10/12/2012 Inside Out East Midlands

Hello, from Calke Abbey, in Derbyshire. Tonight, on Inside Out

East Midlands, the real cost of rural crime.

Coming up in the next half hour, how ruthless gangs are costing

farmers millions and causing heartbreak. Coming back now for the

first time and not seeing any sheep following you is awful Also tonight.

Young and unemployed, what it's really like to be a NEET. Kids are

leaving school on the estate with no GCSEs, not learning nothing, not

engaging with nobody, it's not good. And Des Coleman goes back to his

childhood, at the biggest free playground in Europe. What is this

contraption? That contraption, Des, is one of the very first swings

There's been a flock of Portland Sheep here on the Calke Estate

since the 1770s and they're one of our prized rare breeds. But as any

farmer will tell you, every animal is valuable. But now, right across

the country, livestock is being stolen to order, and it's big

business, costing the farming industry millions. But as Rob

Whitehouse has been finding out, It's a crime that's more than

doubled in the past 12 months. It's It's sheep rustling, and earlier

this year, a couple from Swadlincote just starting out in

farming discovered just how devastating this crime can be.

I thought, they've taken my sheep! They've ruined my life, that's it

all gone, what can we do? I was standing here in this field and I

just couldn't actually believe that Coming back now for the first time

and not seeing any sheep following you up is awful!

Rick and Rachel lost 90 sheep in that single raid, valued at �18,000.

Farmers all over the country are suffering similar, sometimes much

larger losses. We have had instances where we've

had in excess of 100 heads stolen at once. Now, surely it's not going

to be an individual or just one or two people, it's quite a well-oiled

In 2011, the NFU Mutual estimated that 67,000 sheep were stolen

across the UK, according to claims registered with the NFU Mutual, and

that's cost the industry around So what's driving this crime? Quite

simply, economics. Here at Melton Mowbray, the sale price of sheep

has never been higher. 41, 41, 42, 55.

Two years ago, we were seeing sheep prices between 50 and �65. That

went towards �70-�80 last year. And we've peaked at about �100.

Year in, year out, for the last two years, we've seen prices higher

than we've seen them before. Lambs are such a good price, you

see. Wide boys can take them and slaughter them in the field

sometimes, you know. Today with everybody going out of

work and no money about, it's obviously easy pickings for

somebody. I think these chaps do know what

they're doing and know where to go to do it, as you might say.

I think we're an easy target, Every day, Rick and Rachel

nervously count their remaining sheep.

19 lambs. How many? They lost half their stock in that

raid and now some more appear to be missing.

One, two, three, four, by the look of it. Where are they?

I thought somebody else had come and robbed the sheep!

If you're a young farmer starting out and you've lost your livestock,

you've lost a tremendous amount, because they work hard to get where

they are. There's no free lunches in farming.

The sheep are very much part of the family. Most have been given names,

and there were some real favourites amongst those stolen.

We had Sasha, who was pretty much a pure-breed Suffolk. She was

beautiful. She was not able to be in lamb this year because she was

too small, but she was a definite for next year. We then had Dotty,

which we could identify quite easily because she had the tail,

and she used to go off with Gemma for the day. And there was another

one called Combat, but he was a survivor.

Combat actually escaped from the rustlers, and here she is, the hero

of today's flock. This is the one that escaped the

rustlers. A very fiery little one. She never used to be this tame,

until we brought her here. They got another one and rounded them up

together. She jumped the fences and that's how they got out. So luckily,

she knew it wasn't us and jumped the fence, and we found her in the

So where do these stolen sheep go? It's widely thought that they are

illegally slaughtered and sold on the black market. That's worrying

Trading Standards officers. The meat may well have been

slaughtered in an unhygienic environment and it may well be that

the meat has got medicinal residues from medication administered by the

farmer. Some farmers have gone to

extraordinary lengths to deal with the rustlers. On Dartmoor, one

flock were dyed orange to make them stand out. Could better tagging of

sheep defeat this crime? At the moment, all sheep are tagged, but

it's hardly a foolproof system. The tags are plastic and a pair of

This man may have the answer. It's a technique that's been trialled in

Northern Ireland and is now about to be applied here in Derbyshire.

No wonder the sheep are looking a little wary!

Every sheep's eye is unique and this camera captures an image of

the retina with a GPS location. It really gives you the ability to

have, in effect, a biometric passport which can then follow the

animal for life and, in the event of its theft, provided there's good

intelligence as to where it's gone, that animal could be imaged again.

And it's really very much a smoking gun to say, hang on, that's not

yours, that belongs to someone else. Individual farmers say it can

certainly be a deterrent in that if you're willing to advertise you've

done this with your flock, back home, the way we do it, we got the

police involved and put signage up round properties saying, these

animals are protected by retinal imaging, and really watched thefts

drop. Because people were so scared of being caught in possession of

sheep which were imaged and could be definitively proved to be not

Convincing all farmers to get behind such a scheme might take

some doing, but it may be one of the only ways of defeating this

Well, it's been a few months since we first started filming with Rick

and Rachel. Immediately after the sheep were stolen, things looked

pretty bleak. I've come back to see how they're getting on.

It's wrecked our lives. It's wrecked everything that we worked

for, for years. And they took it away in one night. It's really,

really hard to come to terms with it, that's why I'm so much more

determined really, and as time progresses, to continue what I'm

doing. When it first happened, we couldn't even go into the field.

Rachel couldn't even walk up the field, let alone drive up it, she

was in floods of tears. Rachel has now got someone else to

keep her busy, new arrival, baby Harriet. And with an extra mouth to

feed, she's determined to succeed. At the back of my mind, I'm still

very, I can't believe that that can happen and it happened to us. But

Rick says we've got to continue on and make life better, and that's

what we're continuing to do, hopefully. It's not easy, because

it's all gone wrong at the beginning and we had to go through

hell. And financially, it's not good either. But we've cracked on,

and hopefully, it'll be better. I'm going to persevere and

hopefully, in a few years' time, I might be able to be where I was

last year. It's going to take a lot of hard work again, and I've just

got to keep going for it and I've got to try and adjust, and just not

There are 82,000 young people here in the East Midlands who the

Government describes as NEET. That's Not in Education, Employment,

or Training. They've been dubbed the lost generation, but some young

people are more likely to fall through the cracks than others, as

The number of young people looking for work has reached a record high

of more than 1 million. According to the Office for National

Statistics, there are more 16-to-24 year olds without a job than at any

time since 1992. It's tough times for young people, and it can be

even tougher if you live here. This is the Broxtowe Estate, in

Nottingham. Are you in education or employment

at the moment? No. Kids are leaving school on the estate with no GCSEs

and they're not doing nothing. Just hanging around on the streets,

going to their mates' houses, not learning nothing, not engaging with

nobody. It's not good. If you have several generations of

low aspiration, you are breeding There is a postcode lottery quite

often when it comes to employing people.

It just makes you feel like scum, like you're not good enough for

anything. How can you judge somebody for living in Broxtowe?

Not everyone is the same, you get good and bad in every area.

This estate has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country,

but teenagers here are determined to break that cycle. It's not going

to be easy though, jobs are hard to find, but jobs with training are

even harder. If I actually get this

apprenticeship, I'm going to stay dedicated to everything I'm doing

Fauve left school two years ago. She was 15.

I would just stay in bed or watch TV and go to sleep. You just think,

there's nothing to do and my life is so boring, and I've got no life.

I was born deaf, and when I was a baby, no one knew. I went to school

and told them and they would say, why aren't you listening? I said, I

told you I'm deaf. There's no point me even going to school if no-one's

Ben is the same age as Fauve. He left school a year ago and he's

been trying to get a job ever since. Applying for job after job, and

getting told the same thing every single time, that you've not been

successful, it just makes you feel like scum, like you're not good

enough for anything. There's always opportunities that you want to do,

but you just can't. You've been told one word that's telling you

that you can't, that's no, all the Ben and Fauve are what the

government calls NEETs, that's 16- to-24 yea -olds who are not in

employment, education or training. In the East Midlands, one in six

16-to-24 year olds are NEETs. Ben spends most of his days searching

Normally I would apply for about five every day. They don't get back

to you. People think it is easy to wake up one morning and say, that's

it, I'm going to work. If they don't want you, that's it. You're

not going to get a job. This woman has dedicated 8 years of her life

to finding jobs for people. She set up the skills and training centre.

Nothing that we do is very clever. It is very straightforward. Employ

local people would understand the community. But Anna has a problem.

But despite being in the centre of the estate, not many people know

about that, especially young people. This woman's job is to find young

people and get them to the centre. I drive around and I walk around,

and I share my ID, say where I work. Some people say yes. Some people

say no. It is not until they come up and see what we are actually

about and realise the support. and Fauve have come to Best to see

if they can find them training or even a job. I started looking for a

job in the hairdresser's and they said basically where I live, they

won't take me on which I think is disgraceful. What levels are you,

English and Maths? C, both. want to know why they don't want

you. All they ask for this experience, but you can't get

experience if you can't get a job. TJ was like Ben a few months ago.

That was before he met Anna and the people at Best. He has been

volunteering for their construction company, Best Builds. It's just a

group of lads that was unemployed, they're local lads off the estate,

which is obviously what Best is about, local jobs for local lads.

They're going to be able to learn joinery, plumbing, bit of

electrical, plastering, decorating. So they've got an opportunity to

learn a wide range of skills. Build's been so successful it's won

a contract with Nottingham City Homes to upgrade their housing

stock. TJ wants an apprenticeship with them so much he's been working

for free. If you can volunteer and do the first 10 weeks then it shows

that you're dedicated. TJ has come on this programme to prove himself

worthy of an apprenticeship, because we weren't completely

convinced he was going to be reliable. How's he been, Paul?

Everything he's been asked to do he's done. So yeah, he's been good.

So, yeah, we're liking TJ. TJ, I think that you've done a blinding

job. You've become part of the team and we would like to offer you a

two-year apprenticeship. Thank you. Congratulations. It means a lot. It

means, like, I've actually achieved something, and now I'm working

towards something bigger, so I can move forward in my life now.

wants to do the same 10-week volunteering programme to try and

get an apprenticeship like TJ. He needs to go through an interview

first. Basically, what you're going to be required to do over the next

10 weeks, is going to be painting fences, repairing fences, taking

some posts out, replacing gates and things like that. There is an

opportunity for one of the people on this to get an apprenticeship

with Best build. Good lad. getting a lot of support from

everyone and I'm not really used to that at all. Most of the time it's

just me on my own. Ben made it onto the programme. It's the first day

of painting fences. So far Best Build has painted 988 on the estate.

They were all done for free. they're volunteering, they're worth

employing in my opinion. But it's not as easy as that. Ben's not the

only one hoping to get an apprenticeship out of this. And

that's causing tension. There was five people, one dropped out and

two people didn't show up, so it's just me and Ben at the minute and

we're fighting for one apprenticeship. It's not a bad way

to do it but it would just be better if there was an

apprenticeship for each of us at the end of it. I'm not very happy

about it at the minute. It's been three months since we last saw her

and Fauve's still not found a job or training. She's spending more

time with her boyfriend, Kalem. said it was an engagement ring, and

my mum sat us down and said we was too young to be engaged and I kind

of agreed. Like, 16 and getting engaged with kids Tonight, Best is

holding its annual awards ceremony. The deputy leader of the City

Council has been invited. It's Anna's chance to lobby for more

apprenticeship funding. How long will it take for the wheels of the

City Council to get on this? started tonight at this very event

to discuss that with Anna and it was a point she made, and there was

a City Council officer responsible for it and he is very effective and

he's already going to start looking But that's too late for Ben. He's

now got a place at college and is no longer a NEET. Well, it didn't

work out. Luke wanted the apprenticeship didn't he so I just

thought I'd let him have it. Seeing as though I've got into college, as

well. Did painting fences do anything for you? It showed me that

I could do something like if I put my mind to it. No matter how boring

it is, I can do it. Just don't want to do it yet. Ben will study music

here over the next year, but what he'll do afterwards is still

unclear. Fauve is still looking for work. The council has agreed to

spend an extra million pounds on creating more jobs with training

and that could be good news for Anna.

Now, it's almost 100 years since a man from Kettering bought a patch

of meadow land to build his dream - a park for the people. Charles

Wicksteed had revolutionary ideas about how important it was for

ordinary, working class children to have access to open space and play

equipment. And his legacy was Britain's first play park - a park

which still claims to be the What you probably didn't realise

when you with three or seven is that all of this equipment is

stamped with the name of one man, and guess what, he's from our neck

of the woods. Charles Wicksteed, born 1847, was a pioneer of the

playground. He's been called the inventor of children's play and

been credited with creating the first ever slide at his factory in

the East Midlands, but is it true? Well, I want to find out. Kettering

is where it all started out so that's where I've come. A true

entrepreneur of the Edwardian age, old Charlie boy initially started

out servicing farm equipment, and then moved into making early

gearboxes. It was his hydraulic hacksaw sawing through steel at an

incredible rate that brought him instant success and some serious

money. But his passion was always "play" and that would be his legacy.

Mr Wicksteed's former factory no longer makes hydraulic hacksaws -

it makes much more exciting stuff like swings and seesaws. In fact,

it's now Britain's biggest producer of playground equipment and chances

are - if you're under 80, you'll have had fun on something made here.

It's incredible that the factory's on the same site as it was in

Charles's day. Yeah, absolutely. 1876, it started. Many generations

of families have worked here. meeting Stuart Wetherell who's

going to show me around. He's got some classic early photos. Stuart,

all these great photos, a little bit before my time, but what is

this contraption? That contraption there is one of the very first

swings made by Charles Wicksteed. We don't have the drawings for this

but we estimate its height to be 25 to 30 feet in height. You've got a

child using the full extension on the swing chains, he's standing on

the swing seat. There's no safe surfacing there. If he does fall,

he's going to fall onto concrete. You would not get away with that in

the current day. There is no health and safety? Not a great deal, no.

But I'm sure this fairly good engineering processes that have

been applied to the design of that. So Charles Wicksteed really did

revolutionise playing. When it came to his imagination, there were no

boundaries. Absolutely not. He was quite a creative innovator,

entrepreneur, engineer style guy. When this started to appear in the

local parks, it was probably the games computer explosion of the 90s.

That's the equivalent of what these children were being exposed to.

This is the image that I like best - your bottom, my bottom and David

Cameron's bottom have something in common. Absolutely. We would have

all gone down a Wicksteed slide. First manufactured in 1918, there's

hundreds and thousands of these particular slides in the UK. David

Kettering had left Charles's former work shop and moved just down the

road. I think Wicksteed Park looked little bit different back then!

When Charles first put plans in place just over a century ago, this

was one of the first leisure parks in Britain and the first to feature

a playground like the one over there. The classic silver slide

still takes pride of place. I think this will hold my weight! And just

like battlefields and historic houses this park has been listed by

English Heritage as a site of importance. In fact, it's a

national gem. I'm meeting Charles's great grandson; Oliver, who still

helps to run the park. We're catching a lift on the Wicksteed

Express. Here we are, the Wicksteed Park. It's got a great feel to it.

People walking their dogs, massive open spaces. Yes, it it's a

different kind of place. It's not like a normal themepark or a park

in the centre of town. Almost 100 years of history of families

enjoying themselves together. you're trying to keep the ideals of

Charles Wicksteed alive? Very much so. When Charles Wicksteed, who was

a very successful engineer, started making a lot of money, he wanted to

give something back. He decided to build a park for the people, for

his staff and kids that were playing in the streets to have

somewhere to come which was healthy, away from the pollution. He built a

sports field, a lake, a railway, and created a whole new way of

families enjoying themselves together on a Sunday. And keeping

Charles's dream alive is our constant ambition. This railway was

Charles's last legacy and was to become the busiest little light

railway in the country. Sadly, a week before it opened in 1931,

Charles died of pneumonia. But that's not the end of his story.

The park and the factory were passed onto his sons. Both were

eventually sold but kept the family name. The park still draws big

crowds and it's free to get in. Many return to relive their

memories, people like 1940s sweethearts Roland and Joyce who

met here many moons ago. Joyce, Roland, I can picture it now, a

beautiful summer's day, the boats get closer, Roland, you leap into

her boat and give her a massive kiss - is that how you met? No! He

was in a canoe. And you celebrated your anniversary a week ago? Yes,

61st. 61st. And if it wasn't for Charles Wicksteed, you guys would

never have met. No. So there's a lot to thank him for. Yes. There's

no doubting Charles's generosity and his creativity, but was he

really the inventor of the first children's slide? Remember those

early photos? Well, play historian Linden Grove has been studying them.

I want to ask her opinion. You are the only person that can really

answer this burning question. Charles Wicksteed, the inventor of

the children's slide, yes? No, I think almost certainly the slide

must have been invented by a mediaeval child sliding down a

fallen tree trunks. What he really did the slide was make it so

popular you wouldn't dream of having a playground without a slide.

Without him, play parks wouldn't be what they are now. We have got

seesaws, we've got slides, we got swings, and it's all down to child

wicks do. You're right, he's an absolute legend. It's amazing to

think that parks across the world are looking at these catalogues

that he was sending out. This playground was in the front of all

the catalogues showing the latest things he had bought out. The fame

was incredible. Across the world, children's play was shaped by

Charles Wicksteed. Charles really was fanatical about fun. He went

from mending farm equipment to manufacturing on a massive scale.

Among his many crazy ideas it's said he can also take the credit

for this - the water chute, as it was known back in his day.

Wicksteed's park in Kettering and his swings and slides shipped all

over the world have thrilled children for the best part of a

century - and being a big kid myself, it's time to have some fun.

So, the next time you visit a playpark and see a kiddie slide or

a themepark and see a log flume, given nod to our local legend

Charles Wicksteed. Thrills and spills at Wicksteed

Park, but that's it from Cork Abbey in Derbyshire. Thanks for watching.

See you next Monday with more stories from across the East

Midlands. Next week, Des is back and this time he's out to discover

the truth about his own heritage. Why did so many people leave