0:00:02 > 0:00:09This magnificent town hall in Bolton is a grand example of Victorian civic pride.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15The success and prosperity that the industrial revolution brought to towns like this
0:00:15 > 0:00:19left us with some magnificent buildings.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24Victorians loved to have everything ornate and pleasing to the eye.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28The ornamentation was almost as important as the building itself.
0:00:28 > 0:00:35The construction and engineering skills I've looked at in "The Building of Britain"
0:00:35 > 0:00:42has brought me to my favourite period and buildings - the great age of Victorian splendour.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03I first became interested in buildings at about 15 years old.
0:01:03 > 0:01:10I lived here in this small, terraced house and me mother and father wanted me to be an undertaker.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Now I didn't fancy that, you know.
0:01:13 > 0:01:20So, I peddled off to the Youth Employment Bureau where they got me a job as a joiner.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24My work as a joiner got me into some splendid mansions
0:01:24 > 0:01:29that the cotton-mill owners and bleach-work owners had built.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32This was built by a bleach-works owner.
0:01:32 > 0:01:39I couldn't help but notice - having come from a house that hadn't got any skirting boards -
0:01:39 > 0:01:42the quality of the woodwork,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46skirting boards, marble fire places, alcoves and panel doors...
0:01:46 > 0:01:52and best of all, the plastered ceilings. It made me wonder how they did it.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57Of course, it's a pub now, so really, everybody can enjoy it.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08The Victorians went to great lengths to make things pleasing to the eye -
0:02:08 > 0:02:15whether it were a great civil engineering project or something as small as a window catch.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19Much more ornate than what we do these days.
0:02:19 > 0:02:25'On their buildings, they did all this ornamentation on a really grand scale,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29'something I was able to see at close quarters.'
0:02:29 > 0:02:32About 30 years ago, when I were in me prime,
0:02:32 > 0:02:37I got the job of repairing the lantern on top of this town hall.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of my career.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53'On the top, around the lantern, there are 16 stone pillars.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58'And I made a machine and actually turned these stone pillars.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03'And then, of course, I talked myself into gilding the ball on the top
0:03:03 > 0:03:08'and pointing the whole lantern right down to the top of the lead.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12'When it was built in the 19th century,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16'it was a time when they had great respect for the past
0:03:16 > 0:03:21'and they wanted their buildings to reflect the values of an earlier age.
0:03:21 > 0:03:28'They built a new House of Parliament that matched the medieval splendours of Westminster Abbey right next door.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31'They made country houses look like castles.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36'Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire isn't really a proper castle.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40'It's a big country house, designed to look like one.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45'It was built for the first Earl Sommers in the early 19th century.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50'He wanted everybody to know how rich and well established his family were.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55'He commissioned the architect, Robert Smirke, to design a place
0:03:55 > 0:04:02'that looked as big and impressive as one of the castles that Edward I had built nearly 1,000 years earlier.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07'Eastnor took six years to build and cost over £85,000.
0:04:11 > 0:04:18'At a time when Britain's aristocracy felt threatened by the recent French Revolution,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21'it sent a clear message to ordinary people.'
0:04:21 > 0:04:24It said, "Remember who your masters are".
0:04:24 > 0:04:31The scale of this building is as impressive as any of Edward's castles in Wales.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36In the first 18 months alone, there were 4,000 tonnes of building stones used,
0:04:36 > 0:04:3816,000 tonnes of mortar,
0:04:38 > 0:04:44600 tonnes of wood - and this was only in the construction of the walls!
0:04:44 > 0:04:47They're built directly onto the granite bedrock,
0:04:47 > 0:04:52so there was little need for any foundations.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57When you look up, it makes you wonder how they got the walls so smooth.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02And, of course, where are the holes for the scaffolding?
0:05:06 > 0:05:10How could they make the archways so big?
0:05:17 > 0:05:22How could they vault such a large, cavernous space like this
0:05:22 > 0:05:26without using massive structural timbers?
0:05:30 > 0:05:37You can find out a lot about Smirke's building techniques and the way he went about doing things
0:05:37 > 0:05:42because of all the records he left behind at Eastnor castle.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46This is James, the current owner, who's got all these wonderful plans.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52- He's gonna read me a few letters about it. - We're very lucky we've kept these.
0:05:52 > 0:05:58It gives us a very good record of drawings and letters, describing the process.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00The first thing to notice
0:06:00 > 0:06:04is the huge amount of stone required.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07They were keen to quarry it locally,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12- so the original estimate is for a total bill of £82,000.- Incredible!
0:06:12 > 0:06:16They said, "We don't expect to take the stone more than five miles",
0:06:16 > 0:06:23but when they looked locally, the stone was mostly granite and they had to look elsewhere.
0:06:23 > 0:06:31"I'm sorry to say we must abandon all hope of procuring stone from the ground westward of the house".
0:06:31 > 0:06:37They looked further and the house came to be built from Forest of Dean sandstone.
0:06:37 > 0:06:44It's obvious Mr Smirke kept tight controls over his finances and accounting system.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48We've already seen this costing for the whole building of £82,000.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53Interestingly, at the end, it had cost £85,000 - only £3,000 over budget.
0:06:53 > 0:07:00This is interesting as it shows how he was drawing on craftsmen from around the country
0:07:00 > 0:07:05and there's obviously some very busy ones in London from Smith street...
0:07:05 > 0:07:12- One from Carlisle.- ..Then, at the bottom, he's put his own billing for £1,641, 11 shillings and tuppence.
0:07:12 > 0:07:18It's quite obvious he used a lot of new techniques for that period.
0:07:18 > 0:07:24Smirke was prepared to use modern methods, or what was becoming modern methods.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26He introduced cast iron.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31There was a shortage of wood at the time the castle was being built.
0:07:31 > 0:07:37- Although a lot was cut here, they still needed more... - Than they could find.- Yes.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41He used cast-iron beams to support the structure
0:07:41 > 0:07:49and to enable us to have these large roof spans which otherwise, could only have been managed with arches.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Fred, this is the biggest cast-iron beam we've got in the house.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57- You remember it on the drawings? - Yes.
0:07:57 > 0:08:04It's a cast-iron bearer fitted in 1818, just as the castle was being topped out.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10In an older building, there'd be a massive stone vault to support the superstructure.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15These are the ones who did the job, Mr Pen and Mr Worth, the joiners.
0:08:15 > 0:08:22- It's amazing there's only two of them - they must have been fantastic men.- They'd be the literate ones.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26They could write! There'd be a big army of labourers.
0:08:26 > 0:08:33Over here, there's something inscribed which describes one of the things that happened
0:08:33 > 0:08:36at the time the beam was fitted.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40"The memory of this day's events, July 13th 1818,
0:08:40 > 0:08:47"John Worth, George Clarke, George Botter, James Curry, all fined a quarter for being too late
0:08:47 > 0:08:51"by John Penn and JG - Clerk of Works".
0:08:51 > 0:08:56So, they missed out on a bit of money for turning up late.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01The reason for the great cast-iron beam at Eastnor castle
0:09:01 > 0:09:06is to actually hold up the the front wall of the tower.
0:09:06 > 0:09:12This wall on this tower is situated roughly halfway along the great hall.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17Instead of building a great, big arch like the Normans would have,
0:09:17 > 0:09:23they cast these two iron beams - held together by bolts with spear-headed nuts.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28The whole roof's made of iron - there's no wood at all.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The only wood is the ceiling of the great hall.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35When you get up there inside the roof space,
0:09:35 > 0:09:42they're all units - they're all pieces around eight feet long with dovetails on the end
0:09:42 > 0:09:48and mortis holes and pin holes and holes for keys to be knocked through.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53The rate of assembly would be very quick and there's no dry rot and wood worm -
0:09:53 > 0:09:58it'd be there in 1,000 years if you gave it a coat of tar every now and then.
0:09:58 > 0:10:05Mr Smirke made very clever use of cast iron in the building of the castle,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10not only for the structural part of it, but the ornamental bits as well.
0:10:10 > 0:10:16I mean, if you study this staircase, at first, it appears to be made of wood.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21But these posts are cast iron and the way they'd do this
0:10:21 > 0:10:28is to make a wooden pattern and bury that in the sand in a moulding box and then pour in the molten iron.
0:10:30 > 0:10:37The great beam in the rafters would be made in the same way, but on a mightier scale.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41It wasn't the only modern technique that Smirke used.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46In the letter, he mentions that he purchased a hydraulic engine.
0:10:46 > 0:10:53At this time, 1818, steam engines were being used to power various sorts of machinery,
0:10:53 > 0:10:58no doubt, stone saws and big wood saws and all sorts of things.
0:10:58 > 0:11:05In my garden, I've got a steam engine that can do the same things Smirke's men would've needed
0:11:05 > 0:11:08to build the castle.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19'It meant that great amounts of stone could be cut and made nice and smooth
0:11:19 > 0:11:24'in a fraction of the time it would have taken to do the job by hand.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29'One man could now do what hundreds were needed for in the past.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34'They were able to more or less mass produce beautiful detail and ornamentation.'
0:11:34 > 0:11:38It's this that I like about the Victorian era.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43That's why I've got so much of this sort of stuff in my house.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48This wonderful bit here came off the front of a shop somewhere
0:11:48 > 0:11:52and you couldn't see the detail, of course, for the paint.
0:11:52 > 0:11:59I boiled it up in caustic and all the paint came off, revealing this lovely fancy-work.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02It's made of pot - terracotta.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And then, the wonderful age of Victorian gas lighting.
0:12:06 > 0:12:13The trouble they went to! There must have been lots of leaks from the joints and taps.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18Up there, we've got some more terracotta lions' heads off a pub.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Even things like sports trophies were beautifully made.
0:12:22 > 0:12:30Me grandfather, with funny shorts, was a runner at the turn of the century and won wonderful things -
0:12:30 > 0:12:36French clocks and this palm tree with the cut-glass bowl on top.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39It's one of the nicer items that he won.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45It's been handed down over the years in the family and I've ended up with it.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49'When you're having building work done,
0:12:49 > 0:12:56'plasterers, tilers and joiners are as important as the men who built the place.
0:12:56 > 0:13:03'Once Eastnor castle had been built, they proceeded with the interior work and it was all pretty lavish.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08'This is the gothic drawing room which was re-decorated in 1849.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14'For me, it's the height of Victorian splendour and embellishment.
0:13:14 > 0:13:22'It's a very fine example of how good they were at decorating places back in them days.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30'The man responsible for the room was architect and designer, Augustus Welby Pugin.
0:13:30 > 0:13:36'Pugin had a great passion for the gothic architecture of the medieval cathedrals -
0:13:36 > 0:13:41'all those pointed archways and ornate stone work.'
0:13:41 > 0:13:45To him, gothic architecture wasn't just a passing fancy.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49He really believed in it with his heart and soul.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53'This is St Giles at Cheadle in Staffordshire,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58'which was designed by Pugin when he was at the height of his career.
0:13:58 > 0:14:05'He got together a team of craftsmen to provide the decorative detail for buildings like this.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09'I went to see how some of it was done.'
0:14:12 > 0:14:18Pugin's beautiful tile designs were actually manufactured by Herbert Minton.
0:14:18 > 0:14:25Chris is gonna let me have a go at making one in exactly the same way as they did.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28- Hiya, Fred.- All right.- OK...
0:14:28 > 0:14:32This is one of the earliest forms of decorative tile manufacture
0:14:32 > 0:14:36and this is very much a Pugin design.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40First, the light colours are pressed into the mould.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Then, the background clay is added.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Do you wanna have a go?
0:14:45 > 0:14:50- Go on.- There's the clay. Use your thumb and push it into the corners.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Hang on...I've not got enough on.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02That's it. Then take your cake of clay and just pat that on the surface.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Slap it down right in the middle.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07Boom!
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Then, you need to beat the clay in. Beat a row up the middle.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17That's consolidated the clay. The next job is to wire the surplus off.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Stretch your wire out taut...
0:15:23 > 0:15:27- It's quite hard stuff. - It is, isn't it?!
0:15:27 > 0:15:29We can get rid of that.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33That's it. That's enough. Pull it out.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35- That's the back stamp.- Mm-hm.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39There it is.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43'Once it's dry, we can release it round the edges.
0:15:43 > 0:15:50'We take a liquid version of the clay and pour it into the recesses left in the pattern.
0:15:50 > 0:15:56'The final stage in the process is to scrape away the surplus on top of the tile.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59'This is very time consuming.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04'As Minton became more successful, they had to find ways of speeding up production
0:16:04 > 0:16:11'and they started to use tile presses, beginning to semi-automate the process.
0:16:11 > 0:16:19'Even so, many of the printed designs still needed to be finished and glazed by hand.'
0:16:19 > 0:16:24So, you can see Pugin came up with a strange mixture of the old and new.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27He created some magnificent designs.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29He never stopped working.
0:16:29 > 0:16:36He did over 2,000 designs for the fixtures and fittings in the Houses of Parliament alone.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39'This was the job that made Pugin's name.
0:16:41 > 0:16:48'He got it as a result of the old Palace of Westminster burning down in 1834.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53'The commission to rebuild it had actually gone to someone else.
0:16:53 > 0:17:00'Sir Charles Barry was the main man for the classical style, popular at this time -
0:17:00 > 0:17:02'like Bolton Town Hall.
0:17:02 > 0:17:09'The contract stated that it had to be in the gothic style - not really his thing.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11'So, he turned to Pugin for help.'
0:17:11 > 0:17:18It was acceptable for Pugin to marry a modern building with the ancient gothic style
0:17:18 > 0:17:23and that's exactly what he did with the Houses of Parliament.
0:17:23 > 0:17:31One of these buildings was built at the time of Henry VIII and the other in the 1830s. Notice the difference?
0:17:31 > 0:17:33'You can't, and that's the point.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38'Pugin wanted something that would match Westminster Abbey next door.
0:17:38 > 0:17:46'What he and Barry did was to blend what was left of the medieval palace with their design.
0:17:46 > 0:17:53'They came up with a splendid new palace that would be a fitting home for Britain's government.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59'Work began in 1837
0:17:59 > 0:18:04'and the Pugin-Barry partnership was dead right for the job.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06'While Pugin looked after the detail,
0:18:06 > 0:18:12'Barry tackled the problem of how to build the palace in the first place.'
0:18:12 > 0:18:15As you can see, it's a building site today,
0:18:15 > 0:18:22but in 1836, it would have looked pretty similar, but for one or two things.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27There would've been quite substantial scaffolding, I should imagine.
0:18:27 > 0:18:34Not even fair-poles - big eight-inch square baulks of timber and really grand platforms for working on.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38There wouldn't have been any cement mixers.
0:18:38 > 0:18:45There'd have been a steam-driven mortar mill and of course lynches and cranage for lifting up the stones.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53The fence they erected to hide the work was made of wood in those days, not wire mesh.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58But behind it, the workmen would have been doing much as today -
0:18:58 > 0:19:00laying pavings, mixing mortar,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04flattening the surface with steam rollers...
0:19:04 > 0:19:11It would've been a hive of activity, using the most up-to-date machinery of the day.
0:19:13 > 0:19:20Even though it looks medieval, there's a lot of modern materials been used in its construction.
0:19:20 > 0:19:28In medieval times, everything were wrought iron - it had to be banged with a big hammer in a fire.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Here, there's great use of cast iron everywhere.
0:19:31 > 0:19:38The roof has cast iron plates and there are lots of girders and beams inside.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42So, although it mimics the cathedrals of the Middle Ages,
0:19:42 > 0:19:47the site would have looked very similar to them cathedrals,
0:19:47 > 0:19:53apart from the modern aids of the 1830s, like the steam engine.
0:19:53 > 0:20:00In order to get the foundations for the Houses of Parliament so close to the shoreline of the river,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05they came up with an ingenious solution of building a coffer damn -
0:20:05 > 0:20:12driving a great row of wooden piles into the bed of the river, making them safe and corking up the seams.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18They would pump the water out of the the banking side
0:20:18 > 0:20:25where they were gonna do the foundations for the wall of the Houses of Parliament.
0:20:25 > 0:20:33They, of course, would have had steam-driven pumps, but I'm siphoning it out - or most of it.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37That's it.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42The builders could now proceed to put in the foundations.
0:20:42 > 0:20:50They put a slab of concrete in ten-feet thick in the bottom and then, started with the masonry.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56And once the palace was built, it was left up to Pugin to decorate it's interior.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09'This is the interior of the House of Lords.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13'And here, Pugin used all his skills to make a grand statement.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18'He busied himself with every detail of the decoration
0:21:18 > 0:21:25'from the detailed carvings to every piece of its 1,100 items of furniture.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28'He even designed the wallpaper.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34'The original designs for Pugin's interiors were done by Crase Brothers
0:21:34 > 0:21:41'and here at Cole and Companies, they've got the actual original Pugin blocks.
0:21:41 > 0:21:48'These blocks were used to print Pugin's patterns onto sheets of wall paper.
0:21:48 > 0:21:54'You have to line it up with a mark and press down hard with a foot pedal.
0:21:54 > 0:22:01'There can be as many as seven different printing processes to go through.
0:22:03 > 0:22:10'Another method Pugin and Crase used was to print the pattern onto the wallpaper with glue
0:22:10 > 0:22:15'and then, stick flocking to it to give it a textured look.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21'They still beat it on today in the same way it was done in Pugin's time.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23'Pugin died in 1852,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28'but work on his designs for the Houses of Parliament went on.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33'In 1858, the Westminster clock tower was completed,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37'the one we call "Big Ben" after the bell inside it.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41'It stands 316-feet high
0:22:41 > 0:22:46'and 40-feet square and is constructed of Anston stone from Yorkshire.
0:22:46 > 0:22:52'By 1860, all the work had been completed
0:22:52 > 0:22:57'at a total cost of just under £2,200,000.
0:22:59 > 0:23:06'Big Ben has 334 steps leading up to the belfry and a further 59 to the lantern above.'
0:23:12 > 0:23:18When they built this tower, they installed a steam hoist
0:23:18 > 0:23:23to raise up all the machinery for the clock and the bells
0:23:23 > 0:23:28and all the cast-iron work that forms the lantern on top of Big Ben.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33When the job were finished they shifted it all out the bottom.
0:23:33 > 0:23:39They should have left the steam lynch cos this staircase is the only way up here...
0:23:39 > 0:23:43and believe me, it takes it out of you. Bloomin' heck!
0:23:46 > 0:23:51These are the original clockworks that have been here since 1859.
0:23:51 > 0:23:58It used to take six men eight hours to wind up the clock with these handles at each end,
0:23:58 > 0:24:03but nowadays, it's electrified, which has took a lot of hard graft out of it,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08but there are still certain bits that are hydraulic, like this one.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11This has got to be done once every two days.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15And it's thoroughly hard work, believe me.
0:24:22 > 0:24:29'The design of the mechanism followed strict requirements from the Astronomer Royal,
0:24:29 > 0:24:36'who wanted to ensure that no matter how hard the wind blows on the hands outside,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40'the rate of timekeeping remained constant.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42'They couldn't control temperature.
0:24:42 > 0:24:50'The pendulum expands and contracts with the heat, so these old pennies are used to adjust the weight.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55'Each penny makes the clock go faster by 2/5 of a second.'
0:24:55 > 0:25:00In 1976, they had an unbelievable disaster here in this tower.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The mechanism on the chiming side of the clock -
0:25:04 > 0:25:09the brakes failed and the weights began to descend inside the tower
0:25:09 > 0:25:16and reputedly reached the speed of 200 miles an hour, which would make these wheels go round at some speed.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20The centrifugal force got so great, the frame blew to pieces.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25It only took 13 hours to get the actual clock mechanism going again,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29but it took nine months to get the chime right.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37BELL STARTS TO CHIME
0:25:53 > 0:25:56BOING!
0:25:58 > 0:26:00BOING!
0:26:02 > 0:26:05BOING!
0:26:07 > 0:26:12I don't know what they'll say next week at the hearing-aid clinic.
0:26:16 > 0:26:23'There are four quarter bells which chime the introduction to the great hour-bell, Big Ben.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25'But it isn't the original Big Ben.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30'The original one was cast at Stockton-on-Tees,
0:26:30 > 0:26:36'but it shattered under the weight of the hammer when it was first hit.'
0:26:36 > 0:26:42Two months after this particular bell was installed, two more cracks appeared.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47You can see where they chiselled in to find the true depth of the crack.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49There were no radiography then.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54To solve the problem, they moved the bell round a quarter of a turn
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and reduced the hammer by almost half its weight.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09'The clock tower is the crowning glory of the Palace of Westminster
0:27:09 > 0:27:14'and it's one of the greatest and most recognisable national monuments
0:27:14 > 0:27:17'we've seen in "The Building of Britain".'
0:27:20 > 0:27:26While we've been going about on our travels, we've met craftsmen of all sorts -
0:27:26 > 0:27:30wallpaperers, plasterers, lead men, stone masons -
0:27:30 > 0:27:37and it's nice to know there are still craftsmen about who can do this type of work.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41'The big enemy now is time.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46'Everything comes and is erected in a matter of months and not years,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50'like it used to be in the olden days.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53'A stonemason working on a cathedral
0:27:53 > 0:27:59'got out of bed and his only great worry would be the sharpness of his chisel,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03'how good his hammer was and his dinner, maybe.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08'He'd work all day, possibly just for food and a gallon of bitter or ale.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12'To do a beautiful building job, it takes time.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16'They spent hundreds of years on some of these places
0:28:16 > 0:28:23'and what we see today is a wonderful example of Britain's creative genius over the centuries.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28'From the solid stonework of medieval castles and cathedrals
0:28:28 > 0:28:32'through the growth of the country house
0:28:32 > 0:28:36'to the elaborate grandeur of Victorian Gothic,
0:28:36 > 0:28:43'they're a credit to those whose vision, craft and sheer hard work have made Britain what it is today.'
0:28:49 > 0:28:54To find out more about "The Building of Britain", visit the website...