Manchester Cathedral 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 Manchester,

helping to restore one of its oldest buildings,

the magnificent cathedral.

I'll be finding out the origins of a very famous secret agent.

It was a nought, another nought - "for your eyes only" -

and the old long division sign for the seven.

So he was 007!

Trying to bribe the builders...

Look, I'll swap you my mother's Yorkshire pudding recipe for that.

It's worth it.

And finding out how to start a revolution in a library.

So, this is the very table that Marx and Engels sat.

Manchester - it's named after the Roman fort Mamucium,

which means breast-shaped hill.

In fact, its history is just as titillating.

It was the world's first industrial city.

In fact, Manchester has more firsts

than you can shake your fist at.

It really is a revolutionary city

that can lay claim to being the first at a whole host of inventions and ideas.

They include the first fully artificial canals,

the first steam railways...

..global movements, like women's suffrage,

and trade unions started here.

But it was during the 1800s

that Manchester truly started to flourish,

when its cotton industry really took off.

In the 19th century, its population exploded.

So much so that the city had to transform its medieval church

into this stonking great cathedral.

I'm here to help restore it and to explore some of its mysteries.

Dating back to the Middle Ages,

the cathedral is one of Manchester's oldest buildings.

Originally a church, it was transformed into a cathedral in 1847.

Further innovations were needed after a Second World War bomb

destroyed the north-east corner and blew out all the windows in 1940.

This old girl needs constant attention and as it approaches its 600th anniversary,

the cathedral's undergoing a 280-grand restoration.

Construction firm Williams Anelay are doing the works

and I'm here to see Marcus Walker, the contracts manager.

-Hello, Marcus.

-How are you, Dave? Nice to meet you.

-Yeah, you too.

What's going on here? It's amazing.

-We've erected scaffolding inside now.

-Well, I can see that!

We're taking all the roof covering off outside,

taking the lead off and then, once the roof repairs have been carried

out and the lead work's going back on,

we'll start the repairs internally to the decorative ceiling.

The renovation project is scheduled to take five months in total.

They are repairing stone ornaments,

restoring the wooden ceiling and replacing the lead roof.

The team will be using 14 tonnes of lead,

the equivalent weight of around 80 motorbikes.

But, before I head up on the roof to see first-hand what the builders are doing,

I've come into the spectacular carved choir area

in the middle of the cathedral

to find out exactly what makes this place so special and worth preserving,

from cathedral expert Dympna Gould.

-Hello, Dympna.

-Dave, lovely to see you.

Lovely to meet you, too. I mean, this is amazing.

It's so full of surprises, the cathedral.

Well, this is one of the great treasures of Manchester Cathedral.

I mean, just look around you.

This is one of the finest preserved medieval choirs in Europe.

If you look over on the south side here,

all of this was completed at the end of the 1400s,

the gift of a famous family called the Stanleys,

and on this side, this was completed by the early 1500s.

This is amazing to think it was done in the 1500s.

The quality of the carving is just unbelievable.

That's the Archdeacon of Rochdale sits there.

The Bishop of Bolton there.

It's a fabulous location to come and pray.

But, hundreds of years ago, prayers could go on for hours and hours.

Back then, the clergy were obliged to stand at all times.

So, a devious device was invented to help them cheat.

These are misericords.

If you go up and perch your derriere, your petit derriere,

on that ledge there.

-It seems wrong.

-They invented a pop-up seat so that you could...

-Ah!

-Oops!

..not wreck our 600-year-old choir stalls,

but so you could sit down when you needed a rest, but when you didn't,

you could just perch elegantly and look

as though you're saying your prayers standing up.

So, a great invention, but the most exciting thing is,

if you look underneath that seat that you're standing under there...

-Oh, yes.

-Can you see there are some figures carved?

I love it. A game of backgammon,

a barrel of beer, a jug of ale

and all the time you're underneath the bishop's bottom!

Anything carved above eye level had to be connected to God...

..but below, the carvers had a free rein to put in anything they fancied.

So, there's almost a cartoon and satirical quality to them.

So, they're telling a fable, so I think the priests of the day

might have been a bit worried about this new game of backgammon

taking people away from their church attendances, and so they could

poke fun a little bit at society and, again, it was their calling card, if you want,

for their next big job at the next big church.

So, very much leaving their mark in a rather wonderful way.

But it's not just the carvers who have left a lasting impression.

One of the cathedral's claims to fame is that in 1595,

John Dee became its churchwarden.

A respected scientist,

in latter years, many people suspected him

of being a practitioner of black magic

and he certainly cast a spell on Queen Elizabeth I,

becoming her eyes and ears in court.

John Dee worked as a spy,

and so that Elizabeth knew that any letters he sent back were not

forgeries - she was very protective of this -

he used to have a symbol that he put on his letters,

and it was a nought,

another nought - "for your eyes only" -

and the old long division sign for the seven.

007.

So, he was 007!

So, did Ian Fleming get his inspiration from that?

That's exactly right.

So, we've got a little bit of James Bond here in Manchester Cathedral,

but all thanks to Dr Dee.

But it's not all spies and hidden gems,

the cathedral also houses priceless historical papers,

including the very document responsible for its existence.

I've brought you up our windy staircase into the munitions room

and this is where - having a little bit of a sort out, despite its appearance -

where we keep some of our most valued treasures.

What you're looking at now is Royal Charter.

-Yes.

-It's Henry V.

-Henry V!

Henry V, Battle of Agincourt and all that.

Yes.

1421, Henry V granted a charter

for a collegiate church to be built on this site.

The idea that, you know, that writing and that document is here,

beautifully preserved in Manchester, is one of our real treasures.

Gosh.

Dave, I've got something else to show you.

If you look on these shelves,

you'll see them lined with book after book on marriages, births...

We have the records going back to the late 1500s.

Good grief!

But, do you notice anything a bit peculiar about the marriages round this section?

Anything jump out?

Well, they seem to get a lot fatter and a lot bigger by about 1834.

Well, do you want to just pull that record book out?

-Is that all right?

-Oh, yes. We'll be gentle.

If you'd like to open up the record book for us,

that would be wonderful.

During the time of the Industrial Revolution,

the church was the only licensed venue for weddings and baptisms.

What was happening in Manchester, from the late 1700s

through the 1800s, was cotton was king. Cottonopolis.

Yes.

Explosion in the population.

Not many churches around and the demands on marriages on this church were huge.

So, we conducted mass weddings.

And we would have lined people up, couples up, maybe 15 at a time,

and they would have been married en masse.

It was a wedding factory in those days.

As much as the Industrial Revolution was happening...

I've not heard it described like that, but that is brilliant!

-It's a marriage revolution.

-It is, you're right.

A marriage revolution under this roof.

The Grade I-listed building is getting essential

repair and maintenance works done.

You've got quite a history with this building yourself, haven't you, Marcus?

I have. I've worked on the cathedral since I was 16. I started my apprenticeship on here.

Today, the team are up on top of the cathedral,

replacing the worn-out lead roof.

They are using the same original methods and materials

as their ancestors.

Having stripped away all the worn-out lead,

new sheets are moulded to fit each individual wooden bay.

So, what are you lads doing?

We're pre-forming the panels ready to be installed.

So, you make the panels and then pass them over to the other lads for fitting?

Yeah. We'll boss the corners up,

-we'll chalk slurry the back of them...

-Right.

..let them dry, and then install the panels.

The chalk emulsion helps to protect the lead and prevent corrosion

caused by moisture in the rafters of the roof.

So, what's going on over here, Marcus?

-We're now starting to form the sides.

-Right.

Once these sides are square and parallel, he'll start bossing the corners,

-ready for fitting it into position...

-Yeah.

..and that's when he starts dressing it over the lead rolls,

the timber rolls, to form all these nice, neat parallel lines.

It's almost like when my wife does needlework,

she cuts the material and then works it to the pattern.

Similar work but this is a bit heavier, bit harder to move.

If you see this lead, it takes a lot of power to move it to and fro.

-I mean, this bay here is 78kg.

-Yeah.

It's took four of us to get a roll of lead onto this sheet of ply here.

-Can I have a go?

-Yeah, of course. I'll show you the way.

The idea what we're doing at the moment is we're trying to set a line here.

So, basically you want a 90-degree corner.

Yeah. I mean, by all means, have a try.

-Is it all right this way?

-That's right, yeah.

Once you set that line in, the lead will fold to the line you've put in it.

It sort of folds to the crease line.

Is there a name for this job? Knocker-inner?

Setting in, we call it.

Does a lead roof like this, does it expand in the heat?

Or do you have any movement on it?

We do have a pattern.

What we do is, we're now only the first third of a lead bay

and then the other two thirds

can move and expand and contract

with the sun and the cold.

Contrary to popular opinion, the sun will sometimes shine in Manchester.

You never know! We're still waiting. There's been plenty of rain.

You'll do me out of a job.

These tools almost look medieval.

I know, like, the material's different,

-but I bet the method hasn't changed, has it?

-No, that's right.

It's probably one of the only trades where it's using the tools.

I mean, you'll find other roofing

where you're getting a hard metal and putting it through a machine.

-Yes.

-This is as old school as you get.

How did you learn to do this?

It's a lot of years on roofs

and the more you do it, the better you get.

It's like Rolls-Royce of roofs though, isn't it?

Once the panels are in the correct shape,

they are carefully put into place and pulled over the beams.

It's a laborious job and on a good day, they can do around five bays.

So, now we've got to change the tools, cos this one's now too sharp.

-Right.

-What we're doing is knocking out these corners.

We're changing the shape of the lead, knocking out the corners.

-We need a tool to go round the back of the lead...

-Right.

..and one to go over the top,

and you're basically tapping it until you get the nice shape.

So, you're moving the lead, you're not stretching it, you don't want to split it.

This will end up being stronger by doing it the way we're doing it,

-cos you're moving lead into the corner. Very strong.

-What we call patinated?

-Bossing the lead, we call it.

-Bossing the lead.

It's moving the lead and it stays nice and strong, basically.

So, once I've knocked up the two corners here,

I would then drop the bay down like this and then slide it across

into the gap right next to us and then we go back to the setting-in stick again

and we want to set it into the wood roll, leaving a nice sharp finish.

These are the original wood rolls, aren't they?

Yeah, the original wood rolls of the job. They try and keep everything as original as they can.

The next job we want to do is try and fold it over the wood rolls, so we're going to neatly...

What an honour it is to do a bit on Manchester Cathedral roof.

It is just like icing a cake really, but heavy.

The craftsmen aren't the only inhabitants on the roof

at the moment.

In 2012, four beehives were placed up here

as part of a national campaign to save the honey bee.

They are maintained by volunteers,

but have been causing headaches for the builders.

What's with the beehives over there?

The beehives have caused a few problems while we've been here.

So, were the beehives here before you started work on this roof?

Yes, the beehives were here

while the scaffolders were here and then once we've started our works,

obviously we've had some sunny weather and the bees decided

to get angry and stung Ian, the site manager.

One thing I'm impressed with, with your job, is it's always

different problems, be it bats, bees, birds.

There is always something, isn't there, to work round?

There is. There's nothing straightforward in restoration.

Every job's a totally different job.

-Did you get any honey off them as compensation?

-Not yet!

While the bees are busy on the roof,

down below the stunning interior

took at least four generations of carvers to shape.

It's rammed to the rafters with unique carvings and stunning statues.

Cathedral statues normally showcased the great and the good.

Bishops, mayors and poets. But standing proud at the head of the north aisle

is this bloke, Humphrey Chetham,

whose only claim to fame was cotton.

He's a bit of a loose thread.

Old Humph was born in 1580

and he devoted his life to getting rich,

making a packet out of cotton factories.

Nothing too holy about that,

but it's what he did for the city with his money which has afforded him

prime position in the cathedral.

He dictated that his fortune be used to build a school for poor boys,

now the Chetham Music School, and a library that was free for all.

It's the oldest public library in the UK.

It's still open by appointment and luckily I've booked one.

It is set on the top two floors of a medieval building

and was founded in 1653.

(This is incredible!)

The library houses over 100,000 books with at least half of them published

before 1851.

Michael Powell is the head librarian.

-(Hello, Michael.)

-Hello.

It's OK, you don't need to whisper.

I feel I should do with the reverence of this building.

What type of people would have used this library?

It would have been scholars, it would been gentlemen really who had the leisure to come in and read.

Clergymen, lawyers, doctors, that sort of professional classes of people.

How far back does the library go?

What are its earliest pieces?

The earlier substantial books go back to about the 13th century.

This has to be one of the best collections in the world.

I don't know about the world, but certainly in the UK, I would think. Yeah.

OK, this...

..is one of the older books.

This is a 13th century manuscript

written by a chap called Matthew Paris.

Known as the Flowers Of History.

A series of pictures of English coronations.

This one, the coronation of Edward the Confessor.

How precious is this?

This is handwritten, it's not printed.

That's right, it's written in a variety of hands.

Matthew Paris wrote a bit of it in his own hand,

but lots of scribes wrote it.

The manuscript is one of a number of original documents that the library

contains.

In the 1820s, a liberal movement was spreading across the city,

and a newspaper was created to reflect these views.

This is breathtaking.

Yeah, this is the main reading room, most people get to work in here.

If we look at this, this is the Guardian.

Published on 5th May, 1821, and this is number one.

Number one, the first ever issue of the Guardian newspaper.

Like all newspapers from that time, it begins with the advertisements,

and here, the first one.

Oh, right. The very first words in the Guardian newspaper.

"Taken up - a black Newfoundland bitch."

Somebody's lost their dog.

That set the tone for the next 200 years!

Chetham Library is not just the oldest public library in the UK,

it is also one of the most radical.

In the middle of the 19th century,

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels came together and researched for a

political pamphlet that would change the world.

The Communist Manifesto.

It was a rousing call to arms, which advocated for a classless society,

where there is no private ownership,

and everything belongs to the community.

Published in 1848, its ideology inspired the Russian Revolution,

and its influence is still felt today.

So, this is the very table where Marx and Engels sat.

Yeah. They came in the summer of 1845.

It's funny, isn't it? It does seem a rather grand environment for the

fathers of communism.

It is, in a way, but I suppose the other thing is that apart from the

British Museum, where Marx would work later on,

this is the only library at the time where he could come in,

where he could read economic books, you know, free.

That's the main point.

-Right.

-You're not a member, you just use it as of right.

Engels, he was from quite a wealthy background, wasn't he?

Yeah, Engels was a... His father is an industrialist

and they had a mill in Salford,

and Engels managed that on his behalf, so Engels was, you know,

a very cultured middle-class man. He went on the hunt.

So how did he meet Marx, how did they get together, as it were?

Originally, they didn't get on at all,

they were just hostile to one another, and then famously,

over a lot of boozing...

They got drunk for about ten days.

-Yes.

-And after that they were just like a partnership.

I was like that with Si, really, and 23 years on, we're still mates!

And these are the very books that they would have read.

Some of them, like this one, one of the early histories of Manchester,

Aikin's History Of Manchester,

which is the first attempt to describe Manchester in terms of economics.

What creates modern Manchester? Coal, cotton, canals.

Marx and Engels saw first-hand the results the Industrial Revolution had

on the city of Manchester.

Rapid, unplanned urbanisation led to slum housing and extreme areas of poverty.

But, you know, it's funny, holding this book,

when you think, with Marx and Engels, the...

the history that changed the world.

You know, from, I suppose, the Russian Revolution,

going through to the rise of communism in China.

It's just extraordinary that the seeds of this were sown around this desk.

Yes, Marx and Engels are writers, essentially,

and that's what they produce, and it does change world history.

-The pen was mightier than the sword there.

-Yeah, it really is.

-Gosh!

Back at the cathedral,

I've come under the eaves to get a close-up view of the ceiling,

and unearth some trade secrets.

-How do, Martin?

-Hiya.

-You all right? Dave.

Smells nice up here.

It's very strong, isn't it?

Er, no, in a nice sort of way.

So that'll be the mythical archdeacon?

-It is, yeah.

-The mystery mix.

'Archdeacon is a formula used to clean and restore wooden ceilings.

'Passed down by the restoration industry,

'it gets its name from the deacons who invented it over 100 years ago.'

-I wonder if you want to rag it off.

-Oh, right, so you paint it on...

We paint it on, first coat, to get all the muck and dirt out of it.

-Yeah.

-So, then, eventually, we'll get a nice finish,

and there'll be no dirt left.

Tell you what, this really brings it back to life.

But it's so funny to think I am right up in the cathedral roof,

and I'm cleaning the ceiling...

..with magical things.

-So this is the mythical archdeacon.

-It is, yeah.

-The mystery mix.

The mystery mix, we're not allowed to give it away.

What's in the solution is a closely guarded secret,

but that's not going to stop me from trying to figure it out.

-There's a bit of shellac.

-No.

Bit of vinegar.

Some vinegar, yes.

Linseed oil? Camphor oil!

You're not far wrong, yeah.

Erm... Are you going to tell us?

No.

Look, I'll swap you me mother's Yorkshire-pudding recipe.

For that. It's worth it!

Let's go and have a look what Matt's doing.

Oh, crumbs!

You know what? When you look at it up there, it doesn't look that big.

-But that's a big lump of wood!

-It's a fair section.

Aye. Is this just decorative, Matt?

It is, it's a boss, just to cover up the joints,

where the...where the roof is joined to the truss.

-Yeah.

-Just covers up the joint. And it gives that...

-Fits perfect.

It gives it that ornate look.

Right. Have you had to repair this?

Not this one, no. There has been just a few little ones that we've had to

just glue back together again and piece up.

Yeah? So have you been round every boss on this, checking?

-I have, yes.

-Gosh!

And it's only...

Most of them, it's just a matter of tightening them back up again.

Yeah. And how old do you reckon the ceiling is?

It's probably...

'50s or pre-'50s.

-Yes.

-Obviously, it's not... not an original one.

-Right.

Hasn't lasted that long, has it, really, in the scheme of things?

We want more than 60 years out of this one.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, with this one, it's only shrinkage...

-Uh-huh.

-..that's caused it.

-Do you want to put the screws in,

cos my arms are knackered!

Manchester's connection to revolutionary thinking of the 18th century

didn't stop with Marx and Engels.

Directly opposite the cathedral there is the Cowherd Cathy food van,

which has an intriguing connection to another of the area's radical ideas.

We named it after Reverend Cowherd, who in the early 18th century,

he had his whole congregation in Salford

and they were completely vegetarian.

It was something that was quite radical and out there,

but he really believed in refraining from meat,

and actually thought that it caused aggression.

At the time, he got a lot of local ministers that mocked him for what he

was doing, cos it was seen quite way out there,

so they nicknamed his church the Beefsteak Chapel.

A lot of people don't realise that that actually happened in Salford in

Greater Manchester, that was the start of the vegetarian movement,

and where it all began.

And even in those times,

there was actually more vegetarian restaurants in the Manchester area than

there are now.

Cowherd and his followers inspired the foundation of the Vegetarian Society.

With a membership of 150 people, it was established in Manchester in 1847,

and is still going strong today.

Up on the cathedral roof,

it's the turn of the ornamental stonework to have a makeover.

The pinnacles have suffered

after being battered by years of wind and rain.

The top parts are called finials, and these are being removed

and taken off-site so exact copies can be reproduced.

Today, we're doing repair works to the pinnacles.

And first, we've taken off the finial, off the top,

and we've got an indent to the upper part of the pinnacle.

So, we're taking this away now,

and we're going to replicate that... that exact same one.

Each one of them will have been done by different masons,

so each one needs taking away.

You don't just take one away and replicate one,

because there'll be slight design...erm...

variations in it.

Overall, they'll all look quite similar, but as a mason,

you can see their different variations in certain aspects of it.

Each finial is unique, and will take six days to carve.

I've worked under some fantastic masons, on lots of different contracts,

but basically, from where we're from, Manchester Cathedral's the one.

So, working on here, it's a proud moment for me,

and every single one of us puts a lot of pride into what we're doing.

Every lad on here's got a smile on his face, because we're proud.

CHORAL SINGING

Cathedrals aren't meant to be solemn places,

and Manchester Cathedral has held raves and pop concerts.

Everyone from the Fun Lovin' Criminals to Alicia Keys.

Now it's their neighbours,

the Chetham's School of Music's turn to serenade us in style.

# My soul doth magnify the Lord... #

The school wouldn't be here without the generosity of Humphrey Chetham,

and I'm sure he'd be proud of his legacy.

Manchester Cathedral's as tough as old boots,

and it's a symbol of this great city.

You know, it survived the Blitz of World War II, and the IRA bomb of '96,

but once this renovation's complete it's going to go on serving this great

Northern city in style.

Me? Mad for it!

Next time, I'm in The Potteries in Staffordshire.

I'll be turning Hairy Potter,

to discover the magic of Britain's ceramics central.

This is really fiddly, you know.

It's like trying to shave an oyster.

I'll reveal how the wizard of clay, Josiah Wedgwood, cast his spell.

This is brilliant, it's like having a cultural lift,

do you know what I mean?

And investigate spooky goings-on that sent

shivers down our builders' spines.

Would you like to come forward and speak to us, Edward?