0:00:04 > 0:00:05In this series,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08I'm uncovering the history of the ordinary British home.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15I want to explore the homes that most of us live in
0:00:15 > 0:00:17and that most of us take for granted -
0:00:17 > 0:00:19from Tudor cottages and Victorian terraces
0:00:19 > 0:00:22to post-war high-rise flats.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26I want to reveal how these often ordinary-looking homes
0:00:26 > 0:00:28are, in fact, extraordinary.
0:00:28 > 0:00:29Pull!
0:00:29 > 0:00:32'In each episode, I'll search out the stories
0:00:32 > 0:00:34'of how and why our homes were built
0:00:34 > 0:00:36'and I'll explore the evidence
0:00:36 > 0:00:39'of centuries of design and redesign.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:43Since I've got you here, I can explore your plumbing in detail.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Our homes offer an intimate portrait of our public
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and our private selves.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52From the glass in our windows to the gadgets in our kitchens,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54they lay bare how healthy, how wealthy,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57even how happy we are.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59- She kissed the boss. - We have a lot in common.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I'm always kissing architects. So, she loves her terraced house.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05'I'll uncover the architectural details
0:01:05 > 0:01:07'which have shaped our social history
0:01:07 > 0:01:10'and transformed our daily lives.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:14TOILET FLUSHES
0:01:16 > 0:01:19I want to go beyond masonry and mortar
0:01:19 > 0:01:23and come face-to-face with residents past and present.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25I want to understand how they lived
0:01:25 > 0:01:29and how they transformed buildings into homes.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40The cottage is the dream home most of us aspire to,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43yet behind its seemingly timeless facade
0:01:43 > 0:01:47lurks an eventful history, because the cottage was the scene
0:01:47 > 0:01:50of our most dramatic domestic revolution.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01Stoneleigh in Warwickshire lies in the heart of England
0:02:01 > 0:02:04on the edge of the ancient Forest of Arden.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08The village can trace its history back
0:02:08 > 0:02:11as least as far as the Domesday Book.
0:02:11 > 0:02:17In 1086, it was home to 68 villagers, four smallholders,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20two slaves and two priests.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Through the story of the cottages in this archetypal English village,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29I want to tell the story of our nation's cottages.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35What's drawn me to Stoneleigh are its wonderful historical records,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38which reveal every last detail
0:02:38 > 0:02:41of villagers' lives over five centuries.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50By sifting through the documents
0:02:50 > 0:02:53and by exploring Stoneleigh's remarkable collection
0:02:53 > 0:02:54of timber-framed cottages,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58I want to piece together the reality of life in these homes.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05This map of Stoneleigh Village dates from 1597.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08It's a remarkable and indeed beautiful document
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and helps me to step back in time.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14I can see this location, then, the village green,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17that's where I'm standing, and there are the almshouses,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21which survive over there. They were new when the map was made.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24They're dated 1594.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28There were 45 houses in the village in 1597
0:03:28 > 0:03:32and, remarkably, a third of those still survive.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41This one in front of me on the corner
0:03:41 > 0:03:45was occupied by Thomas Messenger.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47We can tell a few things from his home.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It is small, of course - charming, picturesque,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52but very small and, behind it,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55there's only a fifth of an acre - a small garden, really -
0:03:55 > 0:03:57so we can conclude from his home
0:03:57 > 0:04:00that he must have been a man of very humble means.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09The map tells us that, in 1597,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13this house was occupied by Elizabeth Jenkyn.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Now, to judge by the size of her house,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17she was a little bit better off than her neighbour,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Thomas Messenger, and she had half an acre of land to the rear,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24but the house is still relatively humble
0:04:24 > 0:04:27and that's the extraordinary thing about Stoneleigh -
0:04:27 > 0:04:31the survival of such a large number of early ordinary cottages.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Tudor palaces, manor houses and merchant houses,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37they're all about the lives of the rich and powerful.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40These tell us how the other half lived.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Some of the village's oldest surviving cottages
0:04:48 > 0:04:50were built long before this map was made.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Skep Cottage is one of Stoneleigh's most ancient.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58It dates back to the middle of the 15th century.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05When Thomas Messenger lived here, he almost certainly farmed the land.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Today, it's home to Ian, who works in renewable energy,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and his wife, Marilyn.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18I'm on the hunt for clues about how their cottage evolved
0:05:18 > 0:05:22from the simplest shelter into a home we all recognise today.
0:05:24 > 0:05:25Ooh! A tight squeeze.
0:05:25 > 0:05:31Gosh, what a wonderful little hairy world I'm in of thatch.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Ah! Oh, how fascinating! Ow!
0:05:35 > 0:05:39In my excitement, I'm going to tumble down, but this is... Ow!
0:05:39 > 0:05:44Well, this is good. This is very good, this is excellent.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Soot blackening - it almost comes off in my hand.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Soot, dark, stain - why this is so exciting
0:05:50 > 0:05:54is that it's conclusive evidence that the space
0:05:54 > 0:05:56I'm in now was once part of an open hall -
0:05:56 > 0:06:00a hall open from the ground floor below me
0:06:00 > 0:06:02into the roof space here - one volume.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10Like every modest medieval home, Skep Cottage had no upper storey.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16The stairs and first floor rooms were improvements
0:06:16 > 0:06:19that weren't made for at least another 100 years.
0:06:21 > 0:06:22Originally,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26this house was little more than a roof over its inhabitants' heads.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30It had just two rooms - a chamber for sleeping,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34which was probably unheated, and a hall, the main living space,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37at the centre of which was an open hearth.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Smoke from this fire drifted up to the roof timbers above.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Incredible, this, isn't it? So intriguing.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Over there, one would expect on some of those timbers
0:06:53 > 0:06:57to see hooks or nails,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00from which hunks of meat would have been hooked or dangled.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Curing in the smoke of the fire, hanging here would have
0:07:04 > 0:07:08preserved the meat itself from vermin running all around.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Such a tremendously stark contrast with the world below.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Here is a memory of once a rough and ready life,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22living in the smoky room beneath this thatch
0:07:22 > 0:07:25and now, of course, when I exit through this hatch,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28I leave the medieval world and back to the modern world.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34By contrast, it's clean, tidy, neat, hygienic.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37I know which I prefer, but never mind. I have to go back now, Oops!
0:07:41 > 0:07:45The open hall was the centrepiece of almost all medieval homes -
0:07:45 > 0:07:50from the smallest cottages to the most imposing castles.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Even in a tiny cottage like this,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00the hall would have been an evocation in miniature
0:08:00 > 0:08:05of the great hall of a castle, of a grand manor house
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and this double-height space,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13as it was originally, would have had an inheritant grandeur, I suppose.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17If you imagine sitting here with a view up into the roof timbers,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19it would have felt big.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23The chair here, probably the only one in the hall,
0:08:23 > 0:08:29was reserved for the sole use of the head of the household.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33The family sitting round would no doubt be seated
0:08:33 > 0:08:37on more uncomfortable benches so this chair,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40when occupied by the head of the household,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45was like the throne occupied by the lord of the manor in his great hall.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Yes, I feel the power.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00For most medieval cottages, the basic design - a timber frame,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04usually filled with wattle and daub and topped with a thatched roof -
0:09:04 > 0:09:07scarcely changed from the time of the Norman Conquest.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12So, for centuries, one of the most highly prized building materials
0:09:12 > 0:09:14remained the same - wood.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Stoneleigh's cottages were built with timber
0:09:22 > 0:09:24taken from the nearby Forest of Arden -
0:09:24 > 0:09:29an ancient woodland dating back to the end of the last ice age.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35We're in the Forest of Arden. It has a wonderful romantic ring to it.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37This is Shakespeare's forest.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40It goes right up, doesn't it, to Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Yeah, if you think of Warwickshire
0:09:42 > 0:09:44as sort of split into two halves by the River Avon,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47which kind of runs diagonally through the county,
0:09:47 > 0:09:48the area north and west of the Avon
0:09:48 > 0:09:50was dominated by the Forest of Arden.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53- Right.- Hundreds of square miles. - Hundreds of square miles!
0:09:55 > 0:09:57It is, of course, incredible that this is the landscape -
0:09:57 > 0:10:00the woodscape, I suppose, one should say -
0:10:00 > 0:10:05the medieval occupiers of Stoneleigh would have known.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07This is about as close as you can get in Warwickshire
0:10:07 > 0:10:12to a typical bit of managed woodland in medieval times.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Tell me about the sort of trees that would have been grown.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Right, well, what we have here
0:10:17 > 0:10:20- is we have coppice with standards. - Standards?
0:10:20 > 0:10:22- Sorry, standards are the big trees? - They're the big trees.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26They could be allowed to grow for 150 years or so for building timber.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28- And this is a standard. - This is a standard, yep.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30So, again, just thinking back,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33so the estate owner who owned the tree or indeed a carpenter
0:10:33 > 0:10:37who was involved in house construction would have stood here
0:10:37 > 0:10:41and looked at this particular tree and said, "Hmm, that's a good one.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43"That's of an age and shape to use."
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Everything would have been scheduled
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and sometimes you might have to wait a long time
0:10:48 > 0:10:51for the bit of wood that you need.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53It would have controlled the number of timber-framed cottages
0:10:53 > 0:10:55that could be built at any one time.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58So, the ancient wild wood of popular imagination
0:10:58 > 0:11:00was far from wild, really.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04- It was controlled and managed. - Very much so, yeah.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08I mean, every wood had a boundary by the medieval times
0:11:08 > 0:11:09and you could get into a lot of trouble
0:11:09 > 0:11:13if you sneaked into a wood and took wood out without permission.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17Chopping down a standard without permission
0:11:17 > 0:11:19would land you with a hefty fine.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24But villagers did have the right to coppice smaller trees
0:11:24 > 0:11:25from their local wood,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28taking branches for firewood and house repairs.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Poor defenceless little ones! I pick on the small guys.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Now, this is a handy piece.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39This I can use in my cottage in Stoneleigh
0:11:39 > 0:11:42for repairing the outhouse.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44HE SNIFFS Oh!
0:11:51 > 0:11:55You can begin to understand why medieval woodland
0:11:55 > 0:11:58was so carefully managed and so strictly guarded.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01The demand for wood must have been insatiable -
0:12:01 > 0:12:03used for heating the home, for cooking food,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07for making charcoal, for doing some small repairs to the home
0:12:07 > 0:12:13and to build even a three-room house needed 110 trees.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Stoneleigh's oldest cottages
0:12:20 > 0:12:23were built using an ingenious method of construction.
0:12:27 > 0:12:33Ah, here is a pair of the main structural load-bearing timbers
0:12:33 > 0:12:36used in the construction of this cottage.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40You can see they are wonderfully wobbly and are set on the diagonal.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45They are, however, made of very solid oak.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49These are called cruck blades, this one and that one,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51and cruck construction is typical
0:12:51 > 0:12:54of the medieval cottages of Stoneleigh.
0:12:55 > 0:12:56Now, although wobbly,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00the cruck blades are wobbly in a very symmetrical manner
0:13:00 > 0:13:03cos each is cut from the same tree trunk.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07This was a very simple, but strong form of construction.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18The cruck blades were joined at the apex
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and tied together by a collar beam,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23creating a simple tent-like frame.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26In small cottages,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30each pair of crucks usually defines the boundary of a different room.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36So, to build the average three-room cottage
0:13:36 > 0:13:38required four sets of cruck blades.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Crucks were the dominant form of medieval construction
0:13:48 > 0:13:51in the Midlands and the west of England
0:13:51 > 0:13:53and were also found in Wales and Scotland.
0:13:55 > 0:13:56Throughout Britain,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00over 4,000 of these cruck frames are still standing.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06The Oak Frame Training Forum near Bristol
0:14:06 > 0:14:09teaches traditional cruck carpentry.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15I'm actually making square pegs at the moment - what we call billets -
0:14:15 > 0:14:21and I'm just splitting them up out of solid, quite wet green oak.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Right. It looks frightfully easy, what you're doing.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26I bet if I asked to have a go, I'd reveal how difficult it is,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29- but I wouldn't mind. - It is incredibly easy.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31I presume one cuts with the grain as far as possible.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Yes, try to keep the volumes the same on either side
0:14:33 > 0:14:34so they always break in half
0:14:34 > 0:14:37so if you, say, go for there, that's a good point there.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39OK, how many fingers do you still have?
0:14:41 > 0:14:42That's it, lovely.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Yeah, OK. So, that's our basic building component, in a sense.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Yep, so the next thing is to put them onto a shave horse.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52I usually put the big end underneath here
0:14:52 > 0:14:54- and you use your feet to hold it.- Oh, yes, OK.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00So, you can see there, that peg is a finished peg
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and that's going to take one and a half tonnes of shear in a joint -
0:15:04 > 0:15:06it's incredibly strong.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Again, you make it look very easy, but obviously, for one thing,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11it's wrist action controlling this tool
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and also you've got to coordinate your hands and your feet.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17So, I cut myself in half at this point.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20It's a good reminder of just how skilled it was in the past
0:15:20 > 0:15:22to make a timber-framed house.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24A farmer couldn't just go into the forest,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26cut down an oak tree and make a barn.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29He needed carpenters, guys who were professional.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32It is unlikely that the average farmer would build their own house.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Village houses would be built in a yard.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37The crucial thing in a yard is you've got a flat surface
0:15:37 > 0:15:42to work on and having a nice flat floor is really incredibly useful.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45It's a nightmare building on a hillside.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50'Building a timber frame
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'was much like assembling Ikea flat-pack furniture -
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'in theory, at least,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59'a simple matter of slotting together all the component parts.'
0:16:01 > 0:16:06Here we've got the mortise, which is the hole in the cruck blade,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08and what slides into it is this thing, the tenon.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13This is the classic carpentry joint of the timber framing world.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15And here we see one of the other great characteristics
0:16:15 > 0:16:16of timber-frame construction -
0:16:16 > 0:16:19the carpenter's mark. Look, there's number two.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Number two, showing these two timbers... Well, they go together.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23That's right, but it's quite important
0:16:23 > 0:16:26when you have a complex frame that everything's numbered
0:16:26 > 0:16:28- because it's been prefabricated off-site.- Yes.
0:16:28 > 0:16:29And when it's transported,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32you won't know where anything goes unless there's a number.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Let's have a go, see how heavy this is. I mean, it's a bit of oak.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Not very long, this collar, but it's thick.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42- Ooh!- No, no, no. This is a team effort.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Yeah, I think we need to call some people in to help get this together.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Yeah, yeah. OK, well, I'll get back astride my piece of oak.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And we slide it... It is... Ah, OK.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02You can see how making a timber-frame building
0:17:02 > 0:17:03was a community effort.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06I understand why we shaped them the way we did.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08The tapering clearly is part of putting it together
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and the point that helps you to navigate into the...
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Ah, there we go.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17So, there's a big mallet and you can whack those pegs in now.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Traditional activity, OK.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21OK.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Very nice. That's pulling it together nicely.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29- You can see it - every hit, it gets tighter.- Superb!
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Last bit.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Pull!
0:17:37 > 0:17:38Pull!
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Pull!
0:17:42 > 0:17:43Pull!
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Pull!
0:17:46 > 0:17:48Whoa! Steady on!
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Well, it's handsome and it looks strong,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55but here, of course, the curve becomes the great ornament.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58We must have pleased the carpenter and the landowner to actually
0:17:58 > 0:18:02use up their curvy wood, which normally wouldn't get used.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07I suppose also you could say they are a reflection of the liking...
0:18:07 > 0:18:11the Anglo-Saxon love for the curvaceous, the sinuous,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14the feminine, of course, really.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17You know, the world of the great goddess and all that.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Feminine power!
0:18:21 > 0:18:23It was something you could show off to your neighbours,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26and they're usually always in visible places in the halls.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29They're an aesthetic statement that's quite bling, yeah,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31a bit of medieval bling.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34And also this kind of wonderful, you know...
0:18:34 > 0:18:38The way they express their construction methods.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40I love these pegs kind of poking right through
0:18:40 > 0:18:42with their kind of battered and scraggly ends
0:18:42 > 0:18:45where they've been beaten into the earth.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47- Yeah, that shouldn't be like that. - Oh!- I blame you.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Medieval England was a nation of tenants.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58From the greatest lord to the lowliest serf,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00almost everyone paid rent.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04Aside from God and the King,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08a medieval landlord was the most powerful figure in a tenant's life.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Around a third of the land in medieval England,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21including the Stoneleigh Estate, was owned by monasteries.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25The abbey at Stoneleigh was founded in 1155
0:19:25 > 0:19:29after Henry II granted the estate to the Cistercians,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31making them landlords of the village.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42This splendid space was the abbey's undercroft.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Above was a dormitory and this incredible survival
0:19:45 > 0:19:49tells us so much about the Cistercians.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54They believed in a simple, austere, monastic life
0:19:54 > 0:19:57and that belief is reflected very directly in their architecture -
0:19:57 > 0:20:02also simple, austere, powerful, almost abstract.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06There is no sort of superfluous or imposed decoration -
0:20:06 > 0:20:09no carved heads, no mouldings.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11The Cistercians were suspicious of ornamentation,
0:20:11 > 0:20:16of carving, cos they believed that such things could distract monks
0:20:16 > 0:20:19from the contemplation of the pure wonder of God.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28But don't be fooled by the Cistercians' spiritual devotion.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31These monks were also hard-headed landlords
0:20:31 > 0:20:35whose control extended to every detail of village life.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40In Stoneleigh, as in all medieval villages,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44the lord of the manor held regular manor court sessions,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46where local justice was meted out.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Aside from cracking down on breaches of the peace,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00the monks of Stoneleigh were keen to squeeze a healthy profit
0:21:00 > 0:21:04from their tenants, as the village's manor court rolls reveal.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08So, what can these rolls tell us
0:21:08 > 0:21:10about the daily life of tenants in Stoneleigh?
0:21:10 > 0:21:15This is a record of 1478 and so what this is telling us
0:21:15 > 0:21:18- is a man called Ralph Wynford... - Oh, there he is.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23Ralph Wynford is taking on a cottage with six acres of land.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26In order to seal the bargain of him becoming a tenant,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29- he has to pay an entry fine. - Oh, I see.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33And it's an entry fine in kind, not in cash, and it's 12 capons.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36- Capons - chickens? - Fat hens, that's right.- Fat hens?
0:21:36 > 0:21:4112 fat hens, which the monks want to devour, of course.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45So, that's a one-off payment for entry into the agreement.
0:21:45 > 0:21:46Are there other things, as well?
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Well, the other one is the heriot, which is the death duty,
0:21:50 > 0:21:56which will be an ox or a horse - a valuable animal of that kind.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00A woman loses her husband and then she has to also lose her best ox!
0:22:01 > 0:22:03It's tough! Life is tough.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07Yes, right, so the ox might be better-loved than the husband.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10But what is unusual about this particular record
0:22:10 > 0:22:15is the detail it goes into on the question of repair and maintenance.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21It tells us that he's agreed to repair, maintain and sustain
0:22:21 > 0:22:26the said cottage and it's said that he will do this at his own expense.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30It's his responsibility, he has to pay and it says that
0:22:30 > 0:22:34if he fails to do it, then it will be forfeit and it actually uses
0:22:34 > 0:22:36the word "forfeiture" as the penalty
0:22:36 > 0:22:38if he breaks the terms of the tenancy.
0:22:43 > 0:22:44On top of paying ground rent,
0:22:44 > 0:22:49tenants also paid to build their cottages and to repair them.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53And if they failed to properly maintain the homes
0:22:53 > 0:22:54they'd invested so much in,
0:22:54 > 0:22:56they risked losing them to their landlord.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Stoneleigh's records show that one poor harvest
0:23:03 > 0:23:08was sometimes all that separated the house-proud from the homeless.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13This one here, for example,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17William Reeve has ruinous and unrepaired buildings.
0:23:17 > 0:23:23We're told that he left the ville and, as a pauper,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27is wandering from village to village,
0:23:27 > 0:23:31seeking alms, so he's become a sort of beggar and vagabond.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33This has a desperate quality, doesn't it,
0:23:33 > 0:23:39of the lives of the four families. Also the estate is in some dismay.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43People at the time talked about the wheel of fortune
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and that you could be happy and healthy
0:23:45 > 0:23:48and wealthy at one stage of your life
0:23:48 > 0:23:50and, within a very short time,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54you could find yourself at the bottom in poverty and misery
0:23:54 > 0:23:58and this clearly suggests that that really did happen.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06For many of Stoneleigh's 15th- and 16th-century residents,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09a house was far more than just a home.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Alongside regular domestic life,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16the cottage was often also a workplace,
0:24:16 > 0:24:19which tenants depended on for their livelihoods.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28The current owner of Phoenix Cottage is John,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30a retired financial consultant.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35His 16th-century forebears were John and Elizabeth Jenkins.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38The pair were brewers,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and they turned their home into an informal village pub.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45This is very, very exciting.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47We are doing in this cottage - indeed in this very room -
0:24:47 > 0:24:52what Mr and Mrs Jenkins did here 500 years ago. We are brewing ale.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57So, we've got hot water and then we have malted barley
0:24:57 > 0:24:59so what we need to do now is we need to take some of our water
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and add it to our malt to make a mash.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06We know that making humble ale was not below the interest
0:25:06 > 0:25:08of the law of the land
0:25:08 > 0:25:11because the Jenkinses here got into trouble over their ale
0:25:11 > 0:25:15at the assizes, so there was some issue about what they were doing.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Yeah, the assizes control quality.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22They set the price that you can sell your ale for based on the malt.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25You have a chap called an ale conner or an ale taster
0:25:25 > 0:25:28and his job was to go around when people advertise the new brew
0:25:28 > 0:25:33and he would sample it, make sure it was up to speed and not ropey,
0:25:33 > 0:25:36- smoky, stale, all these... - By drinking it?- By drinking it.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39- That's a job I'd like.- Nice job!
0:25:39 > 0:25:42So, Mrs Jenkins made the mash in the morning,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45after lunch one can carry on with making the ale.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47So what is the next stage?
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Very simply... Just separate the two.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54That's the last bits of goodness out.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56- The liquid has gone through.- Yeah.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59And most of the sugar should have come out the barley.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03- This is the liquid here?- That is called the wort, that's what you brew with.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05And that's the heart and soul of a good ale, of course?
0:26:05 > 0:26:06It is indeed, yes.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09So, now, what is the magic ingredient that transforms
0:26:09 > 0:26:15this "wort", you call - I call it nectar - into good, strong alcohol?
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- We need barm, yeast, or God's good. - God's good.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Three names for the same thing.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24- Put some in.- OK.- And then it will start to work.- It's wonderful.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27And I know it needs to go on fermenting for maybe four or
0:26:27 > 0:26:30- five days from now, but can I have a quick taste?- Of course you can.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34- It's not going to kill me, I'm sure. - A little dip in that one there.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36OK, so, this in my tummy will turn to alcohol,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39I suppose, gradually.
0:26:39 > 0:26:40Cheers!
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Absolutely delicious, isn't it? Good heavens.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Right. Some more of that! Join me.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53- I will join you. - You could market that, I tell you.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55What shall we call it?
0:26:55 > 0:26:58DAN LAUGHS I don't know - Cruickshank's!
0:26:58 > 0:26:59HE LAUGHS
0:27:01 > 0:27:02That is rather good.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08When the brewing process was complete,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11the Jenkins would let the villagers know the house
0:27:11 > 0:27:14was open for business by erecting the ale stake.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Here is the ale stake.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19It is a rather cunning device. Up it goes.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23The leaves were cut when the ale was ready to drink, so it was
0:27:23 > 0:27:27possible to judge the age of the ale from the freshness of the leaves.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Therefore, seasoned drinkers could tell
0:27:30 > 0:27:34when it was a good time to pop inside for the perfect pint.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44In the multipurpose hall, all life revolved around the open fire -
0:27:44 > 0:27:49working, eating and cooking happened on the same smoky room,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53where ideas of comfort and privacy were very different from our own.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00The most intimate details of life in Stoneleigh's cottages are revealed
0:28:00 > 0:28:05by the village's fascinating collection of probate inventories.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08These were compiled when an individual died,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and they list all their worldly goods.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15They are a unique portrait of some of Stoneleigh's most humble homes.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19This is the inventory of John Allett, weaver, of Stoneleigh.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22- 1537.- Right.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26This one, of course, is completely unreadable, for me!
0:28:26 > 0:28:30It is in English, not Latin. But, I mean, what does it say?
0:28:30 > 0:28:33- It's very phonetically spelt. - Yes, yes.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36- And in a sort of Midlands dialect. - My goodness. Right.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38But there are bits that are easy for us to read.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41It is divided into rooms, and that is the key thing for us.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43- "In the hall."- "In the hall." - "In the chamber."
0:28:43 > 0:28:45So we can see not only which goods he had,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48but actually where he had them in the house.
0:28:48 > 0:28:49What does it say? "In the hall..."
0:28:49 > 0:28:52- "A hanging of painting cloths. - There is a value there, presumably.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Yes, eightpence. So not very much!
0:28:56 > 0:28:58So, a small table and two forms.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02The forms, or benches, on one side of the table, perhaps,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06then we've also got here a cupboard and two stools.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08And what about cushions?
0:29:08 > 0:29:11The equivalent of the easy chair of the modern home.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13There's certainly nothing like that, no.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15You're not sitting around in here
0:29:15 > 0:29:17and relaxing and putting your feet up.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19You're in here for a particular purpose,
0:29:19 > 0:29:21and probably that purpose is dining.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25This obviously is the more public part of the house, the hall.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Things to display to the neighbours.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31- Now we go into the more private parts. The chambers.- Yes.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36In here, "In the chamber," here we've got the two bedsteads.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39And then on top of that we've got one feather bed,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43so obviously one of them is better furnished than the other one,
0:29:43 > 0:29:44and we've got two bolsters.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48We've got three mattresses,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and we've got five pillows,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and this is worth much more - we've got five shillings on there.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I see, OK. This is the notion of the bed and its fittings being
0:29:58 > 0:30:01the great status symbol, the sort of sports car image of furniture.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04It's the big show-off thing, isn't it, the bed?
0:30:04 > 0:30:06I've never thought of it quite like that.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09But, yes, it's certainly where all these things come together.
0:30:09 > 0:30:10This is a level of,
0:30:10 > 0:30:14a kind of comfort that is much closer to what we are familiar with,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18- so it's a comfort around cosy soft furnishings.- Yes.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23An entire world of these people are documented on these slivers.
0:30:23 > 0:30:24Yes, that's right.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26All his goods go from here to here.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28And that's a lot of goods.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30This is not a short list because he has nothing.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34It just shows us how very important every single thing on this was.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37A modern house, of course, my house, if I wrote
0:30:37 > 0:30:41all the things it would fill this box, the junk I've got, you know!
0:30:41 > 0:30:42THEY LAUGH
0:30:44 > 0:30:48For almost 400 years, the monks of Stoneleigh had run the village.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53But between 1532 and 1534,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56the established order was turned on its head
0:30:56 > 0:30:59as Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church
0:30:59 > 0:31:03and soon afterwards began the dissolution of the monasteries.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Across the country, monastic estates were seized by the Crown
0:31:10 > 0:31:15and tenants who for generations had owed their rent and their allegiance
0:31:15 > 0:31:19to the same lord of the manor found themselves with new masters.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25For Stoneleigh's villagers, the Church's waning power
0:31:25 > 0:31:29was replaced by the rising influence of trade and commerce.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35In 1561, Sir Thomas Leigh bought the entire estate.
0:31:35 > 0:31:40He was purchasing not just land, but a new status as lord of the manor.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Leigh was a fabulously wealthy London merchant who was
0:31:51 > 0:31:56Lord Mayor in 1558, and was four times master of the city's
0:31:56 > 0:31:59most important delivery company, the Mercers.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06This wonderful cup is the most treasured possession
0:32:06 > 0:32:10of the ancient and honourable Mercers' Company.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15It's also one of their most valuable objects.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17It's worth a small fortune.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Leigh gave this cup to the Mercers' Company just a few years after
0:32:23 > 0:32:26he'd bought the Stoneleigh Abbey estate.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29There's a coat of arms of the Merchant Adventurers
0:32:29 > 0:32:32and a coat of arms of the Merchant Of The Staple.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34This is to do with the wool trade.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Wool was the greatest, I suppose, moneymaking industry in Britain at this time.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40That's how he made his fortune.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43And here, his name's emblazoned upon the cup.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46Every year at the feast to celebrate the election of the new
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Master of the Mercer's Company, the cup is used.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54It's filled with champagne, and a toast is offered,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58and in that gesture, of course, Thomas Leigh has achieved his aims.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00He has achieved immortality.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09The arrival of the new lord of the manor
0:33:09 > 0:33:13spelled the end of Stoneleigh's rough and ready medieval existence.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19Leigh had no intention of living like his Cistercian predecessors,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22and he exchanged the austerity of their monastic buildings
0:33:22 > 0:33:25for a home designed to a new standard of comfort.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33The abbey church stood here.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37Over there at the east end was a chancel and high altar.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Here was the nave.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44The church was in ruins when Leigh acquired the abbey site,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47and what survived he soon swept away,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51with the exception of the south aisle, which still survives.
0:33:55 > 0:34:01And the aisle survives because Leigh made it into the north entrance hall of his new house.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14The house Thomas Leigh created for himself is pleasant,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18but, I think one has to admit, not exceptional.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22More exciting and more dramatic was the transformation taking place
0:34:22 > 0:34:27at roughly the same time down the road in Stoneleigh Village.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31There, the rebuilding and alteration of medieval cottages was part of
0:34:31 > 0:34:36a nationwide revolution that was to lead to the making of the modern home.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43In medieval Stoneleigh,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45just keeping a roof over your head was a challenge.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50But from the second half of the 16th century,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54cottages built for shelter and survival were radically redesigned
0:34:54 > 0:34:57into the homes we all live in today.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03The addition of windows, the building of chimneys,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06and the creation of separate rooms for separate uses
0:35:06 > 0:35:10totally transformed Stoneleigh's and the nation's cottages.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19In 1577, William Harrison produced his Description Of England,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Here it is. It offers a...
0:35:22 > 0:35:27a wonderful sort of survey of life at the time, and also contains
0:35:27 > 0:35:32a very telling description of the late Tudor building boom.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36He says, for example, here, "For every man almost is a builder,
0:35:36 > 0:35:41"and he that hath bought any small parcel of ground, be it never so little,
0:35:41 > 0:35:46"would not be quiet till he has pulled down the old house
0:35:46 > 0:35:49"and set up a new after his own device."
0:35:51 > 0:35:56The most striking development of all was the nation's skyline.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Harrison wrote that there were old men yet living in his village
0:36:01 > 0:36:04who in their lifetimes had seen, as Harrison writes it,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07"the multitude of chimneys lately erected,
0:36:07 > 0:36:12"whereas in their young days not above two or three."
0:36:12 > 0:36:17So, rather like the satellite dishes of today, or CCTV cameras,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21in the 1570s the chimney was the emblem of the modern home.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29As the country enjoyed a period of relative peace and rising prosperity,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32even those of modest means had some money to spend on the most
0:36:32 > 0:36:35dramatic home improvements in the nation's history.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43This house on the edge of the parish of Stoneleigh was one of those
0:36:43 > 0:36:45that was completely rebuilt.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52460 years ago, Thomas Tutor, a farmer,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56and his family lived in a medieval cottage on this site.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Their 21st-century successors are Mary, a company secretary,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06and her partner Johnny, an engineer.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14This is the main living room now of the house.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16And very comfortable it is.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18What can you say about the date?
0:37:18 > 0:37:20It looks, I suppose, 17th-century.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24- But was the house on site before the late 17th century?- Indeed.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27We can follow it through from 1555.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30It belonged then to the Blacksmiths' Guild of Coventry.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32- In fact, here is a copy of the lease.- Oh, yes.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37They leased it to somebody called Thomas Tutor within the parish of Stoneleigh.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40But it had a very unusual condition on it.
0:37:40 > 0:37:46He had to make and set up, within the said house, a chimney of timber
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and stone and also to make a chamber floor over a parlour.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Now what we are seeing here is the characteristic
0:37:52 > 0:37:55modernisation of houses.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59In their basic medieval house,
0:37:59 > 0:38:03the ten members of the Tutor family had just three rooms.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06A bedroom, a kitchen and a multipurpose hall.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10It wasn't until the 17th century,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14when the house was completely rebuilt, that an upper storey
0:38:14 > 0:38:18allowed for more living space and the luxury of separate bedrooms.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27Instead of an open hearth, the new house had a chimney stack.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35In the old medieval house, probably only the hall was heated.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38But now, each room could have its own fireplace.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44At the end of the 17th century, the property was rented
0:38:44 > 0:38:50to Richard Cammell, whose inventory from 1694 reveals how dramatically
0:38:50 > 0:38:53life in the house had changed in a century and a half.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59And this is the chamber over the kitchen
0:38:59 > 0:39:04and we have got in the inventory here, two bedsteads and two feather
0:39:04 > 0:39:08beds and bolsters and those would have been for the two children, Mary
0:39:08 > 0:39:13and Holloway, the daughter and the son of Richard and Elizabeth Cammell.
0:39:13 > 0:39:14So they were living in here.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16Across the other side of the stair, we have got Richard
0:39:16 > 0:39:21and his wife's own bedchamber, which is really quite smart.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24The inventory reveals a new level of comfort, doesn't it?
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Separate discrete rooms, comfortable,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29heated with their own fireplaces.
0:39:29 > 0:39:30And private.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34The house earlier, three basic rooms, single-storey,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37double height, full of smoke with ten people crowded into them.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40That's like going to the moon, isn't it? Is a different world.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43It is the contrast between medieval living
0:39:43 > 0:39:45at the end of the medieval period in the 1550s,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49and what we really recognise as modern living,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53by the time you get to Richard Cammell in 1694.
0:39:53 > 0:39:54It's a modern home.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Step by step, medieval cottages were adapted to meet new
0:40:02 > 0:40:04standards of domestic comfort.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09In the modern cottage, glass windows replaced what had been no more than
0:40:09 > 0:40:11holes in the wall.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16From the mid-16th century,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20domestic production of glass expanded to meet rising demand.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26And by the 1630s, English glass-makers were
0:40:26 > 0:40:30making around one million square feet of glass a year.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33Want to come round here, Dan, start to blow it out?
0:40:33 > 0:40:36Just a small blow, is it? In short puffs?
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Carry on, just keep blowing, I'll stop.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41Steady.
0:40:42 > 0:40:43Hold it there.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47- Too much?- I'll do it again, a final blow and it should be OK.
0:40:47 > 0:40:48- OK.- Should be all right.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50I'll leave the final blow to you, then.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54I didn't mess it up, did I?
0:40:55 > 0:40:58So what is the temperature in this miniature sun?
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Probably round about 1,200, 1,250, something like that.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03How traditional is this process?
0:41:03 > 0:41:05I guess this is how glass was made in the 16th century
0:41:05 > 0:41:07or 400 or 500 years ago?
0:41:07 > 0:41:11This is the same technique, all the skills are getting lost now.
0:41:11 > 0:41:12We are the last people.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14- You are the last?- We are the last.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16We are the only firm in the country.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21- OK, Dan.- OK, this is like, obviously make-or-break moment.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23- Yes.- I guess I could mess it all up now?- Yes.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25I go clockwise.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27A bit faster. Yes.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Now you can see it's opening up, is coming out.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33What am I trying to do exactly? What are we trying to do?
0:41:33 > 0:41:35I'm going to loose... Spin hard.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39- That's it. - That right? I'm trying to keep it...
0:41:39 > 0:41:42obviously this bar horizontal and spin it.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45That's all right. Slowing down, but keep doing it.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48- Yes.- Am I...? What am I doing wrong? - Nothing.- Oh, good.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50- Really? - It's ready to go in the oven.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52DAN LAUGHS It's done!
0:41:54 > 0:41:55OK.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57OK.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59Didn't mess it up. I can't believe it.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12Glazed windows had long graced the homes of royalty and aristocracy.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15But it wasn't until the end of the 16th century
0:42:15 > 0:42:18that glass became affordable for ordinary mortals.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24- Ah. Now, you call this bullion glass, don't you?- Yes.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Years ago, there would be huge bullions -
0:42:27 > 0:42:29you know, five, six foot in diameter.
0:42:29 > 0:42:34So I wonder, how many panes of glass would you get from a disc like this?
0:42:34 > 0:42:36- Maybe four or five. - Four or five?- Yes.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39So you just score it, first.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41SCRATCHING
0:42:43 > 0:42:47And then you can start just tapping it.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50- On the score? On the mark? - And hopefully...
0:42:50 > 0:42:52- It breaks along the mark. - It breaks along the mark.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55Rather than somewhere else. How do you break the glass?
0:42:55 > 0:42:58- Then just snap it off. - Is it supposed to...?
0:42:58 > 0:42:59Oh, right!
0:42:59 > 0:43:02Broken beautifully. Very sharp. Very crisp.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04I'd love to have a go at cutting. You make it look so easy.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07There's an element of jeopardy - I'm bound to make a mess of it.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Because nothing is as easy as it looks.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11- That's it.- That's the sound, isn't it?
0:43:11 > 0:43:14SCRATCHING
0:43:14 > 0:43:18Let me get my specs - I can't actually see the score line.
0:43:18 > 0:43:19Oh, there it is. HE TAPS IT
0:43:19 > 0:43:23- Oh, my God, that doesn't sound good. - It's starting to veer off a bit, I think.
0:43:23 > 0:43:24- Is it?- Yes.- I'm in trouble.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26I'm in trouble. Oh, yes.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Oh. Oh, well. It righted itself in the end.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Sort of, yes.
0:43:31 > 0:43:32I'll cover it up.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36- OK!- Not a complete disgrace and disaster. Almost.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38And that one.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40That's how it should be done.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Now, this is the perfect piece of glass for a Tudor window.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45It's beautiful, this one, isn't it?
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Because you've got the concentric marks which makes it very lively.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51You can spot a house that has got proper windows in.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54They will have a bit of a ripple to them.
0:43:54 > 0:43:55A bit of life in them.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58And of course even the most distorted bit of the disc,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01the bull's-eye in the middle, which is thick and rather troubling,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04I suppose, in a sense because it's so distorted,
0:44:04 > 0:44:05even that would be used, wouldn't it?
0:44:05 > 0:44:07That would be the cheaper part of the glass.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11So if you couldn't afford the nice, thin, flat pieces of glass,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15they would have the piece, the roundel bit in the middle,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17for their windows.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20But of course now is the complete reverse, where we
0:44:20 > 0:44:22do bullions for the centrepiece.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24These are feature windows now.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27- The antique-y look. - Yes. Absolutely.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34By the start of the 17th century,
0:44:34 > 0:44:38glazed windows began to be spotted around Stoneleigh.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42They were reserved for the most important rooms,
0:44:42 > 0:44:44and were often only added to the front of a house where
0:44:44 > 0:44:48they would be sure to catch the eye of envious neighbours.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59Thomas Hill lived at what is now 11 and 12 Coventry Road, Stoneleigh.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04He was a yeoman farmer, a man of some means and, we know,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08the proud possessor of two glass windows.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11The windows are mentioned in the inventory of his household goods,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14attached to his will of 1631.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18Along with other high-value items of luxury such as beds
0:45:18 > 0:45:22and tables and chairs, the windows are mentioned as movables.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25That is, when you left your home,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27you took your windows with you.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33By the end of the 17th century, the cottage,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36which had started life as the most basic of homes,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40had proved the most adaptable of architectural templates.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44Within the same simple structure,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46new rooms were created for new uses
0:45:46 > 0:45:50and new improvements, like glass windows and chimneys, added.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55This revolution produced a whole new home.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Although Stoneleigh's cottages had experienced a remarkable transformation
0:46:03 > 0:46:08into modern homes, much of village life remained virtually medieval.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15In the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution changed
0:46:15 > 0:46:21Britain beyond all recognition, the Leigh family carried on regardless.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24They kept running their village along feudal lines.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33From the almshouses to the village school, the family founded
0:46:33 > 0:46:37and financed every institution that saw their tenants
0:46:37 > 0:46:39through from cradle to grave.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49In 1850, William Henry Leigh became the new lord of the manor.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52He asserted the same hold over his tenants' lives
0:46:52 > 0:46:57as the monks Stoneleigh Abbey had done 500 years earlier.
0:46:59 > 0:47:04William has great concern for the lives and the welfare of his tenants.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09That concern is recorded in this extraordinary collection of notebooks belonging to him.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12From 1853, for over 40 years,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14he conducted an annual estate survey,
0:47:14 > 0:47:19going from cottage to cottage, recording the condition of the building,
0:47:19 > 0:47:24and also notes about the lives of the tenants inside those cottages.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Now, here we go - let's have a look.
0:47:26 > 0:47:301895/96, here.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32Charles Allingham.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34Three bedrooms.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37He's paying £4, ten shillings per annum.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41Good cottage, but painting required.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43Chimney mending
0:47:43 > 0:47:46and a step missing. Incredible - meticulous, tiny detail
0:47:46 > 0:47:50about the fabric of the cottages.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54This one here. Here we go. Mr Mills.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56His cottage has three bedrooms.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Eight children at home, he notes. Mm.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02It's a good cottage, though - but plastering required
0:48:02 > 0:48:06in a bedroom. Do I detect some sort of dismay here, or disturbance,
0:48:06 > 0:48:11about eight children at home? Perhaps he's worried
0:48:11 > 0:48:13that the cottage is overcrowded
0:48:13 > 0:48:16or the children are too old to be living at home.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20I suppose, you know, William is a good landlord,
0:48:20 > 0:48:22and concerned about his tenants,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25but one senses some element of moral policing going on here.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35In their vast Georgian pile,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38at the heart of the largest estate in Warwickshire,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41the Leighs' position seemed unassailable.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50But behind the scenes, income from the estate had scarcely risen in a century.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55And as debts mounted, Lord Leigh flatly refused to confront the problem.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Throughout the countryside, the old model of cottages
0:49:02 > 0:49:05owned by landlord and occupied by his dutiful tenants
0:49:05 > 0:49:07no longer seems sustainable.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13But as Britain's population shifted decisively
0:49:13 > 0:49:16from predominantly rural to overwhelmingly urban,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20the cottage was reinvented for a new age.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30Amidst the grit and grime of the Victorian city,
0:49:30 > 0:49:35the nostalgic appeal of the quaint country cottage proved irresistible.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Picturesque views of idyllic cottages captured,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44the popular imagination, and even Stoneleigh's homes
0:49:44 > 0:49:47graced a Victorian postcard.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50In Britain's expanding cities,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54this infatuation would fuel a new building boom.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Beginning at the end of the 19th century
0:50:00 > 0:50:04and gathering pace in the 20th century, a mania for mock Tudor
0:50:04 > 0:50:07took the new suburbs by storm.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12Let's go for a nice walk.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Walk? In these London streets? Petrol, oil, fumes?
0:50:15 > 0:50:17Oh, my dear, don't get ratty.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20I'm so sorry, darling. Honestly, I don't mean it,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22but I'm tired of these surroundings.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25We're cooped up in this London flat all the days of our lives.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Well, then let's go out into the country.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29The country, where?
0:50:29 > 0:50:32There are awfully nice houses at Purley Oaks, charming.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34Purley Oaks.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36And they went.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Moving swiftly along the wide avenues,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43we notice particularly how well situated are these homes.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50The semi was just the latest evolution of the cottage,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54offering the rustic pleasures of the countryside with all mod cons.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01A-ha! They are pulling up in one of the furnished show houses.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06From early Arts and Crafts models to modern Barratt homes,
0:51:06 > 0:51:11semis were so successful that around 20 million of us now live in one.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14This is the tiled bathroom,
0:51:14 > 0:51:19replete with all that goes to make the daily ablutions pleasurable.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22There are three bedrooms on the first floor
0:51:22 > 0:51:25and they all overlook the rolling countryside.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Suburban semis, most of which were owned and not rented,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37weren't just an escape from overcrowded towns and cities,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40but from overbearing landlords.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Yet in Stoneleigh, the Leighs continued to treat the village
0:51:45 > 0:51:48as their private fiefdom.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51The Leighs were generous to their tenants, but surely William Leigh
0:51:51 > 0:51:55did Stoneleigh a disservice when he closed the local pub.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57The reason for this bizarre action
0:51:57 > 0:52:01was that he was outraged when a bunch of visiting cyclists
0:52:01 > 0:52:04sitting outside the pub drinking whistled at his daughter
0:52:04 > 0:52:06in a lascivious manner,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10so he closed the pub and refused to have any other pubs in the village.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Locals who rather liked to gather for a convivial pint
0:52:13 > 0:52:15were slightly puzzled what to do,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17so the solution was a good one.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20They started a village club which was really little more
0:52:20 > 0:52:22than a private drinking establishment.
0:52:22 > 0:52:23It flourishes still to this day
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and is really the heart and soul of the village.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37We are in what is now the village club.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40What role did it used to play in the life of the village?
0:52:40 > 0:52:42It was a men-only club, actually.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44- Was it?- Yes. They used to collect the rent here
0:52:44 > 0:52:49at a trestle table and Lord Leigh's agent would be there.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52People used to come in and just pay.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54That's very merciful. You'd pay your rent in the club
0:52:54 > 0:52:58so you would have a pint of Guinness, perhaps.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00It was probably morning when they did it.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03- They start drinking early here. - They'd pay their money -
0:53:03 > 0:53:06mostly cash, of course, because people got it in cash then.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10My father didn't have a bank account and used to keep his money in a tin
0:53:10 > 0:53:14in a box of sand with the carrots over winter.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18This is the receipt that my father had for the cottage.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21Here you are, £8, 19 shillings and eight pence
0:53:21 > 0:53:23for half a year's rent for this cottage.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27The address is below it. Number 12 Coventry Road.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31- Yes.- I bet at this point most of Stoneleigh was occupied by tenants
0:53:31 > 0:53:34of the Leigh family.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37- Yes.- How did people then regard him?
0:53:37 > 0:53:42He was a gentleman. He was just a very good...Lord.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46- And landlord, presumably. - And landlord, yes, of course.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Presumably the tenants felt secure
0:53:49 > 0:53:51and the rents were fairly fixed, stable.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Yes, and my father was old school and I can remember that
0:53:54 > 0:53:58he doffed his cap to him to say, "Good morning, Your Lordship."
0:53:58 > 0:54:01I stood back a little, I thought, "Ooh..."
0:54:01 > 0:54:04To me, that was rather strange, but obviously he was still living
0:54:04 > 0:54:08in the old times when you honoured the Lord Leigh.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17The devotion of his tenants would do little to ease the financial woes
0:54:17 > 0:54:20Rupert Leigh had inherited from his father and his grandfather.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27In 1946, he resorted to desperate measures
0:54:27 > 0:54:30to bring in some extra cash.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32- Good afternoon, Lord Leigh. - Good afternoon.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36Tell me one thing, do you ever feel like something out of the zoo
0:54:36 > 0:54:39with all these people wandering around your lovely house?
0:54:39 > 0:54:43I imagine that if they get a glimpse of you it rather makes their day for them, doesn't it?
0:54:43 > 0:54:45Well, I don't know about that.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48The Abbey was one of the first stately homes in the country
0:54:48 > 0:54:50to open its doors to the public.
0:54:50 > 0:54:56Is there anything in particular that the public usually want to see in the house?
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Oh, yes. There's a beautiful double chair
0:54:58 > 0:55:02which is known as the sweetheart chair or courting chair
0:55:02 > 0:55:04in the silk drawing-room.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07What's interested you most in this lovely old house?
0:55:07 > 0:55:11That big drawing-room with all the red plush furniture
0:55:11 > 0:55:14and the gilt and the candelabra in the middle, you know?
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Would you like to live in a room like that, then?
0:55:17 > 0:55:18I don't think so,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21because the dog's hairs would show up on the red plush.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31# Our little dream castle
0:55:31 > 0:55:34# With every dream gone... #
0:55:34 > 0:55:37For more than four centuries, the Leighs had done very well
0:55:37 > 0:55:40out of their position as lords of the manor,
0:55:40 > 0:55:45but the bond between landlord and tenants was finally broken in 1989.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49# A cottage for sale... #
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Rupert Leigh's son Piers followed the lead of hard-up landowners
0:55:58 > 0:56:03around the country and put the estate and all the cottages on the market.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10# Our little dream garden
0:56:10 > 0:56:13# Has withered away. #
0:56:16 > 0:56:19The tenants who had lived in these cottages for generations
0:56:19 > 0:56:21simply couldn't afford to buy them,
0:56:21 > 0:56:26but there were plenty of newcomers ready to pay serious money
0:56:26 > 0:56:29for their very own rural idylls.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42And the perfectly manicured homes of Stoneleigh's new owner-occupiers
0:56:42 > 0:56:46are proof of our enduring affection for the cottage.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51I thought it was amazing when I walked in,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53it just had such a lovely feel.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55The log fire was burning on the day we walked in -
0:56:55 > 0:56:56just what we wanted, really.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59It's nice it had all the old features of the cottage,
0:56:59 > 0:57:04like the fireplace, which dates back to a very early stage of the house,
0:57:04 > 0:57:06gives it a lot of character.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09I think the history is very important.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13We feel a definite sense of being the custodians of a real piece of history.
0:57:13 > 0:57:19It actually feels like quite a responsibility and an honour
0:57:19 > 0:57:22to be looking after it for a while.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26I love living here. We're both very happy here, it's gorgeous.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Throughout Britain, the cottage has undergone a remarkable reinvention.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38From the humblest of medieval homes,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42it has become one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate.
0:57:45 > 0:57:51It's more than just nostalgia that's made cottage living into something of a national obsession.
0:57:51 > 0:57:57These timbers speak of 500 years of redesign and rebuilding.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00It's that remarkable history that is the secret
0:58:00 > 0:58:03to why the cottage is still going strong.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08Next time, I'm exploring the terrace.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11The home designed to take the strain
0:58:11 > 0:58:14in booming Victorian towns and cities.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17I'll discover why the terrace became the home of choice
0:58:17 > 0:58:19for a house-proud nation.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23Ten minutes later, I'll still be doing this.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26And how its extraordinary staying power has ensured it
0:58:26 > 0:58:28a new lease of life.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31- I imagine you'll be here for some years.- For ever.
0:58:31 > 0:58:33I plan for ever, Dan.