East Restoring England's Heritage

From managing the land to defending it from invasion,

from the more frivolous requirements of tourism

to the sterner demands of religion -

all these have left their mark

on the buildings which have given character to the Eastern counties.

This is terrific, isn't it?

But some of our best buildings are under threat.

Across the East of England,

nearly 200 of them, from churches to wartime bunkers,

are officially listed as at risk.

In this programme, I'll visit some of the buildings

and meet the campaigners fighting to save them.

I'm ready. I'm going to give it all I can.

What does it take to rescue a ruin?

We've been at this for ten years now.

It has all come together as something really rather special.

Who foots the bill?

The repair alone is likely to be 2-2.5 million.

And which buildings should be saved?

-One of our previous rectors did want to knock it down.

-Yeah?

Conservation experts at English Heritage keep a list

of buildings at risk.

They're not all beautiful buildings.

Sometimes it's the history which makes them important

and inspires people to save them.

This concrete block at Bawdsey in Suffolk is well worth rescuing.

It looks a wreck today

'but the people who worked here played a crucial role

'in saving the country from invasion during World War II.'

-This is such an important site, isn't it?

-It certainly is, really.

It is the first of the many radar sites that were set up

around the United Kingdom.

-The Germans knew about radar.

-Yes.

But they didn't know how it was going to be developed so effectively

to take on the Luftwaffe. That's the point, isn't it?

The secret was actually getting the information and coordinating it.

By the end of the Second World War,

there were over 250 radar stations around the coastline

and the information from those

was all fed into central locations,

processed and then tactical decisions made by the command.

While Britain's spotters and warning centres track the enemy planes,

I watch the island's defences go into action.

The outnumbered few fought back with more than blood, sweat and tears.

They had Spitfires and Hurricanes in their aircraft arsenal,

and a modest but well-trained force of airmen.

Now, if you hadn't had this network of radar stations,

what would have happened in the Battle of Britain?

We would have lost the Battle of Britain.

We just didn't have the aircraft, the pilots, the ground crew, the fuel

to maintain what we call standing patrols,

ie getting aircraft flying around the sky

on the off chance they might run into the enemy.

Outside the block stood four transmitter aerials,

each more than 100 metres tall.

After the station closed,

they were demolished one by one.

The last one came down in the year 2000,

to be replaced by the coastguard aerial you see today.

It was just too much for Mary Wain,

and she joined the rescue campaign.

That was where I was born, that was my home.

'Like many restoration volunteers,

'Mary has a personal reason for wanting to save the building.

'During the war'

her parents fell in love while serving at the radar base.

But when she was growing up in Bawdsey,

she knew nothing of their secret work.

I do remember my mother saying

-that the people on the other side of the river...

-Right.

..thought the people who lived in Bawdsey had green heads.

-Really? Because it was strange?

-So I think it was trying to say

that it was secret and was strange.

And how did you get involved in the trust to keep the memory

of the radar station alive, apart from anything else?

It really came about when they took the last radar tower down,

and my mother always referred to the remaining tower at Bawdsey

as her tower

and I realised when that had been taken down

that there was a chance that Bawdsey would just disappear,

that nobody would be able to come here,

and I just thought it was basically terrible

because I knew that it was such a huge part of...

actually, all of our lives, the radar story, and it all began here.

Soon after Mary joined the campaign

to save the transmitter block,

it featured on the BBC's Restoration programme.

This is marvellous, isn't it? This is a really defended staircase.

Concrete retaining walls, concrete steps going down, protected.

Fight your way through the forest...

Viewers voted for the building

they most wanted to be saved, and Bawdsey was runner-up.

It just missed out on the £3 million prize

that might have paid for the block to be fully restored.

Instead, it spent the past ten years in limbo, while volunteers,

including Mary, tried to turn their love for the building

into the hard cash they need to safeguard its future as a museum.

Oh, here we are.

-We are back in the 1940s, aren't we?

-We certainly are.

'They have already created a small display area inside,

'but the whole place is crying out for restoration.'

The equipment we can see here

would have all been over towards where that back wall is.

-The control desk literally just in front of us here...

-Right.

And, of course, what they were doing here was literally saving the lives

of our pilots and controlling everything that happened.

They were sworn to secrecy under the Official Secrets Act,

and even now, a lot of them really don't want to talk about it.

The building itself starts that story off.

We're all used to sort of big castles as being history,

but we've produced a castle in the air with radar

and this is a fundamental part of that.

'Everyone who visits agrees this place is special

'so why has it taken so long to save it?

'A question for English Heritage,

'who are working with the volunteers to devise a solution.'

This building did well in the Restoration programmes ten years ago

but it's been very difficult since, hasn't it,

to get it lifted off the ground?

It has. These are problem buildings.

They're not that attractive, actually, when it really comes to it

but they're a vital part of our nation's heritage

and the national story.

These are ugly. Compare this with a cathedral or something,

that's easy for you to sort out, isn't it?

Yes, but this is one of the most important buildings in Britain.

This building went out of use decades ago, hasn't had a use since,

so really what you need to do

is to actually get that use back into the building

and get people enjoying it,

understanding it and following through the interpretation

and the stories that these amazing buildings have.

Sorting that out takes time and money.

This summer, the volunteers took a huge step forward

when they secured funding for a detailed plan

to protect the building's future.

The lottery have come forward and awarded nearly £100,000

to get all the studies done to look at the fabric needs of the building

plus what's actually required to get it functioning as a heritage site.

'Nearly £100,000, and that's just to prepare a plan.

'After that, the volunteers can bid for more cash

'to complete the restoration, which would cost over £1 million.

'But how do you put a price on a site like this?'

We've been at this for ten years now, you know,

it's totally voluntary.

It has all come together as something really rather special.

What do you think your mother would think if she knew you were going to

devote all this time to keeping the building going?

I think she would have been absolutely thrilled.

The radar was hers, I think,

though she was unable to tell us.

It's one thing to turn a working building into a museum, but what

do you do with a visitor attraction that no longer pulls in the crowds?

From more than 100 years, Great Yarmouth was a magnet for tourists,

drawn here by the fresh air

and a wealth of extraordinary buildings designed

to keep them entertained - and dry - when the sun failed to shine.

In the words of the song, we do like to be beside the seaside,

and for Great Yarmouth and the other resorts,

the answer was obvious - give people a lot of sand,

you've got the sea,

and when the sun shines, everyone is happy.

But what happens when it rains and the season is over?

This was Yarmouth's solution - the Winter Gardens.

It went up in 1903, paid for by the council

and for decades it breathed life into the town.

Over the years, it was reinvented many times,

from elegant greenhouse to music venue, skating arena,

and most recently, a children's adventure playground.

But five years ago, it finally fell empty,

beached on the shores of fashion.

Well, this is one of the finest buildings in Great Yarmouth, and

one of the most important historic buildings in Great Yarmouth as well.

DOOR CREAKS AND JUDDERS

Rough, isn't it, to get in? OK.

-Quite a rickety building, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

'The council used to lease it out to commercial operators,

'but now they're just left to pick up the bills.'

This part was tacked on, it's not part of the original structure.

Right, and what we see

as we come here... Oh, yes!

This is terrific, isn't it?

It's a wonderful building, isn't it?

It is. It is a very special building.

It's like a metal and glass cathedral.

At the time, it was cutting edge. It was really state of the art

because you had the technology

of the metal, you had the glass, you had electric light,

and so the building was flooded

with electric lights.

So when people came in here,

they would be just thinking, "This is a new age,

"a new age of glass and metal and the future beckons."

It was the shock of the new.

The porthole windows all the way around the building were lit

and so it would have been to light out along the whole of the seafront,

it would have been a beacon on the seafront.

And for the town, this and other buildings

make up an extraordinary collection, don't they?

We have one of the finest collections

of Edwardian entertainment architecture in the country

and the Winter Gardens is the gem building.

But for you, of course, it's problems, isn't it, for the council?

This is just difficulty, difficulty, difficulty.

Well, we've got a building which is eroding, it's deteriorating,

it's unstable, probably dangerous,

we haven't got a use for it,

there are no end of problems associated with this building.

Let's just have a look around.

What's happened here?

We're getting moisture coming into the building.

It's swollen timber on the floor.

-That's water coming up?

-That's water damage, yeah.

And these are bits, what? These are bits of metal?

Bits of metal that have fallen away from the metal structure.

-That poor bird.

-Yes. Yeah.

It looks like a starling.

-Starling flying around here, can't get out.

-Yeah.

There was a time when you thought it might blow down, was that...?

There is an emergency evacuation plan

whereby if the wind reaches a certain speed from a certain direction,

there is a risk, potential risk that the building could blow over.

We've taken expert advice on that,

and we've slightly revised that, but there was a period a few years ago

when there was an evacuation plan.

'The council keep a weather eye on the building.

'It's regularly checked over by structural surveyors.

'Stuart Armitage has offered to give me a closer look at its problems.'

I'm ready. I'm going to give it all I can.

Can't say I feel totally safe.

STUART LAUGHS

So, we're going up into the lantern now,

and I suppose this is really the most ingenious or adventurous

part of the design.

But it's also the most dangerous bit, isn't it?

If this comes down, the whole building collapses.

That's right, and indeed,

in the past, this is why they've put in this secondary steel frame,

really just to provide some additional support to the lantern.

HAMMER TAPS ON METAL

-I'm going to give this a bang.

-That's right.

Now can I go into there?

-That all seems solid, doesn't it?

-That is.

-That's very bad.

-Yeah, very bad.

And of course, not only what you can see but actually between

those back-to-back pieces, there is a lot of rust in there as well.

-So, we've carried out our inspection.

-Yes.

And what's your conclusion?

Well, I mean, the vast majority of what we can see is fine.

So this building will not fall down?

-No, but...

-Are you sure?

Well, we've had some fairly good winds recently and it's still here,

but the important thing is, it is gradually, slowly getting worse

due to the corrosion all the time,

so now is the time we have to step in and do something.

No-one wants to let this building die.

The problem for the Council is justifying the huge cost

of restoring it with so many other calls on their money.

But a solution is starting to take shape.

It would link the rebirth of the Winter Gardens

to a wider regeneration

of Yarmouth's wonderful collection of old buildings.

In a nearby cemetery,

apprentices are being trained in traditional building skills.

Some go on to work on other buildings in the town,

including the old church of St George's.

It was relaunched last year as a theatre after a £7 million refit,

which created much-needed jobs for people in this area.

The Winter Gardens are next on the council list.

It won't be cheap, but the money spent here

could ripple out to benefit the local economy.

The council plan to turn the building back into

a plant-filled winter garden,

with help from the Royal Horticultural Society.

We've been very lucky that the Royal Horticultural Society

have been to visit the building, and have offered to provide us

with advice on planting and all those sort of aspects of horticulture.

-How much will it cost?

-Well, it will be millions.

I think the repair alone is likely to be 2-2.5 million.

Then the fit-outs, probably another million on top of that.

And the joy, I suppose, of this, is that it's not being reinvented,

it's going back to its original purpose.

-That's wonderful, isn't it?

-That's right.

You see so many other buildings which have to find new uses,

not always appropriate.

The beauty in this one is, it's going back to its original use.

-The Winter Gardens lives on!

-It does, yeah.

-For ever, we hope.

Some old buildings can be restored to their original purpose.

But others on the English Heritage risk list need reinvention.

What we're trying to come up with is new uses

and exciting new uses for buildings.

Preserving what's special,

not only to do with their vital and important fabric,

but really to look at what new uses might fit for certain buildings.

That was the challenge for Stevens' Windmill

at Burwell in Cambridgeshire.

It closed for business around 60 years ago,

but after limping along for years, it's about to reopen,

not as a mill, but as a community centre and museum.

And the inside of the mill, in terms of decoration and stuff,

is all coming on nicely.

Jane Phillimore is part of the team

behind the rebirth of this village landmark.

I was amazed the first time I saw it.

Here it is, this building stuck in the middle of a 1970s estate,

and it was pretty derelict. The outside had just fallen off.

It was sort of rotten, and obviously, water was leaking in underneath.

The fantail at the top wasn't turning.

So you got the sense of history here,

but just rotting away in a really terrible way.

HAMMERING

After it closed in the 1950s,

developers bought the adjacent land to build houses.

If it hadn't been a listed building protected by law,

a bungalow would probably stand here today.

Instead, a local trust bought the building for £5,

and made it the centrepiece of a village museum.

It cost almost nothing to buy,

but it needed a lot more money to restore, and that's taken years.

Local volunteers worked to stop the building falling into ruin,

until last year, when they secured funding

from the Heritage Lottery to return it to full working order.

I wrote a lot of documentation.

Probably about 22 different documents on various levels,

from finance documents through to concept documents,

and then submitted it to the Heritage Lottery Fund,

and they then come, meet, assess,

and see if it's what they can put their money into, and in the end,

they went with us and they said they could, which was great.

So they gave us £420,000.

You need lots of plans.

You need millwrights, architects' drawings,

you needed assessment of the damage,

and you need really also to sort of build up some programmes

that will help the mill go into the future and sustain itself.

The machinery inside has all been restored under the watchful eye

of mill consultant Luke Bonwick,

but the outside of the building still needs some finishing touches.

Last summer, the fantail was repaired,

and hoisted back into position.

But what's a windmill without sails?

In the millwright's workshop, there are sails,

ready to be reinstated once the weather improves.

By next year, the whole place will be shipshape, inside and out,

the landmark building that Paul remembers visiting as a youngster.

In 1948, when I was about 13,

I used to help on the local farm in Horsley,

and I brought corn here on the horse and cart.

I wasn't strong enough

to handle the sacks,

so I backed the horse and cart to the ramp downstairs.

The thing is, these men years ago

used to put these sacks on their back and go up steps with them.

They were barley, sacks of barley, two hundredweight.

If you look at the old steps which we took out of this mill,

you can see where the millers' hobnailed boots have worn

the steps right down.

Yeah, and European legislation wouldn't let you do that now.

-Oh, crikey, no.

-25 kilo bags?

You'd have a forklift truck or something like that.

I remember the millers being part of the village, like the church.

Some days you'd come up the village, you'd see the mill going,

else you'd be across the heath, you could see the mill turn.

In them days, the village would have been a funny old place

without the windmill.

Get the noose around the chain,

it'll pull taut when we lift the sack right up through.

In the old days, this mill was used as the hub of the community.

People came here, they brought their grains up to be made into flour

and to be able to be used.

Our aim is to really sort of make this again a community hub,

where that same sort of community involvement happens here,

happens in this fantastic space that's been restored.

Phew!

It's blinking heavy.

Only another 100 more to go! That's why they needed wind power.

-The whole village has asked, when are the sails going up?

-Yeah.

And, you know, the whole village is looking forward to it,

-and it'll be good.

-Yeah.

-And it might even grind a bag or two of flour.

-It might! It might.

Yes.

Successful restoration projects

aren't simply a case of saving

the fabric of the building. They are also about giving it a purpose.

That's what saved Greyfriars Tower in King's Lynn,

a finalist in the original Restoration programme.

Thanks to a campaign by locals,

the leaning tower was restored in 2009

to create a visitor attraction.

But the volunteers working to save this ruined church

have invented a more radical solution

to save their cherished landmark.

There's something melancholic about seeing gravestones like this,

pushed to one side, no longer linked to graves.

There's not been a proper church on this site for 150 years,

but all is certainly not lost.

The old church of St Mary's in Clophill, Bedfordshire,

is being given a new lease of life.

Old St Mary's hasn't been a church since the 1850s.

It became a ruin, and a target for vandals.

It was the first in the country to be included

on the English Heritage At Risk list,

and the villagers were determined to bring it back to life.

-It's a long way from the village, isn't it?

-It is, it is.

It's about half a mile up the hill from the village,

and that's part of the problem, or a considerable part of the problem,

that we've had with the project, really,

because, over the last 60 years,

we've had an awful lot of antisocial and criminal activity

because of the site's remoteness, from fly-tipping to vandalism,

desecration of the church.

For the people in the village and the wider community

who have got relatives buried here, it's very upsetting,

and fewer people feel comfortable coming to the site.

We're hoping that we'll be finished, sort of, spring 2014,

but it's quite a big project.

You do seem to have a lot of work to do. There's no roof!

We're not actually going to put the route back on again.

We did look originally at completely restoring the monument,

but looking at it over the last two or three years,

we've come to the conclusion that was the wrong thing to do.

So it's going to be, when it's finished,

it's still going to be a ruin, but a picturesque ruin?

Although there are no plans to turn the clock back

for the whole building, the tower will be restored

to make a viewing platform.

But the main body of the church will remain open to the skies.

Right, well, we're now inside the nave,

but a bit of a mess, isn't it?

Well, it is a mess, but it's so interesting.

There have been so many changes to this church.

Just come and have a look over here.

How old is the church, do you think?

Well, we believe, we've been told,

that it probably dates from pre-Conquest times.

Right, so that's before 1066.

Before 1066. It's the thickness of the walls that indicate that.

So, these great big walls, they were here before the Normans invaded?

Probably.

All right, now tell me other things.

Well, this is one of probably 12 consecration marks.

-This is the mark here?

-Yes.

When the church was consecrated,

the bishop would have anointed the church in 12 places,

but if you notice, the top of the mark is missing.

You can see, it could go round there, couldn't it?

Well, it would have done. It would have been a perfect circle,

which to me, would suggest that it was there

before these windows were put in.

So, the windows, the great big windows,

-they wouldn't have been original, would they?

-Oh, no,

-the walls wouldn't have withstood that.

-No.

These were put in, probably in the middle of the 15th century.

-Right.

-They were perpendicular windows.

So we're seeing a thriving community over the centuries, aren't we?

-Constantly changing the church.

-Absolutely.

-Making it better.

-Yes.

-Because they wanted to show off,

-and make sure that they had a fancy church.

-Absolutely.

So, you're seeing the whole of British history is here,

-isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Now, what if someone had suggested

that it should be just knocked down, you know, why bother?

Well, I'm afraid one of our previous rectors

-did want to knock it down.

-Really?

-He thought that it was...

..a magnet for antisocial behaviour, and that if it wasn't here,

the antisocial behaviour would have stopped.

But several of us didn't think that would actually happen.

-No, and also, it's sort of shocking, isn't it?

-Well, we were shocked.

We actually said, "No! Definitely not."

-Yeah. And this, you feel, it's your church, isn't it?

-Yes.

We've got 1,000 years of people

walking up this hill to worship up here.

Adrienne's enthusiasm is wonderful, but volunteers alone

can't defend this site from the vandals who spoiled it in the past.

Which is where these buildings come in.

They're purpose-built lodges for visitors.

They're part of the church restoration,

but it's also hoped they will attract people

walking the nearby Greensands Ridgeway,

and having visitors here should help deter troublemakers.

We've got a full-time warden that lives in the central accommodation.

That's here, yeah.

We have a reception area above it, an interpretation area,

and then the two buildings on each side will be the accommodation

lodges that people can rent.

And these are environmentally friendly, aren't they?

Yes, they're eco-lodges. The cedar will dull down over the years

and become silvered to match the trees.

Right. And it makes a bit of money?

Yes, we don't think we'll be millionaires out of it,

but we'll be able to afford to keep the warden here on a long-term basis.

So, once you've got people always on the site, you can make sure that

people don't mess around with the church, that vandals don't go back?

It's a solution to maintaining the progress you make

with stabilising the ruin.

-That's a great solution, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's unique, yes.

-Yeah.

English Heritage are delighted with the Clophill project,

and the way it solves one of their most difficult problems.

Tell me what you thought of this when you first saw it.

I thought, a wonderful site, but what a set of problems here.

Serious heritage crime, graffiti, vandalism, and for me,

what should have been a straightforward conservation project

has taken years to get to this point.

But it was the first building to go onto the At Risk register.

Absolutely. Number one in England,

so really what we were looking for was some

constructive and creative solutions here.

-And that's why it took so long?

-That's right.

It really took the community to come together

and actually come up with those solutions,

and for us at English Heritage to really work with them

to actually arrive at what we're getting to today.

So, this can be a sort of role model, can it?

Well, it could absolutely because, really, sometimes,

for the most problem buildings, the ones that have been on the register

for years, which have defied easy conservation solutions,

sometimes something really innovative and exciting

needs to happen to make it a sustainable project.

Looking at all these different sorts of buildings,

I have been able to see how restoration involves

much more than simply rebuilding.

Money and lots of it is often of course vital,

but you also need skill, enthusiasm, and passion.

Yes, a love for old buildings.

I've always loved it.

It's such a beautiful place.

What's particularly interested me in making these programmes

is the way that restoration projects have changed in recent years.

They've become more sophisticated.

It's not just a matter of "save this church".

Now they look at the whole site.

In the restoration business, history doesn't just stand still,

it's brought right up-to-date.