0:00:30 > 0:00:35Today, I'm on a journey through the remarkable history and landscape
0:00:35 > 0:00:39of Northamptonshire, one of north England's least discovered counties.
0:00:39 > 0:00:45My journey starts here in Northampton, home of the county's famous shoe industry.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Next I'll travel north to Coton Manor to discover the story
0:00:49 > 0:00:52of the gardens and some of its more exotic inhabitants.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54You're kidding? 50-years-old?!
0:00:54 > 0:00:56Well, yes, not just for Christmas!
0:00:58 > 0:01:02At Holdenby, I'll visit what was once the largest private house
0:01:02 > 0:01:07in England and find out how it was first a palace and then a prison.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11And I'll end my journey just over the border in Bedfordshire
0:01:11 > 0:01:15at Santa Pod raceway, the home of European drag car racing.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24And along the way I'll be looking back at the best of
0:01:24 > 0:01:29the BBC's rural programmes from this part of the world. This is Country Tracks.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33Northamptonshire has a largely rural farming landscape.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37It is affectionately known as the county of spires and squires,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42because of its number of grand stately homes and ancient churches.
0:01:42 > 0:01:48In the 18th and 19th century, parts of the county became industrialised, specialising in leather and shoes.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52By the end of the 19th century, Northampton was said to be
0:01:52 > 0:01:55the shoe and boot-making capital of the world.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06The collection of boots and shoes at Northampton museum is the largest in the world.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12There are well over 12,000 items, ranging from fine historic shoes
0:02:12 > 0:02:16to Elton John's massive platform boots from the film Tommy
0:02:16 > 0:02:20and even David Beckham's football boots.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26In 1841, there were 1,871 shoe makers in Northampton,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30but sadly the 20th century saw a huge decline in shoe manufacturing
0:02:30 > 0:02:34as cheaply made imported footwear began to flood the market.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40But a handful of British companies are still going strong.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45I'm off to one Northamptonshire firm with royal connections.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54Trickers was founded in 1829 by master shoemaker, Joseph Tricker.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Five generations later, his family continue to apply
0:02:57 > 0:02:59the same traditional skills
0:02:59 > 0:03:02in the production of their world-renowned shoes.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09I'm meeting fifth generation owner Nick Barltrop
0:03:09 > 0:03:13to see how those skills are still alive and kicking today.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17So, Nick, what are the steps to making a fine shoe?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20- Well, this is where it all starts...- Yeah.
0:03:20 > 0:03:26..with the cutting out of all of the little pieces which go into making the upper of the shoe
0:03:26 > 0:03:29and Ricky here is doing it by hand,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32which is how we do it with all the hand-made shoes.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36- Wow!- A lot of detail goes into this.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38It is very labour intensive.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Yeah. So Ricky is cutting out for the fine shoes, the bespoke shoes, is that right?
0:03:42 > 0:03:45- Yes.- It's great that you are keeping these skills alive.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48It's not easy. You do have to do a lot of training in-house,
0:03:48 > 0:03:54but the skills are there, but you have to put the time in
0:03:54 > 0:03:55and train the youngsters.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00Yes. It must feel good, though, being one of the last few companies that make shoes in this way?
0:04:00 > 0:04:01Yeah, we're very proud of it.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06So what's the next stage, then, Nick?
0:04:06 > 0:04:09The next stage is skiving as we say it here.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11Skiving, what does that mean?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14What you'll see is that what Dawn has done
0:04:14 > 0:04:22is reduced the edge from a big thickness here down to a thin edge there
0:04:22 > 0:04:27which is going to aid the sewing through the leather.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32Another piece of leather will come over the top of this one. You have to reduce the thickness down.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37- Otherwise it'll be too thick to get the thread through?- That's right. You'll end up with a bump.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Yes, the difference is amazing. How many will Dawn get through? She's working pretty fast.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45- She looks like she's doing it fairly quickly.- Yeah.- 200 pairs a day.
0:04:45 > 0:04:51200 pairs a day! Dawn, that's pretty speedy work. I love that.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55MUSIC: "Kinky Boots"
0:05:08 > 0:05:13Well, this looks interesting. What's happening here, then, Nick?
0:05:13 > 0:05:18This is the next stage in the process of the hand-made bespoke footwear.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22This is Scott, and he's lasting the uppers which you saw being made
0:05:22 > 0:05:26in the closing room onto the individual lasts.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30The lasts are the wooden foot shape, the mould?
0:05:30 > 0:05:34That's right. The last is made according to the measurements taken
0:05:34 > 0:05:40of the customer's foot and we then build the shoe around that last.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45So each customer who's asked for a bespoke shoe will have their very own last made?
0:05:45 > 0:05:48- That's right. Yes.- Do their foot shapes change over time?
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Feet can change. Every time that the customers orders a new pair
0:05:53 > 0:05:55he will have his foot measured again
0:05:55 > 0:05:59to make sure that everything is still as it was originally.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01This is very specialised work.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05How long did it take you to get to this level of skills?
0:06:05 > 0:06:09A few years, but I have been doing it for seven or eight years.
0:06:09 > 0:06:10Good gracious.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12There are very few of you who can do this?
0:06:12 > 0:06:16There's only two other people that I know and they're both retired now.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18- Wow!- So it's only me, I can say.
0:06:18 > 0:06:19Good gracious!
0:06:19 > 0:06:23How long will it take you to do this stage?
0:06:23 > 0:06:28One foot takes about an hour to do, to get it to that stage.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33Wow! Good gracious. I've heard you can tell a fine shoemaker, because the pins
0:06:33 > 0:06:36in his teeth will affect his teeth, but your teeth look all right.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38There is good dental work there.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Thank you very much.
0:06:41 > 0:06:42That's fantastic.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52Some very well-known people have their shoes made here at Tricker's,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56but it's not really the done thing to reveal their identities.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01It's certainly an investment.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05A pair of made-to-order shoes will cost up to £500,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09while a pair of fully bespoke hand-made shoes
0:07:09 > 0:07:12will cost upwards of £1,000,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16but shoes of this quality can last a lifetime.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21So this is the very final step?
0:07:21 > 0:07:23- That's right.- What happens here?
0:07:23 > 0:07:28Well, Donna's putting the finished shoes into the boxes.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31It really feels like a luxury product.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34It is just beautiful packaging, beautifully presented.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38What I love is that these shoes will have all been touched by humans.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40They are not purely machine-made?
0:07:40 > 0:07:45That's right. There are 266 different operations that go into a pair of Tricker's shoes.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49266! And how many people may have come into contact with them?
0:07:49 > 0:07:54We employ 92. So 92 could have come in contact with every pair of shoes.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56They are very beautiful.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58It is fine craftsmanship, isn't it?
0:07:58 > 0:08:00And off they go to some very lucky buyer!
0:08:00 > 0:08:02That's right.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06I've started my journey in the county town of Northampton,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10but when the One Show's Christine Walkden visited,
0:08:10 > 0:08:16she headed out in the countryside to explore the county's rolling fields.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21To many of us, British agriculture is nothing more than a blur
0:08:21 > 0:08:27as we whizz up and down roads and motorways.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31From the air, the farmland that blankets the British countryside
0:08:31 > 0:08:33reveals itself like paint on a canvas,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37and literally defines the colour of our country from the sky.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41But how much do we really know about the crops that fill this canvas?
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Crops define our ever-changing landscape,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49and one crop has changed that more than any other.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Brassica napus. Oilseed rape.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01Spreading it on your bread or pouring it in the pan could help you
0:09:01 > 0:09:05live longer and using it in the car could one day help save the planet.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15Oilseed actually belongs to the cabbage genus, brassica.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Rapeseed has a cluster of flowers on a central stem
0:09:17 > 0:09:19known as an inflorescence.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23It's that tight arrangement that creates vast splashes of colour,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26that paints the countryside yellow.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32This dazzling display can be seen from early April all the way through to late July.
0:09:35 > 0:09:42The family name for these plants is cruciferae, because of its flowers' four-petal pattern,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45also found in its cousins - mustard, cabbage, turnip and broccoli.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Rapeseeds are pollinated by insects, particularly bees,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and it's their vivid colour that attracts the bees to them,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55unlike cereals that are pollinated by air.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00Once the plant has flowered, pollinated and wilted,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03we're left with these, the seed.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06And this is where all the money is.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08These yellow fields didn't exist when I was growing up,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13but today, oil-seed rape is Britain's most easily recognisable crop.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17In the last 20 years, the increased demand for margarine and healthy cooking oils
0:10:17 > 0:10:22has meant that oil-seed rape now takes up 15% of arable land in the UK,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24but it's not all for culinary use.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28There's an awful lot of talk about rapeseed being used as bio-fuel.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Most of the biodiesel is coming from reused cooking oil.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36So the rape goes into making cooking oils, then when it's been used once
0:10:36 > 0:10:39it goes into turning into biodiesel. That strikes me as
0:10:39 > 0:10:43a very sensible use for a plant getting at least two uses out of it.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47The first people to cultivate oil-seed rape in Britain
0:10:47 > 0:10:50were the Romans for lamp oils and soap,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55but here in Northamptonshire, Duncan Farrington is purely interested in the taste.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58What we do is a very traditional method of extracting the oil.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01It's called cold pressing - we don't use high temperatures
0:11:01 > 0:11:05We take those little black seeds and literally squeeze the oil out of it.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07It's very simple, very old fashioned.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10It's like the very best olive oils. We don't refine it
0:11:10 > 0:11:14in any way. We just let it settle, filter it and put it in a bottle.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Because of that, it retains all the natural goodness within the seed.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21- The next thing to do is get you filling some bottles for us. - Excellent.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24So, the thing to do is not to panic. I think there might be
0:11:24 > 0:11:27a cup of tea and a piece of cake in it if you do a good job.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34- Will you take me on? - Yeah, go on, then. Carry on.
0:11:37 > 0:11:38So there we are.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41- The finished product. Shall we go and try it?- Absolutely.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45OK. So this is my bottle, what's so special about rapeseed oil?
0:11:45 > 0:11:48It's got the lowest saturated fat content of any oil.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51It's Omega-3 in balance with Omega-6.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53It's got vitamin E which is a good antioxidant.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55It's a good all-round healthy oil.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00That is seriously nice.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05These glorious yellow fields boost our bee population,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08provides fuel for tomorrow's cars
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and even combats cholesterol to keep us fit and healthy.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Not bad for a relative of the cabbage.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21Christine Walkden extolling the virtues of oil-seed rape in the heart of Northamptonshire.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24My journey has now brought me to an area of the county
0:12:24 > 0:12:26to the north-west of Northampton,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29littered with beautiful villages and stately homes.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33I'm visiting one of the prettiest in the area, Coton Manor.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37In 1662, a farmhouse was built on the site of the original house
0:12:37 > 0:12:41which had been razed to the ground after the Battle of Naseby.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Some of the mellow Northamptonshire stone came from the royal palace
0:12:44 > 0:12:47of Holdenby House, which I'll be visiting later.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51From this smaller house, the surrounding land was farmed
0:12:51 > 0:12:54for nearly three centuries until the property was bought
0:12:54 > 0:12:58by the grandparents of the present owner in 1923.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06But it's the gardens and their inhabitants that I've come to Coton to see.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14I'm meeting up with the head gardener Richard Greene
0:13:14 > 0:13:16for a tour of the floral highlights -
0:13:16 > 0:13:20some already showing and some still to come.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Richard, these snowdrops are looking fantastic.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28It's obviously early on in the year, but what other flowers are we getting to see around now?
0:13:28 > 0:13:31We start off with the snowdrops and the aconites
0:13:31 > 0:13:34during the early part of the spring.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39We also have a lot of primulas and pulmonaria.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43- A few daffs up.- That's right, yes. The hellebores, of course.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45We make quite of thing of hellebores.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48- They're glorious, aren't they? - Not bad at all, yes.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51They've been quite late this year, but they're looking good now.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53They're looking really good.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56This is just the start of the flowering year, there must be plenty more to come.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Oh, yes, we move on to the main feature,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05which, I guess, is the herbaceous borders.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09They should be looking good right through to the end of November.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11- Good long flowering year. - Weather permitting!- Yes.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14- Good for your pollinators. - Yes, that's right.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Well, this is lovely.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23- This is one of my favourite areas of the garden.- Is it?
0:14:23 > 0:14:26It comes into its own in a few weeks' time,
0:14:26 > 0:14:28but already there are nice things coming through.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Particularly like this pulmonaria here, this Munstead blue.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34- That is amazingly vivid, isn't it? - It's a wonderful colour.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39- What else is here?- We also have some dicentra poking through
0:14:39 > 0:14:42and some corydalis that are already in flower.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47- Actually, once you get your eye in, there's plenty in flower at the moment.- It is coming along.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52One of my favourite views is from down in the summer house down there,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54looking back up this way.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58I can see why, I really can. There's lots of water features as well.
0:14:58 > 0:14:59That's right.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02We have a spring that comes up from the main pond behind us there.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07That diverges through the garden and feeds the rest of the ponds below.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10That's really peaceful. Let's keep exploring.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14So, Richard, these are the herbaceous borders?
0:15:14 > 0:15:17- That's right, yes. - What sort of thing will we get here?
0:15:17 > 0:15:23We have a range of herbaceous plants that come on around about May time
0:15:23 > 0:15:26and build up into a crescendo, late July, August.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30But the trick is continuity.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35So there's always something replacing a plant that's already flowered and gone over.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38We do a bit with annuals, replacing here and there,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42filling holes and gaps and so on, but we have to keep
0:15:42 > 0:15:45a careful eye on the colours to make sure that nothing clashes,
0:15:45 > 0:15:51so everything carries on in a subtle colour scheme that we like.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54So what other new developments have been going on here?
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Over here on the right, we have the old orchard
0:15:58 > 0:16:01that we now planted up underneath with spring bubs and so on.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03That comes into its own in a few weeks.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07We recently made a wild flower meadow.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09That works on so many different levels.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14in that it's aesthetic in its own right for the beauty of the flowers,
0:16:14 > 0:16:20but then you've got the attraction of the butterflies and the bees and all the other insects,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23and of course it's practical, in that
0:16:23 > 0:16:27we get a crop of hay off it and we can feed it to our longhorn cattle.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Fantastic. There is a lot of work here, you must be very, very busy.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Oh, there is always something. Yes.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36As lovely as the gardens are, I'll be honest,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40there's another reason I really wanted to visit Coton.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Flamingos were introduced to the garden in the 1960s
0:16:46 > 0:16:49when the pioneering conservationist Sir Peter Scott
0:16:49 > 0:16:52brought a small collection to Slimbridge Wetland centre.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Being a good friend of the family at Coton, a few ended up here.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Peter Scott was the son of the famous Scott of the Antarctic
0:17:00 > 0:17:04and became the most influential conservationist of the 20th century,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07the first to be knighted in 1973.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11He's photographed here with a young Sir David Attenborough.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16So, all the years that you've been working here, you've had flamingos around you?
0:17:16 > 0:17:18That's right, yes.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21The two here, darker ones they're Caribbean,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24but the paler ones behind, they are greater flamingos.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28I believe they are the original ones that came over all that time ago.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32- You're kidding?! What 50-years-old? - Yes, not just for Christmas!
0:17:32 > 0:17:37That's impressive, in the wild they would be 30 years alive, maximum, really.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39I guess so, but then, they're rather pampered here.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43They're rather mollycoddled, look at all this daily food they're getting.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49Also, flamingos that aren't in their natural environment tend to go paler without their usual food.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52Do you have to supplement that to keep them pink?
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Yes, this stuff here that we give them.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58This is sort of cereal-based. It has a bit of fish food in there,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01but it has the carotene that helps to keep them that colour.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06The proteins that give them the lovely pink. Are they hard to keep?
0:18:06 > 0:18:08- Do they give you any trouble? - Not really.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10They basically look after themselves.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13They're quite hardy and stay out all year round.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17We have to take them in during the very cold weather in the winter.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Just because they get frozen into the water.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23They roost in the water at night, and they could find themselves stuck in the morning.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27So one of your jobs has been to icepick out a flamingo?
0:18:27 > 0:18:30- It has been, once or twice, yes. - That's bizarre.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Are they useful from a gardening perspective?
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Are they eating your slugs?
0:18:35 > 0:18:38I don't know about slugs, but we see them often,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42especially after rain, they poddle around with their feet
0:18:42 > 0:18:43and try to raise the worms out the grass.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47You see them scooping backwards and forwards with their beak.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49So they must be finding something.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54They've got that fantastically unusual way of feeding where their beaks are completely upside down
0:18:54 > 0:18:58They scoop up all the mud, push it out again and eat what's left in their mouths.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02There's a bit of squabbling going on here. It's so funny!
0:19:04 > 0:19:05So elegant, too!
0:19:05 > 0:19:08In the wild, flamingos live in enormous colonies
0:19:08 > 0:19:12and won't nest unless there are lots of other flamingos around.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15So small groups in captivity rarely breed
0:19:15 > 0:19:19and opposite sexes view each other as friends.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21Too civilised for their own good.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26The reason flamingos famously stand on one leg has long puzzled naturalists.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31The latest thinking is that it's to regulate their body temperature.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33There's something incredibly charming about
0:19:33 > 0:19:37non-native, purely ornamental birds in an English country garden.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41I think that it plays to our sense of eccentricity.
0:19:41 > 0:19:47You can almost imagine the Queen of Hearts coming out to flip one over and using it as a croquet mallet.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50I think they're great fun.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59The flamingos aren't the only surreal sight in these parts.
0:19:59 > 0:20:05When Ben Fogle visited Northamptonshire, he came to rekindle his passion for conkers.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Now this is what childhood's all about -
0:20:08 > 0:20:11crisp autumn mornings, crunching through leaves
0:20:11 > 0:20:15and the joy of finding one of these spiky fruits,
0:20:15 > 0:20:22and then the excitement of opening it up to find a fresh new conker.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26But who would have thought you could go from this...
0:20:26 > 0:20:30to this!? What was just a childhood pastime for me
0:20:30 > 0:20:34was another man's dream of a world where conkering never ends.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37The International Conker Championships in Ashton!
0:20:43 > 0:20:46# I want to love you
0:20:46 > 0:20:49# I want to be a better man... #
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Well, this started in 1965, I think,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57when there was a group of regulars at the pub.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01There they were sitting, looking, gazing into their beer,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04wondering what to do and somebody saw conkers falling
0:21:04 > 0:21:09and challenged a friend to a game
0:21:09 > 0:21:11and they were all looking out of the window at it,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14and the following week, that's when it all started.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17They'd bought a cup. There were, I think, about 20 of them.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19We've been doing it ever since,
0:21:19 > 0:21:25but it's grown from 20 competitors to nearly 400.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Half a dozen spectators to between 4,000 and 5,000.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Once you've got your conkers, as every child knows,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35there are ways that you can improve them.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37You can varnish them, soak them in vinegar.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41I even had a friend who chopped his in half and filled it with Polyfilla,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45but to true conkerers, there's no conker tampering allowed.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48There's only one way to play the sport,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and that is with a pure, unsullied conker!
0:21:51 > 0:21:56Now, how on earth do you find this many conkers?
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Well, people who are involved in the conker championships,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02they leave huge carrier bags full of them outside of our front door.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05So we then take them all in.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08We have to grade them. We'll say,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11right, what's the best size? Probably something like that.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13If we say golf ball and a bit smaller,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15that's what we're really looking for.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19- What about flat ones? Do they make good conkers?- No, they don't.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22I always remember calling those cheese cutters.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27I thought that was quite good cos it would start a crack in it, no?
0:22:27 > 0:22:29- No. - That's why I always lost as a child!
0:22:29 > 0:22:34Now the first records of conkering date back to the Isle of Wight in 1858.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Although a lot of people think of this as a British tradition,
0:22:38 > 0:22:43there are some conkering aficionados who have taken it further afield.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Stuart, I understand that you're actually from France now?
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Yes, I live in France. I've lived there for 14 years,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52where I am the president of the Federation Francaise des Conkers!
0:22:55 > 0:22:58I got involved when we first went to the Dordogne in France.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Conkers lay on the ground, nobody touches them.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06So we decided to have a impromptu conker competition in front of a bar in our little village.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08A few local Brits turned up to play.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12That continued for two or three years, until one year, in 1995,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16a young Frenchman, Stefan Jally, won the French conker championships.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20That suddenly gave it immense credibility to all the local French people.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Am I right in thinking that you take it so seriously that you even
0:23:23 > 0:23:25practise through the summer months?
0:23:25 > 0:23:28We have training conkers made by our manufacturer
0:23:28 > 0:23:32who actually produces these so that during the summer
0:23:32 > 0:23:35we can train throughout the year with unbreakable conkers.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38That's one the reasons that the French team is so strong,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42they continue playing throughout the year and not just in autumn.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Now, Stefan, I understand that you were the French champion?
0:23:56 > 0:23:59- Yes, I was.- What do they call you?
0:23:59 > 0:24:01The Cantona Of Conkers.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Cantona Of Conkers!
0:24:03 > 0:24:05These are your training conkers?
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Yes, conkers are normally in October.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12The rest of the year we practise with that.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14First of all, where should I be aiming for?
0:24:14 > 0:24:16The best is here.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18Right, on the top.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22- What sort of length? About that? - That's right.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24- So just hold it down?- Yep.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28- Brilliant.- Perfect.
0:24:28 > 0:24:29I don't need any more tips.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32I was a bit of an expert as a schoolboy, actually.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Well, I'm kitted out with my conker.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39I've got the top tips from the Cantona Of Conkers.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44Now here I am to rescue British pride from the French!
0:24:51 > 0:24:53My conker's smashed to bits.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55I'm beaten.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Ben Fogle at the International Conker Championships in Ashton.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08I've now travelled a few miles south from Coton
0:25:08 > 0:25:11to another of Northamptonshire's grand country houses,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13just outside of the village of Holdenby.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Holdenby House, or Holnby as it is known locally,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20is the surviving wing of a huge Tudor palace,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22built by Sir Christopher Hatton.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Hatton was the Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I
0:25:26 > 0:25:29and one of the most powerful men in England.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31The palace reflected his exalted status.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34When it was finished in 1983,
0:25:34 > 0:25:39it was the largest and most glittering house in all of England.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47It's also thought that Hatton built the palace to impress his Queen,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51who allegedly visited only once, before he died nine years later
0:25:51 > 0:25:54with vast debts of £42,000.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Sadly, his heir could not afford to run the house
0:26:03 > 0:26:07and sold it to King James I in 1605.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13Over the following years, King James I was a frequent visitor to Holdenby.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17At a time of history when a great rebellion was gathering momentum,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21one that would change the future of the English monarchy forever.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28Charles I succeeded his father King James in 1625.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31He hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland
0:26:31 > 0:26:36into a new single kingdom fulfilling the dreams of his father.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42But trouble loomed.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Like his father, Charles believed in the divine power of the crown,
0:26:46 > 0:26:52but this concept was radically opposed by the Parliamentarians or Roundheads.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Eventually this fundamental difference on opinion
0:26:57 > 0:27:01on the power of the monarchy led to the English Civil War
0:27:01 > 0:27:06which raged on and off between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists for nearly ten years.
0:27:07 > 0:27:14Just a few miles north of Holdenby, one of the most significant battles of this war took place.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17The Royalists were led by Charles I and Prince Rupert,
0:27:17 > 0:27:22the Parliamentarians by Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25In 2004, Peter Snow told the story.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Charles, Rupert and the Royalist army
0:27:30 > 0:27:35arrived here in the town of Market Harborough in June 1645.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39At this stage, they had no clear idea where the New Model Army was.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43In fact, Fairfax and his Roundheads were hard on their heels.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48They were just 15 miles away and in very good cheer.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55The New Model Army was spoiling for a fight.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Soon word reached the Royalists that the enemy was close by.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01The moment he received the news,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Charles called a council of war here in Market Harborough.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07The outcome - rather than march on north,
0:28:07 > 0:28:12they would turn around and confront the Parliamentarians.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15In the next 24 hours, the most decisive battle
0:28:15 > 0:28:18of this protracted Civil War would be played out.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22And the battlefield? A hilly area between Market Harborough
0:28:22 > 0:28:26and the village of Naseby six miles to the south-west.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36Early on the morning of Saturday 14th June, 1645, at 6:00am,
0:28:36 > 0:28:41the Royalists moved south, out of Market Harborough
0:28:41 > 0:28:47and formed a battle line along that high ground about three miles away over there.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49This is that ridge just here.
0:28:49 > 0:28:55The King and Prince Rupert positioned their forces all the way along that ridge.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59This piece of high ground here, where I'm standing now, is where
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Cromwell and Fairfax rode up to, to look at the lie of the land.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05They'd moved their New Model Army up here,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08just slightly north from the village of Naseby,
0:29:08 > 0:29:09which is just off down there.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14They could clearly see the Royalists fanning out on that other ridge over there,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18so they were in no doubt the King and his men wanted to do battle.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20But there was one snag.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25The trouble was, the New Model Army's position was too good,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28and actually made a battle less likely.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30The slope in front of them was so steep,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34it would be suicide for enemy cavalry to charge up it -
0:29:34 > 0:29:38fine for defence, but not if you wanted to provoke an attack,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41and that was exactly what Cromwell wanted to do.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45So, he said to Fairfax, "I beseech you,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49"draw back to yonder hill, which will encourage the enemy to charge us."
0:29:49 > 0:29:54And so they agreed to shunt their entire battle line sideways
0:29:54 > 0:29:57to some more gentle ground to the west.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00The Royalists followed the lead -
0:30:00 > 0:30:03also eager to bring the conflict to a head.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Both sides now began to assemble on either side of a valley
0:30:24 > 0:30:28that was to become the battlefield of Naseby.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38By 10.00am, the two armies had moved to their new positions,
0:30:38 > 0:30:40the Royalists along that slope over there,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43the Parliamentarians up there.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49That Royalist ridge over there is just here.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52The two sides were on opposite slopes,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55facing each other with 800 metres of flat ground between them.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00The two battle lines were about a mile wide from end to end.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Estimates vary, but the King had roughly 4,500 infantry
0:31:04 > 0:31:07in three lines in the centre.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11The King himself, dressed in full plate armour,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14was back with his reserves in the third line.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17On the flanks, the Royalist cavalry -
0:31:17 > 0:31:20around 10,000 Royalists all together.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26Against them, around 13,500 men of the New Model Army.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Their cavalry were also split into two wings.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Their right wing was commanded by Oliver Cromwell.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36In the centre here, were the infantry.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39Neither side had a great battle plan.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Both thought they would win in a straight contest, a head-on clash.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45It was not strategy,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49but strength, courage and discipline that would decide the battle.
0:31:49 > 0:31:50Fire!
0:31:52 > 0:31:54They're firing from the hedges!
0:31:54 > 0:31:56Right...
0:31:56 > 0:31:59GUNFIRE
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Aagh!
0:32:03 > 0:32:04Aaagh!
0:32:08 > 0:32:11The battle ebbed and flowed with terrible violence.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16At first, the Royalists had the upper hand,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20with the Parliamentarian New Model Army fleeing and coming close to collapse.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22But at a crucial moment,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Cromwell made the key decision to split his cavalry in half.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28One half pursued the royalist cavalry,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32the other swung left to support his flailing infantry.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34This daring decision worked,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38turning the battle in favour of Cromwell and Fairfax's New Model Army.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Here on the fields of Northamptonshire,
0:32:41 > 0:32:46the Parliamentarians had won one of the most significant battles in British history.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53At the end of the Civil War, with the Royalists defeated,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Holdenby House turned from palace to prison.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01The King, Charles I, was held here for five months in 1647.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05However, it wasn't prison as you and I might know it,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08as the King was allowed to live in comfort,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12with just 120 of his own servants to look after him.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18The library was part of the original Elizabethan palace,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21and has strong associations with Charles I.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28Whilst Charles was here, he wrote a pamphlet which, when it was published, was entitled
0:33:28 > 0:33:34The Portraiture Of His Sacred Majesty In His Solitudes and Sufferings.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38"If thou will turn the hearts of my people to thyself in pity to me in loyalty
0:33:38 > 0:33:43"and to one another in charity, if that will quench the flames
0:33:43 > 0:33:46"and withdraw the fuel of these civil wars..."
0:33:46 > 0:33:50His words really give a sense that he felt he was chosen by God
0:33:50 > 0:33:51and only answerable to God.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Around the time that Charles was writing his pamphlet,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07this picture was painted, called His Clouded Majesty,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11and in it, you can see Charles with a backdrop all dark and moody,
0:34:11 > 0:34:16with rumbling clouds and dark rock, next to his son James.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20It clearly reflected his mood on the Civil War at the time.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24Charles was taken from Holdenby in June 1657 and eventually tried for,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28"Subverting the fundamental laws and liberties
0:34:28 > 0:34:33"of the nation and maliciously making war on the Parliament and people of England."
0:34:33 > 0:34:39In 1649 he became the first British monarch to be executed.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43After this, Holdenby fell into decay,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46and much of the palace's original stone was used
0:34:46 > 0:34:48to build other houses in the county.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Then, towards the end of the 19th century, the great, great grandparents
0:34:53 > 0:34:56of the current owner took the one remaining wing
0:34:56 > 0:34:59and adapted it into the house that you see today.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05There may only be an eighth of the original palace left,
0:35:05 > 0:35:10but as grand country houses go, it's still pretty impressive.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18But in amongst all the history, my favourite room houses
0:35:18 > 0:35:22a collection of unusual pianos from the British Musical Museum.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26They're a passion of Holdenby's current owner, James Lowther.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31Wow! What an amazing room!
0:35:31 > 0:35:33- Full of pianos!- Yep, full of pianos.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Shall we have a little tour around? What about this one?
0:35:36 > 0:35:39This is probably the best piano in the room,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42but not necessarily in the best condition at the moment.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45This is a Broadwood from about 1780,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48and this is the exact make of piano
0:35:48 > 0:35:50which Beethoven would have been playing when he died.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53In fact, after he died, there was a picture of his piano.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55Because he was deaf by that time,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59and he couldn't hear, so he actually sawed the legs off and put it
0:35:59 > 0:36:03on the ground and he could listen to it through the vibrations through the ground.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06- It doesn't really...- Does it play?
0:36:06 > 0:36:08Well, it's missing a few notes.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Beethoven would actually WANT to die if he heard this but...
0:36:13 > 0:36:16- I'm sure he wouldn't! - HE PLAYS BEETHOVEN'S "Moonlight Sonata"
0:36:16 > 0:36:18It's like he's in the room!
0:36:21 > 0:36:24It has got quite a tinny sound.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28It has, but the vibrations are very apparent.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Great! Not a huge range either.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34It didn't have the power, and that's what used to frustrate him.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Because it hasn't got a metal frame.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38So, he wanted to make a lot of noise,
0:36:38 > 0:36:43and he was deaf, so he couldn't really hear what he was playing.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48This one is quite fun. This is quite a lot later.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Funnily enough, it's made by the same maker,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53but that was this century, Broadwood.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57But the great thing about this piano, it's what they call a transposing piano.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01If you're like me and really bad at the piano and you like to play in C, so...
0:37:01 > 0:37:04- HE PLAYS CHORDS - No sharps or flats.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06No sharps or flats.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10So if you want to then make the same sound,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13but in a different key, but play the same notes,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16- you just move the keyboard. - What a cheat!
0:37:16 > 0:37:18That's brilliant.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Fantastic!
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Still no sharps or flats!
0:37:25 > 0:37:29And the composer Berlin used to use this a lot when he was
0:37:29 > 0:37:32doing his musicals, because he liked to play in C as well.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35- But obviously, you can't play everything in C.- No, true enough.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37This is a strange-looking piano.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39This is actually probably,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42you'd probably call this the Les Dawson piano.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45It's actually an upright... grand piano but it's upright.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48So it's got all the length of a grand piano...
0:37:48 > 0:37:52All the length of a grand piano, but it's an upright piano. And the sound is very honky tonk.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54HE PLAYS "The Entertainer"
0:37:54 > 0:37:57And also massively out of tune!
0:37:57 > 0:38:00So even if I'm not trying to play like Les Dawson,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04it actually sounds like Les Dawson. It actually needs tuning - it would sound better.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07- I love that!- That's rather splendid.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09This one looks rather modern, over here.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12This one is actually very modern.
0:38:12 > 0:38:18This was made for the exhibition in 1939, in the States.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21And actually, the two great things about the piano -
0:38:21 > 0:38:28as you can see, it says, "As used by TRH Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose,"
0:38:28 > 0:38:30which is the Queen and Princess Margaret.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35- Royal fingers!- Royal fingers have touched this keyboard.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37But the fun thing about it is...
0:38:37 > 0:38:42it doesn't all work now, but the idea was, you turned on the radio here
0:38:42 > 0:38:48and tuned into your favourite... The Home Service or whatever it was, or The Light Programme,
0:38:48 > 0:38:52and then you would play along with it, and twiddle the dials here.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55And play along! That's genius.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00And then if there was nothing very good on the radio,
0:39:00 > 0:39:05you could play along, you'd put your vinyl disc on
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and then you would play along to that.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12- Kind of karaoke for the piano.- It's sort of karaoke, yes. Modern karaoke.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18I've really enjoyed discovering the incredible history of Holdenby
0:39:18 > 0:39:21and its quirky collection of pianos,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24but it's time for me to head off and continue my journey through the county.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39The Northamptonshire countryside is a patchwork landscape
0:39:39 > 0:39:43of arable fields, ancient churches and pretty villages.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51Like anywhere else, it has undergone changes, but walking through it
0:39:51 > 0:39:56remains a simple way to connect with the past, and with nature.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06Back in the early 19th century, one of Northamptonshire's most famous sons
0:40:06 > 0:40:12celebrated the beauty of such scenery and traditional rural life in his poetry.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16"The landscape laughs in spring and stretches on
0:40:16 > 0:40:19"Its growing distance of refreshing dyes
0:40:19 > 0:40:21"From pewit-haunted flats, the floods are gone
0:40:21 > 0:40:24"And, like a carpet, the green meadow lies
0:40:24 > 0:40:27"In merry hues and edged wi' yellow flowers
0:40:27 > 0:40:30"The trickling brook veins sparkling to the sun
0:40:30 > 0:40:33"Like to young may-flies dancing wi' the hours..."
0:40:39 > 0:40:43That was The Landscape Laughs In Spring by John Clare,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47and what I like about Clare's poetry is that he used words
0:40:47 > 0:40:50that were only spoken locally, in Northamptonshire dialect.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Words like pooty for snail and pewit for lapwing,
0:40:53 > 0:40:58and this one, which is brilliant, sounds like something Roald Dahl would have written,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00which is, moldiwarp for mole.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06Today, Clare is recognised by scholars as one of our greatest nature poets.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08But his life was dogged by troubles
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and he has remained comparatively unknown.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15In 2004, his biographer, Jonathan Bate, told his story.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20John Clare was born in the little Northamptonshire village of Helpston
0:41:20 > 0:41:23in the year 1793.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26It was a time of great agricultural hardship.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It was also during the early years of the French Revolution,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33when there were serious concerns about war and social unrest.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35So he was a war baby,
0:41:35 > 0:41:40born in a time of poverty, in a community of great poverty.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Clare had a fantastic eye and a fantastic memory.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48So he always remembered his childhood days,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52in particular walking to the next village,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55a village called Glinton, where he went to school.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58And as he walked through the fields to school,
0:41:58 > 0:42:00he just took in every impression around him.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03There's a lot of noise in Clare's poetry.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08You can hear the sounds of childhood, the sounds of boys shouting to each other.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11And he seems to have been able to write about childhood
0:42:11 > 0:42:15with an absolute freshness and a complete lack of sentimentality.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19"Harken that happy shout
0:42:19 > 0:42:25"The schoolhouse door is open thrown and out the younkers teem!
0:42:25 > 0:42:26"Ah, happy boys!
0:42:26 > 0:42:29"Well may ye turn and smile
0:42:29 > 0:42:32"When joys are yours that never cost a sigh
0:42:32 > 0:42:36"Might I have my choice of joy below,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39"I'd only ask to be a boy again."
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Once he left school, Clare got a variety of casual jobs,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50maybe looking after horses in the field, ploughing.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55He got a rather more permanent job at the pub next door to his cottage, called the Blue Bell,
0:42:55 > 0:42:59where he was a pot boy, which basically meant cleaning all the pots in the kitchen.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05He spent a lot of time in that pub, though, as did his father, Parker Clare -
0:43:05 > 0:43:09loved to go to the pub and sing ballads and folksongs there.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12But of course, spending all the time in the pub did mean
0:43:12 > 0:43:16that from a fairly early age, Clare got quite keen on the beer.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23Clare's whole mental landscape was shaped by the life of his village.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26There's a wonderful passage in his autobiography
0:43:26 > 0:43:29where he says he sets out one morning to walk towards the horizon.
0:43:29 > 0:43:34And when he does get away from his village, he says, "I've gone out of my knowledge."
0:43:34 > 0:43:38There's a real sense his whole identity is bound up with his place,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42and that's one of the things which makes him our great poet of place.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46For Clare, the open fields leading to the commons and the heath
0:43:46 > 0:43:49symbolise an extraordinary sense of freedom,
0:43:49 > 0:43:51whereas once the enclosure came,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54there was a real sense of restriction.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58At that point, fences would go up, no trespassing signs would go up,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01ditches would be erected, hedgerows,
0:44:01 > 0:44:07and you would even have streams being redirected in their course to mark out boundaries.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16"Enclosure came and trampled on the grave of labour's rights
0:44:16 > 0:44:18"and left the poor a slave.
0:44:18 > 0:44:26"Fence now meets fence in owner's little bounds of fields and meadows large as garden grounds..."
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Clair finally found his way into print in the year 1820.
0:44:32 > 0:44:38His publisher was a very interesting man called John Taylor, who had been publishing Keats
0:44:38 > 0:44:43without much success, but was on the lookout for a kind of rural equivalent of Keats,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46a brilliant young poet with a new voice,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49and he found such a poet in Clare.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53It was very difficult for Clare that at precisely the time
0:44:53 > 0:44:56that he was being taken up in the London literary world
0:44:56 > 0:44:58was also the time that he was having a family.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03And he felt deeply torn between his family and the need
0:45:03 > 0:45:06to earn money for his family back home in his little village
0:45:06 > 0:45:11and the London literary life, which in some ways he found incredibly exciting,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13because he was among other poets,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16but in other ways he always felt alienated from.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23He began to have delusions, to see what he called blue devils.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27His friends in London persuaded him to see
0:45:27 > 0:45:32a famous doctor called Dr Darling, who was actually Keats's doctor.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36But in many ways the trip to London made matters worse.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39There was this profound sense of alienation,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44and the more time went on, the more Clare seemed unable
0:45:44 > 0:45:47to maintain any kind of mental stability.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53He was deeply depressed and he may even have been violent.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56He certainly had very violent mood swings
0:45:56 > 0:46:00and his language could suddenly become very obscene.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03His wife just couldn't cope with this, having a young family as well.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06So he was committed to a lunatic asylum.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10I think Clare was unfortunate in living for so long.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12The thing about Keats and Shelley and Byron
0:46:12 > 0:46:16is they had very glamorous early deaths so they were rapidly immortalised.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20Clare carried on living in the asylum for over 20 years.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25The last ten years or so of his life he was declining into senile dementia,
0:46:25 > 0:46:30writing just occasionally but not in any way in the prolific way he did before.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Then he had a series of strokes.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35His life was really rather a slow fade out.
0:46:45 > 0:46:54After many troubled years, John Clare died in Northampton on 20th May 1864 in his 71st year.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08It was during his final years at the asylum that he was in the habit of walking down here
0:47:08 > 0:47:11to All Saints Church in the centre of Northampton
0:47:11 > 0:47:13to sit under the portico and compose.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16It's thought that while he was here
0:47:16 > 0:47:19he penned his most famous poem of all, I Am.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23"I am, yet what I am none cares or knows,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26"My friends forsake me like a memory lost
0:47:26 > 0:47:30"I am the self-consumer of my woes..."
0:47:30 > 0:47:32"I long for scenes where man has never trod
0:47:32 > 0:47:36"A place where woman never smiled or wept
0:47:36 > 0:47:39"There to abide with my creator, God
0:47:39 > 0:47:42"And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept
0:47:42 > 0:47:45"Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
0:47:45 > 0:47:49"The grass below, Above, the vaulted sky..."
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Poor old soul, he clearly had the terrible blues
0:47:52 > 0:47:56and found a great deal of comfort in his memories of the countryside.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Despite the sad end to his life,
0:47:59 > 0:48:03John Clare is now placed in the company of Romantic poets
0:48:03 > 0:48:06like Keats, Byron and Shelley -
0:48:06 > 0:48:09an equal among some of England's greatest poets.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12My Country Tracks journey through Northamptonshire
0:48:12 > 0:48:16is now taking me just over the county border into Bedfordshire,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20to a former US Air Force base near the village of Podington.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40I'm at the most famous drag car racing track outside of America.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42But before I get to grips with drag racing,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45here's the Country Tracks weather for the week ahead.
0:50:50 > 0:50:57.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09I've been on a journey through Northamptonshire.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11I started by exploring the county's tradition
0:51:11 > 0:51:13for shoe making in Northampton
0:51:13 > 0:51:16and then went north to Coton Manor Gardens
0:51:16 > 0:51:18to meet some exotic feathered friends.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21From there, I travelled south to Holdenby Palace,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25to unearth the story of Charles I and the battle of Naseby.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28The Northamptonshire countryside and the poetry of John Clare
0:51:28 > 0:51:32then brought me just over the county border with Bedfordshire
0:51:32 > 0:51:33to the Santa Pod Raceway.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Santa Pod has earned the reputation as being the home of European drag car racing.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46It hosts a number of events and races throughout the year,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51featuring some of the largest car and bike engines in the world.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54And yet relatively little is known about this motorsport,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57which has a following all across the world.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Drag racing took off in the UK during the 1960s, when many old,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06disused air bases around the country were converted to racing tracks.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10I'm meeting up with former chief starter Stuart Bradbury,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14known back in the '60s for his outfit and signature starting dance.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22So you're going to have to forgive me,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25I'm completely new to drag car racing - what's the basics?
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Well, the basics is basically two cars starting from
0:52:29 > 0:52:32a standing start, a full quarter-mile strip.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35The first one to the end is the winner.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38- They've just got a quarter-of-a-mile?- Yes.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42- That's not that long, actually. - It's not that long, but in that period of time,
0:52:42 > 0:52:47these guys will reach well over 300mph, from a standing start.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51- 300mph?!- Yeah. We need another quarter-of-a-mile to stop.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56- So it's a longer track than the finishing line says.- It is, yes. - That must have G forces involved?
0:52:56 > 0:53:03Yeah, you probably pull four or five Gs off a start line, with one of these big cars.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07- So what's this strange-looking vehicle here?- This is what we call a top fuel dragster.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09This is the top end of the sport.
0:53:09 > 0:53:15This car would produce something like 8,000 horsepower at the rear wheels.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18So it's pretty powerful.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22What about this one, it looks a touch more normal, though not completely...?
0:53:22 > 0:53:27It's more like a conventional-bodied car, it's what we called a funny car.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29- I can see why! - Similar type of engine,
0:53:29 > 0:53:31but the engine is in front of the driver,
0:53:31 > 0:53:36which is a little bit more of a problem to control and drive.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41- Oh, is it?- Because the weight characteristics are different.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Also, you've got the engine in front of you, and if it does have a problem or explode
0:53:45 > 0:53:48or blow up, then it's not very nice in there.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51What sort of fuel do these cars use?
0:53:51 > 0:53:55I'm assuming it's not just your standard down-the-garage stuff?
0:53:55 > 0:53:58No, a mixture of nitromethane and methanol.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02The big cars use probably around about 85% nitromethane
0:54:02 > 0:54:06and the rest methanol fuel.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09That sounds expensive apart from anything else.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11It can be quite expensive.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13You're probably looking at about £40 per gallon,
0:54:13 > 0:54:19something like that, and they use about 15 gallons a run, so that gives you some idea.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22- It can be quite... - It's not a cheap sport.- Er, no.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26But that gives you the horsepower as well.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29Absolutely. Have there been any records broken on this very track?
0:54:29 > 0:54:34The record now for a top fuel dragster here
0:54:34 > 0:54:38is 4.57 seconds at 320mph,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42which is the Lucas Oils top fuel dragster.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45Andy Carter, who's a British guy.
0:54:45 > 0:54:50And that's comparable with what they do in America.
0:54:50 > 0:54:56One driver at the start of an already-impressive career is Paige Wheeler,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00a local junior dragster who's only 12-years-old,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03but already the winner of the FIA European finals.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10- How are you doing, Paige, are you all right?- I'm all right, thank you.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13Fantastic. So how on earth did you get into this?
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Well, when we moved up here, we saw that there was a racetrack,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19and my dad wanted to show me what racing was all about, really.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22So, Dad had the interest to begin with,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25- but then you really decided you wanted to do it.- Yes.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Did you have to persuade him quite hard?
0:55:27 > 0:55:31I think it was about a year I had to persuade him, yeah.
0:55:31 > 0:55:36What was it made you think you wanted to have a go? Didn't you think it was dangerous or...?
0:55:36 > 0:55:41I did think it was a bit dangerous, but it just looked so fun to be able to go down there,
0:55:41 > 0:55:45cos all of the big cars go down there, I wanted to do it as well.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48My goodness. So what was it like the first time you got in and had a go?
0:55:48 > 0:55:53Well, my dad told me to take it easy and slightly press the pedal,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57but I pushed it right the way down and it felt amazing.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03And this must be quite weird going to school as well,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05having this other side to your life?
0:56:05 > 0:56:09Yeah. At school I'm actually really quiet to everyone else.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13And then here I'm just going down the track at 76mph!
0:56:13 > 0:56:16So, what's your ultimate ambition?
0:56:16 > 0:56:20When I'm 18 I want to be able to go into pro mod,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25which is quite fast for an 18-year-old.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29And then I would like to be a professional top fuel driver.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33But I doubt I'll be able to do it,
0:56:33 > 0:56:36cos my dad doesn't like me doing this already.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38And I doubt he'll let me go into pro mod.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41A protective dad, that's understandable, really.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44- You've clearly got lots of ambition. - Yeah.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48Now, you're going to have a little race today and show me how it's done, aren't you?
0:56:48 > 0:56:51- Yeah.- Well, good luck.- Thank you.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56My journey has come to an end just over the Northamptonshire border,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59but I've plotted a fascinating course through this county.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02Grand stately homes and gardens,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04fabulous flamingos,
0:57:04 > 0:57:09a tragic lost poet and a great traditional craft
0:57:09 > 0:57:14have led me to a drag racing track built on a wartime airfield.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Look at the speed of that! She's disappeared!
0:57:27 > 0:57:30What a way to end my journey!
0:57:30 > 0:57:31SHE LAUGHS
0:57:40 > 0:57:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:57:44 > 0:57:47E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk