From the Dales to the Sea The Great British Story: Regional Histories

Here in the north, we have a remarkable history. From Anglo-

Saxon times to today, we've shaped our landscape and it has shaped us.

It's what gives us a proud sense of identity. For a fascinating glimpse

into our past, I am going to be travelling from the dales to the

sea, to reveal our part in the Great British story. My journey

will take me all along the River Wear. I'll be looking for clues

about our history, and revealing how you too can unearth stories

about where you live. It's a tale of battles and rebellion, power and

resistance. It's not just about kings and queens, but ordinary

souls who forged a proud northern identity. In rural County Durham

you will find one of England's oldest buildings. It's not only

still standing, but is still being used for its original purpose.

Imagine how impressive a sight this must have been to the first

Christians well over 1,000 years ago. Escomb is only one of three

complete Anglo-Saxon churches in England. If you know how to read

the signs, these old buildings can provide pretty interesting clues to

our past. Early Christians chose sacred pagan sites to convert the

locals. They'd start by placing a simple wooden cross out in the open,

but in Escomb there was no shortage of building materials. The church

was built round about 670. But how have you got a church that old made

of stone? Simply because the fort at Binchester, the Roman fort was

disused, and like a lot of farmers around about here at the time did,

they took the stone. So they pinched the stone from the Romans?

No, they recycled it. And you can see that in parts of it, can't you?

That stone down there. You can see the Sixth Legion stone. There's a

ledge out over the top of it to protect it. That's upside down.

There's a mounting stool, which you can see the steps, which are in

there, which would have been used for mounting horses in the fort,

and there is the stone up there, which has got the grooves cut in

with the chariot wheels. It would have been part of the entrance.

the Anglo-Saxons didn't just take leftovers from earlier inhabitants.

They also made their own mark on the building. Time in those days

wasn't of the utmost importance, like it is today. Life was much

slower. There we have the old Saxon sundial. There are three grooves

which are cut into the sundial, so when the shadow of the sun fell

across those grooves, they were the three times in the day when the

order would have been called to prayer. That's what their lives,

their daily lives were built around. So it's not very accurate, but I

guess it doesn't really matter, as long as they were there those three

times to pray. It's remarkable what a humble church building in a

village can reveal about our past. So imagine what we will find in a

city like Durham, with its magnificent Cathedral, perched high

on the outcrop of rock, almost surrounded by the River Wear.

Durham is steeped in history, but one part of the city that has lain

undisturbed for centuries is just revealing its hidden treasures, and

somewhere round here I'm supposed to be meeting an archaeologist. And

there he is! Hello Helen. Hello Gary. You nearly finished? Give us

15 minutes and I'll see you the other side of bridge. Gary's

archaeological dig is under water. Amongst the silt, his trained eye

can spot something of interest. This is a silver coin, perhaps lost

over the side of the bridge, or dropped into the water for good

luck. It's amazing what gets discarded on the bank of the river,

and Gary has found hundreds of objects that tell the story of

Durham's citizens down the ages. This is what you saw me find on the

river bed. This is a hammered silver penny from the reign of

Edward IV. We can date this to 1471. Just next to the king's head there,

there's three little pellets. That's a trefoil, and on the

reverse, in between the cross you will see a capital D. That means it

comes from the Durham mint here in the city. It was minted 100 metres

away from where we are now. I can't believe it has survived down there

for all that time. That's special. That's really nice. But have you

got any idea what these are? They look like coins. They're cloth

seals. They were attached to cloth and it was a sign of the quality or

evidence of where it was manufactured. So a bit like a

hallmark on jewellery. Exactly. This particular one here, that

large letter A, that is from Augsburg, in Germany. So that has

come hundreds of miles. This is proof, isn't it, of how important

Durham was. It is. Durham was a very affluent city, lot of

manufacture, local manufacture taking place, and lots of money.

But why have they all ended up at the bottom of river? Because there

was so many of these cloth seals attached to a section of cloth,

they were a bit of a nuisance. You can imagine young boys picking them

up and throwing them in the river for a bit of fun. Nobody had found

cloth seals in Durham until Gary excavated the river bed to reveal

the full extent of the city's bustling textile trade. His

collection of 230 seals, spanning 400 years, is the largest

collection outside of London, and is of national importance.

Underwater archaeology takes skill. You need permission, and it's not

without danger. But each discovery has spurred the full-time fireman

to take his love of history further, and he's now studying for an

archaeology degree at Durham. Of the hundreds of items given up by

the river, he has one special favourite. It's a very simple

little lead alloy cross. There's a little bit of a mystery attached to

it, and if you want go and find out what this actually is, I suggest

you go up to the Cathedral, and speak to an expert on medieval

English pilgrimage. For centuries, pilgrims have flocked to Durham

Cathedral, to visit the shrine of one of the holiest men in Britain.

St Cuthbert. And it's these traditions that give us a ready-

made connection to our past. What is it? We think it's a pilgrim

badge. Pilgrims would come in the medieval period to a Cathedral.

They would have brought them home with them as a souvenir to say, "I

have been to Durham Cathedral, and seen the shrine of St Cuthbert."

Then they would display them in their hat or cloak. But why was he

so popular? He was popular because of his association with performing

miracles. They didn't have modern day hospitals to make them better,

so they would come and worship as a saint's shrine instead. Before

Thomas Becket at Canterbury, he was probably the main saint within

England so people would travel a long way. How many people are we

talking about? Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands?

Yes This is a huge and stunning Cathedral but that is still a lot

of people to fit into this space. It is, absolutely. This area in

front of us is the Chapel of Nine Altars, which was built to hold the

amount of pilgrims who were flocking to Durham. So this is an

basically an extension. Exactly. who would have come, men, women,

children? Men. However, women probably not so much to Durham,

because we think the women weren't allowed, and in fact, two women

were tried for dressing up as men visiting the shrine. Gary said that

there was a bit of a mystery attached to this. What does he mean

by that? The mystery is that this looks like St Cuthbert's cross.

This is the cross, so you can see how similar the two are. The

mystery is that this was only discovered in 1899, in St

Cuthbert's coffin, when it was opened. However, this is a medieval

badge, so how did they know what the cross looked like? Supposedly

it was buried with St Cuthbert. It's possible knowledge of the

distinctive cross was passed down the centuries, and may have been

reproduced on banners or stained glass. But none survived, so we

just can't be sure. Throughout County Durham the church has an

extraordinary amount of power and influence. English kings were

content to leave large parts of the troublesome north in the hands of

the bishops. They became known as Prince Bishops, and lived the high

life, building Auckland Castle as a hunting lodge to indulge their

passion for tracking down deer. But to rule like a king, you need to

tax your subjects, and put it all in writing. In this part of the

country there wasn't a Domesday book. There was no general survey

of lands in the area north of the Tees, until this come compiled in

the year 1183. This is a very personal record of what was due to

the Bishop of Durham. The bishop will give you land, if you do

something for the bishop in exchange. We've been to Escomb, is

there much about Escomb in here? Yes, Escomb certainly was one of

the bishop's estates, and there are some of the names in here. Elabird.

I am Elabird of Escomb. I have an area of land that would take an ox

half a day to plough. For that I pay eight pence rent and nine pence

for my cattle. I am Alan Pitt, undertaker of Escomb. I pay 24 hens

and 300 eggs to the bishop and do three days labour. So this isn't

just about rent and money, they've written out jobs or obligations to

the bishop. Some things are paid for in money, but others are paid

for in services, like a sort of barter economy. All documents like

this give a fascinating glimpse into medieval village life.

Escomb's entry includes the duties of a carbonarius. It's one of the

earliest written references to a coal miner. Somebody's digging

coals somewhere, there's a coal pit, there's a blacksmith there and he's

hammering away on his anvil, making ploughshares, but he needs the fuel

for his smithy, and that comes from this chap. Other villagers had to

drop everything to indulge the bishop's favourite hobby.

bishops at that time liked hunting, and they had lots of parks up in

Weardale, so this particular tenant has to go and help with the bishop

on the hunt. When the bishop goes deer hunting in the forest, we,

along with the other vileins of the area build this hall some 60 feet

by 16 feet. We build a chapel, and even a privy. It would have been

quite a trek to the old hunting grounds in Weardale, but the

bishops' rule was finally called into question by the locals in 1818.

And it all played out in the market place, in Stanhope. I am the Prince

Bishop of Durham. I own the land and the miners have been poaching

the birds. I am Diane Meredith. We've fallen on hard times and have

no food. Our men folk take the grouse for the bishop's land to

feed our family. I am William, and I have long had the right to take

the grouse. I led the men in the be rebellion. I'm Keeper Beadle, and I

got shot at by a blooming poacher! The local community has been

reliving its history by putting on a play. This famous victory by the

folk of Weardale over their lord and master had almost been

forgotten, but take a farmyard barn, turn it into a theatre, invite

young and old into the cast, and it's unforgettable. Got the little

The particular story we are focused on, we knew nothing about until we

started to get into it. It has been fantastic, how many eyes are opened

up to this history. I feel a real connection. I am from Dale stock.

And my family lived in that town, where all the young men went out

and took a stand, there were bound to be young men among them.

people, children and adults get involved with their own history is

fantastic. People wanted to know about it can be a part of it.

the staffing miners took the bishop, he dispatched troops to sort them

But the locals said the bishop's men packing. The title is the local

nickname for the humble Grouse, and there are subtle reminders of the

battle fought over the little bird. Often, at your local pub name will

hint at your past. The name of Yorktown may reveal who the first

settlers were. There has been quite a lot of rain recently, so you need

to concentrate on crossing the stepping stones. This water has

come down from villages. Place names are a very good guide to

finding a who once lived way you If we're proud of our reputation

for being northern upstarts, then perhaps it's best found in an

unassuming farmhouse near Westgate. For three centuries, it held a

closely-guarded secret. It was home to a treasure chest that was set

fast into the walls of the cottage. Only in the 1950s did the farming

community hand over their incredible piece of history to

Durham University scholars. And this is it. It's made of oak, it's

one-and-a-half inches thick, so imagine how heavy that must be. And

if you were to measure it, it would only just squeeze between the

farmhouse walls. There were two locks, and different farmers in the

dale would have held keys to the locks so that nobody could open the

chest on their own. But what was so precious? Inside, mere paper. But

don't be fooled. These 100 documents symbolise a remarkable

rebellion against a brutal outsider. During the Civil War, Sir Arthur

Hesilrige, one of Cromwell's henchman, bought land in Weirdale

and tried to force the tenants to pay rent. Even though some of the

local farmers were illiterate, they claimed these papers proved they'd

been granted freehold rights. It was a legal wrangle between rich

and poor that would last 10 years. Sir Arthur Hesilrige was a pretty

nasty piece of work. He was happy to use threats and play dirty

tricks to get his own way. And that's why this document is so

remarkable. It's an agreement between the Weirdale farmers to

stand together and fight for their rights. Here you can see everybody

that was involved. There are seals, names and some people just marked

with an X. By putting their name to this, the men and women of Weirdale

were agreeing to take on one of the most powerful men in the country.

And they won. No wonder they wanted to keep their evidence safely,

under lock and key! The impact of the Civil War can also be felt much

further down the River Wear. Today, the rivalry between Sunderland and

Newcastle is fought on the football pitch, but back then, the two towns

were in a turf war, with each army of supporters either fighting for

the Roundheads or the Cavaliers. Royalist Newcastle had something

Cromwell wanted to get his hands on, and the Sunderland was ready to

help. It was all about coal. In the Civil War, Newcastle was a Royalist

city with a virtual monopoly on supplying coal. Sunderland, by

comparison, was a fairly modest port that was developing. And its

merchants sympathised with Cromwell and the parliamentarians. Now, an

army of about 20,000 Scots supporting Cromwell came south, and

they marched into Sunderland. And Sunderland let them in, basically.

And their intention was to capture the Royalist stronghold of

Newcastle, and Newcastle was under siege by the Scottish army,

supported by Sunderland, who had let them, you know, encamp here on

the banks of the River Wear, near where the Wear Mouth Bridge is

today. Broke the monopoly of Newcastle, and it probably set in

motion the rivalry of the two towns. Does that rivalry still live on

today, outside of football? Well, there's one interesting poem, a

ballad. And it was apparently composed by the people of Newcastle

during the siege. And it goes something like: STRONG GEORDIE

ACCENT: Ride through Sandgate, up and down, there you'll see the

gallants fighting for the crown. And all those cull cuckolds in

Sunderland town, with all the bonny blue caps, will never pull us down.

The blue caps being the Scottish army. Ultimately, it was a victory

for Cromwell and Sunderland, but how important was that victory?

Well, it was very important because it enabled Sunderland to develop

and blossom as a coal port and the Sunderland's growth in self-

confidence and pride is symbolised in one of its most prominent

landmarks. The Bridge! Mouth Wear Bridge. The Bridge! The Bridge.

this is nothing compared to Sunderland's first-ever bridge that

straddled the River Wear on the self same spot. The 1796 bridge was

cutting-edge technology which was the use of wrought iron, described

at the time as a "stupendous iron bridge in Sunderland". It was

something to marvel at. People came from all over Europe to... All over

Europe?! All over Europe to have a look at the bridge cos it was

something outstanding. If you think about the opening, in 1796, there

was 80,000 people came to see it. The population of Sunderland was

probably about 20,000 at the time, so you can see it was a big, big

draw. So proud was the town of its new iron bridge that it became a

trademark image of Sunderland's other big industry: Pottery. Mass-

produced memorabilia give a valuable insight into the bridge's

popularity. Everyday items then, and now, valuable antiques. It took

three years to build, which, in itself, was an amazing feat of

engineering. I have a print which shows the actual process because

they had to keep the river open. my word! You can't really

underestimate the significance of the bridge for Sunderland. It

brought the two sides of the river together, it created Sunderland as

we know it today, really, and it put Sunderland on the map. In fact,

maps are a really good tool for studying the development of a town.

Before the bridge, Sunderland was really quite small and confined to

one bank of the river. On the south side of the river, there's very

little there. It's almost just a village. The north side, we've got

a few houses, St Peter's Church and very, very little. To the west,

we've got the Wear Mouth, but in the centre, a huge swathe of green

land. There's nothing happening here at this time. Fast-forward a

few years, and we're presented with a very different picture of

Sunderland. This is 1790 now, an absolutely wonderful piece of

artwork. It's a map and not as we know it. What we've got happening

here is the industry along the river. If you look at the shipyards

to the north there, five ships being built. You can actually see

socially what was going on. There's some little ladies walking down

there. That's right, that's right. It's very different, isn't it?

main thing about this map are the people. Rich people, poor people,

people working, people at play. We've even got the soldiers at the

barracks here, looking after the town. You have to read a lot of

books to get the same information you can get with a glance at this.

Absolutely. Fast-forward a few more years, and this is Sunderland. But

it looks even bigger. This is 1850. Sunderland has really taken off by

this time. Everything's in place for the industry. We've got the

bridge, we've got the quarry in place, we've got the docks. But

most important of all, we've got Today, the Weardale Railway is a

picturesque day out, but the line was never really aimed at

transporting people. This railway was built in 1847. It was an

extension of the Stockton- Darlington Railway. The idea was to

transport the minerals that were extracted from the quarries down to

the iron-making plants on Teesside. How were they getting the minerals

out of the area before the railway? They were taken out by packhorse, a

very long, laborious transport mechanism. The railway gave a

quicker and easier means of transporting the minerals from the

Dale. Within the first five years, there was something like 70,000

tonnes. But 15 years later, there was something like half a million

tonnes. So, it was an incredible change. The impact it had was a

population explosion, almost doubling the amount of people that

The railway never made it to the very top of Weardale, where the

landscape is remote and seemingly barren. But there had been plans

because it was once a hive of activity, with men hoping to make

their fortune in the lead mines. It's a way of life almost forgotten.

But at Killhope, local children are about to get a real taste for what

You would be down here for seven or eight hours a taste dredge.

Sometimes, the air down here was so poor with little oxygen, that you

found it very difficult to breed. In fact, it could be so bad that

you could not even keep a candle alight. Much of the work done here

was hours and hours of hand drilling. So, Matthew, you want to

go? You hold this against the rock face, and to turn it, gradually,

and in between each quarter of term, your partner hits it with this very

heavy hammer. You must try in experience something, and that is

total pitch-black conditions. If you turn out your lights, and

Georgina, you can have a go as well. 1, 2, 3! How many fingers and my

holding up? I cannot see anything! I think it will be called...

Judit? No! You would never catch me working in a mind! What if this was

the only way to make money, though? I would make my mum and dad do it!

Life underground was miserable but still not as bad as what faced the

miners when they emerged after their shifts. They often lodged at

the mine rather than trek miles home each day. If that weather

changed dramatically, 30 plus, all crammed in here, we have got three

grown miners and a young washer boy with their stinking feet stretched

out. And then, there is meet -- room for more if you put planks

across the beams. You can get about 40 odd in here. Hot, stuffy, smoke

from the fire, and stench third! What a stink! There was a doctor

who offered evidence, or who said, that he would find it not hard to

be underground, but quarter-of-an- hour here would be terrifying.

fat -- it sounds like a tough way to live. They have got to find

their own candles, their own tools. He had to pay to stay in here. This

was not free! So, you could spend a year? Definitely, owing money to

the company. The precious lead had to be sifted from all the rock that

had been dug out That task was left to children and it's a bit of an

eye-opener to today's youngsters. None of you goals would have been

here, by the way. This was boys work! How is it going, team? What

you think, Georgina? Would you like to do this kind of work? No, not

really. Why not? It looks like you are having fun? You can really get

your hands dirty learning about your own history. Whether you're on

a day out with the kids or just strolling around your own town, the

clues are there if you keep your eyes peeled. But history isn't just

about the past everywhere you look it has way of repeating itself.

Durham is well-known for its presence. In the river, I found a

ball and chain. And an electronic tag. Sunderland is preparing to

build a brand new bridge over the Wear and it promises to be an

iconicnew symbol for the city. At Escomb, worship has continued

virtually unbroken for 1300 years. At Durham Cathedral, St Cuthbert is

still revered and draws modern pilgrims to the city. It is history

brought into the present making your life and relevant to today.

This is first and foremost a place of pilgrimage and prayerful stock

From Bishop Auckland to Stanhope, passengers are once more enjoying

the delights of a picturesque trip along the Dale. The railway closed

in 1953, but we brought it back as a heritage railway. The river where

it used to produce more ships than anywhere else in the world. Those

days are now gone, beware side is leading a new transport revolution.