:00:16. > :00:19.Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales. It's been here for tens of
:00:19. > :00:25.thousands of years - carved out by the melting waters of ice age
:00:25. > :00:31.glaciers. If you look over the edge, it's hard to imagine that this was
:00:31. > :00:34.once a colossal waterfall as big as There's history under your feet
:00:34. > :00:44.here. Close by, one of Yorkshire's most important rivers springs to
:00:44. > :00:48.life with countless stories wrapped up in its progress. We will be
:00:48. > :00:54.tracing the river's course, discovering some of the history
:00:54. > :01:04.over thousands of years. We travel back in time a long one of the most
:01:04. > :01:17.
:01:17. > :01:25.important waterways of the North. Malham Tarn - the highest lake in
:01:25. > :01:28.England. And the start of a seventy mile journey above ground and below.
:01:28. > :01:31.As the water drains from Malham Tarn, it begins an underground
:01:31. > :01:38.journey going on a few miles south of here to become the small
:01:38. > :01:43.beginnings of the River Aire. Gordale Scar. A tiny beck trickles
:01:43. > :01:45.down the mile long canyon and on through Malham village. Then, this
:01:45. > :01:52.little stream joins the water that went underground at Malham Tarn,
:01:52. > :01:58.bubbling to the surface at a place called Aire Head. Then, the journey
:01:58. > :02:00.of the River Aire begins. There's layer upon layer of history here. A
:02:00. > :02:05.landscape so familiar that it's surprising to discover what once
:02:05. > :02:15.roamed the gentle countryside. Just ask Tom Lord - an amateur Historian,
:02:15. > :02:18.
:02:18. > :02:25.with a passion for the Dales. is a limestone country. We have
:02:25. > :02:29.springs and caves. In the caves, bones from the for the last Ice Age
:02:29. > :02:35.have survived. This does not look like a Shi'ites tooth. That is
:02:35. > :02:40.rhinoceros. A rhinoceros, it is unbelievable people pay a fortune
:02:40. > :02:46.to go on safari and hundreds of thousands of years ago you could
:02:46. > :02:50.see it here. This would be a Yorkshire safari, we would see
:02:50. > :02:56.hippopotamus in Leeds and all the way up and on high ground as it
:02:56. > :03:02.gets more open and grassy, rhinos, elephants and packs of hyenas
:03:02. > :03:08.hunting the big animals. And then people come and the record for
:03:08. > :03:13.people is really quite curious because this bone here... This is
:03:13. > :03:19.not a human bone. It is a wild horse bone. But it is telling a
:03:19. > :03:27.story. This is the first The to Brit behind the skull and if we
:03:27. > :03:32.turn it over, you can see a tiny scratch. Those are not tooth marks.
:03:32. > :03:40.Those are the marks made by a stone tool cutting the horse's head off.
:03:40. > :03:46.This is a wild horse that was hunted and it has been butchered.
:03:46. > :03:51.This is the earliest evidence we have of people coming back into the
:03:52. > :03:58.valley at the earliest evidence of people coming back into Yorkshire
:03:58. > :04:01.after the last glaciation. This bone has been dated at 14,400 years
:04:01. > :04:04.ago. The River Aire meanders steadily across limestone country
:04:04. > :04:10.and before long it flows past its first major town the Gateway to the
:04:10. > :04:17.Dales. Here's another name for your trivia stockpot, Sheep Town, the
:04:17. > :04:21.It's a town that used to make a healthy living from livestock and
:04:21. > :04:27.wool. Now it's still a market town, but the trade is for tourists and
:04:27. > :04:31.trippers and locals with an eye for a bargain. There's one place in
:04:31. > :04:37.town though that seems like it's never changed. Permanent and
:04:37. > :04:40.protective. Skipton Castle. During the English Civil War Skipton
:04:40. > :04:43.Castle was the last standing stronghold of the Royalists. It's
:04:43. > :04:53.amazing to think it stood up to a siege that lasted three brutal
:04:53. > :04:56.
:04:56. > :05:04.It held out for so long because of the way the castle was built, five
:05:04. > :05:09.hundred years before. It is a perfect fortress. The front is
:05:09. > :05:13.built on bedrock and behind a massive gorge and that makes it
:05:14. > :05:22.impregnable from the back because you cannot attack. It is sheer
:05:22. > :05:29.precipice. There was a massive outer wall, a 12 ft big, it was
:05:29. > :05:35.protected and there were guns. Very powerful guns. How much did local
:05:35. > :05:40.people have to do with a castle surviving in the siege? An integral
:05:40. > :05:50.part. It was a strong loyalist area. People want to supply the cars with
:05:50. > :05:50.
:05:50. > :05:54.food and there was Cole to heat the castle and there was led mind. The
:05:54. > :05:58.parliamentarians want to cut off the water supply which they did.
:05:58. > :06:05.They did not take into account the good Yorkshire weather. Never short
:06:05. > :06:09.of rainfall. A quarter of an acre of roof space which gathers water
:06:09. > :06:12.in a rainy period. There was enough water for drinking and cleanliness
:06:12. > :06:15.purposes and they were quite comfortable. The history of Skipton
:06:15. > :06:18.Castle is inseparable from the Clifford family, who owned it for
:06:18. > :06:21.generations. The formidable Lady Anne Clifford stood firm for the
:06:21. > :06:25.King in the Civil War and restored the damaged Castle after the
:06:25. > :06:35.fighting. She planted a yew tree in the courtyard to mark it's
:06:35. > :06:36.
:06:36. > :06:39.completion. 350 years later and Now the Castle has new owners. The
:06:39. > :06:49.Fattorini family have lived here since the 1950s and are keeping the
:06:49. > :06:50.
:06:50. > :06:53.building alive for future generations. The castle came for
:06:53. > :06:58.sale and no-one would to the expense and there wasn't anybody
:06:58. > :07:04.about to take it on. The National Trust did not want it at that time.
:07:04. > :07:08.The local council did not want it. I am the third generation and we
:07:08. > :07:14.are still repairing it and the visitors help us keep on top of the
:07:14. > :07:20.jobs. It is rare to have a privately owned Castle. What is it
:07:20. > :07:25.like to live in? It is very cold in winter! I imagine it is freezing.
:07:25. > :07:31.It is cold and damp, probably not good for arthritis if you haven't
:07:31. > :07:37.got it and if you haven't, you will get it! But it is great fun. It is
:07:37. > :07:41.like an old car. It is fun to drive, needs a lot of looking after but
:07:41. > :07:45.you don't have all the comforts. the nineteenth century, it wasn't
:07:45. > :07:48.the River Aire but another stretch of water that would bring wealth to
:07:48. > :07:58.Skipton. The newly opened Leeds and Liverpool Canal was an important
:07:58. > :08:00.
:08:00. > :08:06.and lucrative method of transport. The main purpose was to get cold
:08:06. > :08:14.here and to get from Skipton limestone, cotton, wool and flour
:08:14. > :08:20.and grain. It was the major link to Leeds and Liverpool. What does the
:08:20. > :08:27.canal mean now? The amount of tourists it fetches is massive.
:08:27. > :08:31.Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. The ONS the canal is an amazing way
:08:31. > :08:37.to see the history Skipton has. just get income any town with a
:08:37. > :08:41.canal, the history is there to be seen from a different angle. You
:08:41. > :08:48.can sort of work out how life went on for the boatmen who worked on
:08:48. > :08:53.the canal and the trade, and what was loaded and unloaded and how it
:08:53. > :08:57.worked. It was the main supply and to the railways. It is great.
:08:57. > :09:01.the Aire valley now, trading countryside for industry. Through
:09:01. > :09:06.Keighley and on to the most famous Victorian village in the world.
:09:06. > :09:09.Saltaire. Industrialist Sir Titus Salt wanted healthy workers so he
:09:09. > :09:12.moved them from his five factories in the heavily-polluted Bradford
:09:12. > :09:22.area to here - the banks of the River Aire where he built the
:09:22. > :09:23.
:09:23. > :09:26.biggest and most modern factory in Salt had made a fortune from wool
:09:26. > :09:35.and the textile industry now he used his vast wealth to build not
:09:35. > :09:37.just a factory but an entire village. Salts Mill was a cathedral
:09:38. > :09:47.of industry, 1200 looms, 4000 workers producing eighteen miles of
:09:48. > :09:50.
:09:50. > :09:55.cloth a day. This is a fully integrated factory and all the
:09:55. > :09:59.processes of production are under one roof. It is not like Bradford
:09:59. > :10:03.with different mills for different processes. You put it in at one end
:10:03. > :10:07.and out of the other comes a suit length. Everything was done under
:10:07. > :10:09.one roof. And that was new. Everything about Salts Mill was new.
:10:09. > :10:15.The workers' lives were as regimented and mapped out as the
:10:15. > :10:18.streets they lived in. For 50 years Frank Senior worked in the factory.
:10:18. > :10:28.Few were well paid, but Frank knew the living conditions in Saltaire
:10:28. > :10:29.
:10:29. > :10:35.were a world away from the dirt and grime many still had to endure.
:10:35. > :10:42.When Sir Titus Salt builds this, the working conditions in Bradford
:10:42. > :10:52.were horrendous. Disease was rampant. And the people to be
:10:52. > :10:52.
:10:52. > :10:55.offered a job in a brand-new mill with houses, with toilets, outdoors,
:10:55. > :11:01.it was paradise. As the village took shape, Sir Titus joined his
:11:01. > :11:05.name with the river that had built fortune. He christened it Saltaire.
:11:05. > :11:11.He built houses and a church. He built shops, a library and a school.
:11:11. > :11:15.And the streets carried the names of his children. If you lived here,
:11:15. > :11:20.though, you lived by Salt's law. There was no pub, no demon drink.
:11:20. > :11:30.No washing was allowed to hang in the streets. But there was, though,
:11:30. > :11:33.
:11:33. > :11:39.a real sense of community. A very busy place. If you saw the mill
:11:39. > :11:43.breaking up for meals, it was like crowds going to a football match.
:11:43. > :11:49.The weaving and all of the looms clattering away. The noise was
:11:49. > :11:56.horrendous. People like my mother who had been working there were
:11:56. > :11:59.long time, they learnt to lip-read and they would constantly... How do
:11:59. > :12:02.you do this, how do you do that? The Saltaire History Club are
:12:02. > :12:12.keeping the community spirit alive organising guided walks and other
:12:12. > :12:13.
:12:13. > :12:19.fundraising events for the village. He said nobody can p in the River!
:12:19. > :12:24.We have flashes. If you lost your job in the mill, you were picked
:12:24. > :12:34.out of your house. Titus Salt would not allow you to live here if he
:12:34. > :12:36.
:12:36. > :12:40.They can take pride in history, they only have to walk through the
:12:40. > :12:44.streets and they are walking along the same pavements but workers used
:12:44. > :12:50.to come in their clogs and the shawls and there is a sense of
:12:50. > :12:56.history walking around. And it's true. Before you know it, a place
:12:56. > :13:01.like this gets under your skin. formed art groups, festivals, World
:13:01. > :13:09.Heritage weekend, it is the people in the village that put the streets
:13:09. > :13:18.back, not the council -- the street signs. There is no other village in
:13:18. > :13:25.the world like this. Titus Salt looked at a site before Psalter.
:13:25. > :13:28.Burley in Wharfedale, he was ready to sign up for that sight but as
:13:28. > :13:33.late for the appointment and somebody else got in there. If he
:13:33. > :13:36.had bought the site before Saltaire it would be sold war. The village
:13:36. > :13:39.is now a world heritage site, recognised for its international
:13:39. > :13:45.influence on town planning. The houses meant for his workers are
:13:45. > :13:48.smart, well kept and no doubt a tidy investment, too. I'm sure Sir
:13:48. > :13:54.Titus would still recognise the place, though and be more than a
:13:54. > :13:58.little proud. He'd be proud how history has treated him and his
:13:58. > :14:04.reputation. It took Sir Titus the last years of his life to complete
:14:04. > :14:09.the job but he was determined to do it. After 25 years of building work,
:14:09. > :14:17.the last brick was laid in 1876. Sir Titus Salt's vision was
:14:17. > :14:21.complete. Later that year, he died. Sir Titus Salt is buried in the
:14:21. > :14:25.Church he built for the village. And it's said a hundred thousand
:14:25. > :14:35.people lined the streets for his funeral. A remarkable tribute to a
:14:35. > :14:38.The Aire's skirting Bradford now, heading for Leeds. On the way
:14:38. > :14:42.though, we've time for a quick look at the blessing of another
:14:42. > :14:47.Victorian legacy. In the mid- nineteenth century, William
:14:47. > :14:49.Stansfield of Esholt Hall couldn't abide the stench from the river. He
:14:49. > :14:52.complained to the council and now, six generations later, Stansfield's
:14:52. > :15:02.stately home finds itself right in the middle of Yorkshire's largest
:15:02. > :15:09.
:15:09. > :15:15.water treatment plant. At that time, 100 years ago, the Wall Industry in
:15:15. > :15:20.Bradford was massive. 20% of the wall was washed in Bradford. But
:15:20. > :15:25.the waste had a massive impact on the River Aire. It basically killed
:15:25. > :15:30.the river, the smell of the river was horrendous. It came past the
:15:31. > :15:36.hole, Stansfield had a battle with the Bradford Corporation to do
:15:36. > :15:41.something. Eventually, the corporation compulsorily purchase
:15:41. > :15:44.the land to build the first sewage treatment facility here. With over
:15:44. > :15:52.a square mile of treatment works, the scale of Esholt takes your
:15:52. > :15:57.breath away. It is hard to imagine there were no sewage works so all
:15:57. > :16:02.of the waste was going into the river. It was. There was no
:16:02. > :16:07.treatment and the river could not cope. It was dead. It was a very
:16:07. > :16:13.smelly and not pleasant. I know the waste is going through the cleaning
:16:13. > :16:18.process. Could it look like that. It would have looked similar,
:16:18. > :16:22.absolutely dead and smelt horrendous. And that brings
:16:22. > :16:24.illnesses in the Victorian days people buried in that. Yes, and
:16:24. > :16:29.possibly used the water for drinking. It does not bear thinking
:16:29. > :16:38.about these days. In terms of the waste due process. What is the
:16:38. > :16:42.average. We normally treats up to 3,200 litres a second. Per second?
:16:42. > :16:47.Per second. But is a lot of waste coming through. A huge amount of
:16:47. > :16:50.waste. It is. By the end of the 19th century before this place was
:16:50. > :16:53.built, the River Aire would have looked something like this. No
:16:53. > :16:58.wonder it was such a killer. Now, thanks to purification, the waste
:16:58. > :17:06.coming into this place goes out looking like this. Cleaner than the
:17:06. > :17:08.Further down the Aire valley next stopping at one of Yorkshire's most
:17:08. > :17:18.familiar sights the evocative ruins of a twelfth century Cistercian
:17:18. > :17:21.
:17:21. > :17:24.We are over half way now, on the northern outskirts of Leeds. And
:17:24. > :17:29.this is regarded as one of the most important historical buildings in
:17:29. > :17:34.the city. Although the way it's been treated in the past, you
:17:34. > :17:37.wouldn't necessarily think so. Kirkstall Abbey. The monks who
:17:37. > :17:47.built the abbey in the twelfth century had found their ideal spot
:17:47. > :17:51.close to water, in the dense forests of the Aire valley. When
:17:51. > :17:56.the are but found this spot, he was delighted. It was a wooded area by
:17:56. > :17:59.the river and it was on the right axis east to west. Henry VIII saw
:17:59. > :18:02.the abbey closed and sold off though and at one time the owners
:18:02. > :18:12.actually allowed the main road to run straight through the middle of
:18:12. > :18:12.
:18:13. > :18:18.the nave. It became private in 1539 but nobody cared, it was just land.
:18:18. > :18:23.Basically, it was just left. They pulled the walls down and the doors
:18:24. > :18:27.and windows out. They let it go to rack and ruin. The road ran through
:18:27. > :18:37.the church. There is graffiti on the walls were people carve their
:18:37. > :18:37.
:18:37. > :18:44.names. And it has also used as a forest. Yes, the last set of ruins
:18:44. > :18:47.was the Infirmary and the stone was used for Leeds Bridge. -- a quarry.
:18:47. > :18:52.Some say that's just an early urban legend. But whether it's true or
:18:52. > :18:58.not, Kirkstall Abbey is simply lucky to be still standing.
:18:58. > :19:01.On through the suburbs of Leeds, now and into the city centre. If
:19:01. > :19:11.you're looking for clues to the industrial past of a great city
:19:11. > :19:16.
:19:16. > :19:21.like Leeds, there's no better way The waterway is the key
:19:21. > :19:26.communication link of the town and it was fundamental to prosperity.
:19:26. > :19:32.They used to say Leeds was a city of 1000 trades and it's true. You
:19:32. > :19:41.could hardly think of anything but was not made in Leeds.
:19:42. > :19:47.important is the River Aire to Leeds 6 S? It was fundamental. The
:19:47. > :19:53.first railway came in the 1830s. Until that point, for the largest
:19:53. > :19:57.air transport of heavy bulky goods, the waterways are everything. The
:19:57. > :20:02.culmination -- combination of the River Aire and Leeds-Liverpool
:20:02. > :20:07.canal meant you had the M62 of its day really and that meant Leeds was
:20:07. > :20:13.connected directly by transport to America or connected by transport
:20:13. > :20:22.to the Continent. That meant Leeds in the clothing industry and cloth
:20:22. > :20:26.industry, the world was your oyster. We are coming up to Leeds Bridge
:20:26. > :20:32.and this was the original crossing points of the river. This was
:20:32. > :20:37.hugely important. Almost all of the people who brought their cloth into
:20:37. > :20:42.Leeds from the West Riding came over this bridge and the cloth
:20:42. > :20:45.market was held on the bridge in the 17th century until it moved
:20:45. > :20:55.higher up where the wall and cloth market was one of the wonders of
:20:55. > :20:59.the world. On the left we have the remains of the enormous, 10 story,
:20:59. > :21:04.where house building. You can see how the modern building has been
:21:04. > :21:09.put on the stone basement of this 1820s building and this was the
:21:09. > :21:14.centre of Leeds docks as they are created in 1,700. What could we
:21:14. > :21:20.have pictured here? You would have seen a host of barges and boats
:21:20. > :21:25.pulled up. We would have seen cream factories, warehouses on the
:21:25. > :21:35.quayside but a hive of activity. You could walk across the river
:21:35. > :21:46.
:21:46. > :21:56.Kevin Grady has no doubt why so many people have a real and genuine
:21:56. > :21:57.
:21:57. > :22:01.interest in their own local history. Continuity of history and people's
:22:01. > :22:06.place in a sequence of history is important in how you feel about
:22:06. > :22:12.yourself and how you fit in and the progress. Particularly now the
:22:12. > :22:17.River Aire and its banks are for people sprayed round -- playground,
:22:17. > :22:20.when they come a long they enjoy the quality of experience and
:22:20. > :22:30.understand why the buildings are there. It increases people's
:22:30. > :22:32.
:22:32. > :22:36.Now we're heading south east from Leeds, to a place familiar to
:22:36. > :22:42.millions of motorists. The giant cooling towers of Ferrybridge Power
:22:42. > :22:46.Station. This is an ancient crossing place where the Great
:22:46. > :22:51.North Road bridges the Aire. In the fifteenth century just up the road
:22:51. > :22:53.near Tadcaster Britain's bloodiest- ever battle was fought at Towton.
:22:54. > :23:03.Only the day before, though, Ferrybridge witnessed its own
:23:04. > :23:06.
:23:06. > :23:09.The Wars of the Roses was a fight for the throne that went on for
:23:09. > :23:12.years - north against south, brother against brother. The House
:23:12. > :23:18.of Lancaster held a wooden bridge at Ferrybridge but the Yorkist
:23:18. > :23:26.armies we're determined to take it and march north. It was going to be
:23:26. > :23:30.brutal. The Yorkists knew they had to get
:23:30. > :23:36.the army across the River Aire to face the Lancastrians. They chose
:23:36. > :23:40.this points to cross. What they found was the Lancastrians were
:23:40. > :23:48.holding the bridge in some numbers. For several hours, page writer
:23:48. > :23:51.forced across. It must have been absolutely carnage. The Yorkists
:23:51. > :23:59.were on their way to eventual victory at Towton. But many would
:23:59. > :24:04.die before battle was done. context, during the D-Day landings,
:24:04. > :24:09.the allied forces attacked Omaha Beach and lost 2000 men against an
:24:09. > :24:14.entrenched defender. In those days, they had machine-guns, artillery
:24:14. > :24:18.fire and mortars. During the Wars Of the Roses, this attack on the
:24:18. > :24:23.River Aire where they lost 3,000, imagine the carnage that took place
:24:23. > :24:27.when all they had was longbows, crossbows and swords? Motorways and
:24:27. > :24:29.roads cut through the landscape of Ferrybridge. Thousands and
:24:29. > :24:36.thousands of drivers speeding across the history beneath them, a
:24:36. > :24:38.history almost hidden by concrete and industry. It may not look like
:24:38. > :24:44.much now but just use your imagination because for thousands
:24:44. > :24:47.of years this whole landscape was of huge importance. Where there's
:24:47. > :24:56.now motorways and a power station, there was the Ferrybridge Henge a
:24:56. > :25:00.place of ritual, worship and burial. Ferrybridge is the furthest south
:25:00. > :25:03.of all of Yorkshire's ancient henges. It was probably a series of
:25:03. > :25:08.circular ditches and banks, likely to date back five thousand years -
:25:08. > :25:11.a monument of great importance. Now though, Ferrybridge henge lies
:25:11. > :25:21.hidden underground between the power station and the busy motorway
:25:21. > :25:23.
:25:23. > :25:30.network. You really do need an archaeologist's eye to spot it.
:25:30. > :25:35.henge is an earthwork enclosure, large and secular. Placed here as
:25:35. > :25:40.in the other major river valleys, there is a henge because it is the
:25:40. > :25:45.lowest crossing point. What was the henge used for? Probably a
:25:45. > :25:51.gathering place where you took rituals and as a place where you
:25:51. > :25:54.exchanged goods. For traders will. Yes, and social contact. In 2003
:25:54. > :25:57.Blaise Vyner and his team made another discovery at Ferrybridge. A
:25:57. > :26:05.chariot two and a half thousand years old and the remains of the
:26:05. > :26:11.man who was buried with it. He was in his forties, we do not know what
:26:11. > :26:17.he died of. Presumably wealthy. He had a following which ensued he had
:26:17. > :26:22.a flashy burial. And he's sure the finds are all connected. They are
:26:22. > :26:27.part of a rich were landscape. It emphasises the fact Ferrybridge
:26:27. > :26:34.with a henge, the burial where people came to for a long period of
:26:34. > :26:40.time. Maybe the henge site and dislocation is important richly
:26:40. > :26:46.until maybe a 1000 years ago. do you think the history has been
:26:46. > :26:51.lost? Well, because of the intensity of industrial development
:26:51. > :26:55.in West Yorkshire. Looking around us now, industry is what dominates
:26:55. > :27:00.the landscape. What does not dominate his archaeology. You have
:27:00. > :27:06.a job to see it. You have to go elsewhere to see the major wonders.
:27:06. > :27:11.You have to go to Thorn brother really, further north but you will
:27:11. > :27:16.see big earthwork enclosures exactly what was here. A very
:27:16. > :27:22.significant sites of the kind we do not envisage being at Ferrybridge.
:27:22. > :27:27.It was eroded out of the landscape. What does it tell us about history?
:27:27. > :27:32.In the last 200 years, we have been more interested in industry and
:27:32. > :27:36.economic development. Increasingly, and if you look at the interest in
:27:36. > :27:39.the Jarryd burial, there is a growing interest in the past and
:27:39. > :27:49.our origins and development and Ferrybridge is a good place to see
:27:49. > :27:52.
:27:52. > :28:00.The last leg of the journey, now. Ferrybridge to Airmyn, close to
:28:00. > :28:10.Goole. It's where the Aire flows into another great Yorkshire River,
:28:10. > :28:18.
:28:18. > :28:21.and then onto the Humber and the This is where the journey ends.
:28:21. > :28:26.Who'd have thought, 71 miles could carry with it tens of thousands of
:28:26. > :28:29.years of history? Starting with the little trickle in Malham Tarn all