East Hidden Paintings

This is a story about families. About parents and children. And how

we use pictures to remember our past.

To honour our heritage, or bring our loved ones back to life. It's a

tale of forgotten people. Hidden paintings. And one man's

extraordinary passion to belong in a land far away from his ancestral

home. It all starts here in Thetford, Norfolk.

These days, Thetford is probably best known as the birthplace of

this chap, Thomas Payne, the famous revolutionary. But I'm on the trail

of another local hero who's almost been completely forgotten.

Back in 1926 27, he was the talk of the town. When a three-day public

holiday was announced, just so the locals could visit an art

exhibition. The paintings were collected by

this man. Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, or Freddy to his friends.

His family once ruled a mighty Indian King donl. But Freddy lived

and died just a few miles from here in the heart of rural East Anglia -

- kingdom. In his will, he left 90 of his

paintings to the people of Thetford and suggested this place, the

Guildhall, as a good venue to show them. It's a suitably grand setting

for Freddy's generous gift and I can't wait the see the pictures for

But it looks as though I'll have to wait a little longer!

The bowls club meet here every Tuesday. But there's not a canvas

in sight. There used to be a load of

portraits hanging up here in the Guildhall? Yes, many years ago, yes.

There doesn't seem to be anything here at all? No. What a shame. Do

you know who collected them, by the way? No. Have you ever heard of

prince Freddy Duleep Singh? Yes, I have. Oh, you have?! OK. So you

have heard of the deep Singh family? Yes. I'm on the hunt for

the pictures. To find them? Yes, like a detective and maybe I can

give you a game of bowls after, I'm very bad though. Wfrpblgts we are

not very good either. I've been searching for a collection of

portraits that used to hang up in the Guildhall. I asked around some

more, but no-one could throw much light on the enigmatic prince or

elusive paintings. Still, since I was here...

That's better. Good. Nice! I hit it! You're a very good

teacher. Do I win any money? No.

If only my quest for the paintings had started so well. There were 90

of them and there are 90 listed portraits in here, every single

inch of this hall must have been covered and now there's absolutely

no trace of them. I've drawn a blank at the Guildhall but I did

leave with a couple of leads. Five minutes down the High Street is the

King's House, apparently some of the paintings ended up here.

Wow. Very dark in here. Somehow I don't think these are the portraits

we are actually looking for. But, there's one over there that looks a

lot more promising. By my brilliant powers of deduction,

there's a number here which looks very much to me like a catalogue

number. So, who are you? Mrs French, you must be in here. Well, Mrs

French, here you're described as an aged lady, but I'm pretty sure this

is you, wink dress with a white scarf and a white cap on the head.

Found one of Prince Freddy's collection. It's not only Mrs

French who lives here now, she shares the premises with some more

of Freddy's friends. Stern looking chap.

Number five. You look a bit scary. Elizabeth Blomfields, in a dress

aligned with blue and white robe over the shoulders, flowers in it.

You have made an effort. Now, this is really interesting.

Clearly, not one of Prince Freddy's, no catalogue number on it. This has

to be something to do with the Duleep Singhs, it's Indian, the

eyes and the jewellery. Spot the odd one out. I've a feeling I'll

meet him again later. First on with my quest to find Freddy's paintings.

According to the catalogue, there were nearly 100 of them, but I've

only seen a handful so far. Maybe someone here knows where the

rest of them ended up. The ancient house museum was

another of Freddy's gifts to Thetford.

Curator Oliver Bone has a treasure trove of material about the

exhibition which obvious lib caused quite a stir.

We have here an interesting thing. A wooden block with a metal plate

which shows the opening event itself with the people and the

paintings on the wall. I think in in the middle; there's a photograph

of Prince Duleep Singh, so it's poignant because he didn't live to

see the day when all the portraits were on display. It's a very Indian

thing to do, strangely. Really. have photographs of ancestors that

have passed over, particularly your parents, they're garlanded and will

beed every day, so the idea of a portrait keeping the past alive,

it's really interesting that they did that spontaneously.

Then here are some of the photographs of the paintings as the

backdrop to local lives in Thetford. Old time dancing group. A great

photograph. A lot of hair spray. This one is one of my favourites.

The knitting party, part of the war effort. All these ladies proudly

displaying their scarves, socks and things. At the top of the

photograph, this portrait is the one you can see over there on the

wall. Yes. For years, Freddy's paintings were part of the fabric

of Thetford life. During the 50s and 60s, most were taken down and

put in storage. At least these ones escaped that fate. Colourful

snapshots of local people and familiar landscapes as they looked

centuries ago. Dogs in the fields. Then on the

skyline, you can see the outline of Norwich with the spire of the

cathedral pointing up. They're striking pictures, but I

wonder what Freddy saw in the portraits of people he'd never have

known. At first glance, it's hard to

connect these portraits with a person who actually collected them.

They bring back a world that's a million miles away from Prince fed

Rick's homeland. So what drew him particularly to these portraits and

why was he so keen to ensure that none of them travelled too far from

home -- Prince Frederick. To understand Freddy's fascination for

the characters, you need to understand more about his own

extraordinary family. Do you remember the boy with the

almond eyes? He was Freddy's father who grew up expecting to rule the

Punjab, an opulent Indian kingdom thousands of miles from Thetford.

But then came the British. They seized control of his homeland and

forced the young Maharajah to convert from his Sikh faith to

Christianity. This is a beautiful and significant

book. Yes, this is amazing isn't it. It's a Bible that was given to the

young Maharajah just as he was leaving India in 1854 by the Lord

who was the Governor General of India at the time. If you look at

the inscription inside the Bible, you can just make out the words

where it says "to his highness, Maharajah Duleep Singh, in this

holy book to which he's been led by God's grace, find an inheritance

far greater than all earthly kingdoms". So in other words,

that's a good swap, we'll take the Punjab and you have the Bible?

seems to be the implication, yes. Never mind the earthly riches,

we'll look after those for you, you have this! The British can take

care of those and you have the Bible. One priceless treasure came

to symbolise the deal the Maharajah was forced to strike with the

British. This was one of the family's most

prized processions, a legendary jewel mined in India over a

thousand years ago. This was the nearest that Freddy ever got to it.

This is only a glass replica. The real one is, of course, in the

Tower of London locked away with the rest of the Crown Jewels.

In return for giving up his inheritance and his faith, Freddy's

father was offered a pension and the chance to build a new life in

England. He settled at efl don Hall and

these pictures from the family album show how he threw himself

into the role of a hunting, shooting and gambling aristocrat --

Elvedon Hall. Later he came to regret his deal with the British,

he tried to reclaim his throne and went back to Sikhism. He never made

it home, dying in exile in Paris. The British Government were

determined that Maharajah Duleep Singh shouldn't receive a

traditional Sikh cremation. So they insisted that his body be returned

to Britain and buried here at the church yard at Elvedon, a stone's

throw from where he used to live the life of an English aristocrat.

Today this has become a place of pilgrimage for Sikhs all over the

world and a memorial to the first ever Sikh settler in Britain.

The Maharajah's story is dark and tragic. But what does it have to do

with Freddy's pictures? Perhaps the answer lies in the

contrasts between father and son. From everything I've learned so far,

Prince Freddy seems to have been the exact opposite of his papa.

Maharajah Duleep Singh was a party animal, a ladies' man and had a

passionate love/hate relationship with the British. Prince Freddy on

the other hand, was reserved, quiet, a budding historian, never married

and seemed to model himself on the perfect English country gent.

It was a role he began to play early in life. When Prince Freddy

was young, he used to ride around the countryside around his home

looking at old churches and stately homes. This was just the beginning

of a life long passion, some would say obsession, of wanting to record

the local history of the place that he called home.

Walk on by. Keep walking... She really likes grass!

I'm inclined to let her have some, frankly.

Lovely view. Freddy loved the country life, so it's no surprise

he chose to settle in East Anglia, setting up home at old Buckenham

Hall in the wilds of Norfolk. The house was later demolished, but

the gardens live on, tucked away in one corner of them is a solitary

reminder of Freddy's desire to live a quiet life and draw a line under

his father's battles with the establishment.

This is a monument which Prince Frederick built in 1897 on the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. I would like to get a closer look

at the inscription. We can just about read it there.

Very moss-covered, isn't it? That's rite. You can just about make out

Victoria. Yes, that's Victoria. Under the moss. There is the D for

Duleep and Singh next to hit. That's it. You need Braille really

to read that. This is very much a statement,

isn't it? It says "I am nailing my colours to the British mast"?

That's right. "this is where I belong". I couldn't wish for a

better guide than Peter who shares some of Freddy's passion for

collecting. He's tracked down an amazing array of artefacts linked

to the Duleep Singh family. This is the photograph album of Prince

Frederick Duleep Singh and these would have been taken by Prince

Frederick, a keen photographer. did a fine job. This is the inside,

yes. There are the paintings, or some of them. Is this where he

started his collection of paintings? He started as a

schoolboy from whatever small means he had, saving his pocket money.

a schoolboy. Impressive, isn't it? Many of the paintings at Old

Buckenham ended up as part of Freddy's gift to Thetford and he

was always on the lookout for new pictures.

This was an age when many great country houses found it hard to

make ends meet. If you knew what you were looking for, there were

rich pickings to be had. At auction rooms like this one in Diss where

Freddy knew well. Prince Freddy built up a very

impressive collection and even though he was fairly wealthy, he

didn't have bottomless pockets, so I reckon he had an eagle eye for a

bargain. Wonder if there was anything here that might have

caught his fancy. His collection was growing year-by-year and I've

already discovered where some of Freddy's paintings ended up. His

gift numbered nearly 100 canvasses and others are harder to find.

I've tracked down these ones to the storage area of the Castle Museum

in Norwich where they come under the watchful eye of head curator

Andrew Moore. Tell us about this portrait which

has just been restored? Looks magnificent actually? A wonderful

example of an English portrait, not necessarily by a great English

artist, but an artist who had real facility in capturing a real person.

He looks so chic in his grey and that beautiful powder blue. Very

young. I suppose it was the only way of capturing your children in

case you lost them? You did die young of smallpox. That is our

document to his life and he would have passed into complete obscurity

without that portrait. If family name died out when Edward Lewkenor

passed away, just as the Duleep dynasty would come to an end with

Freddy's death. Beginning to see why Prince Freddy treasured the

painings so much, not because they're great works of art, but

much more because they kept alive places and people he was fascinated

with. -- paintings. Every picture in the collection has a story to

reveal and many had personal significance for Freddy. He was an

ardent Monarchist and a prince, so he probably had a soft spot for

Roger Le Strange. Who almost had his head chopped off by Oliver

Cromwell! And step forward Robert Hopton with his son Ralph, they

were Royalists too. Ralph died in exile from his

homeland, just like Freddy's father. It's not only people that mattered

# Straight down the middle... # about this for a hazard? The ruined

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 110 seconds

A fairly good example of how most of them were. A lot of them still

are, to be honest. A very dark varnish, quite a bit of overpaint.

It's also quite mouldy. You can really see it from here actually.

It's a matter of deciding what's the most important to work on to

get a good result and also just to stop them from actually falling

apart. So for example, something like this is actually reaching the

stage where we really need to rescue it or it's literally going

to fall to bits. Do you think they're salvagable? You can mend

the tears locally without having to do too much work to it. Just

holding the canvas together means that the paint may survive a bit

better. Can't imagine that will ever look good again. It turns out

I was wrong. In her studio near Cambridge, conservation expert

Julie Crick is nursing more of Freddy's friends back to life.

It will take time for his wounds to heal. But how about this for a

speedy recovery? Years of accumulated grime washed away to

reveal this landscape in its true colours.

Just as the artist pictured it centuries ago.

This is where Freddy's story ends. Blo Norton Hall in Norfolk where he

spent the final years of his life. It's recently been restored by a

new owner and can be rented for holidays. But I reckon Freddy would

still feel right at home here. By now, he'd written his own page in

the story of East Anglia. But tuck add way at the very top of the

house was a shrine to the other side of his history -- tucked away.

Why have you brought me to this room in particular? It's very

significant. This attic wing was actually the Sikh gallery where

Prince Frederick kept all his Sikh portraits. It shows his father,

grandfather, uncles, all in their former glories. There used to be

the famous painting which is now in the Lahore Museum and, on the table

I think roughly in front of us, there would have been a big table

with the delightful one done in Rome. On the left, we would have

had a painting of the throne. seems to have been in Freddy such a

need to put down roots? Yes. know, the way that he sort of

reconstructed a whole web of relationships through paintings in

East Anglia, that shows to me a real need of, I want to belong, I

want community, solidity? Yes. here we are in the room where the

part of his heritage he actually couldn't explore and access, he

still lined the walls with what he had? Yes. With what was left?

Freddy died here in 1926, surrounded by the fruits of a life

dedicated to honouring and preserving the past.

When Prince Freddy died, a solicitor made an inventory of

everything left in the hall and it ran to 174 pages. Items ranged from

very fine antiques and paintings to more unusual items like swords,

fossils and even a yak's tail. Theite them caught my eye is buried

away on page 56 and it is... Model of Koi Nour in velvet lined

case. So he had a replica made of the jewel that his father had to

give away to the British. His glass reproduction of that jewel,

according to this, was valued at five shillings.

Freddy's father never really found peace after his fateful deal with

the British. Freddy's story has a different and happier ending.

I've enjoyed getting to know him better. And through his paintings,

I think I've discovered what made him tick.

He had a hunger to belong, to put down roots in a way his father

never had. At Blo Norton, he managed to do just that. He's

buried here in a church yard a few hundred yards from his home. This

may seem an unlikely resting place for one of the men who could have

ruled one of the great kingdoms of India, but I think Prince Freddy

decided earlier on that that is where he wanted to belong and,

let's face it, you couldn't get a more English setting than this,

could you. Actually, that isn't quite the end

of Freddy's extraordinary story. At the Museum of Rural life in

Norfolk, more of his paintings emerge from the shadows, ready to

great the public once more. I don't know if all 90 of his

portraits will ever be reunited under one roof, but I'm sure he'd

be pleased to see these familiar faces again.

I like to think of them as members of Freddy's extended family. Some

are enigmatic, some are beautiful, others rather twished. And some

perhaps a little dull. -- distinguished. Then there's the

trouble-maker. Every family had one of those. The grumpy old curmudgeon

It's wonderful the see the paintings back on the wall finally

and the restoration is marvellous. They look beautiful. This is the

last one to go up, the last piece of the jigsaw? Yes, it's a

particular favourite of mine, this one. We've treated it rather

differently. Seems to have a lot of damage in the centre. Why didn't

you hide it? Normally what you would do is to fill in the gap and

then very carefully and meticulously retouch it to disguise

the fact that it ever was damaged. Why are you going to hang it in

this state? Well, because the story about this, there was a label on

the back of the painting which said the damage was done by a member of

the family. Who didn't like... Strutt family who didn't like him

and, when you look at the expression of his face and so on,

it seems to be just very plausible really. If you tried to repaint

that, it would really be a lot of new work. But it tells a story?

Tells a huge story, although it's not the greatest work of art in the

world, it's a fantastic image. Quite symbolic of the whole

collection really, what some of the paintings may lack in artistic

merit, they make up for it in flavour and colour and the stories.

Absolutely, yes. I think because of what happened to Maharajah Duleep

Singh and his family, the tra that of the loss of inheritance, culture

and religion, Prince Freddy probably knew better than most

people that you can't take the past for granted, that history is

something you have to fight for. Because of his passion for East

Anglia, his magpie eye for a bargain and huge generosity of

spirit, a very small slice of British history has been saved.