0:00:05 > 0:00:13I'm on a journey to discover how a thousand years of history have shaped the way we built Britain.
0:00:13 > 0:00:20I'm heading west through a landscape that looks like the best of rural England, but which,
0:00:20 > 0:00:24in the 18th century, became home to the most fashionable buildings of the day.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Here, elegant cities flourished.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32There was Bath - playground of the elite.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37And Dublin, after London, the grandest city in the kingdom.
0:00:39 > 0:00:45And here too the seeds of the industrial revolution were being sown.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57This is an age when Britain discovered a new sense of pride.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01There's an optimism about the towns and cities we built,
0:01:01 > 0:01:07about the great houses and gardens, about the machines we invented, and the west embraced this revolution,
0:01:07 > 0:01:13turning itself from a country backwater into a leader of style and sophistication.
0:02:04 > 0:02:11The mysterious spires of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Blenheim was built by Queen Anne
0:02:24 > 0:02:29to celebrate the deeds of her most famous general, the Duke of Marlborough.
0:02:34 > 0:02:40The palace took its name from the battle of Blenheim in 1704.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44It marked Marlborough's resounding defeat of the French,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48a victory which ended their hopes of dominating Europe.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55This building was meant to leave no-one in doubt how glorious that victory was.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01It's built on a stupendous scale.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19Blenheim shows Britain with a new self-confidence, a bit of a swagger,
0:03:19 > 0:03:26a celebration in stone, shouting to the world, "We're top dog now and we plan to stay that way."
0:03:29 > 0:03:35The style of Blenheim was already fashionable in Europe, but relatively new to Britain.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40It echoes the great civilisations of the past.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45This classical look was based on the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47a reminder of a world of strength and order.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53The entrance to the palace is another striking example
0:03:53 > 0:03:58of this passionate love affair with the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01This huge portico, these high columns and, at the top,
0:04:01 > 0:04:08a vast triangular stone roof, and then the doorway here, high, narrow,
0:04:08 > 0:04:14the kind of doorway that even a conquering hero would feel humble to go through.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37When you get inside, you really realise this isn't a cosy little home, even for the grandest family.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39This is a glorious monument,
0:04:39 > 0:04:46this great hall with its triumphal arch dedicated to Queen Anne and Marlborough himself.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50And in the ceiling, this vast painting of the duke of Marlborough
0:04:50 > 0:04:54with the battle plan for Blenheim, laying it before Britannia.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00These 18th century Britons are painted to look like
0:05:00 > 0:05:04the classical gods and goddesses, reliving heroic myths of the past.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18I don't suppose he'd read even half these books, but it's the look of the library that matters.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22It's a temple of learning,
0:05:22 > 0:05:30fit for an age that believed that, in place of chaos, their world could be ordered, improved...and measured.
0:05:34 > 0:05:42Blenheim boasts 18 intricate and valuable clocks dating back to the 1700s.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51- How do you know which clock this is? - Well, this is from the green drawing room so...
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Green left, green right, green centre.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56- Green left.- Right.
0:05:56 > 0:05:57- Green right.- That's it...
0:05:57 > 0:06:00- It isn't really. - Shall I try?- Yes, try that.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Two more keys!
0:06:07 > 0:06:10I think we've found it.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- OK, let's try this.- That's it.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19You're obviously very interested in time. Are you very a precise person?
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Absolutely, oh, yes, indeed. Yes, absolutely, yes, in every way.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28If I'm going to meet somebody at 7.15, it's exactly 7.15, and that's it.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33And I get a bit irritated if people don't turn up at the right time.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35- You must be a nightmare to live with.- Must be!
0:06:35 > 0:06:39What's it like working in a place like this?
0:06:39 > 0:06:41- Marvellous. - Is it?- Oh, it's just wonderful.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46In this particular room, I've very often worked on a winter afternoon,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50you get the impression that the people in these portraits are watching.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52- It's very, very atmospheric. - Would you like to live here?
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Wouldn't like to pay the heating bill.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58But you'd have to be a duke, would you like to be a duke?
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Ah, well, yes, that wouldn't be too bad.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06- I think everybody should be a duke, myself.- That would be wonderful. - Live in a house like this.- Yes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Blenheim is a bold statement in a grand, new style.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17We'd go on building in this new classical manner for over 100 years,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22right through the Georgian age, named after the kings that ruled Britain in the 18th century.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27Over time, the look would become refined and simplified.
0:07:27 > 0:07:33And it was seen not just in country houses but in towns and cities, and even in gardens.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38I drove south from Blenheim, into Wiltshire, to see how they did it.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14What could be more natural than to go for a tranquil row
0:08:14 > 0:08:18on a lake in the middle of the English countryside?
0:08:19 > 0:08:23And yet there's nothing natural at all about where I am.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27This is a man-made landscape.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30This is designed to be beautiful
0:08:30 > 0:08:34and created by man, not by nature.
0:08:36 > 0:08:43The gardens of Stourhead were laid out in the 1740s by a wealthy banker called Henry Hoare.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50This is a vision of paradise brought to life.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55A scene of natural beauty, improved by man to make it perfect.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00There's a path all the way round the lake.
0:09:00 > 0:09:09And at various points on it, there are classical temples, temples based on Greek and Roman myths.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14But the clever thing is you can be walking along the path like this,
0:09:14 > 0:09:20just the lake and the ducks, and then suddenly round a corner and a temple bursts into view.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30So the temple makes the countryside more exciting, more vivid,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33punctuates the scenery for you,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36making the landscape dramatic.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50Epic tales of Greek gods and Roman heroes fascinated the Georgians.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Rich young men flocked to Italy, on what they called the grand tour,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58to steep themselves in the culture that they so admired.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07And on their return, they created, in their own corner of England, a version of what they'd seen abroad.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Inside his copy of the Pantheon in ancient Rome,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20Henry Hoare placed his collection of statues of the gods and goddesses of myth.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35This great statue is at the heart of the temple -
0:10:35 > 0:10:41marble figure of Hercules, doing the first of his 12 labours, which was killing the lion.
0:10:41 > 0:10:49And the sculptor took the dimensions of it from an ancient classical statue but, to get the detail right,
0:10:49 > 0:10:54he got a famous prize fighter, Jack Broughton, to model the biceps.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11Georgian land owners like Henry Hoare believed that they could perfect nature,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15and in so doing, they created some of our finest landscapes.
0:11:26 > 0:11:33If the classical dream of perfection could be realised in a country house or in a garden,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36so it could in a city.
0:11:36 > 0:11:4325 miles from the peace of Stourhead lies the grandest Georgian city of all, Bath.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47At the beginning of the 18th century,
0:11:47 > 0:11:54Bath was still a small old-fashioned rural town, contained within its medieval walls.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59Water ran through open sewers down unlit streets.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04The hot spa water had attracted people to Bath since before Roman times,
0:12:04 > 0:12:10and when royal visits made the city fashionable, the elite started flocking here to take the waters.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19The daily social round started with a dip at the baths.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40People have been swimming in these...
0:12:40 > 0:12:43warm spa waters for hundreds of years.
0:12:43 > 0:12:50In the 18th century, men would swim in britches and white cotton smocks and tied by a rope to the side
0:12:50 > 0:12:57so that if they got engaged in a saucy conversation, they wouldn't float away in the middle of it.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02But the thing the 18th century introduced was actually to drink the spa water.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07And it's meant to be very good for all sorts of ailments.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12It smells slightly sulphurous, a little bad...bad egg smell.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21It does taste like tepid bath water, to tell the truth.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26I'm fully restored.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Anyone who was anyone came to Bath.
0:13:38 > 0:13:46In 1728, a start was made on creating a glittering new Georgian city - orderly and refined.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52It became Georgian England's most glamorous resort,
0:13:52 > 0:13:59called the Valley of Pleasure, complete with meeting rooms, coffee shops, costumiers and coiffeurs.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06The whole secret of Bath was that it should be elegant.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09They even advertised that the city had pavements to walk on
0:14:09 > 0:14:15so you didn't get splashed by mud, and you could walk along here, talking and seeing and being seen.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19But the key to elegance was to provide housing for people,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22so that they could live in style.
0:14:22 > 0:14:29It was a great British invention, the terrace house, that allowed this to happen.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31It was a simple idea.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36A row of houses joined together in a uniform line, each with its own front door.
0:14:36 > 0:14:44Terraces could be copied and repeated, bringing the discipline of regularity and structure and order.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55The architecture of Bath was the vision of an ambitious developer,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59John Wood, who modelled it on ancient Rome.
0:14:59 > 0:15:06He wanted to catch the mood of the glories of the past and make them the wonder of modern Britain.
0:15:11 > 0:15:18This must be one of the grandest set of terraces in Bath, the Circus, built almost like a wedding cake -
0:15:18 > 0:15:24tiers of columns one on top of the other, and a great balustrade with acorns running round.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29It's actually three big terraces that swirl round to make this circus.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34And as you walk round, you kind of go dizzy with excitement looking at it.
0:15:43 > 0:15:51Britain's first circular street of houses was so striking, its curved tiers of columns so imposing
0:15:51 > 0:15:57that some visitors compared it to the great amphitheatre of the Colosseum in Rome.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16But the uniformity of these crescents was only skin deep.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24A view round the back tells a different story.
0:16:30 > 0:16:36Compared with the smooth front of the Circus, the back of these houses is a bit of a jumble.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Very grand, but still a jumble,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43some curved, some angular.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48And the reason for that is that Wood did the whole design of the circus,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53rented all the land but then gave individual builders the right to build as they chose.
0:16:53 > 0:17:01So every builder built a different house behind what looks like a uniform facade.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14The elegant designs begun at the Circus were developed on a much grander scale.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Bath's Royal Crescent.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Here, the splendour of life in ancient Rome had finally come to town.
0:17:35 > 0:17:43Dominating the hilltop with a bold, simple sweep of stone was something people had never seen before.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54When we want to cram a lot of people into a small space, we build vertically.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00The Georgians did it differently - they squeezed them in horizontally.
0:18:00 > 0:18:07And the result is this magnificent crescent - 30 different homes with 114 pillars dividing them.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09And what a perfect place to live.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12You look out over this great sweep of open countryside.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17And just a short walk away down there, all the pleasures of the city.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18Absolute magic.
0:18:28 > 0:18:36The fashionable way to get about town was by the Georgian equivalent of the taxi, the sedan chair.
0:18:37 > 0:18:38It's actually very comfortable.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43There was a highly organised system.
0:18:43 > 0:18:51They had number plates, taxi ranks and set fees, and they caused traffic jams.
0:18:54 > 0:19:02The King's daughter Princess Amelia once insisted on travelling to Bath, from London, by sedan chair.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Having been pampered and paraded around the city,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13you headed for the Assembly Rooms, and the evening's entertainment.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22There is no modern equivalent of the Bath Assembly Rooms.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25This was a place where everybody doing the season in Bath would come.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30As long as you paid your money, you could come in here and be treated as an equal.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35You'd come and play cards, sip tea, talk.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40And then if you felt like it, come through into this magnificent room,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42the ballroom.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Just imagine it,
0:19:44 > 0:19:50the rustling of silk, sparkling jewels, the chandeliers gleaming,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52a thousand or more people,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56dancing and music, people gossiping and flirting.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05There must have been, every night here during the season, a real buzz
0:20:05 > 0:20:10a real sense of excitement and thrill to be here.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26- This is a gargantuan job.- It takes a day if I was to do it on my own.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28You need a dishwasher.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31I'll wash and you dry.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34These actually cost £100 each when they were first...
0:20:34 > 0:20:37- No! Each chandelier? - Yeah.- What are they worth now?
0:20:37 > 0:20:41£500,000 each.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44Have you ever known any accidents happen?
0:20:44 > 0:20:50Um, I think in the last 15 years, a judge threw a Savoy cabbage into the air and broke one.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53A judge threw a Savoy cabbage at...?
0:20:53 > 0:20:58Yeah, it must have been an ornamental one on the table and maybe he wasn't as sober as a judge.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01- You can never trust a judge. - No, who can you trust?
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Drunk as a lord, drunk as a judge.
0:21:03 > 0:21:04Do you want to wash this one?
0:21:13 > 0:21:20The building boom led by Bath was only one aspect of Georgian enterprise.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Away from the sophisticated cities, another Britain was being built.
0:21:25 > 0:21:32The quiet landscape of the West Country was being transformed by the energy of a Georgian revolution.
0:21:35 > 0:21:42Across fields, valleys and hills, a new transport network was being carved.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44The canals.
0:21:47 > 0:21:53The Kennet and Avon Canal was dug to connect Bath and Bristol in the west to London.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58It cut out weeks of inconvenient travel by land or sea.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03It was now possible, for the first time, to move raw materials
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and manufactured goods from city to city by horse-drawn barge.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15That's good. This is Bonnie, she's 20 years old.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20She spends the whole summer going up and down the canal taking passengers
0:22:20 > 0:22:24and then winter time she goes out in the field and has a rest.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27And she's a very, very good horse.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33And it's quite a skill, cos it's a heavy barge, and she mustn't slip and she mustn't fall into the canal.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53How long would it take you to get from, say, the docks at Bristol, how far up would you go?
0:22:53 > 0:22:58There was a big trading base built up, a little bit further on, to and from Devizes.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01A lot of the cargoes came in from Bristol,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05about a 4-day journey with a horse, or 2 horses when they were full.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07- One horse if the barge was empty. - Two horses?
0:23:07 > 0:23:12- Two horses with a fully laden barge. - And one horse when it was empty?
0:23:12 > 0:23:13- That's right.- What did they do with the other horse?
0:23:13 > 0:23:19They would put the horse on the deck, or they'd walk it alongside the barge, but it wouldn't be working.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24Did they go day and night?
0:23:24 > 0:23:27They went day and night and they kept going.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29And would they have been a husband and wife team?
0:23:29 > 0:23:32- Not on these barges, no. - And where would she go?
0:23:32 > 0:23:36- They were doing what was relatively short...- Poor wife!
0:23:36 > 0:23:39I'd be at home in my cottage in Honey Street.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45Georgian canal builders were determined to take control of nature.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49If they met a hill, they either tunnelled through it,
0:23:49 > 0:23:54or took the canal over the top, with a flight of locks.
0:23:54 > 0:24:00One of the most spectacular flights ever built is at Caen Hill near Devizes.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03A staircase of water.
0:24:03 > 0:24:0829 locks in all were needed to lift shipping out of the Avon valley
0:24:08 > 0:24:12up onto the hills north of Salisbury Plain.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23The canal had to climb so far above sea level that there was no natural source of water.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30To pump water where it was needed, the engineers had an ingenious solution.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38Steam.
0:24:38 > 0:24:45Steam power was the greatest technological leap forward of the Georgian age.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50And the most important building on the whole canal
0:24:50 > 0:24:58was this small structure, Crofton pumping station, built in 1807.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Its crucial job was to pump water into the canal
0:25:01 > 0:25:05so that boats could float up the flight of locks and over the hill.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18The building had to be strong enough to support the weight
0:25:18 > 0:25:21of all the machinery inside
0:25:21 > 0:25:26and, at the top, the gigantic beam weighing six tons.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37That massive machinery,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41that brilliant harnessing of power, is all designed
0:25:41 > 0:25:48just to bring water up this pipe, cast iron, also 200 years old.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52And it pushes the water up,
0:25:52 > 0:25:58five tons fill this pipe and a ton at a time are pushed off, out of the top.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Ah! Ah! Like that.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08And to see where it all comes from, I've got to go down here.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28And this is where the water came from, if I can squeeze past here.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33From the very bottom of the well down there,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37and it rose 12 metres, that's 40 feet, to the top.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Now 40 feet may not seem very much to us.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43But it was the ability to move water that 40 feet
0:26:43 > 0:26:48that allowed London to be connected to the West Country by canal.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52As a result of which, industry grew, people prospered.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02In the west, the waterways led to one of Britain's richest cities, Bristol.
0:27:06 > 0:27:13Where Bath was about pleasure, Bristol, only a dozen miles away, was about making money.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17At the heart of the city was a busy trading port.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33It was this harbour and the docks and the canals that fed into it
0:27:33 > 0:27:37that were at the heart of Bristol's commercial success.
0:27:37 > 0:27:44In the 1700s, there were said to be 3,000 boats registered to the port of Bristol.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49Boats would have been filling this space, the masts towering above the houses.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52And the boats themselves had to be very carefully moored
0:27:52 > 0:27:56so they didn't bang into each other in this tiny space.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Shipshape and Bristol fashion, it was called.
0:28:01 > 0:28:07Fortunes were made from global trade and Bristol's merchants grew rich.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Streets of new homes sprang up above the harbour.
0:28:16 > 0:28:22This house belonged to John Pinney, who owned plantations in the West Indies.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27It's one of many houses built by a new generation of middle-class Georgians
0:28:27 > 0:28:30who wanted comfort and the latest conveniences.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34This is what John Pinney built.
0:28:34 > 0:28:40Like every successful businessman, even today, he wanted to show his success.
0:28:44 > 0:28:51In the corner, the key for a businessman, this mahogany door opens,
0:28:51 > 0:28:56and inside...this heavy...
0:28:58 > 0:29:00..iron door,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02a strong room,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05for keeping his ill-gotten gains.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14The dining room, or eating room, as he called it.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19And the table laid out for cheese and dessert, when the servants would have withdrawn.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22And this magnificent cheese container,
0:29:22 > 0:29:29a box, which rolls on castors, so you can pass it down the table.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Lift the lid off, and it's metal lined,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38with little holes for the cheese to breathe.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46There were two ways of calling the servants, there's the...
0:29:46 > 0:29:48simple ringing the bell.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51# Dang, dang, dang, dang! #
0:29:51 > 0:29:57Or a speaking tube, you blow down, and it makes a whistle sound in the kitchen, and then you say,
0:29:57 > 0:30:02"Cook, could you send up more gravy for the mutton, Cook?
0:30:02 > 0:30:04"Hello, is anyone down there?"
0:30:06 > 0:30:12And Mrs Bridges or whoever would get the extra gravy, take it in here.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16A lift, the dumb waiter, pull the handle, up it will go, to be served upstairs.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21And she'd be saying, "Oh, them upstairs never stop asking for things."
0:30:26 > 0:30:32These days, every multimillionaire wants to have a swimming pool in the basement, the ultimate luxury.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Well, Pinney had the Georgian equivalent.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38In the basement he built this stone plunge pool,
0:30:38 > 0:30:45filled it with cold water, and says he used to swim every morning, and it kept him healthy.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Brr! Rather him than me.
0:30:52 > 0:30:58The population of Bristol tripled in the boom years of the 18th century.
0:30:58 > 0:31:03Nearby villages, like Clifton, were transformed into fine suburbs.
0:31:04 > 0:31:11But for all their respectable looks, many of the Georgian houses of Bristol, John Pinney's among them,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14were built on a very unrespectable trade.
0:31:21 > 0:31:27By 1730, the city had become the biggest slave trading port in the country.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32A third of all British slaving ships used it as their home port.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42They shipped goods from Britain to Africa, to exchange for slaves
0:31:42 > 0:31:46who were shipped to America and the West Indies to work the plantations.
0:31:46 > 0:31:52The ships sailed home to Bristol laden with cotton, tobacco and sugar.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04Slave traders and plantation owners lined their pockets and furnished their homes
0:32:04 > 0:32:10on the toil of men and women, many of whom laboured to their deaths.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19But not everyone accepted the slave trade as normal.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Some felt it was shameful.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25Hidden among the department stores of Bristol is a place that was built
0:32:25 > 0:32:29by one of the most ardent anti-slavery campaigners.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49This is the first Methodist chapel built in Britain,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52designed by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley,
0:32:52 > 0:32:57as a place to bring in the people who wouldn't come to the established church,
0:32:57 > 0:33:02people who wanted to hear his passionate words about religion and God
0:33:02 > 0:33:07and who'd listen to him in the open air, in their thousands,4
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and had here a home they could come to, to listen to him preach.
0:33:10 > 0:33:18In true Georgian style, Wesley's "new room", as he called it, was simple and understated.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Six plain stone columns supported the ceiling.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29And light flooded in from a plain lantern window above.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Wesley's outspoken preaching often sparked uproar
0:33:35 > 0:33:42from the congregation, and he had to be kept at arms length from them, for his own safety.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47So there were two pulpits - the upper one for preaching, the lower one for reading -
0:33:47 > 0:33:51and neither could be reached from the pews on the ground floor.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56Whenever Wesley spoke, he attracted controversy.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01They didn't put windows round the bottom of this chapel for fear the mob would break them
0:34:01 > 0:34:07and, instead, they had this great lantern with light flooding down into the chapel from high up,
0:34:07 > 0:34:12which had one other odd advantage. There's a little window there, leading into the rooms there,
0:34:12 > 0:34:17where Wesley could stand and keep an eye on whoever was preaching here in the pulpit.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22Wesley was a passionate opponent of the evils of slavery.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25When he was in his 80s, he came to this chapel in Bristol
0:34:25 > 0:34:30and announced he was going to speak about the wickedness and call for its abolition.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34A huge congregation came, some of them people in favour of abolition,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39some of them, of course, this being Bristol, in favour of keeping slavery.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42And he used the vehement language he'd always used,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45"What's the justice of murdering thousands of people in their own land?
0:34:45 > 0:34:51"What's the justice of putting thousands of people on ships, casting them like dung into the sea,
0:34:51 > 0:34:57"and tens of thousands into cruel slavery, to which they're so unjustly reduced?"
0:34:57 > 0:35:00And he described how everybody listened, enraptured.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04And suddenly, in the middle of the sermon, there was a violent explosion,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07and everybody started fighting each other here.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10And the benches were broken and there was noise and confusion,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13and he said it was like lightning struck the place.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16And then after six minutes it suddenly stopped,
0:35:16 > 0:35:18and he went on with his sermon.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Wesley fought for the abolition of slavery until the very end.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31He wrote one final campaign letter from his death bed.
0:35:31 > 0:35:3816 years later, in 1807, when abolition became law, his prayers were finally answered.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Beyond Bristol, other profound changes were under way.
0:35:54 > 0:36:01I headed deep into the West Country, crossing the empty sweep of Dartmoor,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04toward the very tip of England, to see the first stirrings
0:36:04 > 0:36:12of an industrial revolution which would radically change the way we lived and the way we worked.
0:36:47 > 0:36:53This coastline is one of the richest in the world.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Almost every mineral can be found just along this stretch.
0:36:57 > 0:37:04And for hundreds of years, the Cornish have mined here, looking mainly for tin and copper,
0:37:04 > 0:37:10cutting into the rock face of the cliff, down, following the seams right out under the sea.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13And the only problem they had was the further they went,
0:37:13 > 0:37:20the deeper they cut, the bigger the shaft, the greater the problem of flooding.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26And all the water had to be taken out, pumped out by hand,
0:37:26 > 0:37:28until these buildings came to the rescue.
0:37:31 > 0:37:37Clinging to the rocks at Botallack on the north Cornish coast
0:37:37 > 0:37:43are these engine houses, now ruined, known as the Crowns.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49They were built to contain the newly-designed steam-driven engines which pumped out the water.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Miners could now dig deeper than they'd ever been before.
0:37:53 > 0:38:00Families moved to Cornwall from all over Britain, in search of work in the tin and copper mines.
0:38:01 > 0:38:07But what they found when they got there was often hot, damp and dangerous.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22It was a tough life being a miner -
0:38:22 > 0:38:26it wasn't just the narrowness of these walls.
0:38:26 > 0:38:33They had very little light, just a candle on the helmet here, and very little air too.
0:38:33 > 0:38:39And sometimes when they were under the sea, it was said if they got the shaft very close to the sea bed,
0:38:39 > 0:38:45they could actually hear the boulders in a storm, rocking against each other up above.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48And then sea water would seep through,
0:38:48 > 0:38:53bringing chemicals from the rocks, which could burn your skin.
0:38:53 > 0:38:59And then, of course, there was always the danger of a rock fall and a sudden death.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Ah, this is what they were after.
0:39:14 > 0:39:20Here, gleaming gold and blue - the ore,
0:39:20 > 0:39:26with all the precious minerals in it, running like the filling in a sandwich from right up there,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28800 feet away down below me.
0:39:47 > 0:39:53And this is what was left when they'd mined all the ore, this huge cavern
0:39:53 > 0:39:57reaching up and right down behind me there.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03And these tree trunks were put in to hold the two apart, the roof and the floor.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05Like pillars in a temple.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10And when sometimes the earth moved, or there was a small earthquake,
0:40:10 > 0:40:15they could come back down and find these tree trunks had been crushed,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18as though they were just matchsticks.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Is this how they used to mine?
0:40:29 > 0:40:32- Yes.- What's the technique?
0:40:32 > 0:40:37Well, basically, you've got a small steel, with a sharpened chisel point.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42You place it against the face, you beat the end, and each time you hit it, you turn it slightly.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47It was quite hazardous, especially working by candlelight,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52and it's not uncommon for fathers and sons to work together in a team.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57And there have been documented cases where the father's missed the end of the drill steel with a sledgehammer
0:40:57 > 0:41:02- and hit his son in the head and killed him.- No!- It has happened.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04Oh, horrible. in the dark...?
0:41:04 > 0:41:09Well, at the moment we've got lights, they were working by candlelight.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11They had to buy their candles from the mine.
0:41:11 > 0:41:18So, because they had to pay for them, they only used the absolute minimum candlelight they could get away with.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20What a horrible story.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36There was a boom in mining - coal was needed for heating homes,
0:41:36 > 0:41:42for driving the furnaces to produce steam, iron was in demand for building bridges.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47Copper, to turn into brass, to make the things people wanted to buy -
0:41:47 > 0:41:49doorknobs and bedsteads.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54It was in a way the beginning of a kind of consumer society.
0:41:54 > 0:42:01New ports like Charlestown, near St Austell, were built to carry on the trade.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Manufactured good were now being shipped all over the country.
0:42:05 > 0:42:11It was the beginning of a new age of comfort - carpets and curtains and wall papers.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Houses were being decorated with the first mass-produced furnishings.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25Saltram House, near Plymouth, was redesigned in the 1740s
0:42:25 > 0:42:29for the local squire, John Parker.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33The outside reveals the trends in Georgian house building.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38Symmetrical, in true classical style, but plainer and simpler.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47The contrast with the interior is breathtaking.
0:43:05 > 0:43:11Just look at this room, this is the great drawing room, or the saloon.
0:43:11 > 0:43:17The first thing you notice, this huge, very fine plaster ceiling,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19and below it
0:43:19 > 0:43:25a vast carpet that seems almost to mirror the ceiling.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29The carpet was made just up the road, Axminster,
0:43:29 > 0:43:35cost £126, worth thousands and thousands now.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39The Parkers wanted the latest thing in interior design
0:43:39 > 0:43:45and they employed the most famous designer of the day to make sure they got it.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50Robert Adam took charge of the look of the house and chose everything,
0:43:50 > 0:43:55from its plaster covings to its gilded furniture.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04In the hallway, he used exotic touches of mahogany.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08And up above, another highly-prized feature -
0:44:08 > 0:44:14a delicate plaster ceiling, in the newly fashionable colour, off-white.
0:44:24 > 0:44:30At the top of the stairs was a succession of finely furnished bedrooms.
0:44:41 > 0:44:49There was a great passion for wallpaper, and this paper was actually imported from China.
0:44:49 > 0:44:57And it shows another of their passions, or fashions - the fashion for drinking tea.
0:44:59 > 0:45:05Here's the tea being put out and dried under a roof there, ready to be transported.
0:45:05 > 0:45:12This is, um, three, four workmen actually making tea chests.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Up here, they're actually filling the boxes,
0:45:18 > 0:45:24it looks like people standing in coffins, but they're treading the tea down into the boxes.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Now where are they tasting it?
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Somewhere they'll be tasting it.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33I can't quite see how...
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Yes, there they're tasting it,
0:45:35 > 0:45:40the little teapot, two cups, he's just trying it out.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43It was a great industry.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48This tea was grown, it had to be harvested first of all.
0:45:48 > 0:45:54From there they go over the mountains, it would take six weeks' journey, down to the sea port.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56There the European tea traders would look at the tea,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00choose the best tea, and start shipping it to England.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05The whole process took over a year before the Georgians here
0:46:05 > 0:46:09could sit down to the latest fashion - a nice cup of tea.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14That's very delicate.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18We dust it with a brush because the dust will sit in around...
0:46:18 > 0:46:25any little edges, and because it's gilded, it's fine gilded,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27the dust will just rub the gold off.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29It must be worth a fortune, this.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32I believe so, but I don't know.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33I'd rather not know!
0:46:33 > 0:46:35Why would you rather not know?
0:46:35 > 0:46:38Well, it make you a little bit more nervous of touching the pieces.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43- Yes.- So you have to approach it with a bit of confidence and not be afraid to move it around.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45- Ever broken anything?- Yes.- Have you?
0:46:45 > 0:46:48- I've broken the slop bowl to this set.- No!
0:46:48 > 0:46:50- Yes.- What did they say?
0:46:50 > 0:46:54Nothing yet. Accidents will happen.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56In 15 years, I've broken two pieces.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03Very pale.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Cream?
0:47:05 > 0:47:07And they would also have had sugar.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Well, I don't drink my tea like this. I don't drink green tea.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16- And brown sugar!- Brown sugar.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18I have to use these.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Easier said than done. There we are.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26It's looking like soup now.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28It is.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31And you would have stirred your tea without clanking your spoon.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34- Oh, right. Not kind of...- Exactly.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38Now, I bet we don't say cheers.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43- We will.- If you're playing the host, the lady of the house,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47I don't think you'd say cheers in 1780 or wherever we are.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51We can say it anyway. Ah!
0:47:54 > 0:47:56That's better.
0:48:01 > 0:48:06There was another revolution taking place in Britain during the Georgian age.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09It wasn't as dramatic as the use of steam power
0:48:09 > 0:48:14or the building of canals, but its impact was just as profound.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17It was road building.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23For the final part of my journey, I'm heading north-west into Wales, and on to Ireland,
0:48:23 > 0:48:29at that time united with Britain, to see how the Georgians transformed the way we travelled.
0:48:31 > 0:48:37Up till then, Britain's road system hadn't been much more than a collection of muddy tracks.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42But beginning in the 1730s, a new network of toll roads was built.
0:48:42 > 0:48:49Money was collected from passing travellers and went to maintaining and expanding the new roads.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59Every few miles, tiny pepper-pot-shaped toll houses were built.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Each had a gate or turnpike so that fees could be collected.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05The prices were written up outside.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09A horse was a penny, a coach or carriage was four pence,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13and most expensive, at ten pence, was a score of cattle.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20Hello.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22- Can I come in? - You can. You're very welcome.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Oh, it is very cosy, isn't it?
0:49:25 > 0:49:27It is, surprisingly, yes.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30How big is it? About eight feet across?
0:49:30 > 0:49:33I've no idea.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36I know it's easy to decorate - I used to decorate.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39You can reach the ceiling. So, what was the idea?
0:49:39 > 0:49:41You have a window all the way round?
0:49:41 > 0:49:45Well, he could watch the people, the travellers coming.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49But aren't you a bit disturbed by all the cars?
0:49:49 > 0:49:52In the 30 years I've been here,
0:49:52 > 0:49:58- I've had ten cars and wagons through the wall.- I wouldn't dare sit here at night with lorries thundering past.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03My cousin was staying with me one year, and it was the day for going home.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07She was sitting here. She said, "What's it like when a car hits?"
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Two minutes later, a car hit.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12She was white, so was I.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14She said, "Oh, I'll go home tomorrow."
0:50:39 > 0:50:43The road I'm driving along was built for a special purpose -
0:50:43 > 0:50:48to speed up the journey from London to Dublin, and it went right across
0:50:48 > 0:50:54the most perilous bit of the mountains of Snowdonia, this beautiful countryside in Wales.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58They needed to travel backwards and forwards with letters
0:50:58 > 0:51:03and people and they just couldn't do it unless a proper road was built.
0:51:07 > 0:51:12When the government of Ireland was united with Great Britain's in 1801,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16a new long-distance road to Ireland became essential.
0:51:18 > 0:51:24The man chosen to built this ambitious road was one of Britain's most famous engineers -
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Thomas Telford.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36One feature of Telford's grand new road
0:51:36 > 0:51:43became his most celebrated achievement - the Menai suspension bridge.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52100 feet above the dangerous waters of the Menai Straits,
0:51:52 > 0:51:56graceful stone arches bear chains of cast iron,
0:51:56 > 0:52:02which carry the roadway across to Anglesey and on to the ferry port at Holyhead.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13It was a fantastic achievement, really exciting,
0:52:13 > 0:52:17and they celebrated every stage of the building within one year -
0:52:17 > 0:52:20when they first put a chain across,
0:52:20 > 0:52:25vicars came out and gave their blessing, and three workmen actually walked across on a chain.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30When the final chains were in place, they lowered a band and played the national anthem.
0:52:30 > 0:52:36When the first footpath across was created, they fired a 21-gun salute.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41And then, when the whole bridge was complete, 5,000 people came on foot,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46to watch the bridge opening and horse-drawn carriages going across for the first time.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51There were so many people, Telford said they mustn't go across cos it might risk the bridge.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57After centuries of treacherous ferry crossings,
0:52:57 > 0:53:02there was now a safe route to Anglesey and, from there, onwards to Ireland.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21Dublin. In the 18th century, a city to rival London.
0:53:21 > 0:53:26Even today, it's dominated by landmarks from the Georgian age.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30The Custom House, with its monumental facades.
0:53:32 > 0:53:39The imposing domed drum shape of the legal building, the Four Courts.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43And the Bank of Ireland with its imposing columns,
0:53:43 > 0:53:48the grand entrance to what was once the Irish houses of parliament.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53Dublin was transformed in the 1750s, when new quarters of the city
0:53:53 > 0:53:59were developed with wide terraced streets and elegant squares.
0:53:59 > 0:54:05The houses were built with a typical Georgian care for regularity and uniformity.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10Exterior decoration was kept to a minimum, except for one feature.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16The only little luxury they allowed themselves,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20the only extravagant gesture, was in the doorway to the house itself.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26And this wonderful fanlight, of which there were hundreds and hundreds in Dublin,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28all made of cast iron like that.
0:54:28 > 0:54:34They were needed of course to let light in, but look how beautifully decorated they are.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54But a shadow was to fall on this elegant world.
0:54:54 > 0:55:00The city had been built up as a rival to London, the seat of Irish government.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05When that moved to London, with the union, the elite moved with it.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08And their grand homes went into decline.
0:55:14 > 0:55:20The fine houses of Henrietta Street would never be the same.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39This is a fascinating house.
0:55:39 > 0:55:45It's one of the oldest and grandest houses in Henrietta Street, built in 1743.
0:55:45 > 0:55:51It was lived in, first of all by a peer of the realm, then by a succession of bishops.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53And then it fell on hard times.
0:55:55 > 0:56:01As the better-off abandoned their fine houses, the poor moved in.
0:56:01 > 0:56:09Henrietta Street turned from a wealthy architectural showpiece into something quite different.
0:56:19 > 0:56:25Like so many of these grand houses, this one fell into terrible decline.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29First of all, just not looked after properly,
0:56:29 > 0:56:35and then, finally, subdivided into scores of little residences.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40It's worked out that in this street there were up to 100 people living in every house.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42And you can see how they divided it up.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46There's an old partition mark there.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50And then, where the green paint stops and the purple starts,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52there was a ceiling right the way across here.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57There's another partition mark down the side there.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01So that bit is one house.
0:57:13 > 0:57:20They removed the staircase entirely and put separate floors in so they could cram in more people.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24So, over 100 people living in a house designed for, what, ten?
0:57:40 > 0:57:45The Georgians had created an elegant sophisticated world for themselves -
0:57:45 > 0:57:50at least for the elite - one in which order prevailed over chaos.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53But the very fascination that they'd taken in science,
0:57:53 > 0:57:59the discoveries they'd made, meant that the Industrial Revolution was starting to gather pace.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03And as it did, the facade of the Georgian world,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07like these terrace houses, began to crumble.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, industrial revolution
0:58:10 > 0:58:14was speeding up and social revolution was on the way.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19In the next programme, I'll be travelling
0:58:19 > 0:58:25to the north of England - the power house of Victorian Britain -
0:58:25 > 0:58:29to see how the new industrial age brought riches to some,
0:58:29 > 0:58:33misery to others and dramatic change to all.