0:00:03 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented,
0:00:07 > 0:00:11and changed forever the way we recall our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16For the first time, we could see life through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Across this series, we'll bring these rare archive films back to life,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33We'll be inviting people with a story to tell to step on board
0:00:33 > 0:00:37and relive moments they thought were gone forever.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They'll see their relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face-to-face with their younger selves,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th century past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54This is the people's story, our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967
0:01:24 > 0:01:26to show training films to workers.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Today, it's been lovingly restored and loaded up with remarkable film footage,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34preserved for us by the British Film Institute,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42In this series, we'll be travelling to towns and cities across the country,
0:01:42 > 0:01:47and showing films from the 20th century that give us the Reel History Of Britain.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Today, we're pulling up in the 1930s,
0:01:57 > 0:02:02to hear some personal stories about working in Britain's great shipyards,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05which were once the wonder of the industrial world.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19This is the River Clyde on a raw morning in Glasgow.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22For decades, it was Glasgow's workshop and lifeline,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26and never more than in the 1930s, when many of the world's most famous
0:02:26 > 0:02:30and luxurious liners were launched from its banks around here.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Coming up, a glimpse of what life was like
0:02:38 > 0:02:40for a young Clydebank shipbuilder.
0:02:40 > 0:02:46It was booming with industry, shipbuilding, everything.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49And then all of a sudden, nothing.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52I travel up 150 feet
0:02:52 > 0:02:56for a bird's-eye view of a once-thriving shipyard.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Down here, right below here, in 1920,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02there were 10,000 people at work on this one yard.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Not on the Clyde as a whole, just on this one yard.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10And the courageous story of the unemployed shipyard workers of Jarrow.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14They destroyed the infrastructure. They pulled the cranes down,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16they took the machinery away,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19so there was no way you could come back from that.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33As I walk around today, it's hard to imagine that Clydebank
0:03:33 > 0:03:35was once a shipbuilding powerhouse.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38At one time, it was home to 38 shipyards,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42which employed over 100,000 workers.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48With so many men leaving work at the same time,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51the shipyards had to stagger their clocking-off times
0:03:51 > 0:03:54to avoid horrendous congestion on public transport.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59When a ship was "Clyde built", it meant something.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01It was a hallmark of excellence,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and some of the world's most famous ships,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08such as the Queen Mary and the QE2, were launched from these banks.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25At the dawn of the 20th century, Britain was the greatest ship-builder in the world.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The only way to transport goods, people and troops
0:04:28 > 0:04:30around the globe was by sea.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35In 1913, we produced 61% of the world's ships,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37and employed more than half a million men to build them.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Battleships, merchant vessels and great ocean-liners
0:04:44 > 0:04:48were launched down the slipways of 100 shipyards across the country,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54in places like Glasgow, Newcastle, Belfast and Barrow-in-Furness.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00During this boom time, a single yard could create up to 10,000 jobs,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03but it was a noisy, dirty, dangerous trade
0:05:03 > 0:05:05for those men who worked there.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09FILM ANNOUNCER: 'In these yards, at the height of Clyde-side prosperity
0:05:09 > 0:05:12'were built the Aquitania, the Lusitania,
0:05:12 > 0:05:14'and one-fifth of all the ships that sail the seven seas.'
0:05:14 > 0:05:20However, the 1930s were a period of decline for British shipbuilding.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Foreign competition, military cutbacks
0:05:22 > 0:05:28and the Wall Street crash of 1929 created a dramatic fall in demand.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33The close-knit shipyard communities that were once thriving
0:05:33 > 0:05:36suffered heavy job losses and crippling unemployment.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41By the end of the '30s, the fate of the shipyards was sealed.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49My guests today are gathered on the former site of the famous
0:05:49 > 0:05:51John Brown shipyard in Clydebank.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55They've come from all over the country to share with us
0:05:55 > 0:06:00their stories of Britain's once-mighty shipbuilding industry.
0:06:00 > 0:06:01That was 1927...
0:06:01 > 0:06:03They'll be showing us mementoes, photos
0:06:03 > 0:06:06and telling tales of incredible hardship.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14Some will be seeing the films we're about to screen for the very first time.
0:06:21 > 0:06:2578-year-old Charlie Grozier was a young boy in the 1930s
0:06:25 > 0:06:30and he grew up just a street away from the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44How will Charlie feel when we show him some rare archive film of the John Brown shipyard,
0:06:44 > 0:06:49recorded at a time when his father worked there as an engineer?
0:06:49 > 0:06:53When I saw that film, right away I'm going to say, "Oh, that's so-and-so."
0:06:53 > 0:06:55I wanted to see if I could see my father in it.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58You know, but it brings back memories.
0:07:01 > 0:07:02As chief engineer,
0:07:02 > 0:07:07Charlie's father helped to build the magnificent ocean liner RMS Queen Mary,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11seen here launching from the banks of the Clyde in 1934.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14A ship launch was a big event for the whole community,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18and although he was a very small boy, Charlie remembers it vividly.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23When the Queen Mary was launched,
0:07:23 > 0:07:28where we're sitting just now, she was just one up,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31and all the people were standing in the field there,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36and the backwash came right over, and they were all soaked
0:07:36 > 0:07:38from the knees downward,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41and then when the drag chains stopped the ship,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46she goes out and stops, and then the tugs take over
0:07:46 > 0:07:51and bring her into the basin to finish and get completed in there.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Watching her namesake leave the slipway
0:07:54 > 0:07:57was Queen Mary and her husband, King George V.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02It amazes you, when you think about it.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05If you throw a stone in the water, it sinks.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09But if you put a big ship in, it floats.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17The Queen Mary was over 80,000 tons and more than 1,000 feet in length.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19She took nearly six years to complete,
0:08:19 > 0:08:25and, at the time, was the largest and fastest passenger ship in the world.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28In 1936, she set off on her maiden voyage.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31It was an event Charlie will never forget.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36She was a way up above the houses,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39and you could look out and see it sitting there.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Great giant.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44A funnel came level with the crane,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47the Titan crane.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51And you can imagine, you're talking about 150 feet up.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53The Queen Mary was bound for New York,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56and thanks to an advance in film technology,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59she was captured by amateur film-maker James Blair,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and captured in vibrant colour.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06I remember the Queen Mary sticking five times
0:09:06 > 0:09:09going down the Clyde on her maiden voyage.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12She was just a beautiful ship,
0:09:12 > 0:09:17and you never imagined her being able to go down the Clyde, the size of her.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31At the age of 14, Charlie followed his father's footsteps into the shipyard
0:09:31 > 0:09:33and trained as a painter and decorator.
0:09:33 > 0:09:39A ship the size of the Queen Mary would need about 13,000 gallons of paint,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and could take six months to apply a first coat.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Charlie remembers some of the dangerous working conditions
0:09:46 > 0:09:48his colleagues endured.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52When they were painting the ship outside, the hull,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57and the men above were working, they weren't supposed to throw anything over.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01But you got folk that threw a pail of rubbish
0:10:01 > 0:10:05or something like that, and occasionally it would hit the painter
0:10:05 > 0:10:07and he'd nothing to hang onto.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11He's just sitting in a rope, a plank, painting it,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13standing up,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16and it would hit him, he'd fall into the basin.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20If he couldn't swim, you'd to dive in and get him!
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Shipbuilding was an industry that shaped the lives
0:10:24 > 0:10:27of British communities and cities throughout the last century.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Charlie remembers the devastating effects of its decline.
0:10:31 > 0:10:37It was booming with industry, shipbuilding, everything.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40And then all of a sudden, nothing.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42It's just a depression,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46and there's nothing much for any young person leaving school.
0:10:46 > 0:10:52Well, you never thought that shipbuilding would stop
0:10:52 > 0:10:57on the Clyde, and you never thought John Browns would be away.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Charlie's memories of his early life are as clear as ever.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07It's as if there's a camera in there going round and round,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11and I can sit there and write the whole story
0:11:11 > 0:11:13as if it happened last night.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17I'm back in John Browns. I'm 14. I'm painting ships.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22That's your memory, and that's gonna live with you until the day you die.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34It was great hearing Charlie's childhood memories of the Queen Mary.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38I'm now off to the very spot from which she was launched.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Those lines down there, very short, rather inconsequential,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49those lines are where the great ships Queen Elizabeth
0:11:49 > 0:11:51and Queen Mary were launched.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54From the shipyards once existing behind us, down they came here,
0:11:54 > 0:11:59into the Clyde, out to the mouth of the Clyde, and round the world.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03To find out more about the history of Glasgow's shipbuilding industry,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07I'm heading to the other side of the now-demolished John Brown shipyard
0:12:07 > 0:12:10for a closer look at the famous Titan crane.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16It was once used to hoist heavy machinery up onto the ships.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22But today, it's used to lift tourists up to one of the most impressive views of Glasgow.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25- Look at that.- Yeah, terrific. - Spectacular.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Travelling with me 150 feet to the top
0:12:28 > 0:12:32is the author and shipbuilding historian Anthony Burton.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Why did the ship-building industry grow so big here?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Because they had all the main ingredients that they needed.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41It was the age of the iron ship, not the wooden ship.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Here, they'd got the coal, they'd got the iron, they'd got all the raw ingredients.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49That's why London failed, it was too far away from everything.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52So if you've got everything at hand, it's just that much cheaper,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54that much easier and much more profitable.
0:12:54 > 0:13:00What sort of conditions did people endure while they were making ships?
0:13:00 > 0:13:02They were all built out in the open, for a start,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and if you think we're talking about people like riveters, for example,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09one of the things they had was they all went deaf.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13Something like the Queen Mary had ten million rivets in it,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16which had to be hammered into the hull.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21If you imagine that in an iron box, the noise was absolutely horrendous.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25And the platers, a ship isn't straight-sided,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27it's curved like that,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31and they were on little platforms, suspended, and they had no safety equipment at all.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34The safety hat was a flat cap.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37They had no industrial boots, which are compulsory nowadays.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41When you think of the sheer numbers involved in this industry,
0:13:41 > 0:13:46where we're standing, down here, right below here in 1920,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48there were 10,000 people at work on this one yard.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Not on the Clyde as a whole, just on this one yard.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55From the top of the Titan, it's clear that very little remains
0:13:55 > 0:13:59of Glasgow's once-prosperous shipbuilding industry.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02You can still see down here, you can just see cranes in the distance,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06and in fact that's one of the few working areas.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08There's a little picture which I've got here,
0:14:08 > 0:14:13you can see it's just ship after ship after ship after ship,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15all being built on this river.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20- Amazing, isn't it? - Just ships, end-to-end.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24All day on Reel History, shipbuilders and their families
0:14:24 > 0:14:27have been sharing with me their stories of what it was like
0:14:27 > 0:14:29to work in the great shipyards of Britain.
0:14:31 > 0:14:3579-year-old David Fleming worked at the famous
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Harland and Wolfe shipyard in Belfast.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40His father also worked there
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and helped build the most famous ship in the world.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48- That's the Titanic.- That's it. Yes, my father worked on that.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51- There's 4 million rivets, I think, on it.- 4 million rivets?
0:14:51 > 0:14:52That's a real collection.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58On board our mobile cinema,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01David's about to be taken on a journey back to a time
0:15:01 > 0:15:06when all the male members of his family worked in the local shipyard.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12What memories will it bring back for him?
0:15:15 > 0:15:17I lived in a street called Island Street
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and the shipyard was just behind us.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Two meadows, two railway lines and then Harland and Wolfe's.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29So we could hear the clang of the riveting, day and night.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35This rare film from 1910 shows the Harland and Wolfe shipyard
0:15:35 > 0:15:37when David's father worked there.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41At that time the Titanic was one year into construction
0:15:41 > 0:15:45but no identifiable shots of the famous ship were recorded.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Instead we see her nearly-completed sister ship, the SS Olympic,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51which was ready to launch.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54What job did your father have in the shipyard?
0:15:54 > 0:15:58He was just a red-leader. He red-leaded.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00- And, er... - What does that mean, red-leading?
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Well, the ship had to have a protective coating against rust.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Red lead, an anti-corrosive paint, was very toxic
0:16:07 > 0:16:11if the shipyard workers were exposed to it for long periods.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13But David's father faced other dangers.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17He was doing a bit of red-leading and he slipped and fell,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21and he fractured his shoulder blades.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23And, unfortunate, put him out of action.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27That suggests it was a dangerous place to work, the shipyards.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Well, I would say there was hardly a ship built...
0:16:30 > 0:16:36There was at least someone either badly maimed or killed.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39I remember one man, when they were putting a bilge plate
0:16:39 > 0:16:45underneath the ship, sling wires broke and the plate came down on him
0:16:45 > 0:16:49and he was carried over to the first aid but,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51by the time they got him there he was dead.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56Despite those dangers, David followed his father and brothers
0:16:56 > 0:16:58into the shipyard in 1947 as a 16-year-old apprentice.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03- What was your particular job there? - I was a plater.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04And what did a plater do?
0:17:04 > 0:17:08Well, a plater had to do most of the steelwork associated with the ship.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14- REPORTER:- 'Every plate and girder that comes into the yard has its own place,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18'not only in some part of that ship, but in the minds of the men who built her.'
0:17:18 > 0:17:23There was platers who had to shape the ship round by the bows
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and the stern.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29During the long, cold winters, it wasn't uncommon for shipbuilders
0:17:29 > 0:17:32to suffer from frostbite and the loss of digits
0:17:32 > 0:17:35when handling ice-cold steel.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39What did people who worked in the shipyards, what did they make of it?
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Did they think work was too hard and they were being...?
0:17:42 > 0:17:44I think men loved Harland and Wolfe.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46There was a great comradeship.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50It was a wonderful place to work, too, you know.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59It goes without saying that the tough life of a shipbuilder
0:17:59 > 0:18:02was a world away from the wealthy passengers who set sail
0:18:02 > 0:18:04in the luxury liners they built.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09It wasn't just men who gave their whole lives to shipbuilding.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Women were part of the workforce, too.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Maureen Masterson spent 42 years in the offices of Cammell Laird
0:18:16 > 0:18:22at Birkenhead, famous for building Navy vessels and nuclear submarines.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26This is the Freemantle Star. It was launched in 1959.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29And that's before the launch,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32and this is me, presenting the bouquet.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Shipbuilding was a family tradition for Maureen.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Now, what about these photographs here that you have?
0:18:40 > 0:18:46That's one of my grandfather who worked for 60-odd years
0:18:46 > 0:18:48in Cammell Laird, nearly 70 years.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52At one time there was about 10,000 people working in Laird's.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57Did people feel then that shipbuilding would last forever?
0:18:57 > 0:19:00I think so, yes, cos I'd grown up with shipbuilding,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03my grandfather worked there for a long time
0:19:03 > 0:19:08and it was always in our blood, shipbuilding, and the town,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11everybody had somebody worked in Cammell Laird's.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16At the end, there was just a few people left and all the offices
0:19:16 > 0:19:20were deserted, all the big sheds were deserted, you know.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23There was nothing left there but a handful of people,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27which was very sad after what it had been years ago.
0:19:29 > 0:19:30On board our mobile cinema,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35our films will bring Maureen face to face with the sort of conditions her grandfather
0:19:35 > 0:19:38would have faced as a shipbuilder in the 1930s.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51We used to live with my grandparents cos my father had died
0:19:51 > 0:19:55when we were young and we used to go and meet the bus
0:19:55 > 0:19:57when he came off the bus,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00because nobody had cars, so all the buses used to come up
0:20:00 > 0:20:03and all these men were sitting on the bus.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05And they'd have their greasy overalls
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and their cloth caps, you know.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09You always remembered the smell of their clothes.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Maureen's grandfather, John McGrath, worked as a boilermaker
0:20:14 > 0:20:16and then a welder at the Cammell Laird shipyard
0:20:16 > 0:20:20during the glory days of shipbuilding.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Cos it was hot, they used to dive, when he was younger, off one of the cranes
0:20:24 > 0:20:29and into the basin, which they wouldn't allow them to do now.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33Maureen watches one of our films showing the launch
0:20:33 > 0:20:38of the superliner RMS Queen Elizabeth at Clydebank in 1938.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42It brings back memories of the excitement she felt every time
0:20:42 > 0:20:45she saw a ship leave the Cammell Laird docks in Birkenhead.
0:20:45 > 0:20:51I always remember seeing, you know, the big ship on the slipway and, um,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53I remember everybody being excited
0:20:53 > 0:20:57and then they have like a maroon goes off and when that goes off
0:20:57 > 0:21:00it's sort of all quiet cos you know it's going to move,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and you wait there and it doesn't move, you know,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and you think it's not going to go
0:21:05 > 0:21:08and then slowly it starts to move and everybody cheers.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18And then you'd see it sail down and go into the Mersey
0:21:18 > 0:21:20and then it's gone.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22It always made me want to cry.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28I think it's emotional because it's taken them so long to build this ship.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40You could say that the launch of the Queen Elizabeth in 1938
0:21:40 > 0:21:43was the last great hurrah for British shipbuilding.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Britain's shipyards failed to modernise after the First World War.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51Demand for British-built plummeted
0:21:51 > 0:21:56when other countries started to produce ships cheaper and faster.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01The Government made a decision to buy and close 28 firms by 1937.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Thousands of shipbuilders up and down the country lost their jobs
0:22:05 > 0:22:09and one of the hardest hit areas was in the north-east.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17On board our mobile cinema is Tom Graham,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20a retired shipbuilder from Gateshead in Tyne & Wear.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Tom's father-in-law was a shipyard labourer
0:22:29 > 0:22:31and the last surviving Jarrow Crusader
0:22:31 > 0:22:35who marched in protest against unemployment and poverty.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40People in London, who had more than likely never been to Jarrow,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43didn't know nothing about the people,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47but just made a decision that there was an over-capacity in shipbuilding
0:22:47 > 0:22:50so let's do away with Jarrow, they're disposable.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Jarrow was surplus to requirements.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57When the Palmers shipyard closed down in 1935,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01unemployment in the town of Jarrow reached an unthinkable 70%.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06They destroyed the infrastructure.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09They pulled the cranes down, they took the machinery away,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12so there was no way you could come back from that.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15So, when you get something like that done to you,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18you get a kick in the teeth like that,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22there's the pride and the resentment that had to build up.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26They had to show the rest of the world and the country
0:23:26 > 0:23:27what they were made of.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34To highlight their plight, the shipbuilders and other unemployed men from Jarrow
0:23:34 > 0:23:37decided to march to London in protest.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41- NEWSREADER:- 'The Jarrow Petition to the Government for work for the thousands of unemployed
0:23:41 > 0:23:44'in what is probably the hardest-hit town in Britain
0:23:44 > 0:23:48'is being carried to London by the 200 members of the Jarrow Crusade.'
0:23:48 > 0:23:53Tom's father-in-law, Cornelius Whalen, known as Con,
0:23:53 > 0:23:54was one of those men.
0:23:54 > 0:24:01When they first set out, um, he thought it was a bit of an adventure
0:24:01 > 0:24:03but the more he went into it,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06it dawned on him what they were doing it for.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09They were carrying the banner for these people,
0:24:09 > 0:24:14and there was responsibility on their shoulders to behave properly
0:24:14 > 0:24:20on the march, to do it with dignity, which they did all the time.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Watching these newsreels of the Jarrow Crusaders sparks the hope
0:24:23 > 0:24:27that Tom might spot Cornelius in among the marchers.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32Seeing the film of the march, I was trying to scrutinise,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34see if I could find Con, the father-in-law,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38because in them days nobody...
0:24:38 > 0:24:40They were that poor that nobody didn't have cameras,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43so we don't have any photographs of him when he was a young lad.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Whether I would've recognised him at 27 I don't know
0:24:46 > 0:24:49cos I never knew him till he was in his fifties.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52It took the marchers a weary month to complete the 280-mile trek
0:24:52 > 0:24:59to London, but along the way they gathered a considerable amount of public support.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03They were very appreciative of the goodwill that was given to them
0:25:03 > 0:25:04in food and things.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07People in different places repaired their boots,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10they fed them, they slept on school floors.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15They said they were very appreciative of that and very respectful.
0:25:15 > 0:25:21And, well, for a march to go that long, there was no misbehaviour
0:25:21 > 0:25:25nor nothing. They all conducted their selves as gentlemen.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Sadly, the march and the petition of 12,000 signatures
0:25:28 > 0:25:30failed to make any impact on Parliament
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and there was no proposal to help the workers of Jarrow.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Cornelius passed away in 2003.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42He was the last survivor of the pilgrimage that captured a nation's imagination.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47To his family, he's a quiet hero and Tom remembers him fondly
0:25:47 > 0:25:50when he looks at this photo taken from a newspaper.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52He was about 88 at the time
0:25:52 > 0:25:56and I think, when you look at that photograph,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59you can still see the steely determination in his eye.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04You can still... For all he was 80 when that photograph was taken,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06his shoulders were back, the pride was there.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11I think he grew a couple of inches when the picture was taken because of the pride.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14And he knew what it meant and he knew why that picture was taken -
0:26:14 > 0:26:16because he was the last of the marchers.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19In 2002, as a tribute to Tom's father-in-law,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24Jarrow Brewery named a beer after him, called Old Cornelius.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26And not many people can claim that.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30- Old Cornelius. - He was the last of them.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33- The last... Oh, really?- Yes. - Isn't that great?
0:26:33 > 0:26:39- The last survivor of the Jarrow march. Con.- Aye.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42He didn't drink a lot.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46A joiner's labourer from Jarrow, he gets a beer named after him
0:26:46 > 0:26:49and he gets his obituary in the Times.
0:26:49 > 0:26:50HE LAUGHS
0:26:50 > 0:26:51How wonderful!
0:26:51 > 0:26:54- That's good, isn't it?- Cheers. THEY LAUGH
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Tom worked at the one of Britain's last surviving shipyards,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Swan Hunter in North Tyneside.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10In 1996 it closed for business after 130 years,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13but left two of its iconic cranes standing until 2010...
0:27:13 > 0:27:17EXPLOSIONS
0:27:19 > 0:27:22..when they were blasted with dynamite.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29A hundred years ago, British shipbuilders ruled the waves,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34producing more ships than the rest of the world put together.
0:27:36 > 0:27:37But by the 1980s
0:27:37 > 0:27:41we accounted for less than 1% of the world's output.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Without those shipbuilders' dedication,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Britain would never have been the world leader it once was.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52It was a harsh existence, but one their families can surely be proud of.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56Their legacy is the world's greatest ships.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Time for us to set sail from the Clyde.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Next time on Reel History, we're in Leicestershire to remember
0:28:06 > 0:28:08the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11We had the tables all set up, we had lots of games,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14lots of music and lots of races.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17You think you forget the things but, once you see the film
0:28:17 > 0:28:18it all comes back to you about the day.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:29 > 0:28:33E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk