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One of my early adventures
into building is this chimney stack,
which I built when I was about 17.

2
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This was on my mum and dad's house.

3
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We had a chimney stack
with four pots on.

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Only one was used for
the water system - the back boiler
and the hot water in the taps.

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The others let water run down the
bedroom walls next door and ours.

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I decided that I would take it
down and build a nice chimney stack.

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It didn't have a design.
I had no drawings.

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I kept altering it
in shape and size as it went up.

9
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This is about 40 years ago.
The people who live there now

10
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wanted to dismantle it,

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but the council
put a preservation order on it.

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It looks nearly as good as the day
I built it. I'm quite proud of it.

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Really, since I were a little lad,

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I've been interested in buildings
and building techniques

15
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and all the skills
that went into building a house,

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even in the Middle Ages,
all the tools, the different joints

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and the ways they had of sticking
things together, soldering lead.

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Ightham Mote is one of the oldest
and loveliest medieval manor houses

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in all of England.

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In 650 years, it's barely changed.

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A moat surrounds all four wings

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and all of the walls

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drop straight down into its waters.

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Within these four wings,

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there's a lovely, open courtyard.

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The house looks as though
it was all built at the same time,

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but it is actually the product
of six centuries of development.

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Peter Leach, architect and
archaeologist, has been responsible
for much of the conservation work.

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The courtyard demonstrates how the
house has developed over the years.

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People have lovingly added
bits to it from time to time.

31
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What makes Ightham Mote interesting
at the moment

32
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is the restoration work being done.

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It gives a good opportunity to find
out how a medieval house was built

34
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and to look at the materials
that were used in its construction.

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This is the roof
of the Great Hall, Fred. Yeah.

36
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You can see the stone-rubble
end wall here.

37
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On top of it, there are the tops
of the rafters and the lathing.

38
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On top of that

39
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are the tiles, pegged, not nailed.

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They have holes in,
for the wooden pegs.

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There's straw in that.

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I was wondering if that was put in
for some kind of heat insulation,

43
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put in for the new tiling.

44
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If they can keep
the original timbers, they do,

45
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but the great beam was so rotten,
they are putting a new one in.

46
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This is the roof plate or beam
that was under the valley gutter
when we saw it on the roof.

47
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It must have leaked a bit!
They didn't keep the gutters clear,

48
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That's why it's rotted so badly.
It dates from 1605 or 1610.

49
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It's amazing.

50
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You think of the centre
of an oak tree as being hard
and the sap wood as being soft...

51
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Yes. ..yet the outer edges of it
have survived pretty well.

52
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An house like this has stood up
to the elements for centuries.

53
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How did they manage to build things
that lasted for so long?

54
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Their materials
must have been pretty good.

55
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Until they had the things
modern builders have,

56
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they had to use whatever was to
hand - crude, maybe, but effective.

57
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You want me to go in the cow muck?
Yes!

58
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Now, it's what?
Approximately half of that?

59
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Half. That is the sifted cow dung.

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It's nice stuff, is it?

61
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That's it.

62
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A nice measure.

63
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That's rich, in't it!

64
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I was collecting this

65
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at seven o'clock this morning
from our local dairy herd.

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I tell you what,
it takes a bit of mixing.

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It isn't easy...

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to shove about.

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That's been milled beforehand
with the hair put in.

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What's the idea
of the cow dung, like?

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Well, it does give it more
elasticity when you're spreading it

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and it also hardens it.

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I would say
he's done that before, myself.

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I've mixed a bit of mortar in my
time, but never with cow muck in it.

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I can't wait
to smear that on the wall!

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There. It's a nice bit of stuff.

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It's a nice colour.

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Yeah.

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It's lime, goat hair...

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Yeah?

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..with sharp sand.

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Well, you try it for yourself.

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See how you get on with that.
I'll have a go.

84
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Have a go.

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Do I continue in a downwards
direction? Yeah, that'd be nice.

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Oh, bloody hell!

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Let me put less on the hod. Yeah.

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That's it.

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Push it well in.
It has to go through the lath. Yes.

90
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That's all right.

91
00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,360
Now, that's going to be there

92
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for 800 years.

93
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So...

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It's good to think we do something
that'll stand the test of time.

95
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That's enough for me! That's great.
Any time you want a job...!

96
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It does have a tendency
to stick to the floor, don't it?

97
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Like the proverbial whatsit
to the blanket.

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We spray it to keep it damp,

99
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so it doesn't dry too quickly
and craze.

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Crack. Yeah.

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We key, as well.

102
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That helps to stop the shrinkage.

103
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It definitely has the smell of the
countryside about it! That's right.

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Lath and plaster was fine
for the house of a country squire,

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but I'm on my way to see a palace
that was built to entertain a king.

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Hampton Court had to be built
of something more substantial
but, again,

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it came down to
the availability of local materials,

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so Hampton Court was built of brick.

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Ightham Mote
is quite a modest place,

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but at the other end of the scale,

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Hampton Court is the biggest, most
splendid Tudor palace in England.

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The palace was begun in 1515

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by Henry VIII's chief minister,
Cardinal Wolsey.

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This central gateway
is part of his original palace.

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It's a bit strange how history goes.

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Henry gave his best minister,
Cardinal Wolsey,

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permission to do some lodgings
for him.

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When he couldn't fix it up
with the Pope about his divorce,

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Henry kicked him out
and carried on building himself.

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That is most of what you see today.

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Jonathan Foyle is the Assistant
Curator for historic buildings and
he knows all about how it was built.

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Jonathan, tell me

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which bit did Cardinal Wolsey do?

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He took it over in 1514
when he wasn't yet a cardinal.

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I've never been good on history!

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He was on the cusp of that career.

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He took over a medieval manor house.
Some parts are buried in there.

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This is the best example
of Wolsey's domestic architecture.

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He transformed this
into a bishop's palace.

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It was suitable then
for a cardinal, as he developed it,

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and for the royal family.

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The whole of this breadth
between the two gables is his.

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The other bit's Henry's?
Henry's additions.

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When they fell out? Even before
then, Henry took the house over.

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00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,480
These rooms are Wolsey's,
probably built in the late 1520s,

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when he needed to retire
from the King.

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He was in deep water by that stage!

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The hall is in that direction,

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the gardens in that direction.

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He may have used this fire.
It's an original.

141
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,920
The ceiling's quite interesting.
It is. Yeah.

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The background's plaster, but the
ornamental bit's a bit different.

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What's that made of?

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00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:38,200
They are moulded timber ribs.

145
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Each one's got a groove, in which
is put a length of leather mache.

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00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,320
That's wet, pounded,
stamped leather,

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00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:51,720
which is gilded in the fashionable
style of the day with arabesques,

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00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:54,320
then gilded lead leaves

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and bosses at the junction.

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00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:01,280
Lots of lovely, old panelling.
Yes. These are quite plain.

151
00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:06,320
What you'd expect in the 16th
century is the linen-fold pattern.

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That goes like that.
We've got a lot in the next room.

153
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We've got two rooms here, Fred,
that are covered in linen-fold.

154
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I like this one with the cross.
It may have been made for Wolsey.

155
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It's quite ornate
for linen-fold panelling.

156
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It is called linen-fold panelling
because it's like folded-up linen

157
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or a cloth,
you know, like your grandma did.

158
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You work with your hands. How would
you make something like that?

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The timber in-between the folds
would be done with
concave and convex moulding planes.

160
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You groove the whole length
and that's done instantly? Yeah.

161
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That looks like it could
have been done the same as masonry,
with an hammer and chisel.

162
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It's a bit up and downish.

163
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That's the effect,

164
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to get it to look like
folded-up material.

165
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I failed woodwork badly at school.

166
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I was top of t'class in woodwork.
I bet you were!

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This is Henry VIII's bit?

168
00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,320
This hall was rebuilt by Henry VIII
on the site of Wolsey's.

169
00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,080
I'm researching that
and it seems almost certain

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that Wolsey's hall
was longer and bigger.

171
00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:35,920
Henry rebuilt this from 1532 to
1535, a few years after he arrived.

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This is a wonderful
hammer-beam roof above our heads.

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I always thought they came about
because they couldn't get big trees,

174
00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:48,720
but there's a little more to it,
in't there?

175
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There is, but you're limited
by the length of trunk that a tree
could provide for a beam.

176
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To span 40 feet like this,
you'd need to find an immense beam.

177
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,520
I've seen them in
industrial premises in Lancashire.

178
00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:09,560
To get across here, it would be
two feet deep by nine inches thick,

179
00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:17,360
with a queen post - two vertical
posts heavily braced with iron rods,
to accomplish the same thing.

180
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,560
You want a feeling
of lightness and space.

181
00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:23,840
If you have beams coming across,
it spoils it.

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00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:27,240
In Westminster Hall in the 1390s,

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they pioneered this technique

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00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:35,600
of building a hammer beam straight
out from the wall like a cantilever.

185
00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,480
That can support a central vault,

186
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,280
so it's a very light construction.

187
00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,320
It looks like
the underside of a ship.

188
00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:49,360
This was a late one. Westminster
was in the 1390s. This is the 1530s.

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00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,120
I think it's Henry's best bit here.

190
00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,600
In the Middle Ages,

191
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:03,440
in roof construction,
like hammer-beam roofs,

192
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:09,160
the main joint in all of it
were the mortise-and-tenon joint.

193
00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,800
That is an hole in one bit of wood

194
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,920
and a bit on another
to fit in the hole.

195
00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:19,120
The tools needed to form
such a joint are fairly simple.

196
00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,640
They must have been similar
in the Middle Ages.

197
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:27,040
A big drill for drilling a series
of holes in a straight line

198
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:29,640
and a chisel and hammer

199
00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:33,760
for joining all the holes up
into a rectangular one.

200
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,800
We'll fix it together
and see if it fits.

201
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:41,080
This is an haunch mortise-and-tenon
joint on a grand scale.

202
00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:47,960
That goes in there like that.

203
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,000
Then,

204
00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,440
in this beam,

205
00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,680
the hole is slightly out of line,

206
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,720
so when I knock
this wooden peg in here,

207
00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,680
it'll pull the tenon
down into the mortise hole.

208
00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:07,360
Once we have got it in, we won't
be able to get it out. Here goes.

209
00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:15,560
That feels very good and very tight.

210
00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:22,280
The next stage is to bash in the
wooden wedges, when I can find them.

211
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,520
Here they are.

212
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:26,760
One in there.

213
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,160
One in there, like that.

214
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,600
That is a mortise-and-tenon joint
on a grand scale.

215
00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:49,000
That's how all the roof trusses in
Hampton Court would have been made.

216
00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,480
They'd chop all that off after
and make it level.

217
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,320
That's what they did.

218
00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:00,000
Buildings never stayed the same,

219
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,360
as different owners extended them,

220
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:07,200
added to them or converted them.

221
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,600
Hampton Court stayed
much as it was in Henry's day

222
00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:14,160
until William III
came to the throne in 1689.

223
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:18,720
William commissioned
Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild it

224
00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,000
and it was Wren
who added this baroque palace.

225
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:27,080
Hampton Court was a place to live,

226
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,400
but some great houses

227
00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:31,680
didn't begin as houses.

228
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:38,360
I went to Lacock to see one
that's best known today as the home

229
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,880
of a famous 19th-century inventor.

230
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:46,120
William Henry Fox Talbot
was a great innovator,

231
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:50,440
who was responsible for finding out,
more or less,

232
00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,680
all we know today about photography.

233
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:58,560
His family home, like a lot
of big country houses, started life

234
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:01,440
as a religious institution.

235
00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:08,440
Before the Reformation,
this was a nunnery. After
the dissolution of the monasteries,

236
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:12,560
Henry VIII sold it to a courtier,
William Sharrington.

237
00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,000
A lot of courtiers
bought monastic buildings

238
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,680
that Henry had taken over.

239
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:22,200
The King made quite a lot of money
out of it.

240
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,600
When he bought this place,
it consisted of a church

241
00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:32,920
and many large rooms that were cold
and draughty that the nuns lived in.

242
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:39,720
At the time of the Reformation,
when Henry was selling
all these places to his noblemen,

243
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:43,640
the problem was making them
so you could live in them.

244
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,480
There were no central heating then.

245
00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:50,320
In the whole nunnery,
there was only one fireplace

246
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,640
in the "warming" room,
which is next door.

247
00:17:53,640 --> 00:18:01,200
The answer for most people
was to flatten the lot and use
the materials to build a new house.

248
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,600
It was easier
than digging it out of a quarry.

249
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:07,000
But Sharrington didn't.

250
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,560
He left most of it
and sort of built on top of it.

251
00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:16,960
That were a wonderful thing to do,
because it preserved
all these lovely arches,

252
00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:19,400
windows and niches.

253
00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:25,480
This is what's known as

254
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:27,920
the South Gallery.

255
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:31,800
The whole house is full of
long, narrow passages,

256
00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:35,560
which follow the line
of the cloisters underneath.

257
00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:39,400
The whole lot is stuck on top of
these passageways.

258
00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:43,040
In the days of the nuns,
the Abbess was billeted

259
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,400
down that end
in her private quarters.

260
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,680
The nuns were up this end
in their dormitory.

261
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,480
It was just a passageway then.

262
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:57,680
It was the same when Sharrington
was here, but he had a tiled floor.

263
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,040
When Fox Talbot came,

264
00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:04,600
he put floorboards down and made
these beautiful bay windows.

265
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:10,440
That bay window is the very one
where the first photo were taken.

266
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,920
This was in 1835,

267
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:16,280
when the Industrial Revolution

268
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,400
and British inventiveness
was at its height.

269
00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:23,160
From Lacock, I went
to Northumberland to see a house

270
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,960
built by one of Britain's
mightiest industrialists.

271
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:34,360
The Industrial Revolution brought
a great surge in house building

272
00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:38,480
and the rich industrialists
built mansions like this.

273
00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,320
This is Cragside in Northumberland,

274
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,320
the home
of the first Lord Armstrong,

275
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:48,360
innovator, inventor,
engineer and gun maker.

276
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:50,920
In the 19th century,

277
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:55,440
he played a major role in
the industrialisation of Tyneside.

278
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:59,360
His Elswick works at Newcastle
was the heart

279
00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:03,520
of an engineering industrial empire
making cranes,

280
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,280
hydraulic machinery and armaments.

281
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:13,600
Built on a hill, it was one of the
most remarkable houses of its day.

282
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:20,400
It had hot and cold running water,
telephones, a fire alarm
and a hydraulic lift.

283
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:26,160
All the electricity were generated
by a hydroelectric power station.

284
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,760
No wonder they called it,

285
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:31,440
"the palace of the modern magician".

286
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:39,360
Armstrong also created
a series of lakes in the grounds

287
00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:43,640
to store the water for the power
to generate electricity

288
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:48,680
and drive all the hydraulic
machinery he installed in the house.

289
00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:56,000
Lord Armstrong
helped his domestic staff

290
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,520
with his hydraulic machinery.

291
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:03,520
He had a lift for taking up coal
to the bedrooms, a hydraulic lift.

292
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:07,200
Of course, this spit is driven by
a water turbine

293
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:10,600
that's quite a way off
down in the cellar.

294
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,680
It works by
a complicated system of rods

295
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,960
and bevel gears
and universal joints.

296
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:21,200
You can move it away from the fire
and move it into the fire.

297
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,840
It goes round, as you can see.

298
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,640
Some barbecue that, believe me,

299
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,720
and the biggest back boiler
I've seen

300
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,800
for the domestic hot water.

301
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,040
This is the dining room,
where he entertained

302
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:40,080
such guests as the King of Siam
and the Shah of Persia,

303
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:43,720
who, of course,
came here to buy guns off him.

304
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:50,480
As well as using his machinery
to help with the domestic chores,

305
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,480
he also used it
to impress prospective customers.

306
00:21:54,480 --> 00:22:00,400
The whole place really were a shop
window for the inventions he did.

307
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:05,280
This, without a doubt,
must be one of the finest

308
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:08,360
Victorian domestic
English interiors.

309
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,040
In the ceiling alone
are a few good English oak trees.

310
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,920
The fireplace is wonderful.

311
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:19,280
It's got to be the biggest
inglenook fireplace in England.

312
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:23,440
The outer Gothic arch
and the great stones going up

313
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:28,240
have survived very well, but Sir
William did a bit of overstoking,

314
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:33,520
because there's a few nasty cracks
in his mantelpiece proper.

315
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,120
You can imagine him sat there,

316
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:41,120
thinking of what he were going
to do next with his hydraulics.

317
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:46,320
This is the library, the other
great Victorian room in the house.

318
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:50,000
Sir William used it every day
as his sitting room.

319
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,400
You can see

320
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,520
where he wrote letters.

321
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,640
The other interesting things
are the lamps.

322
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,320
Originally, they were oil lamps.

323
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,800
Sir William had them converted
to electricity,

324
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:07,600
which came from a generator
outside in the grounds.

325
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:12,520
Sir William's first attempt at
electric lighting were interesting.

326
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,360
He had a vessel full of mercury.

327
00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:19,880
He lowered the bit with the bulb on
into the mercury by hand.

328
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,720
There were no light switches.
The thing's alive.

329
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:30,200
I don't know whether
he had rubber gloves on, but
it must have been a dodgy operation,

330
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:34,040
but, with his inventive mind,
he got it to this stage.

331
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,920
It's interesting
that a great industrialist,

332
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:45,440
who was responsible for
many major technological advances,

333
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,520
chose this very traditional,
old English style of building

334
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,240
for a house that he filled
with modern inventions.

335
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:59,640
Was the housing for factory workers
built, like Cragside, to last?

336
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,360
The coming of the railways

337
00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:07,320
meant a standard range of
building materials became available

338
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:11,440
for low-cost workers' housing
all around the country.

339
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,920
It's hard to know
what it was like to live in them.

340
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:19,920
Those that haven't been pulled down
have all been modernised.

341
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:24,800
To get a sense of what it was like,
you need to come to Beamish.

342
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:34,360
If you want to see some houses
where more ordinary people live,
this is the place to come.

343
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:38,440
This is Beamish up in the Northeast,
near Newcastle.

344
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:40,960
This lovely, old town behind me

345
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:45,000
has been dismantled
in other parts of the northeast

346
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,800
and brought back here and
re-erected in every minute detail.

347
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:54,360
It's new, but the bricks are old
and the window frames are old.

348
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:58,560
When you come here, you get
a lovely feeling of long ago.

349
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,760
It's interesting.

350
00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:15,400
This fine Georgian terrace
is called Ravensworth Terrace.

351
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,440
It was taken down in Gateshead

352
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,680
and brought back here
and re-erected.

353
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:26,280
A lot of rows of houses in Bolton
are like this. It's so sad,

354
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,040
that during the last great conflict,

355
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:35,320
they pinched all the railings off
these lovely Georgian garden walls

356
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,960
and melted them all down.

357
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,240
These are not repros.
They've survived.

358
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:48,080
These are lovely Georgian windows,
with little panes of glass.

359
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:53,800
As it's raining, I'll see how Miss
Smith's piano lessons are going.

360
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:56,440
I'm off. I'll see you later.

361
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:04,600
Good morning. Good morning.

362
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,440
A splendid parlour. It's nice.

363
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:14,320
It's a cut above the others
with the semi-circular arches.
I've got a fireplace like that

364
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,920
at home in one of my bedrooms.

365
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,520
About 1850, that were made.

366
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:23,240
The lovely sash windows,

367
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,880
with the panelling and shutters
and everything.

368
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,320
Not very long later,

369
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:34,880
they made rooms similar
in proportion, but they lacked

370
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,080
the Cornish moulding
and even skirting boards

371
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:41,920
at t'turn of century
in worker houses.

372
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,160
This is posh.

373
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,400
Next door to the music teacher
is the dentist's house.

374
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,920
He must have been well-to-do,
because he could afford a servant.

375
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:58,000
Good morning. A bit like
home from home for me, this.

376
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,280
The Victorian cast-iron fire grates
were the centre of the household.

377
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,040
Everything happened here.

378
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:11,280
Bread were baked. The boiling water
dried all the clothes on this rail.

379
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:15,640
From about 1900 onwards,
if you didn't have a lot of money,

380
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:20,520
you'd buy a terraced house,
like the type in Coronation Street.

381
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:25,080
The bedrooms were barren,
just a square box.

382
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:29,280
The only form of lighting
were one single gas bracket,

383
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,960
nearly always screwed
to the chimney breast

384
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,960
or often, I never worked out why,

385
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,800
to the side of a window frame.

386
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,760
Where the light come in,
the gas bracket were there!

387
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,920
Just like the town, they've created
a complete pit village,

388
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:03,240
complete with an engine, an engine
house, the headgear, the screens,

389
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,840
the village school and a beautiful
row of pitmen's cottages.

390
00:28:10,120 --> 00:28:14,040
Behind me is the Methodist chapel -
that means no drinking!

391
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,920
Subtitles by Catherine Fowell, ITFC,
for BBC Subtitling - 2000