0:00:04 > 0:00:08I've seen towns explode into cities.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11I've seen towns with their hearts ripped out.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Every town has its own tales of triumph and catastrophe.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18All of them face challenges.
0:00:18 > 0:00:19As a geographer,
0:00:19 > 0:00:23I believe that towns are the communities of the future.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Towns will be the places we want to live.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30By 2030, a staggering 92% of us
0:00:30 > 0:00:33will be living the urban life.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Congested cities sprawl across our map,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40but cities don't have all the answers.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I believe we need to fall back in love with the places
0:00:44 > 0:00:46that first quickened our pulses...
0:00:46 > 0:00:47towns.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Smaller than a city, more intimate,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57much greener, more surprising -
0:00:57 > 0:01:00towns are where we learned to be urban.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03They are the building blocks of our civilisation.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Coastal towns,
0:01:05 > 0:01:09market towns, river towns, industrial towns...
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Collectively, they bind our land together.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18This is the story of towns, but it's also OUR story -
0:01:18 > 0:01:23where we came from, how we live - and where we might be going.
0:01:23 > 0:01:29This is Totnes, a Saxon river town in South Devon.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Population 8,200, it's had tough times through its long history,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38but adversity has taught it to innovate.
0:01:39 > 0:01:45It's home to one of the greatest social experiments of the 20th century
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and today it's the test bed for an ambitious new idea
0:01:49 > 0:01:53that aims to change our urban life for ever.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57It's an idea which could only have come out of a town -
0:01:57 > 0:01:58not a village, not a city -
0:01:58 > 0:02:02because towns are the right scale to be urban laboratories.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Arguably, Totnes is the leading urban laboratory.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Just after the Norman Conquest, a Welshman, Geoffrey of Monmouth,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31wrote a comprehensive history of Britain.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34It begins with a hero - Brutus the Trojan -
0:02:34 > 0:02:38who sails across the sea and then up this river
0:02:38 > 0:02:42to found a great nation on a fabulous unexplored island.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Brutus named the new island after himself, calling it "Britain".
0:02:50 > 0:02:53He stepped ashore, local legend tells us,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57a few miles up the River Dart, uttering the words,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00"Here I stand and here I rest
0:03:00 > 0:03:04"and this good town shall be called Totnes."
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Every town has its local law,
0:03:12 > 0:03:17but it doesn't get much better than being the place where the nation began.
0:03:21 > 0:03:27For me, the River Dart is a lot more than a river.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30I paddled up this river when I was 16,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34all the way from the open sea far inland to Totnes.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37It was the first proper river journey I'd ever done
0:03:37 > 0:03:40and it excited my imagination so that
0:03:40 > 0:03:43when I came to read Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness,
0:03:43 > 0:03:48I had all of the images, the impressions that I needed.
0:03:48 > 0:03:55I was back on that Conradian river, and Totnes for me was part-imagined, part mythological.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Deep beneath the hull of this canoe is a flooded land.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14At the end of the last Ice Age, sea levels rose dramatically,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18turning the winding Dart Valley into a great estuary.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25The drowning of the woods and the meadows
0:04:25 > 0:04:29meant that great ships could sail right up here, far inland.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34And that's why the town of Totnes was born.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39In a way, the Heart of Darkness analogy isn't as odd
0:04:39 > 0:04:45as it might seem. All towns have tough times.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47But since I canoed up here as a 16-year-old,
0:04:47 > 0:04:52Totnes has had more than its fair share of dark moments.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00This is where I landed, at the end of my teenage voyage
0:05:00 > 0:05:05back in 1970, but already, I can see that a lot has changed.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10This history of Totnes was published a few years before I made that voyage.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14And in a chapter called Modern Times, the author celebrates
0:05:14 > 0:05:18what he sees as a timely revival of the town's good fortunes.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22There's a new bacon factory, a new dairy, a new livestock market.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Those three developments alone brought 600 jobs
0:05:26 > 0:05:29to a town of only 8,000 people.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Down there at Baltic Wharf, another business - an importer -
0:05:32 > 0:05:37was bringing in 40 shiploads of timber from the Baltic every year.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Four decades after I paddled up here,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43all those businesses have closed.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55But, and there's always a but, this is not a town, or a tale,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58of doom and gloom,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01because taking knocks has taught Totnes to adapt,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05to innovate, to think creatively, to open its doors to new ideas
0:06:05 > 0:06:10which larger, more prosperous towns perhaps haven't had to.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13The absorption of those new ideas -
0:06:13 > 0:06:17some good, some bad, some successful, some less so -
0:06:17 > 0:06:22have made the town what it is and bred its key characteristic...
0:06:22 > 0:06:24vision.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28With its big employers now gone,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32this historic town is heavily reliant on its shops
0:06:32 > 0:06:35and on visitors, who ply up and down the high street
0:06:35 > 0:06:37through the old Saxon Gate,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41reinvented as the town's iconic clock tower.
0:06:44 > 0:06:51Totnes has long had a reputation as an "alternative" haven for the arts and green living.
0:06:51 > 0:06:57The Observer called it "The country's funkiest address".
0:06:57 > 0:07:04In the 1970s, hippies found sanctuary in its calming streets.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09The bell bottoms may have gone, but the alternative vision is still very visible.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14There aren't many small towns
0:07:14 > 0:07:19where you can buy a pair of sustainably-sourced reindeer shoes.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Or travel in an Indian rickshaw -
0:07:23 > 0:07:26the brainchild of Devonian Pete Ryeland.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29- Hi, Nick.- But why the rickshaw?
0:07:29 > 0:07:33Like any other town, we need to get as many visitors into the town as possible.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37There's an awful lot of people who come up the river on the boats,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40and they never make the top of the town, they'll get to the arch,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43halfway up the town, then they'll just go back down again.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46So I came up with the idea of, well, why not make it nice and easy?
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Literally take them all the way to the top of the town,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51and they can just walk down.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55The people then see all the shops and all the business in all the town.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59It has worked. Last year, we took 2,000 people, more,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03up the top of the town, and they would never have got there.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06I've got a bit of a weakness for contraptions, I'm dying to have a ride.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09- Can we go for a spin?- Yeah, sure.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23The last time I rode in one of these was in Pakistan.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25They're low-cost to run, easy to maintain,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29and they're used as urban taxis all over Asia.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33But I never expected to see one in Britain. It's a neat idea, a visionary idea -
0:08:33 > 0:08:38get people where they want to go, and keep the shops in business. It's a win-win win.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Where many of our High Streets bear the scars of commercial despair,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48this one seems to be as up-beat as it is uphill!
0:08:48 > 0:08:53And it's incredible to think that this has been the town's main thoroughfare
0:08:53 > 0:08:58ever since Totnes was built, nearly 200 years before the Norman Conquest.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04Just coming up to the historic portal into Totnes, East Gate,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08where you enter the original town.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12At night, this gate would have been closed with heavy timber doors
0:09:12 > 0:09:16to protect the walled town - its shops, its businesses, its citizens,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18to make the townspeople feel secure.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Today's townsfolk live in houses that,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28although rebuilt many times over the centuries,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32still occupy the same plots that were laid out in Saxon times.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36This is a townscape of extraordinary continuity.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38The street-plan, the footprint of the buildings,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41have hardly changed since Totnes was born.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54SEAGULL CRIES
0:10:01 > 0:10:06Totnes was the result of a radical, new idea in urban planning -
0:10:06 > 0:10:11an idea born out of a crisis over 1,100 years ago.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16In the 870s, the Vikings had conquered most of Britain.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Only the South of England remained in Saxon hands.
0:10:21 > 0:10:26A new King, Alfred the Great, took action.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30To survive, Alfred was forced to fight and to innovate.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31He held the Danes at bay
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and then restored security to his kingdom by creating
0:10:35 > 0:10:41a visionary new kind of settlement - fortified towns called burhs.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Alfred and his heirs built 30 of their new fortress towns -
0:10:48 > 0:10:52among them, Winchester and Southampton, Oxford and Bath -
0:10:52 > 0:10:54right across Southern England.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Totnes was one of four burhs in Devon, with a garrison
0:11:04 > 0:11:09of several hundred defending the crucial highway of the River Dart.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Totnes was a remarkable Saxon experiment in urban planning.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23Alfred and his heirs realised that strength wasn't just about military might.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26It was also about economic resilience.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30To succeed, the burhs needed to be military strongholds,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32but they also needed to be centres of trade.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35As merchants, craftsmen, traders were drawn to
0:11:35 > 0:11:41the protective security of the burhs, they evolved into thriving settlements.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46The Saxons had created an idea worth defending - towns.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Nothing now remains of the old Saxon wall,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56and the Castle here was built later, by the Normans.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03But the Saxon origins of Totnes are still plain to see.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07The oval of streets curving around the centre of town
0:12:07 > 0:12:10follows the perimeter of that original defensive wall.
0:12:12 > 0:12:18While the Saxon bridge is thought to have occupied the same spot as the one we use today.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25The bridge - the crossing point - anchors Totnes to its origins,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27the Dart.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Alfred's burhs - his defensive trading posts -
0:12:39 > 0:12:42were so successful that they proved to have a life
0:12:42 > 0:12:46far beyond the Viking threat they'd been designed to counter.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Burhs became Boroughs, laying the foundations for towns
0:12:54 > 0:12:58as we know them, and giving us place names like Edinburgh and Scarborough,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Middlesbrough and Peterborough.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07To underpin the importance of the burhs, the Saxon Kings
0:13:07 > 0:13:11created new laws guaranteeing their rights and powers.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Most significant of all, each burh was allowed to mint its own coinage.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24Sealed in this glass case, and they're so precious
0:13:24 > 0:13:27that we're not allowed to take them out,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30are the fiscal crown jewels of Totnes.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35Though I have been allowed to open the door to get a closer look.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Amazing.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46These Saxon coins were all minted in the 10th and 11th centuries,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50not long before the Normans invaded and overwhelmed Saxon England.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Nearly all of them carry the place name Totnes,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58and the name of the King who was on the throne at the time,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02and also the name of the man who made the coin, the moneyer.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Incredible to think that this money was changing hands
0:14:06 > 0:14:10on the streets of Totnes nearly 1,000 years ago.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Currency. The lifeblood of every town.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20We know the names of so few Saxon individuals
0:14:20 > 0:14:25that these tiny coins, inscribed with the names of their makers,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Aelfyine and Goda, Aelfstan and Godwine,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32are a potent bequest from our Saxon ancestors.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37The successful Saxon town experiment
0:14:37 > 0:14:41had shown that a resilient urban community
0:14:41 > 0:14:45had to be built on a healthy local economy.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51Over 1,000 years later, it's an experiment that's being repeated.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Believe it or not, this low key office on Totnes High Street
0:14:57 > 0:14:59is also the town's latest bank.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Not, perhaps, the smartest I've ever been to.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07I'm not sure where this is taking me.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13'This very Totnes-style financial institution
0:15:13 > 0:15:16'issues only one currency...'
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Thank you very much.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21'..Totnes pounds.'
0:15:21 > 0:15:26What I don't quite understand is, is it one of the eccentric labels
0:15:26 > 0:15:28that Totnes seems to have attracted,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33or is this actually a device that somehow gears the economy up,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36changes gear, helps the economy move faster?
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Well, a local economy's a bit like a leaky bucket.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42We build up wealth within the community,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46and then any time anyone spends a pound sterling with a business
0:15:46 > 0:15:50that's got more connections outside of the town than inward,
0:15:50 > 0:15:51that money just leaks out.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56So, this is money that stays and bounces around inside the bucket.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59It's not an alternative currency. It's a complementary currency.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01But if I want to buy a fridge,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06I'd need a wheelbarrow to take the Totnes pounds down the road!
0:16:06 > 0:16:09The biggest transaction I'm aware of was a kayak
0:16:09 > 0:16:12for 326 Totnes pounds.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15This is one of the most enjoyable banking transactions
0:16:15 > 0:16:17I've ever carried out. Thank you!
0:16:17 > 0:16:18Enjoy.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Time to get spending.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Ah yes, organic farm shop. All very Totnes.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33As a complimentary currency,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38the Bank of England needn't worry about the Totnes pound just yet.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42It's really a thought experiment - a challenge to shoppers
0:16:42 > 0:16:45to think about how and where they spend their money.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Since I'm in Totnes, it'll have to be the lentil pasty please.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50A lentil pasty coming up.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Do you take Totnes pounds?
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Yeah, we like Totnes pounds.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56That's lovely, thank you very much.
0:16:56 > 0:16:57I hope you enjoy that.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00I'm going to enjoy it, it smells amazing.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06The Totnes pound is part of a bold experiment in urban transformation.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12It's one of nearly 30 other projects,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16from garden sharing schemes to the building of sustainable homes,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20initiated by Transition Town Totnes, or TTT,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24a community-led movement that took off here in 2006.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30All of those initiatives are intended to make communities,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34whether they're villages, towns, or parts of cities, more resilient
0:17:34 > 0:17:39in the face of what is seen as being three main pressures.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44Economic contraction, fossil fuel depletion, and climate change.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47The people behind the transition movement
0:17:47 > 0:17:50see this as a historic and pivotal moment.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53It's an idea that's gaining a lot of momentum.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58TTT is working to an ambitious 20-year plan
0:17:58 > 0:18:03to deliver a transformed, sustainable Totnes by the year 2030.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09It's early days and they've already made an impressive start.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Can I give you a hand?
0:18:11 > 0:18:14- Yes, you can help pull this panel up. - OK!
0:18:17 > 0:18:22This is the 140th house in the town to get solar panels in the last year,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26putting Totnes in Britain's premier league for conversion to solar energy.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31- How long have you been doing it? - Nearly ten years.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34When you started, how many were you putting up?
0:18:34 > 0:18:37- At first, we were doing about one a month.- And now?
0:18:37 > 0:18:39- Three a week.- Three a week?!
0:18:39 > 0:18:43The company's expanded somewhat from when I first started!
0:18:45 > 0:18:49It's part of the Transition Streets project,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52encouraging entire neighbourhoods to save money
0:18:52 > 0:18:54and switch to sustainable energy sources
0:18:54 > 0:18:59by opening their eyes to the latest technology.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02Jamie, it's a pretty cloudy day. Do these work in weather like this?
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Yes, they do. They don't need full sunlight.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10They'll work in any light. They'll produce electricity.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13When they first started, they needed full sunlight on them,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15but now they're a lot more efficient.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19They've even become a means of making money
0:19:19 > 0:19:24because any power you don't use now gets sent to the National Grid,
0:19:24 > 0:19:25who pay you for it.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31The 75 panels on the Civic Hall
0:19:31 > 0:19:35are already reducing the town council's energy bills,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39and making them an additional £5,000 a year.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42A useful bonus for a local organisation on a small income.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53It's turned grey, overcast, it's just started pouring with rain.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54What really impresses me
0:19:54 > 0:19:57is that, even in this horrible weather,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00these solar panels are already producing electricity.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04What also really impresses me is that half of the houses in Totnes
0:20:04 > 0:20:09that have had solar panels fitted are owned by low-income families.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12I think many in Britain have believed that solar panels
0:20:12 > 0:20:16are an expensive gimmick for the guilt-ridden middle classes.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Well, Transition are proving them wrong.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26One of the masterminds wrestling with the challenge
0:20:26 > 0:20:31of making towns more resilient is Transition co-founder, Rob Hopkins.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Rob, economic contraction, fossil fuel depletion, climate change.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42These are big global issues for a little town like Totnes to address.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45People often have an expectation, when they come here,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48that they're coming to see some kind of eco Shangri-la,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50with everything already in place.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Once a German man came into the office and said,
0:20:52 > 0:20:58"I've come all the way from Germany to see the famous Transition Town Totnes, and you still have cars!".
0:20:58 > 0:20:59He was incensed!
0:20:59 > 0:21:02A lot of what the initiative does goes on under the surface.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05It's about building new relationships, forming new networks,
0:21:05 > 0:21:10and a lot of the big things that people would come here expecting to see like wind-turbines
0:21:10 > 0:21:13take five or six years to actually get to happen.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15What is "resilience"?
0:21:15 > 0:21:20Ian Dowie, former manager of Crystal Palace, used to describe resilience as "bounce back ability".
0:21:20 > 0:21:23For me, resilience, when you look at a town like this,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27is how can you make it adaptable, flexible, as we enter times of uncertainty,
0:21:27 > 0:21:32so that when we encounter shock of some sort, the whole place doesn't just fall to bits.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35The centre of this town used to be commercial market gardens
0:21:35 > 0:21:37linked to shops on the high street.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41That was food feet, not food miles. That was there until 1980.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44That made this place much, much more resilient.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Now, if the lorries stop coming in to supply the supermarkets in this town,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50although we have a strong local food culture,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54it's still not enough to sustain this place without the supermarkets.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00Is "transition" to do with pain or pleasure? Is it about doing with less or having more fun?
0:22:00 > 0:22:04It's saying that the move to a world of less consumption and resources
0:22:04 > 0:22:07is an inevitability, so what are we going to do about it?
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Solutions to that are going to come from us coming together,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13rather than heading up to the hills, with a bag of rice
0:22:13 > 0:22:16and four years worth of baked beans and loo roll.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21It's about us all coming together with the people around us, and looking at this together.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26Transition is proving to be something of a national phenomenon,
0:22:26 > 0:22:30with initiatives now running in over 300 towns and cities.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34From Bristol to Oxford, Lancaster to Leeds, Stirling to Larne.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Brixton has its own pound.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45So does Lewes in West Sussex.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49And Stroud in Gloucestershire.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53The movement has even gone global,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56with over 800 initiatives in 34 countries.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02I can't think of a bigger idea to have come out of a town for decades.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07It seems to me that this is the biggest urban brainwave of the century, for the century.
0:23:07 > 0:23:13It's as big and as radical as the Saxon burhs were 1,000 years ago.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17It's also an idea which could only have come out of a town,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19not a village, not a city.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24Towns are the right scale to be urban laboratories.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Arguably, Totnes is the leading urban laboratory.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35It's an urban laboratory that's full of surprises.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41Right, Nick, welcome to the plant up at Sharpham.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43You've got your own oil tanker!
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Well, this is today's oil.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Pete Ryeland doesn't just run the rickshaw service
0:23:49 > 0:23:52with his fellow directors - he actually makes the fuel,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55recycling cooking oil from the restaurants of Totnes
0:23:55 > 0:23:58at his home-made refinery.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00- It looks disgusting.- Oh, yeah!
0:24:00 > 0:24:03OK, now this is a really clean one, Nick.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07I'll show you how... I'll put this one in first and show you.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09It's something that you do by eye.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11We just pour it into these baskets,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and the baskets catch all the bits of chip,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16and everything else in there.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20- This is the really mucky stuff. - Yeah.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23What do you use this... This is a plasterer's trowel, isn't it?
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29When you get a build-up of tandoori chicken and bits of ham
0:24:29 > 0:24:35and left-over eggs, you literally scrape it down like that, you see.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37And this is the really mucky bucket.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39- It's pretty gross.- Oh, yeah.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43There's a gross side to being environmentally friendly!
0:24:43 > 0:24:44And that's it.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49So, that's the basics part of the plant,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54and then it all goes up into this tank here from the pump,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and it just gets filtered - a really simple filtering system.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01It comes down, gets filtered again - a simple filtering system.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05- Then it comes out of this wonderful old urn here and there's fuel! - Amazing!
0:25:05 > 0:25:08- So this stuff's ready to power a vehicle?- Yep.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12- Do we need this funnel? - Yep, we do indeed, Nick.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15'Cooking-oil in a rickshaw is one thing.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18'Putting it straight in your van is quite another.'
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Shall I hold the funnel?
0:25:20 > 0:25:23'The first diesel engine over a century ago
0:25:23 > 0:25:26'was fuelled by peanut oil.'
0:25:26 > 0:25:27Lovely stuff, isn't it?
0:25:27 > 0:25:30'Has someone been keeping that fact a secret?'
0:25:31 > 0:25:32The way to look at it,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36is that this is actually carbon neutral, OK?
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Yeah? Every time you put your fuel in your tank,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44just remember that this stuff's much better.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50In this era of painfully high fuel costs,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53it's a sobering thought to consider that this used cooking oil
0:25:53 > 0:25:58delivers the same performance as diesel, at a fraction of the price.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01Although, I'm not sure that Peter
0:26:01 > 0:26:04will put the oil multinationals out of business just yet!
0:26:04 > 0:26:09Pete's oil refinery is addressing some really big issues.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14Rapid climate change, economic stagnation, fossil fuel depletion.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18And he's doing it with a really neat, simple, local solution.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21Indian rickshaw powered by recycled cooking oil.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25It's fun, and it's put me off fried food for a very long time.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39With its history of boom and bust,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Totnes has always had to find inventive ways
0:26:43 > 0:26:47of stimulating its vulnerable local economy.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54Like many traditions,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57today's Elizabethan Parade appears to be steeped in history.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02But, actually, it's a shrewd modern innovation.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Oh, yea!
0:27:06 > 0:27:09Oh, yea! Oh, yea!
0:27:09 > 0:27:12On this day of our Lord,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Tuesday 3rd May,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18it's my proud privilege to welcome you
0:27:18 > 0:27:23to the Totnes Elizabethan Charity and Craft Market.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34The weather isn't great, and Notting Carnival, it ain't.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38But today's event makes clever use of the town's past.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45Like much of Britain, Totnes hit hard times in the 1970s.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50But an enterprising local had a bright idea - put on a show.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55An annual event - bring back the Tudors, bring in the punters!
0:27:57 > 0:27:59The stallholders are packing away now
0:27:59 > 0:28:03and, although it's a chilly day in May, it's been a very busy morning.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06What's so fascinating about this market
0:28:06 > 0:28:10is that it wasn't conceived in the era of doublets and ruffs,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13but in the age of hot-pants and flares.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15More 1970s than 1570s.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18This is modern creative marketing,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21intended to bring cash into the town.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31For Totnes, summoning up the ghosts of their Tudor past
0:28:31 > 0:28:34means re-connecting with better times.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41In the 1520s, it was the second richest town in Devon,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44richer even than Plymouth.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52The key to prosperity was the river, the super-highway of the region,
0:28:52 > 0:28:57shipping goods to other British ports, and the Continent.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01The verdant hills around Totnes fed a thriving wool trade,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05but the real cash crop came from nearby Dartmoor.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12500 years ago, this vast windswept expanse
0:29:12 > 0:29:15was transformed into an English Eldorado,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19with thousands of miners exploiting its mineral rich rocks
0:29:19 > 0:29:23for a commodity that could make them rich.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26This is what they were looking for,
0:29:26 > 0:29:31and digging out of Dartmoor in very large quantities.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Doesn't look much, but these dark crystals are cassiterite.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40When these rocks are crushed, and then the cassiterite is separated,
0:29:40 > 0:29:43and heated to around 1,200 degrees centigrade,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47this ore releases a very valuable silvery metal.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49And here it is.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51Tin.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54This is what made Totnes rich.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Humans have been exploiting tin for thousands of years.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07But, in the 1500s, it became more prized than ever,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10as the key ingredient, along with copper,
0:30:10 > 0:30:15in a material that Renaissance Europe needed in large quantities.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20A material that sculptor Andrew Lacey often works with -
0:30:20 > 0:30:22bronze.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25What temperature have you got to heat that up to?
0:30:25 > 0:30:28I need to get it to about 1,100 degrees.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32So at the moment you're just getting the furnace hot?
0:30:32 > 0:30:34- Just literally pre-heating it.- OK.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38England's West Country had found itself the leading supplier
0:30:38 > 0:30:41of a highly prized commodity.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Tin put Devon and Cornwall on the map of Europe.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Why was tin so valuable?
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Because it's found in so few places.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54It's found in Germany, Eastern Europe, but mainly Devon and Cornwall.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59That is a tin ingot. It was found off the coast of the South West.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02- It's heavy.- Yeah,
0:31:02 > 0:31:04it's hugely heavy. Very valuable.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Once you've got this tin out of the ground,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10you've converted it into an ingot, what's it used for?
0:31:10 > 0:31:12The simplest thing is the pewter plate.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Pewter's a mixture of tin and lead,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18so it's made into simple domestic ware.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Other than that, it's made into bronze.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26Bronze is really important because it's used for engineering, for art,
0:31:26 > 0:31:27but also for things like cannon.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29I mean, cannons are the real...
0:31:29 > 0:31:34As always, the military force is the driving point behind all this.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37Without tin you can do none of it.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41And copper's found most places, but tin isn't.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43What do you call this, it's not a forge, is it?
0:31:43 > 0:31:45- Is it a furnace? - It's just a furnace.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47'With some copper, and some tin,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52'we're making bronze in the way it's been made for thousands of years...
0:31:54 > 0:31:58'..as long as I can generate enough heat!'
0:31:58 > 0:32:02Bit of a knack, isn't it, to get it to keep breathing continuously?
0:32:02 > 0:32:04It's almost like being a rower.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06You have to keep a kind of steady pace to it.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12- In goes the tin!- Yup.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15You can just see at the bottom of that,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19it's turning into liquid and drips are going down.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25'This furnace, with my help, is burning at over 1,000 degrees,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30'turning solid copper and tin to molten bronze... We hope!'
0:32:30 > 0:32:34There's more to these bellows than meets the eye.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36Not only are they 100 years old,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38but Andrew's put a great big slab of slate on them
0:32:38 > 0:32:44to help push them down, which means they're harder to lift up again.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49But it means there's an even puff on both the up and the down stroke.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53Just the kind of thing that they'd have done 500 years ago.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58You can stop now. We're right up to temperature.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02There's a lovely sheen to the surface of the bronze when we do this.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Right, what I need you to do is to hold back with this tool.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09With the spade end of that,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13just hold back all the charcoal that is sat on top of the molten metal.
0:33:13 > 0:33:14You're making me nervous!
0:33:14 > 0:33:16It is a very important job!
0:33:21 > 0:33:24That's brilliant, just keep holding it there.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25Superb.
0:33:25 > 0:33:26Really good.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Last bit. You've done brilliantly, that's great.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44For those few seconds, everything's kind of won or lost in there.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46I didn't like that, that was scary!
0:33:50 > 0:33:51When it comes out of this mould,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55the molten metal will have been transformed.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58I feel like I'm watching alchemy in action.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06I can hardly bear to look.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12That's amazing. I've never seen a bronze come out that colour.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16It's always got oxides on the surface and colouration. This is... Oh, that's amazing!
0:34:16 > 0:34:18Maybe it's the bellow's work?
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Obviously, obviously!
0:34:27 > 0:34:32I came along here today to find out why tin mattered to Totnes,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36but in the process, something much bigger has happened.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39It's been a huge privilege to spend so much time with Andrew,
0:34:39 > 0:34:43who's been practicing a craft that's been followed in this area
0:34:43 > 0:34:46probably since the Bronze Age.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48And what he's made today is this bell.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52That's a sound that's never been heard before in the world,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55because this bell has only just been cast.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00That sound is the sound of human ingenuity, and it's beautiful.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16The Tudor tin merchants of Totnes were ingenious too.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18In their case, at making money.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23They invested in the mines and in the stannary towns
0:35:23 > 0:35:27where the tin was traded, and they shipped it down the Dart
0:35:27 > 0:35:31to the wider world, where buyers were prepared to pay top dollar.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Take one year, 1525.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41In that year alone, 250 tonnes of tin were mined in Devon.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45That would be worth around £4 million in today's money.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50The king of tin, here in Totnes, was a merchant called John Giles,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53who owned shares in one of the Dartmoor stannary towns
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and was the richest merchant in Devon.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59Number two on the county rich list was a tin and cloth tycoon
0:35:59 > 0:36:01called Walter Smith.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05In the age of the Tudors, this was millionaire's row.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Totnes had never had it so good.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16It's the booms that leave behind the architectural landmarks
0:36:16 > 0:36:18that define all our towns.
0:36:20 > 0:36:26Totnes' most striking civic legacy is the Guildhall,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30gifted by the tin merchant Walter Smith,
0:36:30 > 0:36:35and still home, nearly 500 years later, to the Town Council.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Inside, it's a monument to Civic pride.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48The name of every mayor, from the 1350s onwards,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51has been painstakingly recorded.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Among hundreds of names are those of the town's great tin tycoons,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00John Giles and Walter Smith.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Wealth and power, hand in hand.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10But the good times were not to last.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16Up on Dartmoor, merchants and miners
0:37:16 > 0:37:21had created a recognizably modern industrial business.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Unfortunately, it had a recognizably modern downside, too.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Vast quantities of water were used
0:37:29 > 0:37:32to separate the tin from the gravel and sand,
0:37:32 > 0:37:37and all that heavily polluted water ended up in the Dart.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Here in town, they reaped the whirlwind.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46When the Tudor antiquarian, John Leland,
0:37:46 > 0:37:48visited Totnes in the mid-1500s,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52he was shocked to see that vast amounts of sand had been carried
0:37:52 > 0:37:56downstream from the tin workings on Dartmoor and, as he put it,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01"Choked the depth of the river that doth much hurt the Dart estuary."
0:38:01 > 0:38:05Well, in those days, blocking a navigable river wasn't just
0:38:05 > 0:38:09an environmental catastrophe, it was economic suicide.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Totnes lost much of its river trade to a neighbouring town.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20A town eight miles downstream...
0:38:22 > 0:38:25..at the mouth of the Dart.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It's name, appropriately enough, was Dartmouth.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35To make matters even worse, by the end of the 1500s,
0:38:35 > 0:38:39the tin was gone and the boom was over.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The 17th century poet, Robert Herrick, lived on Dartmoor,
0:38:46 > 0:38:47and captured the mood.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51"No trust to metals, nor to marbles,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54"when these have their fate and wear away as men."
0:39:01 > 0:39:06With the tough times that followed the collapse of the tin industry,
0:39:06 > 0:39:11and the river trade, this chamber witnessed some very gloomy meetings.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15In 1719, Totnes was declared insolvent,
0:39:15 > 0:39:20and the council was forced to sell the leases on 50 or so properties
0:39:20 > 0:39:22that it owned in the town.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27It was a desperate act, a bit like flogging the family silver.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32To keep afloat, the town had to borrow so much money that in 1843,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37a government commission condemned the council for its excessive debt.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41It's poignant, painful, even, to contemplate what this
0:39:41 > 0:39:46must have meant to a place that had once been on Devon's rich list.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51Financially, Totnes had descended into its own heart of darkness.
0:39:51 > 0:39:52A once thriving town,
0:39:52 > 0:39:57now lost for purpose at the head of its choked creek.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05Totnes's geography, tucked away up the river, surrounded by hills,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09had been perfect for Saxon defenders and Tudor traders.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15But come the industrial revolution, it was a town out in the cold,
0:40:15 > 0:40:19unsuited to big ships, or the infrastructure of railways
0:40:19 > 0:40:20and factories.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28In the late 1800s, while Britain's industrial towns were booming,
0:40:28 > 0:40:33Totnes' population actually fell - by 20%.
0:40:35 > 0:40:37And the Victorian developers who were busy
0:40:37 > 0:40:42transforming our urban landscape pretty much ignored Totnes.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47The town had become an urban fossil.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53And it might have stayed that way,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56but a new era was about to begin.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11This is Dartington Hall, just outside town, and for over 85 years
0:41:11 > 0:41:16it's been a Mecca for devotees of ecology and the arts.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Totnes' habit of asking searching questions
0:41:20 > 0:41:22about the way we live, began here.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Today, Dartington is celebrating the life and legacy
0:41:29 > 0:41:32of its spiritual founder, Rabindranath Tagore.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38It's 150 years since his birth.
0:41:47 > 0:41:53Tagore, painter and poet, the first Asian to win the Nobel prize,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57was a social campaigner who set up a radical community in India.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02The young Englishman who helped him to do it, Leonard Elmhirst,
0:42:02 > 0:42:07was inspired to start his own ambitious project at Dartington.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12"I have begun to suspect", wrote Elmhirst,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16"that City life has a devastating effect upon human nature."
0:42:18 > 0:42:22Led by Leonard Elmhirst and his wealthy American wife, Dorothy,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26Dartington was to be a Utopian community and a model
0:42:26 > 0:42:32for radical education, guided by the ideas of Rabindranath Tagore.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38And what better way to celebrate him today
0:42:38 > 0:42:41than with a unique commission from a local artist.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43BELL RINGS
0:42:45 > 0:42:48This bell is made by Andrew Lacey,
0:42:48 > 0:42:51a great artist, hand made,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53in honour of Tagore.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58'Satish Kumar is director of the Tagore Festival,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01'and co-founder of Dartington's Schumacher College,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05'which teaches environmental and social sustainability.'
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Can I ask you about Dartington and Totnes?
0:43:08 > 0:43:13The two seem to have this very close relationship,
0:43:13 > 0:43:15brother and sister, almost a symbiotic relationship.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20Yes, I would say Dartington is an integral part of Totnes.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23At Dartington we have Schumacher College,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26which is a flagship college
0:43:26 > 0:43:30for learning about living on a small scale, human scale.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34And that is the idea of living in small towns, where you can
0:43:34 > 0:43:39live simply, and you can have a sense of community, and a sense of place.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42And this can happen only when you are a small community,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46where you can communicate with each other, so it can happen in a place
0:43:46 > 0:43:50like Totnes, but it's very difficult to have it in Birmingham or Glasgow.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54But, Satish, if everybody followed your utopian dream,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56and moved from London to Totnes, there would be
0:43:56 > 0:44:00nine or ten million people living here and it would become a city.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03No, no, I'm not suggesting that all people living in cities
0:44:03 > 0:44:05should move to small towns.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08What I am suggesting is that big cities should not be
0:44:08 > 0:44:10too arrogant about themselves.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14I would like to have a small town culture in the cities.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18So if you are living in Camden Town or Hampstead Heath,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21you can create a small town in that area.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25London is not a community, but Hampstead Heath can be a community.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27This is why, when we organised Tagore Festival,
0:44:27 > 0:44:31we had 2,000 people coming through the festival.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35And they were coming because they cherish that vision,
0:44:35 > 0:44:41that we want to create a new world view, a new way of living, which is
0:44:41 > 0:44:45in harmony with ourselves, our human community and with the natural world.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50And that vision is a very important vision for our time.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00The Elmhirsts' vision was to take the neglected,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04derelict estate of Dartington, and bring it back to life.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Over the course of several decades,
0:45:10 > 0:45:16the estate consumed Dorothy's personal fortune of 35 million.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19But the Elmhirsts' aim wasn't just to rebuild
0:45:19 > 0:45:24a viable community from ruins, it was to experiment.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26And to do it, as Dorothy put it,
0:45:26 > 0:45:31they'd create an atmosphere free from fear and competition.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36A sort of safe haven, where everyone involved could feel that anything,
0:45:36 > 0:45:38and everything, was possible.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42They set up two farms,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46and applied the latest thinking in agriculture.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50They built a theatre, dance studios, one of Britain's first
0:45:50 > 0:45:57progressive schools, and a college of performance, arts and music.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04They revived traditional crafts and industries,
0:46:04 > 0:46:10creating more than 600 much needed jobs for Totnes and the surrounding area.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17And they commissioned new buildings that were anything but traditional.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Modernist architecture like this was virtually unknown in Britain
0:46:23 > 0:46:26when the Elmhirsts brought in William Lascaze,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29the radical Swiss-American architect.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31He designed houses for Dartington staff
0:46:31 > 0:46:34and new accommodation for the school.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40Seen through '30s eyes, these buildings were startling,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44an incredibly confident break from the thin-windowed slate
0:46:44 > 0:46:47and sandstone traditions of old world Devon.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50The locals must have thought aliens had landed.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Looking at it now, it may all seem a bit scatter-gun,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04the wild excesses of wealthy eccentrics.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13But diversity has always been the point of Dartington.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18After Tagore, they're hosting, among other things, a literary festival,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21a debate on nuclear weapons, a Suzanne Vega gig
0:47:21 > 0:47:25and a soil conference, ensuring that Totnes continues to attract
0:47:25 > 0:47:29its own particular brand of pilgrim.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I'm here now because it's beautiful, it's absolutely stunning
0:47:33 > 0:47:36and if I'm brutally honest, that's the main reason I came here,
0:47:36 > 0:47:40because I thought it was so beautiful and I'm a sucker for aesthetics.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43It's so different from being in a city.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46It has such a different energy and, yeah,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49I'm coming to live here so, I'm changing my life.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52I'm on the dole, so I've kicked myself up the arse,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56applied to work here as a volunteer, been doing 12-hour days
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and I feel happier than I've felt for a very long time.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Before I came to Dartington, I looked at a map
0:48:07 > 0:48:11and found myself wondering what this estate, buried two miles
0:48:11 > 0:48:16outside town, deep in the Devon countryside, had to do with Totnes.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19But now I've been to Dartington Hall, met Satish,
0:48:19 > 0:48:25been to the Festival, learnt so much about the history of this seedbed of new ideas,
0:48:25 > 0:48:30of creativity, I realise that Dartington and Totnes
0:48:30 > 0:48:33are all one, they're urban siblings, they're twins.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36You can't begin to understand Totnes
0:48:36 > 0:48:39without understanding Dartington as well.
0:48:41 > 0:48:47For 80 years, the eclectic activity at Dartington has flowed down river
0:48:47 > 0:48:52to its urban neighbour, exporting the urge to experiment and create.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Good evening wonderful Totnesians! We're Spree.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01# I don't see why She is listening
0:49:02 > 0:49:05# Took a step into my arms... #
0:49:05 > 0:49:07It's a cold Monday night in May,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11and the town is out in force to support home-grown band, Spree.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17# It's a far cry, a far cry... #
0:49:19 > 0:49:22These Dartington-trained musicians have just made their first album,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25and have been signed up by the people who discovered
0:49:25 > 0:49:28fellow south Devon band, Muse.
0:49:32 > 0:49:38But what intrigues me is that these ambitious young hopefuls
0:49:38 > 0:49:40still live in cosy, protective Totnes.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Why haven't you left Totnes?
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Aren't you tempted by the bright lights of the cities?
0:49:47 > 0:49:50It's difficult to leave because everyone's so honest.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53You're always getting an honest reaction to your work,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56you're always getting people telling you exactly what they think.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00You know when you need to fly the nest, and if we do,
0:50:00 > 0:50:06we'll still be Totnesians, still be passionately involved with Totnes.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08I can't figure out if you're scared to take the plunge...
0:50:08 > 0:50:10We're absolutely not scared.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14We love the city, we absolutely thrive in the city,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and we'll be in every different city
0:50:17 > 0:50:20all around the country, three or four months of touring.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23But we bring our adventures, stories and songs back here
0:50:23 > 0:50:25and we work on them here, and we mull them over,
0:50:25 > 0:50:30and this gives us a space to exist and work,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and focus on our sound and not be influenced by anyone else.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37# This modern love... #
0:50:37 > 0:50:40Seeing familiar faces in the crowd, it strikes me
0:50:40 > 0:50:44how much the word "community" really does apply in Totnes.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46# This modern love... #
0:50:49 > 0:50:51# Ah-ah-ah-ah-oh
0:50:55 > 0:50:57# Ah-ah-ah-ah-oh... #
0:51:00 > 0:51:03WHISTLING AND APPLAUSE
0:51:03 > 0:51:04Thank you.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25I'm heading back to where my journey began, to the town wharf on the Dart,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29to see the latest chapter in Totnes' story of innovation.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34In Tudor times, this is where the tin and wool
0:51:34 > 0:51:39that made the town rich were shipped off to the ports of Europe.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42When the trade slumped, so did the harbour.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47But the story of the wharf here is a microcosm of the town's story -
0:51:47 > 0:51:50boom, bust, boom again.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55The Dart trade seemed dead in the water when, in the 1890s,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59Reeves Ltd built new wharves here, running a very successful
0:51:59 > 0:52:03import business, mainly timber from the Baltic.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07That was still flourishing when I canoed up here in 1970.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11It was a boom time. Then, in 1995, Reeves closed down.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Totnes though, as I've discovered, has an instinct for experiment
0:52:15 > 0:52:18and for thinking big.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21It was this wharf again, at the end of the 1990s,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24that saw the beginnings of another revival.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Unusual, innovative, and certainly ambitious,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31because this time, somebody was thinking big. Really big.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36The long awaited launch of one of the world's largest yachts
0:52:36 > 0:52:38has gone ahead at Totnes in Devon.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Team Philips, launched in the year 2000,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47was larger than Centre Court at Wimbledon,
0:52:47 > 0:52:52her huge mast taller than ten London buses.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Her skipper, Pete Goss, captured the Totnes spirit
0:52:55 > 0:52:59when he said, "We've achieved the impossible.
0:52:59 > 0:53:04"We simply wouldn't accept that these things couldn't be done."
0:53:06 > 0:53:10But, in December 2000, she hit a fierce Atlantic storm.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16The crew abandoned ship, and she broke up.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20A boom and a bust, all wrapped up together.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28But Totnes is all about resilience,
0:53:28 > 0:53:33and today, on the same wharf that built Pete Goss's super-yacht,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36the latest generation of maritime visionaries
0:53:36 > 0:53:39are putting Totnes on the world map.
0:53:43 > 0:53:49Since 2004, Baltic Wharf has been home to Woodvale Challenge,
0:53:49 > 0:53:53builders of the world's leading ocean-going rowing boats.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And I'm feeling seriously out of my depth,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04sandwiched between not one but TWO world record holders!
0:54:06 > 0:54:0919-year-old Sean Pedley is the youngest man ever
0:54:09 > 0:54:12to row the 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16And Simon Chalk, the company's founder,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20has rowed across both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Woodvale's clients come from all over the globe,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35seeking a super-specialised product with a price tag to boot.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40One of these will set you back a cool 40 grand!
0:54:41 > 0:54:45Why carbon fibre, what's so special about carbon fibre?
0:54:45 > 0:54:49The material's really, really tough. Structurally, it's very strong.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52It's Formula 1 or aircraft technology,
0:54:52 > 0:54:55and in marine terms, the only boats that are made from carbon
0:54:55 > 0:54:59are the top end open 60s like the Ellen McArthur type boat.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01They're the Formula 1 of the sea
0:55:01 > 0:55:03and this is the Formula 1 of ocean rowing.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05How many people will be rowing this boat?
0:55:05 > 0:55:07There'll be four guys on this one.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09Do they sleep in these cabins?
0:55:09 > 0:55:12They do. If there's a big storm and they have to get in,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14there'll be two in each end.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Is there a shower, bathroom, Jacuzzi? Any facilities at all?
0:55:17 > 0:55:20No. You've got a bucket to do... Well, you have got two buckets.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23You have one to go to the toilet in, which is the way you have to do it,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25and then one for washing.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28All your clothes and your bits and pieces in the other bucket,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30and that's life on board.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32- Different coloured buckets? - They're marked.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35And the loo bucket normally gets given a name as well,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38so that stands out on it's own.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41It's quite basic but it's quite good that it's basic.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44And what brought you to Totnes?
0:55:44 > 0:55:47We've been working and rowing on the Dart for years.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Not only can you have the sheltered rowing on a river
0:55:50 > 0:55:52but you can poke your nose out into open sea,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55so it's really good to get that kind of cross training.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00Do you think Totnes is welcoming to people with big, new ideas like you?
0:56:00 > 0:56:02I think there's a history of that.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Team Philips was here before us and there's been other projects
0:56:05 > 0:56:09that have run locally, and boats have been built here in the past
0:56:09 > 0:56:12that have gone off to do some quite amazing things.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15But it's just ideal. Everything that we need to do,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18we can just get it done. Yeah, it works really well for us.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29The more I learn about Totnes, the more convinced I am
0:56:29 > 0:56:33that it's become a creative haven, the kind of town where
0:56:33 > 0:56:39the dreamers of impossible dreams can live with like minds,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43with people who encourage big ambitions.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47If you're going to row an ocean or convert a town to sustainability,
0:56:47 > 0:56:52the last kind of neighbour you need is a doubter or a pessimist,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55somebody who can't seize the moment.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00I'm not sure whether being Totnesian is an address or a state of mind.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09From Pete's rickshaws
0:57:09 > 0:57:12to the Tudor market,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16From the solar panels all over town
0:57:16 > 0:57:20to the high-tech boats of Woodvale Challenge,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24this town continues to be a laboratory for new ideas,
0:57:24 > 0:57:30just as it has been since it began 1,100 years ago.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35For a town not much larger than a village, it's a remarkable story.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Behind that story, I think, is one main factor,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44that Totnes has come to be seen as a safe haven, a creative sanctuary,
0:57:44 > 0:57:49a place which, as Dorothy Elmhirst put it, is free from fear.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52And freedom, as we know, liberates the imagination.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57That imagination has given Totnes the chance to show
0:57:57 > 0:58:00how towns can be the communities of the future.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13For a free booklet about what makes our towns work, call:
0:58:17 > 0:58:19Or go to...
0:58:20 > 0:58:23..and follow the links to the Open University.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:33 > 0:58:36E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk