Episode 10 Britain's Heritage Heroes

We're travelling across the UK on a mission.

All over the country our heritage is at risk.

Ancient buildings and monuments are under threat of demolition.

Valuable arts and crafts are on the brink of extinction.

And our rich industrial heritage is disappearing fast.

We're scouring town and country

in search of the nation's unsung heroes determined

not to let our heritage become a thing of the past.

Today we meet a unique group of fishermen

working their ancestral waters.

And a community breathing life

back into a building in the heart of their town.

On this journey we're uncovering the hidden treasures of our country,

treasures that are certainly worth fighting for.

And meeting Heritage Heroes saving Britain at risk.

Welcome to one of my top ten favourite views

in the whole of the UK, Jules - the River Wye valley

from the top of Symonds Yat Rock.

Absolutely gorgeous. This is a very timeless place.

What better illustration of the border between England and Wales than the Wye? It's wonderful.

And over there, our first destination -

the Forest of Dean.

We started at the top of the English-Welsh border.

We've since driven south through Cheshire, Shropshire and Powys,

and today we'll reach journey's end at the Bristol Channel.

Our trip takes us on a loop through the ancient Forest of Dean

and the Welsh valleys. We'll be digging deep

to discover this area's rich heritage

and the people working hard to preserve it.

It is a funny old place, John, the Forest of Dean.

Yeah. I always think of it as a place of mystery.

-All these dark trees.

-You're right. It's a lost world, really.

This buffer between Wales and England,

and lots of great folklore here, of course. Lots of fantastic stories.

Famous for its trees on the surface, but underground,

-for its mining.

-Well, the mining heritage is extraordinary,

but you drive through now, you'd never know,

would you? There's not much to reveal that past.

No. Freeminers, they call themselves, don't they?

Not one? Or two?

No, F-R-double-E miners.

Three miners. Freeminers.

Britain's mining history stretches right across the nation.

In the ancient Forest of Dean, rich in myth and legend,

that history goes back to Norman times.

In the 12th century, local miners were granted privileges

after supporting King Edward I

during the Scottish War of Independence.

A royal decree allowed them to mine coal anywhere in the Forest of Dean,

as long as they were born within it or its outlying land.

It's an area known as the Hundred of St Briavels.

However, by the 1800s, the demand for coal had increased

and the crown brought in a small rent.

It was collected by a Gaveller,

a position which still exists today.

Richard Davies of the Forestry Commission is

the current Deputy Gaveller.

And how did the whole thing of Freeminers come about?

Well, round about 1300,

Edward I was trying to recapture Berwick-on-Tweed,

and it's alleged he got the help of miners from the Forest of Dean

to help him burrow under the walls and get in.

Ah! A great way of slighting a castle, of course,

was to undermine it.

And as a reward for that,

they were given the right to mine coal freely in the forest.

To be a Freeminer, you must be over 21

and born and live within the Hundred of St Briavels,

-and you must have worked for a year and a day.

-A year and a day.

So I think there's a determination for it to continue.

Especially amongst, let's hope, the pregnant ladies of the Hundred.

Well, very much so.

THEY LAUGH

So it's a question of encouragement,

-and that's what we're determined to continue.

-Yeah.

At one stage, up to 10,000 people worked down many of the mines

in the area. Today, only seven small working mines remain.

Hopewell Colliery, owned and run by Freeminer Robin Morgan,

is one of the last mines open in this part of the world.

Robin comes from a family of miners

and started work at the age of 13.

For the last 14 years, he's tried to run the mine

as a visitor attraction, but due to cash flow problems,

he's now having to mine again to make ends meet.

-Robin! Hi. How are you?

-Hello, sir. How are you?

Not too bad, thank you.

Extraordinary. It's not just a tourist attraction.

You're working this for real.

Yes, I've just reopened this back up.

I shut it down 14 years ago to open up a tourist attraction,

and then I found I wasn't getting enough visitors,

so it meant I had to reopen this mine again,

and it's taken 18 months to reopen, cos I've done it all by myself.

-Yeah.

-And how long have you been mining for, Robin?

The first mine I ever went down,

I was 13 years of age. My two brothers were Freeminers.

They're both dead now, they were older than me.

And they used to drop me down a shaft 100 foot deep

in a 40-gallon drum with two hooks on the side on a hand winch.

That's trust, isn't it?

-Well...

-You learnt the hard way.

That is correct. And I thought straightaway

as I was going down that shaft,

"This is brilliant. This is better than going to school."

But looking back, I might have made a mistake.

I'm still here now, and I'm 76 years of age, and I'm still here now.

-What I'm trying to do is, trying to keep it alive.

-Yeah.

There's so many people in the Forest of Dean today

that have never seen a coal fire, let alone a coal mine.

And to take them down into these workings here,

some of them go back 200 years,

and they can't believe in those days

little children worked underground, their mothers worked underground.

Any chance of us having a look down there?

We'll give you some tourist business.

That is what I can do, John, yeah.

We're going to do some proper digging, I hope.

-OK?

-There we are. Yeah. I'm ready to go. The real thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

Pull it right up.

It's about 32 inch, that waist.

# Hey-ho, hey-ho... #

Pretty steep, going down.

It gets a bit eerie when you get on down.

It's certainly getting lower, Robin, isn't it?

Yes. Where you've got to go presently, it's a lot lower still.

-Really?

-This is extraordinary, isn't it? How deep are we here?

Somewhere around 200 foot.

So where's Jules going to do his mining, then?

-If he can get up in there...

-I wish I hadn't had breakfast now.

It's still not wide enough to get John up there.

THEY LAUGH

Do you mind?!

This seam averages about two foot six, actually.

I see a pickaxe, a shovel, and a sledgehammer.

-There is a sledgehammer, yeah.

-Off you go.

Right, come on, then. How do we get up there?

-Let's put the ladder up for you.

-Oh, look, I'm spoilt now. A ladder.

Right then, Robin. A real taste of days gone by, this.

-That's correct, yeah.

-Best of luck.

-Is that original?

-No, definitely not!

Oh, hello! Look at that! It must be original.

-You've broken the ladder!

-Step on the next one.

-Can you try that one?

-Keep right on the bloody side, as well.

-Oh, well.

-That one's gone!

THEY LAUGH

I think we haven't got off to the best start ever.

Right, then. Grab hold of there and we'll give you a help up.

One, two, three...

OK, I'm up. There you are.

Now, notwithstanding the ladder, how good are these props?

-They're very good, actually.

-Are you sure?

The fact that they're that good, they're holding nothing up!

In terms of the... visitor experience,

-you're not going to get everybody up here, are you?

-Definitely not.

But it does give you a real sense of what this is all about.

Not one for the claustrophobic, I have to say.

So it's like working down... while you lie down, isn't it?

It's pretty... it's quite tough, actually.

It's tougher than it looks. It looks like it's going to break off

in an easier fashion.

It's very hard, actually.

So you can see what those old men 200 years ago,

-the kind of work they done.

-12 hours on the trot, doing this?

Yeah. There was no machinery whatsoever back in those days.

It was all done by hand.

Not just men, but young children.

Young children, the women, they all used to work underground.

-Every pick is moving something that hasn't been moved for millions of years.

-That's correct.

I was going to ask you how much you think I've made.

-You've got 12 hours to go yet, Jules.

-Yeah, great(!)

Well, there's a great danger that I might become

a permanent exhibit here, John.

You're doing very well, Jules.

I guess every miner had their own sort of signature

in the way that they used their tools?

Yeah.

Guys? Robin? John?

Well, having dug myself out,

I was never so happy to see daylight.

What a great experience for you there, Jules. But the sad fact is

that mining in the Forest of Dean isn't just at risk,

-it's virtually dead, isn't it?

-All but, let's face it.

And though you can't help but be enthused

by Robin's infectious passion for mining

and the Forest, and for the legacy he's trying to keep going here,

one man isn't going to keep it alive.

No. He needs some sort of smart business guru to come in

and show him how to sell the place.

I think that's what it needs, marketing.

We've seen lesser sites with less to offer full of people,

and here we are. It's empty except for you and me.

Absolutely.

Ever onwards, and it's back into Wales,

to the stunning scenery of Monmouthshire.

Well, one thing, Jules, that we've seen no shortage of on this trip

-is monuments.

-I love monuments.

It's amazing, the stories they can tell, both of local interest

-and national importance.

-There's one round here, apparently,

a naval memorial, would you believe?

-We're near Monmouth, 30 miles from the sea.

-I was going to say.

-Are you sure about that? Is it on the map?

-Absolutely!

A naval memorial. It's here.

Well, that's got a story to tell, hasn't it?

Well, John is absolutely right.

Monmouthshire in the Wye valley does has an important naval connection,

because the majority of oak for Nelson's fleet was sourced here.

800 feet above Monmouth itself, on the Kymin Hill,

lies a monument celebrating the victories of the Royal Navy.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries,

Britain had the most powerful navy in the world,

and it played a key role in establishing the empire.

Sadly, due to neglect and its exposed position,

the memorial is desperately in need of restoration.

National Trust Property Manager Philip Park

is currently heading up the project to restore it.

Morning.

So, the temple here was built in 1802.

It was after the Battle of the Nile,

and it was built in a fit of jingoistic fervour, really.

A great "huzzah!" for the British Navy,

and for Nelson. People were so enamoured with

what Nelson had been achieving

that they wanted to mark it in some way, and this is what they built.

So as far as we know, this is the only monument anywhere in the world

which celebrates an entire navy.

The colours relate to the squadrons

and each of those roundels

remembers a different admiral,

and the dates relate to a particular event in that admiral's career.

The main problem with the structure is that

water is still managing to seep in through the roof.

The existing Britannia is fibreglass and full of sand,

and somebody's nicked her trident.

So we are hoping that we will have enough money in the project

to have a new Britannia carved out of stone

and with the trident back in her hand again.

And also turned round, because it's believed that

she's facing the wrong way at the moment.

These buildings, these places, they tell us about who we were.

They tell us about our history. Collectively,

we're handing this on to the next generation,

and that must be a good thing, mustn't it?

I'm sure that's the right thing to do.

From high on a hill to down in the valleys,

we're headed 20 miles south to the former mining town of Newbridge.

-Well, the map's starting to look a bit battered.

-I know!

It's got us here now to the valleys of South Wales.

I've got a lot of fondness for this part of the country, actually.

There's a terrific sense of community,

even though they've struggled over the last two or three decades

since the collapse of mining.

Ever since mining stopped, yeah.

I mean, during the heydays of mining,

they had miners' halls, didn't they?

And they had choirs and the banners...

And the institutes, of course, which were pivotal.

And we've been told that we should head to a place called Newbridge,

because something interesting is happening there

with the old miners' institute.

The Newbridge Memorial Hall was built as an addition

to the local Miners' Institute in 1925,

to commemorate locals who fell in the First World War.

With the largest ballroom in South Wales

and a stunning Art Deco theatre,

this place was a hive of activity fondly called the Memo.

The venue for sports clubs,

local bands and legendary dances,

the Memo was the place to be.

But the closure of mines in the mid-'80s

saw the decline of the Memo

as people sought entertainment elsewhere.

By 2003 the building was in a real state of dilapidation, and there were discussions

about whether to demolish or redevelop it.

It was at this point

retired blacksmith Howard Stone set up a restoration project

and began to encourage local groups to use the space.

Seven years on, Howard's endless applications

for funding have raised a staggering £5.8 million.

This, gentlemen, is what has become known as The Jewel in the Valleys.

Wow!

How about this! This is great.

What a place. This is amazing.

A huge cinema with a balcony...

-All the old chairs up there.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

You've been coming for years, Howard. What's this place like

-when it's packed to the ceiling?

-Fantastic.

My first recollections are probably when my big sister

brought me to see a film.

-Give us a date, go on.

-1946?

-Yeah, OK.

I was a six-year-old. And then, of course, I met my wife here

in the ballroom downstairs in my teens.

And is the plan now to restore the cinema and have shows here again?

What we'll have is a multi-use space, so you can put concerts on,

you can put shows on.

We will hopefully have the digital capability

of bringing in live shows from overseas.

-Will you be able to get enough people to make it worthwhile?

-Absolutely.

There's already more people using this building

than in its previous history.

It isn't just to serve the community of Newbridge.

This building will serve the communities of the whole of south-east Wales.

There isn't another building in this area to compete with it.

How long's it going to take you?

Well, this place should be up and running

and ready for reopening in April of 2014.

We'll be back!

A fund was set up in 1902 to pay for the memorial hall.

An estimated 3,000 miners

contributed a penny a week from their wages for their palace.

Our aim is to return it to,

not just to the children of the future,

but there's a whole generation already

who have never enjoyed the benefits of this place.

This, I just felt so, I suppose,

passionate about when there was a threat to demolish something

that is, after all, a living memorial,

and you cannot allow that to happen. You just can't.

Built for purpose, the institute and the memorial hall

served its community, and still does so today.

Taking advantage of the massive ballroom,

the tea dancers meet here once a week. It's a chance

to catch up, enjoy a refreshment, and of course,

waltz the hours away.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. How are we this morning?

All right, thank you.

Exhausted yet?

-Not yet!

-No, no.

What are your memories of this place, then?

My sister and I would sit on the wall and watch them

come in through the windows. Watch them dancing.

And we used to admire their dresses and their dance shoes.

And, "Oh, I'm going to do that when I'm older!"

-And you have done.

-And I'm older now, yeah!

I'm just going to move on a bit now.

Hello, everybody. Can I sort of shimmy in here?

Yes. By all means!

So, these dances.

How important do you reckon they are to the community here?

Oh, I think dancing's a wonderful thing.

And I think that more people should try it.

ORGAN DROWNS SPEECH

The music's playing again. Tea break over, girls and boys.

May I...may I? Can I steal your partner?

Of course.

Marguerite. Thank you.

So, Marguerite.

Do you come here often?

Once a week at the moment.

-Once a week?

-Yes.

And have you been a dancer all your life?

-Since I was 17.

-Ah, yes.

Yes, I must say, you do follow very well.

Let me swing you round.

Ooh!

SHE LAUGHS

So, Fred Astaire, how was it?

I don't think I'll need to buy a pair of dancing pumps, somehow.

I heard you did rather well!

I don't know about that. But what a place this is, isn't it?

I love this one, I have to say.

It was built by the community for the community,

and it's still going to remain at the heart of this community

over 100 years since the first element was constructed.

And just think, back in those days,

these miners not earning very much were prepared to pay a penny a week

from their wages for this palace to be built.

Well, they had a vision, John. I think that's the point.

A viable vision, and it's viable once again. £6 million later,

in two or three years' time, this will be something to revisit.

I think it's one of the most hopeful projects we've seen, isn't it?

Yeah, without a doubt.

With a spring in our step,

we're driving an hour back across the Bristol Chanel

to Berkeley in Gloucestershire.

What I love about many of the little places we go through, John,

is this sense of local history that comes together in the local museum.

Absolutely. All kinds of things

you'd never expect to find or know about.

You can figure out the story of the world through local museums.

Of course, they have a lot of problems, don't they,

getting funding?

-The big museums have enough problems, let alone the little ones.

-Yeah.

But they do have a lot of problems.

Nestled in the heart of the countryside

lies a little-known house which holds

some of the country's most important medical artefacts.

Here at The Chantry, eminent English scientist

Edward Jenner pioneered the vaccine for smallpox,

an ancient disease which swept across continents killing

hundreds of thousands of people.

With his vaccine, Jenner is believed

to have saved more lives than anyone else in history.

His home is open to the public as a museum,

offering a glimpse of his life's work.

Dedicated volunteers like Karen are preserving Jenner's memory.

The work Jenner did was amazing.

He saved the world, literally,

and he seems to have been forgotten.

He is one of Gloucestershire's heroes, and I don't think

even Gloucestershire appreciate him as they should.

And it's vital that this work isn't forgotten

and is brought to the fore.

Unfortunately, the museum's trustees are struggling

to raise the £2.2 million needed to restore it

to its previous splendour.

Assistant director Joanne has the challenge of co-ordinating

the running of the house while trying to juggle

an ever-increasing list of repairs.

Unfortunately, our museum is at risk.

It's very difficult to keep a building of this size and this age

running and looked after in the way that it needs to be.

The areas that are really important

for us to look after at the moment are the windows.

This bay window at the bottom was actually added by Jenner himself.

They're in a very bad state, a very poor state.

You can also see we've got peeling paint,

We've recently had problems in the roof section as well.

We've been warned that in a few years

we may have to look at getting some of the roof fixed.

Continual work that must be done all the time to keep the house together.

The danger for the future is that we know,

probably within the next five years if things don't improve,

we would have to make a decision to start cutting back

some of our education work, our visitor work,

some of our outreach work, and just almost mothball the house.

To not have this here,

to not be teaching people about what he did

and how important he is,

would just be a loss to British history, I think.

But I think for us, the best medicine will be fresh air.

On now to the biggest river in the UK, the Severn.

Our last stop of the day.

That needle is looking seriously low.

-The light's on, John.

-Yes.

Will we make it in time?

It means only one thing.

-Panic!

-THEY LAUGH

There's drama tonight!

Will John and Jules make it to the petrol station in time?

-Will they have sweets there?

-Yes.

Will they have to push their vehicle for miles through a jungle?

Well, a forest.

Well, we may just make it, folks.

Now, I have noticed, John, on our little journey,

you do have a penchant for fish.

I do like fish, that's true, Jules. You don't, do you, really?

I'm not a great fan, but how do you feel about fishing?

What sort of fishing? Do you mean big-time shoaler fishing,

or rod and line fishing, or what?

-What about salmon fishing?

-Salmon fishing, yeah.

Well, here we are on the banks of the River Severn,

almost at the end of our journey, but not quite.

-Right.

-Let's go fishing.

Lave net fishing is a centuries-old technique

used to catch salmon in rivers and estuaries.

The skills involved have been handed down

through generations of fisherman.

Martin is one of only eight left in the last lave fishery in Wales.

Martin has been fishing down here on the Severn

since he was 10 years old.

Determined to keep these heritage skills alive,

he helps promote the fishery as a tourist attraction.

Now, let's just be clear. This is a lave net?

-Yes.

-Just open it up for us, just so we know what we're talking about

and how you do this.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these before.

Well, they've been recorded as being used on the Severn estuary

in J Geraint Jenkins' book Nets And Coracles in the mid-1600s.

It's an ancient method of fishing for salmon, and it's made

from what grows around the estuary.

-Ash for the rock staff.

-Yeah.

-Willow for the rimes.

-Yeah.

And pine for the headboard.

Do you wait for the fish to swim into it?

What the lave net fisherman does is stands in a traditional spot,

and these spots have names,

such as Monkey Tump, Lighthouse Vear, The Grandstand, The Hole.

And the fisherman will stand in one of these spots,

he will select that spot according to the wind strength,

the wind direction and the height of the tide.

When the fisherman drops his net into the tide,

running at five or six knots, believe you me,

he's really got to lean into the net, put his foot behind the rock,

and then he places his hand into the mesh.

-His fingers into the mesh.

-Yeah.

So the whole net then becomes like a spider's web.

Anything touches that net, the fisherman can feel,

so if he feels something touching that,

he picks the headline up, puts the rock staff down,

and the salmon hopefully rolls into the back of the net.

That's brilliant!

Now, just to be clear, Martin,

we are not in the fishing season at the moment,

so we won't actually see you fishing today.

How long does the season last and when is it?

In 1999, the season was short

and it starts now on June 1st to August 31st.

So we've got a three month season for this lave net fishery.

What has happened over the years,

the traditional fisheries on the Severn estuary

have been closed down one by one,

and then we felt that we were under threat of closure as well.

And what we've done, we've taken a very proactive attitude to this

to try and keep these hundreds of years of heritage

by fighting to keep the fishery going

by promoting it as a tourism and heritage site,

and inviting people down to watch.

It'd be heartbreaking to see you have to give this up.

It's clearly in your blood.

You're part of this estuary and its history.

That's right. It's a privilege to be down here

and to actually be able to fish here. You know,

I couldn't ask for anything more, really.

-It's been a pleasure, mate.

-Oh, thank you, Jules.

-Best of luck.

-And you.

Each fisherman must be skilled

in making their own nets, another tradition they're keen to pass on.

Why all this sort of craftsmanship going on around here?

We're trying to keep the traditions of our forefathers alive.

You know? Bob's father fished,

my great-grandfather fished,

they used lave nets to catch salmon in this river for hundreds of years.

And we're determined to keep it going.

So this is the latest net you're making, Bob, is it?

Yes. What we use is this, that we call the needle...

-Yeah.

-And this is the wand.

You go into your next empty mesh,

you pull that down to the wand,

you get your thumb to the top of there,

and round the back of there,

through there...

..pull it tight, don't let it slip.

Over to you, then, John, I think, if you want to have a go.

-So, those two?

-That's right.

-Back around.

-Over there.

-Don't close your loop.

And then under there?

And then, through...

-Round there.

-Like that?

-Yeah.

And how long have you been salmon fishing?

About 65 years.

65...! How many salmon have you caught in that time, do you reckon?

-Oh, I wouldn't know. I've never kept a record.

-Have you not?

Pull it tight. Hey presto, we've got it.

-And that's it, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Very good.

-I'm a lave netter!

-Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

Seeing them work so hard to keep these old skills alive

is another great example of

just how diverse our heritage is in this country.

Well, we've made it. Here we are on the Severn,

and we started off on the Mersey.

And all those lovely counties and people and places along the way.

A fantastic trip down the border.

And all the things that are being done

to try and stop heritage at risk, eh?

-The question is, John - where next?

-Oh, yeah.

-Let's get the map, shall we?

-Let's go that way.

-Yeah.

What a journey we've had.

One of my favourites has to be

meeting Caroline who inherited

that amazing country house, Stokesay Court.

A real highlight for me was coming across Richard at the Work House, who made those beautiful instruments.

And what about Tony, the last travelling brickmaker?

I loved getting a chance to get really hands on.

It's satisfying, isn't it?

Next time we'll start a whole new journey

in the South West of the country,

where I'll be spinning a yarn.

And I'll be taking part in some carnival madness.

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