:00:04. > :00:09.Hello, from Calke Abbey, in Derbyshire. Tonight, on Inside Out
:00:09. > :00:12.East Midlands, the real cost of rural crime.
:00:12. > :00:14.Coming up in the next half hour, how ruthless gangs are costing
:00:14. > :00:24.farmers millions and causing heartbreak. Coming back now for the
:00:24. > :00:28.first time and not seeing any sheep following you is awful Also tonight.
:00:28. > :00:31.Young and unemployed, what it's really like to be a NEET. Kids are
:00:31. > :00:37.leaving school on the estate with no GCSEs, not learning nothing, not
:00:37. > :00:42.engaging with nobody, it's not good. And Des Coleman goes back to his
:00:42. > :00:46.childhood, at the biggest free playground in Europe. What is this
:00:46. > :00:56.contraption? That contraption, Des, is one of the very first swings
:00:56. > :01:10.
:01:10. > :01:15.There's been a flock of Portland Sheep here on the Calke Estate
:01:15. > :01:19.since the 1770s and they're one of our prized rare breeds. But as any
:01:19. > :01:21.farmer will tell you, every animal is valuable. But now, right across
:01:21. > :01:27.the country, livestock is being stolen to order, and it's big
:01:27. > :01:37.business, costing the farming industry millions. But as Rob
:01:37. > :01:38.
:01:38. > :01:48.Whitehouse has been finding out, It's a crime that's more than
:01:48. > :01:50.
:01:50. > :01:52.doubled in the past 12 months. It's It's sheep rustling, and earlier
:01:52. > :01:59.this year, a couple from Swadlincote just starting out in
:01:59. > :02:03.farming discovered just how devastating this crime can be.
:02:03. > :02:06.I thought, they've taken my sheep! They've ruined my life, that's it
:02:07. > :02:14.all gone, what can we do? I was standing here in this field and I
:02:14. > :02:22.just couldn't actually believe that Coming back now for the first time
:02:22. > :02:28.and not seeing any sheep following you up is awful!
:02:28. > :02:31.Rick and Rachel lost 90 sheep in that single raid, valued at �18,000.
:02:31. > :02:37.Farmers all over the country are suffering similar, sometimes much
:02:37. > :02:41.larger losses. We have had instances where we've
:02:41. > :02:44.had in excess of 100 heads stolen at once. Now, surely it's not going
:02:44. > :02:54.to be an individual or just one or two people, it's quite a well-oiled
:02:54. > :02:57.In 2011, the NFU Mutual estimated that 67,000 sheep were stolen
:02:57. > :03:07.across the UK, according to claims registered with the NFU Mutual, and
:03:07. > :03:10.
:03:10. > :03:15.that's cost the industry around So what's driving this crime? Quite
:03:15. > :03:24.simply, economics. Here at Melton Mowbray, the sale price of sheep
:03:24. > :03:31.has never been higher. 41, 41, 42, 55.
:03:31. > :03:39.Two years ago, we were seeing sheep prices between 50 and �65. That
:03:39. > :03:42.went towards �70-�80 last year. And we've peaked at about �100.
:03:42. > :03:46.Year in, year out, for the last two years, we've seen prices higher
:03:46. > :03:51.than we've seen them before. Lambs are such a good price, you
:03:51. > :03:53.see. Wide boys can take them and slaughter them in the field
:03:54. > :03:56.sometimes, you know. Today with everybody going out of
:03:56. > :04:00.work and no money about, it's obviously easy pickings for
:04:00. > :04:04.somebody. I think these chaps do know what
:04:04. > :04:10.they're doing and know where to go to do it, as you might say.
:04:10. > :04:13.I think we're an easy target, Every day, Rick and Rachel
:04:13. > :04:18.nervously count their remaining sheep.
:04:18. > :04:21.19 lambs. How many? They lost half their stock in that
:04:21. > :04:26.raid and now some more appear to be missing.
:04:26. > :04:30.One, two, three, four, by the look of it. Where are they?
:04:30. > :04:33.I thought somebody else had come and robbed the sheep!
:04:33. > :04:36.If you're a young farmer starting out and you've lost your livestock,
:04:36. > :04:39.you've lost a tremendous amount, because they work hard to get where
:04:39. > :04:43.they are. There's no free lunches in farming.
:04:43. > :04:49.The sheep are very much part of the family. Most have been given names,
:04:49. > :04:53.and there were some real favourites amongst those stolen.
:04:53. > :04:56.We had Sasha, who was pretty much a pure-breed Suffolk. She was
:04:56. > :05:00.beautiful. She was not able to be in lamb this year because she was
:05:00. > :05:03.too small, but she was a definite for next year. We then had Dotty,
:05:03. > :05:07.which we could identify quite easily because she had the tail,
:05:08. > :05:12.and she used to go off with Gemma for the day. And there was another
:05:12. > :05:15.one called Combat, but he was a survivor.
:05:15. > :05:20.Combat actually escaped from the rustlers, and here she is, the hero
:05:20. > :05:25.of today's flock. This is the one that escaped the
:05:25. > :05:29.rustlers. A very fiery little one. She never used to be this tame,
:05:29. > :05:37.until we brought her here. They got another one and rounded them up
:05:37. > :05:41.together. She jumped the fences and that's how they got out. So luckily,
:05:41. > :05:49.she knew it wasn't us and jumped the fence, and we found her in the
:05:49. > :05:53.So where do these stolen sheep go? It's widely thought that they are
:05:53. > :05:58.illegally slaughtered and sold on the black market. That's worrying
:05:58. > :06:00.Trading Standards officers. The meat may well have been
:06:01. > :06:03.slaughtered in an unhygienic environment and it may well be that
:06:03. > :06:10.the meat has got medicinal residues from medication administered by the
:06:10. > :06:14.farmer. Some farmers have gone to
:06:14. > :06:19.extraordinary lengths to deal with the rustlers. On Dartmoor, one
:06:19. > :06:24.flock were dyed orange to make them stand out. Could better tagging of
:06:24. > :06:30.sheep defeat this crime? At the moment, all sheep are tagged, but
:06:30. > :06:40.it's hardly a foolproof system. The tags are plastic and a pair of
:06:40. > :06:44.
:06:44. > :06:48.This man may have the answer. It's a technique that's been trialled in
:06:48. > :06:55.Northern Ireland and is now about to be applied here in Derbyshire.
:06:55. > :06:58.No wonder the sheep are looking a little wary!
:06:58. > :07:03.Every sheep's eye is unique and this camera captures an image of
:07:03. > :07:06.the retina with a GPS location. It really gives you the ability to
:07:06. > :07:09.have, in effect, a biometric passport which can then follow the
:07:09. > :07:14.animal for life and, in the event of its theft, provided there's good
:07:14. > :07:18.intelligence as to where it's gone, that animal could be imaged again.
:07:18. > :07:23.And it's really very much a smoking gun to say, hang on, that's not
:07:23. > :07:26.yours, that belongs to someone else. Individual farmers say it can
:07:26. > :07:30.certainly be a deterrent in that if you're willing to advertise you've
:07:30. > :07:32.done this with your flock, back home, the way we do it, we got the
:07:32. > :07:35.police involved and put signage up round properties saying, these
:07:35. > :07:41.animals are protected by retinal imaging, and really watched thefts
:07:41. > :07:44.drop. Because people were so scared of being caught in possession of
:07:44. > :07:53.sheep which were imaged and could be definitively proved to be not
:07:53. > :07:56.Convincing all farmers to get behind such a scheme might take
:07:56. > :08:05.some doing, but it may be one of the only ways of defeating this
:08:05. > :08:09.Well, it's been a few months since we first started filming with Rick
:08:09. > :08:14.and Rachel. Immediately after the sheep were stolen, things looked
:08:14. > :08:17.pretty bleak. I've come back to see how they're getting on.
:08:17. > :08:22.It's wrecked our lives. It's wrecked everything that we worked
:08:22. > :08:25.for, for years. And they took it away in one night. It's really,
:08:25. > :08:28.really hard to come to terms with it, that's why I'm so much more
:08:28. > :08:33.determined really, and as time progresses, to continue what I'm
:08:33. > :08:36.doing. When it first happened, we couldn't even go into the field.
:08:36. > :08:42.Rachel couldn't even walk up the field, let alone drive up it, she
:08:42. > :08:47.was in floods of tears. Rachel has now got someone else to
:08:47. > :08:52.keep her busy, new arrival, baby Harriet. And with an extra mouth to
:08:52. > :08:58.feed, she's determined to succeed. At the back of my mind, I'm still
:08:58. > :09:01.very, I can't believe that that can happen and it happened to us. But
:09:01. > :09:05.Rick says we've got to continue on and make life better, and that's
:09:05. > :09:08.what we're continuing to do, hopefully. It's not easy, because
:09:09. > :09:15.it's all gone wrong at the beginning and we had to go through
:09:15. > :09:20.hell. And financially, it's not good either. But we've cracked on,
:09:21. > :09:24.and hopefully, it'll be better. I'm going to persevere and
:09:24. > :09:29.hopefully, in a few years' time, I might be able to be where I was
:09:29. > :09:33.last year. It's going to take a lot of hard work again, and I've just
:09:33. > :09:43.got to keep going for it and I've got to try and adjust, and just not
:09:43. > :09:47.There are 82,000 young people here in the East Midlands who the
:09:47. > :09:51.Government describes as NEET. That's Not in Education, Employment,
:09:51. > :09:54.or Training. They've been dubbed the lost generation, but some young
:09:54. > :10:01.people are more likely to fall through the cracks than others, as
:10:01. > :10:04.The number of young people looking for work has reached a record high
:10:04. > :10:07.of more than 1 million. According to the Office for National
:10:07. > :10:14.Statistics, there are more 16-to-24 year olds without a job than at any
:10:14. > :10:19.time since 1992. It's tough times for young people, and it can be
:10:19. > :10:22.even tougher if you live here. This is the Broxtowe Estate, in
:10:22. > :10:29.Nottingham. Are you in education or employment
:10:29. > :10:32.at the moment? No. Kids are leaving school on the estate with no GCSEs
:10:32. > :10:35.and they're not doing nothing. Just hanging around on the streets,
:10:35. > :10:39.going to their mates' houses, not learning nothing, not engaging with
:10:39. > :10:48.nobody. It's not good. If you have several generations of
:10:48. > :10:51.low aspiration, you are breeding There is a postcode lottery quite
:10:51. > :10:54.often when it comes to employing people.
:10:54. > :10:58.It just makes you feel like scum, like you're not good enough for
:10:58. > :11:02.anything. How can you judge somebody for living in Broxtowe?
:11:02. > :11:05.Not everyone is the same, you get good and bad in every area.
:11:05. > :11:08.This estate has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country,
:11:08. > :11:12.but teenagers here are determined to break that cycle. It's not going
:11:12. > :11:15.to be easy though, jobs are hard to find, but jobs with training are
:11:15. > :11:18.even harder. If I actually get this
:11:18. > :11:28.apprenticeship, I'm going to stay dedicated to everything I'm doing
:11:28. > :11:28.
:11:28. > :11:36.Fauve left school two years ago. She was 15.
:11:36. > :11:43.I would just stay in bed or watch TV and go to sleep. You just think,
:11:43. > :11:51.there's nothing to do and my life is so boring, and I've got no life.
:11:51. > :11:55.I was born deaf, and when I was a baby, no one knew. I went to school
:11:55. > :11:59.and told them and they would say, why aren't you listening? I said, I
:11:59. > :12:06.told you I'm deaf. There's no point me even going to school if no-one's
:12:06. > :12:11.Ben is the same age as Fauve. He left school a year ago and he's
:12:11. > :12:14.been trying to get a job ever since. Applying for job after job, and
:12:14. > :12:17.getting told the same thing every single time, that you've not been
:12:17. > :12:21.successful, it just makes you feel like scum, like you're not good
:12:21. > :12:25.enough for anything. There's always opportunities that you want to do,
:12:25. > :12:33.but you just can't. You've been told one word that's telling you
:12:33. > :12:36.that you can't, that's no, all the Ben and Fauve are what the
:12:36. > :12:41.government calls NEETs, that's 16- to-24 yea -olds who are not in
:12:41. > :12:47.employment, education or training. In the East Midlands, one in six
:12:47. > :12:57.16-to-24 year olds are NEETs. Ben spends most of his days searching
:12:57. > :12:59.
:12:59. > :13:06.Normally I would apply for about five every day. They don't get back
:13:06. > :13:11.to you. People think it is easy to wake up one morning and say, that's
:13:11. > :13:19.it, I'm going to work. If they don't want you, that's it. You're
:13:19. > :13:28.not going to get a job. This woman has dedicated 8 years of her life
:13:28. > :13:32.to finding jobs for people. She set up the skills and training centre.
:13:32. > :13:37.Nothing that we do is very clever. It is very straightforward. Employ
:13:37. > :13:41.local people would understand the community. But Anna has a problem.
:13:41. > :13:51.But despite being in the centre of the estate, not many people know
:13:51. > :13:52.
:13:52. > :13:59.about that, especially young people. This woman's job is to find young
:13:59. > :14:09.people and get them to the centre. I drive around and I walk around,
:14:09. > :14:09.
:14:09. > :14:16.and I share my ID, say where I work. Some people say yes. Some people
:14:16. > :14:22.say no. It is not until they come up and see what we are actually
:14:22. > :14:26.about and realise the support. and Fauve have come to Best to see
:14:27. > :14:29.if they can find them training or even a job. I started looking for a
:14:30. > :14:34.job in the hairdresser's and they said basically where I live, they
:14:34. > :14:40.won't take me on which I think is disgraceful. What levels are you,
:14:40. > :14:44.English and Maths? C, both. want to know why they don't want
:14:44. > :14:51.you. All they ask for this experience, but you can't get
:14:51. > :14:54.experience if you can't get a job. TJ was like Ben a few months ago.
:14:54. > :14:57.That was before he met Anna and the people at Best. He has been
:14:57. > :15:00.volunteering for their construction company, Best Builds. It's just a
:15:00. > :15:03.group of lads that was unemployed, they're local lads off the estate,
:15:03. > :15:05.which is obviously what Best is about, local jobs for local lads.
:15:05. > :15:09.They're going to be able to learn joinery, plumbing, bit of
:15:09. > :15:13.electrical, plastering, decorating. So they've got an opportunity to
:15:13. > :15:15.learn a wide range of skills. Build's been so successful it's won
:15:15. > :15:20.a contract with Nottingham City Homes to upgrade their housing
:15:20. > :15:29.stock. TJ wants an apprenticeship with them so much he's been working
:15:29. > :15:38.for free. If you can volunteer and do the first 10 weeks then it shows
:15:38. > :15:40.that you're dedicated. TJ has come on this programme to prove himself
:15:40. > :15:43.worthy of an apprenticeship, because we weren't completely
:15:43. > :15:49.convinced he was going to be reliable. How's he been, Paul?
:15:49. > :15:55.Everything he's been asked to do he's done. So yeah, he's been good.
:15:55. > :15:59.So, yeah, we're liking TJ. TJ, I think that you've done a blinding
:15:59. > :16:09.job. You've become part of the team and we would like to offer you a
:16:09. > :16:10.
:16:10. > :16:13.two-year apprenticeship. Thank you. Congratulations. It means a lot. It
:16:13. > :16:16.means, like, I've actually achieved something, and now I'm working
:16:16. > :16:19.towards something bigger, so I can move forward in my life now.
:16:19. > :16:24.wants to do the same 10-week volunteering programme to try and
:16:24. > :16:28.get an apprenticeship like TJ. He needs to go through an interview
:16:28. > :16:31.first. Basically, what you're going to be required to do over the next
:16:31. > :16:37.10 weeks, is going to be painting fences, repairing fences, taking
:16:37. > :16:40.some posts out, replacing gates and things like that. There is an
:16:40. > :16:48.opportunity for one of the people on this to get an apprenticeship
:16:48. > :16:52.with Best build. Good lad. getting a lot of support from
:16:52. > :16:56.everyone and I'm not really used to that at all. Most of the time it's
:16:56. > :16:59.just me on my own. Ben made it onto the programme. It's the first day
:16:59. > :17:07.of painting fences. So far Best Build has painted 988 on the estate.
:17:07. > :17:15.They were all done for free. they're volunteering, they're worth
:17:15. > :17:18.employing in my opinion. But it's not as easy as that. Ben's not the
:17:18. > :17:23.only one hoping to get an apprenticeship out of this. And
:17:23. > :17:27.that's causing tension. There was five people, one dropped out and
:17:27. > :17:31.two people didn't show up, so it's just me and Ben at the minute and
:17:31. > :17:34.we're fighting for one apprenticeship. It's not a bad way
:17:34. > :17:38.to do it but it would just be better if there was an
:17:38. > :17:41.apprenticeship for each of us at the end of it. I'm not very happy
:17:41. > :17:44.about it at the minute. It's been three months since we last saw her
:17:44. > :17:52.and Fauve's still not found a job or training. She's spending more
:17:52. > :17:56.time with her boyfriend, Kalem. said it was an engagement ring, and
:17:56. > :17:59.my mum sat us down and said we was too young to be engaged and I kind
:17:59. > :18:09.of agreed. Like, 16 and getting engaged with kids Tonight, Best is
:18:09. > :18:14.
:18:14. > :18:16.holding its annual awards ceremony. The deputy leader of the City
:18:16. > :18:23.Council has been invited. It's Anna's chance to lobby for more
:18:23. > :18:26.apprenticeship funding. How long will it take for the wheels of the
:18:26. > :18:30.City Council to get on this? started tonight at this very event
:18:30. > :18:33.to discuss that with Anna and it was a point she made, and there was
:18:33. > :18:43.a City Council officer responsible for it and he is very effective and
:18:43. > :18:45.
:18:45. > :18:55.he's already going to start looking But that's too late for Ben. He's
:18:55. > :18:55.
:18:55. > :18:58.now got a place at college and is no longer a NEET. Well, it didn't
:18:58. > :19:03.work out. Luke wanted the apprenticeship didn't he so I just
:19:04. > :19:09.thought I'd let him have it. Seeing as though I've got into college, as
:19:09. > :19:13.well. Did painting fences do anything for you? It showed me that
:19:13. > :19:19.I could do something like if I put my mind to it. No matter how boring
:19:19. > :19:22.it is, I can do it. Just don't want to do it yet. Ben will study music
:19:22. > :19:25.here over the next year, but what he'll do afterwards is still
:19:25. > :19:28.unclear. Fauve is still looking for work. The council has agreed to
:19:28. > :19:36.spend an extra million pounds on creating more jobs with training
:19:36. > :19:39.and that could be good news for Anna.
:19:39. > :19:43.Now, it's almost 100 years since a man from Kettering bought a patch
:19:43. > :19:46.of meadow land to build his dream - a park for the people. Charles
:19:46. > :19:49.Wicksteed had revolutionary ideas about how important it was for
:19:49. > :19:56.ordinary, working class children to have access to open space and play
:19:56. > :20:06.equipment. And his legacy was Britain's first play park - a park
:20:06. > :20:09.
:20:09. > :20:12.which still claims to be the What you probably didn't realise
:20:13. > :20:16.when you with three or seven is that all of this equipment is
:20:16. > :20:22.stamped with the name of one man, and guess what, he's from our neck
:20:22. > :20:27.of the woods. Charles Wicksteed, born 1847, was a pioneer of the
:20:27. > :20:30.playground. He's been called the inventor of children's play and
:20:30. > :20:40.been credited with creating the first ever slide at his factory in
:20:40. > :20:40.
:20:40. > :20:44.the East Midlands, but is it true? Well, I want to find out. Kettering
:20:44. > :20:46.is where it all started out so that's where I've come. A true
:20:46. > :20:49.entrepreneur of the Edwardian age, old Charlie boy initially started
:20:49. > :20:59.out servicing farm equipment, and then moved into making early
:20:59. > :21:01.
:21:01. > :21:03.gearboxes. It was his hydraulic hacksaw sawing through steel at an
:21:03. > :21:08.incredible rate that brought him instant success and some serious
:21:08. > :21:11.money. But his passion was always "play" and that would be his legacy.
:21:11. > :21:17.Mr Wicksteed's former factory no longer makes hydraulic hacksaws -
:21:17. > :21:19.it makes much more exciting stuff like swings and seesaws. In fact,
:21:19. > :21:28.it's now Britain's biggest producer of playground equipment and chances
:21:28. > :21:31.are - if you're under 80, you'll have had fun on something made here.
:21:31. > :21:34.It's incredible that the factory's on the same site as it was in
:21:34. > :21:39.Charles's day. Yeah, absolutely. 1876, it started. Many generations
:21:40. > :21:46.of families have worked here. meeting Stuart Wetherell who's
:21:46. > :21:49.going to show me around. He's got some classic early photos. Stuart,
:21:49. > :21:56.all these great photos, a little bit before my time, but what is
:21:56. > :22:02.this contraption? That contraption there is one of the very first
:22:02. > :22:07.swings made by Charles Wicksteed. We don't have the drawings for this
:22:07. > :22:10.but we estimate its height to be 25 to 30 feet in height. You've got a
:22:10. > :22:15.child using the full extension on the swing chains, he's standing on
:22:15. > :22:21.the swing seat. There's no safe surfacing there. If he does fall,
:22:21. > :22:29.he's going to fall onto concrete. You would not get away with that in
:22:29. > :22:31.the current day. There is no health and safety? Not a great deal, no.
:22:31. > :22:37.But I'm sure this fairly good engineering processes that have
:22:37. > :22:40.been applied to the design of that. So Charles Wicksteed really did
:22:40. > :22:43.revolutionise playing. When it came to his imagination, there were no
:22:43. > :22:46.boundaries. Absolutely not. He was quite a creative innovator,
:22:46. > :22:49.entrepreneur, engineer style guy. When this started to appear in the
:22:49. > :22:56.local parks, it was probably the games computer explosion of the 90s.
:22:57. > :23:00.That's the equivalent of what these children were being exposed to.
:23:00. > :23:04.This is the image that I like best - your bottom, my bottom and David
:23:04. > :23:08.Cameron's bottom have something in common. Absolutely. We would have
:23:08. > :23:18.all gone down a Wicksteed slide. First manufactured in 1918, there's
:23:18. > :23:20.
:23:20. > :23:23.hundreds and thousands of these particular slides in the UK. David
:23:23. > :23:30.Kettering had left Charles's former work shop and moved just down the
:23:30. > :23:33.road. I think Wicksteed Park looked little bit different back then!
:23:34. > :23:37.When Charles first put plans in place just over a century ago, this
:23:37. > :23:47.was one of the first leisure parks in Britain and the first to feature
:23:47. > :23:48.
:23:48. > :23:56.a playground like the one over there. The classic silver slide
:23:56. > :23:58.still takes pride of place. I think this will hold my weight! And just
:23:58. > :24:02.like battlefields and historic houses this park has been listed by
:24:02. > :24:08.English Heritage as a site of importance. In fact, it's a
:24:08. > :24:13.national gem. I'm meeting Charles's great grandson; Oliver, who still
:24:13. > :24:20.helps to run the park. We're catching a lift on the Wicksteed
:24:20. > :24:24.Express. Here we are, the Wicksteed Park. It's got a great feel to it.
:24:24. > :24:27.People walking their dogs, massive open spaces. Yes, it it's a
:24:27. > :24:32.different kind of place. It's not like a normal themepark or a park
:24:32. > :24:38.in the centre of town. Almost 100 years of history of families
:24:38. > :24:43.enjoying themselves together. you're trying to keep the ideals of
:24:43. > :24:46.Charles Wicksteed alive? Very much so. When Charles Wicksteed, who was
:24:46. > :24:50.a very successful engineer, started making a lot of money, he wanted to
:24:50. > :24:53.give something back. He decided to build a park for the people, for
:24:53. > :24:56.his staff and kids that were playing in the streets to have
:24:56. > :24:59.somewhere to come which was healthy, away from the pollution. He built a
:24:59. > :25:02.sports field, a lake, a railway, and created a whole new way of
:25:02. > :25:11.families enjoying themselves together on a Sunday. And keeping
:25:11. > :25:14.Charles's dream alive is our constant ambition. This railway was
:25:14. > :25:20.Charles's last legacy and was to become the busiest little light
:25:20. > :25:27.railway in the country. Sadly, a week before it opened in 1931,
:25:27. > :25:30.Charles died of pneumonia. But that's not the end of his story.
:25:30. > :25:34.The park and the factory were passed onto his sons. Both were
:25:34. > :25:38.eventually sold but kept the family name. The park still draws big
:25:38. > :25:40.crowds and it's free to get in. Many return to relive their
:25:40. > :25:48.memories, people like 1940s sweethearts Roland and Joyce who
:25:48. > :25:51.met here many moons ago. Joyce, Roland, I can picture it now, a
:25:51. > :25:59.beautiful summer's day, the boats get closer, Roland, you leap into
:26:00. > :26:09.her boat and give her a massive kiss - is that how you met? No! He
:26:10. > :26:10.
:26:10. > :26:16.was in a canoe. And you celebrated your anniversary a week ago? Yes,
:26:16. > :26:25.61st. 61st. And if it wasn't for Charles Wicksteed, you guys would
:26:25. > :26:28.never have met. No. So there's a lot to thank him for. Yes. There's
:26:28. > :26:30.no doubting Charles's generosity and his creativity, but was he
:26:30. > :26:33.really the inventor of the first children's slide? Remember those
:26:33. > :26:36.early photos? Well, play historian Linden Grove has been studying them.
:26:36. > :26:39.I want to ask her opinion. You are the only person that can really
:26:39. > :26:42.answer this burning question. Charles Wicksteed, the inventor of
:26:42. > :26:45.the children's slide, yes? No, I think almost certainly the slide
:26:45. > :26:48.must have been invented by a mediaeval child sliding down a
:26:48. > :26:57.fallen tree trunks. What he really did the slide was make it so
:26:57. > :27:00.popular you wouldn't dream of having a playground without a slide.
:27:00. > :27:03.Without him, play parks wouldn't be what they are now. We have got
:27:03. > :27:07.seesaws, we've got slides, we got swings, and it's all down to child
:27:07. > :27:09.wicks do. You're right, he's an absolute legend. It's amazing to
:27:10. > :27:19.think that parks across the world are looking at these catalogues
:27:19. > :27:22.that he was sending out. This playground was in the front of all
:27:22. > :27:24.the catalogues showing the latest things he had bought out. The fame
:27:24. > :27:29.was incredible. Across the world, children's play was shaped by
:27:29. > :27:32.Charles Wicksteed. Charles really was fanatical about fun. He went
:27:32. > :27:35.from mending farm equipment to manufacturing on a massive scale.
:27:35. > :27:42.Among his many crazy ideas it's said he can also take the credit
:27:42. > :27:45.for this - the water chute, as it was known back in his day.
:27:45. > :27:48.Wicksteed's park in Kettering and his swings and slides shipped all
:27:48. > :27:58.over the world have thrilled children for the best part of a
:27:58. > :28:05.
:28:05. > :28:08.century - and being a big kid myself, it's time to have some fun.
:28:08. > :28:12.So, the next time you visit a playpark and see a kiddie slide or
:28:12. > :28:15.a themepark and see a log flume, given nod to our local legend
:28:15. > :28:18.Charles Wicksteed. Thrills and spills at Wicksteed
:28:18. > :28:20.Park, but that's it from Cork Abbey in Derbyshire. Thanks for watching.
:28:20. > :28:25.See you next Monday with more stories from across the East
:28:25. > :28:30.Midlands. Next week, Des is back and this time he's out to discover
:28:30. > :28:35.the truth about his own heritage. Why did so many people leave