22So they scooped out all of the core work
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and they drove railway rails through the fabric
0:14:25 > 0:14:29to actually knit the three walls together.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31And then, they filled the interior with concrete
0:14:31 > 0:14:35and then, they put the stonework back on the face
0:14:35 > 0:14:37in exactly the same position
0:14:37 > 0:14:41so all the repairs are completely hidden,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44so you think that you're looking at an authentic building,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47whereas, really, it's what perhaps might be called
0:14:47 > 0:14:48a staged authenticity.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56The scale of the work was quite amazing.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59The clearance of the site was kind of, if you like,
0:14:59 > 0:15:00on an industrial scale.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05They employed a lot of returning and disabled World War One veterans
0:15:05 > 0:15:06to do the work.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10There were small railway systems that were built to take the material,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12as they were excavating it, off the site.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15It was just a huge, huge undertaking.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Peers intervention was fantastically bold.
0:15:22 > 0:15:28This is mediaeval fabric with a modern steel and concrete core,
0:15:28 > 0:15:29but it worked.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34It's not how we do it now.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37But I don't think we can criticise them,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40because what is absolutely clear
0:15:40 > 0:15:45is that if the Office Of Works had not taken on all those ruins
0:15:45 > 0:15:48in the interwar period, they wouldn't be here today.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51They'd all reached a sort of stage of final collapse
0:15:51 > 0:15:54and for every one ruin that was taken in by the Office Of Works,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57there were two or three that fell down and have now disappeared.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04The heritage laws had worked brilliantly well
0:16:04 > 0:16:07for roofless and uninhabited ruins.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11The great abbeys and castles of the nation were saved.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13And in just a few years,
0:16:13 > 0:16:15they had established themselves
0:16:15 > 0:16:19on even the most casual day trip as a itinerary.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21'One of the most pleasant of places to go to,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24'a spot that's almost bursting with memories of the glorious past,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26'it's ancient Tintagel, in Cornwall.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29'There, if you're bent towards an old castle,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31'overlooking sea and ready for immediate occupation,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34'little remains, but for you to see the remains.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36'So this way, please, ladies.'
0:16:36 > 0:16:39But if the only means of protecting a building
0:16:39 > 0:16:42was for the government to acquire it,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45and it had to be roofless and uninhabited to qualify,
0:16:45 > 0:16:49it was still a painfully small answer to the crisis.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56In the 1920s, the cities of Britain were modernising
0:16:56 > 0:16:59and nowhere more so than London.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04The mood was for progress and modern urban living.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10The demolition gang reigned supreme
0:17:10 > 0:17:14and in a world that had little time for Georgian splendours
0:17:14 > 0:17:17and hated Victorian architecture,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19the casualty list was high.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24When you look at the buildings that disappeared,
0:17:24 > 0:17:25we now think so wonderful,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28all the great, almost all the great private palaces,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30the aristocratic townhouses,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Norfolk House, Dorchester House, Devonshire House, Lansdowne House,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35they all went.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38The Foundling Hospital, Waterloo Bridge, Regent Street,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40all these things disappeared.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44There are always people who think that you mustn't stand
0:17:44 > 0:17:46in the way of what they imagine to be progress.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48You know, the world, in some ways,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50after the catastrophe of the wars, was getting better
0:17:50 > 0:17:54with cars and the wireless and aeroplanes, all this sort of thing.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Why care about old buildings?
0:17:57 > 0:18:01It's probably the most destructive period in London's history.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06CAR HORN BLARES
0:18:06 > 0:18:10But the cities of Britain were also expanding fast.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16The new suburbs seemed to promise a life of convenience and comfort,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20leaving behind the dirty city.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Between the two world wars,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28English cities sprawled intensely and immensely.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30And there are various reasons for it,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34there was a desire to create lots of new clean, green housing for people,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37new suburbia, that would be healthy for people,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39a great concern about public health.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41The new suburbs will be clean, there'll be tennis playing,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45they will have gardens and people would be...they'd brush their teeth
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and wash their faces and they would be a lot healthier with clean air.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Inevitably, it was the open countryside
0:18:55 > 0:18:58that bore the brunt of the spreading suburbs.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01Thousands of new homes spread out
0:19:01 > 0:19:03from the edges of towns and cities.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11New roads ripped through the countryside in an unplanned free-for-all.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14A new disease was even diagnosed -
0:19:14 > 0:19:16Bungaloiditis.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20The countryside was definitely under seize,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23it was undergoing a fundamental transformation
0:19:23 > 0:19:27and the amount of land that changed hands after the First World War
0:19:27 > 0:19:31was as much as the amount of land that changed hands after the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35There's a whole change in the nature of the way the countryside was run,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39who owned it, who lived in it, who enjoyed it, who went to it.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42This was profoundly unsettling
0:19:42 > 0:19:46for those people who liked the countryside as it was.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Villages that had felt safely distant from urban sprawl
0:19:52 > 0:19:55were suddenly too close for comfort.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01New pressure groups formed to stop the invasion,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05led, in 1926, by the Campaign For The Protection Of Rural England.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09The battle was on.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16'Here, less than 30 miles from London,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18'you're in the heart of rural England.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22'The old thatched cottage, which might be somewhere in Devonshire
0:20:22 > 0:20:25'instead of less than 30 miles from London,
0:20:25 > 0:20:26'would have disappeared
0:20:26 > 0:20:29'and in its place, there may perhaps be petrol stations
0:20:29 > 0:20:30'and roadside cafes,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33'garages and camping sites.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35'Just the other side of the hedge is the old road.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38'Little traffic passes along it during the day.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40'At night, there is practically none.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43'Yet, the old your road is to be made five times its present width,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45'and soon, there'll be no room for butterflies.'
0:20:46 > 0:20:49The moment called for a champion.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53And it got one in the unexpected form
0:20:53 > 0:20:55of a Welsh architect and aesthete -
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Clough Williams-Ellis.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Clough Williams-Ellis was an extraordinary creature,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06if you had met him.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08He was this tall, Anglo-Welsh aristocrat,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12who wore very flamboyant outfits,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15big wide brim hats, yellow cravates
0:21:15 > 0:21:18knickerbockers, white socks,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21wonderful broke shoes.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24But beyond the flamboyance, he was a very serious-minded man,
0:21:24 > 0:21:30who was very important in the idea of trying to stop the sprawl.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Cities and towns should be compact.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37The countryside should be beautiful and green.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42In 1928, Clough wrote a book - England And The Octopus.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46A polemic against the sprawl of suburbia.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50It was Britain's first environmental bestseller.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And it was a call to action.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55He wrote, "In the late war,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59"we were invited to fight to preserve England.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01"We believed, we fought.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03"It may be well to preserve England,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07"but better to have an England worth preserving.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12"We saved our country that we might ourselves destroy it."
0:22:13 > 0:22:16The image of the octopus would become a defining symbol
0:22:16 > 0:22:18of the interwar years.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Its tentacles a rallying call against the urban sprawl
0:22:21 > 0:22:24known as "ribbon development".
0:22:25 > 0:22:30But Clough did not confined himself to words alone.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32He set about proving his case
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and so, he built a new town,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Portmeirion, in North West Wales, on the edge of Snowdonia.
0:22:44 > 0:22:45People treat it as a joke
0:22:45 > 0:22:48because it looks like a pastiche Italian hill town.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55But it is an important statement in architecture planning,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58cos it tries to show how you can get lots of people into a small area,
0:22:58 > 0:23:00enhance a landscape with architecture
0:23:00 > 0:23:04and cause no damage to the natural environment.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08What Clough wanted to say was - you can take that example, Portmeirion,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10and you can make it much bigger, of course,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13you could create a whole new town like that.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Began in the 1920s,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22Portmeirion would take 50 years to complete.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24And Clough was there to see it finished.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The town is full of wit,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32and tricks of the eye.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36A grand frontage often hides a more humble dwelling.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40And humble dwellings embrace the picturesque.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45Clough also reused architectural salvage on a grand scale,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48rescued from demolition sites around the country.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52He called it "a home for fallen buildings."
0:23:54 > 0:23:59I suppose I wanted to paint a propagandist picture, one might say.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04I wanted to show that you could develop a place,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07even a very rural place, without defiling it.
0:24:07 > 0:24:08In fact, if you did this
0:24:08 > 0:24:13with sufficient love and care and expertise,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17you might even add to what God had given you as your background.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21And beyond the flamboyance,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25it's still a serious exercise in high-density building.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Cramming a lot in without compromising the landscape,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31a retort in bricks and mortar
0:24:31 > 0:24:35to the ribbon development of the 1920s and '30s.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38The growing curse of the octopus.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46But even as the landscape was changing,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49more people than ever were setting out to explore it.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54It was the golden age of the charabanc,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57bringing urban dwellers out to the countryside.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01and the newly affordable mass-produced motor car.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04It was truly the romantic age of motoring.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08The pioneer driver was king of the road.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16The motor car allowed people to explore the nation's heritage
0:25:16 > 0:25:19in a new and liberated way.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Visitor numbers boomed.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26It was the birth of an extraordinary relationship
0:25:26 > 0:25:30between the nation's ancient monuments and the motor car.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32CAR HORN BLARES
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Today, motoring magazines are almost entirely about cars,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43they're full of alluring pictures of fast cars.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47In the 1920s and '30s, things were a bit different.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53Almost every issue had quite a lengthy article on touring by car.
0:25:53 > 0:25:59They'd have lots of photographs of villages and churches and so on,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01usually with the car sitting somewhere
0:26:01 > 0:26:04in the corner of the photograph.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10And car manufactures would actually use historic buildings
0:26:10 > 0:26:12as part of their advertisements.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15For example, Austin, for their Austin Seven model,
0:26:15 > 0:26:21had pictures of the Austin actually standing outside a ruined abbey.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26And you have an extraordinary boom in books, for example,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30that catered for people who wanted to go out into the country.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Batsford started to bring out a series of books called
0:26:34 > 0:26:36the English Heritage series
0:26:36 > 0:26:38and The Face Of Britain.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43And these sold in numbers that were completely unprecedented
0:26:43 > 0:26:46for books on the English landscape.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Similarly, we have the Shell Guides coming out,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54so there was a whole range of books designed to encourage you
0:26:54 > 0:26:57to go and see your England.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05But it was a two-edged sword, really, because, on the one hand,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08the car magazines were encouraging people to go out into the country,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12but, at the same time, in doing that, the owners of the cars
0:27:12 > 0:27:15were actually often damaging the very thing
0:27:15 > 0:27:18that they were going out to look at.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26There were already some worrying signs,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28even the landscape around Stonehenge
0:27:28 > 0:27:31was suffering from the clutter of the motor car.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37And soon, petrol advertising would be out of control.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41But the campaign for the beautification of roads
0:27:41 > 0:27:47fought successfully for unsightly petrol advertising to be removed.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49And by the 1930s,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54filling stations were even trying to get the heritage look themselves.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Tudor-bethan cottage style.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59And the inflammable thatch look.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Now, of course,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07the filling stations from the golden age of motoring are heritage too.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10In Dane End, in Hertfordshire, the old village forge
0:28:10 > 0:28:14was converted to a filling station in the 1930s.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20And John Minnis has his modern listing hat on.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27In almost every respect, this is really typical of its period.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30And it's still got some of the old enamel signs on it
0:28:30 > 0:28:32that you can see there.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36One for spark plugs and there's another sign for India Tyres.
0:28:38 > 0:28:44What we're looking at here are a couple of probably late-1930s pumps.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48And if we just take a closer look at them,
0:28:48 > 0:28:49we can see they're Avery Hardoll,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52who were one of the leading manufacturers of petrol pumps.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58These were electric pumps of the type that came in in the mid 1930s.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01They've lost the globes that they would have once had,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04they would have once had illuminated globes on the top.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07But otherwise, they're still pretty intact
0:29:07 > 0:29:09and there are very few petrol pumps today
0:29:09 > 0:29:14that really date from this era still in situ.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15Collectors have got quite a few
0:29:15 > 0:29:18that have been taken from their original locations,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21but here we are with these still in front of the garage
0:29:21 > 0:29:23that they once served.
0:29:25 > 0:29:26So it's a real period piece.
0:29:29 > 0:29:30TRAIN WHISTLES
0:29:35 > 0:29:39In the 1930s, the campaign to make the countryside
0:29:39 > 0:29:41accessible to everyone was growing.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46It was the great age of rambling.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Mass trespass was almost a weekend pastime.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57More and more people publicly declared themselves
0:29:57 > 0:29:59the enemy of the octopus,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03the enemy of urban sprawl wrecking the countryside.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09One such group was a mysterious band of bright young things
0:30:09 > 0:30:11called Ferguson's Gang.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16In 1932, reports began to appear in the newspapers
0:30:16 > 0:30:21when a masked member of the gang, styling herself Red Biddy,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24turned up at the National Trust office in London
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and handed over a swag bag of cash.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32The gang members bought their masks from Harrods
0:30:32 > 0:30:36and liked to feast on figs with cream and champagne.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40Other members of the gang left similar deposits calling themselves
0:30:40 > 0:30:42Bill Stickers,
0:30:42 > 0:30:43Erb The Smasher
0:30:43 > 0:30:45and Kate The Nark.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49At the time, no-one knew who they were
0:30:49 > 0:30:52or how the money had been come by.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Their greatest coup came
0:30:56 > 0:31:02when the BBC allowed a masked member of the gang to address the nation.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'I appeal to you tonight for the National Trust.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10'That means for the beauty of England that belongs to you and me
0:31:10 > 0:31:13'and it's vanishing from under our eyes.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16'No government grant supports the work of the Trust
0:31:16 > 0:31:19'and it urgently needs more subscribing members
0:31:19 > 0:31:22'to help in its battle against the octopus.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24'The octopus whose tentacles in the shape
0:31:24 > 0:31:27'of jerry-built states and ribbon development
0:31:27 > 0:31:31'are stretching like a pestilence over the face of England.'
0:31:34 > 0:31:37The appeal led to a flood of donations
0:31:37 > 0:31:39and new members for the Trust.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42A stretch of the Cornish coastline was donated
0:31:42 > 0:31:46and a town hall on the Isle of Wight.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48Priory Cottages in Oxfordshire
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and 18th-century Shalford Mill, in Surrey, were saved.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56The mill would become the Gang's headquarters,
0:31:56 > 0:32:00where they swore oaths on the grindstone
0:32:00 > 0:32:04to preserve England and frustrate the octopus.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Everyone in the Gang is long since dead
0:32:07 > 0:32:11and only recently have their true identities being revealed.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13The leader of the gang, Bill Stickers,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16was in fact Peggy Pollard,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19a Sanskrit scholar, naturist
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and six-foot great-niece
0:32:21 > 0:32:24of Victorian Prime Minister William Gladstone
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It was her brother, Erb The Smasher,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31in reality old Etonian Bobby Gladstone,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34who had made the masked broadcast at the BBC.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40Joanna Bagnall and Penelope Adamson had come back to the mill.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42They are the daughters
0:32:42 > 0:32:45of gang members the Artichoke and Black Mary.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50They remember life at the mill in the early 30s could be surprising.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56- I remember picking up Red Biddy with a donkey and cart.- Oh, yes!
0:32:56 > 0:32:59That was at the station when she had baby and I was shocked,
0:32:59 > 0:33:01cos she fed the baby on the platform.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Breastfeeding the baby on the platform?
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Struck by horror, obviously. Very embarrassed, but anyway.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11I was brought up in awe of them.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Well, they were actually very well educated, better than we were.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Well, we were very young, anyway, darling.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22- They were very thoughtful people. - Yes, right.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24And very intellectual.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27That's why they used to sit around the millstones,
0:33:27 > 0:33:33just...you could have eight members cos they could get their legs in.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37- That's right.- And they struck the grain shafts saying,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41"I commit myself to the preservation of old England
0:33:41 > 0:33:45"by defying the octopus."
0:33:47 > 0:33:50- The were like the Bloomsbury set in a way.- Oh, they were!
0:33:50 > 0:33:53I found that they came from very wealthy families.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55Not all of them, by any means.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57They...
0:33:57 > 0:34:00She was! She was a colonel's daughter or something.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03- A general's daughter. - Yes, a general's daughter.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05- Socialists too.- Yeah.
0:34:05 > 0:34:06They were Socialists,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09but their families necessarily weren't Socialists.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12- Well, they must have been to a certain...- They were country gentlemen.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15To a certain extent, darling, don't want to tread on them completely.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17There were probably masked then and they were...
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Yes, they were great fun, cos they liked to dress up.
0:34:20 > 0:34:21They loved dressing up.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26And I do remember it was just peppered with gaiety,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30of other people's gaieties and our gaieties.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32And all the, the crowds of people coming,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35I don't remember them having vast parties.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39But...a lot of children, always children rushing around.
0:34:43 > 0:34:4880 years on, the National Trust is celebrating the Gang.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51And octopus is on the menu.
0:34:52 > 0:34:59This is the octopus that anyone can come and tame the tentacles of,
0:34:59 > 0:35:00if they want.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02I might just try that.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Delicious.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07- And you remember meeting the Gang, don't you?- Uh-huh.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Billy Stickers, yeah. Billy Stickers, then, and that's your...
0:35:11 > 0:35:13- That's my aunt.- Your aunt.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17COWBELL
0:35:17 > 0:35:19I feel very honoured
0:35:19 > 0:35:20to be amongst you all.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23I only wish the Gang were here,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26so hold on to the memory,
0:35:26 > 0:35:27cherish it and carry it on.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31My God!
0:35:32 > 0:35:34CHEERING
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Shalford Mill is typical of the type of building
0:35:43 > 0:35:46the National Trust liked in the 1920s and '30s.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51From its earlier days, saving open landscape and woodland
0:35:51 > 0:35:53had been its priority.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55And when the Trust saved buildings,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59they tended to be modest and vernacular, wedded to the landscape.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04But a crisis was looming that would make both the Trust
0:36:04 > 0:36:08and the Office Of Works, with its great portfolio of ruins,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10re-examine their priorities.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17It was the magazine Country Life that spotted the problem
0:36:17 > 0:36:19in its Property-For-Sale pages.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24The crisis made a hot story for the newsreel cameras from America.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30'And as one fine old mansion after another is sold
0:36:30 > 0:36:32'for taxes and delivered to the wreckers,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35'bankrupt peers face necessities even more precedent-breaking.
0:36:37 > 0:36:38'The Marquis of Huntly,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41'listed in Burke's Peerage as the premier peer of Scotland,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44'goes out to earn his own bread and butter.'
0:36:46 > 0:36:48And I want a job, as a matter of fact.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51I have an appointment to see the manager.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53I wonder if you could show me about where he is, can you?
0:36:53 > 0:36:56- Certainly, what's the name? - Lord Huntly.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00For the toffs up against it,
0:37:00 > 0:37:03the easy option was to seek their fortune elsewhere.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Many of the biggest country houses were Georgian or Victorian,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12not even old enough to be considered interesting in the 1930s.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14They faced demolition,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18the parklands sold and their collections broken up.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21'Unless something is done
0:37:21 > 0:37:25'to preserve these beautiful old country houses and gardens,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27'in a generation, half of them will be in ruins
0:37:27 > 0:37:29'through taxation and death duties.'
0:37:33 > 0:37:38It's very easy, sitting here in the 21st century,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41to imagine that it was always going to be the National Trust
0:37:41 > 0:37:45that was going to save the nation's country houses.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50But that was far from clear in the 1930s.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53And before the Second World War,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56there was a pretty mixed attitude towards country houses.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59They weren't really regarded as proper heritage,
0:37:59 > 0:38:01they weren't regarded as proper history.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05I mean, Georgian architecture was only really just beginning to be
0:38:05 > 0:38:07properly appreciated like that.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Barrington Court, a great Tudor house in Somerset,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16was much more the people's taste at the time.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19Barrington was the National Trust's
0:38:19 > 0:38:23only big country house purchase in 40 years.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28But it had annoyed the Trust's formidable founder, Octavia Hill.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32The story of the Trust's stately homes
0:38:32 > 0:38:34starts actually with Barrington Court,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36an empty house,
0:38:36 > 0:38:37which they felt they had to save
0:38:37 > 0:38:40and it nearly bankrupted the Trust.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43And there were lots of sort of maybe apocryphal stories
0:38:43 > 0:38:46of every time the National Trust wanted to take on another building,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49people going darkly, "Remember Barrington," you know.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Because it was a complete disaster financially.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55And I think actually that turned the Trust rather against country houses.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57In fact, for a long time
0:38:57 > 0:38:59and certainly, Octavia Hill was very critical
0:38:59 > 0:39:03of all this money being, you know, in her view, wasted on country houses
0:39:03 > 0:39:05instead of open spaces, which she wanted.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09I think that in the early days
0:39:09 > 0:39:11of the discussions within the National Trust
0:39:11 > 0:39:15about how it might get involved in country houses,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17there was huge reluctance to get involved in it.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20I mean, they couldn't see why they should.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Many of the sort of senior people at the National Trust had been
0:39:23 > 0:39:25and were Socialists or Communists even.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28And, you know, suddenly getting involved with all these toffs
0:39:28 > 0:39:29who were in dire straits
0:39:29 > 0:39:32was, you know, an extraordinary step forward.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38But the National Trust was changing.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41From the early years of middle-class philanthropists
0:39:41 > 0:39:44campaigning for the countryside,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47it would become more literary artistic.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49Soon, the aesthetes would arrive.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53And it was beginning to attract a viscount or two,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55even the occasional marquis.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59The Trust in the interwar period became really very aristocratic.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04I mean, the inheritance of Octavia Hill, Rawnsley and Hunter
0:40:04 > 0:40:06had changed quite radically.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08And by the 1930s,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12with the development of the country house concept,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16it was...the language with which it was expressed was quite remarkable.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And there, she said, "We must save country houses
0:40:19 > 0:40:22"in which the people can have weekends."
0:40:22 > 0:40:24And it was taking the concept of the country house weekend
0:40:24 > 0:40:26and trying to nationalise it.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30The tussle was on.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32On the one hand, the Office Of Works.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35On the other, the National Trust.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40The future of the country house hung in the balance.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42What we have to remember is that in the 1930s,
0:40:42 > 0:40:44the Office Of Works had been incredibly successful
0:40:44 > 0:40:47in gathering together a collection of hundreds and hundreds
0:40:47 > 0:40:49and hundreds of historic buildings.
0:40:49 > 0:40:50To get hold of them,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52they had negotiated with aristocratic owners
0:40:52 > 0:40:55and the aristocratic owners had handed over these wonderful ruins,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58abbeys and their old castles and things,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00quite happily to the government that was going to look after them.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04And so, it was seen absolutely naturally within the Office Of Works
0:41:04 > 0:41:08that when the issue of the country house was faced,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12it was going to be the Office Of Works who dealt with them.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17Then, the Trust had a brainwave.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21It proposed taking on country houses in lieu of death duties.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23The houses would open to the public
0:41:23 > 0:41:27while the former owners could continue to live in the houses as tenants.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29The government agreed.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33It would be called "the country house scheme".
0:41:33 > 0:41:35And it looked like a breakthrough.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39But the title home owners were having none of it.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42Many of them were very conservative, they hated the state,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45they didn't want, you know, the state to take over their house.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49The National Trust, with its various tax advantages,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52appeared to be an agency of the state.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59By the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02the scheme had gone nowhere.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05And there were more important things to think about
0:42:05 > 0:42:08as both the British people and its precious old buildings
0:42:08 > 0:42:11faced a new type of conflict.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15For the first time, the cities and towns of Britain
0:42:15 > 0:42:18prepared for a massive onslaught from the skies.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25Air raids had been few and far between in World War One.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Now, the home front, the heritage front,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31would be directly in the firing line.
0:42:31 > 0:42:32SIRENS WAILING
0:42:34 > 0:42:37The London Blitz and the bombing of Coventry
0:42:37 > 0:42:40showed what aerial bombardment could do.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46Britain would retaliate with a raid on the coastal town of Luebeck.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05British bomber command had chosen Luebeck
0:43:05 > 0:43:07because it was an achievable target.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10But it had resulted in the destruction
0:43:10 > 0:43:14of hundreds of fine German medieval buildings.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21Hitler's Minister Of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, wrote in his diary,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26"We will respond by razing English cultural shrines to the ground.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29"That is now to be done on the biggest scale possible."
0:43:29 > 0:43:32And on 27th April 1942,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm, of the German Foreign Office, revealed,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40"We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain
0:43:40 > 0:43:43"marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide."
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Astonishingly, the Luftwaffe was going to picket British targets
0:43:47 > 0:43:50from a heritage guidebook.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54"Of course, Exeter was a sitting target.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57"Just a quiet cathedral city.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59"And the Hun was able to do its worse."
0:43:59 > 0:44:03'By the time it'd finished, the place was well ablaze.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06'Exeter's always been known for the beauty of its squares
0:44:06 > 0:44:08'and crescents and circuses.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13'Many of them today were just groups of bare, blackened masonry.'
0:44:15 > 0:44:17With aerial bombardments,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19you're seeing the deliberate selection
0:44:19 > 0:44:22of historic cities as targets.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26The Baedeker raids -
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Exeter, York, Norwich, Canterbury and Bath.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33So that picking on heritage as a deliberate target
0:44:33 > 0:44:38shows the potency of heritage as a national identifier
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and people's determination to slight it as an act of vengeance,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45an act of blatant aggression.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50'The King and Queen have come to see
0:44:50 > 0:44:54'how Bath now takes its place in Hitler's plan of war.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56'The Germans turned the pages of a travellers' reference book
0:44:56 > 0:45:01'and picked out our beauty spots and historic landmarks for destruction.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04'Bath is famous for both.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06'While they may concentrate their bombers
0:45:06 > 0:45:08'on targets suggested by Mr Baedeker,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11'the RAF will continue to open up the second front
0:45:11 > 0:45:13'in the skies over Germany.'
0:45:17 > 0:45:21The emotional impact of the Baedeker raids
0:45:21 > 0:45:24was to have a profound and long-term effect.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29The bombing of Britain in the Second World War did make people conscious
0:45:29 > 0:45:32of how precious buildings could be.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Before the war when buildings were destroyed, it was progress.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40But when they were bombed, of course, it was a product of Nazi barbarism.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43Often buildings after a bombing raid would be vulnerable,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46if their neighbouring buildings had fallen down, for instance.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49How could you make sure that that building remains standing?
0:45:49 > 0:45:52How could you carry out emergency repairs?
0:45:52 > 0:45:54So the Ministry of Works has a really important part to play
0:45:54 > 0:45:59in upholding, literally, the special interest of those buildings.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03300 architects were appointed by the Government to go round
0:46:03 > 0:46:06the country very quickly and to look at the bombed cities
0:46:06 > 0:46:11and to work out which buildings ought to be kept and repaired
0:46:11 > 0:46:15and which buildings were not so important and could be demolished.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19It was a massive task, covering bombed buildings
0:46:19 > 0:46:23and intact buildings in the firing line.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26In effect, an inventory of the nation's greatest
0:46:26 > 0:46:28architectural assets.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30In peacetime, it would have been resisted
0:46:30 > 0:46:33because these were privately-owned buildings.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35In wartime, it happened
0:46:35 > 0:46:39and it would change the future of heritage protection.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43These salvage surveys became the foundation
0:46:43 > 0:46:45of what we now know as listing
0:46:45 > 0:46:50because the lists that were compiled by the architects
0:46:50 > 0:46:52right in the middle of the war as the bombs were falling
0:46:52 > 0:46:57became the basis of the listing system that we have today.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Listing wasn't going to save your building from being attacked
0:47:01 > 0:47:03from the air by German bombs.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05What listing could do, however,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09was make sure that proper care was taken of it after the bombing raid,
0:47:09 > 0:47:13that every effort was taken to make sure it remained standing
0:47:13 > 0:47:16and thoughtless clearance of a site didn't take place.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22At last, the Office of Works had a system of safeguarding buildings,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26inhabited and with roofs on, not just ruins,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30that did not depend on acquiring them.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35Before long, the listing process would become enshrined in the Town and Country Planning Act.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40To list or not to list would define the post-war heritage world.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44But the Government wasn't the only body making lists.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Before the war, a youthful James Lees-Milne had been working for the National Trust.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56Now, newly-demobbed due to ill-health and back at the trust,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59he set out on a fresh mission to convince the owners
0:47:59 > 0:48:03of the finest country houses to hand them over to the trust.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10Maybe in wartime they would be more open to persuasion.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Many of the owners had abandoned their big houses as they were
0:48:15 > 0:48:17requisitioned by the Government for the war effort.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22Some of Britain's finest houses were now schools for evacuated children,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25hospitals for injured servicemen
0:48:25 > 0:48:30and, worst of all, training camps for the services.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32Many were damaged.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Several had caught fire.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36Most needed urgent repair.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43The waspish Lees-Milne in his diary paints an extraordinary picture
0:48:43 > 0:48:47of a titled class losing its marbles.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49Suicidal earls,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52ladies of the manor living in treehouses
0:48:52 > 0:48:55and baronets down to their last butler.
0:48:56 > 0:49:02He passed judgement on both houses and owners as he travelled
0:49:02 > 0:49:04and was not always complimentary.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08"The house is a hideous, pretentious, genteel,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10"over-restored fake.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14"Just like its inhabitants. A horrible property.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17"I hope it gets bombed."
0:49:17 > 0:49:21But to their faces, he was as nice as pie.
0:49:21 > 0:49:26And the lords and ladies down on their luck seemed to like him.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28Lees-Milne went to Eton.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31He knew many of these families, he spoke to them in their language.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Being quite ruthless about this, he could do it.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39He pulled off, effectively, a giant confidence trick
0:49:39 > 0:49:42on the aristocracy of Britain. He took away their wealth.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47But he said to them, "People like me will look after you.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51"You can stay in the house. You can continue to pretend it's yours.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53"You can continue to enjoy it.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56"You will have the same sense, and your children, most importantly,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00"will have the same sense that it's still your house."
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Lees-Milne needed a prize.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11And at the very top of his shopping list was one of the greatest houses
0:50:11 > 0:50:14in the country, Knole in Kent.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17If he could get Knole for the trust,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21if he could convince its owner the 4th Baron Sackville,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25formerly known as Major-General Sir Charles Sackville-West,
0:50:25 > 0:50:26he would bag for the trust
0:50:26 > 0:50:29a house of unsurpassed architectural splendours
0:50:29 > 0:50:34with furniture and paintings to match.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39Most importantly, he knew other owners of great houses
0:50:39 > 0:50:41would sign their houses over to the trust
0:50:41 > 0:50:45if someone like Lord Sackville led the way.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Built by an Archbishop of Canterbury and dating back to the 15th century,
0:50:49 > 0:50:53Knole is so grand no-one's ever been quite sure
0:50:53 > 0:50:54how many rooms there are.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00These days, it's home to Robert, 7th Baron Sackville.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03This room here.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10It's A terrific portrait there by Sir Joshua Reynolds
0:51:10 > 0:51:12of an Italian dancer
0:51:12 > 0:51:15who was the mistress of John Sackville,
0:51:15 > 0:51:173rd Duke of Dorset.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21We have her there. We've got the third duke there.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24We've got the wife of the third duke,
0:51:24 > 0:51:29with whom he eventually settled down, over the fireplace.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35So they're all meeting in some ghastly family reunion.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Sackville ancestors include a Lord Treasurer to Elizabeth I,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44an ambassador to the court of Louis XIV
0:51:44 > 0:51:47and a flamenco dancer nicknamed Pepita.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50The family survived the Civil War,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52endless disputes over inheritance,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55bouts of transgenerational depression
0:51:55 > 0:51:59and even riots against them by the angry people of nearby Sevenoaks.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05But by the 1940s, for the then incumbent Charles 4th Baron Sackville,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09it looked as though the game was up.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13In the dark days of war, Knole had reached its lowest ebb.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17Pretty much ever since a Sackville family member lived here
0:52:17 > 0:52:19in the early 17th century
0:52:19 > 0:52:22the house has been simply too big
0:52:22 > 0:52:25for the means of the Sackville family.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29So they have struggled or tended to struggle over centuries with debt.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Certainly my great uncle Charlie often thought that he
0:52:32 > 0:52:36or at least his son would be the last Sackvilles to live at Knole.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40It was seen to be a massive burden rather than a pleasure
0:52:40 > 0:52:45and he, I think, realised that something had to be done.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51And Charlie and James Lees-Milne started to talk
0:52:51 > 0:52:54about what might happen to Knole.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58I mean, James Lees-Milne describes some of these conversations
0:52:58 > 0:53:04and what he says about Charlie is that Charlie was very charming,
0:53:04 > 0:53:06but entered into these discussions with a great,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10if not suspicion, with a certain wariness.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16There were no precedents for what happened to houses such as this
0:53:16 > 0:53:18when taken over by the National Trust
0:53:18 > 0:53:22and more specifically what happened to their owners.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25But James Lees-Milne wanted a deal. He wanted Knole.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Negotiations took the best part of two years
0:53:30 > 0:53:32and were frequently exasperating.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35But in October, 1943,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39the London Times announced that a deal had been struck.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44The terms were generous to the Sackville family.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46But Lees-Milne had his prize.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53In 1946, the Sackville family handed over the house.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57So began the first modern marriage of a titled family
0:53:57 > 0:53:59and the National Trust.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06From a family perspective,
0:54:06 > 0:54:13we, I guess, are very grateful to James Lees-Milne
0:54:13 > 0:54:15for acquiring Knole
0:54:15 > 0:54:22and acquiring it on terms that are relatively beneficial to the family.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28Knole was a very good deal for the Sackville family.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32But, no, each of the deals were fit for purpose at the time
0:54:32 > 0:54:35and there was a serious risk of Knole, in effect,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37disappearing from the public realm
0:54:37 > 0:54:41and the negotiators at the time did the best deal they could
0:54:41 > 0:54:44and that happened in almost all the cases.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48The outcome is quite remarkable.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Knole's open to the public.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Knole is safe. The estate is safe.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55The objects in the house are safe.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Knole is a success story.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01If you'd asked me, would we do such a deal now? No, we wouldn't.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03The circumstances are very different now.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09Today the trust is carrying out a £17 million restoration
0:55:09 > 0:55:12to make Knole weatherproof,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17replace rotten timbers and window frames and repair stonework.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20It's a massive operation over five years.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26After the acquisition of Knole by the trust,
0:55:26 > 0:55:30many house owners followed Lord Sackville into the trust stable.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34No other deal would be quite as generous again.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38But it had convinced the British aristocracy that the trust
0:55:38 > 0:55:41was the only way forward.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44But it wasn't quite the end of the story.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47In 1946, the Office of Works,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50still determined to get into the country house game,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53went after the finest Jacobean house in the country,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Audley End in Essex.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59It would be a final skirmish.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04They scrapped about it. James Lees-Milne was incredibly rude
0:56:04 > 0:56:07about the Office of Works, calling them tasteless.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11And I suspect, probably behind closed doors, the Office of Works was
0:56:11 > 0:56:13very rude about the National Trust,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17thinking they were a load of aesthetes who didn't know anything about buildings.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20The National Trust was very, very keen to have the house.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23The Office of Works was very, very keen to have the house.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25It would have been their first country house
0:56:25 > 0:56:29and they very much saw that as potentially the founding house
0:56:29 > 0:56:33of a big collection of what they thought were probably going to be
0:56:33 > 0:56:36the top dozen houses. That's what they would like to have.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39They had the top dozen castles. They had the top dozen abbeys.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42They had the top dozen prehistoric monuments.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45So, quite naturally, they wanted the top dozen houses.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49In the end, the Office of Works got its prize
0:56:49 > 0:56:51in the form of Audley End.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54But it was a short-lived victory.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56As post-war austerity loomed,
0:56:56 > 0:57:00the Treasury stamped firmly on the Office of Works' ambitions.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03As a matter of fact, our report's on its way to you today...
0:57:03 > 0:57:06A Government report decided the National Trust was the place
0:57:06 > 0:57:11for houses and the rest, as they say, is history.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15Back at Knole, it's business as usual for the National Trust
0:57:15 > 0:57:19and history has moved on from an obsession with the gilded past
0:57:19 > 0:57:21of dukes and earls.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25We've got a group of people who are slightly lower down
0:57:25 > 0:57:29and we've got a group of people who are a bit higher up.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Some of you are clearly rich people.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36Some of you are very clearly not rich people.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39And what we're going to do now is we're going to look...
0:57:43 > 0:57:46The interwar years had seen the men from the Ministry
0:57:46 > 0:57:50open hundreds of the nation's ruins to the public,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52the National Trust had evolved to take on the mantle
0:57:52 > 0:57:55of the country house
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and amidst the ruins of the second world war,
0:57:58 > 0:58:00the listing system was born.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05Now the nation's framework to safeguard its most precious
0:58:05 > 0:58:08old buildings was in place.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11But how would it cope with the modern world?
0:58:13 > 0:58:15In next week's programme,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19fighting for the most famous monument to the railway age...
0:58:20 > 0:58:23..Betjeman and Pevsner go head to head,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26sexing up the stately home for mass consumption...
0:58:27 > 0:58:30..and just how modern can heritage get?
0:58:31 > 0:58:34For more information about English Heritage's
0:58:34 > 0:58:37complementary exhibition to the series visit...
0:59:05 > 0:59:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd