Episode 7 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 the locals starting a new chapter

in the life of a Victorian workhouse.

Oh, no! Oh, no!

And learn tricks of the trade

from one of the last travelling brick makers in the country.

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.

-Here we go, Jules, another day.

-Another day, another journey, John.

As you know, I slept in a bit this morning.

Dressed rather quickly

and I'm not quite sure about the purple and the orange.

-What do you think?

-I think you've dressed with your eyes shut!

-Clashes a bit so please forgive me for the rest of the day.

-I'll let you off.

We're on the road travelling north to south

along the Welsh-English border.

We'll be stopping off in Cheshire, Powys and Shropshire

before finishing our journey at the Bristol Channel in South Wales.

On this leg we're taking in the peaks and the plains

of South Cheshire and Mid Wales and exploring this area's heritage

that's in danger of being lost forever.

Cheshire is a very fine county, famous for being the home

of some very expensive footballers amongst other things.

Indeed so, yes.

-Cheshire cheese.

-Cheshire cheese?

-Apparently Cheshire cheese was once as famous as Cheddar cheese.

-Really?

-And then overtaken by...?

-Cheddar is now made all over the world.

-But they still must make Cheshire cheese?

-Yes.

Cheshire is more made in Cheshire, I think.

It has a very special flavour of its own, it's rather nice.

The lush green pastures of the Cheshire Plain

are perfect for dairy farming.

Cheshire cheese was once the most popular cheese in Britain

with sales peaking at around 40,000 tonnes in 1960.

But a rise in mass produced pre-packaged cheeses meant

the decline of traditional cloth-bound Cheshire.

From a peak of over 200 producers,

there's now only a handful making Cheshire following traditional methods.

The Appleby family began producing Cheshire cheese

on their Hawkstone Abbey farm in 1952.

Edward Appleby is keen to see the business his mother started

continue its fight for survival.

We had cheese, cheese, cheese and we got to the stage

we didn't want to hear the word any more.

-Yeah, I can imagine.

-But next thing you've got children

so you've got to make more money to keep families...

-Make more cheese?

-Make more cheese.

What is it about this area, the grass here, that really sets it apart,

that gives the milk its unique flavour, that sets Cheshire cheese apart?

It's the salt underneath the Cheshire Plain

which gives it the basic flavours and the minerals the cows need

to produce the milk that we need.

If we go, the taste of real Cheshire cheese is gone.

I mean, the methods we are using are still the same

as the turn of the century.

It will be sad, something, another thing the country loses.

We've lost enough.

If I can encourage, if Christine can encourage,

our children to carry it on, great, it'll be great.

Paul, so this is where it all starts then?

Yes, the milk comes in in the morning at about 7.30am...

'Edward's son, Paul, is the third generation of Applebys

'and together with head cheese maker, Gary,

'they produce 200 kilos of Cheshire every week.'

I remember, I don't remember, but I've been told that

I was pushed in here many a day in my pram

and my grandmother was left to guard me.

Grandma's way of keeping me quiet was to put a bit of curd in my mouth

and that taste has been with me. It will remain with me.

After adding starter culture and rennet

the milk is stirred in 15 minute intervals,

the whey drained off and the curd put into calico-lined moulds.

The filled moulds are then taken to the press room

and left overnight in these traditional screw presses.

The presses look fantastic.

These are quite ancient pieces of equipment.

Yes, mainly from about 20-25 miles around the area,

but long gone now, over 100 years old.

But they've all got different names, Whitchurch, I can see Nantwich.

Ellesmere. They're from the local area.

All these places are closed, long gone.

We try and stick to the traditional. Most people use a gang press.

-But we like the feel of these...

-Bit of elbow grease!

..and a bit of elbow grease.

'Today they've been kind enough to let me help them out with the next stage in the process.'

It's quite a weight, isn't it?

-So trim it first and then...

-Trim it first, nice and flat.

Gently. Turn it around and get the rest that's sticking up.

-And how many of these are you doing a day?

-50.

-50?

-Yeah.

'It's then carefully sealed.'

I've done a lot of things but I've never ironed cheese.

'And then bound in calico cloth with an edible paste.'

Stand over it, you have to stand completely over it and pull and roll.

You make this look very easy.

I bet you'll be able to pick that one out on the shelf in eight weeks time.

It'll be the one with the wrinkles in it! Brilliant!

'Finally the cheese is moved to the storeroom where it matures over eight to ten weeks.'

'Mum, Christine, knows exactly how the cheese should look

'and taste before it goes to market.'

What we do, we take the cheese iron

and I'm going to bore a nice deep bore into the cheese.

Right through the centre.

We get to the centre of the cheese and get a good bore.

-We're just pulling that out.

-Look at that colour.

That's a great-looking cheese.

'And the proof of the pudding is, as always, in the tasting.'

That's so creamy. Isn't it?

It's very gentle.

But very distinctive.

It's just lovely...

..eating and tasting something that's so good,

that's based on a process I've followed from beginning to end.

It's absolutely wonderful.

The process hasn't changed in hundreds of years.

No, you can see now why we want to stick to our guns

and what real food is.

It's been a joy to see one family's dedication to preserving

an age-old traditional product and I for one hope

that the taste of real Cheshire is around for years to come.

-Delicious, guys, best of luck for the future.

-Thank you.

We're making our way towards the Welsh border.

This is lovely countryside round here, Jules,

but actually it's what you might call bog standard.

Bog standard? Is this one of your jokes, John?

-Well, there's a lot peat bog around here.

-Well, indeed.

Well, this whole Cheshire, Shropshire area is named for it.

Peat has been used for centuries, hasn't it, as heating material

and as a way to make people's gardens look lovely.

That's causing great problems because it's now become

a very rare kind of soil, hasn't it?

You think about how long it takes to get created and formed,

you're talking thousands of years.

For many generations the peat bogs of Fenns and Whixall Moss

were worked by people who made a living cutting and selling the peat

as garden compost and fuel.

Today there are still signs of the prehistoric forest

that once stood here, and with the heavy industry

of commercial peat cutting long gone, the Moss is now a nature reserve.

Dr Joan Daniels has been working on the site for the past 20 years

and she is keen to see the peat bog thrive once more

as a habitat for rare plant and wildlife species.

We're sitting here on Whixall Moss,

part of Britain's third-largest raised bog,

and it's an area where over the last 10,000 years

bog moss has acidified the water and allowed all the plant remains

to build up as peat.

We've got underneath us about four metres of peat here

which has built up and up above the surrounding water table

to make a great big dome, a big raised bog.

Joan heads up a group of 30 volunteers who work to clear away

the dry land plants and bring about a new peat bog.

Absolutely love it here, it's a fantastic site.

It's a thousand hectares of almost wilderness.

It's such a unique place.

I'd like to stay here for a long time to come

and help see the site develop over time.

It's a long-term restoration project, we're in the early days.

It's a site that's taken 12,000 years to form

and we've been restoring it for about 20 years

so it's a drop in the ocean time-wise.

What we're sitting on is an irreplaceable record of the past.

The peat contains a story book of our past landscapes,

right back to our last glaciation.

I hope that people will continue to be able to come to the bog

and to enjoy it because then they'll realise

why it's so important to conserve Britain's peat bogs.

We're border hopping our way South and crossing once again into Wales.

Keep going on up here, John, to Llanfyllin.

-Llan... Two sets of double Ls?

-Two sets of double Ls. Llanfyllin.

This is the site of one of the 54 workhouses that were in Wales.

-Wow.

-It's quite an interesting one.

It's a sprawling building from the pictures I've seen.

No Oliver still there saying, "Some more gruel please, sir."

No, I don't think so, but isn't that the classic image?

It is. A Dickensian image of Britain.

But in a way I suppose they were the beginnings of the Welfare State,

albeit in a fairly crude, brutal form.

I think it was the first time, yes, that responsibility had been taken

-for poor people.

-Yeah.

Here at Llanfyllin they are using it as a focus for little businesses.

-It's still got a life then?

-It's still has got very much a life.

It'll be interesting to see what they're doing with it.

-Would you like another sweet, John?

-Yes, please.

-More, sir.

-Oh, more. Yes, please, sir!

-There you go.

-Thank you.

Llanfyllin Workhouse was established under the 1834 Poor Law.

The law forced all parishes to take greater responsibility

for their local needy and destitute.

Conditions were grim and for many unfortunate people

the workhouse was a constant threat and the ultimate disgrace.

In 1841, of 133 inmates, 87 were children and 11 were single mothers.

The Poor Law system ended in the 1930s and the workhouse

went through various uses before becoming empty and derelict.

Today a group of locals have formed a trust to save it.

The building that was once feared by so many

has now become a well-loved gathering place for businesses

specialising in arts and crafts.

-Slow. Side entrance ahead.

-There we go.

There's a bit of a jamboree on!

Must be an event of some kind.

Hello!

-I'll just pop you down on the field here.

-Yeah, OK.

How about that? A music event. Brilliant.

-I wasn't expecting that.

-No. I hope you've brought your dancing shoes.

Let's find out what's happening.

Hello, Ian. Nice to see you. I'm Jules. How are you?

Where's John? Here he comes. There he is.

-Here I am.

-Good morning, John.

-What's going on here?

-This looks very colourful.

-We have a small event to raise some money

-to see if we can renovate the building.

-What kind of event?

It's music event. We've got some live bands and some DJs.

-It's your own mini-festival.

-A mini-festival.

-Fun in the workhouse!

-Exactly.

-Clearly fund-raising is what it's about for you.

We've got little money and we need to pay the mortgage.

What's your role in this?

I'm a trustee for the building and the town mayor.

-You're the mayor.

-I'm the mayor.

-You've got your high-vis, but where's your chain?

I should have worn the chain but it's too valuable to wear to an event like this.

-Have we got time to look round before we start discoing?

-The first band's on at about 2pm.

There are several workshops of great interest.

I'm sure you'll have a wander round and see what's going on.

-Yeah, we'll have a look.

-See you later.

There are now 14 workshops here

and businesses range from dog grooming to furniture making.

They all pay vital rent that helps cover the cost

of the trust's monthly mortgage repayments.

-This is...

-What do you make of this?

This is handy. We could do with one of these

-and tow it behind the truck.

-Pop in and have a cup of tea now and again.

-Is it Steve?

-Yeah, hello.

'Craftsman Steve Winder has recently moved in to a workshop space

'big enough for his latest commission.'

It's a 1930s circus live-in van.

Where is this destined for, now you've nearly finished it?

It's on its way to the Scottish Borders

to an equestrian circus troop.

So it's actually going to fulfil its role?

It's a commissioned work for them.

How did you find out about the workhouse as a venue for a workshop?

It was purely by chance. When the idea for this was mooted,

when the commission was being discussed,

having a space to make it in was quite important.

Somebody suggested I look at the old boiler room,

and that's exactly what it was, the old boiler room.

So this new interpretation of a circus wagon brought you here.

-Yes, yes, it did.

-All the very best, Steve, good to see you.

-Nice to meet you as well.

-Bye.

-Thank you.

Why does this courtyard arrangement emanate from that central hub, John?

They obviously spent a lot of money in those days

building this social housing.

Yeah, no. It's a solid-looking structure.

They did spend a lot.

In 1837 the workhouse cost just over £7,000 to build

and contained four courtyards keeping men, women, boys and girls separate.

'Richard Stephenson runs his business from a workshop

'just off the former men's courtyard.'

Sounds like a harp, John.

-So it is.

-What a noise!

-What a beautiful sound.

Is that a Welsh harp?

It is indeed, made in Wales, not very far from here.

-Are you repairing it?

-I'm fettling it, tuning it up

and giving her a once-over, basically. An MOT.

-I take it you make musical instruments?

-I do indeed, yes.

This was one's been made of yew.

-That's a lovely colour.

-It's a soft wood.

It's phenomenally hard to work, this stuff.

You couldn't put a plane into it.

I had to be sanding and sanding.

-How do you get the polish then?

-This is a lacquer.

It's actually a yacht lacquer, a yacht varnish which is very good.

It's all natural ingredients, resins and gums within it.

-That's gorgeous.

-This is my one, basically, and this is one I play.

Oh, no! Oh, no!

TUNELESS PLAYING

-How about that then?

-Not bad, guys. Not bad, not bad.

Obviously a lot of keen people working here

but just how much is it still at risk, this place?

We're nearly breaking even with what we do.

A few events help pay the bills and stuff

and the insurances and what-not. We're slowly getting there.

The bank's going to give us the time we need to develop this project.

As you can see, it's a massive project.

-Good to see you, bye.

-Thanks, guys.

The trust's next step is to develop a workhouse history centre

where the lives of those who lived and worked within its walls

will be remembered.

Linda Sterry's great-great-grandmother was born in the workhouse

and she's keen to see one of the wings restored as it once was.

This is an extraordinary document.

It's a birth certificate you've dug out from the archives

and tells us your great-great-grandmother was born here.

-She was, yes.

-What was her name?

-Harriet Perkin.

How much research have you been able to do on her life here

and how her family subsequently developed?

I've done a lot of research and found that Harriet

was connected with the workhouse for quite a long period of time.

What does it mean to you walking round here

knowing your ancestors were born here?

From a personal perspective, coming here,

it really is a tangible link with my ancestors.

I can look at walls and buildings and windows

they may have looked out of.

You feel you're walking in their footsteps.

You can feel the place, it's wonderful, I love coming here.

What's your view on the future of this place?

I think it's very important the building is preserved.

I think the educational value of this place cannot be overstated.

-Well, John, the festival's kicked off.

-Sounds like it.

Hear all that. Isn't it funny, from a place that was once so torturous

and so unhappy, there's all this fun and activity going on.

Absolutely. The whole mood of the place has changed.

A lot of like-minded people all working together.

-It would be a tragedy if it had to close.

-I would say so.

They are clearly well on the way to get it up and running.

-Shall we join the party?

-Yeah. There's a bar as well.

-Who's driving?

-You are!

'The workhouse may remind us of a difficult past

'but the volunteers' efforts are giving the building a very positive and new lease of life.'

CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

Our next stop is in Llanymynech, just 10 miles east of Llanfyllin.

Ah, now John, this little village here, Llanymynech,

-is quite interesting according to the map.

-Why's that?

The border between England and Wales

-runs right down the centre of the road.

-Never?

-Which side is this one?

-This is England...

-And that's Wales.

How about that?

I suppose in the days then when Wales was dry on a Sunday

-if there was a pub on this side...

-There's probably more on this side!

There's one there, there's another one there.

The high street border is not this village's only claim to fame.

The limestone cliffs that dominate the skyline

tell of a past at the centre of the industrial revolution.

In the late 19th century, Llanymynech's great Hoffman kiln

was in full production creating quicklime

that was used as mortar in the same way as cement is used in building today.

At 110 metres long, this huge kiln was a series of individual chambers

arranged around a tunnel that allowed the continuous burning of limestone.

Production ceased in 1914 and today a group of local volunteers

have worked hard to raise £900,000 to restore the site.

The Hoffman kiln, to my mind, is a little gem.

It's the only one left in this part of the world, in fact in the UK,

which is complete and has a chimney.

The whole village thought it was worth keeping and restoring.

It probably cost about £2,000 in its day in 1898

but look at the cost of this now.

We spent nearly £1 million restoring it, so it gives you some idea.

It is very important to this area and all the heritage in this area, the quarries, railways and canals.

Volunteers have also built a mini kiln

so they can demonstrate the technique to local school groups.

I'm going to pour this on the quicklime...

Here's one going, look. Look at this one!

Local architect, Tim Ratcliffe, runs limework courses

for builders and property owners doing restoration work.

The biggest threat to historic buildings at the moment is cement.

Cement mortars are too hard.

You're using materials that are porous, so the stone, the brick

that people used to build with historically are relatively soft

and if you put a hard cement against them,

which is what people have done for the last 50 years,

it traps the moisture in the wall, the wall gets damp

and you have problems with moisture transfer

and then the brick or stone decays.

We need to use mortars that are softer

than the building blocks themselves.

Lime mortars fit that bill.

Most historic buildings are still standing because they were built with lime.

We're back in England and travelling east towards Ironbridge,

just south of Telford in Shropshire.

We can drive for miles without seeing a house around here,

but when you do see them, all sorts of different styles.

You've got all this lovely, natural stone running along the border.

And then brick, of course. Made a big difference, didn't it?

You can always tell the age of a brick, John,

-the thinner it is, the older it is.

-Really?

-Yes. There you go.

Presumably, there's a standard size for brick?

There will be now, like the average house brick with a scoop in it.

But again, the frog is a relatively new invention.

-The frog?

-That's the scoop in the middle of the brick.

-I never knew that.

-There you go.

I'm learning a lot on this journey!

Until the early years of the 19th century

most materials for building were prepared on site.

The brick maker would travel between jobs

and make bricks by hand according to the building's size and shape.

But when canal and rail networks were set up

brickworks became permanent structures

and the days of the travelling brick maker were numbered.

Today, Tony Mugridge is the last one in the country.

His workshop is housed in the old brickworks

at the Victorian Town museum in Ironbridge,

but when there's the need, Tony still travels to make bricks on site.

-Tony.

-Oh, hello.

-Nice to see you, I'm Jules.

-How do you do? Pleased to meet you.

-This is wonderful. Is this an original brickworks?

-Yes, it is.

This building we're in dates from 1851.

-So how about you being a brick maker?

-I'm not that old!

But all this stuff looks that old.

-Are these moulds?

-Yes, they are. They're small moulds for pavers.

When I was learning to make bricks 30-odd years ago

one of the guys who taught me to make bricks

actually worked in this building in the 1920s.

But what a site to be attached to.

Why did you come to the Victorian Town?

The museum's been part of my life, on and off,

for as long as I've worked.

It's really nice to come here as a free exhibit for the museum.

They get this fantastic exhibit and I get to work in this environment.

Show me around, Tony, let's see what you're up to here.

There are not off-the-shelf components, are they?

-What are we looking at?

-What we've got on the floor here,

I've got three jobs here at the moment.

-That's these giant coping bricks.

-So these would sit on top of a wall?

They're for Polesworth Abbey near Tamworth in Staffordshire.

What kind of date would they be stylistically?

-The originals dated from 1851.

-Right, OK.

What we're doing is replacing 50 that were stolen a few years ago.

English Heritage have asked me to reproduce them.

Tony's so in demand, he's recently taken on a young trainee

and today I'm lending a helping hand too.

-What are we doing?

-We're going to have a go at making these bricks,

-These lovely chimney bricks.

-These are gorgeous.

-This looks very Tudor to me.

-Yes, it is.

It's very much as you'd see on Hampton Court Palace or anywhere like that. It's a Tudor brick.

That's the mould in place and we're going to put a bit of clay in.

-This is where you come in.

-Yes.

-There we go.

-Good luck with your mission. Just push it in.

And then... Push the sides right in.

This is where use this fantastic technical piece of equipment.

-Has it got an old name?

-It's a piece of wood!

It's got to be padded in because you're trying to pick up that detail underneath.

-That's quite satisfying isn't it.

-You obviously were once a brick maker.

-Just go it slowly.

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, right.

-Chuck it over here and Chris will find a home for it.

-If you just press it down there.

-Just a gentle press?

Push it in hard.

-And rock it.

-Like that?

-That's it.

-Out it comes.

-Straight up?

-Yes.

-And there's the mark. Yes, go on, do it.

-Wey!

-Well done.

This is the moment of truth,

whether I've got my brick looking as it should do.

-Hey! Ha-ha!

-It's not bad for a first attempt.

It's, um... Oh, no, look, there's a great big hole there.

That's where you hadn't beaten it in properly, but it was your first brick.

What's going to happen to this now?

I've got to fire the other bricks we've made

so it'll be in two.. two months' time.

There you go. My own little contribution

to keeping the art of stiff mud brick-making alive.

That's fantastic. Well done, sir.

It's been a great day on our journey down the Welsh borders.

I've loved getting involved with the festival fund-raising efforts

at the Llanfyllin Workhouse.

And I enjoyed meeting the last family

still making Cheshire cheese the old-fashioned way.

Next time, we meet the woman who's taken on the restoration

of this historic Shropshire mansion single-handedly.

And I take to the skies to see the work being done to restore

Britain's hidden historical sites.

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