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Coast is home. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
And we're exploring | 0:00:11 | 0:00:12 | |
the most endlessly fascinating shoreline in the world... | 0:00:12 | 0:00:17 | |
our own! | 0:00:17 | 0:00:18 | |
The journey to discover surprising, | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
secret stories from around the British Isles continues. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:28 | |
This is Coast. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:35 | |
The sea is a great global highway. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:10 | |
As an island people, it's in our nature to reach out and explore, | 0:01:10 | 0:01:15 | |
the thrill of embarking on voyages big and small | 0:01:15 | 0:01:20 | |
makes our harbours hum with excitement. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
In an age before air travel, these were our departure lounges. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
Harbours have always been gateways to adventure. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
With an insatiable appetite for those adventures, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
we've constructed around 1,000 of these global gateways. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
For centuries, people, goods and ideas | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
have flowed in between harbour walls. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
If only these walls could talk. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
Well, now they can. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
We're here to reveal The Hidden History of Harbours. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
Down on the south coast, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
Tessa is exploring how, in the harbours of the Royal Navy, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:18 | |
a fashion began that made a permanent mark on Britain. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:24 | |
There's one naval tradition that remains largely hidden | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
from public view, beneath sailors' uniforms. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
The tattoo. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:31 | |
On the coast of Northern Ireland, we're heading to Portrush, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:38 | |
where Mark Horton's disembarking to take a trip | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
four centuries back in time. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
How did the lack of a harbour lead to the ruin of a remarkable town? | 0:02:47 | 0:02:52 | |
Lost under the soil, like an Irish Pompeii. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
The decision to settle here at the castle, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
rather than the port over there, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
was a matter of life and death for the new town. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
The harbour I'm heading for is Newlyn in Cornwall. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:15 | |
Soaring high above the Cornish coast, | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
it's striking how perfectly | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
people have moulded themselves into the landscape. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
Manmade walls extend natural headlands | 0:03:26 | 0:03:31 | |
to create safe havens, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
harbours, our own perfectly-formed contributions to the coast. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:39 | |
# In Newlyn Town | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
# I was bread and born... # | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
Last few barbecued pilchards! | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
At Newlyn, the locals come to plug into the wider world, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:54 | |
but the harbour also hides a hidden history. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
150 years ago, as tin mines were closing, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
fishing struggled to keep the community going. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
Down in the harbour, a new call was luring the men seawards. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:11 | |
On the other side of the world, a gold rush has begun. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
# To South Australia we are born | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
# Heave away, haul away | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
# To South Australia round Cape Horn | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
# We're bound for South Australia... # | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
The fishermen of Newlyn knew that 12,000 miles of wild sea | 0:04:25 | 0:04:31 | |
stood between them and the promised land. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
Who would risk all for riches? | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
150 years ago, one little fishing boat made a remarkable voyage | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
from here to the other side of the world. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
Have a look at this picture, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
it shows Melbourne harbour in Australia, | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
absolutely crammed with shipping in the mid-1800s, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
but look at this little boat here, it's got a sail on it | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
and on the sale is says Penzance, it's a boat called Mystery. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:01 | |
The Mystery, with seven men onboard, left this quayside in 1854. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
Over 100 days later, they reached Oz. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
No fishing boat had ever made such a trip. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
Their incredible achievement was a triumph of hope over experience. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:19 | |
They rode their luck in the roughest seas, gambling on a golden future. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:25 | |
# We're bound for South Australia. # | 0:05:25 | 0:05:31 | |
Two of the men who made that momentous decision | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
were Philip Curnow Matthews and William Badcock. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:44 | |
No photos of their five crew-mates survive. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
For years, their story has lain hidden. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
Now I want to discover why the men risked everything | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
on that incredible voyage to Australia | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
in the small fishing boat, Mystery. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
I'm meeting the Captain's great-great-great nephew, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:05 | |
Douglas Williams. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
Hi, Douglas. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
As I understand it, back in the 1850s, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
you could buy for £20 | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
a steerage-class ticket all the way to Australia, one-way. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
Why didn't they do that and travel out there on an immigrant ship? | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
The whole thing was based on an adventure which took off | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
and came out of their control. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:25 | |
They certainly saved a fair bit of money by going that way, | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
the fact that they had a means of earning their livelihood | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
with The Mystery when they arrived there, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
those were the two big factors. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:35 | |
This was a new life and a new deal | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
and they thought they'd have part of it. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
Do you think they understood the risk? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
I don't think they understood the risk, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
I don't suppose any of them had been further than the North Sea | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
and around the Cornish south-west coast, | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
but they had a first-class navigator in Captain Richard Nicholls, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
who was experienced around the world in cargo ships, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
and they recognised that and they had an absolute trust in him. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
Captain Nicholls' log details a great unsung feat | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
of British seamanship, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
beginning on November 18th, 1854, leaving Newlyn. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:15 | |
Phillips Matthews, William Badcock and their crewmates | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
had barely sailed beyond the sight of land before. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
Now, off the tip of Africa, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
they braved gales as they pressed on to Melbourne. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
Of all the British vessels to make it to Australia, The Mystery - | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
the smallest and pluckiest of all - would never see home shores again. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:43 | |
The Mystery didn't come back to Newlyn, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
but I've come along the coast to Plymouth. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
Here, the spirit of Mystery lives on. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
This is an exact replica of the boat | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
in which Captain Nicholls and his six crew set sail. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
Bringing her back to life | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
was the dream of Cornishman and legendary sailor Pete Goss. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
I can't believe that I'm going out to sea in this boat. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
It's an amazing story. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
We started with a chainsaw, looking for fallen oak trees to... | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
to make the frames to build the boat. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
Fashioning the Cornish oak into a seagoing craft | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
was a ten-month labour of love, | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
to honour the achievement of the original crew. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:43 | |
Really what this is about is celebrating, you know, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
1854, those seven amazing men who, really, through hardship | 0:08:45 | 0:08:50 | |
and I think a bit of romance - they wanted an adventure themselves - | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
sailed her to Australia, which is staggering, really. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
For Pete, there was only one way to appreciate fully | 0:08:58 | 0:09:02 | |
Mystery's epic voyage down under, to try it himself. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:07 | |
Later, I'll be discovering how they battled raging seas, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:13 | |
just like the original crew. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
And what became of those Cornishmen who reached Australia 150 years ago. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
Newlyn is just one of many harbours that have waved off bold explorers. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:37 | |
But these safe havens are home to two-way traffic - | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
for every boat that leaves, one is returning, richer for the journey. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
Like down on the South Coast, at Portsmouth. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
The harbour here is familiar | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
with the comings and goings of large ships, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
but they aren't only built for pleasure. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
This is the historic home of the Royal Navy, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:15 | |
where warships set off to make their mark on the world. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
What's less well known is how the Navy's harbours | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
were gateways for the wider world | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
to make an indelible mark on the British people. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:30 | |
As Tessa Dunlop's here to explore. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
The Royal Navy's known as the Senior Service, | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
proud to display its centuries-old seafaring history. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
But these days, there's one naval tradition | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
that remains largely hidden from public view, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
beneath sailors' uniforms. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
The tattoo. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:55 | |
Today, some five million Britons | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
see ink on their skin as a fashion statement, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
but how did the Navy's sailors start this trend for tattooing? | 0:11:04 | 0:11:09 | |
It all began in far-flung harbours. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
When Captain Cook returned to England from southern seas, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
his sailors showed off the skin designs | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
they'd first seen on Polynesians. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
Tattoo historian Paul Sayce is showing me how it was done. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:28 | |
Now this looks pretty scary, where's this one from? | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
That's a Samoan handsaw, it's tapped into the skin, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
and that's why the name of tattooing in Polynesia is called tattao... | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Oh, really? | 0:11:40 | 0:11:41 | |
..cos the Polynesian word for tapping is tattao. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
So they're actually cutting and hitting the skin at the same time? | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
Dip it in the ink, put it on the skin | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
and they'd tap it with a little piece of wood like a mallet, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
and it goes along like that as they're tapping. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
That must really hurt. I mean, it must bruise as well as cut. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
The bruising's terrible, | 0:11:59 | 0:12:00 | |
you get about bruising about six to eight inches either side. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
This is a Japanese hand tool, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
but it's very similar to what we would have used, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
and it would have been about four or five inches long, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
with the needles tied on, and you really just poked it in. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
What, and the ink then pours down into the holes, does it? | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Yeah, well, you dip it in the ink and then you poke it in. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
Painful, certainly, but while tattoos were rare outside the Navy, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
in the mid 19th century they also became a sought-after status symbol. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:29 | |
Surprisingly, tattooing even got the royal seal of approval. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
During his madcap youth, Edward Prince of Wales - | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
later King Edward VII - visited the Holy Land, | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
where he had a Jerusalem cross tattooed on his arm. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
Tattoo parlours started to spring up outside our harbours, | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
as high society followed the future monarch's lead. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
In 1879, the New York Times observed, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:03 | |
"In England, it is regarded as customary and proper | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
"to tattoo the youthful feminine leg." | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
By the early 20th century, | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
mechanisation was making inky skin a mass-market commodity. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
And this is one of the first mechanised tattooing machines, is it? | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
Yeah, it is, it's one of the first machines | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
and it's still the same as we know it today. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
Inside there, there's two coils and a hammer and it goes up and down, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
when the power goes on and off, the needles go through here, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
you dip it in the ink and you go around the skin like that. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
And of course when the more commoner sort of people, in inverted commas, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
started to get it done, your higher society stopped getting it done, | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
cos as is anything else, if anything gets popular the... | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
the rich don't want it. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
Body art swings in and out of fashion, | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
but is always at home in the Navy's harbours. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
Serving sailors can be a secretive bunch. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
So I'm here to meet veterans on a Second World War vintage destroyer. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:12 | |
Old salts who can talk tattoos. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
There used to be an old song which said you're not a sailor | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
till the sailor's tattooed, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
and, of course, silly boys like me had a tattoo. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
Wouldn't do it again but, er... | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
It's interesting, none of you would do it again. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
We've grown wiser as we get older. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
I like your tattoos. In fact, who does have the biggest tattoo? | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
Don't know. Nobby, I think, on his chest. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
Oh, it's enormous! | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
It's a sailing ship. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:52 | |
-With a cloud, I see it now and birds, yes? -Yes. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
And where was that from, India? | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
-No, Singapore. -Singapore. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
Yeah, I think a postcard home | 0:15:01 | 0:15:02 | |
would have probably been a better investment. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
It isn't just tattoos that the Navy keeps covered up. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
Once it strikes out from harbour, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
the Senior Service fights its battles in secret. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
They show off their ships in exercises, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
but the grim business of war takes place in far-flung foreign waters. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:42 | |
That is, of course, unless you go to Scarborough. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
Those in the know go beyond the sea walls of the quayside | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
to a hidden little harbour that sees explosive action | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
in the holiday months. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
Every summer, we wage war here in Scarborough. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
In the crazy days of summer, the crowds wait for war to break out. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
Meanwhile, the corner of the council boating pond | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
is transformed into an impromptu naval base. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:24 | |
In top secret, warships are made ready for battle. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
It looks like miniature boats. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
The lid comes off and a council employee... | 0:16:34 | 0:16:40 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
..climbs inside and the lid is put back on, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
and there you have your dreadnaught. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
-There you go, good luck. -Thank you. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
For 80 years, Scarborough has staged the summer war | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
from a little harbour in Peasholm Park, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
a grand tradition familiar to Friend of the Park, Christine Mark. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
The naval battle started in the 1920s | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
and they started to celebrate World War I sea battles and that was fine | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
but then World War II came along | 0:17:13 | 0:17:15 | |
and, after that, they decided that it would be a really good idea | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
to celebrate the first battle, the first major sea battle | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
of World War II, which was The Battle of the River Plate. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
At the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of South America, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
the German heavy cruiser Graf Spee suffered a humiliating defeat | 0:17:32 | 0:17:37 | |
to the Royal Navy. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
A propaganda victory that Scarborough has re-fought for years. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:44 | |
It was pretty jingoistic | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
and that was fine for the time. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
Nowadays, the conflict is more politically correct. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:58 | |
Don't mention the war, or the Germans. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
So now we have the Allies and the Enemy. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
I'm the enemy. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:06 | |
I've been doing this now about 14 years, on and off, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
never won a battle yet - do 30 a year and lose every one. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
Scarborough Council's naval commanders | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
batten down the hatches. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
Welcome to Scarborough's unique holiday attraction, | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
the naval warfare, our sea battle in miniature. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
I'm just waiting to see if the submarines appear. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
Lurking in the lake, an enemy sub launches a sneak attack... | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
..aimed at HMS British Pride. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
The magazine could go any... | 0:18:44 | 0:18:45 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:18:45 | 0:18:46 | |
Oh, it has. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
but she's spotted an attack by bombers from the Arc Royal. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:55 | |
The dive bombers are a hit with the crowd... | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
..when they work. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
Oh, we've got one! | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
Inside the Jervis Bay, her skipper presses home the attack. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
Oh! What a mess she's in. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:22 | |
HE COUGHS | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
Don't forget, she's not really a fighting ship, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
but isn't she doing wonderfully well there? | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
That's a direct hit on the conning tower. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
With the submarine neutralised, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
the Allies can finally attack the enemy harbour. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
Oh, look - the top's coming out now. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
Ahh. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:08 | |
So that was it then, half an hour and the Allies won again... | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
-Yes, as usual. -Quelle surprise! | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
Here on the Yorkshire coast, they re-live battles from distant seas | 0:20:23 | 0:20:28 | |
that forged the fighting spirit of naval seamen. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
But our shores also shape the character of sailors closer to home, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:37 | |
like here in Cornwall. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
This craggy coastline is sculpted by a sea | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
that crashes against granite, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
and builds boatmen of steely resolve. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
Historically, each little harbour was connected to its neighbour | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
by the sea, not the land. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
The boats that used to chase the mackerel | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
rarely strayed far from the coast. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
Except for one remarkable mackerel boat, The Mystery. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
Her seven crew sailed in 1854 from Newlyn. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
It was a voyage that took them out through the Bay of Biscay, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
down the coast of West Africa, past Cape Town and on to Melbourne. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:29 | |
A 12,000-mile gamble on riches in gold rush Australia. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:38 | |
When those Cornishmen set sail in 1854, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
some of them had never been out of sight of land before. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
I'm on an exact replica of their ship, Spirit Of Mystery, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
to relive a great unsung feat of British seamanship. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:57 | |
To appreciate their astonishing achievement, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
Cornish sailor Pete Goss | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
faced again every crashing wave from the original crew's trip. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:09 | |
Pete built his boat from the plans of an 1850s lugger, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
correct in every detail. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
I can't help noticing, Pete, that you haven't got any winches | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
or mechanical aids to help you get these huge spars up the mast. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
No, no, this was as they would have sailed, so it's a handful of blocks, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
a bucket and rope, needle and thread, go anywhere in the world. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
Battling the wind, I get a feeling of just how tough it was | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
for the crew aboard The Mystery in 1854. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
-There must be a knack to this. -You're right, it'll come. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
You'll be running around by the end of the day. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
That's it. Ready. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
That'll do. Yep. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:53 | |
Sails hoisted, the Cornishmen faced over 100 days in open seas, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:03 | |
with the same fearsome horizons. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Up here on the bow, Pete, looking back, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
I'm actually a little bit shocked at how small this boat is. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
-It is a tiny, tiny boat to sail to Australia in. -It is, yeah. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
The further away you get from land, the smaller it becomes, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
and you do, you know, down in the southern ocean, | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
there is a sense of vulnerability, you're just out there | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
and you hope for the best and deal with what comes along. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
Pete's crew did have a few home comforts | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
their intrepid counterparts couldn't have dreamt of. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
Pete, this is incredibly cosy down here, | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
but, in the original Mystery, this was a fish hold, right? | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
Yes, it was. This area here, our sort of cabin top, | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
would have been a fish hold, but we know that they decked that over | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
and we know that they put bunks and accommodation down below. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
Are these working oil lamps, is this how you lit the cabin down here? | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
Yeah, we had oil lamps, we used a sextant to navigate. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
The objective was to shine a spotlight on their voyage, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
and get to Melbourne with a real sense of their achievement. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
Phillip Curnow Matthews was one of those who made it to Australia, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:11 | |
and, now, one of his precious possessions | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
has come home to Cornwall | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
This is his little personal compass. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
How extraordinary. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
Do you think that was sort of like a lucky charm | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
that he had with him on the voyage? It's very beautiful, isn't it? | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
I like to think it was, I kind of see that tucked in his waistcoat. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
Matthews and his five crewmates put their life | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
in the hands of the skipper, Richard Nicholls, | 0:24:40 | 0:24:44 | |
who survives in the writings of his log. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
And I love this bit, "Our gallant little vessel riding beautifully | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
"and not shipping any water whatever." | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
And your life is contained on this little Cornish walnut. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
Captain Richard Nicholls was a man of few words, | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
but they sum up the extraordinary nature of the voyage. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
"December 6th, 1854. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
"Several flying fish came on board during the night. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
"Crew overhauling rigging and cleaning mast, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
"airing nets and restoring hold." | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
Captain Nicholls refers to his crew simply as "the people", | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
when the boat was becalmed, he'd exercise them | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
with the fisherman's walk, six paces up and down the deck, endlessly. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:35 | |
After 50 days at sea, The Mystery stopped over | 0:25:37 | 0:25:41 | |
at the tip of South Africa. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
Nicholls noted the excitement. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
"There were a great many visitors on board. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
"The Mystery being the smallest vessel ever from England." | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
But, departing Africa, excitement soon turned to terror | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
in turbulent southern seas. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
The southern ocean is the big focus, that's the big one, you... | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
you step into that and we had probably... | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
Every five days, on average, we'd have a big gale come through. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
Walls of water pounded their tiny boat. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
Pete's crew were fighting for their lives, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
just like the original men of the Mystery, 150 years before, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
as the Captain's log records. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
"5th March 1855, a complete hurricane, mountains of sea." | 0:26:27 | 0:26:34 | |
Pete only captured the start of this storm on his little camera. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
Hailstones rattled down, then their world turned upside-down. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
Just saw this great big sheer wall of water and shouted, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:52 | |
and then it's like a car crash, you only remember bits, | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
and I remember it went all dark, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
getting knocked around in the hatchway | 0:26:57 | 0:26:58 | |
and then it felt like standing in a storm drain | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
with water pouring in and pushing up against it. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
Andy was in the starboard bunk, he woke up and grabbed the boat | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
and swung over and realised he was sat on the ceiling, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
so we'd got knocked upside-down. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:12 | |
Miraculously, the boat righted itself, | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
but deckhand Mark suffered a badly broken leg. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
I'm sure I heard it, it was like a rifle crack. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:26 | |
I mean, my foot was tucked underneath the bench | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
and my foot caught on the post and that's what caused it to break. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
In Melbourne harbour, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:35 | |
a hero's welcome greeted The Spirit of Mystery. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
THE CROWD CHEER | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
When the original Mystery reached Melbourne in 1855, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
she was the smallest craft ever to complete the journey, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
but her seven-man crew sold Mystery to start new lives. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
Phillip Curnow Matthew married and became a land surveyor. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:04 | |
He is buried in Melbourne. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
Captain Nicholls eventually returned to Cornwall, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
only to be killed by a horse-drawn carriage in 1868. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:17 | |
Who says worse things happen at sea? | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
After a spell in Australia, William Badcock and three shipmates | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
also came home to Newlyn harbour. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
Perhaps the lure of Cornwall was just too strong, | 0:28:33 | 0:28:38 | |
but maybe what had really driven them on | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
wasn't the desire for a new life in Australia | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
but the spirit of adventure. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
Sailors love striking out towards new harbours. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:58 | |
Many head for the stunning inland sea at Strangford Lough | 0:28:58 | 0:29:03 | |
on the shore of Northern Ireland. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
The Irish coast is studded with safe havens for shipping, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
around which great cities have sprung up. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:14 | |
Creating a new settlement by a harbour seems an obvious choice, | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
but then you had towards Portrush. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
In the Middle Ages, this was a violent coastline. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:36 | |
Castle strongholds brooded on inaccessible cliffs | 0:29:36 | 0:29:41 | |
because harbours were open to attack from the sea. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:45 | |
So 400 years ago, when a Scottish lord came to settle the land here, | 0:29:47 | 0:29:52 | |
he turned his back on the natural harbour at Portrush. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:57 | |
A decision that would prove disastrous, | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
as Mark is about to discover. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:03 | |
In 1608, this harbour was completely undeveloped. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:11 | |
But the Scottish clan who claimed this land | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
chose to build their settlement not here at Portrush, | 0:30:15 | 0:30:21 | |
but here at Dunluce Castle. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
The castle is just three miles up the coast from Portrush. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:37 | |
Back in 1608, with its walls intact, it seemed to offer security. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:43 | |
But times were changing. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
The decision to settle here at the castle | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
rather than at the port, over there, | 0:30:53 | 0:30:55 | |
was a matter of life and death for the new town. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
Those green fields are a clue as to what eventually happened. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:03 | |
Just beneath the grass, archaeologists have unearthed | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
the foundations of homes lost for over 350 years, | 0:31:14 | 0:31:20 | |
an Irish Pompeii. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:22 | |
I'm meeting Colin Breen from the University of Ulster. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
His team are excavating a village built for Scots, | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
brought here from over the sea. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
This is a plantation, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
so this is an attempt to bring foreigners to settle Ulster. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
Yeah, it's a very complex period in Ulster's history. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
What we're essentially doing is coming out of a period | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
of nine years of war and conflict, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
where the rebellious Irish rose up against the English administration. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:53 | |
And, at the end of that period, the English crown decides | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
that the only way to pacify the Ulster landscape | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
is to bring settlers in from England and from Scotland | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
to civilise Ireland, to civilise Ulster. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:04 | |
The wild Irish. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
The wild Irish, as they're often referred to. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
And this particular town is established by Randal McDonnell | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
from 1608 through to about 1611. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:15 | |
Founded by Randal MacDonnell, | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
the new town was taken over by his son in 1636. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:25 | |
But, by then, things were going disastrously wrong | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
for their new settlement, sited next to Dunluce Castle. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:32 | |
Now, only mysterious mounds remain. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
Why was the town lost to history | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
when the Scottish clan MacDonnell built it to last? | 0:32:45 | 0:32:50 | |
It's an amazing thing, the town itself is really quite elaborate. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
What we're looking at is a central space within that town, | 0:32:56 | 0:33:00 | |
this paving surface here extends up as far as that farm building, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
which was a 1623 courthouse, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
it would have run right down to the castle itself, | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
and then there would have been rows of houses | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
lining either side of this central place, within the town. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
So this isn't just a small town, this is a MAJOR investment. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
Very much so. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
With no proper harbour, the new town relied on trading vessels, | 0:33:23 | 0:33:28 | |
barely changed since Viking times. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
The ships' shallow bottoms meant they could be pulled up | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
easily onto the beach. | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
You could drag them up here on West Strand | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
and East Strand, just outside Portrush. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:42 | |
But, by the time they hit the 17th century, | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
they literally weren't equipped | 0:33:45 | 0:33:46 | |
to deal with the new globalised economy, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:48 | |
which was developing at this time. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
What you see is a fundamental shift from local trading, | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
local production into the trading in bulk commodities, | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
with much larger vessels. | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
These new larger cargo ships needed something | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
that Randal MacDonnell's Ulster new town didn't have, | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
a harbour. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
By the time he realised he needed one, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
Randal MacDonnell had given away | 0:34:15 | 0:34:17 | |
the only natural harbour on this coast. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
Those living by the castle watched the big ships sail past. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:28 | |
Bypassed by traders, the new town, just 30 years old, was already dying. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:36 | |
The dig reveals how the money ran out. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
Few coins are found from the 1630s onwards. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
Around that time, this merchant's house was sub-divided - | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
a small room created on the left to house pigs, | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
alongside a once-prosperous family. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
In the new era of commercial sea trade, they just couldn't compete. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:05 | |
When Randal MacDonnell builds this town in the early 17th century, | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
he makes a fundamental mistake. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:10 | |
He builds it on the edge of a very steep cliff, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
in excess of 80 metres high, looking out over the north Atlantic, | 0:35:13 | 0:35:16 | |
and there's simply no room to be able to build a harbour | 0:35:16 | 0:35:20 | |
in this particular location. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:22 | |
Randal himself was not prepared to let go of his ancestral castle, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:26 | |
his ancestral home, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:27 | |
and he wasn't in that mind to move away from the medieval period | 0:35:27 | 0:35:32 | |
into the new globalised world. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:34 | |
They just got left behind? | 0:35:34 | 0:35:36 | |
Very much so. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:37 | |
The town's Scottish settlers turned their back on the sea | 0:35:41 | 0:35:45 | |
because the castle seemed more secure, | 0:35:45 | 0:35:49 | |
but they were wrong. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
Longstanding resentment towards settlers from Scotland and England | 0:35:51 | 0:35:56 | |
reached a head when the native Irish rose up against the incomers. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:02 | |
The attack wasn't from the sea, but from within. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:06 | |
In 1641, during the Irish rebellion, the town was attacked | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
and it was essentially burned to the ground overnight and abandoned. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:16 | |
So we've just got these cobbles, we're standing where they stood. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
Yeah, if we removed all of the grass from beneath this whole landscape, | 0:36:20 | 0:36:24 | |
the perfectly intact foundations of a 17th century town survive. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:29 | |
What a tantalising thought | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
of what might lie under all these fields. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
After the uprising, this site was left to go to seed. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:42 | |
Castles were the past. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
The future depended on gateways to the sea. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
Harbours were the beating heart of a modern Britain, | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
built on global trade. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:02 | |
The sea is still our lifeblood. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
It carries 95% by volume of everything we import, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:15 | |
and around one third of our food arrives by ship. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:20 | |
But while sea trade sustains our bodies, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
it can also change our minds. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
The fortunes of a coastal town ebb and flow | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
with the traffic through its harbour, | 0:37:32 | 0:37:34 | |
but it's not just goods that come and go, | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
sometimes the export isn't a commodity, it's an idea. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:42 | |
An idea that changed the world took life here in Birkenhead harbour. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:48 | |
Birkenhead sits in the shade of its bigger neighbour, Liverpool, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:59 | |
across the Mersey. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:00 | |
Around 200 years ago, Liverpool docks were booming, | 0:38:03 | 0:38:08 | |
so hard-headed businessmen with plans for a new harbour | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
looked to Birkenhead. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
Little did they know they were laying the foundations | 0:38:15 | 0:38:19 | |
for a revolution in the world of leisure. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:23 | |
Ruth Goodman is digging deeper. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:26 | |
In the 1800s, Birkenhead was taking shape, | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
as merchants in these parts showed off their wealth in stone. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
The grand homes of 19th century Birkenhead | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
rivalled their counterparts in London, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
thanks to the wealth that was pouring to this Merseyside port. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
Birkenhead was booming because it was on the coast. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:52 | |
It's fair to say that the harbour's seen better days, | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
but Glynn Parry knows its hidden history. | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
There's not much here now, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:01 | |
but it would have been extremely busy, wouldn't it? | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
It would have been with ships coming in, going out all the time. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:07 | |
And it was a huge number of people. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:09 | |
Oh, tremendous number of people. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:10 | |
In the period of about 20 years, the population had gone | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
from somewhere in the region of 120 to about 12,000, | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
they were coming in from all over the north west. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:18 | |
People were still looking for work | 0:39:18 | 0:39:20 | |
but they were coming in off the farms | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
because the rates of pay were greater. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:24 | |
The new harbour pulled in an army of new workers, | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
fresh from green fields. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
Now, though, they were cramped together in regimented rows. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
You're talking about back-to-back houses, | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
where there was no sanitation, no ventilation. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:40 | |
If you're living in that condition, | 0:39:40 | 0:39:42 | |
home is hardly sweet home that you want to come home to. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:44 | |
It's not somewhere to go to for peace and quiet. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
The bosses were living in style, | 0:39:48 | 0:39:51 | |
but the merchants had good reasons to worry | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
about the living conditions of their employees and their children. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
Within living memory, the workers of Manchester | 0:40:01 | 0:40:05 | |
had demonstrated for social reform. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
18 died in the Peterloo massacre, | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
when cavalry charged them with drawn sabres. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
Could similar social unrest be brewing | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
in the drinking dens of Birkenhead? | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
Was there a genuine possibility of everything exploding in revolution? | 0:40:25 | 0:40:30 | |
People would resent those who seemed to be better off, | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
those who were in control - | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
there could well have been a major revolution. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:37 | |
They'd had one in France, why not one in Britain? | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
To prise workers out of the alehouses, | 0:40:40 | 0:40:43 | |
the great and good of Birkenhead Council came up with a novel idea. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:48 | |
Use public money to create a grand green space. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:53 | |
Parklife was born. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
In 1847, the first public-funded municipal park | 0:41:03 | 0:41:08 | |
opened its imposing gates. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:10 | |
There was nowhere like this on earth. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
It was laid out by designer Joseph Paxton, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
who'd go on to create the Crystal Palace in London. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
This space was social networking, 19th-century style. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
That's what's so special about this park, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
it's a time machine that takes us back | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
to the birth of modern urban Britain. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
If only we can learn to see it with old eyes. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:44 | |
Back then, everything ran to a plan. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:48 | |
The park taught people to play nicely together, | 0:41:48 | 0:41:51 | |
and conform to polite society. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
I've got a copy of the bylaws here, for the park. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
It's a rather formidable document. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
They're quite interesting. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:07 | |
No carpet beating, no fires, no pitching tents, | 0:42:07 | 0:42:11 | |
no leaving piles of building materials all over the place, | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
no preaching. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:17 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:42:17 | 0:42:18 | |
But visitors did spread the word - | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
public parks popped up all over Britain and beyond. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
Where Birkenhead led, the world followed. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
The designer of New York's Central Park, Frederick Olmstead, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:36 | |
was inspired by his own visit to Merseyside in 1850. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:40 | |
And Birkenhead's haven of tranquillity | 0:42:43 | 0:42:47 | |
remains Britain's only Grade I listed municipal park. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:51 | |
It's funny to think that when these docks were built, | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
it was all about importing wealth into the local area, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
but the public parks movement - | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
born here in Birkenhead because of the new docks - | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
was exported to the rest of the world. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
A wealth of hidden history lies in store | 0:43:25 | 0:43:29 | |
for those who explore our harbours. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:33 | |
Tales of enterprise, triumph and trade tell how Britain was born. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:40 | |
For me, the coast is most alive when you can see it at work, | 0:43:42 | 0:43:46 | |
and harbours are where you can see that happening, | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
where land and sea and people all come together | 0:43:49 | 0:43:53 | |
and where adventures are born. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 |