1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:09,400
I've been up a few chimneys in my
time, but I've never been up one with
as nice a surroundings as this one.

2
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:16,680
This week's look at the construction
skills that went into the Building of
Britain brings me north of the border

3
00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,200
to see a style
that is distinctively Scottish,

4
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:26,280
and to look at one of the most
important works of the Scottish
architect who changed all that.

5
00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:32,120
In fact, Robert Adam's style
of building was so distinctive,
it was named after him.

6
00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:50,880
BAGPIPES ARE PLAYED

7
00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:56,480
This is Glamis Castle, the childhood
home of the Queen Mother,

8
00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,720
the birthplace of the
late Princess Margaret,

9
00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:02,760
and the setting for Macbeth.

10
00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,560
It's also been a Royal residence
since the 14th century

11
00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:11,720
and is one of the best examples
of the Scottish baronial style
in existence.

12
00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,960
It's a style that was developed
in the 16th and 17th centuries,

13
00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:19,680
as much for visual effect
as for any practical need.

14
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:24,920
What it involved
was adding a whole lot
of magnificent decorative features

15
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,440
to existing clan castles.

16
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,160
The castle is a grand collection
of mediaeval architectural bits -

17
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:39,040
the beautiful, crenellated parapet
walls and the turrets and pinnacles
and finials and round chimney stacks.

18
00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,120
It's all quite wonderful
and fairytale-like.

19
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:47,680
600 years ago, Glamis started out
as a simple tower house

20
00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:51,160
and it didn't change very much
for another 200 years.

21
00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:55,800
Because the great sandstone tower
was too massive to demolish,

22
00:01:55,800 --> 00:02:00,560
they had to build all round it when
they wanted to extend the castle.

23
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:05,880
The first of the extensions and
improvements that transformed Glamis

24
00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:12,840
from the mediaeval castle
into a great house in the Scottish
baronial style were done in 1603,

25
00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:17,960
when the ninth Lord Glamis
was made an Earl by King James VI.

26
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:21,160
To match his new status,

27
00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,840
he wanted an HQ that looked a bit
more impressive than the old tower.

28
00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:31,840
He added two floors and an attic
and, of course, tucked in the corner

29
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,000
of the L-shape of the original tower
is the new staircase.

30
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,720
The Earl was his own architect
and, although there are no records,

31
00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:47,400
he probably employed masons of the
Aberdeen School, led by John Bell,
and what a magnificent job they did.

32
00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:54,760
The new staircase was added by
the first Earl on the grand scale.

33
00:02:54,760 --> 00:03:02,040
It's sort of 16 feet diameter
and magnificently illuminated by
the amount of windows that are in it.

34
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,280
And, of course, building it,

35
00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:10,160
they would have started off
with a circle, 16 feet diameter,
stuck on the foundation blocks

36
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,440
and then inserted the first tread,
you know.

37
00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:21,720
It's nice, how they're all radiused
on the inside so you don't get the
effect of great thick slabs of stone.

38
00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:24,360
As they were inserting these treads,

39
00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,440
they'd build the wall up WITH them
as they were coming up the steps,

40
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,360
but they've come to a part
where they couldn't reach,

41
00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:36,120
so they'd have put logs coming across
from these holes here, like this,

42
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:39,960
onto the centre - there's one there,
another one up there -

43
00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:44,480
what they could stand on, while
they got the outer wall higher up

44
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,120
to get the next set of treads on,
as you might say.

45
00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:52,000
Aye, it's quite a...
an interesting staircase.

46
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,440
I'm up here on the roof of the castle
amongst all the pinnacles and finials

47
00:03:56,440 --> 00:04:00,400
and beautiful iron railings
and flagpoles and what have you.

48
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,440
Now, the bit that interests me most
is the slated steeples.

49
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:11,680
Underneath the slates, there's
a lot of complex woodwork that's
beautifully tapered and rounded off.

50
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:16,200
If you had it re-slated today,
it'd be a fairly expensive job -

51
00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,200
it's a job for a good steeplejack.

52
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:25,320
This is a little drawing I've done of
one of the turrets on Glamis Castle -

53
00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:29,360
the basic construction
of the woodwork.

54
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:33,680
They must have used steeple-jacking
technology and great balks of timber

55
00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:37,800
pinned to the side
of the circular part of the turret

56
00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,240
and planks that they could stand on.

57
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:46,280
Once they'd got this circular wall
plate rested on top of the stonework,

58
00:04:46,280 --> 00:04:49,640
which would be
in maybe four or five pieces,

59
00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:54,560
they'd lift up these rafters at the
end of a rope - they're not heavy.

60
00:04:54,560 --> 00:05:00,800
You could actually hold one
in position while you nailed it
to the wall plate.

61
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:06,720
The slate laps, to get them to curve
around the fairly tight curve
as you're getting towards the top,

62
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,440
they would saw saw-cuts
in the back of it.

63
00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:15,880
It's what you get around maybe
a foot diameter, or thereabouts,
you know, fairly simple,

64
00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:19,800
and then the slates would be
nailed on in the usual manner.

65
00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:25,440
At the bottom, where they're
seven or eight inches wide,
they'd have two nails,

66
00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:29,080
and as you went up progressively,
as the things get smaller,

67
00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,240
they had maybe at the top
only one nail

68
00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:36,120
and then the whole lot capped
with its lead finial or pinnacle.

69
00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:42,200
The vision or the look at it
from down below is very pleasing,
you know, it looks very nice.

70
00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:48,520
Back in the days of the first Earl
when all this building work started,

71
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:52,320
this is what the inside of the castle
would have looked like.

72
00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,760
This is the lower hall of the
original 15th-century tower house.

73
00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:03,200
It's one of the places that's
changed the least in all the castle -
it's not been messed about with.

74
00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,320
It's a wonderful bit of building.

75
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:09,280
It almost reminds you of a railway
tunnel, doesn't it? It's magic.

76
00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:13,160
It's all quite a mystery
in this barrel-vaulted chamber.

77
00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,400
There's two distinct lines
along the ceiling

78
00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,120
where the material changes,
the full length of the room.

79
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:26,360
You know, it's the same material
as the tapered arch window openings
are built out of.

80
00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,360
I think these windows were put in.

81
00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,520
There's a pretty nasty joint down
around the arch and down each side

82
00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:39,680
and odd bits of the different
material, you know, to, like,
block up the gaps and what have you.

83
00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:41,840
It's all very interesting.

84
00:06:41,840 --> 00:06:46,080
I could live in here myself -
it's quite nice, you know, beautiful.

85
00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:50,960
Up here on the second floor,

86
00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:56,360
this magnificent room was once
the Great Hall of the central tower,

87
00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,360
and, of course, until its conversion
in the 17th century,

88
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,680
it would've looked similar to the
room we've just come from downstairs.

89
00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:10,920
The first Earl proceeded
to convert it
into this magnificent drawing room.

90
00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:17,240
He had all the walls plastered
and the fireplace done and
the royal arms stuck in the middle.

91
00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:19,800
The second Earl continued the process

92
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:27,280
when he employed travelling Italian
craftsmen to create the fine arch
ceiling and beautiful plaster work.

93
00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,800
But all this splendour
that had been brought to Glamis
didn't last very long

94
00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,520
because, in 1646,
the second Earl died a ruined man,

95
00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:46,120
his estates plundered and with debts
of £40,000, which, in them days,
were a ginormous sum.

96
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,040
When his son Patrick succeeded him,

97
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:53,760
he managed to pay off
all the debts, and, then, in 1670,

98
00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:59,720
he moved back into the castle
and began an ambitious programme
of extensions and improvements.

99
00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,520
I'm hidden away up here
in the top of the clock tower

100
00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,960
where all the records for the castle
are kept

101
00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:12,400
and I've found the third Earl's diary

102
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:16,280
and he actually called it
his "book of record"

103
00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:22,360
and, of course, in it he detailed
all the expenses and the building
operations that were going on.

104
00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:27,840
It starts off with what it were like
when he first came to look at it,
and it says here,

105
00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:33,920
"It be an old house and consequently
was the more difficult to reduce
the place to any uniformity."

106
00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:37,000
In other words,
it were all higgeldy-piggeldy.

107
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:43,760
"I did covert extremely to order
my buildings so the front piece might
have a resemblance on both sides."

108
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:50,800
In other words, he made it
symmetrical by placing one wing
on either side of the central tower

109
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:55,440
with both of them
coming out at right angles from it.

110
00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:57,560
Not only are there all these records,

111
00:08:57,560 --> 00:09:03,120
but also his dealings
with the contractors and the actual
contracts that they've got.

112
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:09,080
This one's an interesting one
dealing with one
of his main contractors.

113
00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:14,360
It says...
His Lordship's unhappy with the bill
that he's just received.

114
00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:18,000
"..Sanders Nisbit, as to
your pretended additional work..."

115
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,840
In other words,
he billed him for a bit extra.

116
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:25,000
"I shall receive this answer
without passion.

117
00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:31,840
"First, I must tell you that I admire
with what impudence you charge me
any additional work."

118
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:38,480
And he goes on to say,
if you read the contract properly,
you know, you'd finish job off.

119
00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:45,520
And then he finishes, "But, Sanders,
there are a great many things
to be done which are as yet not done

120
00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,720
"and must be done."

121
00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:54,320
But, in spite of
the odd disagreement, Nisbit was
the main contractor for all the work.

122
00:09:54,320 --> 00:10:00,880
According to another of
the contracts, Nisbit had to provide
five masons to work with him on site,

123
00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:07,560
while the Earl was to provide
all materials and services of four
workmen for the unskilled labour.

124
00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:11,240
There have been all sorts
of extensions and improvements done

125
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:16,320
since the time of the third Earl
especially in Victorian times.

126
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:22,120
But what we see today,
as we look down the mile-long avenue
at the 100 foot high towers,

127
00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:27,440
is basically what he created
when he turned a mediaeval castle
into a great house.

128
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,960
Extending and beautifying
an existing tower

129
00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:37,440
wasn't the only way a distinctive
Scottish style was developed.

130
00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:45,000
By the 18th century, the leading
Scottish architect, William Adam,

131
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:51,200
began to design country houses
that broke away radically
from the baronial style.

132
00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:56,760
The House of Dun near Montrose
is one of his finest country houses.

133
00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:03,120
Like Glamis, they started off with
a great tower here, but rather than
building the house round it,

134
00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:07,280
they actually knocked it down and
started again on a greenfield site.

135
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,880
It was built by David Erskine,
the Laird of Dun,

136
00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:14,200
who was a prosperous lawyer.

137
00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:19,280
Work began in 1730 and it took over
10 years, a bit like one of my jobs!

138
00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:21,440
But you can see why, you know,

139
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:27,960
if you compare it with Glamis Castle,
with the rough stone
and the big wide joints, you know.

140
00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:32,280
These joints in these stones, you
cannot even get your fingernail in.

141
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:36,560
To get 'em such a good fit, and
all these beautiful reeded columns,

142
00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:42,480
every stone's done individually
and, of course, everything had to fit
to a degree of perfection.

143
00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:47,920
If you put your eye to the corner,
they're dead straight -
you cannot fault it -

144
00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,480
straighter than what they get it
these days.

145
00:11:55,160 --> 00:12:02,120
The great glory of the interior of
the House of Dun is this magnificent
saloon with its wonderful plastering,

146
00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,400
which were done by a man
called Joseph Enzer,

147
00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:11,800
and believe it or not, for
all this magnificent ornamentation
he only got £216, you know.

148
00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,320
It sounds unbelievable, dunnit?!

149
00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,720
That weren't just one single room -
it were for doing the whole house.

150
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:26,120
Most people coming into this room
wouldn't have a great deal of idea
how this magnificent work were done,

151
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:31,000
but when I was at art school, they'd
an ornamental plastering department

152
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:37,080
and even though I never did any
myself, I always took great interest
in what were going on in there.

153
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:41,360
And, of course, they made
nearly everything on flat benches

154
00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,400
and then glued and screwed 'em
to the walls in strange ways.

155
00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:50,360
If there were any funny shapes
to have nice things fixed to -

156
00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:56,240
like here they've got this wonderful
radius from the cornice moulding
up to the flat ceiling proper -

157
00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:00,240
they made a curved board
of exactly the same radius

158
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:05,080
and made all these canons and ladies
and fancy bits to that radius.

159
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:10,360
So all the fancy pieces would fit
to the same curve, as you might say.

160
00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:14,280
And there's lots of other things
of interest in here

161
00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:21,160
because up there, there's reputed to
be a real violin that's been dipped
in a watery solution of plaster.

162
00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:25,480
Other interesting things - the shells
up there have got to be real shells.

163
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:30,080
To find out some of the tricks of
the trade, I went to see the experts.

164
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,760
Hayles and Howe are specialists
in ornamental plaster work.

165
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,960
'I asked managing director,
David Harrison, about those violins.'

166
00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:41,080
The trouble with that theory is,

167
00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:46,120
if you dip a violin in a bucket
of plaster and pull it out,

168
00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,440
you have a violin covered in plaster
and that's not what these look like.

169
00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:56,960
They'd have sculpted it. They'd have
used a timber frame and modelled up
the plaster surface on that.

170
00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:03,840
Things like the strings would be
copper wire... They're real copper
wire. ..that wouldn't go rusty.

171
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:08,480
Any trick they could use to save
having to model something, they...

172
00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,760
For example, there's a spear,
which is very delicate.

173
00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:15,840
That wouldn't stay together
in plaster,

174
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:20,480
so that's probably a piece of timber
dowel with a point on the end.

175
00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:26,440
Summat like that over the fireplace,
that'd be made on a bench, flat,
and then raised up, would it not?

176
00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:29,920
The way they would have done that
would be simply

177
00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:34,680
model the thing up on a timber frame
with an armature on the back,

178
00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:39,760
hold it up, put some wood through
to the joists and nail it on.

179
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,800
All of these heavy items, they would
have made absolutely certain,

180
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:48,040
whether modelling from the ceiling
outwards or applying something,

181
00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,360
that the big bits have armatures in,
like statues.

182
00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:58,440
Anything that could fall off,
they have to make sure that it's not
gonna fall on their client's head.

183
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:02,720
And now into the workshop to meet
the technical director Bob Lewis.

184
00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,360
This is the plaster we're using -
plaster of Paris.

185
00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,920
It's a fine casting plaster. Yeah.

186
00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:14,480
We sprinkle this into the water,
never water onto the plaster.

187
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,360
'Give it a good mix.

188
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:19,560
'Then pour it into the mould.

189
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:24,840
'Make sure the plaster is
evenly spread into all the corners.'

190
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:31,200
Before all this wonderful
Latex stuff, what would they have
used in the bad old days? Well...

191
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:36,440
there were very few moulds as such.
They carved in the ceiling.
Bloomin' heck!

192
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:38,280
Yeah.

193
00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:42,120
'Then you give it a key
to fix the backing to.'

194
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,560
FRED LAUGHS
That's it.

195
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,560
Cut that bit. Come on, it's setting.

196
00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:54,040
Normally from a Baltic fir,
it can be... Yeah.

197
00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:58,080
I can see what happens next.
It's sort of folded over, innit? Yes.

198
00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,400
That's the tricky bit, innit?

199
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:06,080
The last thing is re-enforcement,
all rubbed down below the surface.

200
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,720
I could get used to it eventually.

201
00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:13,480
These pieces that we're doing
will be for some Jacobean strap work.

202
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:18,000
I can see you've used plaster
before! Oh, concrete!

203
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:23,960
'For long sections
of cornice moulding,
the technique is a bit different.'

204
00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,600
Pour the plaster down to start with,
just up to the edge.

205
00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:33,960
'Make sure the mould is well filled.

206
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:36,600
'Then comes the critical bit -

207
00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:42,440
'drawing the template
along the whole length of the mould
to give the cornice its shape.

208
00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,600
'Now that it's dry,
we'll walk back to that strap work.'

209
00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:54,720
We make sure it's all utterly
released around the outside.
It's quite strong.

210
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:58,240
This is it.
This is where it all falls apart.

211
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,360
That's heavier than you'd think,
that, innit?

212
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,800
Well, there we go.

213
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,880
A couple of bubbles,
but we can sort that out. Yeah. Mmm.

214
00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,760
'But is the cornice
going to turn out just as good?'

215
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:20,640
That would go on the ceiling
and the wall.
Yeah, yeah, it's all right.

216
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:22,680
Right, three ha'pence a foot!

217
00:17:25,360 --> 00:17:31,840
William Adam had set a new trend
for house design
and decoration in Scotland,

218
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,680
but it was Adam's more famous son,
Robert,

219
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,560
who took some elements of this style

220
00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:44,800
and added a lot of ideas
of his own to create a style of
architecture that is named after him.

221
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:49,480
Robert Adam had spent three years
travelling around Europe

222
00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:53,560
drawing and studying
the great buildings from the past.

223
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:59,440
He was particularly impressed
by the remains
of the ancient Roman buildings he saw

224
00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:03,840
and it was THIS that influenced the
Adam style more than anything else.

225
00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:11,040
Culzean Castle on the Ayrshire coast
is one of his most important and
distinctive works.

226
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:18,160
Adam was commissioned
to rebuild an existing castle
seen here in one of his own sketches.

227
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:24,320
His idea was to transform THIS
into a romantic-looking castle

228
00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:28,240
designed to heighten
the dramatic cliff-top setting.

229
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:36,000
Adam worked on Culzean over a period
of 15 years from 1777 to 1792.

230
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,480
His pupil, Hugh Cairncross,
was the foreman for the whole project

231
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:44,320
and Hugh's brother, William,
was the carpenter.

232
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:46,720
The work was done in several stages.

233
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:52,880
First of all,
he incorporated the original building
into the south side of the mansion.

234
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:57,400
He squared up the central tower
and re-faced it

235
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,160
and then built
a three-story wing on each side.

236
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,880
The sandstone was quarried locally,

237
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:11,560
some actually coming from beneath the
castle itself when it was removed to
make the foundations and the cellar.

238
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:19,000
The next stage of his building work
was the north wing with its massive
drum tower on the seaward side.

239
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,080
He built this wonderful round tower

240
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,080
to sit right on the edge
of the cliff.

241
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,520
It's a sheer drop for about 100 feet
down to the shoreline.

242
00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,920
Immediately below us
there's a great cave.

243
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:40,200
He must've been unsure of himself
because he's built a stone pillar in
the middle of the cave just in case.

244
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:46,240
I mean, he obviously built it for
the beautiful panoramic views of the
countryside, the sea and everything.

245
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:49,320
It's quite a magnificent thing,
really,

246
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,520
perched here right on the edge.

247
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:56,400
It's stood the test of time - it's
all still here, it's slightly eroded,

248
00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:02,400
it's facing the western elements and
the Atlantic, so it's took a beating
over the years it's been here.

249
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:07,440
Adam's brief extended
to the whole of the Culzean estate.

250
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,640
Not only did he build the house,
you know,

251
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:15,600
he built that wonderful viaduct
that's part of the grand entrance.

252
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,240
Even the clock tower,
which of course were already there,

253
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:25,760
he's smartened up with the turrets
and the crenellated top and
of course a new skin down the front.

254
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:31,360
And the castle's farm
that was built to his design
is a work of art in itself.

255
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:35,240
You won't find many farms
that look as good as this.

256
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:38,680
There's an awful lot of stone
about this castle,

257
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:43,080
and the trouble is, most of it
came from the Earl's personal quarry

258
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:48,640
and it's sandstone which is not the
best stuff for weathering the storm,
as you might say.

259
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,800
Here's the most magnificent example
of erosion.

260
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:57,360
The whole thing's
just worn away with the wind

261
00:20:57,360 --> 00:21:00,080
and the sea air, I suppose.

262
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:05,520
For years now
they've been replacing the outer skin
on the front of the building.

263
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:11,000
There's only about a couple of dozen
of the original Adam blocks
still in position, you know -

264
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,600
they're the dirty ones.

265
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:20,840
This is Andy Bradley,
who's been here for ten years.

266
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:24,960
He's never been home
and he's the resident stonemason.

267
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:30,360
He does all the maintenance
of the stone, and all the repairs,
and all the nice bits.

268
00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:31,320
Isn't that right? It is. Well, yeah.

269
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,960
Yeah. Right, this is how you get it,
is it, now, like?

270
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,160
This is how we get it in.
Big, big slabs.

271
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:45,760
We've no set sizes. Everything's
various sizes, different lengths,
different bed heights. Yeah.

272
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:52,000
I suppose when Robert Adam were here
it'd just come in pretty rough
lumps, wouldn't it? Sure.

273
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:57,120
They'd have had great difficulty
transporting a block this size.

274
00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:02,480
They'd split it at the quarry
and dress it
into roughly-squared blocks.

275
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:07,520
At that point, those stones would be
designated for a particular task.

276
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:13,080
There'd be some that were
long enough to be window heads,
some for jams. Yeah.

277
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:17,240
They wouldn't have a great amount to
remove. You try and work the minimum.

278
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,080
But what that's done over the years,
it's given a variety.

279
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:26,920
When you come to a building
of a certain age...
Oh, yeah, big 'uns, little 'uns.

280
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:29,400
..everything's slightly different.

281
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:35,720
It's easier to get the stone in
random lengths and cut it to suit,
as they would've done originally.

282
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:41,640
Do you want to look at the scaffold?
See what you're doing with the
retaining wall. Let's have a look.

283
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:48,200
This place is rather inaccessible,
innit, on top of a cliff? Mm-hm.

284
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:54,840
Like most places in those days,
they tried to get the stone
as local as possible.

285
00:22:54,840 --> 00:23:02,520
There's three basic stones
at Culzean, all within a few miles
of the castle itself.

286
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,920
This is actually a retaining wall.
Mm-hm.

287
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:10,200
On top of it
is the road to the castle... Yeah.

288
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:15,120
..a tarmac road, so that might have
an effect with the drainage. Yeah.

289
00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:19,760
Up on the top here is the main drag
up to the castle. Yeah.

290
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:25,600
When you look at it, you know,
it looks out over the gas house.

291
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,160
It's not seen from the castle. No.

292
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,960
Even in a place like this, they've
gone to a bit of effort. They have.

293
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:38,040
They've got this moulding here...
and then these canons.

294
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,680
This one alone is purely ornamental.
Ah, there's no hole. Just ornament.

295
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:49,400
It must be difficult deciding
which stones to pull out and
which to leave in - how do you do it?

296
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,880
I'd be having sleepless nights
if it were me!

297
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:57,040
We want to keep the character
of the wall pretty well intact.

298
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:03,240
We'll take out as little as possible
whilst maintaining the
structural integrity of the wall.

299
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,600
Just because it's badly weathered
is no excuse for taking it out.

300
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,960
We want a nice rough surface
on there.

301
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,160
'Every single stone
has to be prepared by hand

302
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:19,480
'and this includes
getting a nice rough surface on it,
so the mortar will key.'

303
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,000
It's building up the rhythm.
Yeah. It is, isn't it, really?

304
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,440
'Every line is a blow from
a man's arm on an 'ammer and chisel.'

305
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,600
When this place were being built,

306
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:43,120
there'd be dozens,
literally dozens, of stonemasons.

307
00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:48,960
The thing is, this is
a wonderful wall to sort of depict
different styles of workmanship

308
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,200
producing the squared-off
blocks of stone.

309
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:59,280
I mean, it's obvious that the same
man made these door jams - each side
it's the same style of chiselling.

310
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:01,920
Here's a wonderfully detailed one.

311
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:08,560
Obviously the guy who made that would
only do one, and the bloke who made
this would more than likely do three.

312
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,480
It's pretty rough, sort of thing,

313
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,160
or he were in an 'urry to go home
for his tea, or summat.

314
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:21,840
They dropped a clanger here. There
were gonna be another nitch, but they
changed their mind and bunged it up.

315
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:27,760
But it is certainly a good example of
showing masons' different styles of,

316
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:33,240
you know, using the punch
and the mallet and the various
fancy chisels that they had.

317
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,640
'But Adam's work isn't
just about stonework and exteriors.

318
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,000
'He spent as much time worrying about
the inside as the out.'

319
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:50,640
Especially important
was his conviction
that the interior of a building,

320
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:56,600
right down to the decoration
and the furnishings, should be
the concern of the architect.

321
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,640
This room,
with its magnificent ceiling -

322
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,200
it's not too much overdone, is it?

323
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:04,560
It's light and elegant.

324
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:10,600
It's typical of his style, you know -
he sort of kept everything lovely
and sort of light looking.

325
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,320
And, really, he's chiefly remembered
for his interiors

326
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:20,920
with his beautiful fireplaces
and his door heads and this rather
wedding-cake type plastering,

327
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,200
or not too heavy about any of it.

328
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,560
This is Robert Adam's crowning glory,
a masterpiece.

329
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,840
When he'd finished off the north
and south side of the house,

330
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:43,320
he were left with this rather sunless
and dark, rectangular-shaped
courtyard in between

331
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,520
that separated the two,

332
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,720
and ten years later
after he'd started work,

333
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:54,240
he came up with this wonderful idea
that gives a feeling
of light and space.

334
00:26:54,240 --> 00:27:01,680
There wasn't enough room
for a conventional circular spiral
staircase, so Adam made it oval.

335
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:08,120
I rather think when he first
got his ruler out and measured
this rectangular-shaped courtyard,

336
00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:13,800
he did a bit of head scratching
before he come up
with this magnificent thing.

337
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:20,480
He must've marked out the elliptical
row of pillars in the bottom which
are joined together with arches.

338
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,120
At the landing,
where the cast iron handrail is,

339
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:29,240
there are 12 Corinthian columns
which support a gallery up above,

340
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:36,960
with another 12, smaller in diameter,
Ionic columns, which support
a magnificent elliptical dome,

341
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,840
with a beautiful fan light
in the top of it
that lets all the light stream in.

342
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:48,320
I've never been in a building where,
wherever you stand, if you stand
square across the thing and look up,

343
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,920
everything's in perfect alignment.

344
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,480
It's quite magnificent.

345
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:57,680
If it were round, it wouldn't be
so bad, but it's elliptical as well.

346
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,720
The amount of accuracy is incredible.

347
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,960
The whole effect is very dramatic
and very typical of Robert Adam -

348
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,200
the only man in the story
of the Building of Britain

349
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,640
to have a style named after him
all of his own.

350
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:22,600
The whole place is a magnificent
monument, not just to the imagination
and ingenuity of Robert Adam,

351
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:27,120
but also to the workmanship and
hard graft of the men who built it.

352
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:39,280
And next week I'll be much closer
to home when I look at the work
of the very first civil engineers -

353
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,720
the men who changed our landscape
forever

354
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:44,960
with the building of the canals.

355
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:51,480
If you'd like find out more
about the Building of Britain,

356
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:56,840
visit the website
at bbc.co.uk/history