:00:11. > :00:17.I'm Stuart Maconie and like thousands of other people I'm
:00:17. > :00:20.passionate about the Lake District. But a part of Cumbria that's just
:00:20. > :00:27.as fascinating but not as well known is this - the Furness
:00:27. > :00:31.known is this - the Furness peninsular. With Barrow-in-Furness
:00:31. > :00:33.at its tip and surrounded on three sides by water with mountains along
:00:33. > :00:38.the top, the peninsula is geographically cut off from the
:00:38. > :00:45.rest of the country. It's not the kind of place you'd stumble across
:00:45. > :00:50.by accident or pass through on your way to somewhere else. But as we'll
:00:50. > :00:53.see there's more to this peninsula than the famous shipyard behind me.
:00:53. > :00:56.It may not enjoy the tourism the lake district but people have been
:00:56. > :01:00.coming here for centuries by land and sea all contributing to the
:01:00. > :01:10.history of Furness - a great British story. --Lake District
:01:10. > :01:27.
:01:27. > :01:33.Furness was named by the Vikings. 'Ness' meaning headland, so
:01:33. > :01:38.literally this is the far headland. And there are plenty more Viking
:01:38. > :01:42.names around. Biggar, Barrow, Ormsgill. But the Norsemen left
:01:42. > :01:44.more than just a linguistic heritage. Under this very rock,
:01:44. > :01:47.last summer, an amateur treasure hunter armed with a metal detector
:01:47. > :01:51.uncovered some rather spectacular evidence of Viking settlement in
:01:51. > :01:55.the 10th century. And this is the treasure that was found in the
:01:55. > :01:59.field. Sabine, can you tell me what's here? We have a really mixed
:01:59. > :02:02.bag as you can tell. We have coins and ingots and even a bracelet.
:02:02. > :02:12.This shows that it is definitely a Viking hoard and one of the coins
:02:12. > :02:20.is from thousands of miles away. It's an arabicdirrum. It's a
:02:20. > :02:25.beautiful coin and in really lovely condition. The shows what great
:02:25. > :02:35.traders the Vikings were. They had massive trading links. Of course,
:02:35. > :02:39.
:02:39. > :02:42.we think that the Vikings are the reason why we have Russia. There's
:02:42. > :02:49.a popular image of Vikings being Pillagers but they were more
:02:49. > :02:54.cultured and cultivated than that? Absolutely. They were probably
:02:54. > :02:57.settled here and had farms here. And that was one of the reasons why
:02:57. > :03:01.we've not found a great town. Maybe they were just staying in
:03:01. > :03:08.countryside dwellings. But perhaps they were still doing elements of
:03:08. > :03:11.raiding and trading. We don't really know as we don't have any
:03:12. > :03:14.documentary evidence of that area. So hoards like this give us a lot
:03:15. > :03:20.of information. So is this quite exciting for you? Oh, yes, really
:03:20. > :03:23.exciting. We're delighted. We've been waiting for this for a long
:03:23. > :03:33.time and we're delighted it's come and it really shines a spotlight on
:03:33. > :03:34.
:03:34. > :03:37.the whole area. After the Vikings came another invasion of sorts. In
:03:37. > :03:39.1127, Norman monks came and built this beautiful abbey here in this
:03:39. > :03:48.remote part of the Furness peninsula The Abbey grew into one
:03:48. > :03:50.of the richest and most powerful organisations in the country.
:03:50. > :03:57.Controlling the peninsula, the monks were adept businessmen and
:03:57. > :04:01.landowners. What would day to day life for monks have been like? What
:04:01. > :04:06.would it have entailed, I mean prayer obviously? Seven times a day
:04:06. > :04:16.for prayer, in the church and the lay brethren that supported them.
:04:16. > :04:19.
:04:19. > :04:21.Quiet contemplation, obviously. But a work ethic as well, getting on
:04:21. > :04:24.with things that needed doing, whether it's manuscript production
:04:24. > :04:27.or whether it's working in the gardens and caring for the sick. So
:04:27. > :04:34.there's an active life for the monk within. For the Abbey without
:04:34. > :04:37.there's a whole economy to run. Would there have been a fairly big
:04:37. > :04:40.community? Do we know how many people would have been here, how
:04:40. > :04:44.many monks? We know when it's dissolved by Henry the eighth,
:04:44. > :04:47.there was only 28 monks left, which is kind of a shrinking number, I
:04:47. > :04:50.suspected its peak you're probably not looking at much more than a
:04:50. > :04:52.hundred. It waxes and wanes during the 14th century with the famine
:04:52. > :04:56.and black plague. It's dipping and they never really recovered from
:04:56. > :04:59.that in all honesty. I'm slightly staggered, Kevin, by that figure,
:04:59. > :05:02.about a hundred, cause I would look around here and think about
:05:02. > :05:12.thousands of people would live here? Yeah it's a big place isn't
:05:12. > :05:15.
:05:15. > :05:18.it for just a few pretty privileged people who society gains. So we're
:05:18. > :05:21.really talking about a small group of powerful people, and one who
:05:21. > :05:24.eventually get their, if I can mix up all my historical eras, meet
:05:24. > :05:27.their Waterloo with Henry VIII? Does that put paid to them
:05:27. > :05:30.completely?' Yes. The impact on Furness in 1537 is closure, is
:05:30. > :05:32.stripping of the lead and any other valuable things for the kings
:05:32. > :05:38.resources. And what about the monks, scattered to the four winds?
:05:38. > :05:41.Furness fights, Furness has always been independent. It tries to fight
:05:41. > :05:44.suppression but in the end has to give up. But they'll have got
:05:44. > :05:47.everything out. They'll have got their plate and their silver and
:05:47. > :05:50.their manuscripts. They'll have moved it out and set themselves up.
:05:50. > :05:54.They'll have known where they were going. Historians will now be able
:05:54. > :05:56.to find out even more about the lifestyle of the Monks following a
:05:56. > :05:58.really exciting discovery. When carrying out some repairs to the
:05:58. > :06:02.Abbey's presbytery, they unearthed a previously undiscovered grave of
:06:02. > :06:04.an Abbot who'd been buried with his bronze crozier. We expected the
:06:04. > :06:08.19th century antiquarians to have stripped the lot but they missed
:06:08. > :06:11.one. Imagine the wooden staff coming off and you've got it rising
:06:11. > :06:21.up curling round this rather beautiful detailed head here. It
:06:21. > :06:26.
:06:26. > :06:29.looks like a dog, probably a dog serpent. And then we've got St
:06:29. > :06:31.Michael the archangel slaying the dragon here with a sword in his
:06:31. > :06:34.right hand just inset into the Croziers hook. It's a particularly,
:06:34. > :06:40.well, unexpected, rare, extraordinary find. And, again,
:06:40. > :06:47.opulent. Tells you a little bit about how rich an establishment
:06:47. > :06:52.this must have been. Found with the abbot's skeleton, what does that
:06:52. > :06:55.tell us about him and the lifestyle here? He seems to have been a
:06:55. > :06:58.fairly portly chap, he's obviously lived quite well. He's about 40 or
:06:58. > :07:01.50 years old when he dies, he'd got a bit of arthritis, a bit of
:07:01. > :07:04.diabetes setting in, but otherwise his bones are actually pretty
:07:04. > :07:07.healthy, he's done pretty well. he himself, his bones are now all
:07:07. > :07:10.over the place being analysed? bones are scattered around the
:07:10. > :07:17.known universe, being analysed by all sorts of people. We hope to get
:07:17. > :07:20.a date on him, from the radiocarbon. We hope to analyse his teeth and
:07:20. > :07:23.find out where he might have come from and we hope to look at him
:07:23. > :07:27.compared to his brethren that were also excavated, to see, you know,
:07:27. > :07:30.what the difference is in health, stature was. So the monks of
:07:30. > :07:40.Furness Abbey may have been long since forced out but they have left
:07:40. > :07:48.
:07:48. > :07:51.these wonderful ruins to remember Just over a hundred years after the
:07:51. > :07:57.dissolution of Furness Abbey, a new religious movement was founded in
:07:57. > :08:00.more modest surroundings a short distance away. It was here at
:08:00. > :08:02.Swarthmoor Hall near Ulverston that Judge Thomas Fell and his wife
:08:02. > :08:12.Margaret received a strange and unconventional visitor, who was to
:08:12. > :08:18.
:08:18. > :08:25.change their lives, and the lives George Fox hailed from
:08:25. > :08:27.Leicestershire. In the 17th century the charismatic firebrand travelled
:08:27. > :08:30.the country preaching a controversial message that God is
:08:30. > :08:34.within us all and we have need for priests or organised religion.
:08:34. > :08:37.Having had a vision at the top of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, George
:08:37. > :08:46.Fox made his way to Swarthmoor Hall where he would go on to found the
:08:46. > :08:49.Quaker movement with the help of the people of the Furness peninsula.
:08:49. > :08:55.What he knows about Swarthmoor Hall is it is the home of a judge,
:08:55. > :08:58.Thomas Fell, and his wife Margaret. They are sincere Puritans. Judge
:08:59. > :09:07.Fell is quite a bigwig, he's a lawyer, he's a friend of Cromwell's,
:09:07. > :09:12.a former MP. And he uses this house, Judge Fell, as a sort of open house
:09:12. > :09:16.for travelling Puritan preachers. So it's natural, I think, that Fox
:09:16. > :09:21.would have made his way here. the Fells taking a great risk in
:09:21. > :09:29.sheltering and protecting Fox? Was it seen as a very scandalous thing
:09:30. > :09:32.to do? After the execution of the King in 1649 there's this huge,
:09:32. > :09:35.almost desperate search for truth in religion and creating a Godly
:09:35. > :09:41.country. That's what people are trying to do. So at that time,
:09:41. > :09:43.Quakerism is one of a whole range of different possibilities. Yes, it
:09:43. > :09:46.is threatening at the very beginning and it's threatening
:09:46. > :09:53.because it challenges the status quo and it challenges the status
:09:53. > :10:03.quo socially, religiously, politically. So to that extent they
:10:03. > :10:04.
:10:04. > :10:06.are taking a risk. George Fox travelled extensively but always
:10:06. > :10:10.returned to his base at Swarthmoor and following Judge Fell's death,
:10:10. > :10:13.he married his widow Margaret, who is seen as the mother of the Quaker
:10:13. > :10:15.movement. And three hundred and sixty years after George Fox first
:10:15. > :10:25.arrived here, Swarthmoor still hosts Quaker meetings which are
:10:25. > :10:26.
:10:26. > :10:29.held in silence. So you come into the Quaker meeting, you try to drop
:10:29. > :10:34.the cares of the world, as it were, concentrate on things of the spirit.
:10:34. > :10:41.If somebody feels moved to speak they can stand up and speak.
:10:41. > :10:49.There's no separate clergy, there's no fixed liturgy. It's using the
:10:49. > :10:59.silence as a way of worship. personal experience is all we need
:10:59. > :11:14.
:11:14. > :11:18.I thought I knew Cumbria pretty well. I do spend a lot of time here
:11:18. > :11:21.and yet I had no idea that a major world religion was founded here
:11:21. > :11:24.just a few miles outside Ulverston. I also had no experience until this
:11:24. > :11:26.morning of a Quaker meeting, and far from finding it odd or
:11:26. > :11:36.uncomfortable or self-conscious, it seemed both quiet and reflective
:11:36. > :11:41.
:11:41. > :11:51.and the most natural thing in the We don't normally associate Cumbria
:11:51. > :11:53.
:11:53. > :11:56.with heavy industry. We may have a picturesque Beatrix Potter notion
:11:56. > :11:58.of gambolling lambs, the odd ruminative cow. In fact, these
:11:59. > :12:07.beautiful Cumbrian hills are rich in the mineral deposits which
:12:07. > :12:12.transformed the Cumbrian peninsula. The Burlington Quarry is one of the
:12:12. > :12:18.deepest man-made holes in Europe. As you can see, people are still
:12:18. > :12:25.working here. But demand really peaked during the housing boom of
:12:25. > :12:28.the Victorian era. The blue slate was needed for roofing tiles. This
:12:28. > :12:31.land, which was rich in slate and iron ore and copper, was owned by
:12:31. > :12:36.the Duke of Devonshire. He needed a way of transporting these valuable
:12:36. > :12:46.minerals to the docks at Barrow. So, in 1846, he built the Furness
:12:46. > :13:05.
:13:05. > :13:11.What started as a hobby for father and son Geoff and Marc Dobson has
:13:11. > :13:15.now become a cottage industry. They make and sell models of the Furness
:13:15. > :13:18.Railway all over the world from their workshop in Geoff's garage.
:13:18. > :13:22.So this is a scale model of the Furness Railway. When the original
:13:22. > :13:27.railway came, what kind of impact did it have on this area? Massive.
:13:28. > :13:30.It can't be underestimated. It was the area. If it wasn't for the
:13:30. > :13:34.railway, the mines wouldn't have taken off. If the mines hadn't
:13:34. > :13:38.taken off, there wouldn't then be steel mills. If there wasn't any
:13:38. > :13:42.steel mills, there wouldn't be a shipyard. I think you've got to
:13:42. > :13:50.transport yourself back. Pre- railway, the only way they got iron
:13:50. > :13:54.ore or anything out of the minerals was on a horse. Or on a sledge.
:13:54. > :14:01.Dragged along the road and the road wouldn't be surfaced. We didn't
:14:01. > :14:04.have the surface roads we take for granted. So the railway linked the
:14:05. > :14:14.peninsula in with the country? It became less of an isolated spot in
:14:15. > :14:16.
:14:16. > :14:23.general? Very much so. There has always been that isolation. So the
:14:23. > :14:28.railway link to the peninsula and it became less isolated? Very much
:14:28. > :14:32.so. If you look at the far line, there's 2 NE hopper wagons. Over
:14:32. > :14:40.80% of the coal and coke that came to the steelworks came from the
:14:41. > :14:48.North East in those. And who buys what you make here? There's lots of
:14:48. > :14:51.enthusiasts all over the country. In fact, we've got export orders to
:14:51. > :14:59.Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand. Ex-pats who want to build
:14:59. > :15:03.what we have in front of you. thought they would be very keen on
:15:03. > :15:07.this. Yes. So, initially, I'm thinking you weren't as keen on
:15:07. > :15:14.model railways as your dad? No. I wanted a Scalextric, but I never
:15:14. > :15:19.got one until last year. My wife got me one for Christmas. Is it
:15:19. > :15:29.good? Very good. I've got two Mini Coopers at long last.
:15:29. > :15:36.
:15:36. > :15:41.The Furness Railway is still running. I'm going to retrace the
:15:41. > :15:51.journey of copper, slate and iron ore. It would've went from Kirkby
:15:51. > :15:52.
:15:52. > :15:56.in Furness down to Barrow-in- Furness. The train hugs the West
:15:56. > :16:06.Coast of Cumbria. It really is one of the most scenic railway journeys
:16:06. > :16:10.in the country. Just across the sands from the Furness Railway in
:16:10. > :16:13.Millom, there lived a poet called Norman Nicholson. His verse is
:16:13. > :16:22.steeped in the landscape and industry of this part of the world.
:16:22. > :16:26.I'd like to read a poem. It's When the sea's to the west.
:16:26. > :16:29.The evenings are one dazzle. You can find no sign of water.
:16:29. > :16:33.Sun upflows the horizon. Waves of Shine.
:16:33. > :16:36.Heave, crest, fracture. Explode on the shore.
:16:36. > :16:46.The wide day burns. In the incandescent mantle of the
:16:46. > :17:02.
:17:02. > :17:07.It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the railways on
:17:07. > :17:12.the peninsula. The Duke of Devonshire hired James Ramsden to
:17:12. > :17:15.oversee the running of them. And together with the metallurgist
:17:15. > :17:19.Henry Schneider, these three became the founding fathers. They
:17:19. > :17:29.transformed this sleepy backwater into a boomtown. Britain's very own
:17:29. > :17:32.Chicago. With the railways now linking the peninsula with the rest
:17:32. > :17:36.of the country, the three men could bring in smelting coke and build
:17:36. > :17:41.their own iron and steel works. And while they had steel, why not build
:17:41. > :17:49.some ships? And thus, waves of people from all across the land
:17:49. > :17:53.were attracted to the booming town. They were coming from places you
:17:53. > :18:03.wouldn't expect. There was a great influx from Cornwall. The tin
:18:03. > :18:05.
:18:05. > :18:10.build the docks. And then, when the shipbuilding came, a lot of people
:18:10. > :18:13.came down from Glasgow. So it was from all over the country. I guess
:18:13. > :18:20.that made for a lively mix of people. It must have caused
:18:20. > :18:26.problems? It did, because they were mainly young men in their teens,
:18:26. > :18:36.twenties and thirties. Young men in the late 19th century are pretty
:18:36. > :18:37.
:18:37. > :18:46.much like young men are today. So it was pretty lively. Bez measures
:18:46. > :18:51.were taken by the city fathers to subdue the gentleman workers. For
:18:51. > :18:55.example, in 1867, they built a flax and jute works. It was to try to
:18:55. > :18:58.bring wives and children in to work in the flax and jute works. This
:18:58. > :19:01.also had an ulterior motive, of course, of keeping money in the
:19:01. > :19:04.town. Because these itinerant workers were sending money back to
:19:04. > :19:08.Belfast or Glasgow and Staffordshire. And the money was
:19:08. > :19:11.exiting the town and they wanted to keep it in the town. So it had a
:19:11. > :19:16.dual effect of subduing the male workforce and keeping the money in
:19:16. > :19:18.the town. In the 1860s and 1870s, Barrow would have resembled one
:19:18. > :19:25.massive construction site as the town's founding fathers built homes
:19:25. > :19:28.for the new workers. If people think this is reminiscent of
:19:28. > :19:35.Glaswegian tenement buildings, that's not a coincidence? Not a
:19:35. > :19:37.coincidence at all. The shipyard started in 1871. They were trying
:19:37. > :19:41.to encourage experienced shipbuilders to move to Barrow.
:19:41. > :19:50.They were from Scotland So they brought in architects who had built
:19:50. > :19:53.the tenements and Glasgow to build peace -- to build the East. --
:19:53. > :20:00.these. The railways may have transformed Barrow from a sleepy
:20:00. > :20:03.rural backwater to an industrial boomtown. But it was shipbuilding
:20:03. > :20:06.that put Barrow on the international map at a time when
:20:06. > :20:10.Britain was the most powerful trading nation in the world. The
:20:10. > :20:13.first ship out of the yard was the Duke of Devonshire. And the yard
:20:13. > :20:20.continued to build ships up until the First World War. At one stage,
:20:20. > :20:23.it employed a staggering 30,000 people. After the war, "the yard",
:20:23. > :20:26.as it's always been known, started building civilian as well as naval
:20:26. > :20:30.vessels. Launch days would be occasions of great pride and
:20:30. > :20:40.excitement. Children would be given the day off school. And there would
:20:40. > :20:43.
:20:43. > :20:50.usually be a royal on hand to name the ship. I name this ship Oriana.
:20:50. > :20:54.May God bless her and all who sail in her. In 1960, the Oriana was
:20:54. > :20:58.launched. It was one of the world's fastest and most recognisable ocean
:20:58. > :21:02.liners. It had a voyage time to Australia of three weeks instead of
:21:02. > :21:06.four. She was kitted out in ultra- modern style. Every detail has been
:21:06. > :21:16.designed by teams of architects and co-ordinated by a design team of
:21:16. > :21:19.perfect harmony. Here is they own television station. Closed circuit
:21:19. > :21:25.television throughout the voyage, net work programmes when the ship
:21:25. > :21:33.is in port. You have a choice of evening entertainment. The lush,
:21:33. > :21:39.plush cinema, or television in Ewing lounges and some cabins. --
:21:39. > :21:43.viewing lounges. The shipyard is still going strong. These days, it
:21:43. > :21:47.specialises in a rather different kind of boat - the submarine. It's
:21:47. > :21:49.incredible to think that the first submarines were built here in 1886.
:21:49. > :21:54.And the first Royal Navy submersibles were built here in
:21:54. > :22:03.1901. In 1960, Dreadnought - Britain's first ever nuclear-
:22:03. > :22:10.powered submarine - was launched here by The Queen. I name this ship
:22:10. > :22:16.grit not -- Dreadnought. Make God bless her and all who sail in her.
:22:16. > :22:19.CHEERING. Submarines, like Ambush of the astute class, are still
:22:19. > :22:23.built here in the great dock hall which bears the Duke of
:22:23. > :22:30.Devonshire's name. And there's still great pride in the
:22:31. > :22:38.achievements of the town. Joe Murphy has spent his entire working
:22:38. > :22:44.life as a welder at the yard. He came here as a boy of 15. When I
:22:44. > :22:50.was an apprentice, the Valiant was on one side. There would be a
:22:50. > :22:55.thousand-ton tanker. The British admiral on the other. On the big
:22:55. > :23:01.slip. We used to diversify and do all sorts of things like that. But
:23:02. > :23:07.mostly now, we concentrate on submarines. Prior to this, what
:23:07. > :23:11.would this have been? Outside on the berth, on all weathers. The
:23:11. > :23:16.tide would have been underneath you. A canvas to get behind while you
:23:17. > :23:23.were welding. And equally, you used to get inside the boat. It would be
:23:23. > :23:30.like a steel fridge. And cold inside. And look at this facility
:23:30. > :23:40.now. It's fantastic. Is it a source of pride that the Furness
:23:40. > :23:42.
:23:42. > :23:48.Peninsular is known all over the Yes. Everybody's proud of this spot.
:23:48. > :23:52.It's given me a good living. I have a son in here now. He's the fifth
:23:52. > :23:56.generation. That's five families that have been brought up on it.
:23:56. > :24:00.Can you imagine Barrow without a shipyard? Not at all. This is the
:24:00. > :24:10.lifeblood of this town. And we all depend on it. Hopefully, we'll be
:24:10. > :24:15.
:24:15. > :24:18.But the nature of the Yard's work hasn't been without controversy. In
:24:18. > :24:23.the 1980s, America and The Soviet Union were engaged in a nuclear
:24:23. > :24:26.arms race. Plans for Britain's Trident nuclear submarines, which
:24:26. > :24:29.were to be built in Barrow, were strongly opposed by The Campaign
:24:29. > :24:32.for Nuclear Disarmament. They held their national rally in Barrow in
:24:32. > :24:40.1984. Among the protesters were local activists Kate Blanshard and
:24:40. > :24:50.Norman Hill. I remember being absolutely amazed by the number of
:24:50. > :24:51.
:24:51. > :24:57.people. The car park down at Craven Park there. It was full. There were
:24:57. > :25:02.hundreds of people on the bridge. There was a die-in on the bridge
:25:02. > :25:08.where everyone lay down on the bridge. It was symbolic to show
:25:08. > :25:18.what would happen if a nuclear bomb went off. It would cause mass death
:25:18. > :25:20.
:25:20. > :25:25.and devastation. These are some of your badges? That was the classics
:25:25. > :25:31.Login, protest and survive, referencing the Government's
:25:31. > :25:39.campaign of Protect and survive, what to do it in a nuclear war.
:25:39. > :25:46.Hide under the nuclear table? other people from that era, I will
:25:46. > :25:56.not dive for Thatcher. And vegetarians against it. -- will not
:25:56. > :26:00.
:26:00. > :26:07.die. There was a broad coalition. Yes. What was the mood for people
:26:07. > :26:12.who did not support this? The Tory slogan was Trident means jobs. So
:26:13. > :26:22.people were going round repeating this parrot fashion. It was a good
:26:23. > :26:28.
:26:28. > :26:30.slogan. But we put our alternative view. We said, if Barrow puts all
:26:30. > :26:37.its eggs in one business, this removes all the opportunities for
:26:38. > :26:47.surface ship building. Civilian ship building. Yes. So there's a
:26:47. > :26:54.danger there. After this project, what are you going to be left with?
:26:54. > :26:57.The CND supporters, the shipyard workers. All have a part to play
:26:57. > :27:02.and a voice to be heard in a people's history, which is my
:27:02. > :27:10.favourite kind of history. And folk music, which I often like, often
:27:10. > :27:20.tell these kinds of stories and history through song. One's music
:27:20. > :27:59.
:27:59. > :28:09.all -- one person's music often # The simple life is all we knew #
:28:09. > :28:10.
:28:10. > :28:16.Before the ashes came falling... # The Furness will never be some
:28:16. > :28:23.people's idea of a perfect tourist destination. But the bleak and
:28:23. > :28:27.bracing beauty. The complex and sometimes turbulent history. And
:28:27. > :28:30.the way in which waves of people have made their mark here between