:00:06. > :00:12.Hello, and welcome to Inside Out Southwest, stories and
:00:12. > :00:21.investigations from where you live. Come on. Tonight, from red squirrel
:00:22. > :00:28.to flying squirrel. A special delivery to help save this
:00:28. > :00:36.threatened creature. Look at that. Also, inside the care homes whose
:00:36. > :00:41.owners didn't care. We put our faith in people who run these homes and we
:00:41. > :00:49.put our parents into these homes, thinking they will be safe, and
:00:49. > :00:56.looked after. And the painters who captured a way of life. What amazing
:00:56. > :01:02.pictures. But it is easy to forget that life at sea in those days was
:01:02. > :01:07.cold, hard work and intensely dangerous. I'm Sam Smith, and this
:01:08. > :01:25.is Inside Out Southwest. The red squirrel is one of our most
:01:25. > :01:29.treasured native creatures, but they're also one of our most
:01:29. > :01:33.endangered. Now, a new project is hoping to boost numbers by providing
:01:33. > :01:39.them with a brand new home in the south west, one that many of us
:01:39. > :01:45.would be envious of. Mike Dilger reports.
:01:45. > :01:57.Tresco — an island paradise. With a resident population of just 175 and
:01:57. > :02:06.a garden that boasts some of the world's most exotic species. Now
:02:06. > :02:11.there is to be a new arrival. The red squirrel is coming to stay. A
:02:11. > :02:18.lot of people who are in the know have said this is the ideal place
:02:18. > :02:23.for them. They can thrive. Our own trees from California have codes on
:02:23. > :02:27.them and are plentiful in supply. Red squirrels have been driven to
:02:27. > :02:30.the brink of extinction in England by their grey cousins, which carry
:02:30. > :02:35.the squirrelpox virus. It's harmless to greys, but deadly to the reds.
:02:35. > :02:40.But there are no grey squirrels anywhere on Scilly. We'll have to
:02:40. > :02:49.see how it goes, but we've got plenty of space and food. We hope
:02:49. > :02:52.they will naturalise quite quickly. David Hamilton is the Abbey's
:02:52. > :02:58.vegetable gardener. He'll be in day—to—day charge of the squirrel
:02:58. > :03:03.project. I'm really excited. This is when the real project pics of
:03:03. > :03:12.properly, and hopefully it will be a success story for the red scroll. ——
:03:12. > :03:20.the red squirrel. The squirrels will be coming from Surrey in VIP style.
:03:20. > :03:23.We have been in touch with the RAF, and as part of each reading
:03:23. > :03:30.exercise, it will bring us over from Cornwall, so we are driving up that
:03:30. > :03:35.morning from Surrey, we'll be into the helicopter within 25 minutes and
:03:35. > :03:41.landing on Tresco and putting them in a more serene environment. This
:03:41. > :03:44.has been the squirrels' home until now — the British Wildlife Centre,
:03:44. > :03:51.which runs the UK's biggest red squirrel breeding programme. David
:03:51. > :03:57.Mills is the owner. You have to be very careful because they're very
:03:57. > :04:01.prone to stress. The actual boxing of them will be done by my head
:04:01. > :04:08.keeper, who works with them all the time. They do get stressed. They can
:04:08. > :04:13.die of heart failure. We don't want that to happen.
:04:13. > :04:21.You're just going to sit there on my hand. What are you going to do? It
:04:21. > :04:29.is the day of the collection. Mike and Dave have arrived with 20 boxes
:04:29. > :04:34.to fill. They've got their whole team helping us. They have filled
:04:35. > :04:39.them with bedding, they have put food in and they will be covered
:04:39. > :04:42.with a blanket as we drive so they will struggle down for the night,
:04:42. > :04:51.and hopefully tomorrow will be in Tresco. It is a careful process with
:04:51. > :05:02.the scrolls' welfare of the number one priority. We're going to
:05:02. > :05:06.transfer her into this box now. That's easier said than done. The
:05:06. > :05:13.squirrels are being allowed to take their time.
:05:13. > :05:32.Take two. Definitely got it. It takes four hours, but they're
:05:32. > :05:38.finally all ready to go. We'll take good care of them. I hope so. Mike,
:05:38. > :05:45.Dave and 20 red squirrels start the 350—mile journey to Cornwall. But
:05:45. > :05:53.there's a setback. Bad weather's set in, delaying the flight, leaving the
:05:53. > :05:58.squirrels stuck in their boxes. I was very concerned. We have been
:05:58. > :06:02.keeping in touch with the wildlife centre. The animals that get
:06:02. > :06:13.stressed easily. But 24 hours later, the weather's cleared. And at the
:06:13. > :06:20.RAF base, it is all hands on deck to get the scrolls to Tresco, pronto.
:06:20. > :06:25.—— the squirrels. And there are some encouraging signs. They are
:06:25. > :06:33.scurrying in their boxes, so the yard where something is going on. ——
:06:33. > :06:57.they are aware. It's all systems go. Even the pilot lends a hand.
:06:57. > :07:00.30 minutes later, and the helicopter with its precious cargo touches down
:07:00. > :07:26.on Tresco. Once the helicopter is gone,
:07:26. > :07:31.Tresco's usual peace and tranquillity is restored. Just
:07:31. > :07:38.putting the finishing touch to ask rural cage, actual squirrels. With
:07:38. > :07:51.shelter and food put in place, it is then a waiting game. Ooh... Maybe?
:07:51. > :07:59.Maybe not! Say hello to your new home. That is a result, isn't it? It
:07:59. > :08:04.has made it all worthwhile, all those problems, they are actually
:08:04. > :08:11.here and running around the enclosure. In two days, it will be
:08:11. > :08:16.free on Tresco, so quite a special moment. After their long journey,
:08:16. > :08:20.they're left to settle down, locked in the enclosure for two days. With
:08:20. > :08:22.the first one out, Mike and Dave just have to hope the others follow
:08:22. > :08:28.suit. It's the day of the release, and the
:08:28. > :08:37.culmination of all Mike and Dave's hard work. Goodness, look at that.
:08:37. > :08:43.Seems like there's hundreds of them in there. It is difficult to count
:08:43. > :08:52.them, but I coded them about six times and came with the same figure,
:08:52. > :09:03.17. Lucy Dorienne Smith, who leases the island from the Duchy, has the
:09:03. > :09:04.honour of opening the cage. And the very first, and bravest squirrel,
:09:04. > :09:28.ventures out. It's taken a wife, —— a while, and
:09:28. > :09:33.the really big arrest, but not as keen as I thought. They are still
:09:33. > :09:38.mostly in there, but it has been a great journey and we're looking
:09:38. > :09:50.forward to seeing how they breed and get on. Look at that, isn't that
:09:50. > :09:55.great? Whizzing down the park. Sadly, two of the scrolls died in
:09:55. > :10:00.transit, but with the delay, having 18 survive was better than anyone
:10:00. > :10:04.expected. Only time will tell if they like it here enough to breed.
:10:04. > :10:06.The hope is Tresco will offer them a valuable sanctuary in their fight
:10:06. > :10:21.for survival. Tales of badly run care homes are
:10:21. > :10:24.unfortunately nothing new, but imagine a situation where owners
:10:24. > :10:30.abandon their business, staff and their elderly residents. We have
:10:30. > :10:34.been investigating here in Plymouth. Caroline Jude believed her mother
:10:34. > :10:37.Jean was going to be properly cared for when she made the difficult
:10:37. > :10:40.decision to place her in a care home. But within months of Jean
:10:40. > :10:47.entering this home, South View, Caroline grew alarmed by her weight
:10:47. > :10:53.loss. One time, she would spend a whole day in bed, another time she
:10:53. > :10:59.spent two days in bed. I don't think meals were being taken into her and
:10:59. > :11:04.she wasn't getting up for them, so it seemed she wasn't eating. When
:11:04. > :11:08.she got to the home where she is now, she had lost weight to the
:11:08. > :11:15.extent where she was just over six stone, and then all of a sudden, she
:11:15. > :11:18.just seemed to lose that spark. That is when it became really
:11:18. > :11:23.frightening, that's when I knew that she had to leave South View because
:11:23. > :11:36.I truly believe if I hadn't moved her, she would not be here now. In
:11:36. > :11:40.March, Caroline took her mother out of South View, one of two care homes
:11:40. > :11:44.run by a husband and wife team in the city. But Caroline wasn't the
:11:44. > :11:47.only one who was worried. Two workers at the homes, Launa
:11:47. > :11:53.Llewellyn Jones and Rose Parker, had already been to the city council
:11:53. > :12:01.with their concerns. My eyes were opened as soon as I walked in. It
:12:01. > :12:05.was awful and upsetting. The was never any heating in the winter. We
:12:05. > :12:15.would get told to put a blanket over them. Staff used to say to me that
:12:15. > :12:33.they had no bread or a washing—up liquid will stop support the
:12:33. > :12:36.elderly! Blowing the whistle cost them their jobs. In August, they
:12:36. > :12:41.staged a sit in at Park View, the sister home to South View. That is
:12:41. > :12:50.how residents sleep on their beds. Nick Chapman charges them. Within
:12:50. > :12:53.weeks of starting there as a kitchen helper, Rose had been made deputy
:12:53. > :12:56.manager of South View, but would work in both homes. She says
:12:56. > :13:00.relatives often complained to her. They would ask why their mother had
:13:01. > :13:09.not been showered. The Bath never worked. The Bath never worked. They
:13:09. > :13:22.had cold water, but we never had hot water. Launa, too, was promoted to
:13:22. > :13:27.senior carer within a month, and says she struggled with her work
:13:27. > :13:30.load. People had to wait even to get out of bed because you couldn't do
:13:31. > :13:33.medication and get somebody up, but some needed their medication, so
:13:34. > :13:37.what did you do? The council launched an investigation into the
:13:37. > :13:40.running of the homes, owned by Nick Chapman and his wife Anna. She is
:13:40. > :13:44.also a director of their company Ashley Residential Care and was the
:13:44. > :13:47.registered manager of South View. Mr Chapman had an impressive background
:13:47. > :13:50.in care of the elderly — he was, until February 2010, an assistant
:13:50. > :13:55.director of social care provision for older people at Devon County
:13:55. > :13:58.Council. Whatever his qualifications, we've evidence the
:13:58. > :14:01.Chapmans weren't the right people to be looking after the elderly.
:14:01. > :14:05.Plymouth council — whose job it is to ensure Plymouth's care homes are
:14:05. > :14:09.safe — had to send teams of people in to the two homes time and time
:14:09. > :14:17.again to try and improve standards, but without lasting success. We've
:14:17. > :14:19.also looked through the inspection reports of the government's care
:14:19. > :14:22.watchdog, the Care Quality Commission. They reveal evidence of
:14:22. > :14:24.multiple failures over at least two years, including failing to meet
:14:24. > :14:27.residents' "nutritional needs", failing to safeguard them from
:14:27. > :14:36."abuse" and most recently, failing to administer "medicines" properly.
:14:36. > :14:48.At the last inspection in February, South View failed nine out of 11
:14:48. > :14:53.essential standards. In here, this is the freezer were the frozen food
:14:54. > :15:00.would be kept. This is jacket potatoes. You would get them to feed
:15:00. > :15:05.the residence. I would cook two trays of these and some baked beans.
:15:05. > :15:08.We would share that between 19 residents. Plymouth councillor Sue
:15:09. > :15:12.Macdonald had been hearing concerns about the lack of everyday
:15:12. > :15:21.necessities at the homes. She was appalled by the CQC report. I
:15:21. > :15:29.thought I thought it would lead to closure. I wondered what they had to
:15:29. > :15:38.do to be closed. You can see whether mice have been. How disgusting is
:15:38. > :15:42.that? The CQC says these homes were "on its radar" — but closing them
:15:42. > :15:52.wasn't that simple. We can close a home in a day but there are
:15:52. > :15:57.consequences... There has to be a balance of risks to people but it
:15:57. > :16:06.would be better to move them rather than putting extra resources and to
:16:06. > :16:09.keep them safe. In hindsight do you feel CQC should have stepped in
:16:09. > :16:12.before this crisis, and this couple abandoned that home and these
:16:12. > :16:19.people. I feel that we have done all that we could do. The council
:16:19. > :16:25.stopped placing residents in the homes from April. But they were
:16:25. > :16:27.still open. By June, things reached crisis point. Once again a
:16:27. > :16:31.publicly—funded help squad was sent in to run Park View. Without warning
:16:31. > :16:37.— and with 30 residents still in the homes — Nick and Anna Chapman had
:16:37. > :16:41.upped sticks — and disappeared. We provided the food, we got a plumber
:16:41. > :16:46.to fix the toilets that were blocked. The Chapmans had abandoned
:16:46. > :16:52.those homes. They were not contactable. How would you
:16:52. > :17:00.characterise their actions? Irresponsible. Unethical. The
:17:00. > :17:05.council decided to move the residents out — effectively closing
:17:05. > :17:08.the care homes down. So the council finally pulled the plug on homes
:17:08. > :17:11.they'd tried, and failed, to get up to scratch. But no one told the
:17:11. > :17:17.relatives they'd been under investigation by the council for the
:17:17. > :17:20.previous five months. Janine Roberts had had concerns about Park View
:17:20. > :17:23.after her mother's clothes went missing and her wheelchair was
:17:23. > :17:26.broken. The first she knew the authorities shared her worries was
:17:26. > :17:35.when her mother, Valerie, was moved out in June. One Christmas, the
:17:35. > :17:40.manager at the time said to me, we have had to all chip together
:17:40. > :17:45.because they had not had any extras from the Chapmans to do a Christmas
:17:45. > :17:57.dinner. They bought the turkey. The staff bought the turkey? Yes, they
:17:57. > :18:00.did. We put our faith in people who run these homes and we put our
:18:01. > :18:06.parents into these homes, thinking that they will be safe and looked
:18:06. > :18:11.after. You should not be able to do that with old people. It is their
:18:11. > :18:15.lives at the end of the day and that is the worrying thing and it is
:18:15. > :18:19.upsetting. The CQC told Inside Out that by June it HAD decided to close
:18:19. > :18:26.the homes — but the council acted first. Then Mr Chapman took himself
:18:26. > :18:31.off the CQC register. Does that mean he could run a care home again? He
:18:31. > :18:39.could apply to run a care home. We do have a memory here and we are
:18:39. > :18:42.aware of his record. He is not automatically disqualified? Note. In
:18:42. > :18:45.the aftermath of the hurried closures, Rose and Launa are worried
:18:45. > :18:55.that confidential files about residents have been left behind. Oh
:18:55. > :19:02.my God! We went inside. This is appalling. All the care plans are
:19:02. > :19:05.there. All those folders are all the residents, private and confidential.
:19:05. > :19:08.Rose and Launa are still waiting for the £40,000 compensation that
:19:08. > :19:11.between them they were awarded from the Chapmans' company for unfair
:19:11. > :19:15.dismissal. On top of that, they now owe Mr Chapman over £800 in legal
:19:15. > :19:24.costs after he had them evicted from Park View. Rose reported all this to
:19:24. > :19:29.the police. The building has since been secured. Since been secured.
:19:30. > :19:34.And what of the Chapmans? Well, they haven't responded to our letters and
:19:34. > :19:37.phone calls. According to the CQC, their company was "struggling
:19:37. > :19:39.financially", and staff, food suppliers, tradesmen, the gas
:19:39. > :19:45.company, and Launa and Rose, are all owed money. One reason, perhaps, why
:19:45. > :20:01.they seem to have left their empty care homes behind — leaving others
:20:01. > :20:06.to pick up the pieces. Point, press and there you go. A picture in an
:20:06. > :20:12.instant. 130 years ago, speech was of the essence for a group of
:20:12. > :20:29.artists who painted passing boats. Our history man Mark Horton has been
:20:29. > :20:32.to Washington to find out more. Imagine you're a 19th century
:20:32. > :20:36.captain and you want a portrait of your ship. Photographers were rare
:20:36. > :20:39.then of course, so if you wanted a picture of your pride and joy you'd
:20:39. > :20:50.seek out a Pierhead Painter and one of the best lived here. A welcome
:20:50. > :20:54.sight indeed coming into the port at Watchet for sailors on these tricky
:20:54. > :20:58.waters of the Bristol Channel. They would have been looking forward to a
:20:58. > :21:02.day or two in port, but the skippers might also have been hoping to get a
:21:02. > :21:13.picture of their vessel from the famous pierhead painter, Thomas
:21:13. > :21:17.Chidgey. Born in Watchet in 1855, the young Thomas Chidgey went to sea
:21:17. > :21:26.— and started painting — in his mid teens. By the early 1880's he was a
:21:26. > :21:33.captain and well known as a maritime artist. Pierhead Painters, like
:21:33. > :21:36.Thomas, had to work incredibly quickly. For if they were to sell a
:21:36. > :21:40.painting to the Captain it would have to be finished in the time it
:21:41. > :21:57.took to unload the cargo and load the next. Hello, Jim. Hello Mark. So
:21:57. > :22:03.this is wonderful Watchet. Port of a thousand years. Jim Nicholas is the
:22:03. > :22:06.curator of Watchet's Market House Museum. So what kind of vessels came
:22:07. > :22:09.here? They were all small everyday working boats, ketches, schooners,
:22:10. > :22:13.smacks. So no Cutty Sark's then. The ships that docked in Watchet were
:22:13. > :22:16.the white vans of their day, the sort you wouldn't look twice at.
:22:16. > :22:20.Luckily for maritime historians, Thomas Chidgey did. This is a yawl
:22:20. > :22:27.and would probably have been sailed with just maybe one, two men. And
:22:27. > :22:30.then this is the Astra I can see. She's a topsail schooner. So what
:22:30. > :22:42.would be carried on a ship like that? The ship itself, the vessel,
:22:42. > :22:47.is painted with the most extraordinary attention to detail.
:22:48. > :23:09.The artists were the photographers of the day. They have left this
:23:09. > :23:12.extraordinary social record. The reason for all this nautical
:23:12. > :23:19.accuracy was due to the intended recipient of the painting: most
:23:19. > :23:28.often the Captain. Margaret Norman married into a Watchet seafaring
:23:28. > :23:31.family. This is the ketch Charlotte, skippered by my father—in—law,
:23:31. > :23:36.Captain Frank Norman. And the painting would have been done as a
:23:37. > :23:40.commission by Thomas Chidgey. But he loved the work and of course knew
:23:40. > :23:43.every little piece of rigging. And they used to say he knew every
:23:43. > :23:47.detail. It's particularly important to the skippers because they knew
:23:47. > :23:50.where it all went and they would very quickly pick up if the rigging
:23:50. > :23:53.was attached to the outside of an attachment rather than the inside.
:23:53. > :23:57.And obviously it was a special treasure for them to have a painting
:23:57. > :24:01.of the ship they had skippered. Every piece of string may have been
:24:01. > :24:05.in the right place but just how true to life were his ship portraits?
:24:05. > :24:11.Blake Museum in Bridgwater has a few exhibits that should give us a
:24:11. > :24:14.fuller picture... This painting is of the ketch Irene. She was made
:24:14. > :24:18.specifically for the local brick and tile industry and she often brought
:24:18. > :24:21.back loads of coal from South Wales. Captain Chidgey apparently owed some
:24:21. > :24:25.money to a man called Attwell who was the foreman of the dockyard that
:24:25. > :24:28.made here and in order to clear the debt but it's not necessarily an
:24:29. > :24:37.accurate account of what it was like when she was working. It is an
:24:37. > :24:43.accurate account of what the ship was like. We've got a number of
:24:43. > :24:46.historic photographs pictures of her both when she was sailing and we've
:24:47. > :24:51.got pictures of her in Bridgwater Docks being laden with goods and you
:24:51. > :24:54.can see all the paint is scruffy and the woodwork is manky. She would
:24:54. > :24:58.have been going into all sorts of small harbours and, as she came in,
:24:58. > :25:11.she'd have been bashed and battered against the walls. She was basically
:25:11. > :25:15.cheap and cheerful sailing coaster. So even a scruffy old cargo ship
:25:15. > :25:19.looks her best in a Thomas Chidgey painting. For knowing how much a
:25:19. > :25:23.skipper loved his ship, Captain Tom exercised a fair amount of artistic
:25:23. > :25:30.license, a sort of airbrushing for the 19th century! Thomas Chidgey
:25:30. > :25:41.never made much money from his paintings. In fact he was often
:25:41. > :25:44.prepared to do it for free if the skippers provided him with a canvas.
:25:44. > :25:47.For many years his paintings lay half—forgotten in attics in places
:25:47. > :25:52.like Watchet but nowadays they're highly collectable. To look at one
:25:52. > :25:56.of his paintings they are totally unmistakeable and I can recognise
:25:56. > :25:59.them at a hundred yards because each vessel has its personality and
:25:59. > :26:04.character and that is what he was trying to convey. Marine historian
:26:04. > :26:13.John Gilman married into the Chidgey family. To ask a value of a picture
:26:13. > :26:17.is very interesting. "Antiques Roadshow" would put between three to
:26:17. > :26:21.five thousand on a Chidgey. Their real value lies in them being a
:26:21. > :26:24.remnant of an artistic heritage. The sailors' made paintings were unique.
:26:24. > :26:27.They knew what they were painting; they were painting a way of life,
:26:27. > :26:39.and that's what Chidgey was all about. The Chidgey family is still
:26:39. > :26:42.prominent in this corner of Somerset and I've come to meet a direct
:26:42. > :26:47.descendent of the man himself, deep sea surveyor John Chidgey. I have
:26:47. > :26:54.come to meet a direct descendant of the man himself. So John, these are
:26:55. > :27:00.the paintings still in the family. Yep. Oh gosh aren't they wonderful,
:27:00. > :27:04.what do they show? Here is the Louise and that's the Louisa. So
:27:04. > :27:09.they were both owned by the family? They were both owned by the family.
:27:09. > :27:13.So he was actually a ship owner himself and a skipper? Owner, driver
:27:13. > :27:17.as it would be today I would imagine. I mean do we actually know
:27:17. > :27:21.what he looked like? Well, we've got a self—portrait of him as an older
:27:21. > :27:24.man. I'll go and fetch that one. I'll look after your precious
:27:24. > :27:28.paintings! Right, there he is. The man himself. Thomas Chidgey, he's a
:27:28. > :27:31.sort of dour Edwardian gentleman, isn't he? But the family resemblance
:27:31. > :27:35.is incredible! My father told me that he can remember as a child him
:27:35. > :27:42.seeing him paint this from a mirror image. I mean he's not a bad artist!
:27:42. > :27:46.Wasn't bad looking was he?! What's lovely is to see the man behind the
:27:46. > :28:02.paintings. We've seen his boats. Now we can see the man behind the easel.
:28:02. > :28:05.What amazing pictures! But it's easy to forget that life in those days
:28:05. > :28:10.were cold, hard work and intensely dangerous. But for me what those
:28:11. > :28:14.pictures convey is the intense pride that those sailors and their
:28:14. > :28:35.skippers had in their ships and in their way of life. That is all from
:28:35. > :28:38.this week's Inside Out South West. We will be back next Monday. See you
:28:38. > :28:40.then.