:00:08. > :00:12.What is to be done for our struggling high streets? This man's
:00:13. > :00:17.turned around some of the UK's biggest businesses. Can he give
:00:18. > :00:21.Penzance a new spin? We need to look to something other than shops to
:00:22. > :00:29.make it really work. We need a different plan. Also tonight.
:00:30. > :00:35.Singing the praises of the Devon priest with a passion for music. The
:00:36. > :00:41.songs of the west. Folk songs of Devon and Cornwall collected from
:00:42. > :00:49.the mouths of the people. And Judi Spiers on a Jewish revival in
:00:50. > :00:52.Exeter. A few of us got involved in the synagogue, started having
:00:53. > :01:00.services, started having parties. Started having a sense of community
:01:01. > :01:17.again. Welcome to Inside Out. Southwest.
:01:18. > :01:22.First night. The move to out`of`town and online shopping has left many of
:01:23. > :01:24.our high streets struggling. We asked one successful retailer, and
:01:25. > :01:26.recently appointed Labour Party adviser, to take a look at one of
:01:27. > :01:38.our hardest hit towns. Penzance. One in seven shops empty.
:01:39. > :01:43.It's all sadly typical of what's going on in many of our town
:01:44. > :01:47.centres. I'm Bill Grimsey and I've run some of Britain's biggest
:01:48. > :01:56.retailers. I say the high street as we've known it is dead. The real
:01:57. > :02:03.hustle and bustle of 40 years ago, it's gone. It's not coming back.
:02:04. > :02:07.It's so depressing. A pound shop where Woolworths used to be. Money
:02:08. > :02:12.lenders and charity shops moving in. I'm off to Causewayhead. Home to the
:02:13. > :02:18.type of small independents that are vital to the lifeblood of a town.
:02:19. > :02:27.It's pedestrianised, which is good, and there's a nice buzz about the
:02:28. > :02:31.place. When you look a bit closer underneath, you see one or two empty
:02:32. > :02:35.shops creeping in, so that says perhaps it having a hard time and of
:02:36. > :02:40.course we have three or four charity shops already in place, and, if you
:02:41. > :02:43.look around, it need some tender loving care and some investment to
:02:44. > :02:52.really make it work properly for the local community. Time to hear the
:02:53. > :02:56.traders' gripes. What are the big issues you face? Increasing energy
:02:57. > :03:00.bills, like everyone, really, increasing rates, although we are
:03:01. > :03:05.lucky we get a small business rate relief which cuts our business rates
:03:06. > :03:09.in half. That's good. It means the local authority are taking some
:03:10. > :03:12.action on small businesses. Next I head to Penzance's main shopping
:03:13. > :03:20.street. It runs up to a Victorian Market House, which has lain empty
:03:21. > :03:27.for two years. To me, that's a crime. One enterprise which has
:03:28. > :03:35.survived, and for a good 150 years, is Simpsons, now in the hands of the
:03:36. > :03:38.fifth generation of the same family. They own their building so at least
:03:39. > :03:45.they don't have to pay rent. But it's the out`of`town competition
:03:46. > :03:50.that bugs them here. It's ridiculous that someone out of town, who have
:03:51. > :03:54.all the advantages nowadays, because who hasn't got access to a car? They
:03:55. > :03:59.get paid really low rates, like warehouses, and the Internet
:04:00. > :04:03.companies, and in town, we have far too high car parking rates, business
:04:04. > :04:06.rates are far too high so we are being disadvantaged by it. It's
:04:07. > :04:09.true. There is a cluster of supermarkets on the edge of town.
:04:10. > :04:17.But I don't agree they're the real issue. It's because of us, the
:04:18. > :04:23.consumers. We want that convenience. In order to restore this town centre
:04:24. > :04:28.as a thriving community hub, we need to look to something other than just
:04:29. > :04:32.shops to make it really work. If you look around you, you can see those
:04:33. > :04:36.empty buildings above the shops, too. There is a housing shortage in
:04:37. > :04:40.this country. We need a different plan. And that's what I've told the
:04:41. > :04:45.Government. We need more housing, offices and community facilities in
:04:46. > :04:50.our high streets. Of course, I'm not the only one with bright ideas. Two
:04:51. > :04:54.years ago, Mary Portas's review led to over ?1 million of funding being
:04:55. > :05:02.shared between a dozen UK towns, including Liskeard. Shop vacancy
:05:03. > :05:10.rates here have fallen dramatically, but I don't think the Portas
:05:11. > :05:16.solution goes far enough. The big difference between my review and
:05:17. > :05:20.Mary Portis, if we are saying to government, you can't tinker with
:05:21. > :05:25.the edges, you can't do make overs, you can't provide these things. We
:05:26. > :05:31.just don't want it any more, the way it was. But every town has to tailor
:05:32. > :05:36.its own solution. Time to head East, to somewhere that seems to have
:05:37. > :05:41.cracked it. In Totnes, 80% of shops are independent. Locals love them so
:05:42. > :05:47.much they even prevented the Costa Coffee chain from moving in here.
:05:48. > :05:55.Only one in 20 of the town's shops are empty. When I walk around, I
:05:56. > :06:01.feel a great sense of locality and location. They even make their own
:06:02. > :06:06.stuff, and where they don't make it on the premises, they saw fit
:06:07. > :06:09.locally, so the economy thrives. And this is exactly the sort of facility
:06:10. > :06:15.that I think every high street needs. A modernised library at the
:06:16. > :06:21.heart of town. Totnes isn't Penzance. For starters, people have
:06:22. > :06:24.got more money to spend here. But it's the real determination to keep
:06:25. > :06:34.it local that I think many towns could learn from. A big part of what
:06:35. > :06:39.we talk about is the leaky bucket scenario, so in one place,
:06:40. > :06:43.everybody's money goes into the bucket and pensions go in and wages
:06:44. > :06:49.and benefits, and then what happens, in most places, the money just pours
:06:50. > :06:54.out. It pours out through people spending with multinationals. And
:06:55. > :07:00.so, to be able to celebrate the fact that here we have got a really
:07:01. > :07:04.strong buckets, less holes, basically, and a big part of what we
:07:05. > :07:07.do, we celebrate that and think, how can we build on that? Transition
:07:08. > :07:15.Town Totnes has come up with a 20`year plan. We posed a question,
:07:16. > :07:24.what would an economy look like that worked for Totnes, so the blueprint
:07:25. > :07:28.is a plan for how Totnes could look if we maximised the value of
:07:29. > :07:33.people's spend, and I think bringing people together around that, they
:07:34. > :07:36.saw what the possibilities were. The big thing I got from that meeting is
:07:37. > :07:42.that they have an economic blueprint, a plan, for this town,
:07:43. > :07:45.which is engaging with the community and helping the community understand
:07:46. > :07:50.how it can make the local economy prosper. And I guess, when we get
:07:51. > :07:56.back to Penzance, that's a big question we have got to have for
:07:57. > :07:59.them. Have they got a plan? The challenge in Penzance is far greater
:08:00. > :08:03.than they are here. It turns out Penzance hasn't got a plan to rival
:08:04. > :08:10.Totnes but it does have movers and shakers. I'm off to meet some of
:08:11. > :08:13.them in a rundown former cinema. Can they mastermind a solution to
:08:14. > :08:21.Penzance's high street problems? They're certainly well aware of the
:08:22. > :08:27.challenges. There are definitely problems here. Penzance tops the
:08:28. > :08:31.league tables of deprivation, serious issues in Penn 's arms. The
:08:32. > :08:38.problem we have in particular, large shops, in the high Street, and they
:08:39. > :08:42.are proving very difficult to left. `` letter. And they recognise that
:08:43. > :08:46.the high street of the future will have to be different from the one
:08:47. > :08:49.we've known. Clearly, the town centre is not all about retail but
:08:50. > :08:54.about culture and social exchange, which was the nature of what a town
:08:55. > :09:00.centre used to be. That's all very idealistic, but how are you going to
:09:01. > :09:03.make that happen? An important thing, prompted by the business
:09:04. > :09:10.community, is to go ahead and embrace localism and develop a
:09:11. > :09:16.neighbourhood plan. What period of time but that plan B? Over 18
:09:17. > :09:22.months. So they do have a plan? Or at least plans for a plan? I think
:09:23. > :09:27.the most encouraging part of the discussion we just had is that there
:09:28. > :09:30.is a great deal of enthusiasm there, and an understanding that
:09:31. > :09:35.something needs to happen. But it's going to take time, and I think time
:09:36. > :09:40.is something the local residents doesn't understand. And I think the
:09:41. > :09:50.main streets of Penzance will be struggling a good while yet. It's
:09:51. > :09:56.time for me to return to London. Penzance demonstrates just what sort
:09:57. > :10:01.of challenge other towns in the UK face. I have met some people who've
:10:02. > :10:05.got plans to do something about it and they have got great intentions,
:10:06. > :10:09.and I wish them all the luck in the world, because they are going to
:10:10. > :10:18.need it. There is a big challenge here and good luck to them.
:10:19. > :10:26.The Victorian craze for collecting led to all number of weird and
:10:27. > :10:29.wonderful accumulations of curios. But the collection of one eccentric
:10:30. > :10:36.clergyman from West Devon has done more than fill shelves in a museum.
:10:37. > :10:45.Verity Sharp has the story of one of Devon's unsung heroes.
:10:46. > :10:55.Faure folk fan like me, sessions like this one what all about. A warm
:10:56. > :11:00.and inviting atmosphere to play and share some of the music we love. But
:11:01. > :11:03.many of our most treasured folk songs only survive today because of
:11:04. > :11:11.the extraordinary lengths that one Devon man went to to keep them
:11:12. > :11:16.alive. Sabine Baring Gould was born in Exeter in 1834. He read classics
:11:17. > :11:26.at Cambridge University before becoming an African priest. He
:11:27. > :11:33.served his curiously at Horbury, and it was here he wrote the words to
:11:34. > :11:36.one of our best known hymns. Sabine was surprised at the same Onward
:11:37. > :11:40.Christian Soldiers brought him. He later said he dashed the words off
:11:41. > :11:48.in no more than 15 minutes for a procession of schoolchildren. But it
:11:49. > :11:53.was an ecclesiastical hit and even now, it's what he's best known for.
:11:54. > :11:58.It was while he was at Horbury that Sabine met the love of his life.
:11:59. > :12:01.Despite his Christian credentials, the 34`year`old vicar amazed
:12:02. > :12:07.everyone by taking a bright half his age and far below his social
:12:08. > :12:10.standing. But 16`year`old millworker Grace Taylor proved to be a good
:12:11. > :12:20.match and would bear him an astounding 15 children. With a fast
:12:21. > :12:26.family, the Baring`Goulds needed to find a larger house. So in 1881 they
:12:27. > :12:30.moved here, to Lewtrenchard Manor, the Devon estate that Sabine had
:12:31. > :12:37.inherited. The appointed himself squire and Parson and set about
:12:38. > :12:41.rebuilding his new home. Today the house remains in the Baring`Gould
:12:42. > :12:47.family but is leased by Sue Marie, who brought her family appear.
:12:48. > :12:51.Sabine moves here in 1881. What was it like then? It wasn't it a good
:12:52. > :12:55.state. He transformed it into what it is now. His family put his mark
:12:56. > :13:00.on it in every possible way with architectural detail and enlarging
:13:01. > :13:07.it in size. He was the person who brought his family here and turned a
:13:08. > :13:11.house into a home. Absolutely. From a very early age she had this idea
:13:12. > :13:16.that he wanted three things in life. One was that he was going to restore
:13:17. > :13:20.this house. The second was that he was going to restore the church. The
:13:21. > :13:26.third was that he was going to save the souls of the parish. He never
:13:27. > :13:29.wavered and did an amazing job. The house is much and changed and
:13:30. > :13:34.Sabine's influence still looms large. This is the library where he
:13:35. > :13:41.did all his writing. Being an energetic chap as he was, he wrote
:13:42. > :13:47.standing up. He never sat down. Was that normal? Not at all. I've never
:13:48. > :13:52.heard of anyone else who did that! Another eccentricity. His energy was
:13:53. > :13:56.legendary. He was one of the leading archaeologists of Dartmoor and one
:13:57. > :14:00.of the top ten novelists of his time. There was hardly any subject
:14:01. > :14:08.that he didn't write a book on. Folklore, theology, history,
:14:09. > :14:16.travel... But there was one work above all others that he considered
:14:17. > :14:20.to be his greatest achievement. And that was the songs of the West. Folk
:14:21. > :14:29.songs collected from the mouths of the people.
:14:30. > :14:47.# Of the sweet Nightingale as she sings in the Valley...
:14:48. > :15:01.By 1882, when Sabine started collecting, these songs were already
:15:02. > :15:10.dying out. His sources were very old and very
:15:11. > :15:11.poor. # The clear crystal fountain through
:15:12. > :15:22.England did go. And so he started combing the
:15:23. > :15:26.villages of Devon and Cornwall, coaxing these folk songs out of the
:15:27. > :15:31.working people who still remembered them. He had a particular view of
:15:32. > :15:37.what he was going out for. He did not want the modern stuff. He was
:15:38. > :15:43.after the old stuff, the old songs in mode and songs that had an
:15:44. > :15:48.antiquity about them. He felt that was an essence of Englishness.
:15:49. > :15:52.That's what he was looking for. He wasn't a confident musician, so
:15:53. > :15:58.while he noted the words, he'd take along an assistant to write down the
:15:59. > :16:01.June. These scholars, entirely out of place with their pens and
:16:02. > :16:10.notebooks in hand, trailed after the singers as they went about their
:16:11. > :16:18.chores. Sally Satterly, a renowned Dartmoor Dame, gave Sabine many
:16:19. > :16:30.songs from her home. # And I do nothing but mourn.
:16:31. > :16:44.# Now I have mourned by his grave for 12 month and a day.
:16:45. > :16:52.# I'll set my sale before the wind. # To waft me far away.
:16:53. > :16:57.He also invited singers to the more civilised environment of the manor.
:16:58. > :17:03.Their stage with this large oak settle, then by the fire and now in
:17:04. > :17:07.the entrance to the manner. Although he was interested in collecting the
:17:08. > :17:11.words of the songs, he was most passionate about the tunes. Without
:17:12. > :17:19.his collecting works we may well have lost great tunes like the
:17:20. > :17:55.Helston Furry Dance. And then, of course, the wonderful Widecome Fair.
:17:56. > :18:02.Sabine's was the first serious collection of its kind, something
:18:03. > :18:06.that even the famous folk song collector Cecil Sharp admitted. But
:18:07. > :18:12.today, Baring`Gould has largely been forgotten. He was so well known in
:18:13. > :18:16.his day and yet today his name isn't really well known, despite all these
:18:17. > :18:22.achievements and interests and what have you. Why do you think that is?
:18:23. > :18:26.He was a sort of rumbustious character. He fell out with people.
:18:27. > :18:32.He didn't get on that well with the folk Law Society and those kind of
:18:33. > :18:37.things. Coupled with the fact he was down here. He wasn't, as Cecil Sharp
:18:38. > :18:40.was, a hamster music teacher right in the middle of London, with all
:18:41. > :18:44.that power and all of those connections. He was right out here
:18:45. > :18:49.in the wilds. But his collection, Choon Wise, is one of the very
:18:50. > :18:53.best. For me, as a trained musician and coming to this folk stuff, it
:18:54. > :19:00.has beautiful tunes in it. It is unrivalled. Sabine was quiet and
:19:01. > :19:07.parson and Lewtrenchard Manor 43 years, in which time he amassed some
:19:08. > :19:12.900 songs. He died aged 89 in 1924 and was laid to rest alongside his
:19:13. > :19:17.beloved Grace in Lewtrenchard church, within sight of the manor
:19:18. > :19:21.house. He was determined that his collection would be more than just a
:19:22. > :19:25.book in a library gathering dust. He wanted to revive the tradition that
:19:26. > :19:38.he loved, and there's no doubt that there he succeeded.
:19:39. > :20:00.# I will sing you. # What will you sing me?
:20:01. > :20:07.This year sees the 250th anniversary of one of the oldest synagogues in
:20:08. > :20:13.the country. It is in Devon and it has seen a remarkable revival. BBC
:20:14. > :20:20.Radio Devon's Judy Spier 's delves into her own background to tell us
:20:21. > :20:23.the story. Members of Exeter's Jewish community enter my local
:20:24. > :20:27.synagogue for the Friday night service that marks the start of the
:20:28. > :20:32.sabbath, as Jewish people have been doing here since 1763. Attendances
:20:33. > :20:36.have increased noticeably in the last few years. In fact, you could
:20:37. > :20:40.say that the Exeter Jewish community are enjoying somewhat of a golden
:20:41. > :20:48.period. The time was when Jews weren't welcome here at all. The
:20:49. > :20:53.first reference to Jews in Exeter dates from 1177, when work on Exeter
:20:54. > :21:00.Cathedral had just started. They were brought to England following
:21:01. > :21:06.the Norman conquest in 1066. I'm here to meet a man who has studied
:21:07. > :21:11.the history of Exeter's Jews for the last 30 years. They came here
:21:12. > :21:15.because it was an important city. The King at the time wanted Jews in
:21:16. > :21:20.various centres, there were 26 in all in the end, where Jews were
:21:21. > :21:24.allowed to operate as official comment moneylenders, doing the job
:21:25. > :21:29.which Christians at that time weren't allowed to do. The cathedral
:21:30. > :21:35.archives contain mediaeval records of transactions involving local
:21:36. > :21:39.Jews. What is unique about these items is they are a record of Jewish
:21:40. > :21:51.presence in Exeter, here in the middle ages. It says, a widow of
:21:52. > :21:57.Henry Porter, he died with left debts. His debts included loans from
:21:58. > :22:02.Jews. So when she sold the property, she wanted it made quite clear that
:22:03. > :22:07.the money should be used to pay off all the debts, including the ones to
:22:08. > :22:12.the Jews. Eventually it became acceptable for Christians to lend
:22:13. > :22:18.money. Jews were no longer useful and anti`Semitism reared its ugly
:22:19. > :22:23.head. A sin not held here in 1287 heard the Bishop rousing his clergy
:22:24. > :22:29.to protect their congregations against what he called the insidious
:22:30. > :22:33.wilds of their Jewish neighbours. Three years later, Edward the first
:22:34. > :22:39.ordered the expulsion of all Jews from England. It would be another
:22:40. > :22:48.four centuries before they were allowed to return. When my family
:22:49. > :22:52.set up its Jura loop `` business in the area, they were following a long
:22:53. > :22:57.tradition. Jewish people were eventually readmitted to England in
:22:58. > :23:00.1566 and Oliver Cromwell. This time they came back as educated
:23:01. > :23:05.professionals and skilled craftspeople. At the turn of the
:23:06. > :23:09.18th century, Exeter was thriving thanks to the wool trade and the
:23:10. > :23:12.city's situation on the River ex. During the war, this part of the
:23:13. > :23:17.street took a hammering from the German bombers and was extensively
:23:18. > :23:21.rebuilt. In fact, at one time this was probably Exeter's Jewish
:23:22. > :23:28.quarter. One prominent Jewish family lived and worked here. We know this
:23:29. > :23:39.because it says so on their 250`year`old trade card. The
:23:40. > :23:44.Ezekiels work opticians. Successful Jewish families were gradually
:23:45. > :23:48.assimilated into Exeter's middle class. But at the time Ezekiel made
:23:49. > :23:53.these engravings, they were still subject to discrimination. In 1763,
:23:54. > :23:58.his family wanted some land around the corner from the shop. The deal
:23:59. > :24:02.had to be done through a third`party because Jews weren't allowed to
:24:03. > :24:16.lease land. They wanted it to a synagogue. It has been in use ever
:24:17. > :24:21.since. The holiest part of any synagogue is the Ark. Congregation
:24:22. > :24:29.member Richard Hulsey describes its contents. In a synagogue, the only
:24:30. > :24:34.living creatures you will see portrayed the Lions. They are the
:24:35. > :24:43.Lions of Judah which represent the tribe of Judah, one of the 13 tribes
:24:44. > :24:48.of Israel. The Ark houses the Torah. Each contains the five books
:24:49. > :24:54.of Moses, which are also the first five books of the Bible. We have six
:24:55. > :25:02.Torah scrolls here. The four larger ones were all written in areas of
:25:03. > :25:05.Eastern Europe around about 1880. We have the pointer, because you never
:25:06. > :25:11.touch a scroll with your hands, because your hand may have Greece on
:25:12. > :25:17.them and you would damage it. And, of course, the breastplate because
:25:18. > :25:20.we believe in biblical times that the high priest of Jerusalem would
:25:21. > :25:23.have had some form of breastplate over his vestments. We are very
:25:24. > :25:30.lucky because we are the only synagogue in England that has
:25:31. > :25:35.Georgian silver still in the synagogue from which was made. As a
:25:36. > :25:38.child attended an orthodox synagogue in Plymouth. Here in Exeter they
:25:39. > :25:47.take a more progressive approach, but the layout is basically the
:25:48. > :25:52.same. In all traditional synagogues, this is always in the
:25:53. > :25:58.centre and the seats face in. Because this was considered to help
:25:59. > :26:05.the study. A synagogue is not only a house of prayer it is also a house
:26:06. > :26:08.of study. One thing is for sure, in my synagogue I would never be
:26:09. > :26:14.standing here. I would be upstairs with the rest of the ladies because
:26:15. > :26:19.we had to be separated, which was traditionally why you have the
:26:20. > :26:24.gallery. Yes. Historically we would have put you upstairs. In many
:26:25. > :26:28.synagogues you still are. In this synagogue we are not affiliated to
:26:29. > :26:39.any particular type of Judaism, so we do things how we want. Somebody
:26:40. > :26:43.will be called up and they will be called up using their Hebrew name,
:26:44. > :26:49.in order to save the blessings for the reading of it. And somebody else
:26:50. > :26:54.will then lain it. That is effectively chanting. It is chanted
:26:55. > :27:03.to tunes that are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Around the
:27:04. > :27:08.time that work started on the synagogue, the Ezekiels also
:27:09. > :27:12.established a burial ground. Ezekiel Ezekiel, one of the first to be
:27:13. > :27:18.buried here, lies in an unmarked grave. His niece, Betsy, lies
:27:19. > :27:26.nearby. Exeter synagogue flourished for a century but then attendances
:27:27. > :27:29.fell. By the mid`19th century, economic sway changing again. The
:27:30. > :27:36.attractions of London were far more important. Jews gradually began to
:27:37. > :27:42.move away. By the end of the 19th`century, the Exeter community
:27:43. > :27:45.as good as closed down. But recent years have seen a revival in the
:27:46. > :27:51.synagogue's fortunes, Anne Frank has been at the heart of it. It has
:27:52. > :27:55.around 100 members at present. The revival has involved a move away
:27:56. > :27:59.from the more traditional interpretation of Judaism. I may not
:28:00. > :28:03.have long hair now but in those days people thought of me as a bit of a
:28:04. > :28:07.hippie. A few of us who were settling down and having families
:28:08. > :28:10.got involved in the synagogue, started having services, having
:28:11. > :28:15.parties, having a sense of community again. That is what has continued.
:28:16. > :28:22.We also tried to be inclusive, to welcome everybody. And they do,
:28:23. > :28:26.because since I moved to Exeter I can't always get to my synagogue in
:28:27. > :28:36.Plymouth, but I know I can always rely on a warm welcome in this
:28:37. > :28:43.lovely, historic building. That is all from this week's Inside Out
:28:44. > :29:11.South West. Join us next week. See you then.
:29:12. > :29:17.A longer day, more exams and tougher discipline. That is what the
:29:18. > :29:21.government wants for pupils in England's state schools. Ministers
:29:22. > :29:26.believe it would bring standards closer to those in private schools.
:29:27. > :29:31.There is a warning over a social network raise after it was linked to
:29:32. > :29:34.guess in Ireland. It involves drinking and filming a stun. The
:29:35. > :29:39.body of the young man was found in the River. Tributes have poured in
:29:40. > :29:44.for the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is thought he died from
:29:45. > :29:48.a heroin overdose. More of us are undergoing plastic
:29:49. > :29:52.surgery. The number of operations jumped 17% last year. Most were for
:29:53. > :29:56.breast implants, but the biggest rise was for liposuction.
:29:57. > :29:58.Imagine parking your car outside your house and waking up to this
:29:59. > :30:01.dash a parties, having a sense of community
:30:02. > :30:03.Hello, I'm Natalie Cornah in the We
:30:04. > :30:05.Hello, I'm Natalie Cornah in the South West. There's been widespread
:30:06. > :30:09.flooding across the region after coastal communities were hit by
:30:10. > :30:11.strong winds, large waves and a high tide. Sea walls were breached and
:30:12. > :30:12.homes and shops