1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,760 Between the wars, a Bradshaw's was an essential guide 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:07,320 during a golden age of rail travel, 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,680 when glamourous locomotives travelled at world record speed. 4 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:13,760 I'm using a 1930s edition 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,240 to explore a discernibly modern era of mass consumption... 6 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:19,680 Bravo! 7 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,000 ..when Art Deco cinemas and dancehalls entertained millions, 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,880 while industrial Britain was thrown into unemployment and poverty 9 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,160 and storm clouds gathered across the Channel. 10 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:00,200 My journey will shortly bring me into East Anglia, 11 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,600 whose attractiveness, says Bradshaw's, 12 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:03,800 needs no emphasis, 13 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:05,160 seeing that the charms 14 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:06,920 of its resorts entertain 15 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,680 a much larger proportion of the nation 16 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:12,040 than any other coast in Britain. 17 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,600 On this part of my journey, I shall investigate a group 18 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,080 that came not as holiday makers, 19 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:19,920 but as refugees, 20 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,280 whose history is intertwined with that of my family. 21 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:30,920 I'm exploring the east of England. 22 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:35,040 I started in Kent and visited the suburbs and Docklands of London. 23 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:39,240 I'll continue my journey visiting the towns and cities of East Anglia, 24 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:41,200 and finish in Lincolnshire. 25 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,000 On this leg, I'll visit Witham, in Essex, 26 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,240 before heading into Suffolk, 27 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:53,880 bound for the county town of Ipswich. 28 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:55,680 Continuing towards the coast, 29 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,800 I'll make a stop at Newbourne, and I'll finish at Felixstowe. 30 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:03,120 On my trip, I'll learn 31 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,760 how a rural resettlement helped unemployed families... 32 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:08,840 It was great for us kids. 33 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,400 We'd died and gone to heaven. 34 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,400 Why? It was so much land, there was so much freedom. 35 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:19,160 ..hear of the heights scaled by patriotic women... 36 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:22,440 Did those women give you the impression that, 37 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,040 at the top of those towers, they were terrified? 38 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:27,160 That's not the impression you get at all. 39 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:28,760 ..and visit a country house 40 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,120 that received refugee children at a time of war. 41 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,280 We were saying goodbye to our mums. 42 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,200 And I still feel her tears on my cheek. 43 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,280 I'm arriving at Witham, in Essex. 44 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,600 The station is located on the Great Eastern Mainline 45 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,080 between Chelmsford and Colchester. 46 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,840 When this station footbridge was built, 47 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:03,640 the glass was held in place by metal frames, 48 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:04,800 and it was valued 49 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,360 because it was durable 50 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,000 and it lent itself to mass production. 51 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,080 My interest is that it offers a window on house-building 52 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,120 at the time of my guidebook. 53 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:23,000 Witham is home to the oldest supplier of steel-framed glazing. 54 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:27,360 Crittall Windows was established 55 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:30,600 in 1849, by ironmonger Francis Henry Crittall. 56 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:33,880 By the time of my Bradshaw's, it was a successful business, 57 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:35,680 with three factories in Essex, 58 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,920 and a purpose-built village for its workers. 59 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,600 John Piatt is chairman of the company. 60 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:42,760 John, good to see you. 61 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,320 Good to see you, Michael. Welcome to Silver End. 62 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:46,760 Well, thank you very much. 63 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:48,400 What is Silver End? 64 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,360 Well, it's the original village that was built by Crittall 65 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,280 for Crittall workers between 1926 and 1932. 66 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,440 With what in mind? What were the principles of the village? 67 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:01,200 They were looking for employees. 68 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:03,120 And this was just a rural area. 69 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:05,560 And so they wanted to get more employees 70 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:07,800 and have a community situation. 71 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:10,400 And what does it consist of? 72 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,800 Well, it consists of around about 500 houses, 73 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:16,200 a department store, a village hall, 74 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:18,960 and all the amenities you want in a small village. 75 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:22,360 Now, I see that they obviously put metal windows in here, 76 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,240 but, more generally, what contribution 77 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,040 do metal-frame windows make to house building? 78 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:28,840 Well, post-First World War, 79 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:31,720 there was an enormous demand for housing stock. 80 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,040 The Government were pushing for more housing, 81 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:39,080 and it needed a lot of products to go with it. 82 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:42,440 Crittall had designed and developed a mass-produced product, 83 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:43,920 standard modular design, 84 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,920 which could be fitted into housing stock very easily. 85 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,000 So it was the only option to timber. 86 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,680 And it really took off. 87 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,960 In 1919, Parliament passed ambitious housing legislation 88 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:00,880 known as the Addison Act after its author, 89 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:03,640 Dr Christopher Addison, Minister for Health. 90 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,200 It made housing a national responsibility 91 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:10,880 and required local councils to provide accommodation where needed. 92 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:12,880 The Crittall Factory manufactured 93 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:17,760 the first standard cottage windows for those housing schemes. 94 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:20,240 Apart from the fact that they were mass produced, 95 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,040 what other advantages did this type of window offer? 96 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,360 Well, it had very slim sightlines 97 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,520 compared with the conventional timber window. 98 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:31,640 So it allowed a lot more light 99 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,520 to come into the house or the building, 100 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,760 which was a big, big advantage. 101 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,400 By the time of my guidebook, metal-framed windows featured 102 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:46,160 in the Art Deco and modernist houses of middle class suburbia. 103 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,440 During the 1930s, private house builders 104 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,360 constructed nearly four million new homes 105 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,320 in a boom matched only by the high rises 106 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:56,360 of the late 1960s and 1970s. 107 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:02,120 Today, metal-framed windows are fashionable once again. 108 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,960 I'm heading to the factory to see them in production. 109 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,800 The galvanised steel frames must be straightened 110 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:23,440 before they're painted. 111 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,080 Chris Dunn will give me a lesson in window bashing. 112 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,360 I'm Michael. Hi, Michael. 113 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,800 Does this one need straightening, Chris? Yes. 114 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,200 Can you see the bow in that? 115 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:39,320 Err, I think I do. So it appears to be going in a bit like that. 116 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:41,600 Exactly. You take it round here. 117 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,960 And we'll give it a straighten with a hammer. 118 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:46,200 After all these years of technological development, 119 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:47,280 the answer is a hammer? 120 00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:48,440 Yeah. A hammer. 121 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,720 Can I help you with that? Yeah, you sure can. 122 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:52,320 Right. 123 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:53,760 So what do I have to do now? 124 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:55,560 Well, hit it with three marks. 125 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:57,720 One hit here, one there and one there. 126 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,440 With what sort of force? Quite a bit. 127 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:02,480 Quite a bit. Here goes. 128 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:09,960 Too much force or not enough force? 129 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:11,760 None at all. None at all. 130 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:16,720 No, a bit more. No? 131 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:20,560 Give it some more. 132 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,080 GROANS 133 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:23,960 Afraid it ain't going to do anything. 134 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:25,000 GROANS 135 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:26,040 You show me, then. 136 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:36,600 Yeah, that's done it. Is that it? 137 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:39,400 Yeah, look. If you look down that bar, it's the one I hit. 138 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,440 Bish, bash, bosh, eh? 139 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:44,640 Very good. 140 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,520 And you go on bashing. Thank you very much. 141 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:47,560 Thank you. 142 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,840 From Witham, I'm continuing my journey into the county of Suffolk 143 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:02,680 to explore my family history. 144 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:04,480 At the time of this Bradshaw's, 145 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:07,400 Britain was gripped by the civil war in Spain. 146 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:13,400 When a small town in the Basque country in northern Spain, Guernica, 147 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:16,200 or Guer-NI-ca, was bombed flat, 148 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:18,320 the British Government agreed 149 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,560 to admit 4,000 unaccompanied refugee children 150 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:23,680 who crammed onto a single ship. 151 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:28,080 Some of them ended up near the University of Oxford, 152 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,000 where my mother was reading Spanish. 153 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,560 She befriended the children. 154 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:36,400 And when, at the end of the Civil War, 155 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,920 a newly arrived refugee academic turned up to help, 156 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:43,120 she fell in love. 157 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:47,400 Without the Basque children, my parents would never have met. 158 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:55,640 In May 1937, the steamship Habana, 159 00:08:55,640 --> 00:09:00,240 carrying the 4,000 children, docked at Southampton. 160 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:02,000 To begin with, the refugees were housed 161 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,160 in a temporary camp near Eastleigh. 162 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:10,840 The following month, 100 of them arrived at Ipswich station. 163 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,320 They were taken to Wherstead Park, 164 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:17,160 just south of the town, near the River Orwell. 165 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,800 Today, it's a conference and wedding venue. 166 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,080 Meeting me there is Dr Ed Packard, 167 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,720 a history lecturer at the University of Suffolk. 168 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:31,240 Ed, nearly 4,000 Basque refugee children in a field 169 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:33,200 in Eastleigh, near Southampton. 170 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:34,680 What is to be done with them? 171 00:09:34,680 --> 00:09:35,720 Well, the important thing 172 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,680 was to get them out of the field as soon as possible. 173 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:39,440 Conditions were getting quite unsanitary. 174 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,120 And the Basque government had said when you disperse the children 175 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:44,160 around Britain into what were called colonies, 176 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,080 it was important to keep them in groups. 177 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:48,120 With regard to why they came here, 178 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,720 this was mainly the work of two young women in Ipswich, 179 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:53,040 Chloe and Poppy Vulliamy, two sisters. 180 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:55,920 They were very passionate supporters of the Spanish Republic. 181 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:57,600 They wrote letters to the local press, 182 00:09:57,600 --> 00:09:59,480 saying these children are going to come here, 183 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:01,040 they're going to need places to stay. 184 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,160 And in response to their campaign, 185 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,240 the gentleman who owned this building, Wherstead Mansion, 186 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:07,480 a man called Stuart Paul, 187 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:12,520 offered the use of this Georgian mansion for free to the sisters. 188 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:16,040 The British Government adopted a policy of non-intervention 189 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,200 during the Spanish Civil War. 190 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,800 It reluctantly agreed to accept the children, 191 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,400 but refused to support them financially. 192 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:28,320 Local committees organised bedding and food, 193 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:30,840 but they also had to guarantee to raise, privately, 194 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:35,800 ten shillings per child per week to cover its care and education. 195 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:38,080 That would be around £30 today. 196 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:44,360 When agreement was made to bring the children over here, 197 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:46,760 it very much relied on a humanitarian message, 198 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:48,520 rather than a political message. 199 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:50,240 So the Basque children were very much framed 200 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,560 as a non-party and a non-sectarian cause, 201 00:10:53,560 --> 00:10:55,160 and so the committees that were formed 202 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:56,480 tended to kind of reflect that. 203 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:58,720 What sort of connection did the children make 204 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,080 with the Ipswich community while they were here? 205 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,440 While they were at Wherstead, they made a very solid connection. 206 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:06,000 Because they were quite close, they often went into Ipswich, er, 207 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,480 to go shopping, or to just look around, or to go to the cinema. 208 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:12,640 There's plenty of newspaper accounts of interactions with the children, 209 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:14,600 whether playing football, erm, you know, 210 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:16,520 they didn't have a common language, 211 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:19,000 but, of course, they could, er, share a common game. 212 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,160 Obviously, I have a great interest in this subject, 213 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:25,440 but it's much less well known than, say, the Kindertransport, 214 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:27,320 the rescue of Jewish children from the Nazis. 215 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:29,240 Do you think it deserves to be better known? 216 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:30,960 The question of refugees has not gone away. 217 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:34,200 If anything, it's got more urgent in the 21st century, 218 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,840 and so these events of 80 years ago are really important, 219 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:40,360 because they force us to reflect on what actually the local 220 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:41,800 and the regional can do, 221 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,440 and I think that's the key legacy of the Basque children. 222 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:45,840 After the fall of Bilbao, 223 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:49,120 and General Franco's capture of the rest of northern Spain 224 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:51,800 in the summer of 1937, the bombing of the Basque country ceased, 225 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:56,040 and Franco sought the children's repatriation. 226 00:11:56,040 --> 00:12:01,160 By September 1939, all but 450 had been returned. 227 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:03,240 Paco. Que introduccion. 228 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:04,960 Hombre, hola. Hola. 229 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:06,560 Buenas tardes. Carmen. 230 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:08,240 But some never went back, 231 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,320 and I'm privileged to be meeting Paco Francisco Robles, 232 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:12,880 along with Carmen Kilmer, 233 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,960 from the Association for the UK Basque Children. 234 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:18,800 Paco, 235 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:23,120 do you remember going down to the ship in Bilbao? 236 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:24,640 Very much. 237 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:28,800 I remember that we went by tram, er, to Santutzi. 238 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,960 And I remember the, er, Guardia de Asalto, 239 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:37,680 the soldiers that helped us to get into the ship, 240 00:12:37,680 --> 00:12:40,680 and I heard the women, all the mothers there, 241 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:45,360 crying their eyes out, and we were saying goodbye to our mums, 242 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,400 and I still feel her tears on my cheek. 243 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,200 Carmen, what's your connection with the Basque children? 244 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:57,200 My mother was one of the young teachers, 245 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:02,960 one of 95 teachers that came over with the children. 246 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,280 Er, the British Government had said that the children could come, 247 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:09,520 but they had to be accompanied by responsible adults 248 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:11,560 who were not their parents. 249 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:15,120 My mother, who was 22 at the time, volunteered, 250 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:19,240 and she came with the children to, to England. 251 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:21,360 Tell me about your arrival here. 252 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,560 It was beautiful there. There was lots and lots of fields. 253 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:28,280 Do you have any memories of this room? 254 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:29,400 I remember this room. 255 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:34,240 It was my turn sometimes to, er, help scrub the floor here. 256 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:36,200 What was your routine here? 257 00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:40,680 Our routine was getting baths every day to scrub the scabies. 258 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:42,160 We all had scabies. 259 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:43,760 We got them from the camp. 260 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:47,400 At the end of the Spanish Civil War, why did you not go back? 261 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:50,440 I wrote to my mother and I said, "Would you like us to go back, 262 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:51,600 "my sister and I?" 263 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,640 She said, "Stay where you are. 264 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:56,840 "Your father's in prison, 265 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:00,920 "and he's been sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment." 266 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:02,800 He spent five years in different prisons. 267 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:04,680 She said, "You are better off where you are. 268 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:07,680 "You wouldn't like it here at the moment." 269 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:12,000 Paco was eventually sent to another refugee colony, near Oxford, 270 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,040 where he met my parents. 271 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:15,400 I remember your father. 272 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,480 This chap came over and helped us with our little luggage. 273 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:21,160 He brought us to the colony. 274 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:25,680 He told us exactly what we had to do, where to...our bedroom, 275 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,320 and introduced us to one of the teachers, 276 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,800 and there was a young lady that came over as well to help. 277 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:34,440 She was Scottish, I think. 278 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:37,080 Her name was Cora, and it turned out it was your mum. 279 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:39,720 I suppose they fell in love, the two of them. 280 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,920 Paco, amazing that you can remember so much, and so well. 281 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:44,680 Oh, there's a lot more to be remembered, 282 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:46,960 but there you are, we haven't got the time. 283 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:57,800 My mother fell in love with a penniless Spanish refugee 284 00:14:57,800 --> 00:14:59,280 from the civil war, 285 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,120 in the turmoil of the Basque children, 286 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,920 just as the Second World War was about to begin, 287 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,560 and now I meet a man who knew my parents at that time 288 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,640 before they married. 289 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:13,040 It's pretty moving. 290 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:30,240 A new day, and I'm visiting the village of Newbourne, 291 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:31,800 just outside Ipswich. 292 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:46,800 Bradshaw's tells me that one factor which makes East Anglia so popular 293 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,320 is that it lies within the area of Britain 294 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:51,520 subjected to the least rainfall, 295 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:57,080 whilst it enjoys more than its share of bright sunshine and bracing air. 296 00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:59,840 I'm interested in a group who'd come down from the north of England, 297 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,080 where it is allegedly wetter, 298 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,480 and the lungs now filling with bracing air 299 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,000 had, before that, ingested coal dust. 300 00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:14,720 Some of the children of the coal miners who'd moved to Newbourne 301 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:17,320 in the 1930s still live in the area. 302 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,320 Gentlemen, one of you, I think, originates in the north of England. 303 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,360 Which is that? That's me, yes, yep. 304 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:24,520 Tell me your story. 305 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,560 My name is John Hedley. 306 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,080 My father came down here in 1937. 307 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:35,640 Erm, he came down, there was no houses here at all, 308 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:36,760 and he came down. 309 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:41,680 He left his wife and us children in Newcastle for six months, 310 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:46,440 whilst he learnt how to farm, if you like. 311 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,480 Did he tell you, then, why he came down? 312 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,840 What was in his mind? 313 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:53,000 I think, erm, 314 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,960 I think you'll find that it was sheer frustration. 315 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,000 He was on the dole for about three years, 316 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,800 absolutely nothing in Newcastle, 317 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,600 and he came down and he liked it. 318 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:07,560 He'd done his six months' experience. 319 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,600 He passed that, and then he was given a house. 320 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:12,360 Was it a hard life or was it a good life? 321 00:17:12,360 --> 00:17:14,680 Easy. Great for us kids. 322 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,160 We'd died and gone to heaven. 323 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:19,360 Why? 324 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:23,560 Well, it was so much land, there was so much freedom, 325 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:25,480 there was so much food to eat, 326 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,640 you know, we had everything to eat, 327 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:31,360 chickens and geese and rabbits, 328 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:34,200 you name it, we ate it, you know. 329 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:36,040 Yeah, it was fun. We had fun. 330 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,160 To find out more about that relocation... 331 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:45,280 Hello, Lee! 332 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,960 ..I'm meeting author Lee Beltram, who also lived here as a child. 333 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,840 Welcome to Newbourne. Thank you very much. 334 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,800 Lee, the houses here have a distinctive architectural style. 335 00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:59,920 You're right, in fact, there were 50 houses like this 336 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:04,440 built on the Newbourne estate, erm, back in the late 1930s. 337 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,000 They were provided by the Land Settlement Association 338 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:14,800 to smallholders who had been brought in from mainly the north of England, 339 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:19,800 where there was terrible long-term unemployment with the closure of 340 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,680 coal mining and the depression among the shipbuilding industries. 341 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:27,480 Was the Land Settlement Association then a Government scheme? 342 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,360 The Government were fully supportive and the Government had been talking 343 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:34,920 to one or two voluntary organisations, such as the Carnegie 344 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:40,640 Trust, the Society of Friends, the British Legion, the Association 345 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,000 of Social Service, who had all been concerned about the effects 346 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,200 of long-term unemployment. 347 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,680 And they worked together with the Government to establish a scheme 348 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:54,080 whereby such men and, eventually, their families, once 349 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:58,320 they'd been trained, but such men could come and could learn the basic 350 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,240 principles of horticulture. 351 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,000 If the men were being made unemployed in the north of England 352 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,640 with their families, why move them so far from their homes to give them 353 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:09,720 a small holding? What was the thinking? 354 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:13,800 Well, the thinking was to give them the training that they needed 355 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:18,120 to develop skills and experience and knowledge themselves. 356 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:20,880 But it was particularly important for the children 357 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:21,920 and their education. 358 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:23,720 It would be better for them to be brought up 359 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:25,120 in a fresh environment too. 360 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,200 During the 1930s, the Land Settlement Association created 361 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:36,640 21 estates across England. Small holdings of approximately five 362 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:41,280 acres were set up to provide three main enterprises - horticulture, 363 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,880 poultry and pork. 364 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:49,000 By the outbreak of the Second World War, 1,728 men had been moved 365 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,920 to the estates as trainees, followed by their wives and children. 366 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:57,880 And were these people provided with a house or did they build it? 367 00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:58,920 Yes. 368 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,320 Well, in fact, they were provided with a house in that it was going to be theirs. 369 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,560 They didn't have to pay for it, but they did have to build it. 370 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:09,080 You can see, in the background, the swings, the foundations of 371 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,080 a glasshouse, or a greenhouse, as it was in those days. 372 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:13,120 There was a piggery. 373 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:16,680 And that's obviously had a lot of bits and pieces added to it. 374 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,480 But that is an original piggery, as it was. 375 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,920 And they were able to ultimately build up a business 376 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:28,000 and be self-supporting and obviously feed their families and feed 377 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:29,600 the country as well. 378 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,040 It's an interesting scheme, well intentioned, on the one hand, rather 379 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:35,080 paternalistic on the other. 380 00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:38,560 Did the subjects of this experiment stick it out? 381 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:44,040 I think the figure that is quoted is about 40%, certainly, in the early 382 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:48,760 days, decided it wasn't for them and they moved back to the north. 383 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:50,200 In spite of some failings, 384 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,480 it worked very, very well and succeeded in its original 385 00:20:54,480 --> 00:21:00,040 intention of providing a stepping stone to success in agriculture. 386 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:05,800 And many of the tenants were able to make a good living and were able 387 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:09,160 to provide for their families and to educate their children. 388 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,600 I've left Ipswich, bound for the Suffolk coast. 389 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,000 Situated at the mouth of the River Orwell, 390 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,960 Felixstowe is an east coast town which faces south 391 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,880 and thus enjoys a sheltered position. 392 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:39,200 The writer of my 1936 Bradshaw's Guide could have no idea 393 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:43,040 that close by, in a house that attracted no attention, 394 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:45,480 secret work was under way. 395 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:46,840 So important 396 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,760 that, when war came, it would save Britain from defeat. 397 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,120 The hideaway is just north of Felixstowe. 398 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:12,200 To get there, I must catch a boat from the village of Felixstowe Ferry 399 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,200 and cross the River Deben. 400 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:15,240 Hello, Charlie! 401 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:37,320 Bawdsey Manor was built in 1886 as a private residence for wealthy 402 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,720 stockbroker Sir Cuthbert Quilter. 403 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:46,560 But in 1936, as the threat of war loomed in Europe, it was sold 404 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:47,920 to the Air Ministry. 405 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,080 Dr Phil Judkins is an historian. 406 00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,680 What was the work that was begun here in 1936? 407 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,360 The development of radar into being an efficient 408 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:05,120 weapon of war. 409 00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:07,920 Tell me a little bit about Robert Watson-Watt. 410 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,280 Robert Watson-Watt was a Scot from Brechin. He had become the superintendent 411 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,200 of the radio research station at Slough. 412 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:19,440 Watson-Watt put forward the idea that locating incoming aircraft 413 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:24,680 by radio location was, in fact, a potential for winning any victory 414 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,280 over incoming bombers. 415 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:32,640 He had already conducted a series of experiments over the sea at nearby 416 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:37,560 Orford Ness and, in February 1936, Watson-Watt and his team of research 417 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:42,960 scientists moved into the manor. Living and working in secret, 418 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,680 they continued to develop his aerial defence system. 419 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,680 If I'd been here in 1936, and immediately after, 420 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,920 what installations might I have seen around here? 421 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,680 In the later 1930s, what you would have seen would have been a line 422 00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:03,360 of four enormous metal towers, some 360 feet high, towering 423 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:05,080 above this entire area. 424 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:09,560 And those were the transmitter towers from which the energy 425 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,840 generated by the transmitter in the block behind us was pushed out 426 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:15,720 over the North Sea. 427 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,920 And the reflections from that were received by a range of four 428 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:24,840 240-foot wooden towers further over in that direction and taken 429 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:29,320 to a receiver hut where the women operators of the WAAF were able 430 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:33,280 to identify the bearing, height and range of those aircraft. 431 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:40,920 On 24th September, 1937, just 18 months after the first experiments, 432 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,040 Bawdsey Manor became the first in a string of British coastal radar 433 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:50,200 stations codenamed Chain Home. When Britain declared war 434 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,480 on Germany in 1939, 435 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,560 the research scientists were moved to Scotland. Bawdsey continued 436 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,400 as a radar station and training centre for the RAF 437 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,880 and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. 438 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:08,200 Mary Wain has recently retired from chairing the Bawdsey Radar Trust. 439 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:11,800 Mary, what is your connection with Bawdsey Manor? 440 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:13,960 I was born here because my mother and father 441 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,720 were both radar operators, 442 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,880 I think. We're 100% certain my father was, but my mother 443 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:21,920 would never speak of it. 444 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,960 But she was in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force? 445 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:26,640 Yes, she was a WAAF. 446 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,200 And she joined up before the war. 447 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:32,080 And she came in November, drove here. 448 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,840 They turned the corner and their driver said, 449 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,000 "This is your billet, girls." 450 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,040 And she said, "We thought we'd gone to heaven." 451 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:43,480 Now I realise it was because my mother, who was a village girl, came 452 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:45,880 from the village school, left at 14, 453 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:52,800 she was mixing with people who knew about science and were doing 454 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,800 something really, really exciting and important. 455 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:02,680 In 1940, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was a crucial support 456 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:07,120 in the Battle of Britain, doing jobs normally carried out by men. 457 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:12,360 We had the fortune to interview two WAAFs, who were in the WAAF 458 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:16,360 in the early days, who spoke about climbing the towers. 459 00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:17,640 Climbing the towers? 460 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,640 Yes. They had to climb the towers, particularly the ones 461 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,680 that were mechanics, actually, rather than radar operators, 462 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:27,840 had to be able to guard the towers. 463 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,240 Did those women give you the impression that at the top 464 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,400 of those towers they were terrified? 465 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,920 That's not the impression you get at all. No. 466 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:36,800 And that's certainly one of the stories - 467 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:40,920 a woman was sent up to rescue a man who'd gone funny... 468 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:44,880 ..up the tower, to bring him down. 469 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,760 It's an amazing thought, isn't it? 470 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:02,760 In 1930s Britain, hope and fear competed. 471 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:09,400 For many, a home or even a car were within grasp for the first time. 472 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:14,880 But the dreadful aerial bombardment of men, women and children in Spain 473 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:20,640 was an omen, exposing the fragility of property and life. 474 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:25,280 The fear of bombs was a major reason for appeasing Hitler. 475 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:31,560 When the Blitz came to Britain, it was indeed ghastly, but the death 476 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,680 toll was less than had been predicted. 477 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,960 That was partly because the effectiveness of radar could not 478 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:40,280 have been foreseen. 479 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:51,520 Next time, I'll experience 1930s seaside kitsch... 480 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,160 Do we know why they hit on the Venetian theme? 481 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,520 I think it was typically Yarmouth. 482 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,320 ..put my heart and soul into shoemaking... 483 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,520 I think I might try a different tack. 484 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,800 ..and meet one of the luckiest lord mayors in England. 485 00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,040 Does your mind ever wonder for a moment to the splendour of the architecture? 486 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,640 Yes. And every time I walk into the building, quite frankly, 487 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,320 I have to pinch myself that I am sitting in that chair!