South Restoring England's Heritage

My name's Tom Holland. I'm an historian and I've always had a

passion for bringing the past back to life. In a way this car here, a

Morris Minor convertible, bears witness to a similar passion. It's

been beautifully restored by an owner, it is a gem of motoring

heritage. He spent time and money getting it back to how it would have

looked back in the showroom some 40 years ago.

In this programme, I will be heading off in this piece of history on with

had wheels to explore three sites that people are desperate to

preserve. I'll be visiting a building with links to Dickens and

Australia. We are Portsmouthest most haunted building. The site of a gun

foundry next to a lake, and a former hospital founded in memory of a man

killed by an elephant. For a building that's Grade 2 listed to be

allowed to get into this state is a crime. Should they be saved, and, if

so, what to do with them? And I'll catch up with build pension featured

in the BBC Two Restoration series. They all have remarkable stories to

tell, not just about the past itself but about the way that people today

react to the past. I've come to the Isle of Wight,

which for a shawl place has an incredible number of grand Victorian

buildings, the most famous is Queen victor's own, Osborne House. This

one is more modest, more run down, but for more than a century it had

had a central role to play in the life of people here in east cows. ``

east Cowes. This is a perfectly normal looking street. The houses

are the kind you would find all over Britain, but what this street has

which most streets don't have is an extraordinary building, a mini

Hogwarts. It is just further down the road over here. That is really

splendid. In fact it used to be a hospital, the Frank James Memorial

Hospital, and it was opened back in 1903 by the magnificently named

Princess Henry of Battenburg, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria.

It is a masterpiece of neo`gothic, designed by one of the great

Victorian architects. He was the swear of Westminster Abbey, which

may explain the period atmosphere that it has got. Unsurprisingly it

is a Grade 2 building. It is a significant building but as you can

see it is also in a state of chronic disrepair. What I'm going to do now

is meet Tanya Rebel, the leader of a group of locals who want to keep it

going. Welcome to Frank James. Hi. Nice to meet you. What an amazing

place you've got here. Isn't it just. I immediately noticed there is

a white elephant on the side over there. I guess this is a bit of a

white elephant, because presumably it is not a hospital any more. When

did it stop being a hospital? 2002. Sadly it has been standing like this

ever since it was bought. The former hospital was purchased by a

consortium who planned to divide the building into 11 flats, but planning

issues and financial problems prevented the work from going ahead.

Some of the units ended up repossessed by mortgage lenders and

some of these when the banking crisis hit crashed themselves. The

issue of who o ss the building is a paralysing mess. How do locals feel

that this incredible building has been left to sit here? They are

very, very upset in actual fact. They are furious, because such a

lovely building. It was a very love Liberal Democrat cottage hospital.

This is a great community spirit in east Cowes. When we got in here we

couldn't see the front door. There was so much vegetation, we had to

fight our way. In It has the detailing that you generally don't

find in a hospital. Over the door here, that Medieval knight? There

are some interesting features here and there is a lovely plaque to do

with the fact in this building was originally a seamen's mission. And

that plaque says Ye who within these walls do meet pray ye find a safe

place to meet. There is a nautical theme suggesting a memorial to a

sailor. So who was Frank James? Rich, young, Victorian, Frank James

set out to become an explorer. He travelled in the Sudan, Somalia,

India and Mexico, touring the world in his own yacht, the Lancashire

Witch. They celebrated their birthday in classic Victorian

fashion, with an elephant hunt. Frank shot and wounded an elephant,

which charged and wounded him. James was buried in the Sussex village of

West Dean. His brother set up a home for retired seamen. They built it in

east Cowes. The building wasn't a semen's mission for long, perhaps

because the retired sea dog dogs seem to have been a nuisance. It was

a cottage hospital until its closure in 2002. You used to work here? I

did, in the operating theatre, for eight years. When was the last time

you came here? About 20 years ago. I imagine it has changed quite a bit.

Let's open it and see what it's like. Kevin, I guess a bit of a

change? It certainly is. I can remember coming in here, coming to

work, coming up these stairs to the changing room. There used to be

accommodation for the matron. The wards were on this level. There was

a female ward to our left and the male word was ward was on the

right`hand side. Let's have a look at some of the wards. This is

towards the operating theatre, where I used to work. Is there is a large

wall in the way. Presumably there wasn't a wall here originally? No,

there wasn't. Along this corridor we had church pews and when we had

outpatients people would be sat there. How do you feel now? It is

depressing to though the hospital stands empty which was meant to be

used for the community of east Cowes. The hospital had always been

at the heart of the community and indeed it was partly funded by local

donations. Even though it has been closed for years now that strong

sense of community involvement has continued. In fact it is a building

that means so much to locals that every month they turn out to work on

the grounds. John. Let me interrupt you. You must be one of the friends

who... This place is really important to you. What memories does

this have for you, what's the significance? My mother, a retired

nurse, used to be a nurse down here in the late 1960s and early '70s. My

father passed away here in 1977. He was well looked after in his final

weeks. One could argue it should be painful memories but it is almost as

if the building is embracing you. That's how I feel when I stand here.

The building itself, makes you feel safe. The important thing is that it

is saved, that it is used again, and that work is started to reverse the

damage we are seeing now. The only people taking an interest in it at

the moment apart from us are the thieves and the vandals. Ironically

the architect who designed this building was once a chairman of the

Associate for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an organisation

which still today has clear views on how to preserve our architectural

inheritance. The best way of conserving "Old Benny" buildings is

finding ways this they can be used for the present and the future. Off

than can mean simple works of protection, emergency roofs,

mothballing we sometimes call it, which just means holding back the

decay for the short term until a better prospect of use can come

along. I asked the councillor why the council hadn't stepped in. The

We will continue to try to knock heads together and move forward, but

we cannot commit any finance. We cannot commit the council to put out

an urgent repair notice for instance. And we will not do this

with any buildings that have a complexity of ownership. I hope it

works out for the friends, that they are able to get funding the, but it

means counted funding the. It is not just a matter of saying willy`nilly

we have this building, it is a very costly business indeed I'm so

frustrated that this building has got into this state. We are told

this and told that. This will happen, nothing happens. And for a

building which is Grade 2 list Liberal Democrat to have been

allowed to get into this horrendous state is a crime. It is criminal. I

can't see a clear future for Frank James at the moment.

So how do building like the Frank James Hospital get saved? Perhaps

lessons can be learned from the BBC's Restoration series. Here's

what happened to Sherborne House in Dorset, which was in a very sorry

state when featured in the programme. Although it didn't win,

the coverage raised the profile of the building a great deal. We did

rev some funds to do some research and development to see what it would

take to restore the entire building the. It was a massive job. This then

resulted in the house being sold. Which is actually I think probably

the best thing that could have happened, because the council

negotiated with the new owner, who wanted to build on some of the

brownfield site behind the build ng a contract with them which meant

they had to restore the house, the house has been restore externally.

And the restoration internally is currently going through agreement

process. The most notable future of Sherborne House is the fabulous

thorn they will staircase that. Too has been fully restored. They had to

clean off the grime and take the painting right back to the original.

Thereafter, they removed also what had been add since. A lot of the

overpainting in fact was rather clumsy. Some of it completely

inappropriate. It is now looking beautiful. They have done a very

good job. It's been heartening I think for the friends of Sherborne

House, who raised the ?60,000 necessary to do the work. There is

an agreement apparently written down, no`one seem to be able to find

it now, that a gallery or public access to the build willing be

maintained and there'll be an ongoing arts programme at the house.

It is a great joy to see sit. One is very fond of it having looked at it

so often but it is as beautiful perhaps as it has ever been it is a

sheer joy to see it in its present state.

This is Tern Hurst in West Sussex. It might seem the image of a rural

idyll but appearances can be deceptive. This is one of the places

that's been slated as a possible centre for fracking. In the past as

well, the village like much of the rest of the Weald was the centre of

something unexamined ` England's iron industry.

People think of it as a wonderful landscape, but it is a landscape

that's been shaped by people over 500,000 years. Some of that shaping

has been very gentle and is about farming and some of it is mainly

industrial activity of the for us today it is hard to imagine this was

a place where so many people lived and worked in what would have been a

hot, noisy, smelly and dangerous business, casting iron and making

guns for the Navy. The Weald was once a huge forest stretching for

10020 miles across Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. In Old English it means

fovrmts it was once with full of furnaces. `` it means forest. The

this is a replica of the kind of furnace that powered that industry.

The kind of furnace that you would once have found all over the Weald.

To the untrained eye, this might not look like much, but in its heyday

the furnace here was at the heart of Britain's iron industry. It is the

best surviving example of an iron works anywhere in West Sussex.

Jeremy Hodgkinson is an expert in the history of the local iron

industry. Back in the 17th century this would be ham hearing, steam,

clamour... Yes. Absolutely. You wouldn't... The trees here wouldn't

have been around. The demand for wood was enormous. What scale are we

talking about here, what wealth was being generated? Considerable

wealth. Large numbers of landowners were becoming involved in it. Wealth

was being created at a time when it was economically prosperous for the

country as aling with. So it was like the forerunners of the iron

masters of the Industrial Revolution but down here instead of the North?

Yes, iron master was a term first used in the Weald before anywhere

else. That must be a course of Sussex pride. Of course it is. So is

sit still being used? Yes, very much so. There is a change in the use at

that time, because pretty well all the furnaces in the Weald were

changing over to gun founding. This was no exception. The evidence is

there in the structures that you can see today. And here is a good

example. You can see in the remains here down where Robin is now. In a

move not without contemporary echoes the iron industry was killed off by

a decision made in London. A big contract for guns was given to a

Scottish company, which offered a much lower price. Most of the gun

foundries of the Weald lost out, and many of the furnaces at that time

found it very difficult to continue. The sad thing about it is there are

no physical remains apart from places like this to indicate there

was ever an iron industry in this area. Which is what makes this spot

so precious. Indeed. This is a rare example of a site where there is a

lot still to be seen. Robin, hi, how's the industrial archaeology

coming on? Robin's family have owned this wood for over 250 years. He

took part in the detailed excavation of the site in 1987. We are standing

in the middle of the gun`casting pit. You can see the bricks all the

way around. That would probably have been another 1 foot or 18 inches

higher than that, so you are level with the base of the furnace and the

iron ore would have come out of the furnace there. It would run straight

out into the moulds. In front of us would have been the two water

wheels. It seems curious to have water so close to molten iron but I

believe this is a standard configure in iron furnaces. Water from that

man`made lake powered the bellows. These heated the furnace to the

temperatures required to melt the iron ore. It is water from this lake

that's now threatening to sweep away what remains. This looks like

something of a fantasy novel. What is going on here? This is what we

call the water relief spill`way. This is where the controlled, this

is where they controlled the level of the pond. Sluice boards here

would control the water. And now it is collapsing is it? That's why you

have put these here? That's right. How close was it to collapse? That's

anyone's guess. If it did, the the wonder would drain out, so

downstream the Environment Agency would be having kittens. We would

have lost the foot path over the top, that's the County Council's

responsibility. So a plethora of bad things basically. Absolutely. We've

got to make sure it is secured. Visitors to the site are currently

restricted, but if money can be raised for the urgently needed

repairs this furnace could once again offer visitors a window on to

a vanished industrial past. We would like it to be available to people.

That's what a place like this is for. We find that people are not

quite so fond of stately homes, to imagine that in their own life, but

a place like this everyone can imagine that their anti`seedents had

been there and done that kind of work. We talk about

de`industrialisation and I guess we are all familiar with the way that

changes in technology can eliminate entire industries. What you see here

in the Weald takes that to an incredible extreme. There is no way

that this is ever going to reindustrialise. The glory days of

history here in the Weald are gone forever. That's why it is so

important to preserve this legacy of it. Otherwise it will legal vanish.

What you get here that's so wonderful is you get this trace of

industrial history but you also get this absolutely stunning natural

beauty as well. So in a sense, you have the best of both worlds.

And now for another restoration update.

This is what Griff Rhys Jones found when Restoration first visited this

folly in Hampshire. The collection of gothic towers and arches makes

this one of the most extraordinary buildings ever put up in the middle

of a rural visibility. Much of the ground floor is in reasonable

condition but after years of neglect is rest of the building is in a

ghastly stay. Since then there's been a successful bid for funding

but sadly this is another example of joint ownership issues

apparentlyising attempts to restore the building. And today the future

of this Victorian folly raised by an eccentric Hampshire rector still has

to be resovd. `` resolved. Back on the road I'm heading south to

Portsmouth. Once the world's busiest port, things here are changing again

as industries move away and even shipbuilding is disappearing.

Standing outside this beautiful 18th century building surrounded by

modern estates it might seem like an island left abandoned by the

retreating tide of history. But the people who live here still feel a

passionate sense of attachment to it. After a devastating fire, it was

the local community who brought it back to life. The building is now

occupied by the groundlets theatre company `` groundlets theatre

company led by Richard Stride. `` Groundlings Theatre company. I get a

sense this is the hub of the community. Absolutely. People can

get involved in the architectural side, the historic side, costume

making, set`building the, including the garden. There is a lot of

volunteer help that goes on here. I've noticed that people just stroll

in. They do, yes. There is a buzz to it. The place is pretty much open

from 9 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock at night seven days a week.

When did you move in? Three`and`a`half years ago. It

didn't like anything like this. What did it look like? A burnt`out wreck,

which is what it was. What persuaded you to buy it? Had you always wanted

to buy a gutted wreck? I had a feel for the place and thought it would

be magical. I didn't know much about the history, but it just felt

And the aim was always to make it into a theatre? Absolutely. This

building feels very much a part of Portsmouth's life today. It hat a

lived in feel about it. But that isn't to that the people who use it

don't care about its fabric or its past. Dan and Phoebe are members of

the youth theatre that regularly meets here. When the building was

first bought, me and my dad were pretty much helping out all the

time. Me too. Shifting stuff. I was the one who painted the bathrooms.

It is because of me that they are that lovely colour. Everyone I think

who is part of the drama school who was there at the time did something,

so we can all look at a wall and think, I painted that, or I put that

wall up, wow! It is nice. I think if you return everything to how it was

it what be a bit impractical. But in a way it is a selling point, because

you sell the history of the building, so we do plays about the

history of the building. The history if anything has helped Groundlings

to become more popular and to become part of Portsmouthest history. ``

Portsmouth's history. But this building is already part of

Portsmouth history. Built in 1784 by a group of community minded

merchants the building originally housed a school for poor local boys.

Upstairs in the hall once used for Navy dance it's I met Professor Tony

Pointon from the Dick tense fellowship, who told me about its

link to the novelist. His mother began her labour in this room, which

is a space that was used for dances by his officers in the dockyard. It

is kind of fitting isn't it, because Dick Devons is all `` Dick dens is

all about melodrama and high drama, a Dickensian way to come into the

world. Absolutely. And this is a pre`eminent naval town, so it is

full of people coming off the ships, people involved with the Navy. At

that particular time it was the busiest port in the world. Meanwhile

as the upstairs hall hosted its meetings and dances, downstairs was

where the classrooms were to be found.

They had basic training of writing and mathematics and background, but

the intention was that they would be able thing themselves good jobs. The

school's most famous "Old Benny" boy was Henry Ayers. After getting his

education here he went on to be First Minister of South Australia

and to give his name to Ayers Rock. Is the plan to try and get it back

to the original as far as you can? As far as we can, yes. It is very

difficult to find exactly how it I would have looked because there is

no photography. 1785. Again, some of it is a little bit of guesswork. But

clues to the past are coming from some unusual sources. We are

Portsmouthest most `` Portsmouth's most haunted building. I knew it had

a bit of a ghost past but not ten. Every single room apart from the

technical room is haunted. In this room we have two residents ghosts.

One is a child that tends to up the shoes `` tends to upset the shoes.

The wardrobe lady most mornings says, oh, no! And the shoes are on

the floor. We have a famous headmaster, and a lady who haunts

the changing rooming. This is the most mustn'ted spot in the theatre?

Yes. We had a psychic who came here and said that this was a place where

a child had been killed. This woman had witnessed it called Jill, or she

had committed the murder. She said that she threw the child down the

staircase. There is no staircase here. Six months ago we found in the

records office in the library an "Old Benny" plan of this building.

And sure enough on the plan is the staircase. That's a very haunted

house. If you renovate it too much one of the great qualities of it at

the moment is it feels slightlily battered. It feels lived in, the

kind of place people can be comfortable in. Do you think if you

restore it the locals will continue to feel they have a stake in it?

Very much so. They've taken it to the first stage but you couldn't

really ever make this build being absolutely pristine. What the

restoration would do is make sure that the building is secure, sound,

and able to stand here for generations and hopefully for

another 100 or 300 years more. So it is about getting a balance between

authentic restoration but an ability for people to feel they have a stake

in it? Very much so. For our last restoration update we are travelling

to Compton in Surrey, and a building that was perilously close to

collapse. The Watts gallery. Built for one of the most popular painters

in Victorian Britain it houses over a thousand of the artist's oils,

drawings and watercolours. How urgent is the work? It's hanging on

a thread. If we don't get this work done the water will come in... It

really is at a crucial point in the museum's history. Since the

programme, the Watts gallery has become a huge success story. Money

raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors secured the

building and the museum has seen over 100,000 visitors since it

opened in 2011. It's been nominated for the art fund museum of the year

and its wonderful use of over 300 volunteers has resulted in its

winning the Queen's Award for volunteers. Ultimately it is never

enough just to want to save a building. Buildings need to have a

use, a functioning place in the world we liver in today. The

successes of the Watts gallery, Sherborne House and the groundlets

theatre may show others the road to take `` the Groundlings Theatre.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

Large parts of the UK are being battered by a powerful storm. Two

people have died, thousands are without power. Dozens of severe

flood warnings are in force with homes being evacuated. Your forecast

in a moment and get the latest on your local BBC radio station.

Millions of us are going to have to work longer. The Chancellor is

increasing the state pension age for many people. Also in his new plans,

a fuel duty freeze and a smaller rise in rail fares.

Get ready to say goodbye to the tax disc. After 93 years it's being

scrapped. Computerised