Wedgwood Institute The Hairy Builder

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

Don't bury your head in a guidebook.

Ask a brickie,

a chippie

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 an area known as The Potteries in Staffordshire.

It's the world capital of ceramics and I'm here to help restore this

iconic building - the Wedgwood Institute.

I turn Hairy Potter to discover the magic of Britain's

ceramic central.

This is really fiddly, you know.

It's like trying to shave an oyster.

I 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 have sent shivers down

our builders' spines.

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

Today's historic building, the Wedgwood Institute,

was built in 1865 in honour of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood.

Its purpose was to educate the local working men and it ran

courses in science, business and the arts.

The Institute sits in the heart of the famous Potteries,

a group of six towns which today forms the city of Stoke-on-Trent.

In the 17th and 18th century, the area was booming and ceramic

companies like Royal Doulton, Spode and Wedgwood all flourished here.

It was a powerhouse of industry with over 200 factories.

But in the 20th century everything changed.

The pottery industry declined, dealing a death blow to the area

and much of the town's architectural treasures fell into rack and ruin.

Luckily, this one, the Wedgwood Institute, was saved in the nick of time.

I'm here to help restore it and uncover the secrets that it holds.

This Grade II-listed Institute has been derelict for nearly

a decade and is on the English Heritage Buildings At Risk Register.

Seven months ago, it started the first phase of its restoration, costing around

£850,000 but it's not just the interior that needs a bit of TLC.

-Hello, Kate.

-Hello.

-Hello, Danny.

-Hello.

-Should I hop on?

-Yeah, hop on. Oh, brill.

Before meeting the builders, Gaye Blake-Roberts,

curator of the nearby Wedgwood Museum,

is going to give me an insight into the great man Josiah Wedgwood

who this building is named after.

Do you know? I love a cherry picker.

It's the chance to get up close and personal to some of the

nation's national treasures.

This is incredible.

-Have you been in one of these before, Kate?

-No, I haven't. It's a first experience for me.

-We'll go and have a look at Josiah.

-If only he could talk.

Hello, sir. Very pleased to meet you.

Now I feel as though I'm being more polite.

Tell me about Josiah Wedgwood.

Oh, he was an amazing man.

He was a potter.

-He actually trained and did his apprenticeship as a potter.

-Right.

He was a pioneer, philanthropist.

He was very much in ahead of his time.

And apart from being a brilliant scientist, he actually created

-the one thing that revolutionised the ceramic industry.

-Right.

Not only in Britain but throughout Europe.

It's a pyrometer.

-A pyrometer?

-Well, a thermometer for measuring high temperatures.

Gosh.

This thermometer was used to measure exactly when the clay was

ready to be taken out of the kiln.

Up until Wedgwood's invention, the industry

has used guesswork and luck to know when the clay was ready.

It fundamentally changed the way the industry worked.

What a great man and far more than somebody who had a pottery factory.

-Yes, he was.

-Mr Wedgwood, it's been a pleasure.

You don't have to go inside to appreciate this spectacular building

as its beauty lies in its elaborate brickwork for all the world to see.

Along the facade are a series of terracotta panels illustrating various themes.

To actually get up close to these fantastic sculptures is breathtaking.

-What is it made from?

-They're made from terracotta.

-Right.

-Terracotta is a clay which seems very appropriate for this building.

-Yes.

Which is very high fired.

It's impervious to liquid.

And of course is ideal as a building material.

So what do we have here? It's like a calendar.

We've got the months of the year here, which is June, we're looking at May

-to the other side so obviously May's got lots of spring flowers.

-Yes.

June is showing the shearing of sheep because that happens in June

and if you look above, you can see the tiny tesserae...

You take us up, Danny? This is brilliant.

It's like having a cultural lift, do you know what I mean?

It's incredible, isn't it? I've never seen one this close.

-And the Victorians loved embellishment, didn't they?

-They had to embellish it.

And put their own stamp on it.

Fashion, taste and style changes every so often.

What are those mosaics there?

-Those are the signs of the Zodiac.

-Gosh.

Which are done in tiny bits of ceramic and glass.

Well, like an exterior on a building, they really are very, very fine mosaic, aren't they?

They are very, very beautiful.

What's the frieze down there? Come on, Danny, first floor.

The frieze that runs across the facade of this building shows

the stages of ceramic production and it's really interesting

because it shows the traditional things like throwing and

turning but it makes you realise how busy the industry was.

Ah, this is fantastic.

Well, you realise what a lot of work the builders have got on

but it's going to be worth it when it's done.

-Ah, it's going to be breathtaking when it's finished.

-We'll have to come back for a look.

-You're on.

-Yeah? We'll have to book Danny.

The Institute's first phase of renovation is nearly finished

with a second phase starting in 2017.

Just under £7,000,000 is needed to be spent to bring it back to

its former glory.

Construction firm William Anelay and their team of skilled workmen

have had their work cut out with the first phase of this project,

which involved making sure the structure was safe with

contracts manager Bob Martindale at the helm.

It looks like you caught this just in the nick of time, Bob.

I mean, what a mess. Such a lot to do.

Well, it's a lot tidier now than when we first came.

-Really?

-Just those holes were open, pigeons were flying around in

-here...

-I can see.

-..causing a real mess.

-It's like the facade on the outside.

It kind of looks OK at first glance.

You get close up.

There is such a lot of fine work to be done but then you get

inside and the building needs to be functioning as

a 21st-century building to make more use of it. Where do you start?

What you've got to do is look at the walls and you've got to get

-right back to the brick...

-Yes.

-..to the basic structural strength of the building.

And with any timber that's damaged like this what we see,

-you rip it out and start again if it were too far gone.

-Yes.

This timber looks all right underneath the bird droppings.

You'd have to sort of investigate a bit further I think before we

decide what we're going to do with that.

Do you learn that when you're building that you kind of just hold

your horses till you have a good look?

-You look at the options, don't you?

-Yeah.

-And what you can afford to do.

But then, what would a new build cost this size in a city centre?

-Probably 20 million, something like that.

-Yeah, and it wouldn't have half the charisma

of the Wedgwood Institute.

-No. You cannot replace this type of building, can you?

-No.

You can only bring it back to life.

Shall we move on to the next room?

This renovation project requires just under 2,000 litres of paint,

72 panes of glass for the roof lights, weighing up to 57kg each,

and six weeks of pointing.

So far, they've installed new roof installation and lighting and

made the ground floor accessible.

The plan is to restore the whole building

so it can be used by small businesses.

But when they started work, there were one or two headaches for Bob.

-Good grief!

-Once again, the pigeons.

It's like a pigeon apocalypse, isn't it? There's dead pigeons, there's live pigeons.

This is a sign of pigeon as vermin, isn't it?

-Yeah, you get nasty diseases in the atmosphere from when they're flying about.

-Yes, yes.

And this is an area where we've not worked in, therefore they're getting

-through every little crevice in the roof that we've not repaired.

-Right.

The builders certainly have their work cut out with a facade

outside measuring 340 square metres - there's a lot to be done.

Olly, so how do you go about cleaning the facade of

a building like this?

Basically you start with the mildest method first which is

basically just to use water and a brush. De-ionised water...

-Purer than rainwater, even.

-Pure water, very pure.

Just soaking it in a poultice form and scrubbing and see if that

takes some of the dirt away.

-It's not doing much.

-It's not, no.

At least we can see that it's not doing much and we can

discount it and move on to the next stage.

-We'll move onto a non-ionic detergent.

-Right.

We'll use that on the affected area and basically have

a good scrub again and see if that lifts it any more.

You can give it a little dampen with some water.

This is the non-ionic detergent.

-OK? A little bit of that on there.

-Get a lather up?

-Yeah.

Give it a good scrub.

A good scrub, come on.

It's having some effect, isn't it?

It will take off some of the grime, yeah, it will. It certainly will.

This is the first time this building has been touched with

a scrubbing brush for decades.

-Aye.

-Now just give it a good rinse off with the water.

And you will see there will be patches where it has taken it off.

And once that's dried you will be able to see the full effect

of that clean.

While it's wet it gives you a bit of a false representation.

It's an awfully dreary colour.

The next stage we would use after that would be the mild acid.

-Should we try stage three?

-Let's try stage three, yeah.

You can't make a mistake with that. Mild acid, vinegar.

Cleary labelled. There we go, just give it a good soak.

Now give it a good scrub.

Now we're talking.

Josiah Wedgwood, I bet he's turning in his grave now.

He'll be going potty!

We just need to rinse it down with some water now, Dave.

We'll see how that looks.

-That's coming up, isn't it?

-It is.

Each stage will generally tend to lift another layer of grime off.

Olly, you've worked on these buildings for

a while now but what do you think of this one?

Fantastic. It's a perfect example of its style of building.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

There's such a lot of work that's worth preserving.

-That's coming up there, it's a lot lighter.

-It is.

I'd love to have a look at stage four to see what that does.

Let's see stage four, then, yeah?

-Is that Sam?

-That's Sam.

-Sam is stage four.

-Sam is stage four.

Come on, then.

Builder Sam is using a tougher technique on another section

of the building's facade.

-So, what's Sam doing, Olly?

-This is stage four.

If the other stages haven't been successful we move on to

a high-pressure wash heated to 180 degrees

which will lift all the dirt and grime off the building.

Is there a chance that could lift some of the masonry away?

There is a chance but in that process it's better that

that masonry comes away now so we can deal with it so that it

doesn't come away in the future and maybe fall on people's heads.

So someone makes a note of it,

what's happened, and go back and rectify it.

We'd repair it accordingly, yeah.

-That's bound to work, really.

-Yeah, it does a lot of the time, yeah.

There are basically five different stages to cleaning the

exterior of a building like this,

with the builders working their way through the phases until it

is successful.

With a final stage being to apply chemicals to clean the

building's facade.

It's a truly stunning building -

one which I'm sure Josiah Wedgwood would have been proud of.

Born into a family of potters in 1730, he followed in the

family footsteps.

This famous potter's wares are known worldwide for their

distinctive pale blue colouring.

That's become known as the Wedgewood Blue.

He got the royal seal of approval in 1766 when Queen Charlotte

agreed to call him Potter to Her Majesty.

And when Wedgwood went to the great pottery in the skies his reputation

was global and his fortune was worth £500 million in today's money.

But roll forward to today and this famous pottery is

no longer produced in Stoke but in Asia as the business was

bought by a foreign company in 2009.

I'd love to know what the potteries were like back in their

heyday so I've popped down the road to Middleport to meet an ex-potter.

David Copeland worked at a local pottery as

a designer for over 18 years.

Back when you were here, David,

the whole area must have been alive and buzzing.

Yes, it was. In the '50s it was a smog-ridden place.

-It had been like that for 200 years and beyond.

-Absolutely.

Did you have any involvement with the Wedgwood Institute?

Yes, I suppose I did.

I didn't work there, but I used the Institute's library.

And it was the first and probably the finest community centre.

You would go in through the central entrance and the entrance was

magnificent inside with wonderful Minton Hollins tiles

and a good central staircase.

The library was on the left-hand side for the adults and on

the right-hand side for the children.

How depressing was it for you to see the dereliction in the

-Wedgwood Institute?

-Terrible.

To see that wonderful facade with plants growing out of it is

very sad indeed.

This impressive-looking building is Middleport Pottery and

has been around since the 1880s.

It's very similar to how the Wedgwood factory would have been.

The pottery still uses traditional skilled methods and their

magnificent bottle kiln is one of the few remaining still in

use in Stoke.

Back in 2011 it was just hours away from being demolished as it

wasn't deemed a safe building.

But thankfully the Prince's Regeneration Trust came to its aid

and has helped restore it back to its former working glory.

-Hello, Teressa.

-Hi.

-Hi, Dave.

-Pleased to meet you.

This studio we're in now,

is this is where you make one-offs prior to the factory?

No, this is where it all starts.

This is the beginning of the whole process.

So the first stage is making a mould.

You can't make anything until you've made a mould.

These are beautiful, aren't they?

-They're like sculptures in themselves.

-They are.

-And we've got an archive of over 19,000.

-How far back do they go?

Beyond the beginning of our company, but we've got moulds from

older factories that have closed down so it's really

a record of social history from the last 200 years.

Gosh!

-Tragic if we'd have lost that.

-Definitely.

-Oh, wow!

-All the moulds! It is beautiful.

-This is the casting shop.

Where we cast handles and cream-ware items.

-All your little slop trays for your teabags.

-Yes.

-Teapot trays.

-Beautiful.

-They're very popular at the moment.

I thought you were going to say they're very fragile.

-They are very fragile.

-I won't touch.

Every stage of the process is done on site.

Including a transferring shop where designs and patterns are

added to the pottery.

-Crumbs, it's like walking into a laundry.

-Yep.

-This is the transferring shop.

-Wow!

It's wonderful.

Certainly is. There's a chance this could have been lost.

-We're so pleased to have it here today.

-Yes.

There's every chance this technique would have been lost and it is

unique within the industry nowadays.

And it's such skilled work.

With the pottery being rescued, the skills were saved and it can

take seven years to learn these traditional pottery-making

techniques. Great atmosphere in here as well.

How often can you use the transfers?

Presumably these are the transfers that are hanging on the

-washing line.

-They're printed as a one-off,

they're printed fresh and then they come out on the wires to the

ladies who cut out the sections they need and apply it to the work,

which makes it sound easy but, of course, it isn't.

It sounds a bit of a tricky job, as well, as Zoe is just about to

show me.

I think the important thing to remember here, Dave,

is we can't make any more mistakes.

As soon as it sticks it's adhered.

-Can I have a go, Zoe?

-Yeah.

-Wish me luck.

Right.

Right, so I've got me transfer.

-So now, do I need to cut this straight?

-No, that's fine.

-Yep.

Up to the handle and then round the belly of the mug.

This is really fiddly, you know? It's like trying to shave an oyster.

I have to say, Dave, you're not the quickest so far.

It's not speed, it's quality.

-Exactly.

-I can't remember what I do here. Then you just slice it.

Away from yourself.

-It doesn't work.

-It's not as easy as it looks.

-No.

-45-degree angle.

For a first attempt I don't think it was too bad.

But the ladies seem to disagree. Oh, well.

But once the stencil's on,

the pottery goes to the next stage and the real reason I wanted

to see Middleport Pottery -

the firing process which can take up to three days.

-This is it.

-The bottle oven. This is what I would know as the kiln.

Absolutely, bottle kiln, bottle oven - we call them both things but it's

-something quite fantastic.

-What sort of temperature would it be in here?

Well over 1,000 degrees.

Back in the day, how many bottle kilns

would there have been in Stoke?

Well over 2,000.

-And how many survive today?

-About 47.

A lot of them got demolished, sadly.

So was it quite a smoky, kind of dirty place, Stoke,

when it was all fired up?

Absolutely horrendous. When the kilns were still firing,

they'd tell stories of not being able to find your way to school

without holding on to buildings to be able to find your way around,

it was that smoky, that bad.

Do you know, it's been amazing to look around.

I'm so pleased the factory's been saved,

and the factory's saved as it was.

Here's hoping Middleport Pottery continues to thrive

for the next 135 years.

Back at the Wedgwood Institute,

the builders have got some spooky tales to tell -

by all accounts, it feels they are not alone on site.

I was working away in one of the rooms

and, basically, I'd just come down,

popped out, gone back straight upstairs

and then come back up

and the door had locked on me.

One of the other joiners heard, like, footsteps behind him,

and he turned round and nobody were there.

If it was haunted, it's probably Mr Wedgwood himself, really.

It's no surprise to hear of ghostly goings-on,

especially as this area has a long tradition of occult practices

and a reputation for paranormal activities.

One of the UK's most haunted pubs, The Leopard,

dates back to the 18th century

and lies just behind the Wedgwood Institute.

And it is a frequent meeting place

for a local group of witches.

Did you ever get stories when you were a kid?

Cos I used to get loads of them about Molly Leigh,

the famous witch from Burslem.

This pub has an ancient history and, of course, because of its age,

this pub's history has seen it have many, many events

that we would perhaps call ghost events or paranormal events.

When I did work here, you used to have glasses flying off the bar.

We've had bar trays being flicked off

just when you've just cleaned them.

There is a lot going on.

Especially doing seances down in the cellars,

just to the corner of the little bar.

You can stand there, and all of a sudden you'll feel drunk -

and her name's Mary and she likes the gin.

Wedgwood Institute, we've had orbs coming past the windows,

you've seen things being thrown past the windows,

you've seen images at the windows,

but it's one of them things you've got to experience for yourself.

With talk of ghosts and ghouls on the Institute's doorstep,

there's only one thing called for -

a team of paranormal investigators who aren't easily spooked.

Got to be honest...

it feels like a man present.

-Yes, a man.

-A man.

-It feels like a man.

-Got a name then.

-What's the name?

-Edward.

So is your name Edward?

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

We mean you no harm.

These ghost-busters have just the right bit of kit,

which picks up any electromagnetic energy in the area,

and all manner of things that go bump in the night.

If there's any spirits with us in this room,

could you come forward?

We've got equipment set up, we can hear your voice.

I think Edward's gone a bit shy.

That vending machine there, it's like a drinks machine,

it was wide open and then it just slammed itself

while we were in here.

-That's quite physical, then.

-FAINT KNOCKING

Did you hear that?

There's definitely a man... Definitely a man up there.

He's actually watching us.

I was going to say, it makes me feel like I want to go to him.

-It doesn't me!

-CHRIS LAUGHS

But it's that kind of feeling that...

You know when someone's drawing you up, to go further?

-That's what I mean.

-Further up the stairs.

I really didn't want to come in here.

-ELECTRONIC WHIRRING

-Did you hear something?

Yeah, twice.

Whether you believe it or not, they think they've heard something.

I'm not sure if our builder's convinced.

So, has this ghost-busting extravaganza been a success?

We've picked up a few names that will hopefully be verified,

heard footsteps earlier.

I think it would be great to come back of a night.

I'm not sure if I'm convinced.

I think there might be something there,

but you wouldn't really... know. So...

No sign of Mr Wedgwood there, then!

And not being one to be distracted,

time to get a bird's-eye view with terracotta expert Gary Shea.

Gary, what are the challenges in restoring a facade like this?

Cos there's so many different materials and techniques.

You've got so many different materials -

as in, a lot of the string courses are stone,

you've got, you can see, a lot of the decorative work

is what we call true terracotta,

but then you've got some of the ornate work on the top here

is actually more like stonework.

-Yes.

-So it's about finding someone

who can actually make these pieces for us,

which is very few and far between now.

Although we're in Stoke,

where this was probably just made down the road,

a lot of the companies don't exist any more, unfortunately.

Cor, Gary, we're 40 metres up - best part of 150 foot up.

Now you can really see Stoke.

There's a bottle kiln there.

There's kilns down there.

It really was built on ceramics.

It's really funny, the head-for-height thing.

It's a leg-wobbler, isn't it?

But it is the best view in the house.

But back to the job in hand.

What we've found here is a classic example,

on this coping here, of...

-The mortar's worn out, hasn't it? Washed out.

-It's just gone.

Cos the mortar, being the glue that holds your bricks together,

it also makes it watertight.

That's it - spot-on.

Which is why, if your pointing's gone on your house,

you're going to get damp.

So you need to do your pointing.

-It's true - innit?

-It's absolutely spot-on.

A pot of mortar can save you thousands in the long run.

Back in the day, when me father taught me how to point,

it was three parts sand, one of cement -

knock your muck up, and a squirt of washing-up liquid to make it spread.

Has it changed, Gary?

No, that's pretty much as we do it today -

except we're using lime, whereas they would've used lime putty.

Oh, that's a very dainty pointing doodah.

-Pointing trowel.

-Trowel's the word I was looking for.

Or pointing iron. Because what we want to try and do -

we're trying to get as much into the joint as we can.

What I love about all you guys

is that sense of pride you have in these old buildings.

You know, there's no short cuts.

Well, we can't do.

It's a passion that you have if you like old buildings -

that's why we're doing what we're doing.

We love the old buildings.

'Right, I think I've watched for long enough.

'Time to see if I can remember what my dad taught me.'

Thank you.

So it's...

Oh, I like it, Dave -

you've obviously done that before.

Do you know, it's perfectly true, this -

when I was a kid, about me 11th birthday,

me dad came up to me with a fine chisel, a trowel and a mallet

for me birthday present,

because he was too mean to pay somebody

to point the backyard wall.

If I was giving you marks out of ten for that, Dave,

I'd have to give you a good eight.

You've obviously done really well with that - you've done it before.

I tell you what, Gary - I never got an eight on Strictly!

THEY LAUGH

Gary's handiwork will keep the Institute watertight

for years to come.

But there's still a lot of work to be done.

It's fantastic on the inside,

fantastic on the outside.

Just going to be brilliant.

Do you know what I love about the restoration work?

It's restoring the buildings so they're actually fit for purpose.

If these things are not looked after and brought back to life,

they'll just collapse,

so we're just giving something back to the local area.

This has been really worthwhile, doing this project.

You've got a long way to go.

'And, come autumn 2019,

'when phase two of the Institute's restoration is finished,

'there'll be merriment all round.

'Coming up next time, I'll be in West Yorkshire,

'helping to safeguard Pontefract Castle

'for future generations.

'I'll be doing some long-overdue gardening...'

This place hasn't been weeded since the Civil War.

'Finding out the answers to some difficult questions.'

I mean, what was the point of things like, you know,

being hung, drawn and quartered?

'And going into battle with the Roundheads and Cavaliers.'

Draw!

You scoundrel!

A pox on your King!