Ampleforth College The Hairy Builder

Want to know about British history? You'd better get your hands dirty.

Don't bury your head in a guidebook, ask a brickie...

a chippy...

or a roofer.

Ever since I were a boy, I've had a passion for our past.

So...

I'm going to apprentice myself to the oldest masonry company in

the country, mastering their crafts

and scraping away the secrets of Blighty's poshest piles.

From castles to cathedrals, music halls to mansions,

palaces to public schools -

these aren't just buildings,

they're keys to opening up our past and bringing it back to life.

'Today, I'm in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire,

'at one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country

'with its own on-site monastery.

'I'll be getting into the abbey habit...'

When you're out and about on business,

would you travel in your habit?

I think, sometimes, if people see you like this, it can be a bit...

They get a bit freaked out.

'..restoring the Yorkshire equivalent of Hogwarts...'

I've missed.

'..and learning an extraordinary tale of mice and men.'

-What a great place to study!

-I know.

I think it's Mouseman's greatest work, really.

-Yeah.

-Well, there's a mouse.

-Yeah, there we are.

-Yes!

See how many you can spot.

Yorkshire is known as God's own country.

Well, I'm here to help restore God's own school, Ampleforth College.

It is one of the most beguiling buildings in Britain.

It's full of monastic mysteries,

cryptic puzzles, and historic features.

Ampleforth Abbey was set up in 1802 by local priest Father Anselm

to provide refuge for monks on the run from the French Revolution.

The French Revolution of 1789

meant out with the old ways and in with the new,

as well as fighting for the rights of the common man.

It overthrew the monarchy, established a republic,

and profoundly altered the course of modern history.

But it had a dark side.

The notorious Reign of Terror killed thousands who were viewed as enemies

of the new state, which had no place for religion.

Thousands of nuns, priests, and monks were killed,

or fled the country in droves.

And that's how a group of Benedictine monks

ended up in North Yorkshire at Ampleforth.

French monks often ran schools,

so once the monks had set up Ampleforth Abbey,

they opened one next door,

admitting 12 local lads at first, before growing to become

a prestigious independent boarding school.

The school has been girls allowed since 2005, and has 600 pupils,

as well as 63 monks, many of whom teach the kids.

As it's a boarding school,

Ampleforth is constantly having to update its accommodation

to modern standards, which is where we come in.

Construction firm William Anelay have just started converting

this Goliath of a building, Bolton House.

-Ah, hello, Tony.

-Hiya, Dave. How you doing?

-All right, yeah.

Well, this is shabby chic taken to a whole new level, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-You obviously haven't finished yet.

No, no, just getting going.

Good grief!

The original Art Deco building was completed in 1935.

But it's been derelict for years.

You see, as well, it's a concrete construction,

which must be difficult to restore.

It is very difficult,

because a lot of the products now aren't available,

such as the floor cassette units, the concrete ones here.

-They are like cassettes that are slotted in.

-Correct.

They're just a precast concrete unit with steel reinforcement.

Right, crumbs.

So what's this building going to be used for?

It's going to be used mainly for accommodation

for monks at Ampleforth College.

Gosh! But everything's been done, hasn't it?

There's no electricity laid,

all the pipework's out, it's all new.

It's a £4 million contract.

50 men will be working for the next nine months

to restore Bolton House to its former glory.

Are you building up as well?

We are. We're putting in an additional floor

in four sections of the building.

Yeah, I've seen some buildings where it's been sea water and sea air

that's eroded, kind of, the reinforcing.

What is it that's done for these?

There used to be a lot of washrooms within the building, and also

flat roofs that used to leak quite a bit, so the water penetrates

-and then causes the damage.

-So, sloppy monks and sloppy schoolboys?

-Absolutely, yeah.

-Gosh, yeah.

Would it have been cheaper to knock it down and start again?

No, not really. A building this size,

its character is well worth keeping.

Like many buildings in the school grounds,

Bolton House was designed by the renowned architect

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

He was noted for his blending of Gothic tradition with modernism,

making what might otherwise have been boring old buildings

into popular landmarks.

He's also behind some of the country's most iconic structures...

..Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station,

the Tate Modern, and Waterloo Bridge.

He even designed the red telephone box.

But undoubtedly, his masterpiece at the school is Ampleforth Abbey,

designed in 1921 with the typical Scott characteristics

of mass, proportion, and simplicity.

PRAYERFUL SINGING

And six times a day,

the Benedictine monks can be seen saying their prayers.

There's something very soothing about them, too.

The monks here very rarely speak to members of the public,

and take a vow of silence every evening.

So we're in for a real treat.

-Hello, Father Wulstan.

-Hello, Dave. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.

-Welcome very much to the abbey church.

Thank you, it was a lovely service.

Is it a calling that brought you here?

Was it something you knew you had to do?

Well, I first came to Ampleforth 21 years ago,

and that was as a teacher in the college.

-Uh-huh.

-And it was just gradually over time that I felt myself,

as I got to know the monks better and understood the life here,

that I felt myself called to the life,

and that's when I asked to join the community.

And how long have you been a monk for, Father Wulstan?

I've been a monk for 17 years,

and I've been a full member of the community

for 13 of those years,

the first four years being a time of formation

before making decisions about final vows.

So what are the vows and commitments that you make

when you join the community?

So the first of our vows is stability,

and that means that we belong to a community.

We might sometimes go away somewhere else for work or for study,

but this is our home and this is where we come back to.

We then take a vow which we call conversatio morum.

It means a real and ongoing fidelity

to the ways of monastic living every day.

So for us, that includes a commitment to poverty,

and it involves a commitment to celibacy.

And then our third vow is obedience.

I find the whole thing fascinating.

I mean, is there a shortage of monks now,

-or are there plenty of recruits?

-There's an interest.

I mean, obviously, it's not very many people,

-if you think of the size of the population.

-Yeah.

But no, we have a steady interest of young men

who want to explore whether they have a vocation

to live the Benedictine monastic life,

and we're lucky that some of those, ultimately,

do join our community, and they take their vows and they stay.

So just a few weeks ago, two of our young men took their lifelong vows.

And back at Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's other masterpiece,

Bolton House, there's manual labour to be done.

Sir Giles had a thing about hiding utilities.

He liked his buildings to be neat and tidy,

so all pipework and cables were cleverly concealed in the walls.

During the renovations, they've all been taken out,

which means we've now got to fill them all back in.

-How do, Rich?

-What's happened through here is we've loads of pipes

coming through all these walls at one stage.

Now what we're doing is we're making it all solid

-so they can plaster it again.

-Yeah.

-Just make everything right.

It's funny, isn't it? Cos it's like, the infrastructure of this building,

everything, all the pipework, the wiring, it's being completely

renewed, cos it's going to be used as a modern spec building.

-Yeah, that's right.

-Can I have a go?

-You certainly can.

-It's years since I've done any bricking.

Nip it round. All the way around.

-That's the one.

-Look at that!

-Straight in, perfect half.

It's 20 years since I've done that.

But once you've got it, you never lose it.

Right, slice it in.

Like you're buttering a slice of bread.

Yeah, but I'm from the north-west. I'm frugal with my butter,

not like you Yorkshire folk.

Right.

I've missed.

'I may not be a master craftsman, but God loves a trier.

'I just hope the monks do.'

When was the last time you did the bricklaying?

Er... Ooh, 20 years ago.

Not doing so bad, then.

Look at that, eh?

It's like something Fred Flintstone's created.

Oh, that's all right. Snug.

Push down. Nice big trowel-full, off,

and then we can get him up like that.

It's literally - the bed is laid and you're just going to do that.

You know, I could sit watching a bricklayer for hours.

It's just so deft. You know, what I'm very clumsy at...

I know, but the apprentices are the same.

It's just until you get all the wrist action right.

It's just all in that. And the bed - laying the bricks is nothing.

It's getting the beds correct, I think, for me. Always has been.

Ampleforth College is one of the most prestigious boarding schools

in the world. And it should be -

fees are a whopping £32,000 a year.

And who better to tell me about what it's like

than head boy Louis and head girl Mary, who are following

in some very illustrious former pupils' footsteps.

I mean, do you feel huge pressure?

Some of your predecessors have been huge achievers.

You've got Lawrence Dallaglio on the rugby field, for one.

Rupert Everett in cinema.

Julian Fellowes in popular literature.

Do you feel there's a pressure hanging round your neck

to compete with them for greatness in the world?

I think, probably, it's something that we're proud of,

-rather than...

-Something to look up to.

-Some will aspire to.

I think, for the rugby players among the school,

it is definitely a great name to have.

I mean, the pitch is called the Dallaglio Match Ground.

But I think it does have a little bit of pressure on us, you know,

to try and reach those dizzy heights.

I mean, you've got a lot of pressure this year with your A-levels.

I think it's the worst year of your life, really.

Are you spending all your time studying?

-Yeah.

-A lot of time spent in the library.

-We can go and look there if you want.

-Oh, yes, I'd love to.

I want to see your Mouseman.

-Definitely. There's lots of that about.

-Lots and lots of them.

It may have plenty of famous forebears,

but Ampleforth is completely infested

with wooden mice.

Pretty much everywhere there's furniture, there's a mouse,

all over the school.

The mouse was the trademark of local lad Robert "Mouseman" Thompson,

who made traditional handcrafted English oak furniture

in the '20s and the '30s.

-This is it.

-Oh, what a great place to study.

-I know, it's amazing.

-It's an incredible place.

And there's the coats of arms of all the families

-who were here when it was originally built.

-Gosh.

-I think it's Mouseman's greatest work, really.

-Yeah.

As you can see, there are mice everywhere.

-So Mouseman made all of this?

-Mm-hm.

I mean, I associate him with furniture,

but not a library like this.

Yeah, it was, I think, 1920s that he did it.

-Oh, there's a mouse.

-Yeah, there we are.

See how many you can spot. There's a whole load of them.

-Mouse.

-Another one.

-Yeah, what a great place to study, though.

-Yeah.

Just to lose your thoughts, or to concentrate.

You know, in here, it's so private.

-Mm-hm.

-Mouse.

Early versions of the mouse were prone to broken legs,

so his mice soon got completely legless.

The school has the largest collection

of Mouseman furniture in the world.

Seven miles down the road, and still in family ownership,

Mouseman's workshop remains a hub of craftsmanship,

and Mouseman's great-grandson Ian is running the show.

The mouse trademark came about quite by accident.

Great-grandfather was working on a church screen one day

with a fellow craftsman,

and that craftsman happened to mention

he thought they were both as poor as church mice.

So Great-grandfather thought how alike he was, the church mouse.

There it was, working with its chisel-like teeth,

not making a song and dance about it,

so he thought how nice it would be to carve a mouse

on this particular piece.

So ever since that day, each piece of furniture

has a mouse carved on it.

As has been the case for 150 years,

each item is entirely handmade by one craftsman

and only naturally seasoned English oak is used.

But it's all about the mouse, at the end of the day.

I'm nearing the final stage of this mouse.

There's the whiskers needs to finish off,

and then just a general tidy-up.

And a good clean-up and a sand, and that's it, finished.

And as the furniture is known around the world

and seen as collectors items, expect to pay top dollar.

Retail cost on a bureau like this is £6,300,

at today's prices.

Everything's solid.

Even the back panels and the side panels and the drawer bottoms

will all be constructed from solid, naturally seasoned English oak.

We get a lot of expats that visit Yorkshire,

and a lot of them want to take a wee slice of Yorkshire

back to their corner of the world,

whether they live in America or Australia.

And that's why, I think, we are so busy today.

Back on site at Bolton House,

the boys are hard at work dismantling an old wall

and getting philosophical.

Any manual labour's exhausting.

When the day's over, you sort of know you've done a hard day's graft

and you sort of want to just go home and go to bed, like.

But that's how the cookie crumbles.

That's how you earn your bread and butter.

Best thing, I'd say, when you build something

and you can stand back and sort of say,

"Well, I've built that, and it's going to last

"for a couple of hundred, maybe a thousand years."

And there's not a lass in sight?

Probably isn't a lot of women in the building game

because it's a very masculine environment.

So, for the women,

I think it's easier for them to come out of school,

go to university.

You do tend to see the odd women in electricians, plumbing,

that sort of game.

Why not, if they want to have a go and do well in it?

But on site today is Caz,

who has no time for stereotypes and drives a 10-tonne truck.

Some of the guys say, "Good God, it's a woman."

And I went, "Yeah, you're right. You're very observant."

SHE LAUGHS

When I've turned up on the site, and I've reversed in,

I've done it in one. It's quite hard,

and the guys were quite impressed that I'd got it in one go.

So I was like, "Well, yeah! One for the girls!"

An access road is currently under construction

and a new car park is being built, whatever the weather.

A bit of rain never stopped building.

You know, we're not downhearted, are we, Luke?

-Not at all.

-No. But, you see, you look up at a building,

you see everything, but it's only the tip of the iceberg.

But underground, the ground works are really important.

That's your drains, your sewers, and all those bits.

And that's equally important with Bolton House.

What have we got here, Luke?

This is the new storm water pipe going in that's going to pick up

the new downcomers that will be fitted to the building.

Oh, well, it's dirty work. Somebody's got to do it. Shall we?

Somebody's got to do it. Yeah, let's do it.

-I'm in.

-That'll do for now.

That goes behind there.

Just stab it in the ground, about there.

Push it in.

HE STRAINS

'If I don't get these pipes stuck together properly,

'there could be a tsunami of drain water soaking the monks,

'and I don't want that on my conscience.

'At least someone thinks I'm doing well.'

Right, so we got the pipe in. That's straight. What's next, Luke?

Next job will be to, obviously,

-get your base ready for your new manhole.

-Right.

So it's a case of getting everywhere level.

OK, that's great.

I'm stuck, mate.

HE LAUGHS

'The famous sinking sands of Ampleforth.'

And inside Bolton House,

the lads are hard at work restoring the broken panes

on another Gilbert Scott masterpiece -

the stained-glass windows of the chapel.

If you're going to do a job, best do it properly.

After all, this space is going to be home to some monks

with rather high values.

All the stained-glass windows need a clean off.

But one or two have got damage, previous damage.

I've taken this piece of glass out. I'm just going to give it to Leon.

He's going to lay it onto a piece of plastic,

as it was in the lead.

And then that's going to be taken back to the workshop

and recreated with a new piece of glass.

Bring it back, pop it back in,

bend the lead down,

seal it with leaded light cement,

and then it's back to its original form.

The Benedictine monks of Ampleforth Abbey supported themselves

and their charitable work by farming sheep for their wool,

and sheep can still be seen grazing

across the North Yorkshire moorland to this day.

The fields are still separated using traditional dry stone walls,

which have been there for hundreds of years.

So I want to find out how to build one

with park ranger Simon Bassindale.

-How do, Simon?

-How do?

-Hello.

This is one of the oldest building methods, isn't it?

-Dry stone walling.

-It is.

Probably been going on for thousands of centuries,

but really, here in the North York Moors,

really kicked off 300, 400 years ago

with the sheep farming developing.

So, Simon, how do you build a wall out of rocks

that's going to last for a couple of hundred years?

Well, the principles are very simple.

It's just a matter of following basic building techniques

of putting one rock on top of two wherever you can.

Put the stones so the long face is running front to back.

And then, if you get a wobble like this one,

we just pin it under the back and then fill this space in

with little bits of rubble.

Where do you get the stones from? I mean, are they quarried locally?

Very much so. Any dry stone wall, if you look on the hillsides,

you'll see little depressions all along,

of where the stones have literally been dug out off the ground

there and then to build the wall.

There's no point carrying it there if you don't have to,

-if you've got good materials on site.

-So it's making use

of the landscape and what you've been given, really.

Here, in this particular corner of the North York Moors National Park,

we've got a Jurassic landscape.

So this would have been beautiful, warm,

sunny beaches and sediment laying down.

We had the mist down this morning.

You know, it could be a bit subtropical, really.

'These 550 square miles of heather moorland

'are an incredibly rare habitat,

'and the rangers are in a permanent battle to preserve it.'

Let's get digging around the base of this.

I mean...

..is it quite a delicate ecosystem here, Simon?

Well, it can be, given the wrong conditions.

So... Hence why we're trying to manage this.

Cos obviously, we get lots of invertebrates,

lots of mini beasts, as the kids like to call them...

-Mini beasts!

-..living in here,

helping to rot things down.

And, then, obviously,

you get the shrews and the voles and the mice living on them.

It's all a very delicate balance, isn't it?

If something gets out of balance, it'll go right up the chain.

-Right.

-And then we'll have that chucked over there

with those other dead ones.

'Sometimes, you've got to be cruel to be kind.

'If we want to keep the moor pure,

'we need to cull non-native invaders like this evil Christmas tree.'

It's going to seem funny to a lot of people, when, you know -

to chop down trees, when we're educated all the time now

never to touch a tree.

Well, we're not just going through taking all the trees out -

it is very much selective,

making sure the right species are retained.

But the ones that we don't want, unfortunately,...

-They're firewood.

-Yeah.

It's nice to know that this corner

will be as protected as it possibly could be.

'Sorry, but to protect this delicate ecosystem,

'these birch saplings have also got to go.'

What we do with some of these is, the big woody stuff at the bottom

we'll rack up into habitat piles,

which are really good for invertebrates.

-Right.

-But some of the branchy bits at the top

we'll make into faggots, which are big bundles of sticks

that we can use when we're doing path repairs on very boggy areas.

-Yeah.

-So that we can then put stone on top of the bundles

and float the stone across the top of a boggy bit of moorland.

Should I chop and you drag, Simon?

OK.

I like this bit.

# I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!

# I work all night and I sleep all day!

# I cut down trees I skip and jump

# I like to press wild flowers

# I put on women's clothing

# And hang around in bars... #

Could be a timber moment.

There she goes.

Timber!

'Aah, the cool country air!

'And on my way back to Ampleforth, it would be rude not to check out

'another local highlight - the finest view in England.

'Ooh, what a corker!'

Finest view in England - think I need to clean my glasses.

'It's there, I promise. Underneath the fog.

'Away from the moors and back inside the relative warmth of Bolton House,

'Father Wulstan has brought his fellow monk Father Chad along

'to check out their future living quarters.

'They'll be moving in in under a year's time, all being well.'

-Father Chad.

-Good to see you.

-Hello again.

How long was this building shut for, Bolton House?

-12?

-12 years.

-Was it 12 years? It's a long time, yeah.

And you're going to be living here again, possibly,

and, you know, you lived here in the past. What's it like coming back?

I think to come back into a building that you're used to seeing,

obviously, furnished, it's quite strange coming back in now,

but you still see the same shape of it and something of the same feel.

As monks - I mean, I know you have a vow of poverty.

Do you have many possessions?

Well, we have a number of things which we use,

and which we have for our use.

And each year in Lent, we go through all that and we enumerate that

on a list called a poverty bill,

and we give that to the Abbot, who then inspects what we have.

All the library books you've forgotten to take back,

-that sort of thing, get returned.

-Is that quite liberating?

Yes. I worked before I came here,

and it was great to come to a monastery,

where you didn't have to carry keys or a diary, or...

You know, there was a sense of just...of freedom.

When you're out and about on business,

would you travel in your habit?

I think, sometimes, if people see you like this,

it can be a bit... They can get a bit freaked out.

I tend to travel in just a clerical collar.

When I was younger monk, I went to visit a friend in London

and I was wearing my habit walking across Waterloo Bridge,

and the wind just lifted this thing up, the scapular,

and just smacked this businessman in the face,

without me moving my hands. And he didn't know what to do.

-Yes.

-It was an unusual social situation, I think, for him.

-LAUGHTER

You would swallow your words quickly before you said anything offensive, I'm sure.

Within the school activities, one thing we're learning -

some of the monks play rugby, as well.

Well, play - possibly not play. I referee.

Right. Do you have a sin bin?

I like to release people from the sin bin.

LAUGHTER

I see that as my special role.

The monks at Ampleforth may have to abstain

from many of life's pleasures, but that hasn't stopped them

from creating their own little slice of paradise.

This is another Ampleforth marvel - its orchard.

How many varieties of trees have you got here?

Well, we've got just over 40 varieties of apple,

and just over 200 trees.

Do you have a penchant for apples, or... Is it their produce?

I think it's good to have something that gradually comes to fruition

and takes patience, but then brings happiness to lots of people.

Well, I suppose it's a bit like the Garden of Eden, really, isn't it?

-Well, I hope not completely, but...

-No. No, it's beautiful.

-Look at that!

-You've come at the right time of year.

-This is a bounteous harvest.

-This is the best time to be here.

-Can I try one?

-They're called Spartan.

-This is a Spartan?

-They might break your teeth.

-That's all right. They're all my own.

-Good?

-Mm.

-Crisp.

-Beautiful.

-Mm.

-Sweet.

So what do you do with the apples?

-About ten years ago, we started making apple juice and cider.

-Yeah.

And we make an apple liqueur, as well, called Ampleforth Amber.

It goes back to the thing about the Benedictine monks.

You know, you have to make a living.

So are there any problems? Are you allowed to drink?

-In the rules, Saint Benedict says that monks shouldn't drink.

-Yes.

But since they can't be persuaded of this,

-they should at least drink in moderation.

-Mm-hm.

So, for instance, we can have a little glass of beer at lunchtime,

which is just nice.

It is, isn't it? It's civilised.

'Ampleforth has a great tradition of music,

'including bagpipers.

'I didn't know they were big in Yorkshire!'

Right. I should say, "You be Mother,

but it'd be Father, really. LAUGHTER

-Father and brother.

-Right.

-Right.

-Father Chad.

-This is what you need.

-8.3%?

-Yeah.

It's what we need on a day like this.

Thank you very much.

'Time for a toast.'

-Here's to Saint Benedict.

-Cheers.

-But only in moderation.

-In moderation.

-What do you think?

-Ooh. That's jolly good, isn't it?

Do you know, I'd never thought I'd see the day.

It's a bit surreal that I'd find myself in an orchard in Yorkshire

with two monks, a piper, and a table full of cider.

But, you know, I'm relishing it. It's rather fine. Thank you.

-I'll drink to that.

-Cheers. Again!

LAUGHTER

'Next time, I'll be in Leicester, helping to restore

'one of the Midlands' most historically important treasures,

'the fantastic 18th-century Friars Mill.

'I'll discover how it's being brought back to life...'

Of course, the roof would have burnt out.

Yes, all the roof burnt off.

'..I'll help clean up the lifeblood of the mill, the River Soar...'

Ooh, yes. I think I got a whiff of the countryside.

'..and an iconic feature is put back in its place.'

Well, that's another change on the skyline of Leicester!