Rural Crafts Flog It! Travels Around Britain

Flog It has taken me to all corners of the British Isles, and I've met

some wonderful people and done all sorts of interesting things.

Over the years, I've really enjoyed getting my hands dirty,

learning about different traditional rural industries.

I've loved meeting the men and women who are keeping little bits of our heritage very much alive.

Coming up in the programme, I break my back dry stone walling

and I meet someone who might have the best office view I can imagine.

Firstly, when Flog It visited Shropshire, I took a trip to the countryside

to meet a man who gives a whole new definition to landscape gardening.

This part of Britain is very strong in rural heritage and hundreds of

people still work on the land, keeping that tradition alive.

Here in Bridgnorth in Shropshire they're repairing the hedges.

It's an art form which has survived centuries.

Up until the invention of wire, it was the most economical

and practical way of retaining livestock in a field.

Of course, like all rural crafts, the skill of hedge laying is an art form

and Carl has been doing for it years.

And he's going to tell me all about it.

Hi, Carl. Are you all right there?

-Morning. Fine, thanks.

-You're doing a fantastic job. Look at that.

Obviously you're working in that direction?

You seem to be felling these blackthorn or hawthorn trees?

Yeah, mostly blackthorn, with the big spiny thorns on them.

-So you just lop them off..

-No, we don't touch the tops.

All the cutting's done at the base.

Are you cutting right through?

No, we're only going two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through.

There's enough bark and sap wood to keep feeding that tree.

Will this reshoot as well?

Yes, everywhere we've cut it and where I've cut a branch off, just like pruning your roses.

-Pruning a rose, exactly.

-You'll get new shoots coming up off here in the spring.

So you're rejuvenating the hedge.

And obviously making that a lot denser where you need it, so nothing can crawl through.

-No, thoroughly hedgehog-proof!

-So, why are you laying the hedge,

forcing it in one direction like that and not this way?

We're on a hillside here.

I've started at the top of the hill and worked my way down.

When you think about it, if you try bending a tree one way or the other,

if you lay them up towards the slope you've not got to bend it so far,

so you're not putting so much stress on the wood you're bending.

So we always start at the top of the hill and then work our way back down,

laying the trees towards the top.

Yes. This is very labour intense, isn't it?

How long has this section here?

-That's about two days' work we're looking at there, about 30 metres of hedgerow.

-Gosh.

Well, you think it's slow, yeah? I mean, it's a bit of an old hedge.

You get a nice young hedge

and you might be doing that in one day, 30 or 40 metres in a day.

How do you keep it stable? I've noticed you've got some poles through the middle.

Yes. The blackthorn does cling together very well but we put stakes in as well.

In fact, we're about ready for another one now.

These are hazel.

Cut from a local woodland.

We've got ash as well. Put a point on the end.

We just drop that in,

lean it back at a slight angle against the trees that we've laid.

And then just drive that in a few inches.

-It's as simple as that?

-Yeah.

It must be very rewarding.

-It is very satisfying.

-You must stand back...

You're actually drawing a line on the landscape yourself. You're part of it.

Gosh, look at these!

They look like lethal weapons.

I'm going to get Carl to tell me all about them. Carl!

I think they date from the 19th century. They're quite early.

Why do they vary in shape and size and what are they called?

Regional variations on a theme, really.

This large one I work with every day, that's known as a Yorkshire billhook.

This is a Bristol.

That's a Norfolk. That's a Leicester.

Small one on the end is a Stafford.

It's a story of evolution.

Local craftsmen working with local blacksmiths initially, asking,

"Can I have a bit more of a hook on this one, or a little notch on the top of one?"

The Yorkshire one looks like you'd get a bit more welly on the job.

Exactly, it's got a bit more weight to it. It's almost like having a small axe.

In Flog It tradition, I've got to have a little go.

Which billhook can I borrow, please?

I suggest the one on the end.

Carl's looking really worried!

Keeps you fit.

I've got it.

You certainly warm up quickly.

There, that's my bit done.

The beautiful thing about hedge laying is effectively,

you're creating a living fence, which has huge benefits.

It's a way of managing the trees, it provides a microclimate for new

shoots to grow and a habitat for birds and other wildlife to live in.

It's so environmentally friendly.

The only downside is, it takes two days to do 15 to 20 metres and it is hard work.

And on wintry days like this, it's very important to keep another tradition alive and kicking,

and that's the art of brewing up tea.

Oh, thank you, Carl, that's good timing!

Hedge laying isn't the only way of enclosing the land.

In some parts of Britain,

it's stone that's proved the better raw material.

In the Pennines, dry stone walls are used to manage the land.

Dry stone walling isn't just of agricultural interest.

In a sense, it's living history.

It's a legacy to the movement towards the enclosure

of common farming land and grazing land,

as English society moved out of feudalism.

As individual land owners abandoned arable farming in favour of raising sheep and cattle,

these dry stone walls were used to enclose parcels of land.

They may look simple, but they're made with nothing but stone and the skill of the builder.

Now, there's something quite comfortably reassuring about

the skills and techniques used in building these walls because they've stayed the same for centuries.

I've come to meet Chris Wake who's keeping this wonderful tradition very much alive.

-He's here somewhere. Hello!

-Hello.

This is a stunning project. What is it, what are you working on?

This particular project's for a local lady who has the guesthouse down there.

She's decided she wants it all rewalling.

I presume just to make it more pleasant on the eye looking out of the house.

-What do you think this was?

-I think it was probably a herb garden

or maybe something for agriculture, for little animals.

Maintaining livestock.

-So when does it date back to?

-Probably a couple of hundred years ago.

-How did you get into it?

I first started doing this when I was about 12, working on a local farm.

So you're looking about 20, 25 years now.

That's a long time. How many miles of wall do you think you've built?

-I wouldn't like to say!

-I bet it's a lot.

-I wouldn't like to say.

Probably from here, right round the Dales!

I must say, the base is a lot wider than you think it would be.

I'm just going to sit on your string line.

Do you use this principle the same as the modern day bricklayer?

It keeps the wall straight and also you can find a course height?

Yeah, that's what it's there for. It keeps it straight.

As you're going up, it tapers it in a bit so it doesn't fall over.

-Is that why you need an A-frame like that?

-Yep.

-So it just tapers into the right part?

-Yep. At the top,

it's narrow enough to put your top stones on.

Look at the size of these stones at the bottom.

That's back-breaking!

It's certainly hard work and especially if you get three this size

all the time, and you wall it across the joint like this.

-Always across the joint?

-Always. You have two stones on top of one.

If possible, always try and get your stones lengthways in,

so they have more hold into the middle of the wall.

End in, end out, that's how the saying is.

It looks like they're chopped into fashion and there's no cutting?

-There's nothing?

-Not with this job.

It's all natural stone. There's a little hammering but not a lot.

This section looks fantastic. You've obviously worked on this.

Do you have to pull all of this down just to start again, or will you repair on top of what's left?

No, it'll all come back down, it'll all be renewed.

Chris, I've got to have a go.

I've got to lay a few foundation stones here in this wall,

-put my mark on Yorkshire.

-Feel free!

-You've got the hang of it.

-I've got the hang of it -

I shied off the really big one!

Backache, now!

I tell you what, I'm pleased with that.

I think we've done quite well in such a short space of time.

We've gone up a couple of courses and it looks great.

Thatched cottages are an integral part of the British rural landscape

and maintaining these buildings

is a traditional craft that dates back centuries.

As long as people continue to live in these cottages, we're going to need thatchers.

Thatched buildings date back 1,000s of years and it's generally agreed

in this country from, let's say, the Neolithic period

through to the late medieval times, that most buildings were thatched.

That's mainly due to the local resources being plentiful and affordable.

Until the 17th century, thatch was the most widespread form of roofing in Britain, but the wider

availability of other materials, such as slate, meant a decline in thatching in the late 18th century.

But thankfully the industry didn't decline completely and work still continues today

at a steady pace for the 900 or so thatchers still working in Britain.

One of those chaps who's keeping the tradition alive for future generations to appreciate

here in Somerset is Master Thatcher, Lee Roadhouse. Pleased to meet you.

How did you get into thatching?

It's something I've been always fascinated by.

I've always enjoyed the simpler elements of life, so to speak.

I actually started spar making, which is these, when I was about 13.

-And then started going on holidays...

-What are they for?

These are the hazel pegs you can fix the roof on with.

-You tend to twist them up and that becomes a peg.

-It's like a cleat.

Yeah, it holds it all on.

And I progressed from there.

Carried on in school holidays and then just went on as I left school.

This must bring back some memories.

My notes tell me when you were an apprentice, you actually worked on this very cottage we're working on.

Yeah, that was about 18, 19 years ago.

Can you see remnants of your past work here?

Yeah, it's funny. When you look around, nothing else has changed

and that's part of the fascination with this.

It's such a simple process, yet so effective, and you're not baffled with science and it works.

-It's quite labour intense?

-Very labour intensive.

You do know when you've done a day's work.

Keeps you fit!

Right. So we're up here. This would be the average size armful and all the ears have to face upwards?

Get all your reed facing the same way.

You sort of literally pitch it down. That's basically squaring all the reeds so it's all down to the bottom.

And cleaned out.

You open out the reeds, make sure there is no cross-eyed reeds in there.

Put it into place, and literally you, sort of,

put it back into place with your hand, just roughly.

I mean, you've just gauged an armful, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-That is incredibly neat. That's right to the right level.

A lot of your work is obviously all by eye?

Yeah, what you actually do is try to keep a nice pitch on your reed.

-An imaginary line from the eave to the ridge and just work to that.

-These lines are very severe.

I can look right across and that is dead straight.

Looking down there, that is such a beautiful angle.

It is literally putting a line back in the right angle, to follow the line of the roof.

Then you drive it back into nearly the finished position.

-With a what?

-This is what we call a leggit.

Just use it like a bat just to drive it back.

Then that's in place. Then you fix it in to go on through to the rafters.

What a view!

Yeah, what more could you want?

-You lucky chap.

-Up here working away.

Not bothered by anybody.

Just about earning enough to put a bit of cheese on the table.

This is so therapeutic. You can almost imagine yourself in medieval England up here.

Things just don't change. It's just lovely, isn't it?

We're joined by the geese down there, a few dogs and some cats on the farm.

-Ever fallen off?

-Me? Not yet.

It's been fascinating stepping back in time and seeing how many

of our traditional rural crafts are not just being kept alive but are still flourishing.

And what's more, I've loved helping out along the way.

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