06/11/2017 Inside Out West Midlands

Welcome to this week s

Inside Out West Midlands.

The return of rickets

and the toll on young lives.

I knew he was going to have another

seizure.

How cutting edge design is helping

the pottery industry bounce back.

I've been working on more planters

and a lot of geometry style based

and they seem to be on trend at the

moment.

And a former boxing champ

investigates a mining disaster close

to home.

The youngest miner was only 12 years

of age. You hear about kids had

worked in mind and whatever but this

has relieved but it on to me.

I m Ayo Akinwolere and this

is Inside Out West Midlands.

For this week s Inside Out

West Midlands we re

at the Black Country Living Museum.

You might have noticed there s been

a lot in the press recently

about the return of Peaky Blinders ?

Of course, so much has changed

since people lived like this.

For many, life was undoubtedly

harder than it is now.

Living conditions

weren t always great

and sickness was

often a way of life.

Sadly though, sometimes diseases

we think we ve seen the last of,

can make unwelcome returns.

In July 2016 Beverely Thahane gave

birth to her second child,

a baby boy called Noah.

He was not a troublesome baby,

he just wanted to feed and sleep,

like any regular baby.

It was exciting to have another

bundle of joy in the house.

But under the surface,

Noah was severely lacking Vitamin D

and suffering from rickets.

Even it was just one case

of rickets in the UK,

that would be a scandal; it s

a totally preventable disease.

And for babies, not getting enough

vitamin D could prove fatal.

So most people think of rickets

as just a bone disease,

but it s more than that ? especially

in infants.

It affects the heart and the brain.

When Noah was just a couple

of months old Beverley began

to notice that something was wrong.

His breathing was like he s

just run up and down

the stairs and I was thinking this

is not normal you know,

all the people who came across him

would ask, what s wrong

with his breathing?

Rickets, a severe disease affecting

the development of bones,

was thought to have been eradicated

with the discovery of vitamin D

100 years ago but it s back

and thanks to some new research,

Dr Jacobs and his colleagues

are beginning to understand

the scale of the problem.

There is a national survey just

completing as we speak,

across the UK which has been running

for the last two years

and they found at least 50 children

per year getting classic rickets.

It s now come back and it s not

as rare as it should be.

So why is vitamin D so important?

Well it enables the body to absorb

calcium to build strong bones

and develop a healthy heart.

Our main source of vitamin D

is the sun ? but here in the UK

we re too far north for everyone

to rely on Sunshine alone,

leaving millions of people at risk.

The age groups are every

young babies and teenagers

as they go through adolescence,

pregnant women are particularly

important for their own health

and the health of their baby.

And ethnic groups at risk

are particularly people with darker

skin, people who dress very modestly

? especially Muslim women who do not

get much exposure to the sun,

they have a high instance of severe

problems due to a lack

of vitamin D.

Astonishingly, doctors now believe

a lack of vitamin D can affect far

more people and could be linked

to a host of conditions.

There are probably a lot

of common problems that

would be reduced if the whole

population had a healthier level

of vitamin D ? so we re

learning now about asthma,

diabetes, possibly some cancers,

multiple-sclerosis, a large range

of diseases where there may be

an element of increase risk due

to a lack of vitamin D.

As a mother to 9-year-old Jasvier,

and baby Noah, Beverley had no

idea her whole family was at risk

of vitamin D deficiency.

Us people of colour,

we know that in a country like this,

in weather like this,

there s not much sunshine but

we don t think much of it,

we didn t know the severity of it,

that it can actually kill you.

By the time Noah was five months

old, Beverley had witnessed several

seizures and was at her wits end.

I didn t want to leave

the house; I used to fight with Jas

because I didn t want Jas

to touch him because I didn t

know what was going on.

Despite trips to the GP

and A&E, nobody had spotted

the cause of Noah s illness,

because in general doctors simply

aren t trained to think

about or check vitamin D levels.

One evening

at their home in Telford,

Beverley was settling the baby down

for the night, when he suddenly

stopped breathing.

I fed him, I changed his nappy

and he was still restless

so we had to get out.

When I was still trying to calm him

down, he rolled his eyes

and I knew it was coming,

because I d seen it before

and when he rolled his eyes

he started changing colour again

and I knew he was gonna have another

seizure but unfortunately it ended

up being a heart attack,

he just rolled his eyes

and I thought, oh, my

God, what s going on?

While in hospital tests finally

revealed the cause of the problem ?

but it was too late.

Noah passed away a few days

later from heart failure.

Vitamin D is a silent

killer first of all,

because I am without a child now

and the sickness was silent,

nobody knew, nobody picked it up.

If Noah s Mum had been

told at birth about the necessity

to supplement him for the first

year of life, this

to supplement him for the first

It s a fully preventable condition.

Dr Hogler is a Consultant

at Birmingham Children s Hospital;

he says the current policy around

vitamin D supplements in England

is complex 289-page scientific

document ? he d like to

see a simple message.

What we should be doing

is supplementing every infant

from birth to the first birthday ?

minimum, supplement all pregnant

women with vitamin D and supplement

all ethnic risks groups.

In England the NHS

distribute these vitamins ?

but it s means tested,

so most children never see them.

Dr Hogler has compared the use

of Vitamin D supplements

for infants throughout Europe.

Countries that are green

or orange are doing well.

But here in the UK we re firmly

in the red, giving out less

Vitamin D than anywhere else.

It s hard to forgive

England because we live so far north

and have so little sunshine exposure

that we are really exposing us

to the complications of vitamin D.

Adopting a simpler approach

IS possible ? Birmingham is one

of the few places in England that

gives these vitamins

to every pregnant woman

and infant ? free of charge.

And it's had a dramatic effect,

cutting cases of vitamin D

deficiency in children by 60%.

These parents aren t just

taking away vitamins,

they re getting vital

information about how

to protect their families.

I know that

being of south Asian origin

I need to take them too,

we just don t get enough sunlight.

In London, we did not get

supplements so I didn't pay so much

attention but still we have moved

here, I have made sure we get them.

And so if it works here

in Birmingham - why isn t it

happening everywhere else?

Public Health England s current

policy advises that:

"It would not be appropriate to give

everyone a supplement."

Just five droplets a day

is enough to prevent babies

and children suffering needlessly.

All complications are fully

preventable, eBay seizures or heart

failure, all can cause rickets.

Beverley s focus is to now share

Noah s story in the hope

that he can save others.

You can choose to be angry at the

whole world or you can choose to

make a positive out of the negative

experience that you have.

a lot in the press recently

about the return of Peaky Blinders ?

the BBC drama that s set in Brum.

Well, a lot of the action was filmed

right here and walking around

the place it does feel a bit

like being on a film set.

Here at the BCLM you can see many

examples of traditional industry.

Over in Stoke-on-Trent of course

pottery was the main

business and although there has been

steady decline for the past few

decades, there are signs

that the future s bright

as I ve been finding out.

Like whisky from Scotland or steel

from Sheffield, you can t

help but link pottery

with Stoke-on-Trent

and Staffordshire.

Next is a visit to the Staffordshire

potteries.

For 250 years,

this place kitted out

the world s kitchen cupboards

and dressers, royalty s included.

Stoke-on-Trent was tailor-made

for the mass production

of ceramics but steadily,

the pot-banked powerhouses

were stripped away.

Cheap foreign competition

made it impossible for

Stoke s industrial-scale

manufacturers to compete.

So as firms folded, jobs were lost.

In the last 50 years the number

of people working in the pottery

industry in the area has dropped

from roughly 60,000

to fewer than 9,000.

So with a legacy in tatters,

is it fair to assume that

Stoke-on-Trent is no longer a major

player when it comes to pottery?

Is it washed up?

Well I ve heard otherwise.

You ve got to say pottery

is fashionable again,

The whole attitude in

the city is changing.

It s different, it s exciting.

So to build a better

picture of how things

are right now on the ground,

what better place to start that one

of the city s clay suppliers.

Valentine Clays is an old school

family-run business producing every

sort of clay you can imagine

and Alan Ault, is the boss.

This is porcelain that we are

producing at the moment.

This is

clear that we are producing for Emma

Bridgewater.

In the light of the

fact that so many pottery factories

have closed over the last few years,

how have you guys managed to

survive?

We had to do something

because it to keep the business

profitable and keep going, you

probably changed from 70% of our

production was industrial and now

it's around 20% industrial.

Primarily then, instead of only

supplying big industry, you may be

looking for smaller businesses to

work with?

Yeah, sure, and that is

what brought us out of trouble.

And pottery expert,

Kevin Millward believes that

like Alan s business has,

the city itself needs

to move on and evolve.

It s time to make pottery personal.

The big companies are never going to

come back,

People like the hand-madey

look and people buy pots

with their hearts.

And it s that bespoke market that

Valentine Clays now depends on.

Alan s asked me to meet him

at his shiny new HQ.

Business

must be good then Alan?

how do you feel when you walk

through the doors? It still seems

like a dream. I have to pinch myself

sometimes because it all happened so

fast. How much does a building like

this cost? Somewhere in the region

of £3 million. It has been my life

that 37 years. Everything I have

ever worked for is culminating in

this case. Business is not doing too

badly? Business is doing well. At

our busiest at this moment in time.

It s impressive stuff from Alan,

he s clearly shifting a lot of clay.

So who s buying it and are

they doing well too?

One customer is 27-year

old Jack Laverick who makes pots

from the bottom of his parent s

garden near Stoke-on-Trent.

This is my studio, where I work from

and here are some of the works and

making, candleholders, porcelain

pots.

You are a Staffordshire lad

but I wouldn't say these are

typically Staffordshire Astala

designs, how did you come up with

these ideas Keko I started adding

geometric shapes and I realised they

sold really well and since then I

have greeted planters and a lot of

geometric style pieces and they seem

to be on trend at the minute and

sell very well for me. Would you say

it helps your brand that you are a

Staffordshire lad, do you think that

has stuck out with Mac I think so,

when I go up and down the country,

everyone recognises Stoke-on-Trent

and they recognise the territory

heritage. They are selling more and

more to our design bridges was like

yourself, is this the future?

I

would say so, I was there yesterday

picking up more play for myself to

them orders and getting from local

galleries and shops.

It s studio potters like Jack that

Kevin wants to see more of.

That s why he s set-up this

Clay College at Middleport Pottery,

in the hope that he can pass

on 40-years of ceramic expertise

to a fresh generation.

This is quite an incredible space. I

knew you were quite pivotal in

creating this.

Why? Well, it was a

reaction. I've taught in most of the

major universities for the last 35

years and over the last ten years,

the emphasis has changed from

learning how to make things the more

about concept, design, dissertation

on essays.

The majority of people

who come into ceramics are really

passionate about making things, not

writing essays. We can provide

students with the practical,

hands-on skills that can take them

forward so they can make a career

and a business out of this.

Kevin s course has attracted

students from across the country

but there s one who has travelled

a little further than the rest.

I hear you have come from Mumbai?

Why are you here learning pottery?

A

good question actually. A lot of

people are surprised. I have been

doing pottery for a while but as a

hobby and in India didn't have

enough studio to find a place to

actually learn to be a potter.

Is

there something about learning this

skill in Stoke that is a special?

Absolutely, I don't think I have

seen so much pottery anywhere in my

life. Everywhere you go there is

pottery. It is just really

inspiring.

Of course, I couldn t

resist a quick go myself.

Can t say I m a natural but this

sort of casual playing around

with clay is exactly what s

being encouraged

throughout the city.

It s time to leave college

and go back to school.

Katie Leonard heads up

a project called Clay School.

Our aim is to get clay under

the finger nails of every child

and really work through feeling

the process of creating something.

It s this early connection with clay

that might just breed

the home-grown potters of tomorrow

here at Heron Cross Primary School.

My auntie makes china cups and my

mum did used to decorate china cups.

So you got on that in the family so

one date would you like to make

china cups?

Yes.

But more than anything,

it just seems like a lot of fun.

I like how you can put it back

together and start over again.

It

feels so weird when you get it in

your fingernails and it is hard to

get out.

Food on your plate, what is

going on?

I'm starving!

Pottery is definitely a part

of Stoke children s heritage

and maybe it ll be a part

of their future too.

Time now for our final film.

The area around Ironbridge

in Shropshire is renowned

for being the birthplace

of the Industrial Revolution.

But technological advancement often

came at a price and former boxing

champ and Telford lad

Richie Woodhall has been looking

into a 19th century tragedy that

exposed the darker side

of the Industrial Revolution.

I grew up on the estate

just below us so this

was like a playground to me here.

Former world champion

boxer Richie Woodhall

knows this woodland well.

All through my life really I ve

either played in these

woods with my mates ? playing tig

and hide and seek and whatever or,

as I got older, then

I would run up the mound

here because it was a great training

run in the morning.

But recently Richie s heard that

run in the morning.

This wooded hill is actually

an old slag heap and the site of one

of the area s worst ever industrial

accidents when, in 1864,

nine miners lost their lives.

Local people call them

the Nine Men of Madeley.

Well, I m hoping to find out

a little more about the people

who were involved in the accident ?

who they were, and if accidents

like this were common.

You hear about the benefits

of the industrial revolution of this

area but you don t hear

about the human cost.

To start with, Richie has come

to neighbouring Ironbridge.

Alison Vermee did some research

into the Nine Men of Madeley to mark

the tragedy s 150th anniversary.

What can you tell me

about the accident?

How did it happen?

The nine men had been on a shift.

Probably a 12-hour shift.

They were coming up the mineshaft

and the contraption they came up

on was called the doubles .

And this is an illustration

of what that would have looked like.

Wow!

So Benjamin Davies, one of the men

who died, he was the hooker

on and it was his job at the end

of the shift to put that hook

through the loop and then the men

would be winched up.

Right.

So they think what must have

happened is instead of hooking

the hook through the loop that it

must have rested on the tip and then

there was some jolt in the mechanism

on the way up and that would have

caused it to fall.

And there s no safety regulations ?

someone checking that?

No.

Three hundred feet up,

in almost total darkness

and dangling from a single metal

chain ? the nine miners

plunged to their deaths.

We ve got the burial certificate

here which gives the men s

names and their ages.

The three oldest men ?

Edward Wallett was 52,

Benjamin Davies was 35,

John Tranter 37.

The others were teenagers.

Two 18-year-old boys and then

a couple of 14-year-olds,

a 13-year-old and the youngest

was William Onions who was 12.

12 years of age?!

Being sent down a mine!

Yeah.

Well, the first thing that hits

you is the youngest miner is only

12 years of age.

You hear about kids that worked

in mines or whatever but this has

really brought it home to me.

Richie wants to learn

more about what working

conditions would have been

like for the Nine Men of Madeley.

So he s come to the National Mining

Museum in Wakefield.

It s run by Andy Smith.

Morning, Richie.

Morning, Andy.

Welcome to Coal Mining Museum.

We need to get you kitted up

and underground and do some work.

Come on!

150 years ago miners didn t have

helmets or LED lights.

And there were no safety

cages as they descended

deep beneath the earth.

Underground Richie gets a real taste

for what life was like back then.

I think doing this for 12 hours.

I just don t know how they did it

in these conditions.

I ve got a mouthful of grit.

SPITS.

And I would definitely sooner be

doing 12 rounds in the ring.

The work was back

breaking and dangerous.

Explosions and roof

collapses were common.

Andy, were there any health and

safety regulations back then at all?

There wasn t when they first started

because they didn t know

what were dangerous.

So somebody had to be

injured or killed for

a law to be introduced.

So they always say - mining laws

were written in miners blood.

During the 1860s more than 200

miners died in Shropshire.

Almost a quarter, including

the Nine Men of Madeley,

simply fell to their deaths.

So Andy, how deep is this shaft?

It s exactly 140 metres.

Frightening, to be quite honest.

But there is evidence

that the tragedy did lead

to calls for better safety.

In the museum s library Richie finds

a number of relevant documents -

including one written shortly

after the fateful accident

by Shropshire s Inspector of Mines.

For so long as the

present system of open

shafts without guides,

continues to prevail, so long

will men fall from the surface.

In this, as in all other things,

improvements are prevented

by the ignorance of the parties

in charge of mines.

This fella is not happy.

And he s more or less saying

that the mine owners are turning

a blind eye to the dangers.

The Nine Men of Madeley worked

for John Anstice ? a local

industrialist who gave his name

to a former working men s club

where Richie used to box.

Was he admired then locally

or was he looked at as a bit

of a greedy industrialist?

Generally speaking he was looked

upon as a very good beneficent

employer who treated his employees

very well but I think that s

in the context of working conditions

and observation of the law

at the time.

So I think he worked within the law

but then there are all these grey

areas aren t there about how well

you treat your employees?

But John Anstice did ensure

that the nine miners

were remembered with honour.

He paid for a grand funeral at St.

Michaels Church which more than two

thousand people attended.

And he paid for their graves ?

which Reverend Alan Walden

wants to show Richie.

This is the top of the churchyard

in one of the high status positions

which would have been very

unusual for the burial

of people like miners.

Most of the other graves

around here are for much

richer people than them.

So giving them this position

signifies what an important disaster

it was and how they wanted

to reflect the sacrifice

that these miners had made.

What I thought was really

touching in a way

was that the graves are obviously

high up in the churchyard itself

where other graves would have

people, probably very wealthy people

of the area.

And people of note.

And yet you ve got nine miners ?

working class blokes

? up there with them.

And rightly so.

But for Richie there

is one final discovery.

Hello.

Hello.

Pleased to meet you.

Hello.

I m Sue Hyde.

I m actually the great,

great grand-daughter

of Edward Wallet ? one

of the miners who died.

Right!

OK.

Fanstatic!.

I m amazed.

I m honoured.

Privileged to meet a relative

of one of the nine miners.

But Sue tells Richie that Edward

wasn t the only Wallett

at the mine on the day

of the tragedy.

His son William Arthur Wallet

was operating the winch.

My great great grandfather William

Wallett was the banksman that day.

Yeah.

And of course he would have

pulled up his father.

His father.

Of course.

Yes.

He d have been the first to realise

when actually the chain went slack

that the men would have fallen

so he would then have

realised that his father...

Exactly.

Oh.

Come here!

LAUGHS.

It happened 150 years ago

so I didn t think that there d be

anyone that I could speak

to related, so privileged.

Really, really privileged.

Do you think it s

remember these miners?

Yes, because mining was a very hard

job and always has been

and they gave a lot to the local

area and ultimately

they gave their lives.

Yes.

There s probably thousands

upon thousands of miners that have

never been recognised

for the contribution

that they ve given.

But these nine men will always be

mentioned and they ll

always be remembered.

They represent all those miners

and the working class bloke.

And that s really, really

important to everyone.

Well, that's it for this series ?

hope you ve enjoyed it.

We ll be back in the new year

hope you ve enjoyed it.

from familiar places.

Don t forget, you can catch

up with all tonight s

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