Browse content similar to 24/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello from Bristol where we're investigating concerns about heart | :00:10. | :00:12. | |
surgery at Bristol Children's Hospital. | :00:13. | :00:14. | |
Tonight, we speak to the parents of two children who died here. We have | :00:15. | :00:23. | |
a child who has gone from a good heart function to a pure heart | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
function. Is not that he had bad care, he had no care at all. | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
Also tonight: what happened to all the flax? I meet a man trying to | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
bring it back. You grasp the handful and then lay | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
it out, but one end, seeds the other end. | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
I'm Alastair McKee, and this is Inside Out West. | :00:48. | :01:01. | |
We all want our local NHS to be a service we can trust ` especially | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
when it's our children at stake And the care of children's hearts in | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
Bristol has had a traumatic history. Two decades ago at least 35 babies | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
died unnecessarily following sub`standard surgery. The scandal | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
led to multiple inquiries and with a new surgeon the unit rebooted itself | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
to become one of the best in the country. But now new concerns are | :01:21. | :01:32. | |
emerging. A coroner has ruled that Bristol Children's Hospital lost | :01:33. | :01:35. | |
opportunities in treating a 4`year`old boy who died following | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
heart surgery. The last three months have seen | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
national headlines accompanying the inquests into the deaths of two | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
children at the Bristol Children's Hospital in 2012. A report by the | :01:44. | :01:51. | |
hospital linked the deaths, as well as several near misses to poor | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
staffing. The coroner found there was no gross negligence, but in the | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
case of 4`year`old Sean Turner said there were lost opportunities. | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
All very concerning according to Steve Bolsin, the Bristol doctor who | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
blew the whistle to me 19 years ago, and who was forced to leave and work | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
in Australia. There were warning signs, there were | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
people raising flags and as there was 20 years previously, as you | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
know, and still children are being allowed to die. | :02:24. | :02:25. | |
Following these two deaths, a report by the health watchdog, the Care | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
Quality Commission, demanded more money to be spent on staff and | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
resources. And the hospital said that's exactly | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
what they did ` investing more than ?1 million to employ more nurses. | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
But new questions are now being asked about care here in Bristol, | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
and the wider services for children heart surgery here in the West. | :02:45. | :02:56. | |
Paul Starr and Catherine Holley live in Great Elm near Frome. In June | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
2009 they had a little boy, called Samuel. | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
He was a beautiful boy, he was smart, clever, he had a good | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
vocabulary, he had lots of friends, he went to nursery, he had a nice | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
life. He had plenty of time with his family and friends, he was full of | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
fun, he was well loved. Samuel was born with a heart condition and | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
after initial surgery at nine months, he thrived. But at age | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
three, his parents were told that Samuel's condition had deteriorated. | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
We sat down at the cardiologist s desk and he said he didn't want to | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
shock us but that Samuel needed surgery that summer. And we were | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
shocked, it wasn't at all in our understanding that this was going to | :03:49. | :03:55. | |
have to happen. And it was later we found that it was quite severe, | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
really. Samuel's operation in August 20 2 | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
took longer than expected and there were complications that required | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
additional surgery. As we were coming back to the ward, | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
the matron was there and he wanted to confirm that we were Samuel's | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
parents and we said yes, and he said at that point that he thinks that | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
Samuel had a stroke, so that was obviously devastating news for us. | :04:19. | :04:25. | |
After weeks in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit ` known as PICU | :04:26. | :04:32. | |
` Samuel had a cardiac arrest. We came back to the hospital as | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
quick as we possibly could to be told that a second cardiac arrest | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
looked imminent and would we consider withdrawing treatment and | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
we had to agree, at that point it didn't looked recoverable, so we | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
went back into PICU, they removed his lines and we spoke to Samuel and | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
read him stories and he passed away in our arms. | :04:50. | :05:19. | |
Heart surgery on children is complex and carries risks. And, as a result | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
of the Bristol heart scandal, deaths amongst children who've had surgery | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
are monitored and compared to other hospitals. League tables are now | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
published. But care at Bristol has slipped, and although its results | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
are classified as safe, it's ranking measured over the last three years | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
has dropped from third to seventh out of ten. | :05:42. | :05:50. | |
As far as I can see, it's not definitive data that proves that | :05:51. | :05:52. | |
Bristol was statistically significantly worse, but it is data | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
which is indicative of a need to change your approach to these | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
particular types of operations. What's crucial to a hospital's | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
league table position is how many children die within 30 days of their | :06:06. | :06:07. | |
operation. Following Samuel Starr's death, a | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
medical professional raised concerns that the hospital might have been | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
keeping him alive for longer than was necessary to ensure that he | :06:14. | :06:22. | |
passed that 30`day point. Nurse s notes submitted for a review into | :06:23. | :06:32. | |
Samuel Starr's death said: "I was concerned that stalling for a couple | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
of days would not only be cruel to the family and unethical, but would | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
possibly mean that survival from cardiac surgery for 30 days would be | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
achieved for statistics." Not surprisingly, the Starrs were | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
shocked by this suggestion. We had some information from a nurse | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
involved in Samuel's care that she had questioned whether Samuel's | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
passing had been manipulated for the sake of statistical records, that | :06:54. | :07:11. | |
really stopped us in our tracks And in hindsight do you wish that | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
you had allowed him to die earlier? I think we should have been given | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
the option and we should have known. They knew. | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
We put this allegation to the medical director of the Bristol | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
Children's Hospital. Our clinicians utterly refuse that | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
allegation. It is very difficult to believe that an allegation can be | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
meant to be quite that blunt. I don't believe there is any evidence | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
to support that allegation and the attempting to prolong survival so | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
that a certain statistic is achieved is utterly unbelievable and I can't | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
believe it would cross a clinician's mind that would be a factor making | :07:49. | :07:58. | |
any clinical decisions at all. Clinical decisions are made | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
consistently in the best interests of the patient irrespective of what | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
data might be collected. Despite the many questions the | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
Starrs have about Samuel's operation and subsequent care, their biggest | :08:13. | :08:14. | |
concern is whether Samuel's death might have been prevented if there | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
weren't huge delays to his regular check`ups while he was alive. | :08:19. | :08:26. | |
Samuel's local hospital was the RUH in Bath where Bristol consultants | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
held outpatient clinics. Sam's condition meant that he was | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
supposed to have regular scans to make sure his condition didn't | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
suddenly worsen. Following successful surgery in 2010, his | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
heart was scanned. But that turned out to be the last scan he had for | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
some 20 months. So now we have got a child who in 21 | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
months has gone from a good heart function to a poor heart function. | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
Now, that has happened in that time, not because he had had bad care | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
within that time, but no care at all. | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
So how can a child with a serious heart condition essentially drop off | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
the system? There was some human error. The Starrs asked a community | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
nurse to ring for an appointment on their behalf. She rang five times | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
over as many months but failed to get an appointment. And Inside Out | :09:23. | :09:30. | |
has discovered that another key factor in these delays was a new | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
American IT system that was being installed to deal with appointments | :09:35. | :09:42. | |
at the RUH. Richard Bacon, MP, who's been asking questions about NHS IT | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
systems for years, says that its faults were well known. | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
There were problems with bookings being missed, because the data would | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
just drop off the system. When you have got things like waiting lists | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
which you have in the NHS ` which are largely unknown in the United | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
States ` making a system deal with waiting lists when it is not | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
designed to deal with waiting lists causes its own big set of problems. | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
And minutes of board meetings at the RUH a year before Sam's death show | :10:12. | :10:14. | |
the hospital was fully aware of the problems with their new computer | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
system. "There were significant issues | :10:20. | :10:21. | |
with?data that had not been migrated. This affected?long term | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
follow up appointments." What do you think now you know that this was a | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
recognized problem a year before Samuel's death? | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
I am absolutely disgusted that it was recognized but no or limited | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
action was taken on it. What should they have done? | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
Reverted back to the old system while they got the new system up and | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
running so that these problems didn't occur. How can you rely on a | :10:51. | :10:59. | |
new system if it doesn't work? In a review of Samuel's death, | :11:00. | :11:01. | |
Bristol Children's Hospital concluded that these delays might | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
have played a part. But were other patients affected by these delays | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
too? We asked the RUH in Bath how many appointments were overdue or | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
delayed because of the computer system and they told us there were | :11:17. | :11:19. | |
63 overdue appointments, with some delays are up to two years before | :11:20. | :11:33. | |
they were discovered. It's very, very serious and the | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
nature of this is that you are dealing with people's lives and it | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
is absolutely essential that if you are going to be using computer | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
systems that you have computer systems that work. | :11:44. | :11:45. | |
The RUH declined to answer any specific questions about their | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
computer system, saying in a statement: "The Coroner's inquest | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
will be held very soon and we hope that this will provide both Samuel's | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
family and everyone involved in his care, with a clearer indication of | :11:57. | :11:58. | |
the circumstances surrounding his death." What the inquest won't be | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
getting to the bottom of is whether any of the other delays involving | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
children with cardiac problems at the RUH might also have affected | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
their care. Despite not knowing all the | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
circumstances behind their son's death, the Starrs have at least some | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
of their questions answered. But other families have been less | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
fortunate. In April 2012 Daniel and Debbie | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
Janew from Gloucester were the proud parents of a baby girl called | :12:30. | :12:36. | |
Isabella. She was also born with a heart defect that needed corrective | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
surgery to give her a better life. We took her down the theatre. | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
Isabella sat her on Debbie's lap, the gas was applied and she fell | :12:45. | :12:55. | |
asleep. We went back up to ward 32 and we waited and we were expecting | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
to be told soon that we were to have her back and take her home after a | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
few hours, maybe. Shortly after thinking that, nurses ran into the | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
room and told us that they'd started the procedure, it hadn't been | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
completed fully because during some parts of the procedure, Isabella's | :13:10. | :13:22. | |
heart went into arrest. Later that day Isabella sadly died. | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
But what caused her to suddenly crash during surgery? The reality is | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
that the Janews simply don't know because they say Bristol Children's | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
Hospital didn't talk to them for five months or offer to let them see | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
an investigation into their daughter's death. | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
I was asked if I could comment on the child death review when it was | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
in draft stage, just to verify any of the facts as we understood them, | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
I was told that this was not possible. I was asked if I could | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
have a copy of the child death review for our own daughter and was | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
told I would not be allowed to get this. | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
Last November, following the scandal of hundreds of unnecessary deaths at | :14:05. | :14:06. | |
Mid Staffordshire Hospital, the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
that the public will see a new culture of openness in the NHS. | :14:11. | :14:19. | |
"From 2014, every organisation registered with the CQC will have a | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
statutory duty of candour. Patients must be told promptly about any | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
avoidable harm but there will be a statutory requirement for the | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
hospital to notify when there has been an avoidable death or serious | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
injury." But what do the Janews think of this promise? | :14:33. | :14:51. | |
We showed them the speech. What do you think of it of that? So, our | :14:52. | :15:00. | |
experiences in the four months after Isabella died doesn't really follow | :15:01. | :15:11. | |
an openness policy by the hospital. We have sent many emails to the | :15:12. | :15:20. | |
hospital and we've had no reply And it seems as if, following the four | :15:21. | :15:23. | |
months after Isabella's death, we have had nothing but obstacles and | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
hurdles that the Trust has put in our way to obtaining the truth. | :15:27. | :15:35. | |
Well, it's part of this culture of honesty and openness which has | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
failed to pervade the NHS. We have people at the top telling us very | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
clearly that the NHS has changed, the culture is now one of | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
transparency and openness. This is not what we are seeing in Bristol ` | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
perhaps the message has not got to Bristol. Perhaps someone needs to | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
come down and explain to them what openness and transparency are. | :15:57. | :16:02. | |
We also showed Jeremy Hunt's speech to Bristol's medical director. From | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
2014 every organisation registered with the CQC will have a statutory | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
duty of candour." Is that something you think you have been doing? | :16:13. | :16:23. | |
Yes. We want to be even better at it. We know now we've made changes | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
to some of our policies and procedures to make sure that it s | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
built into what we do. But parents like the Janews say that | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
the trust has just, in the last few weeks, started to have a fuller | :16:37. | :16:38. | |
dialogue with them, with what happened there. This is several | :16:39. | :16:41. | |
months after their bereavement. Well, I know that we did make | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
contact with those parents immediately after their bereavement, | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
we have made several contacts. But they said they were told that | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
you were not prepared to let them see their child death review, they | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
could only see a summary of it. I don't know about that, I am not | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
aware of that. Can you understand why families like | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
the Janews feel that when they are being told that they can't see the | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
full child death review, they automatically feel there is some | :17:11. | :17:12. | |
kind of cover`up going on? If that is what they were told, then | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
I can understand why they must feel that. As I have said, one thing we | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
want to learn from the review is how we improve the ways in which we | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
communicate with patients so they understand what is going on. We | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
know, we get a lot of feedback from parents, and we know that 98% of | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
parents measured over an entire year have said to us that their care is | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
excellent, very good or good. Can you just sum up your thoughts | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
where we are now as a unit in term of safety and care for patients | :17:45. | :17:52. | |
I think primarily, fundamentally, it is important to recognise that | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
Bristol is a safe unit. Since I started investigating this | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
story, parents, including the Starrs and the Janews, met the NHS's | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
medical director Sir Bruce Keogh to talk about their concerns. | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
Immediately after the meeting, he announced an independent review | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
We've heard some very harrowing stories in a very dignified way | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
What I'm really after is getting to the bottom of these problems, | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
finding a solution and getting the Bristol unit to be the best in the | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
country as quickly as possible. Next week the inquest into the death | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
of Samuel Starr begins ` it will try to get to the bottom of what | :18:32. | :18:34. | |
happened. It will again bring care at Bristol and the RUH into the | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
Spotlight. The government is now deciding which | :18:41. | :18:43. | |
heart surgery units in England should close, and with Bristol in | :18:44. | :18:46. | |
the firing line, many patients here in the West are still waiting to be | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
convinced that this region's service is as good as it can be and | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
hospitals are being open about problems they face. | :18:54. | :19:03. | |
In our final film tonight we're looking back at a once vital ` but | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
now largely forgotten ` arable crop. Flax went into decline 400 years | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
ago. But in World War One it became essential for the production of | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
aircraft wings. I've been to meet a farmer in Gloucestershire who's | :19:20. | :19:37. | |
trying to bring it back again. This is not your ordinary boat. It | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
is made entirely out of this, flax. I will take to the water to find out | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
if it can float. But first, a bit more about the strange crop it is | :19:50. | :20:09. | |
made from. Simon, Hello ` so this is your crop of flax? Yes, over this | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
half an acre. Simon, what made you decide to start farming flax? | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
Curiosity ` we thought we'd find out why, or why not. It has been grown | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
for thousands of years but not in the last few hundred. Simon is | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
particularly keen to find new uses for flax fibres ` but he's learning | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
by farming it the traditional way ` and that means doing things by hand. | :20:32. | :20:39. | |
What you do is grasp the handfuls... Pull it and give it a shake to get | :20:40. | :20:47. | |
rid of the soil. When you have a handful, let it out. | :20:48. | :20:55. | |
Once pulled, the crop is laid out in the field to allow moisture from the | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
ground to dissolve the tough outer stalks so we can get to the | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
all`important fibres within. You've got to get it just rotten enough but | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
not too rotten otherwise it spoils. Fields of flax are a very rare sight | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
in Britain today but for many years it was an important crop. The | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
ancient Egyptians farmed it to make their famous linen. In fact there is | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
evidence that it was grown in the country of Georgia as early as | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
30,000 BC. In Britain it was a popular crop for clothes and other | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
products until relatively recently. To learn about its decline I'm | :21:35. | :21:42. | |
joined by an agricultural historian. John, I know that for centuries even | :21:43. | :21:45. | |
millennia, fields of flax were a very common sight in this country ` | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
what happened ` why did it disappear?" In a word, cotton. With | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
the expansion of cotton production in America, it undermines flax as a | :21:57. | :22:03. | |
viable source of fibre. So it was cheaper to bring cotton in from | :22:04. | :22:06. | |
America than grow flax in this country? Considerably cheaper. | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
And I guess the use of slave labour in places we bought cotton from | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
played a part in keeping it cheaper to use cotton. | :22:18. | :22:19. | |
Despite a long`term decline, the outbreak of World War One saw demand | :22:20. | :22:27. | |
And with their men away on the front line, the country turned to its land | :22:28. | :22:33. | |
girls to do the hard work, as one landgirl Winifried Sandford later | :22:34. | :22:35. | |
explained. We were taken to and from the fields | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
in lorries, a jolly ride bumping over the country roads, standing up | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
and holding on. Flax must be pulled by hand, not by machines, we were | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
told. We were a welcome amusement for the folk who lived around and in | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
Yeovil. They came in hundreds to see girls in breeches, living in tents, | :22:51. | :22:53. | |
girls who were helping to make those aeroplanes that zoomed low over the | :22:54. | :23:02. | |
fields of Somerset. Back on the farm I'm finding out | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
what's happening next to the flax we've harvested, with Simon's wife | :23:07. | :23:17. | |
Ann. This has been dried out for several months and stored away until | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
we're ready to use it. We will break it. Right, let's do it. | :23:25. | :23:32. | |
To break the stalks we're using a homemade hand`roller based on | :23:33. | :23:43. | |
designs from the late`1700s. Next comes a process called | :23:44. | :23:50. | |
scutching. This is the process. As you can see it flies everywhere and | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
you get lots of small piece of small fibre coming off. Once upon a time | :23:55. | :24:02. | |
every worker in the village would have had their own personalised | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
scutching knife. People spend a lot of time on their names. They would | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
decorate and paint them and give them to their loved ones. | :24:13. | :24:15. | |
So you knew you were really loved if you go a scutching knife for | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
Christmas. Exactly. This is your own design? | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
Obviously I'm not loved. To scrape away the last dusty shives | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
of stalk the fibres are pulled through a set of hackling combs ` | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
ready for spinning into yarn. You are going onto the next ones, that | :24:37. | :24:44. | |
looking good. All the time you are getting rid of the fibres, you're | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
separating the fibres. I can feel it getting softer. I started with | :24:49. | :24:50. | |
rather more... I'm not sure I've been very efficient here. It is | :24:51. | :24:58. | |
lovely. It is very fine. You are just being nice. | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
Fibres vary in length. They are drawn by hand over to a series of | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
metal spikes... With World War Two looming the | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
country again found itself in need of flax. By now the crop was being | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
imported, but the threat of war cut off supply. | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
In 1938 flax imports from Russia virtually ceased ` governments | :25:23. | :25:24. | |
increased production with increased in acreage. Farmers were encouraged | :25:25. | :25:38. | |
to plant it. Labour is released to enable activities like weeding and | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
harvesting in the autumn to be successfully undertaken. First boy | :25:45. | :25:53. | |
takes pieces from the bundle and passes them the machine. You can see | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
this steady rise and fall of the flyers as they went the yarn onto | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
the bobbins. Back with Ann and we're spinning our | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
flax fibres into yarn the old fashioned way. | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
And then finally the yarn is woven into cloth. | :26:12. | :26:23. | |
So that's it. I've been through every step to get from this to this | :26:24. | :26:30. | |
and it's only taken ` well, all day. Despite being part of life in | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
Britain for thousands of years, the farming, processing and weaving of | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
flax has all but vanished. So is there any chance of a revival? | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
Is there any future for flax in this country? The future is quite bright | :26:46. | :26:53. | |
if we successfully mechanise the task of harvesting and if we develop | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
machines to harvest mechanically. That is intentional for further | :26:57. | :27:07. | |
expansion. Simon also thinks flax has a future: as an alternative to | :27:08. | :27:09. | |
man`made fibres. New uses are in composites. It has | :27:10. | :27:18. | |
natural variability in it and it has flexibility. There is a great deal | :27:19. | :27:26. | |
of research in this country as well into plant fibes. | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
To prove his point Simon has developed a canoe made out of woven | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
flax fabric, waterproofed with flax resin. So, you reckon it floats | :27:34. | :27:39. | |
Yes. Well the only way to find out is to put it in the water. | :27:40. | :27:48. | |
From linen bed`sheets to aircraft wings and Canadian canoes, there's | :27:49. | :27:54. | |
no doubt Flax has its uses. And who knows, the idea of a locally`grown | :27:55. | :28:09. | |
boat might actually catch on. And BBC local radio will be | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
unearthing many of the forgotten stories of WW1 and its impact here | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
at home. You can catch these at 8.15 every morning this week. | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
Well that's just about it for this week but if you'd like to keep in | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
touch with what we're up to then you can find us on Twitter. Or you can | :28:30. | :28:32. | |
email us: [email protected] But from all of us here in Bristol | :28:33. | :28:42. | |
thanks for watching and goodnight. Next week ` we're in Romania on the | :28:43. | :28:55. | |
trail of the fake bomb detectors. You are crazy people. What is this | :28:56. | :28:56. | |
BBC? Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your | :28:57. | :29:10. | |
90 second update. Two women and four dogs have been found shot dead at a | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
house in Farnham. An 82-year-old dog breeder has been arrested on | :29:15. | :29:17. | |
suspicion of murder. He's been named locally as John Lowe. | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
Dave Lee Travis is to face a re-trial over two charges of | :29:22. | :29:24. | |
indecent assault and sexual assault. The former Radio One DJ was cleared | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
of 12 other offences earlier this month. He said his "nightmare goes | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
on". They call it a living hell. These | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
are the faces of men, women and children desperate for food. More | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
than 20,000 are trapped in a bombed-out area in Syria. Just 0 | :29:39. | :29:41. | |
packets of food made it in today. We've a special report at Ten. | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
Just where is Ukraine's former President? He's on the run after the | :29:47. | :29:49. | |
crisis there. An arrest warrant s out for Viktor Yanukovych. He's | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
wanted for mass murder. Was he just too British for American | :29:55. | :29:57. | |
tastes? CNN is axing Piers Morgan's primetime chat show. The programme | :29:58. | :30:01. | |
Hello, I'm Sabet Choudhury. Teacher Jake Thompson died of head injuries | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
after being hit by a 13.5 tonne truck. Lorry driver Paul Vowles is | :30:06. | :30:08. | |
alleged to have driven through changing traffic lights. He denies | :30:09. | :30:11. | |
causing death by careless driving. | :30:12. | :30:12. |