:00:23. > :00:30.# Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?
:00:30. > :00:37.# If you think we're on the run. # We are the boys who will stop
:00:37. > :00:42.your little game! We are the boys who will make you think again!
:00:42. > :00:46.# Cos who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?
:00:46. > :00:50.# If you think old England's done? Mr Brown goes off to town on the
:00:50. > :00:55.8:21... # The Imperial War Museum, London.
:00:55. > :00:57.I had a call from a man who wants me to meet him here. I have no idea
:00:57. > :01:00.why. Mr Culshaw! Great to see you. Is it
:01:00. > :01:10.you I am meeting here? Indeed it is, and this is the
:01:10. > :01:32.
:01:32. > :01:42.reason why. Now, I cannot think of anybody better to take a look at
:01:42. > :01:45.this particular painting. I have a great fondness for Dad's Army. My
:01:45. > :01:48.dad was in the Royal Engineers, and I watched it with him and my
:01:48. > :01:51.brother in the '70s and '80s. This is of the Grasmere Home Guard,
:01:51. > :01:54.painted by Gilbert Spencer in 1943. Guard, painted by Gilbert Spencer
:01:54. > :01:57.in 1943. It is a painting of us on location!
:01:57. > :02:07.It is hard to believe this was painted in 1943. The likenesses to
:02:07. > :02:16.
:02:16. > :02:19.the Dad's Army characters are amazing. Talking to Sergeant Wilson
:02:19. > :02:22.there, it would appear. Bit of a big chain!
:02:22. > :02:31.It might be Bruce Forsyth. Marvellous!
:02:31. > :02:39.I have just found myself. Which one do you think's you? This one..
:02:39. > :02:49.Yes, with a reassuring, wise hand on his shoulder there. Where was I
:02:49. > :02:56.
:02:56. > :02:59.up to? I think we were discussing what to do with Pike.? So it's the
:02:59. > :03:03.Grasmere Guard, for some reason. Ian, we thought, if you choose to
:03:03. > :03:06.accept your mission, who better than to take a trip to Grasmere and
:03:06. > :03:09.try and uncover the Enigma code of this painting, how would you feel
:03:09. > :03:12.about a trip to investigate? You want me to go to the Lake
:03:12. > :03:16.District. It's a hard decision. Cab's outside. I will do it, I will
:03:16. > :03:20.do it! I was lying about the taxi, though. Oh, yes? So, how do I get
:03:20. > :03:28.there? Maybe if we unchain that Spitfire off the ceiling, you could
:03:28. > :03:31.go in that. I think I'd rather have something with four wheels! # You
:03:31. > :03:35.can take the high road or you can take the low road.
:03:35. > :03:38.Go the way the wind is blowing. Take the main road, the side road.
:03:38. > :03:41.The cross road, the rail road. As long as you keep going
:03:41. > :03:44.John's fascination with the Dad's Army painting at the Imperial War
:03:44. > :03:48.Museum has sparked my journey of discovery. I have a hunch the pic
:03:48. > :03:51.is hiding a number of secrets and has an intriguing tale to tell. So,
:03:51. > :03:55.I'm going in search of the stories the Grasmere Home Guard painting
:03:55. > :03:59.will uncover. What will it reveal? Where will it take me? A good place
:03:59. > :04:02.to begin is right in the middle of the Lake District.
:04:02. > :04:07.At the heart of Grasmere is a studio and gallery owned by the
:04:08. > :04:11.Heaton Cooper family, who are renowned Lakeland landscape artists.
:04:11. > :04:15.I thought the best way to find out about one painter would be to talk
:04:15. > :04:18.to another one, so I've come to meet the youngest in this long line
:04:18. > :04:24.of Lakeland artists, and find out what she can tell me about the
:04:24. > :04:28.painting. Rebecca. Hello. Nice to meet you.
:04:28. > :04:32.Right, so, the Grasmere Guard. This painting, what can you tell me?
:04:32. > :04:34.I've had a look at it and we're often asked to identify landscape
:04:34. > :04:41.pics, because we have lots of landscape paintings here in our
:04:41. > :04:44.gallery. You mean the location? Yeah. We know the area quite well,
:04:45. > :04:50.because our background are painters and we paint the landscape. I've
:04:50. > :04:59.got a good idea where this is. I think it's quite close to here and
:04:59. > :05:04.I think it's Rydal Water. You can tell that from this? It's just a
:05:04. > :05:08.bit of water and two trees and you can tell the location from that?
:05:08. > :05:14.Yeah, it has a feel of Rydal Water, I'm sure of it. I'll take you there
:05:14. > :05:18.if you want to see it. Really? That'd be great. Thank you.
:05:18. > :05:21.Rebecca, where are we? We're coming over the river, and we'll go down
:05:21. > :05:27.to Rydal Water. Hopefully if we get further along the path, we'll be
:05:27. > :05:32.able to find the possible location where it was painted. Is that OK?
:05:32. > :05:35.It depends how far! It's not too far. OK, good!
:05:36. > :05:43.# Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me. Anyone
:05:43. > :05:49.else but me. Anyone else but me. No no no #! Hang on. This is it, isn't
:05:49. > :05:59.it? Yeah, I think this is the spot. That's incredible! Yeah. You can
:05:59. > :05:59.
:05:59. > :06:04.see the way that the lake fits perfectly. That's the tree. It just
:06:04. > :06:07.feels right. Yeah. It doesn't look exactly like the painting. It just
:06:08. > :06:11.has that feeling of this area. If you look at some of the trees,
:06:11. > :06:14.especially on the right, the way the rocks are jutting out, the end
:06:14. > :06:17.of the lake here goes into the river, so the direction of the
:06:17. > :06:25.water... I mean, it's not an exact representation of what you can see
:06:25. > :06:28.here, but I do think there's a feeling of this place. Sorry to go
:06:28. > :06:36.back to Dad's Army, but this reminds me of being on location,
:06:36. > :06:39.waiting! Are they just waiting around? I think so. I have talked
:06:40. > :06:48.to a few people that can remember that period, older people, and they
:06:48. > :06:56.would have used this as a training area. It's uncanny!
:06:56. > :07:02.# Why do you whisper green grass? Why tell the trees what ain't so?
:07:02. > :07:09.Whispering grass... #. So, I know who painted the picture,
:07:09. > :07:17.and I think I can say where it was painted. The question I have now is
:07:17. > :07:20.why was it painted here? Rebecca has sent me to the Armitt Museum in
:07:20. > :07:23.Ambleside in search of further clues, but this time I'm looking
:07:23. > :07:30.for a different painting of a Lakeland Dad's Army. It seems
:07:30. > :07:34.there's another one! Beatrix Potter, certainly not Home
:07:34. > :07:44.Guard! It's through here. This is stuff from the war. We're getting
:07:44. > :08:00.
:08:00. > :08:03.Ambleside Home Guard. Not Grasmere, Deborah, this journey started for
:08:03. > :08:09.me at the IMperial War Museum with Gilbert Spencer's painting of the
:08:09. > :08:12.Grasmere Home Guard. 350 miles away, I find this painting of the
:08:12. > :08:14.Ambleside Home Guard. Very popular subject here. Why? Well, in
:08:14. > :08:24.Ambleside, largely because the Royal College of Art were evacuated
:08:24. > :08:28.here during the war. The Royal... The Royal College of Art. In fact,
:08:28. > :08:34.they were evacuated from South Kensington to Ambleside. They took
:08:34. > :08:37.over two of the big hotels, the Salutation and the Queens. The men
:08:37. > :08:44.lived in the Queens, and the women lived in the Salutation. They used
:08:44. > :08:47.sheds and barns and everything they could find to use as studios.
:08:47. > :08:50.These hidden paintings have led to the biggest revelation of my
:08:50. > :08:52.journey so far! The Royal College of Art, regarded by many as the
:08:53. > :08:58.world's most influential art institution evacutated to the Lake
:08:58. > :09:06.District during war-time! 150 men and women sent away from the threat
:09:06. > :09:12.of World War Two to Cumbria. A number of students and a member
:09:12. > :09:15.of staff joined the Home Guard, so it was a popular subject. Amongst
:09:15. > :09:19.all the things I can imagine a student wanting to do in his spare
:09:19. > :09:23.time, joining the Home Guard doesn't seem an obvious one to me.
:09:23. > :09:31.These were young people. Why the Home Guard? I think, like most
:09:31. > :09:38.people, they wanted to do their bit. I think they found elements of it
:09:39. > :09:42.rather fun. Why this as a subject? Well, it appears to be the case
:09:42. > :09:49.that the Home Guard Hall in Ambleside was one of the few
:09:49. > :09:54.buildings which was heated. They obviously had a fairly
:09:54. > :09:58.reliable source of paraffin heaters and paraffin. Anybody with a source
:09:58. > :10:02.of heat might be a source of painting. Absolutely. Yes! So, was
:10:02. > :10:12.Fred Brill, the artist, in the Home Guard? He was indeed. He joined
:10:12. > :10:15.immediately he came to Ambleside in 1942. He was a sergeant. He was a
:10:15. > :10:19.sergeant? He was, he became a sergeant and he was very active.
:10:19. > :10:21.Do we know other people in this painting? The chap sat at the back
:10:21. > :10:29.with horn-rimmed spectacles, we think is Percy Horton, the drawing
:10:29. > :10:34.master. It certainly looks like him. And there's a dog in there as well.
:10:34. > :10:37.There's a dog in there, yeah. Brought their pets along. We had
:10:37. > :10:42.the painting cleaned recently, and the dog appeared!
:10:42. > :10:52.We didn't have any art students in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard.
:10:52. > :11:00.
:11:00. > :11:02.We just had the regular turnout of The Dad's Army artists were very
:11:02. > :11:07.different indeed. I wonder what these bohemian creative types made
:11:07. > :11:11.of living in rural Cumbria? Percy Horton, a Royal College tutor,
:11:11. > :11:19.artist and member of the Lakeland Home Guard, wrote about his time as
:11:19. > :11:24.an evacuee. I've been told his letters reveal what he thought
:11:24. > :11:34.about Cumbria. "To my brother Ronald, the Royal
:11:34. > :11:37.
:11:37. > :11:40.College of Art has chosen a superb spot. The country has fine
:11:40. > :11:44.landscapes and magnificent vistas abound on all sides. I wish I had
:11:44. > :11:47.visited this kind of country before, as it is inspiring in a big way.
:11:47. > :11:51.Here, the people don't know there is a war on, and the presence of
:11:51. > :11:56.well-to-do evacuees give an air of security and prosperity. It's a
:11:56. > :12:06.relief to see an absence of broken glass and rubble. I had a pleasant
:12:06. > :12:06.
:12:06. > :12:09.walk yesterday to Rydal Water, passing landscape after landscape."
:12:09. > :12:12.The beautiful Cumbrian countryside inspired the artists, gave them
:12:12. > :12:21.food for thought. Though it was the local people who really made an
:12:21. > :12:23.impression on Percy Horton. "To Walter Strachan. What with one
:12:23. > :12:26.thing and another, I have been very distressed. I'm struggling to
:12:26. > :12:30.finish two canvases, one snowscape and the other a portrait of
:12:30. > :12:35.character study, which is one of the best things of this kind I have
:12:35. > :12:42.done for some time. It is of an old woman in a blue-grey coat with a
:12:42. > :12:51.sort of chequered scarf around her neck." So, where can I find this
:12:51. > :12:54.hidden gem, this portrait of a lady that Percy Horton was so proud of?
:12:54. > :12:58.The search has led me to Ambleside, where I have been offered a peek
:12:58. > :13:02.behind the scenes at the museum. it a surprise? A bit! We are two
:13:02. > :13:05.floors down. You would not expect it. Not at all. There are about
:13:05. > :13:11.65,000 things in here. 65,000? Books, manuscripts, pictures,
:13:11. > :13:15.mostly stored in a here. How many pictures? About 2.500. There are
:13:15. > :13:19.two Percy Hortons? There are two we are going to look at. Do you know
:13:19. > :13:25.where they are? I know where they are. I am glad you said that!
:13:25. > :13:32.you. Where are they? Well, here's the
:13:32. > :13:37.first one. That's the shepherd. He is a man deep in thought. These
:13:37. > :13:40.truly are hidden paintings. We are lucky we get to see them. What
:13:40. > :13:44.about the public? They are hidden simply for protection, but also
:13:44. > :13:51.because we can only show so many at any given time. And where is she?
:13:51. > :13:57.She is just next to you. Just one step behind. Mrs Simpson.
:13:57. > :14:00.Simpson. She's lovely. Do we know who she was? I think I remember
:14:00. > :14:07.reading she was the lady who took in washing for the students. I
:14:07. > :14:17.think so. I could be wrong but I think she was. It's a wonderful
:14:17. > :14:19.
:14:19. > :14:25.Mrs Simpson was a local housewife who did in fact help the students
:14:25. > :14:29.with their washing, but she was not a washer woman. Her family got a
:14:30. > :14:34.bit indignant about that. The shepherd was in fact a road mender,
:14:34. > :14:38.but Percy Horton took a bit of artistic licence. It was more
:14:38. > :14:43.romantic to have a washerwoman and a shepherd. The shepherd was very
:14:43. > :14:47.popular among students, because he had this great ability to sit still.
:14:47. > :14:50.It says here, the shepherd sat as still as the roads he used to mend,
:14:50. > :14:53.and wouldn't budge when the students got restless and in need
:14:53. > :15:03.of a break, finding it easier to carry on sitting them to shift his
:15:03. > :15:14.
:15:14. > :15:17.painful limbs from his restful So, the Lakeland Home Guard was
:15:17. > :15:21.made up on one side of the Royal College academics and artists, and
:15:21. > :15:25.on the other side by local men. Rugged, outdoors types, no doubt
:15:25. > :15:32.with grit under their fingernails. And familiar with the great
:15:32. > :15:38.outdoors. These were chaps like Joss Hardistry, a local soldier who
:15:38. > :15:42.served alongside the artists. His son Richard wants to share some
:15:42. > :15:45.stories. This was their stamping ground, was it? This was their
:15:45. > :15:52.stamping ground during the war. As a member of Grasmere's Home
:15:52. > :15:56.Guard. My Dad's Army, if you like. Dare I say your dad's Dad's Army!
:15:56. > :16:00.Being a farmer, he didn't go off to fight the war and he was
:16:00. > :16:05.automatically part of the local Home Guard. He spent a lot of time
:16:05. > :16:08.in that platoon with the tutors and their teachers. Yes, not so much
:16:08. > :16:14.their students', but the tutors, and in particular Gilbert Spencer,
:16:14. > :16:19.who served with Dad in Grasmere Home Guard. Gilbert and his
:16:19. > :16:29.entourage were in a house at the bottom end of Grasmere. He found
:16:29. > :16:32.
:16:32. > :16:35.Why are we in this particular spot? Well, we are at Raisbeck on the
:16:35. > :16:39.side of Dunmail Raise, here, and we're heading over to the flank of
:16:39. > :16:41.Steel Fell, and I will show you where the pill box is, where Dad
:16:41. > :16:51.would spend many hours, often during the night, guiding the
:16:51. > :16:55.
:16:56. > :17:00.Is it against the law to have a bridge here, then? I think it be
:17:00. > :17:03.frowned upon! Come on, you are not that soft!
:17:04. > :17:11.who was the sergeant? That was Heaton Cooper, whose mannerisms
:17:11. > :17:16.very much were like John Le Mesurier. A quiet, gentle man.
:17:16. > :17:22.Father had funny tales. If they were doing night duty at the drill
:17:22. > :17:26.hall, frequently, Heaton would drop off to sleep. He would get a bit of
:17:26. > :17:29.ribbing about that. He'd say he thought he made the Horlicks a bit
:17:29. > :17:35.strong before he came on night duty!
:17:35. > :17:40.It's a while since I've been up here. If my memory serves me right,
:17:40. > :17:43.it was done with a camoflauge painting. You're not going to tell
:17:43. > :17:46.me the students painted it? Well, perhaps Gilbert Spencer painted it.
:17:46. > :17:50.You never know! Perhaps it was their student's artwork.
:17:50. > :17:52.May I ask, did your father ever say what they thought they were
:17:52. > :17:55.guarding up here? I don't think he quite knew, really. Possibly
:17:55. > :18:01.against any invasion that might come from the north over Dunmail
:18:01. > :18:09.Raise here. Were there any scares? One night, they had sharp notice
:18:09. > :18:11.that the Germans were planning an invasion from the north. I think
:18:11. > :18:14.there were about six rifles locked under Heaton Cooper's stairs
:18:14. > :18:17.cupboard, picked up a few pitchforks, axes, chunks of wood
:18:17. > :18:27.and crowbars, put the wagon across the road and positioned themselves
:18:27. > :18:31.
:18:32. > :18:34.to halt the Nazis. As it happened, it was an exercise, if you like. It
:18:34. > :18:42.wasn't the real thing, but they showed their initiative!
:18:42. > :18:48.Shall we look inside? Yes, please! Look down there, Ian. How about
:18:48. > :18:51.that for a view? Oh! You wouldn't mind coming up and guarding this,
:18:51. > :18:56.would you? Just to look at that all day.
:18:56. > :19:02.It'd make a nice weekend cottage. # You've bitten off much more than
:19:02. > :19:09.you can chew #. My search to discover wartime
:19:09. > :19:12.Cumbria through hidden paintings is now taking me in one direction.
:19:12. > :19:22.Given that we know that some of these part-time students were also
:19:22. > :19:23.
:19:23. > :19:26.artists, it can only mean one thing. We're off down the pub.
:19:26. > :19:30.After a pint down the local, I've no doubt the Royal College artists
:19:30. > :19:33.would soon become familar faces around Ambleside. The art students
:19:33. > :19:38.during the war, I've learnt that they were very much part of the
:19:38. > :19:42.local scene, forgive the pun, but this was their local, wasn't it?
:19:42. > :19:44.certainly was. You're far too young to remember, of course, but you
:19:44. > :19:51.must have got stories about them? Well, they came lockstock and
:19:51. > :19:54.barrel from London in 1940. Brought their own barrel? No, I provided
:19:54. > :19:57.that! The old barn at the back was one of
:19:57. > :20:05.the student studios that they used and consequently, they were drawn
:20:05. > :20:08.to the pub here. There used to be a big open fireplace down in that
:20:08. > :20:14.room and they'd all sit round it, take their shoes off and sing songs
:20:14. > :20:18.and tell dirty jokes. Oh, no! Absolutely. They would never have
:20:18. > :20:21.done that. Yes, and they had a great time here. So, how much part
:20:21. > :20:27.of the pub life were they? Darts teams? They got involved in the
:20:27. > :20:34.whole village scene. I've been able to get a few pictures here you may
:20:34. > :20:37.be interested in. This was all about a football match held between
:20:37. > :20:42.The Golden Rule and The Royal Oak. Oh, look at that! Albert Faulkner's
:20:42. > :20:52.11. Who's Albert Faulkner? The Royal Oak's the other pub. Albert
:20:52. > :20:55.
:20:55. > :20:59.and Minnie ran the pub from 1940 to We suspect these were painted in
:20:59. > :21:02.lieu of beer that was drunk by Mr Thistlethwaite, who painted them.
:21:03. > :21:07.Look at that! Every one of them with a flat hat. Everyone wore a
:21:07. > :21:10.hat in those days, of course. I'm quite convinced that it would
:21:10. > :21:12.be much more entertaining nowadays if you played football with a ball
:21:12. > :21:16.like that, and dressed like that as well.
:21:16. > :21:19.Absolutely! That is gorgeous. So these were hung on the wall here in
:21:20. > :21:22.the pub? Oh, no, these were given to Albert at his time of licensee.
:21:22. > :21:25.After this period, when the students left, they've never seen
:21:25. > :21:30.the light of day since. Are you serious? Absolutely. They've been
:21:30. > :21:37.stored away in the loft. They're very interesting, aren't they?
:21:37. > :21:44.These once-hidden paintings have now gone on display for the first
:21:44. > :21:46.time at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside. How marvellous!
:21:46. > :21:50.Stuart Clarke is a football photographer, and pretty familiar
:21:50. > :21:57.with looking at every day pictures of the beautiful game. I wondered
:21:57. > :22:00.what he could see in his two paintings. So this is the ground
:22:00. > :22:03.where the match took place? sacred turf, this very ground. It's
:22:03. > :22:07.lovely, isn't it? The match depicted in our painting would have
:22:07. > :22:11.drawn a crowd of locals see what these Bohemian upstarts were up to
:22:11. > :22:14.and their prancing ways. They were trying to find their feet in the
:22:14. > :22:19.Lake District. They were from all over the country, these 150
:22:19. > :22:22.students. Probably the males thought they would bond further by
:22:22. > :22:25.having a football team and represent the local pub, and if we
:22:25. > :22:29.score a goal, we'll get a round of drinks given us.
:22:29. > :22:39.Yes. John was saying they possibly used them as means of payment, but
:22:39. > :22:46.
:22:46. > :22:52.of course they'd get rewarded for What do you see in these that
:22:52. > :22:55.perhaps...well, certainly, I don't? They're the lost treasures to me. I
:22:55. > :23:01.mean, the first sight of them is just...wow! Here they are, lost to
:23:01. > :23:04.Found in a box, apparently, and the things I pick up as someone who
:23:05. > :23:08.looks at crowds and composes all my shots is, you know, there's lot of
:23:08. > :23:12.little details here. At first sight, maybe you don't see them. There's a
:23:12. > :23:17.beer element in both pictures. pint there. Yeah, and a bottle
:23:17. > :23:20.there. The only bit of colour. yes, that's the label!
:23:20. > :23:26.The only bit of colour through the grey drabness of the men's feet
:23:26. > :23:31.there. In this one, I love the shadow and the speed of this guy.
:23:31. > :23:35.This guy is peculiarly dressed. He's got these strange gloves on.
:23:35. > :23:44.He's got some strange things keeping his socks up. And the
:23:44. > :23:47.ball's a mixture of the planet Venus and a beach ball. It's a
:23:47. > :23:51.funny, quick snapshot of the time. What wouldn't we get nowadays?
:23:51. > :23:54.I take my pictures now, I think, what in 10, 20 years time, what are
:23:54. > :23:57.the things that are going to be remarkable about my photographs?
:23:57. > :24:03.Here in the paintings, there's the kind of greyness and the flat caps,
:24:03. > :24:10.which you won't see. Quite a few moustaches and the big beard on the
:24:10. > :24:16.football player. And certainly not the suspenders!
:24:16. > :24:17.And certainly not the rather fancy gloves. Yeah, it was a different,
:24:18. > :24:22.gentle time. These paintings reveal that the
:24:22. > :24:25.Royal College of Art would leave a footprint in Cumbria for ever. A
:24:25. > :24:28.student called Gordon Ransom left a lasting legacy that can be seen
:24:29. > :24:33.today, and I believe it can be found at St Mary's Church in
:24:33. > :24:37.Ambleside. So, to help me in my journey, I'm meeting three ladies
:24:37. > :24:44.who may be able to point out a familiar face or two. This hidden
:24:44. > :24:49.painting is so big, it hides itself! It's incredible! But what
:24:49. > :24:52.we need to know is what is the painting of. All I know is it's the
:24:52. > :24:55.Rushbearing painting. What does that mean? The Rushbearing goes
:24:55. > :25:01.back to a time where there were no tiles on the church floors, so
:25:01. > :25:05.people collected rushes and put them on the floor. I see! Once a
:25:05. > :25:15.year, presumably once a year, these are all changed.
:25:15. > :25:20.
:25:20. > :25:29.It sort of became a ceremony, celebrating this event. The picture
:25:29. > :25:31.over there is the beginning of the This bit is when they're in the
:25:31. > :25:35.marketplace in the middle of Ambleside, where we sang the
:25:35. > :25:38.Rushbearing hymn. Yes. Then we carried on to the church, then the
:25:38. > :25:40.church was decorated. I see. Then a service when the Rushbearing hymn
:25:40. > :25:43.was sung again. It was done, I think, as a thank
:25:43. > :25:48.you to the people of Ambleside from the college, who'd been evacuated
:25:48. > :25:54.here during the war. Oh, really? the locals. That's lovely. Take me
:25:54. > :26:02.round the painting. First, we've got... The very left-hand half
:26:03. > :26:06.face... The one eye? Yeah. That's Gordon Ransom. The artist? Yes. Yes.
:26:06. > :26:12.With his girlfriend in front. know all the gossip, don't we?
:26:12. > :26:15.we do, yes! Can you just point out where you are, Marjorie?
:26:15. > :26:19.Yes, I'm at the front of the middle group, with the dark-coloured dress
:26:19. > :26:24.on, carrying the long pole with the ribbon in my hair. Joan? And I'm on
:26:24. > :26:29.the entrance, in the dark red dress, with the white ribbon in my hair.
:26:29. > :26:33.Shirley, where are you? I'm the little one at the front there with
:26:33. > :26:43.the basket of flowers and the orange ribbon. Now, next to you,
:26:43. > :26:46.
:26:46. > :26:49.Marjorie, do you know who this girl is? I don't. I find her fascinating.
:26:49. > :26:52.She's got one hand up and nothing in her hand. I think she's asking
:26:52. > :26:54.to be allowed to leave the room! Well, the procession is quite long!
:26:54. > :26:58.It is! When strangers come into the church,
:26:58. > :27:01.what's their reaction to it? I do the flowers in here regularly, and
:27:01. > :27:05.they come in and they're, oh, can we take picture of it? They're in
:27:05. > :27:10.awe of it, really. And then, do you know anybody on it, and I say, well,
:27:10. > :27:20.I'm on it. Do they make you stand next to it and be photographed?
:27:20. > :27:24.
:27:24. > :27:27.So that's the end of my wonderful voyage. Time to return to London
:27:27. > :27:31.and reveal what I've discovered. The trip that began with Gilbert's
:27:31. > :27:36.Spencer Grasmere Home Guards painting at the Imperial War Museum.
:27:36. > :27:42.Ian, good to see you again. you! How was your voyage of
:27:42. > :27:50.discovery? It was marvellous! You sent me looking for why, and we
:27:50. > :27:54.found so much that we weren't expecting. Did you know that the
:27:54. > :27:57.Royal College of Art were evacuated up there in the war? I had no idea.
:27:57. > :28:01.They were evacuated at the start of the war, about three to one ladies
:28:01. > :28:07.to men, cos most young men were in the services, with all the tutors
:28:07. > :28:14.and teachers, into two hotels in Ambleside. The real prize was that
:28:14. > :28:17.you sent me off to find out why this painting. I think I was
:28:17. > :28:27.standing on the spot where he put his easel, and we think it couldn't
:28:27. > :28:27.
:28:27. > :28:31.It's amazing, the secrets one painting can reveal, and the