:00:10. > :00:15.This is a programme about art. No, put the remote control away. I'm
:00:15. > :00:20.not Brian Sewell. The art I am talking about is
:00:20. > :00:22.hidden paintings we never normally get the chance to see.
:00:22. > :00:26.Concealed among these paintings is the extraordinary story of the
:00:26. > :00:32.place where we live and the people who lived here that led the world
:00:32. > :00:34.into a new industrial age. It is the story of an extraordinary
:00:34. > :00:40.transformation, but it is also one of forgotten heroes, jealousy and
:00:40. > :00:50.murder. So join me, as we discover the
:00:50. > :01:09.
:01:09. > :01:11.In the days when the Midlands was the centre of the industrial world,
:01:12. > :01:21.a few artists turned their attention to the new and dramatic
:01:22. > :01:22.
:01:22. > :01:25.What these paintings give us today is a remarkable and striking
:01:25. > :01:33.insight into a region and its people being transformed by the
:01:34. > :01:36.arrival of heavy industry. It is an incredible record of our
:01:36. > :01:39.industrial heritage, but not one which is easy to see, because,
:01:39. > :01:49.strange as it may seem, many of these paintings are hidden away
:01:49. > :01:50.
:01:50. > :01:54.from view. But I am going to seek Our journey begins at a place where
:01:54. > :02:01.you will always find tremendous industry and great artistry. It is,
:02:01. > :02:05.of course, here, the Britannia Stadium, home to Stoke City FC.
:02:05. > :02:08.OK, there may be some of you who do not agree, but just bear with me,
:02:08. > :02:11.because inside the stadium is an example of one of these hundreds of
:02:11. > :02:19.hidden-away paintings, which also gives us our first insight into our
:02:19. > :02:22.industrial past. For the chairman of the football
:02:22. > :02:28.club, the painting serves as a constant reminder of Stoke City's
:02:28. > :02:31.roots. I know that it is not owned by the
:02:31. > :02:34.club, how is it that it came to be here?
:02:34. > :02:38.We have it on loan, for which we pay, from the local art gallery and
:02:38. > :02:43.I think it is rather a nice painting and a good reflection of
:02:43. > :02:48.where we are and who we are. Your heritage is important, isn't
:02:48. > :02:51.it? It is important for us all, wherever you are from. It is a
:02:51. > :02:54.reminder to us that we should never forget what we are about, where we
:02:54. > :02:57.are from and who we are. I don't think people appreciate
:02:57. > :03:00.just how many potteries there actually were across the area.
:03:00. > :03:04.The pottery industry is Stoke-on- Trent, isn't it? That is us. And
:03:04. > :03:07.there was a lot of it. It is a vanishing landscape.
:03:07. > :03:10.Most of the old pottery factories have long since disappeared and
:03:10. > :03:15.that is what makes this painting by William Cartledge important as a
:03:15. > :03:21.historical record. This is what the location in the
:03:22. > :03:24.painting looks like today. There is only one surviving pot
:03:25. > :03:32.bank working alongside the canal and a short trip in a narrowboat
:03:32. > :03:35.takes you there, to Middleport, near Burslem.
:03:35. > :03:38.Of course, there are some features we can see here which are not in
:03:38. > :03:42.the painting - the wooden smoking shelter, the Portaloos and the
:03:42. > :03:46.industrial historian. I wonder if you could explain what
:03:46. > :03:49.is going on in the picture, using this as your aid?
:03:49. > :03:53.Boats would have brought the materials down to be taken into the
:03:53. > :03:56.pottery factories to be made into pots. They would come on to the
:03:57. > :04:01.wharf here and unload the potters' materials - clay, china stone.
:04:01. > :04:04.That looks like snow, doesn't it, but it is a putty material?
:04:04. > :04:07.Yes, and they would have been loaded straight from the wharf into
:04:07. > :04:10.the factory. Pottery factories, like this and
:04:10. > :04:16.the one in the painting, began to dramatically change the Midlands
:04:16. > :04:19.landscape and artists were on hand to document this transformation.
:04:19. > :04:26.This was predominently a rural area and it changed very quickly, didn't
:04:27. > :04:29.Just half a mile from here, Wedgwood built his first factory.
:04:30. > :04:33.There is a very famous painting, painted by Pratt in about 1850,
:04:33. > :04:36.which shows a view of it from the bank.
:04:37. > :04:40.It shows a lovely, green, rural area, with just a few bits of
:04:40. > :04:44.industrial works in the middle of them.
:04:44. > :04:46.It is really only in the second half of the 19th century that the
:04:46. > :04:53.huge urban sprawl, and all the terraces that were associated with
:04:53. > :04:56.the huge expansion of pottery manufacture arrived.
:04:56. > :05:05.When that happened, the six towns slowly merged into each other and
:05:05. > :05:08.became, eventually, Stoke on Trent. Right across the Midlands, it was
:05:08. > :05:14.the same story - fields, farms and forests making way for factories
:05:14. > :05:18.and foundries. Nowhere was that change as profound as here at
:05:18. > :05:21.Ironbridge. This is where the industrial
:05:21. > :05:24.revolution began and this painting, Coalbrookdale By Night, which is
:05:24. > :05:26.held by the Science Museum in London, captures a time when a
:05:26. > :05:36.beautiful Shropshire river valley was turned into an industrial
:05:36. > :05:42.
:05:42. > :05:45.powerhouse, filled with furnaces So why did the industrial
:05:45. > :05:48.revolution start in the Midlands? The answer lies underground in the
:05:48. > :05:54.resources - the iron, the coal, the clay - essential for the emerging
:05:54. > :05:57.industries. But the region also had the
:05:57. > :06:01.pioneers: The Abraham Darby dynasty, the first ironmasters, in
:06:01. > :06:04.Shropshire. Josiah Wedgwood and the pottery owners of Staffordshire.
:06:04. > :06:14.And here in Birmingham, James Watt and Matthew Boulton, bringing big
:06:14. > :06:18.advances in steam power. But there is one other important
:06:19. > :06:28.pioneer who's often forgotten. I am told you can see him in a portrait
:06:29. > :06:31.
:06:31. > :06:34.held by Birmingham Art Gallery...if you can find it, that is.
:06:34. > :06:44.The fact he is difficult to find really reinforces his status as a
:06:44. > :06:47.
:06:47. > :06:50.forgotten figure of the industrial revolution. The that is definitely
:06:50. > :06:53.not him. I'm told to look through here.
:06:53. > :06:57.This is a corridor mostly used by city councillors and officials, but
:06:57. > :07:07.it is open to the public if you are on official business - or if you
:07:07. > :07:15.
:07:15. > :07:17.ask nicely. Nope, it nope. And here he is - our forgotten hero,
:07:17. > :07:20.William Murdoch. The industrial revolution would not
:07:20. > :07:22.have turned very far without the steam engines developed by Watt and
:07:22. > :07:25.Boulton. But many inventions which they
:07:25. > :07:28.patented were actually the work of Murdoch.
:07:28. > :07:34.The oscillating engine and the sun and planet gear may not mean much
:07:34. > :07:37.to us now, but in the 19th century, they were cutting-edge technologies.
:07:37. > :07:42.You can also thank Murdoch for developing gas lighting, used first
:07:42. > :07:47.in factories and then in homes. And that, of course, led to another
:07:47. > :07:50.innovation of the modern age - the gas bill.
:07:50. > :08:00.Murdoch has been hidden away in this corridor for longer than
:08:00. > :08:04.
:08:04. > :08:14.anyone here can remember. But that is about to change. Just as I found
:08:14. > :08:14.
:08:14. > :08:23.him, he is going to be taken away. Where is he going to? He is going
:08:23. > :08:30.to a more fitting location. There are no fault of dignitaries here,
:08:30. > :08:35.but he does not seem to fit that bill? Yes, he was not really
:08:35. > :08:38.classed as a gentleman back in the 18th century.
:08:38. > :08:41.Murdoch is being taken a couple of miles up the road to Soho house,
:08:41. > :08:44.home of Matthew Boulton, and the famous meeting place of the Lunar
:08:44. > :08:52.Society, an informal club which brought together the A-list of
:08:52. > :08:59.industrials and intellectuals of the time. A it was a famous group
:09:00. > :09:07.of friends who were all in to art and science and experimentation.
:09:07. > :09:12.They used to meet. Murdoch was not a member, however, because he was
:09:12. > :09:15.not of the same social standing. This is where you will find the
:09:15. > :09:18.portrait now, no longer tucked away and ignored. After being excluded
:09:18. > :09:23.for so long, Murdoch is not only in Boulton's house, he is practically
:09:23. > :09:27.in his bed. It was not just people like Murdoch
:09:27. > :09:30.who struggled to get the recognition they deserved. There
:09:30. > :09:35.was another important group of people...
:09:35. > :09:39.Those countless other forgotten heroes - the workers.
:09:39. > :09:48.I have come to the cellars of the Dudley Art Gallery to find some of
:09:48. > :09:51.the earliest images of the industrial workplace.
:09:51. > :09:54.These etchings by RS Chattock, held by Dudley Art Gallery, capture some
:09:54. > :09:59.of the brutal realities of the conditions in which people worked
:09:59. > :10:03.in the 1870s. People like members of the Lunar
:10:03. > :10:05.Society may have come up with all the bright ideas, but it was the
:10:05. > :10:14.blood, sweat and tears of Midlands workers that really made the
:10:14. > :10:17.industrial revolution happen. I am now on my way to Wolverhampton
:10:17. > :10:21.Art Gallery where, hidden away from view, are paintings of just what
:10:21. > :10:24.those workers went through. But first, I am picking up two
:10:24. > :10:26.well-known local figures, the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Bert Turner, and
:10:26. > :10:36.local historian, Ron Davies, who worked at Bilston Steelworks, until
:10:36. > :10:48.
:10:48. > :10:55.production stopped in 1979. Thank you for joining us, gentleman. What
:10:55. > :11:05.was it like when you first arrived at the factory? They it was the
:11:05. > :11:09.
:11:09. > :11:19.largest works in the Midlands. was a different world back then.
:11:19. > :11:26.worked in the sport here. This is all houses now, but there was works
:11:26. > :11:32.back then. Do you think that something has been lost or has
:11:32. > :11:41.something better happened? A it will never come back, of whatever
:11:41. > :11:51.happens. It is sad, really. It employed so many people in here and
:11:51. > :11:53.
:11:53. > :11:57.all round the area. People stayed friends for life to work in that
:11:57. > :12:01.steelworks. It was like one big family.
:12:01. > :12:04.Men like Burt and Ron are among the last of Bilston's metal workers.
:12:04. > :12:14.But 100 years ago, the men and women who came before them were
:12:14. > :12:15.
:12:15. > :12:17.captured on canvas by Wolverhampton The Butler Bayliss family had grown
:12:17. > :12:24.wealthy through a metal bashing business that produced gates and
:12:24. > :12:28.fences. His industrial paintings are currently locked away in the
:12:28. > :12:30.vaults. Even though they are from an
:12:30. > :12:40.earlier time, Butler Bayliss' paintings immediately bring back
:12:40. > :12:46.
:12:46. > :12:51.vivid memories. This one brings particular memories. It brings back
:12:51. > :13:01.more of childhood memories, because it when you were a child, used to
:13:01. > :13:08.look up and see that. This one looks really alive. This must bring
:13:08. > :13:18.back a lot of memories? There was no electric light and the
:13:18. > :13:20.
:13:20. > :13:30.atmosphere was there. You could paint the atmosphere. That looks
:13:30. > :13:31.
:13:31. > :13:38.like drudgery. We had a much happier time and what that is.
:13:38. > :13:43.Yes, that looks like a lady, with a big hit the sack over her shoulder.
:13:43. > :13:52.How do you feel when you look at these? Is there a sense of sadness
:13:52. > :13:59.or a sense of nostalgia? Now we've been round this morning and seeing
:13:59. > :14:09.what there is there and how it provided jobs for people and houses
:14:09. > :14:11.
:14:11. > :14:18.for people, although it is better for the area as a whole, because
:14:18. > :14:25.the one thing we have lost is all the smoke and smog. The ear is much
:14:25. > :14:33.cleaner and more healthy. But I suppose you would like a bit of the
:14:33. > :14:36.best of both worlds? Yes, you have got it in one.
:14:36. > :14:39.From the early potteries to the height of the steel industry,
:14:39. > :14:41.Midlands manufacturing never stood still and at the start of the 20th
:14:42. > :14:51.century, a brand-new invention was about to become the region's next
:14:52. > :14:59.
:14:59. > :15:04.big thing. It was called the motor This is an early Armstrong Siddely,
:15:04. > :15:07.one of 138 car manufacturers that grew up in Coventry alone. It
:15:07. > :15:17.demonstrates that industry in the region was about a lot more than
:15:17. > :15:18.
:15:18. > :15:21.bashing metal. It was about skilled engineering and precision craftwork.
:15:21. > :15:24.You might not think that to see me driving.
:15:24. > :15:27.Back then, the car was something worth painting and an Armstrong
:15:27. > :15:34.Siddeley like this featured in a painting which I'm going to seek
:15:34. > :15:37.The Enchanted Road, by Frank Salisbury, which is in store at the
:15:37. > :15:47.Herbert Art Gallery, captures the freedom that this new form of
:15:47. > :15:49.
:15:49. > :15:59.transport could offer. We know that the woman driving the car or is the
:15:59. > :16:00.
:16:00. > :16:07.daughter of Lord Kenilworth. He was the owner of the very large motor
:16:07. > :16:16.car company and she is driving one of the cards. What sort of state
:16:16. > :16:24.with the industry in then? It was a growing industry. We had just come
:16:24. > :16:32.out of the First World War and a lot of factories where going back
:16:32. > :16:40.into normal manufacture from armaments. Does the way she is
:16:40. > :16:45.driving tell us anything about the attitudes to motoring? The motor
:16:45. > :16:49.car was seen as something you could get in and get out and about and
:16:49. > :16:58.explore the countryside and a way you could not have done before from
:16:58. > :17:07.the likes of the train for example. I and is there the slight aspect of
:17:07. > :17:14.emancipation in this? Yes, because there were a lot of women who
:17:14. > :17:24.started it been more adventurous in this respect - a lot of female
:17:24. > :17:25.
:17:25. > :17:28.drivers and Air Pilots for example. The car continued to be an
:17:28. > :17:38.inspiration for artists for a good 50 years after the scene captured
:17:38. > :17:46.in the Enchanted Road. This is clearly a very different type of
:17:46. > :17:55.picture. This is clearly a different time that as well? He yes,
:17:55. > :18:03.this is the mid- 1950s and her looks like case-study portrait. It
:18:03. > :18:13.is an ear of we are fantastic cars were being made, going from family
:18:13. > :18:14.
:18:14. > :18:21.cars right up to the luxury fast cars like Jaguars and Alfa Romeos.
:18:21. > :18:30.Compared to the other one, you now have families travelling in cars.
:18:30. > :18:40.It is the different type of aspiration now? Yes, although
:18:40. > :18:40.
:18:41. > :18:49.although it is a family car, or they are still eat well or family.
:18:49. > :18:56.What is also noticeable is that the women and now relegated to the back
:18:56. > :19:00.seat. What this says to me is that if you buy a car, a man in a
:19:00. > :19:03.uniform with white gloves will open the door for you.
:19:03. > :19:05.But it was not just the car that gave people a new-found freedom. As
:19:05. > :19:08.the Midlands got richer, more working class people had
:19:08. > :19:11.opportunities to choose a career path away from the factory floor.
:19:11. > :19:16.And here at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, I have discovered
:19:16. > :19:19.one dramatic example of how working life was transformed.
:19:19. > :19:24.This is Dolly Henry, an Irish girl who modelled clothes at a
:19:24. > :19:29.department store in London's Regent Street. She also modelled for
:19:29. > :19:38.artists. This portrait, from 1912, is called Head of a Girl and she is
:19:38. > :19:41.clearly a coy, demure young woman. But this is Dolly just a year later.
:19:41. > :19:46.This portrait is called The Witch and she has suddenly become evil
:19:46. > :19:50.and devious, at least in the eyes of the artist. So who is he, this
:19:50. > :19:57.artist? And why was there such a spectacular change in the way he
:19:57. > :20:06.looked upon Dolly? I'm going in search of him in the
:20:06. > :20:10.gallery storeroom, with help from curator Jean Milton.
:20:10. > :20:14.Here he is, John Currie, from Newcastle-under-Lyme. He is just an
:20:14. > :20:24.ordinary working man, the son of an Irish navvy, who gave up a job at
:20:24. > :20:24.
:20:24. > :20:29.Minton's Pottery, to become a full- time artist. He spent some time at
:20:29. > :20:36.the far factory and from there he went to art school and got a
:20:37. > :20:46.scholarship to the Royal School of Art. He was supported by two very
:20:46. > :20:55.wealthy benefactors and he did make quite a good living. How did he
:20:55. > :21:01.make that jump from working in a factory to becoming an artist?
:21:01. > :21:08.lot of the local factories did support artists, in the same way
:21:08. > :21:15.the supported other apprentices. They were very supportive of the
:21:15. > :21:24.artists, but I think the intention was to keep them local. How did he
:21:24. > :21:32.come to meet the lady in the picture? I am not quite sure how
:21:32. > :21:35.the Net, but they clearly had quite a tortured all of a fair.
:21:35. > :21:38.She was, "Lascivious and possessive to the last degree. Her lure for
:21:38. > :21:48.men was irresistible and Currie was, of course, utterly enslaved to her
:21:48. > :21:51.
:21:51. > :22:01.physical attraction." There were going to be fireworks in this
:22:01. > :22:05.
:22:05. > :22:15.relationship, went the? Yes, he had a wife and child in Newcastle. This
:22:15. > :22:20.
:22:20. > :22:23.is believed to be a painting of his way. His wife.
:22:23. > :22:27.So Currie had to choose between his wife and Dolly. He chose Dolly. It
:22:27. > :22:29.was a decision that proved fatal. To find out what happens next, I
:22:29. > :22:32.have come to the Sentinel Building, home of the local newspaper.
:22:32. > :22:42.I'm in the newspaper archive and this is a cutting from October,
:22:42. > :22:48.
:22:48. > :22:58.1914. This looks like this is the one. Newcastle artist and his model
:22:58. > :23:02.
:23:02. > :23:10.were found shot in a wilful murder and suicide. The first witness
:23:10. > :23:17.would appeal to be her mother. Have you seen your daughter recently?
:23:17. > :23:27.Yes, she could not continue to live with them because of his treatment.
:23:27. > :23:29.
:23:29. > :23:36.He was knocking her about. The next evidence, the evidence from Mrs
:23:36. > :23:46.Currie, the coroner says to her, what was his temperament? Was he a
:23:46. > :23:46.
:23:47. > :23:56.passionate man? Yes, he was very passionate. Why did you stop living
:23:56. > :24:03.together? Because he had found another woman. In another report,
:24:03. > :24:10.it appears that she was Dade and he was found with the gunshot win, but
:24:10. > :24:19.still alive. According to the rumours at the time, he was not
:24:19. > :24:22.jealous because she was seeing another man.
:24:22. > :24:25.According to the gossip at the time, Currie had flown into a jealous
:24:25. > :24:27.rage, not because he thought she was seeing someone else, but
:24:27. > :24:31.because he believed she had posed for pornographic photos.
:24:31. > :24:32.It makes you wonder if he would have been better off staying at
:24:32. > :24:35.Minton's. So Dolly and Currie's turbulent
:24:35. > :24:38.relationship came to a sad end. And what happened to the industrial
:24:38. > :24:41.world they came from was sadder still. In the second half of the
:24:41. > :24:46.20th century, much of the Midlands' heavy industry went into terminal
:24:46. > :24:49.decline. The decay and dereliction that has
:24:49. > :24:59.been left behind is the subject of paintings that have been stored
:24:59. > :25:03.
:25:03. > :25:13.away, until recently, at Dudley Art Gallery. We are getting a sneak
:25:13. > :25:14.
:25:14. > :25:18.preview of them. What I like about them is that although the
:25:18. > :25:22.industries are clearly in its decline, there is a certain pride
:25:22. > :25:25.that in these paintings. The old heavy industry may have all
:25:25. > :25:29.but disappeared, but we do still make things in the Midlands.
:25:29. > :25:36.And today, the new industrial scene is being recorded by artists. There
:25:36. > :25:39.is one up there. This is Robert Perry and he has
:25:39. > :25:49.turned his camper van into a mobile studio, complete with painting
:25:49. > :25:51.
:25:51. > :26:01.perch. You must have been asked this before - what are you doing up
:26:01. > :26:01.
:26:01. > :26:04.there? I wanted to paint panoramic views of this area and this gives
:26:04. > :26:10.me an excess of tremendous views there would be otherwise
:26:10. > :26:15.inaccessible. I am fascinated by the incredible diversity of the
:26:15. > :26:23.landscape. Although we call it the Black Country, it is amazing how
:26:23. > :26:28.much can mean that there is in there. But you see the houses, the
:26:28. > :26:36.warehouses and in a way it is more interesting than being on the top
:26:36. > :26:39.of a hill, where it is clearly just greenery for miles around.
:26:39. > :26:48.In here is everything an artist needs on the road. Places to keep
:26:48. > :26:53.the paints and the canvases. The work surface here is also his bed.
:26:53. > :26:58.And here is a baguette holder. Rob has been painting this view
:26:58. > :27:02.from Oldnall Hill in Lye for more than 20 years ago. This is an early
:27:02. > :27:05.work which you can see if you are ever in the Mayor of Dudley's
:27:05. > :27:15.parlour. It will be going on display, as part of an exhibition,
:27:15. > :27:16.
:27:16. > :27:24.appropriately called The Big Picture. Do you think it is
:27:24. > :27:29.important to precis of the scene for posterity? I think it is
:27:29. > :27:39.important to make a historical landscape of the place itself, but
:27:39. > :27:40.
:27:40. > :27:47.you also are capturing a particular instance in time. It is the very
:27:47. > :27:54.complex structure that you build up. I do not have delusions of grandeur
:27:54. > :27:59.about posterity. In a way, I am recording it for my own purposes. I
:27:59. > :28:03.just like to try and understand the landscape and if other people can
:28:03. > :28:06.relate to it, that is great. The paintings we have discovered
:28:06. > :28:09.are not just important because of their artistic merit.
:28:09. > :28:12.They are important because they are a record of a disappearing world.
:28:12. > :28:15.And we should be grateful that, in the midst of the sound and fury of
:28:15. > :28:19.the industrial age, a few reflective souls took their time