1 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:06,800 Modern Britain loves its heritage. 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:12,640 It's become a vital part of how we define ourselves as British. 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,440 The fascination that people show for history, 4 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:17,240 I think it's extraordinary, 5 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:20,720 but I think it comes from a really deep human need 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,080 to understand where we've come from, why things matter 7 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:27,360 and, actually, to help us locate ourselves in the present. 8 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,680 But it could so easily have been a different story. 9 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,880 It's taken a revolution 10 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:42,720 to make us a nation that values our ancient buildings and monuments. 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:46,920 And, even now, it's an ongoing argument about what to save 12 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,200 and what to let go. 13 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,080 Heritage isn't really about the past, it's about the future. 14 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,440 And it's about what you do with the future 15 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,280 and what bits of the past you want to take with you into the future. 16 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,280 That's quite a tricky subject, 17 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,440 because what's important, particularly about the recent past, 18 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,480 to one person, it's not important to another person. 19 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:12,720 Britain now has some of the most powerful conservation laws in the world. 20 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:17,640 But in the 19th century, hardly any of our best-loved landmarks 21 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,880 were protected or even valued. 22 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,720 It was a dangerous time for old and ancient buildings 23 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:29,000 caught up in an age of industry and profit. 24 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,480 TRAIN WHISTLES 25 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:34,640 Because Britain was expanding 26 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,800 and was, therefore, beginning to destroy the material past, 27 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,000 there were visionaries who realised 28 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,800 that the landscape, the built environment, represents memory 29 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:49,000 and memory was something that shouldn't be lost. 30 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,640 The pioneers of the movement were clever, 31 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,480 passionate and argumentative. 32 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,840 They changed the history of this country by saving it. 33 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,160 Sometimes, they looked like antiquities themselves. 34 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:06,320 But they all challenged society in surprising ways. 35 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,080 The fascinating thing is 36 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,680 that the conservation movement has been, at times, 37 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:19,160 really, really radical, even to the point of being quite revolutionary. 38 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,480 Some chose Parliament to further their cause. 39 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,480 Others campaigned in pressure groups. 40 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,360 Many supporters were rich and powerful, 41 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,280 others took to the streets to make a point. 42 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,560 Some were freethinking civil servants, 43 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,120 a handful even operated undercover, 44 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,520 theatrical in their stunts to save history. 45 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:48,920 This is the story of how the heritage movement was ignited 46 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:52,920 by the modern science of evolution and archaeology, 47 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:58,520 of how a century of astonishing change nearly wiped out the past. 48 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:02,000 And the ghastly fallout of war. 49 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,000 SIREN WAILS 50 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,840 It's about who decided what was worth saving, 51 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:10,640 why they did it 52 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:15,560 and how they shaped the Britain we recognise today. 53 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,000 CHEERING 54 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:39,200 We boast that an Englishman's home is his castle. 55 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,280 But for centuries, it has been this very belief 56 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,360 that threatened the survival of Britain's past. 57 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,040 Every historic site belonged to someone 58 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,840 and that someone could do whatever they liked with it. 59 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:56,840 There's a number of terrible examples 60 00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,480 of buildings being demolished by their owners, 61 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:01,840 just because people were interested in them. 62 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:04,560 New Place, in Stratford-on-Avon, 63 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,120 Shakespeare's house, 64 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:10,040 was demolished in the 1750s by a... He was a clergyman... 65 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,480 because he was irritated by people coming to see it, and so, he pulled it down. 66 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,280 And, of course, you have wonderful Vanbrugh 67 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,120 pleading for the preservation of Woodstock Manor, 68 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:25,760 which the ghastly Duchess of Marlborough was going to demolish. 69 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,200 At the beginning of the 19th century, 70 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:29,760 Turner, the great painter, 71 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:31,200 who'd just moved to Twickenham, 72 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:34,120 was furious to find that Pope's Villa nearby 73 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,920 was just being demolished by Baroness Howe, 74 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:40,560 who again was irritated that people were curious 75 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,160 and wanted to see this house. 76 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,320 There's a terrible history of this sort of thing - 77 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,960 of private individuals thinking they have the absolute right 78 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:48,760 to destroy something just cos they own it, 79 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,320 even if they are of, you know, wide interest 80 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,200 or indeed of national importance. 81 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,680 For centuries, the right to own property 82 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,200 without interference from the state had been at the heart 83 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:03,040 of the British Constitution. 84 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:07,440 To compromise this principle would be revolutionary stuff. 85 00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:11,040 Why was Britain different from the rest of Europe? 86 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:12,920 They'd had revolutions. 87 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,320 Revolutions that eliminated private property. 88 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,040 The state had taken over responsibility in France 89 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,600 for ancient monuments, for forests and so on. 90 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,600 In Britain, private property was all and there was a general feeling 91 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:25,960 that was the key to Britishness, why we were a success, 92 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:27,480 as we were perceived as being then. 93 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:29,880 It's cos we respected people's property. 94 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:33,480 In the 19th century, 95 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:38,240 Britain controlled the largest empire the world had ever seen. 96 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,880 Queen Victoria had even added the title Empress of India 97 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:42,920 to her property portfolio. 98 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:46,240 At home and abroad, 99 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:51,600 the idea of British land rights had never seemed stronger. 100 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,240 Yet, in the summer of 1873, 101 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,480 they were about to be challenged 102 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,480 in, of all places, the House of Commons. 103 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:06,880 The battle for heritage began with John Lubbock, 104 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,960 Liberal MP for Orpington, in Kent. 105 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:15,080 He was 39 years old, the son of a London banker and baronet. 106 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,600 He was posh and rich 107 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:23,240 and a hyperactive champion of loopy causes. 108 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:25,160 Lubbock loved nature. 109 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,600 He even kept a pet wasp, 110 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,880 still lovingly preserved by his descendants. 111 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,880 The cartoonists had a field day. 112 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,520 He even claimed to have taught his dog to read. 113 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,600 But he won popular support 114 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,600 when he introduced Britain's first bank holiday. 115 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:45,760 It was such a hit 116 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,240 it was nicknamed St Lubbock's Day. 117 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:55,320 As a boy, he never stopped drawing and cataloguing the natural world. 118 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,600 His great-grandson Lyulph and grandson Eric 119 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,280 have dug out his scrapbooks. 120 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:04,880 Some of these are more primitive than others. 121 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,040 Butterflies. Butterflies. 122 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:10,320 But he was interested in butterflies long before that. Indeed, yes. 123 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,240 From the age of what, four? I think so, yes. 124 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,080 I mean, there's a nice tale of him 125 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,520 saying his earliest memory is of an insect under glass, 126 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,520 and Queen Victoria's coronation, 127 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:26,000 so that gives us a nice date of 1837, when he was three-and-a-half. 128 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,960 What would prove to be a fateful moment for British heritage 129 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,800 came when Lubbock was 14. 130 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,600 A neighbour was appointed to be his private tutor. 131 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:38,800 It was none other than the man 132 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,320 who would turn the Victorian world on its head - 133 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:46,400 scientist and philosopher Charles Darwin. 134 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,800 Darwin was yet to publish his great work, On The Origin Of Species, 135 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:54,440 but he'd already developed his ideas about evolution, 136 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:58,000 and the young Lubbock eagerly lapped them up. 137 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:01,520 What do you find of Darwin in the book? 138 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,600 Later on, in this book, you'll see parts of insect appendages 139 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,320 and this particular insect is called Labidocera Darwinii. 140 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,320 And that's actually an insect 141 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,440 that John discovered at High Elms in the ponds there. 142 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:19,160 And he named it after what, by then, I think he regarded as his mentor. 143 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:26,960 Darwin ignited in the young Lubbock a passion for archaeology, 144 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,880 a science still in its infancy in the 19th century. 145 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:36,360 Darwin knew it was the key to unlocking man's past. 146 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:38,880 Calculations based on the Old Testament 147 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:43,240 meant that most people believed the world was only 4,000 years old, 148 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:47,360 so the much older fossils and bones being dug up 149 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,000 were the new wonders of the age. 150 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,720 The first steps to building up a true picture 151 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:56,160 of man's prehistoric past. 152 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:03,520 John Lubbock was gathering evidence of human antiquity 153 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:06,920 to give a sense of evolution over time 154 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:08,800 and over geography, 155 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,920 of the human mind, of human culture, 156 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:13,720 of human innovation, 157 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,520 which was all part of the extension for him 158 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:19,640 of natural selection in animal species. 159 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:24,360 In a museum in south London, 160 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:28,920 we can still see Lubbock's passion for archaeology. 161 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:35,080 Such finds inspired him to write his first book - Pre-Historic Times. 162 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:37,520 It quickly became a bestseller 163 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:40,920 for the growing number of amateur archaeologists. 164 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:44,360 We were really very lucky 165 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:45,720 when the Lubbock family 166 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:47,440 very kindly decided to donate 167 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:49,120 some of John Lubbock's items. 168 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:52,560 We have here a hand axe. 169 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:55,640 This is actually 300,000 years old. 170 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,360 They'd have used it for killing and gutting their animals, 171 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,000 taking the skins off. 172 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,920 But if you look at it, it fits in your hand so beautifully, 173 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:04,440 it's been made so well. 174 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:06,360 We've also got one here, 175 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:10,000 in fact, from Orpington, and this is 60,000 years old. 176 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,560 So big, big difference, but you can still see 177 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:15,600 just how Stone-Age tools were evolving and changing. 178 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,840 And what we also have here is not such a local find, of course, 179 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:23,720 but these things here, these are Neolithic. 180 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:28,120 When John Lubbock published his Pre-Historic Times in 1865, 181 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,480 the main reason why the Pre-Historic Times book now is so well-known 182 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,160 is he came up with the two terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic, 183 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:37,360 which means old and new Stone Age. 184 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:38,840 So this is actually Neolithic, 185 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,080 you can see all the intricate details on it. 186 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:42,840 We're not quite sure what they mean, 187 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:44,200 what they represent, 188 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:45,840 we assume it's something to do 189 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:47,840 with someone's standing in society. 190 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,120 If you had this beautiful bit of carved stone, 191 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,280 it meant you were quite an important person. 192 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:56,640 Lubbock was inventing the science of ancient history 193 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:00,200 by giving it its own language for the first time. 194 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,600 Next, he would put flesh on prehistoric bones. 195 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:09,920 He commissioned the first illustrations 196 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:11,480 of how life might have been 197 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:13,360 for prehistoric man in Britain. 198 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,720 And, astonishingly, his pictures have stood 199 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,640 the academic test of time. 200 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,560 Ancient man hunting, 201 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:25,760 ancient man working with tools, 202 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:27,920 building shelters. 203 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:32,760 And Lubbock's work encouraged interest beyond mere bones. 204 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:37,560 The architectural remains of ancient Britain were suddenly big news. 205 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:44,840 One of the great things he did was to arouse a national attention 206 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:47,400 into ancient monuments, 207 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,920 into Stonehenge, the world of Avebury, of stone circles. 208 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,280 And this was hugely important, 209 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:58,400 because this was about the roots of our identity. 210 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:00,760 Who first settled these islands? 211 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:02,760 How the British developed? 212 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:06,080 And what really mattered - who were we? 213 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,280 But Lubbock knew Britain's prehistoric remains 214 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,120 were disappearing fast. 215 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:17,680 They got in the way of efficient ploughing 216 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:22,040 and, what's more, they were a free source of building materials 217 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:26,200 for landowners keen to cut corners. 218 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:31,120 Prehistoric sites that he saw being destroyed on a daily basis 219 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:35,400 through farmers building fences with stone 220 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,960 or ploughing fields and so on. 221 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:43,760 Every time that he went and visited those sites, 222 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:46,040 he saw them whittled down further. 223 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:49,400 And it was that threat 224 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:51,760 which would destroy the evidence 225 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:54,680 that Darwin had told him was so important 226 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:56,840 in all his work to date. 227 00:12:56,840 --> 00:13:01,080 It was that threat that really...is what he was concerned about. 228 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,960 In 1871, Lubbock heard 229 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:07,680 that the land around Avebury village, in Wiltshire, 230 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:09,600 the site of Britain's largest prehistoric stone circle, 231 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:11,000 the site of Britain's largest prehistoric stone circle, 232 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:13,360 was about to be sold at auction. 233 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,920 Already subject to damage and dereliction for years, 234 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,600 the future of the stone circle looked perilous. 235 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:24,360 Lubbock decided something had to be done. 236 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,200 His great-grandson and grandson remember the story. 237 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,240 He got a letter from the vicar here 238 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,680 saying that there was a threat to the stones 239 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:37,440 and urgently could he come down and have a look. 240 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,640 They were basically knocking them down and using them to build structures. 241 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:42,720 People wanted them for building material. Yes. 242 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:44,840 They're valuable original materials 243 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:47,600 for houses and others sorts of buildings. 244 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:51,000 And they had been ravished over a period of years, 245 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,720 but this was a sudden onslaught against the few remaining stones. 246 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:56,720 What they liked were these big ones, 247 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,680 cos they could then just take a slab like that 248 00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:02,400 and create a house around it. 249 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:04,560 And people outside Avebury were coming in 250 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:06,240 and chipping bits off as well, 251 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:10,160 so it was just getting out of control, so something had to be done. 252 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:15,560 Lubbock moved fast. 253 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:18,560 He persuaded local landowners, mostly farmers, 254 00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:21,240 to sell their land to him. 255 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,720 The stone circle was saved. 256 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,840 Inspired by what he'd achieved at Avebury, 257 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,240 Lubbock decided to go into battle 258 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:34,880 on behalf of ALL Britain's fragile prehistoric sites. 259 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:36,840 And, as an MP, he knew 260 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:40,640 the only place the battle could be won decisively was Parliament. 261 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:50,880 His Ancient Monuments Bill of 1873 proposed sweeping Government powers 262 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:56,880 to confiscate any prehistoric site deemed at risk from uncaring owners. 263 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:00,680 It was a revolutionary proposal. 264 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,400 As a Liberal, perhaps he felt 265 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,280 that he could challenge the whole notion of property rights, 266 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,200 but the Tories certainly weren't having it 267 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:16,320 and many Liberals weren't either. 268 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,800 And the notion that, in some way, the state could intervene 269 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:24,760 and could possible take from a freeborn Englishman his property 270 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:27,920 was anathema, it really was. 271 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:35,600 For eight long years, Lubbock tried and failed to get his bill through. 272 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:39,120 By the 1880s, backbench wags were even calling it 273 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,880 the "monumentally ancient bill". 274 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,000 Then, at last, in July 1882, 275 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:49,680 the bill was voted into law. 276 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,000 But victory had come at a price. 277 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:59,160 The original bill had been hopelessly watered down. 278 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:05,600 When the bill was eventually passed, 279 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,880 it'd lost its edge, because it had lost the element of compulsion. 280 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:12,240 And without compulsion, it was nothing, really. 281 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,040 Because what it meant was 282 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:18,120 that people had to voluntarily give their monuments to the Government. 283 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,440 The new act listed 68 prehistoric sites 284 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:27,800 the Government wanted to take over. 285 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:31,800 Lubbock knew it was going to be a challenge. 286 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,520 But he also knew just the man for the job. 287 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,600 Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments 288 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,880 was to be Lieutenant-General Augustus Pitt Rivers, 289 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:47,960 a retired soldier turned archaeologist. 290 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,680 His mission - to persuade owners 291 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,640 to hand over their prehistoric structures 292 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:57,520 in return for the Government taking on the cost of repairs. 293 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:05,880 Using the rapidly expanding rail network to crisscross the country, 294 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,600 Pitt Rivers and his team set out on their tricky mission. 295 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:13,240 And as they travelled the country, 296 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:18,480 they recorded the look and condition of every monument they visited. 297 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:19,800 TRAIN WHISTLES 298 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:25,120 The records they compiled have only recently come to light. 299 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,480 Here we have an album which is titled Our Ancient Monuments. 300 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,320 Most of the album is made up 301 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:35,280 of these watercolour images 302 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,680 and also the site plans. 303 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:41,120 In a number of examples, 304 00:17:41,120 --> 00:17:42,840 we have members of the team 305 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,840 who were depicted actually in the field. 306 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:51,200 The sheer number of sites and monuments which he visited 307 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,040 and also worked on and surveyed is immense. 308 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:03,680 Pitt Rivers and his team travelled the length and breadth of Britain. 309 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,520 From Kent to Cumbria, 310 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:08,720 from Newport, in Wales, 311 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:10,920 to the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, 312 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:14,800 photographing, drawing, painting. 313 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,120 And there were even cork models 314 00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:20,760 showing how monuments sat in the landscape. 315 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:26,080 The sites range from sort of cairns, 316 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:30,040 to sort of dolmens, to chamber tombs. 317 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:32,320 And so, the documentation that we have here, 318 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:36,640 the models and the watercolours and the site plans and the photographs, 319 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,240 I think is to show the historic condition 320 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,760 and to show how vulnerable it was, really, 321 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:46,560 to names been scratched into the stones 322 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:48,600 and to other forms of damage. 323 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,120 The first monument Pitt Rivers visited, 324 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:59,000 a Neolithic burial site in Kent, known as Kit's Coty, 325 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,880 was already badly defaced by graffiti. 326 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,640 But its owner willingly surrendered control to the Government. 327 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:11,320 It was a good start, but, almost immediately, 328 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:15,480 the complications of heritage became apparent. 329 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:19,040 When Pitt Rivers asked for money to erect protective railings, 330 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,080 still standing today, 331 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:23,440 the Treasury kicked up a fuss. 332 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:28,200 The bill was just �100. 333 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,560 In the first year, 334 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:37,360 24 monument across England, Scotland and Wales 335 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:40,520 were taken into the protective custody of the Government, 336 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:45,720 safe for ever from the hands of unsympathetic owners. 337 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:48,000 But, after the first year, 338 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,400 the rate of monuments handed over slowed to a trickle 339 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,360 as landowners showed their contempt for the act. 340 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:01,120 Worst of all, Stonehenge remained in private hands 341 00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:03,680 and seriously at risk. 342 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,520 The rubbish left by Victorian picnickers 343 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:08,560 encouraged rats and rabbits, 344 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,160 which undermined the monument. 345 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,640 One of the uprights had fallen over 346 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:15,840 and a lintel had broken in two. 347 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:22,080 Within a few years, it would be up for sale for just �125,000 348 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:25,440 amidst rumours of it being shipped overseas. 349 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,000 Pitt Rivers felt powerless. 350 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,600 He found it terribly, terribly frustrating 351 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,960 that he was given this highfalutin title, 352 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,640 Inspector of Ancient Monuments, 353 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,880 he was given a budget that was totally inadequate 354 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,760 and he was endlessly arguing with the Treasury about it. 355 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:44,440 But, despite all that, he really couldn't make an impact. 356 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,080 It was a bit of a poisoned chalice, to be honest. 357 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:52,400 And, in the end, he more or less gave up, disillusioned. 358 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:57,200 And when Pitt Rivers died in May 1900, 359 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:01,240 nobody even bothered to appoint a replacement inspector. 360 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,240 The parliamentary initiative had failed. 361 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,080 The heritage movement seemed over before it had begun. 362 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,680 But for the ideas of heritage to get a hold, 363 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:22,520 it would need to gain support beyond Parliament. 364 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,520 It would need a prophet to win hearts and minds. 365 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,240 In fact, it already had one 366 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:35,160 in the form of Victorian art critic and aesthete John Ruskin. 367 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,480 Ruskin was speaking, I think, in a new way 368 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,240 and seeing buildings as part of a national culture 369 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,400 and suggesting that no one generation 370 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,680 has the right to destroy or to alter, 371 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,240 that historic buildings belong to a future. 372 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,760 With Ruskin, the idea of what we now call Heritage begins 373 00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:00,240 and he was the first person to say, effectively, publicly, 374 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:01,680 "We do not own these things. 375 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,400 "They belong," he says, "partly to the people who made them 376 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,640 "and partly to the people who come after us. 377 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,320 "And we are just custodians and we have to think very carefully 378 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:13,080 "about what we're going to do with them while they are in our hands." 379 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,600 Ruskin grew up on the outskirts of south London. 380 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,680 His father was a successful wine importer. 381 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:28,920 But it was a family with intellectual and philanthropic interests. 382 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:33,800 But the Britain of Ruskin's early years was changing fast 383 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,400 and, by the mid-19th century, 384 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,000 there was industrialisation and urban expansion 385 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,440 on a scale never before seen. 386 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,640 To Ruskin, it seemed as though Britain had taken a wrong turning 387 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,360 to embrace ugliness and deprivation. 388 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:02,280 It's almost hard now to imagine the impact it had. 389 00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,240 I mean, we all have some sort of vision of dark satanic mills 390 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:06,840 and smoke and railways, 391 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:13,240 but this was such a sudden, dramatic, huge change in human life, 392 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,440 human endeavour, human history and our common culture. 393 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,120 It truly ripped people away from the countryside, from rural values, 394 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:23,280 it urbanised people in a way that was... 395 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,880 at the speed of an express train. 396 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:27,520 TRAIN WHISTLES 397 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,840 Ruskin realised that the landscape, 398 00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,440 the built environment represents memory, 399 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,200 and memory was something that shouldn't be lost. 400 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:44,920 Ruskin saw a world that was going to lose its memory, 401 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:49,200 lose its texture, lose its essence, in some way. 402 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,400 So he was revolutionary, 403 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,480 but that revolution involved turning back to the past 404 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:59,000 and using the past as a way of stabilising the present. 405 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,560 Ruskin spread his gospels through a string of books 406 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,480 and packed lecture tours. 407 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,880 And he went even further, 408 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,040 preaching that unlimited industrialisation 409 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,080 would result in catastrophe. 410 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:20,360 What he talked about then fiercely was the fact that now we had to act. 411 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,800 Our buildings are being spoiled by, basically, pollution, 412 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:25,360 we were breathing filthy air. 413 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:27,360 And as he gave those lectures 414 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:31,640 and as the newspapers said the man's a nutter, 415 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,840 he's an idiot, he's a fool, he's dangerous, he's a radical, 416 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,080 what history tells us is fascinating, 417 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,120 is that he was absolutely spot-on. 418 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:47,120 Ruskin also forged a link between the environment and politics, 419 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:52,240 arguing Britain's cities were out of control because, as he put it, 420 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:55,080 "We want one man to be always thinking 421 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:58,800 "and another to be always working. 422 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:02,040 "And we call one a gentleman 423 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,760 "and the other an operative, 424 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,080 "whereas the workman ought often to be thinking 425 00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:11,880 "and the thinker often to be working." 426 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,480 What he saw was that, as the Industrial Revolution moved on, 427 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:20,000 combined with a political economy that was ruthlessly capitalistic, 428 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,560 where money mattered most of all, 429 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:24,760 the profit motive mattered more than anything to do 430 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:26,760 with the heart or the soul or the spirit, 431 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:28,960 that old buildings, old customs, 432 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,720 old ways of living would just be swept away. 433 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,960 Karl Marx, of course, was talking about the same thing in different words at the same time. 434 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,160 THUNDER CRASHES 435 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:45,880 In some ways, Ruskin's radicalism went even further than Marx. 436 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,160 He believed it was the right of everyone 437 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,480 to live in a beautiful setting. 438 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:53,920 And fulfilling his own prophecy, 439 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,520 Ruskin would repair to the Lake District. 440 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:00,800 He bought a humble Georgian cottage overlooking Coniston Water, 441 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:06,160 which he hugely, and not very beautifully, extended. 442 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,880 Here, he would come to think about the things that mattered 443 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:14,320 and try to escape the encroaching Industrial Age. 444 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:20,960 Brantwood was really the place that Ruskin almost fled to 445 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,440 to skip celebrity. 446 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:26,680 In his 50s, he had become celebrated 447 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,480 but also, in a way, pursued by the demons of his own creation, 448 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,640 his commentaries on social justice and so forth. 449 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,000 And he needed to come back to nature, 450 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:37,720 to come back to the environment, 451 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,400 that, in a way, had been the wellspring of all those ideas 452 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,320 and inspiration in his youth. 453 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,760 He'd been not to Brantwood specifically, 454 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,720 but to this field down in front of the house as an 18-year-old, 455 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,000 and sat and drawn the landscape opposite. 456 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,760 So it was somewhere he knew. 457 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,360 And the Lakes, of course, represented the heritage of Wordsworth, 458 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:57,760 the Romantics, the Picturesque movement 459 00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:59,840 the great landscape tradition of British art, 460 00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,760 all of the things that Ruskin absorbed in his youth. 461 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,040 It was here Ruskin entertained sympathetic friends. 462 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:10,520 Darwin came to supper three times. 463 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:15,360 But, even here, Ruskin fell prey to fits of gloom, 464 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,960 overwhelmed by the immensity of all that was wrong with the world. 465 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:23,880 So this is Ruskin's bedroom. 466 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,240 It's really the smallest little room in the house, 467 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:29,960 right on the age of the 18th-century cottage. 468 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,120 And a single bed, which reminds you, in a way, 469 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:36,720 of just how single and lonely Ruskin was, 470 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:41,440 but surrounded by the glorious colour of his Turner watercolours. 471 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,600 These were the most precious and prized paintings that he had, 472 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:46,520 that and a painting by his father, 473 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,120 which was particularly special to him. 474 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,600 So it's a room loaded from the beginning 475 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,520 with a certain emotional symbolism 476 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,440 and it was also a room that became, for Ruskin, 477 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,240 the centre of the breakdown that he had 478 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,160 when he had been here for six years. 479 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,680 And the room became a place, in a sense, 480 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,280 both of fear as well deep emotion to him, 481 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:14,880 and he wasn't able to sleep in here in later years as a result of that. 482 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,240 One thing he did use throughout that period 483 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,160 was the wonderful turret that he built on the corner of the bedroom, 484 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:24,760 because he converted this small, dark little Lakeland room 485 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,680 into a room that looks out, in a sense, on infinity. 486 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:32,680 And Ruskin needed a beacon, 487 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,200 a distant and romantic cause, 488 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,520 free from the confusion of chaotic Britain, 489 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:40,760 where arguments would crystallise 490 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:44,720 around absolute beauty facing total destruction. 491 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,760 And he found it in Venice. 492 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,760 A place he called "the golden city". 493 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,440 In Venice, the great questions about the past, 494 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,000 the present and the future collided. 495 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:09,280 It was simple - if nothing was done, Venice would be lost. 496 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,400 As Ruskin wrote, "The rate at which Venice is going 497 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,880 "is about that of a lump of sugar in tea." 498 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,640 So he made Venice the first conservation crisis 499 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:23,960 of the modern age. 500 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:28,680 And he went further. 501 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,880 History had to be saved in the right way 502 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,520 or it was worse than doing nothing at all. 503 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:39,760 Already, one of the city's most spectacular medieval buildings 504 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:41,640 had been changed for ever 505 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,000 by an overzealous and fanciful restoration. 506 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,040 If you look at before and after photographs 507 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,080 of the Fondaco dei Turchi, 508 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:58,640 you see a building which is turned into a kind of... 509 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,400 a bleached skeleton of a building. 510 00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,120 "It was unforgivable," as Ruskin put it, 511 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,680 "to lose a building's golden stain of time." 512 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:21,960 Ruskin actually says that restoration is a lie, 513 00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:25,160 that you cannot restore a building. 514 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,120 All you can do is prop it up... 515 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,760 ..if you want to actually preserve its essence. 516 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,560 Now, that is a very, very radical position 517 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,560 and it's not a very practical one 518 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,920 because, obviously, buildings, you know, keep having to be repaired. 519 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:46,360 But that has the key difference between the 19th-century desire 520 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:50,440 to restore, according to certain imaginary principles, 521 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,000 and the Ruskinian principle, which is much more the modern principle, 522 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,680 is that you conserve... 523 00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,600 and, if possible, your conservation is actually reversible. 524 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,520 For the first time, Ruskin was making the treatment of old 525 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,560 and fragile buildings a moral issue. 526 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:16,480 Making it an absolute responsibility to get history right. 527 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:25,560 In Britain, there had always been people who cared passionately about the past. 528 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:27,480 They were called antiquaries. 529 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:35,040 The problem was their grasp on history was often...shaky. 530 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,840 18th-century enthusiasts for Stonehenge 531 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,320 got the date wrong by several thousand years 532 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,680 and incorrectly attributed it to the Druids... 533 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:54,160 ..but at least antiquaries knew the past mattered - 534 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,640 a bigger problem was their habit of trophy-hunting. 535 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:02,680 What better souvenir than a chip off the old monument itself? 536 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,160 The idea that historic things 537 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,560 should remain in the place from which it came 538 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:12,600 was still not the view taken by a lot of people. 539 00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,320 There was a, kind of, going round and shoving into your satchels 540 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:16,360 things that you found 541 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:18,960 but, you know, that attitude is incredibly prevalent. 542 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,160 I always think of the Indiana Jones movies when, you know, 543 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,440 Indiana Jones was plunging into some temple and grabs an idol 544 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,440 and says, "This should be in a museum!" 545 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,320 and puts it in his bag, and off he goes. 546 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,120 In Holborn, in central London, 547 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,920 is the house of architect Sir John Soane. 548 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:43,200 It is still home to his great collection of ancient artefacts 549 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:48,280 and curiosities, many of them taken from historical sites. 550 00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,000 It shows what Ruskin was up against 551 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,800 because, even for a brilliant man like Soane, 552 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:01,200 when it came to treasures and great monuments, 553 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,800 he had more of a passion for shopping 554 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,880 than a sense of place or authenticity. 555 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,680 All around are little, you know, rather resonant fragments 556 00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:14,760 of Roman antiquities or, in this case, 557 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,320 you know, possibly even a little Egyptian piece - 558 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,840 probably a leg of a great throne or altar. 559 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,880 And then, coming round, you have a selection of friezes 560 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,200 and a selection of Greek and Roman busts as well - 561 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:33,120 all perched on the balustrade - and you look down and there is, 562 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,600 possibly, Soane's most splendid acquisition, 563 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:39,080 the sarcophagus of the Egyptian King Seti I, 564 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:40,600 about 3,000 years old... 565 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,480 ..and then in the colonnade yet more trophies, 566 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:49,640 and a particular favourite is this splendid idol. 567 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:51,720 It's a statue of Diana of Ephesus 568 00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,800 in this strange, sort of, quasi-Oriental garb. 569 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,120 A very splendid thing that Soane acquired in the 1820s 570 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,600 and he was inordinately proud of it. 571 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:03,720 The generation before Ruskin 572 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,000 revelled in its dilettante attitudes. 573 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,640 The first great collectors, 574 00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,360 even in the way they organised their treasures, 575 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,280 had a different attitude from the one we know today. 576 00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:20,000 During that period, what an object looked like and how it made you feel 577 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:24,200 was absolutely as important as what it actually was. 578 00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:27,720 People were not so bothered by how old something was. 579 00:34:27,720 --> 00:34:30,200 What they wanted to do was to use these objects 580 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:34,520 to create romantic interiors, which concerned the past 581 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,280 but which were not historical reconstructions. 582 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,480 Well, here we are in the Monk's Parlour, 583 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,560 in the basement of Sir John Soane's Museum. 584 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,520 And this is a very atmospheric room 585 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,400 that was devised by Sir John Soane in 1824, 586 00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,680 and he created here a very strange room 587 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,680 which he used as a kind of sanctuary, shall we say, 588 00:34:55,680 --> 00:35:01,800 for the medieval and Gothic objects that he'd acquired. 589 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:04,000 Indeed, I think the only practical use 590 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,280 to which we know this room was ever put, 591 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,000 he used to have people to tea here, 592 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,000 but otherwise it is a completely frivolous thing. 593 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,840 Ruskin was determined to overturn such attitudes 594 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,440 but it would fall to a more pragmatic disciple 595 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,480 to achieve results. 596 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,080 William Morris was a painter, textile designer 597 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,440 and libertarian socialist. 598 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,640 A supporter of the Arts and Crafts movement, 599 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,000 he looked for practical ways 600 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,960 of reconciling history and modernity. 601 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,360 And in an increasingly machine age, 602 00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:45,520 he set himself against factories and mass production, 603 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:49,320 which he believed diminished people and their creativity. 604 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:55,520 Hand made was best, medieval craft skills the very best. 605 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:05,840 One summer day he set off from his home on the Cotswolds 606 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,120 in a horse and trap. 607 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:13,040 For Morris, any Cotswolds jaunt was an inspiration - 608 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,200 the finest in vernacular architecture to enjoy. 609 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:21,240 He could not know he was set on a collision course 610 00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:22,920 with a Cotswold cleric. 611 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,960 Today, the fine medieval church of St John the Baptist in Burford, 612 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:33,400 on the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire border, looks peaceful enough 613 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:38,720 but, not for the first or last time, a Church of England figure 614 00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:44,760 had taken ancient architecture into his own inexpert hands. 615 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:50,280 Morrison's driving around the countryside near Kelmscott one day 616 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:54,680 and he sees at Burford Church, this was in 1876, 617 00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:58,400 the vicar undertaking a part-demolition of the building 618 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,320 and he tries to find out what's going on, and he even goes inside 619 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,200 and sees the vicar removing some of the painted walls, 620 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,920 the medieval wall paintings from the interior of the church. 621 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,960 And he demands to know what's going on, and the vicar is said to have 622 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,360 replied, "This, sir, is my church and I can do what I like in it. 623 00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:15,720 "I can even stand on my head, if I want to." 624 00:37:15,720 --> 00:37:18,200 And Morris is so outraged 625 00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:21,960 at the thought that people are having this attitude towards buildings 626 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:23,880 that they have inherited from the past 627 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,520 that he decides something must be done about it. 628 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:36,320 Morris founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings - 629 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,320 SPAB, for short. 630 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,240 It was Britain's first effective pressure group 631 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:43,640 devoted to saving old buildings. 632 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,680 SPAB sent emissaries out across Britain 633 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,720 to identify buildings at risk. 634 00:37:57,720 --> 00:38:02,640 It held public meetings to protest against overzealous restoration 635 00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:07,320 and, most importantly, it supervised sympathetic rescue work 636 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,320 in a manner Ruskin would have approved. 637 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:17,440 It's important to remember that 638 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:21,320 S-P-A-B stands for the Society for the PROTECTION 639 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,240 of Ancient Buildings, 640 00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:28,240 not the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. And... 641 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:31,920 what he, Morris, saw 642 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:36,000 was ancient buildings being given makeovers, 643 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:37,560 literally, by... 644 00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,280 ..ingenious amateurs who... 645 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:47,000 literally, scraped everything off the... 646 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,720 any evidence of the past was scraped away, everything was made to look 647 00:38:50,720 --> 00:38:53,280 as new and nice as possible, 648 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:57,320 and he regarded this as... as, essentially, 649 00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,160 the destruction of the evidence of time. 650 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,560 You can still see really horrible examples of this in churches 651 00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:07,160 all over the country, where they scraped off the plaster, 652 00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,960 thinking that the stone would be more authentic but, of course, it isn't. 653 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,640 I mean, that kind of rubble stone looks really rough 654 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,240 because the builders never intended it to be seen. 655 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:19,280 And a lot of the plaster they were scraping off was medieval, 656 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,440 and some of it had the remains of medieval wall paintings. 657 00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:30,040 The SPAB approach is still practised today 658 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,880 as one of the most sensitive ways of dealing with an old building. 659 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,400 At a terraced house in Waterloo, south London, 660 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:41,640 owner and SPAB consultant Stephen Bull 661 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,680 remains true to William Morris's principles. 662 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,920 The SPAB ethos is that everything should be reversible 663 00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:54,520 and you should be using materials which are sympathetic to the build. 664 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,600 When you start using modern cement, then it's really detrimental 665 00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,040 to the structure of the building. It just... 666 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,280 The two should not really go together. 667 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,560 If we have a look at the doorframe, for example, 668 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:08,160 the doorframe has been damaged over a number of years. 669 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:11,440 So, what we've done here is, instead of using any modern fillers, 670 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:13,560 we've put inserts of timber in. 671 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,920 You know, they look lovely and they are perfect. 672 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,400 You know, you couldn't get a better finish on that, really. 673 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:22,720 These are the handmade nails 674 00:40:22,720 --> 00:40:25,440 and what William Morris wanted, more than anything else, 675 00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,080 was just to have that simple handmade nail 676 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:29,760 that's made by craftsmen. 677 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:31,840 And when you look at it, it's a thing of beauty. 678 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,880 You know, we're not using nail guns here and we're not talking about... 679 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,240 kind of, sabre saws. I mean, everything has its place 680 00:40:39,240 --> 00:40:42,160 but I do draw the line at a nail gun and I think there's something 681 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,320 humble about a handmade nail and applying it with a hammer. 682 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,000 I mean, you couldn't get more basic than that. 683 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,840 As far as the works we're doing here at the moment, 684 00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:56,320 it's essential that the house is put back into good heart 685 00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,000 and it's a real priority to me that we are using 686 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,480 the materials as near as possible to the way it was actually built. 687 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,200 So, it's a repair that we're doing here - 688 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:08,240 we're not doing a restoration, we're doing a conservation and repair. 689 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:12,800 If I just show you the door knocker on the outside... We don't want 690 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:15,200 to replace this. This is part of the history of the house. 691 00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,720 It has so many bashes on that, that every mark tells a story 692 00:41:19,720 --> 00:41:22,120 and I've got great affection towards this door knocker. 693 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,120 Everyone says, "Well, why don't you replace it with a new one?" 694 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,960 To me, this is absolutely fabulous. 695 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:34,240 The last few decades of the 19th century 696 00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:38,880 saw more urban expansion and more pressure groups springing up. 697 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:45,320 One in particular, though not directly concerned with old buildings, 698 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:49,560 would help shape the birth of the heritage movement. 699 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,080 The Commons Preservation Society 700 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:56,560 was dedicated to saving urban green open spaces 701 00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:57,840 from being built on. 702 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,040 Influential in the movement was the formidable 703 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:05,200 figure of Miss Octavia Hill. 704 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:10,880 As the Bishop of London said of her, "She spoke for half an hour. 705 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,480 "I never had such a beating in all my life." 706 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,840 Born to a family of Victorian philanthropists, 707 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:22,440 Hill began her life's mission buying a row of tenement houses 708 00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:26,840 and setting herself up as a landlady with a conscience. 709 00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:35,960 Her philosophy on housing was very much that people needed decent places to live 710 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:40,680 and needed then to take responsibility for those decent places to live. 711 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,800 So, she had no hesitation in throwing people out who didn't look after 712 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,720 their houses and who didn't work, 713 00:42:47,720 --> 00:42:51,560 and who were idle or inappropriate tenants, but if they did work 714 00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:55,560 and they did take responsibility, she was an incredibly good landlord, 715 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:58,280 and she knew all her tenants intimately by name, 716 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:01,960 she took interest in them, she tried to get jobs for the children, 717 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:06,280 and to give them a sense of, you know, decent lives. 718 00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,480 She was quite remarkable for her time, 719 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,720 you know, dealing with people in a way that women simply didn't. 720 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:19,200 Even today, Hill inspires a devoted following. 721 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,880 In Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire, Hill's birthplace, 722 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:29,160 another performance of An Evening With Octavia Hill is about to begin. 723 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,680 Linda Ekins, Jo Sherry and Lorraine Carver 724 00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:39,520 assume the identities of Hill, her sister and a close friend. 725 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:41,960 You were a bit emotional then, weren't you? 726 00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:44,120 I know, I had to write her another letter 727 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:47,560 to explain why I was in such a state, so that she wouldn't worry. 728 00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:53,560 Seeing the letters, I found that I could actually get an insight 729 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:58,120 into her personality and the characters that she interacted with. 730 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:02,360 You know, these poor people would benefit from open spaces, 731 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:03,640 to help them feel human. 732 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:11,280 I think she was a selfless person who saw a need 733 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:16,120 and knew what to do about it, and went ahead and did it. 734 00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:21,360 I think we want four things - 735 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:26,120 places to sit in, places to play in, 736 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:31,240 places to stroll in and places to spend a day in. 737 00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:35,880 When it came to doing something that she was passionate about, 738 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,320 when she was campaigning, when she was writing letters, 739 00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:43,040 when she was meeting people and talking about the things 740 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,680 that she wanted to do, she didn't stand for any nonsense. 741 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:52,520 "Give the fountain, you who will have the sea, plant the plane trees, 742 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:57,360 "place the seats, you, to whom the woodlands will soon be accessible. 743 00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,560 "You, who know that soon, below your feet, 744 00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:05,280 "will lie stretched the whole expanse of the sunlighted plain 745 00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:12,080 "and over whose head will bend the great space of fair summer sky. 746 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:17,120 "I am, sir, yours truly, Octavia Hill." 747 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:23,520 The biggest battles were inevitably in the most overcrowded cities, 748 00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:27,920 so the battle to save inner London green spaces was the toughest. 749 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,840 Hill lost her fight to save Swiss Cottage Fields, 750 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,880 but she resolved to fight harder. 751 00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,000 She managed to save, in London, 752 00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,760 Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields from development and, today, 753 00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:44,760 those are two hugely loved areas. 754 00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:50,600 Visitors to London can hardly imagine Hampstead Heath not being there. 755 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,760 When Octavia Hill started trying to save Hampstead Heath, 756 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:58,880 she was widely felt to be getting in the way of capitalist progress. 757 00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,360 She was doing something terrible, but she believed very strongly 758 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,880 that there was such a thing as philanthropy. 759 00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:10,520 The humorous magazine Punch depicted Hill's Open Spaces 760 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:14,360 campaign showing the urban poor in rapture. 761 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,440 Not to Hill herself, 762 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:21,120 but the rather more seductive figure of Nature personified. 763 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:25,760 Such successes spurred her on. 764 00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:30,840 On 16 November 1893, 765 00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:34,480 at the offices of the Commons Preservation Society 766 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:38,920 in Great College Street, Westminster, Octavia Hill, 767 00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:43,040 together with Lake District cleric Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley 768 00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,960 and post office solicitor Robert Hunter, 769 00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:49,160 hosted a meeting for the great and the good. 770 00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,800 Their aim - to set up an organisation that would address 771 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:57,760 the plight of historic sites and natural scenery. 772 00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,440 It would be called the National Trust. 773 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,680 THUNDER CRASHES 774 00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:12,120 Today, we associate the trust with country houses. 775 00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:15,760 At the start, its focus was more radical - 776 00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:20,280 to loosen the stranglehold of private ownership on the countryside 777 00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:22,000 and increase public access. 778 00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:28,320 One of the trust's first big campaigns was to save 779 00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,840 part of the Lake District from development. 780 00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:35,920 Brandelhow on the shores of Derwentwater in Cumbria. 781 00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:41,240 There is nothing a hot bath can't sort out here, is there? 782 00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:47,280 In order to acquire the Brandelhow Park in the Lake District, 783 00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:50,800 the trust needed to raise about �6,500 in about six months. 784 00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:57,920 They took their rattling cans to the cities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, 785 00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,360 and they were gathering donations from ordinary working people 786 00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:05,280 who were desperate to have places to go tramping at the weekend. 787 00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:07,840 They received money, lots of money, this way. 788 00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:13,000 That is the site of Manesty salt well 789 00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:19,600 and this was in continuous use as a spa, believe it or not. 790 00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,720 I should imagine, on a nice day, it would look... 791 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:26,280 To relax and look around, but, on a day like today, perhaps not. 792 00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,360 Octavia Hill, together with Rawnsley and Hunter, 793 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:36,160 used the Lake District campaign to put the National Trust on the map. 794 00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,280 It's gorgeous, isn't it? It meets the eye. 795 00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:42,120 You come round that bend and, suddenly, 796 00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:45,080 you are presented with this magnificent view. 797 00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:48,240 It takes a bit of imagination on a day like this. 798 00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:50,160 So far, so good. 799 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:55,200 In addition to the support from factory workers and miners, 800 00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,640 there was backing from the most influential, too, 801 00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:02,840 not least in the shape of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise. 802 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:09,840 It was an early example of how the cause of heritage can make for unexpected bedfellows. 803 00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,560 Here we are. We are surrounded by four oak trees. 804 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,560 They each represent one of the three founding members 805 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:23,000 of the National Trust, plus Princess Louise, who was here 806 00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:26,080 when Brandelhow woods were handed over to the National Trust. 807 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:27,800 She was part of that ceremony. 808 00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,000 Brandelhow was safe. 809 00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:36,880 The infant National Trust was all about landscape, 810 00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:41,840 but then, almost by accident, buildings were on the agenda. 811 00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:47,120 From a small church in Sussex, an anxious vicar put pen to paper. 812 00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:53,080 He had begged the trust to rescue a broken-down medieval building 813 00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:57,120 known locally as Alfriston Clergy House. 814 00:49:57,120 --> 00:49:59,400 The trust was keen. 815 00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:03,360 It represented another rapidly disappearing part of the landscape - 816 00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:05,720 the rural domestic dwelling. 817 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:12,120 There was this real sense of the vernacular buildings being lost. 818 00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,920 Alfriston Clergy House was strongly felt to 819 00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:16,560 be in need of saving. 820 00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:18,240 It was in terrible condition. 821 00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:24,720 The baby National Trust was able to buy it for �10. 822 00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:28,320 It has cost a lot more since then, I can tell you. 823 00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:32,480 Alongside the open spaces was this strong sense of the importance 824 00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:36,120 of vernacular architecture and nobody else being able to save it. 825 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:41,320 The National Trust would choose its now world-famous oak leaf symbol 826 00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:45,920 from a finely carved detail on one of the building's medieval timbers. 827 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:53,320 But, alas, not many buildings or open spaces came as cheap as �10. 828 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,760 Five years after the trust was formed, its membership 829 00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,640 and its resources were still pitifully small. 830 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,040 A new century dawned. 831 00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,920 Queen Victoria died in 1901, and the era promised change 832 00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:16,680 and modernity. Time to forget the past and look ahead. 833 00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:23,360 Across the Atlantic, a young and vibrant economy was on the rise. 834 00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,840 In America, self-made millionaires were in the mood to found 835 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,480 a dynasty or two. 836 00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:33,800 What better way than going shopping in ye olde England! 837 00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:37,480 There were plenty of people keen to sell. 838 00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:41,440 Ancient architectural features and half-timbered medieval buildings 839 00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:44,640 were bought up and shipped across to the States. 840 00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:51,880 The cause of British heritage was in need of a new champion. 841 00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:01,000 Not this time a backbench MP hampered by Parliament, 842 00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,920 nor the well-meaning folk of charitable pressure groups, 843 00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,800 but a heavyweight. 844 00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:10,720 Enter the former Viceroy of India 845 00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:14,320 and High Tory, Lord Curzon of Kedleston. 846 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,760 Nathaniel George Curzon had enjoyed a typically harsh 847 00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:24,160 but privileged aristocratic childhood. 848 00:52:24,160 --> 00:52:29,040 His superior bearing even inspired poetry. 849 00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:33,280 'My name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person. 850 00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:35,520 'My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek, 851 00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,400 'I dine at Blenheim twice a week.' 852 00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:45,080 Curzon had been Viceroy from 1899 to 1905 and, in those six years, 853 00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:49,320 he had enjoyed absolute power over the lives of more people than 854 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:52,640 any other ruler on Earth. 855 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:57,400 In his time in India, he also worked tirelessly to save beautiful 856 00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:00,320 and ancient structures all over India, 857 00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:02,520 including the Taj Mahal. 858 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:08,280 Curzon had introduced into India 859 00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,160 protections that didn't exist in England. 860 00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:17,800 When he left, as Viceroy, Nehru was to say of him, 861 00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:21,920 "After memories of all the other viceroys have vanished, 862 00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:25,880 "Curzon will be remembered because he cared for all that is beautiful in India." 863 00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:32,920 Back in Britain, it wasn't long before Curzon's blood was up. 864 00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:37,560 One of the most important buildings in the country was in peril. 865 00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:42,880 The rare and wonderful brick-built medieval castle at Tattershall 866 00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:47,160 in Lincolnshire was up for sale, and the Americans were sniffing round. 867 00:53:50,240 --> 00:53:54,240 Tattershall had been in decline for centuries. 868 00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:59,640 It had even been used as a cowshed and, by the 20th century, 869 00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:02,560 the moats been filled in. 870 00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:08,280 The castle keep was pretty much all that was left 871 00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:10,080 and demolition looked likely. 872 00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:15,600 But its greatest treasures were still intact - 873 00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:19,880 the huge medieval fireplaces, with their fine carving. 874 00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,920 In 1910, the castle came up for sale. 875 00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,000 An American syndicate looked interested 876 00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:35,640 and one American buyer bought the fireplaces. 877 00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:40,760 They were torn out and hacked up, 878 00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,240 ready to be shipped to the United States. 879 00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:48,040 We're not sure what was going to happen to the rest of the castle. 880 00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:50,720 One story was that one of these American gentleman wanted it 881 00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:52,320 dismantled brick by brick 882 00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:55,560 and transported to the States, which I think would have been quite 883 00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:58,960 an undertaking, given the size of the building. 884 00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:02,040 Letters appeared in the Times newspaper. 885 00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:05,480 There was still a chance to buy back the castle. 886 00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:08,520 But the infant National trust couldn't afford it. 887 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:12,600 It was Curzon's moment to raise the conscience of the British Establishment. 888 00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:16,680 Lord Curzon stepped in at the last minute. 889 00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:20,080 He, literally, was given a 24-hour window of opportunity, 890 00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,120 after which the fireplaces were gone 891 00:55:22,120 --> 00:55:24,480 and the castle would no longer be available. 892 00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:28,600 He paid the princely sum of �2,750 for the castle 893 00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:30,400 and the eight acres of land. 894 00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:36,280 Although the fire surrounds had already been carted away, 895 00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:41,600 Curzon was determined to intercept them and bring them back. 896 00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:45,200 He used his power as an MP, some say, to have all the docks 897 00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,920 and the harbours in the country watched and monitored. 898 00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:52,520 It was all very elusive and dark and sinister what had happened to them. 899 00:55:54,720 --> 00:55:58,960 At the 11th hour, the fire surrounds were discovered in a mews 900 00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:03,040 in the East End of London and brought back to the castle. 901 00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:06,360 They were paraded triumphantly through Tattershall village 902 00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:08,240 to much local rejoicing. 903 00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:16,440 Curzon felt at last the time had come for Parliament to take effective action. 904 00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:21,760 Curzon, more or less single-handedly, 905 00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:26,080 guided through Parliament a bill that was intended to stop 906 00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:30,200 the desecration of a building like Tattershall Castle ever happening again. 907 00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:37,640 In March 1913, the Ancient Monuments and Amendments Act was passed, 908 00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:42,200 giving the Government real powers to act when ancient monuments 909 00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:44,600 and medieval buildings were at risk. 910 00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:52,520 Curzon's bill - and I think it was his bill - 911 00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:56,440 enabled the Government, through a complex procedure, to step in 912 00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:00,560 and prevent a private owner from desecrating an ancient monument. 913 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:04,160 Of course, it reintroduced the idea of compulsion. 914 00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:08,160 The idea that was originally in Lubbock's act and had been biffed 915 00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,160 by everybody in Parliament because they thought it was intolerable. 916 00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,000 That was put back in. That was a very big change. 917 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:19,680 Appropriately, John Lubbock, 918 00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:25,280 the MP who had started it all lived to see the bill become law, 919 00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:27,440 dying just two months later. 920 00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:30,960 As he had always wanted, 921 00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:36,320 now landowners who abused the ancient monuments and medieval buildings in their care 922 00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:40,800 could be forced to repair them or be fined. 923 00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:44,320 Unpaid fines could even lead to imprisonment. 924 00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:53,280 At last, Britain had taken steps to protect its heritage. Even so, 925 00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,120 the legislation excluded anything built later than the medieval age 926 00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:00,080 and any inhabited building. 927 00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:04,840 Some people saw it as little more than a ruins charter, 928 00:58:04,840 --> 00:58:11,360 but, at last, the freedom to do what you liked as a landowner was over. 929 00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:18,440 In next week's programme, the clever men from the Ministry 930 00:58:18,440 --> 00:58:22,360 who put the Ancient Monuments Act into practice after World War I... 931 00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:27,640 ..the revolutionary impact of the motorised lawnmower... 932 00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:33,600 ..the fight to save the English country house... 933 00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:37,840 and Hitler's plan to destroy Britain's best buildings. 934 00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:44,920 To find out how English Heritage is celebrating 100 years 935 00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:47,120 of protecting the past, visit... 936 00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:15,400 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd