:00:06. > :00:10.All across the north, in civic buildings and in art galleries,
:00:10. > :00:13.there are thousands and thousands of paintings that belong to us all.
:00:13. > :00:16.While some are on show, many are usually hidden, in store rooms and
:00:16. > :00:26.in attics, paintings beyond the view of the people that actually
:00:26. > :00:53.
:00:53. > :00:56.This is the National Railway Museum in York, and everything here has a
:00:56. > :01:05.story to tell: a story about rail transport and its impact on British
:01:05. > :01:11.society As you'd expect, it's an enormous collection. Wherever you
:01:11. > :01:15.turn, you bump into history. Twenty acres of steam and nostalgia.
:01:15. > :01:21.Locomotives from all over the world. Carriages and Rolling Stock. It's
:01:21. > :01:24.simply Railway Heaven. And, tucked away behind closed doors, the
:01:24. > :01:29.National Railway Museum hosts another world-class collection. An
:01:29. > :01:34.enormous visual archive. Over a thousand original paintings that
:01:34. > :01:40.tell the story of the railways. Over 11,000 travel posters from the
:01:40. > :01:50.years between the wars, the golden age of the train. All preserved and
:01:50. > :01:53.
:01:53. > :01:56.all beautifully catalogued. Usually hidden from general view. Until now.
:01:56. > :01:59.They come from a variety of sources. Quite a lot of them, you can trace
:01:59. > :02:02.their origins back to the Railway Companies. They go well back into
:02:02. > :02:04.the nineteenth century. For example, some of the portraits that came
:02:04. > :02:07.from Boardrooms were produced, commissioned by the Railways.
:02:07. > :02:09.Images of their Directors andSenior Officials. And when those Railways
:02:09. > :02:12.became defunct they passed through to British Railways. And then they
:02:12. > :02:16.were eventually donated to this Museum collection. Others we've
:02:16. > :02:18.acquired at auction, through private sale. Quite a lot of people
:02:18. > :02:21.bequeath us works but we get significant works that help tell
:02:21. > :02:24.the story of how Railways came about, how artists interpreted them,
:02:24. > :02:31.and how, also, Railways marketed themselves, because a big chunk of
:02:31. > :02:34.the collection is actually not images of Railways at all. There
:02:34. > :02:38.are a lot of scenic views of locations because we've got a lot
:02:38. > :02:40.of original artworks for the travel posters. And Railway Companies were
:02:40. > :02:43.extremely prolific in producing travel posters, and there was a
:02:43. > :02:52.heyday period from, really, from just after the end of the First
:02:52. > :02:57.World War through to the 1950s. Oh, wow. Okay, very bright and
:02:57. > :03:00.jolly here. What are we looking at? This is Valley Gardens in Harrogate
:03:00. > :03:04.in a poster produced for the London and North Eastern Railway by an
:03:04. > :03:14.artist called Septimus Scott. So this is encouraging people to
:03:14. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:21.come from London, up to Harrogate. Yes. And take in the sights. So
:03:21. > :03:23.we've got this lovely Old Gent in the deckchair on the Green.
:03:23. > :03:26.that's actually the artist himself. That's a self-portrait of Septimus
:03:26. > :03:29.Scott. Oh, is it? Yes. Okay. And then this rather jaunty young
:03:29. > :03:32.couple who have had a game of tennis. Well, this is Harrogate
:03:32. > :03:36.saying, well, we're a genteel Spa town where you can come and take
:03:36. > :03:40.the waters, but you can also have a good time if you're younger. Go for
:03:40. > :03:43.a game of tennis. Sit down and have a Gin and Tonic in the gardens, or
:03:43. > :03:46.whatever. You see there's a young girl in the background there, so
:03:46. > :03:49.it's not all just, sort of, deckchairs and listening to bands
:03:49. > :03:51.and taking in the waters. There's more to it than that.
:03:51. > :03:54.The paintings were made into posters and displayed at railway
:03:54. > :03:57.stations across the country. They offer a fascinating glimpse of how
:03:57. > :04:01.much things have changed around us, and how much they've stayed the
:04:01. > :04:03.same. The paintings were on the cutting edge of an exciting new
:04:03. > :04:11.approach to advertising. Something fresh and bold, colourful and
:04:11. > :04:13.sophisticated. The 1920s and the 1930s were really the beginnings, I
:04:13. > :04:19.think, of the kind of consumer society we're very familiar with
:04:19. > :04:22.today with lots of marketing and lots of advertising going on. And
:04:22. > :04:27.the Railways, before the First World War, they had pretty much a
:04:27. > :04:30.monopoly of travel over any distance. Within the inter-war
:04:30. > :04:32.period, when there is competition from other modes of transport, when
:04:32. > :04:34.there's more money around, more disposable income, advertising and
:04:34. > :04:40.marketing right across the board is becoming more and more
:04:40. > :04:45.sophisticated. # I get blue when I hear the news
:04:45. > :04:49.of the Choo Choo. # I want you to go, too, with me on
:04:49. > :04:53.the Choo Choo. # The day's here, so get near, hear
:04:53. > :04:59.what I have to say. # Get your stuff and pack up cause
:04:59. > :05:02.we're going away. In commissioning well-known artists
:05:02. > :05:05.to design these posters, they were pushing marketing into a new era
:05:05. > :05:11.and developing a kind of very visual kind of marketing that we're
:05:11. > :05:14.very familiar with today. The poster is a very, very good way of
:05:14. > :05:19.saying to people: Hey, look at the exciting places you can go to by
:05:19. > :05:22.train. Look at the comfort you can travel in if you go by train. Look
:05:22. > :05:32.at the speed of the train, by comparison with the car.' So, it
:05:32. > :05:37.
:05:37. > :05:43.was about competition. It was about Wow. What are we looking at here
:05:43. > :05:47.then, Ed? Well, believe it or not, this is Scarborough. No! It is, yes.
:05:47. > :05:50.It's San Tropez, surely! No, it's Scarborough by a Russian artist
:05:50. > :05:53.called Konstantin Gorbatov. He was an emigre artist. He'd started off
:05:53. > :05:56.by painting scenes of Old Russia and then he left Russia after the
:05:56. > :06:00.Revolution and came to Europe in 1922. And he'd actually spent quite
:06:00. > :06:03.a lot of time, also, practising in Italy and he lived in Capri for a
:06:03. > :06:06.while and, certainly, it's got a flavour of Southern Europe about it.
:06:06. > :06:12.Hmmm. And this lovely impressionist style, I mean, it's quite
:06:12. > :06:14.incredible. Yes, and it's quite unique in many ways. You don't see,
:06:14. > :06:17.certainly, representations of Scarborough like this in any of the
:06:17. > :06:20.other Railway posters, but it's one of the few impressionist, or post-
:06:20. > :06:24.impressionist, works that we've got in the collection here. But, yes,
:06:24. > :06:26.believe it or not, it was actually produced for a Railway poster to
:06:26. > :06:29.advertise Scarborough by the London North Eastern Railway. And did it
:06:29. > :06:33.actually make it into poster production? Yes, it did, yes. There
:06:33. > :06:36.was a poster version of this produced. Okay, so I wonder how
:06:36. > :06:46.successful this was at enticing down to Scarborough. I think I
:06:46. > :06:46.
:06:46. > :06:51.would have been tempted to go. # La mer. Qu'on voit danser.
:06:51. > :06:53.It all seems such a romantic time. It's difficult not to get swept up
:06:53. > :07:00.in the style of this bygone age. # La mer.
:07:00. > :07:06.Des reflets changeants. # Sous la pluie.
:07:06. > :07:08.The travel poster artists portrayed resorts of glamour and excitement.
:07:08. > :07:12.Scarborough, here, and other Yorkshire resorts like Bridlington
:07:12. > :07:16.were seen as the height of chic. Fashionable and sophisticated. And
:07:16. > :07:26.paintings of them were a window on a different world.
:07:26. > :07:30.
:07:30. > :07:36.# La mer bergere d'azur, Infinie. # Voyez, Pres des etangs.
:07:36. > :07:39.# Ces grands roseaux mouilles. There's always been this romance of
:07:39. > :07:43.steam, of course. What is it about steam engines? Well, you know,
:07:43. > :07:46.somebody once said that the steam engine is the nearest thing man has
:07:46. > :07:48.made to a living creature, and I think that romance has always
:07:48. > :07:52.carried its way through, and the early Railway Companies realised
:07:52. > :07:56.that pretty quickly. You see it in the posters of the time where it's
:07:56. > :07:59.conjuring up an image that it's glamorous to travel by train. But
:07:59. > :08:03.they were selling the resorts, they were selling where people were
:08:03. > :08:06.going to because if they were going to go to these places - Scarborough,
:08:06. > :08:12.Whitby, Bridlington, Robin Hood's Bay even - then they'd have to go
:08:12. > :08:15.by train and that's what the Railways were after.
:08:16. > :08:19.# Are you having any fun? # What're you getting out of
:08:19. > :08:23.living? Crumbs, this'll take me back. I'm
:08:23. > :08:26.on a day trip to the coast on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
:08:26. > :08:29.These days you can take a steam train right the way from Pickering
:08:29. > :08:33.to Whitby and relive all the excitement of a youngster with a
:08:33. > :08:36.spanking new bucket and spade. # It's still okay.
:08:36. > :08:43.# Have your little fun, son. # Have your little fun!$$NEWLINE
:08:43. > :08:47.Tickets, please. I'll have to clip that, you know.
:08:47. > :08:50.Thank you very much. It's official. Got the official hole in now.
:08:50. > :08:57.and I rather like your uniform. It's quite natty, isn't it? Do you
:08:57. > :09:00.think so? Yeah. (laughs). As well as the advertising
:09:00. > :09:02.paintings and posters, the Railways would issue annual guides to the
:09:02. > :09:08.coastal resorts. In the years before package holidays, they
:09:08. > :09:11.offered the promise of fun in familiar places. Well, when I was a
:09:11. > :09:14.kid growing up in Bradford, the whole family would often mount a
:09:14. > :09:17.big expedition to the Yorkshire coast. Quite often we'd set off and
:09:17. > :09:22.go to Sandsend but, of course, Whitby, Filey and Robin Hood's Bay
:09:22. > :09:32.were always on the agenda. It's really what family holidays were
:09:32. > :09:37.
:09:37. > :09:40.Since Railway Artist Charles Oppenheimer set up his easel on the
:09:40. > :09:43.West Cliff, Whitby has changed hardly at all. It's the seaside as
:09:43. > :09:53.we've always wanted it, and here nostalgia can wash over you like
:09:53. > :09:54.
:09:54. > :10:04.Vernon Smith and his family take people on a daily trip to the past
:10:04. > :10:04.
:10:04. > :10:07.onboard a steam bus and their They're marketing the same sort of
:10:07. > :10:10.thing that the Railway Companies did all those years ago. A reality
:10:10. > :10:14.that may never have actually existed and the novelty of travel
:10:14. > :10:22.for its own sake - (klaxon) - values that can still find a buyer,
:10:22. > :10:25.even today. There's something wholesome about it. There's
:10:25. > :10:35.something that takes you back to an age when things weren't so fast and
:10:35. > :10:36.
:10:36. > :10:39.things weren't all about money and possessions. Just fun. Hmmm. Maybe
:10:39. > :10:41.it's something to do, perhaps, with the recession a bit, and we're
:10:41. > :10:44.slowing down, maybe having more holidays at home and remembering
:10:44. > :10:51.those kind of, you know, things that really mattered to our parents,
:10:52. > :10:55.and us as young kids, I guess. yes. And I can tell you that there
:10:55. > :10:58.are a lot more buckets and spades seen about Whitby now than there
:10:58. > :11:07.have been for a long, long time. people having more holidays at
:11:07. > :11:10.home? Sure. Hmmm, yes. Long may it continue. Yes!
:11:10. > :11:18.It's a reminder of how special those holidays were to people
:11:18. > :11:20.between the wars, a treat that few took for granted. Back then, a
:11:20. > :11:27.holiday was seen as something really special and people took a
:11:27. > :11:34.sense of style with them. They really set a standard. Forget the
:11:34. > :11:44.flip-flops. You really had to posh- up and wear your Sunday best.
:11:44. > :11:53.
:11:53. > :11:59.#Linda, I'm in love with you, Linda. # Linda, do you love me too?
:11:59. > :12:01.A mink stole. A Collar and tie. A decent pair of spats. In
:12:01. > :12:04.Bridlington, holidaymakers in the twenties knew how to dress for the
:12:04. > :12:14.beach. # You know that we'll go riding in
:12:14. > :12:21.
:12:21. > :12:23.the moonlight. The artist John Greenup really
:12:23. > :12:33.managed to capture a thirties sense of style when he painted
:12:33. > :12:34.
:12:34. > :12:37.Bridlington in its heyday. Here and there on the coast, you can still
:12:37. > :12:40.catch a glimpse of those heady days. I'm meeting fashion historian Pam
:12:40. > :12:43.Howorth in the stunning Suncourt of Scarborough's Spa. Pam loves the
:12:43. > :12:49.kind of clothes the artists enjoyed painting. And, of course, it's
:12:49. > :12:55.another chance to get the glad rags Pam, I feel so glamorous. Just look
:12:55. > :12:58.at you as well, with your little dainty straw hat. It's wonderful,
:12:58. > :13:00.isn't it? You start to hold yourself all differently. You do,
:13:00. > :13:03.you're sitting more upright and lady-like. Oh, it's wonderful. I
:13:03. > :13:09.can imagine, you know, coming to Scarborough on a steam train, it
:13:09. > :13:12.must have been wonderful. Oh yes, yes. Ladies were very glamorous.
:13:12. > :13:15.And the gentlemen as well, they would have had maybe three suits.
:13:15. > :13:19.One of them would have been their Sunday best, which they would have
:13:19. > :13:27.worn sitting on the beach. In the deck-chairs in their full suit with
:13:27. > :13:30.a tie and everything. In the 1920s, a gentleman wouldn't have been seen
:13:30. > :13:34.without a tie, but in the 1930s, people started to relax a little
:13:34. > :13:39.bit more. And you started to see ladies wearing trousers: wide,
:13:39. > :13:43.beachwear trousers, pantaloons and things. It was popular to wear long
:13:43. > :13:48.fur coats over evening dresses or day dresses to travel to the coast.
:13:48. > :13:52.Gosh. And, you know, people would have been sat on the beach wearing
:13:52. > :13:57.a fur coat. Wow. Which you wouldn't see now, would you? No, not at all.
:13:57. > :14:00.No. It became really fashionable to have a sun tan. You started to see
:14:00. > :14:03.evening wear had low backs, so what happened was that the swimwear was
:14:03. > :14:06.copying the low-backed evening wear, so you were starting to see low-
:14:06. > :14:09.backed swimming costumes so that the ladies could get a tan on their
:14:09. > :14:13.back, so when they were wearing their evening dresses it could
:14:13. > :14:23.really show it off. The fashions were just so gorgeous, you know.
:14:23. > :14:26.
:14:26. > :14:29.Ladies looked so lovely and it was Back then, holidays were precious
:14:30. > :14:32.things. Time away with the family was a rare treat and a trip to the
:14:32. > :14:42.coast was looked forward to, all year round. With the introduction
:14:42. > :14:48.
:14:48. > :14:51.of paid holidays, happy days were here, for everyone. If you lived in
:14:51. > :14:53.a place like Leeds or Sheffield or Bradford nothing could be in
:14:53. > :14:56.greater contrast than coming to Scarborough, coming to the seaside,
:14:56. > :15:06.coming to this open, bracing place that is so much obviously healthier
:15:06. > :15:13.than where you've come from. # We're all alone, no chaperone can
:15:13. > :15:15.get our number. And with fresh horizons came new
:15:15. > :15:19.freedoms. # Let's misbehave! There's
:15:19. > :15:22.something wild about you child that's so contagious.
:15:22. > :15:27.When you go to the seaside for your holidays, the conventions of where
:15:27. > :15:30.you live are, for the time being, suspended. You can do things that
:15:30. > :15:40.you wouldn't dare to do at home. Because the neighbours would know.
:15:40. > :15:41.
:15:41. > :15:44.You could misbehave. Back at the National Railway Museum,
:15:44. > :15:47.there's a chance to see some of the posters up close. They're highly
:15:47. > :15:53.sought after now and each poster can fetch well over �10,000 at
:15:54. > :15:57.auction, sometimes more than the original paintings themselves. The
:15:57. > :16:04.artists painted locations all over the country, and the NRM has a
:16:04. > :16:09.massive collection of over 11,000. 11,000 of them, I mean, it's a
:16:09. > :16:12.difficult number to get your head around. It's a lot. These artists
:16:12. > :16:15.that were doing these posters, they were prolific, really, weren't
:16:15. > :16:21.they? They were. I mean, the Railway Companies were putting out
:16:21. > :16:23.vast amounts of publicity every year. Seasonal posters as well as,
:16:23. > :16:26.they had things called prestige advertising, reminder advertising.
:16:26. > :16:29.So they had lots of different types of advertising that they were doing,
:16:30. > :16:32.which is why there's so much of it, really. And these posters, you know,
:16:32. > :16:39.they were in print runs of thousands, I mean, they were
:16:39. > :16:42.posters. Some of them. We forget now because, you know, they're
:16:42. > :16:46.carefully archived like this, and they're beautiful works of art but
:16:46. > :16:56.actually they were slapped up with some glue on a platform. They were,
:16:56. > :16:56.
:16:56. > :16:59.but they were careful about where they put them. In the early days of
:16:59. > :17:02.railway posters, it was very much kind of,Oh, they're slapping them
:17:02. > :17:05.up everywhere,' and people hated it, and people were very critical of
:17:05. > :17:08.ruining the town by putting these horrible designs up. And people
:17:08. > :17:11.used to complain they couldn't see the station sign for the
:17:11. > :17:15.advertising. So, yeah, they began to standardise it a bit more.
:17:15. > :17:19.to see these. Oh, they're amazing! They almost take your breath away,
:17:19. > :17:22.they're so colourful. They are really colourful. Wow. Certainly
:17:22. > :17:27.catch your eye if you were passing on the platform, wouldn't they?
:17:27. > :17:30.Gosh, they would! They're fantastic. So, this is for Scarborough. And
:17:30. > :17:34.who is the artist here? This is by William Barribal, he was a
:17:34. > :17:39.lithographer. So you were saying that this artist, in particular,
:17:39. > :17:44.used his wife as a model, is that right? He did, yes, and you can see
:17:44. > :17:51.that the women all look quite similar to one another. So that's
:17:51. > :17:54.the reason. They do, they really do. Yes, he was obviously infatuated.
:17:54. > :17:58.Good job he married her. I know, he had a ready model there, didn't he?
:17:58. > :18:04.Yes, the women do look remarkably alike. I wonder who the boys were
:18:04. > :18:07.there. This is another one by Barribal. Wow. Same as the one we
:18:07. > :18:11.just looked at. Let's pull this out a little bit. This is Bridlington.
:18:11. > :18:14.That is terrific. And again, you can see he's possibly used his wife
:18:14. > :18:17.as the model so, again, they all look very similar to one another.
:18:17. > :18:23.There she is again. But, yes, she's got her fashionable swimming
:18:23. > :18:28.costume and her swimming cape on and her cap. Isn't she great? This
:18:28. > :18:33.figurehead here, it's like a modern Kate Winslet on the boat. Bit of
:18:33. > :18:36.Venus on Bridlington beach. it's great. I mean, those colours
:18:36. > :18:40.are immediately arresting, so you can immediately see this kind of
:18:40. > :18:44.advertising potential. This would be very striking, wouldn't it?
:18:44. > :18:48.definitely. From a distance you would see this and get really
:18:48. > :18:51.sucked up into it. And look, you can bring your dog and the dog can
:18:51. > :18:55.go swimming with you. Look, this lovely little black labrador in the
:18:55. > :18:59.waves. Yes, you can take a ride on a donkey as well. Oh, yes, the
:18:59. > :19:04.donkey. Oh, gosh, he's a bit naughty with his ladies' costumes,
:19:04. > :19:08.I have to say. He is, isn't he? kind of want to be part of that
:19:08. > :19:18.party, I think. I think that's what they wanted you to think when you
:19:18. > :19:19.
:19:19. > :19:22.Then there's probably the most famous travel poster of the lot.
:19:22. > :19:24.The Jolly Fisherman of Skegness. It's been copied many times, but
:19:24. > :19:34.John Hassall's original poster first carried that glorious
:19:34. > :19:35.
:19:35. > :19:38.catchline: Skegness. It's so bracing!
:19:38. > :19:47.And it still is. Wherever you go in Skegness, even today, it's hard to
:19:47. > :19:50.get away from Jolly's portly portrait. Everyone knows who the
:19:50. > :20:00.Jolly Fisherman is. It's an icon for Skegness. Well, it's seen
:20:00. > :20:00.
:20:00. > :20:04.everywhere. Photographer John Byford adores the Jolly Fisherman.
:20:04. > :20:08.I think at the time, when it was produced, it was in that sort of
:20:08. > :20:11.Art Nouveau period. It was, you know, that very elitist type of art.
:20:11. > :20:16.And the Jolly Fisherman, it was something new, it was fresh. And it
:20:16. > :20:19.spoke to a different class of people. You know, the people who
:20:19. > :20:26.were working in some of these towns, you know, they were smog-filled
:20:26. > :20:29.cities. And this poster said Come to Skegness, it's so bracing, it's
:20:29. > :20:34.fresh.' Bold colours, it was an invigorating poster in itself. And
:20:34. > :20:37.it sold the resort, you know, it done a marvellous job. And we saw
:20:38. > :20:40.that because, you know, because the trains started filling up. We had
:20:41. > :20:46.six platforms here at Skegness and the trains were just rolling in
:20:46. > :20:49.with people. Sadly, not any more. But there's a statue of Jolly on
:20:49. > :20:58.the station platform, a reminder of Skeggie's glory days, and the
:20:58. > :21:03.fisherman who made their fortune a In the 1960s, the Railways
:21:03. > :21:12.presented the town with Hassal's original painting. Today it hangs
:21:12. > :21:17.in pride of place in the Mayor's Parlour in Skegness Town Hall.
:21:17. > :21:20.Pride. Pride that we've got the original Jolly Fisherman painting.
:21:20. > :21:25.It's now 103 years old, so it's been an icon for Skegness, it
:21:25. > :21:35.really has. And it will remain as our image for Skegness, I hope, in
:21:35. > :21:43.hundreds of years to come. # I'll do my best to make you happy,
:21:43. > :21:45.# To help you see the brighter side. But a lot of Lincolnshire locals
:21:45. > :21:49.might be surprised to hear where the Jolly Fisherman could have
:21:49. > :21:52.started life. Four years before the poster was
:21:52. > :22:00.commissioned, Hassall produced a similar figure for a book called
:22:00. > :22:06.Round the World ABC. And here we see the same figure being used,
:22:06. > :22:16.under P for Penzance. So, his origins could be a Cornish
:22:16. > :22:19.
:22:19. > :22:22.Scarborough has its own collection of hidden paintings, too, tucked
:22:22. > :22:29.away in the attic of the Art Gallery and out of public view here
:22:29. > :22:33.at the Town Hall. In Committee Rooms and in Civic Corridors you'll
:22:33. > :22:41.find some beautiful pictures. This is one of my favourites: The
:22:41. > :22:45.Scarborough Spa Promenade painted in 1871 by a Mr Thomas Barker. I
:22:45. > :22:49.wonder if we're related? It's a wonderful snapshot of the great and
:22:49. > :22:51.the good of Victorian Scarborough. In the foreground you have Prince
:22:51. > :22:58.Edward, who later became Edward VII, and the Princess Alexandra, his
:22:58. > :23:04.wife. And then you've got lots of local worthies who paid to be
:23:04. > :23:07.painted into the picture. Did they really? That's extraordinary, then.
:23:07. > :23:10.Absolutely, it was the brainchild of a local entrepreneur called
:23:10. > :23:16.Oliver Sarony, and he was an artist and photographer, and he had a
:23:16. > :23:19.large studio in Scarborough. And when the Prince of Wales visited
:23:19. > :23:22.Lord Londesborough, he got the bright idea of doing this painting
:23:22. > :23:32.and offering local worthies the chance of being painted in, for a
:23:32. > :23:34.
:23:34. > :23:37.price. Prices were never stated, baldly. It's rumoured that to be
:23:37. > :23:44.very close to the Prince and Princess, you had to pay a hundred
:23:44. > :23:50.guineas, which was a massive sum at the time. Many of the locals were
:23:50. > :23:54.not too keen to part with their money. So they had to fill in with
:23:54. > :23:58.actresses and actors from the Londesborough Theatre. Is that
:23:58. > :24:07.right? So that's well documented, then? Yes, yes. And some of them
:24:07. > :24:10.are recognisable from other portraits.
:24:10. > :24:13.Just round the corner in Committee Room Number Two, there's a
:24:13. > :24:23.patriotic reminder, from the Great War, of one of the East Coast's
:24:23. > :24:23.
:24:23. > :24:25.darkest days. On December 16th, 1914, two German
:24:25. > :24:29.battlecruisers sailed into the harbour here in Scarborough. They
:24:29. > :24:31.were 500 yards, literally, from the beach and just after 8 o'clock in
:24:31. > :24:36.the morning, while the residents were having their breakfasts, some
:24:36. > :24:44.still in bed, they opened fire. They rained down over 500 shells in
:24:44. > :24:47.the space of an hour and then they sailed back out to sea. On that
:24:47. > :24:49.morning, 17 people were killed, many hundreds were injured and the
:24:49. > :24:52.town was completely devastated. Houses were wrecked, hotels were
:24:52. > :24:57.shattered, the lighthouse was blown up and even the Castle was just
:24:57. > :25:01.razed to rubble. The impact must have been terrible, fear ran
:25:01. > :25:08.through the streets. People were running out of Scarborough. It was
:25:08. > :25:11.a place of absolute terror. The East coast had been chosen because
:25:11. > :25:14.it was an easy target. There were no battlements here, there were no
:25:14. > :25:17.guns here whatsoever. There was a Castle but it was used as a
:25:17. > :25:20.Coastguard station. So it was a very, very soft target. And the
:25:20. > :25:24.Germans needed a victory. They'd been defeated in the Falklands and
:25:24. > :25:28.they needed a victory for propaganda. We felt incredibly
:25:28. > :25:35.threatened. The war had been taking place in France, now the war was
:25:35. > :25:37.right on their doorstep. There was a national outcry and then the
:25:37. > :25:39.artist Edith Kemp-Welch produced this patriotic oil painting which
:25:39. > :25:49.became a very famous recruitment poster: Remember Scarborough -
:25:49. > :26:07.
:26:07. > :26:15.It's hard to appreciate just how important this painting would
:26:15. > :26:18.become to the war effort, and how many lives it would directly affect.
:26:18. > :26:23.I think as a painting, it was very important because of the poster
:26:23. > :26:25.that was produced. And that was distributed nationally, and
:26:25. > :26:33.probably was responsible for massive recruitment that happened
:26:33. > :26:40.in 1915. Leading, of course, tens of thousands of young men to their
:26:40. > :26:44.deaths. It doesn't surprise me at all that that painting can have
:26:44. > :26:47.such a dramatic effect. If you've seen it, you will see the look and
:26:47. > :26:50.the whole feel of it is one of terror andd anguish that is just
:26:50. > :26:53.portrayed in that way. It had an incredible impact on recruitment.
:26:53. > :26:56.You see, the trouble was was that everybody was saying that the war
:26:56. > :26:58.would be over by Christmas. Churchill and the Government needed
:26:58. > :27:08.something to increase recruitment and about 100,000 people enlisted
:27:08. > :27:15.
:27:15. > :27:18.when they saw the picture, Remember Later this summer, the NRM will
:27:18. > :27:24.finally have its own Art Gallery where some of their pampered and
:27:24. > :27:27.preserved collection can finally see the light of day. Well, we're
:27:27. > :27:30.in the brand new Art Gallery at the National Railway Museum which is
:27:30. > :27:35.just weeks away from completion now, so this is the very first glimpse
:27:35. > :27:38.of it. They're planning a five star venue for world-class exhibitions.
:27:38. > :27:41.We have a mixture of exhibitions, based on our own collection which
:27:41. > :27:47.the public haven't been able to see before. But we have the facility
:27:47. > :27:49.here to loan in works from all over the world. This Gallery is of
:27:49. > :27:54.national standard, so we can show Turners, Van Goghs, anything rail-
:27:54. > :27:57.related. We have a fantastic art collection but apart from periodic
:27:57. > :28:07.exhibitions we've never really had the central focus here to display
:28:07. > :28:10.it. And the new Art Gallery, I think, is the missing link. There
:28:10. > :28:15.are some quite wonderful, beautiful works of art which we are looking
:28:15. > :28:18.forward to revealing in all their glory. These Hidden Paintings
:28:18. > :28:22.really are a slice of history. And the new Gallery finally offers an
:28:22. > :28:24.exciting opportunity for all of us. It's a chance for you and me to
:28:25. > :28:34.come face to face with the National Railway Museum's remarkable public
:28:35. > :28:41.