Archive lectures and events

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.000
And good afternoon, everyone. I'm just going to share my screen with you.

00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:42.000
So hopefully everyone can see that rather a boring title slide, I'm afraid. Get to know the summer sky.

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:49.000
Well, yes, summer and perhaps what's going on in this country at the moment don't really go sort of hand in hand.

00:00:49.000 --> 00:01:02.000
But you never know things should change and there has been a few sort of clear nights. Recently, so fingers crossed, and I'll be able to point out to you this afternoon, some of the things that you might be able to see in the summer sky.

00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:09.000
So I'm going to look at the main constellations on view.

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:23.000
And you can, you know, see various lie and perhaps a bit of mythology behind these. And we're also, again, this is weather permitting, get some tips on how to observe a good meteor shower.

00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:33.000
So that's what I proposed to do this afternoon. Now the good news is from the astronomy point of view is that the nights are getting longer.

00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000
Because on the first of August, which was what yes, no, Tuesday wasn't hit. Okay.

00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.000
These are times from Leicester, but they're not going to vary too much over the, UK.

00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:51.000
Sunrise was at 5 23 sunset, 2057 giving us over 15 and a half hours of daylight.

00:01:51.000 --> 00:02:02.000
But by the end of the month sunrises after 60'clock sunset is just before 80'clock and the amount of daylight has been reduced to about 14 and 3 quarters hours.

00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:08.000
And then of course in September it'll be the solstice round about the third week in September.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.000
So, said from the astronomy point of view, things are looking up because the nights are getting longer.

00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:18.000
But if you're still after your nice long days of summer, maybe it's not such good news.

00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:28.000
Now let's just start off with the moon. And the moon is always a fascinating object to look at through binoculars or a small telescope.

00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000
And even with the unaided I, you can start to identify some of the features on here. You can get lots of maps.

00:02:32.000 --> 00:03:02.000
This off the internet. Showing the disc of the moon with the dark areas the maria so-called seas which of course you know not seize their lava hate planes in filled impact craters on the moon, but you can start to learn the names of some of these and I suppose the one that people are most interested in is the C of Tranquility, the MAHRE,

00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:21.000
tranquillity artist, and it's that one there. Okay. Now at the moment we've just passed full moon so that's virtually the view you'll get of the moon if you look at it the moment and if you've got some binoculars you should be able to identify at least a couple of the brighter craters on the moon.

00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:33.000
One of them is this one, That's the pole, southern area. And that's a very bright take crater called Tyco.

00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:49.000
And Tyco has got these rays emanating off it that go for hundreds of kilometers across the lunar landscape and these white rays are streaks that were formed when bit of space rock, large piece of space rock impacted on the moon.

00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:57.000
And the material underneath was this much paler color than the outer layers. So that's Tyco.

00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:16.000
And there's also this crater here, Copernicus, which again you should be able to see and you know both of those at the moment but get yourself if you're interested in me get yourself a chat like this sent from the internet or book Only phone even when you go outside and start start to learn some of the C's.

00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:24.000
Now, there's been a lot in the press recently about The

00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:38.000
Because this month August The first of August was a full known. And the 30 first of August at the end of the month is another full move and these are well sort of special formats that what we call Perry G.

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.000
Falms because Perigee is the point in the moon's orbit where it's closest to Earth.

00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.000
I'm just going to advance the slide a bit. I'll come back to that slide again in a minute.

00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.000
But obviously there's a somewhat exaggerated view of the moon's orbit around the Earth. It's elliptical.

00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.000
So the distance varies. So this is sort of perjy when it's at the closest point.

00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:15.000
And the other point is, when it said it's furthest point. And in August the 2 new moons occur when the moons are Not exactly at the perity point, but it's a you know, pretty close to the earth.

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:30.000
And there's a lot going on about this in the press at the moment. Because we're getting what we called a super moon because, because the means closer to us, it does appear to be somewhat bigger and brighter.

00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:42.000
I must tell you that Super Moon has got no precise astronomical definition. It's the term that just seems to have gone into, everyday English.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:49.000
But I mean, if you are interested in these things, and what an astronomer would call this, is a perji, sizzy,y events or a perjury full moment.

00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:55.000
But, anyway, we'll stick with suprem in because everyone knows what we're talking about.

00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:00.000
But the other term you're going to hear a lot about. Towards the end of the month is Blue Moon.

00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.000
Now, in everyday English, we talk about, you know, something occurring in a blue, is something that doesn't occur very often.

00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:18.000
And again, I don't think Blue Moon has got a precise astronomical definition. But nowadays it's taken as meaning the second full moon in a calendar month.

00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:29.000
So here, first of all, just. 30 first August. So the moon, full moon on the 30 first of August will be a blue moon.

00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:37.000
So there's the diagram again. Just to show you this difference in size, probably to the casual observer.

00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:48.000
It's probably not too sort of recognizable. This difference when we get a full moon at perj, this close point and apogee when it's furthest away.

00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:58.000
But if you, you know, take photographs under similar conditions, it turns out that the perj, full moon, so the one we're experiencing, this month.

00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:06.000
Is about 14% bigger than an apogee full moon. But remember the full moon is still pretty bright.

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:12.000
You know, to say a casual observer, it's probably not going to appear too different.

00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:19.000
Now let's just have a look at, this, oh, you know, full sky chart.

00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:30.000
And this is 11 pm at the start of August. And, you can see, well, it's a bit boring really from the planet's point of view.

00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:38.000
Because the only planets that will be on view And, you know, when it gets dark tonight is the planet, which is down there.

00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:50.000
And I mean, Saturn, which is down there. And I mean, Saturn's got a wonderful set of rings, as you know, it's not a particularly bright planet.

00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:55.000
You know, we've been spoiled over the last few months with Venus and Jupiter, but don't worry, they'll be back.

00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:01.000
The only thing I would say is that the area of the sky where Saturn is at the moment.

00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:11.000
It's against these rather faint this fake constellation of Aquarius. And Saturn will be brighter than any of those background stars.

00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.000
But I'll say a bit more about Sutton in a minute, okay? Yes, in fact, I'll say it now.

00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:26.000
Because Saturn reaches what we call opposition. On the 20 seventh of August. Now, what do we mean by opposition?

00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:38.000
Well, it's a term that, and ignore these other terms here. This is the one I'm interested in. Opposition.

00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:48.000
There's the sun. There's the Earth. And there is our planet at opposition. And only planets that are further from the sun than the Earth is, can reach opposition.

00:08:48.000 --> 00:09:02.000
So that means that Mercury and Venus can't. Because when a planet like Saturn is at opposition then the sun, the earth and the moon have got this sort of exact you know, 3 body lineup.

00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:09.000
And it means that the sun and the planet are opposite each other in the sky as seen from the earth.

00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:20.000
So what it means is that our planet rises as the sun sets. It's above the, horizon for all the hours of darkness.

00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.000
And it means that our planet sets as the sun rises the following morning. So it really is the best time to observe.

00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:50.000
A planet that's further from the earth and the sun because the planet is above the horizon visible but all over all the hours of darkness now that doesn't mean that you're only going to get good views of Saturn on the 20 seventh August, you know, that's not true, but you know in the weeks leading up to opposition and the weeks afterwards, then it will be a good time to look for

00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:57.000
Saturn. And just out of interest, Jupiter is going to be in the same position on the third of November.

00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:06.000
And we'll see in a minute if you wanted to see jupiter now where you could look for it okay So that's some Saturn.

00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:13.000
On the 20 seventh of August. Now, this was a picture. I got off a website called space weather.

00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:19.000
Dot com that was taken 2 or 3 days ago of Saturn. But obviously this is a telescopic view.

00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:29.000
And you do need a telescope to see the rings of Saturn. And, you know, so at the moment getting nice views of the planet itself and, the rings.

00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:37.000
And that's not really going to change month over over the next few months. Now, if you think, well, I want to see, Saturn's rings, but I don't have a telescope.

00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:50.000
Why not get in touch with your local astronomical society? Because I'm sure that they will have them observing sessions whereby and they'd be more than happy to show you, Saturn through their telescopes.

00:10:50.000 --> 00:11:01.000
There's nothing more an amateur astronomer likes. Then, you know, inviting someone to look through that telescope and being wild by the image.

00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:08.000
What about the other planets? Well, Mercury really forget it at the moment, but in late, mid to late September.

00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:14.000
Prepared to get up, and, you can get a good view in the morning before sunrise.

00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:29.000
Venus has been absolutely. In the evening sky, that very bright object that there, but it's effectively disappeared from the evening sky now.

00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:33.000
However, by September, again, in the evening sky now, but it's effectively disappeared from the evening sky now.

00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:37.000
However, by September, again, in the morning sky, look before sunrise and it'll be there bright and Mars has disappeared into the morning sky look before sunrise and it'll be they're bright and.

00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.000
However, by September, again, in the morning sky look before sunrise and it'll be there bright and Mars has disappeared into the twilight and you're not really going to get any decent views of miles until next year.

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:50.000
So we won't say anything else about that. But, this business about September and Mercury and Venus.

00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.000
I'm just going to show you a chart. This is about the third week in September.

00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:06.000
About 5 am. Now this is looking over towards the east. So, you know, some. Will be rising fairly soon.

00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000
But there, you will get Mercury and Venus. Venus again will be spectacularly bright.

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:17.000
Mercury is also bright, but the problem with mercury is it's always sort of fairly low down.

00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.000
But I think in this time in September it's going to reach about the highest position in the sky.

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:28.000
It can get. So again, I think if you know you're interested in looking for this.

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:35.000
Look on, various websites. Later on if you've got an app on your phone, it'll tell you exactly where to look for it, okay?

00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:47.000
So, but anyway, you know, come, you know, say third week in September. Oh, we've now got the chance to see 3 planets, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.

00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:55.000
Jupiter will be bright, very bright, Venus will be even brighter, but Mercury is, it is quite bright.

00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:02.000
But, you know, it's, it's always fairly low down. Use binoculars to find it.

00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.000
But of course, if the sun has risen, you must not use those binoculars.

00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:21.000
Now, what else is coming up? Well, the, meet your shower. Now, again, I think this going to be quite a bit about this in the press over the next week or so and they will almost certainly mention it on the weather forecast.

00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:29.000
So we're going to have a look at that. Again, to save, you know, watch what part of the sky and when and what time you can look for it.

00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:44.000
And this is a photograph that was taken. Well, I think this was taken from California. I got this off the space weather website, but it's a very bright meteor or shooting star if you like leaving a trail.

00:13:44.000 --> 00:14:00.000
So, no, so with the If you go out and look at the sky, you know, you're out there for any length of time, you're unlucky not to see a shooting star or meteor.

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:07.000
And of course they're not stars. It's a minute speck of dust. A cosmic material called a meteoroid.

00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:13.000
Which well, say, burns up. That's the term that's often used. It really vaporizing.

00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:21.000
Doing its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and it produces a streak of light that we call a meteor.

00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:31.000
And as I said, you go out on any night. Then you'd be unlocking not to see one if you're out there for some length of time.

00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:38.000
But at certain times of the year, we see more of these. And this is what we call a meteor shower, which is what I'm going to talk about.

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:47.000
But let's just clarify something, first of all. These terms that astronomers use meteoroid, meteor, meteorite.

00:14:47.000 --> 00:15:00.000
Because often hear people they say to me oh I saw a bright meteorite through the sky last night sorry you didn't But hopefully, after a minute or so, you'll see why that statement is wrong.

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.000
It's the trouble these words, they, you know, look pretty similar but they are.

00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:16.000
They are different to phenomena, but if you like the origin is the same. Now, a meteoroid, it's a small rocky on the metallic body in space.

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:23.000
You know, can be as small as a, you know, brain of dust up to, you know, they say about a meter wide, something like that.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:33.000
But they are bodies that are actually in space, okay? And you can also get micro meteoroids which are really tiny.

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:38.000
Pieces of space dust and often find that some spacecraft, you know, collide with these.

00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:52.000
The James Webb telescope, and soon after it was, in operation a number of micro meteoroids crashed into the, the mirror.

00:15:52.000 --> 00:16:02.000
And produce tiny little dense so we're well aware of that okay so a meteoroid is one of these.

00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:21.000
Objects when it's still in space. Now, if our meteoroid gets close enough to the Earth, says it enters into the atmosphere, it begins to bake price or burn up, okay, and fall to the ground and the trail it produces, that's the meteor, the shooting style.

00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:29.000
Now, the meteorite. If the meteoroid rock doesn't completely burn up as it falls to Earth.

00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:39.000
Then the rock that's left behind is called a meteorite. So our meteorite would probably have to be you know fairly large.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:49.000
For you know the pieces to survive. And you know going to probably any you know museum in this country.

00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:59.000
Then you might find that it's got a collection of meeting rights. In the Leicestershire area that's famous for the bar well meteorite.

00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:06.000
But more recently, I think during lockdown, there was, a meteorite that fell on Winchcombe in Gloucestershire.

00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.000
And this is really exciting because it seems to be a very sort of primeval type of meteorite and there's lots of studies going on on that.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:20.000
But if you go to the Natural History Museum in London, again, they've got a good meteorite collection there.

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:31.000
That's the wrong. Okay. The differences between those terms. So we're going to be talking about the person of meteor shower and this reaches the height of its activity in mid August.

00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:42.000
And this year, the Percy of Meteor shower, the peak of it, so when you're likely to see the greatest number of meteors.

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.000
Because in the early hours of the morning of Sunday the thirteenth of August. That's not this coming Sunday.

00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:56.000
So Sunday after. So that means that the nights of the twelfth of the thirteenth, so Saturday 12 to Sunday the thirteenth.

00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:04.000
You know the following Sunday the thirteenth to and the night of that to the early hours of Monday the fourteenth.

00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:09.000
You know, get out there and have a look because, where we've already commented on the weather in this country.

00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:20.000
You know you just have to take your chance. And it also means that you don't get exclusively on those.

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.000
A bit earlier on, you know, the tenth to the eleventh or later on the fifteenth, the sixteenth, get out there and look.

00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:34.000
But because you should be able to see something. Now, the other good news this year is that the moon won't interfere.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:41.000
Cause sometimes with the, it's a full moon and that drums out all but the brightest.

00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:49.000
So things are looking good this year. Moonlight won't interfere because there's a last quarter phase on the eighth of August.

00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:56.000
And a new moon on the sixteenth. So what do we mean by last quarter? Well, it's this shape moon.

00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:07.000
Okay, so this is the. Moon that will you know, rise, you know, after, you know, midnight.

00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:16.000
And you know it's only half the moon there so But that's not going to worry us.

00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:30.000
Now what causes a meteor shower? Well, a meet your shower, because when the earth passes through the dust that spread out, from the debris trail that's left by a comet as it orbits the sun.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:36.000
And the particular comet that gives rise to the Percy of meteors. Is that, well, 1 9 P.

00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:46.000
Swift Tuttle. P means it's a periodic comet so it's a comment that's been, you know, we've been observing it, being around the sun a number of times.

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:55.000
And 109 is just 109 on the list. Swift and Tuttle are the 2 people who discovered it.

00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:05.000
And, time it just represents when we're in the densest part of the dust string and I'll have a slide for that in a minute, okay?

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:15.000
And the actual peak, you know, can vary the time that can vary a bit. But, you know, I think we're gonna be good for the early hours of Sunday thirteenth.

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:30.000
Now, one of the term that's used is Radiant. Because if you were to sit outside with a style chart and every time you saw a meteor you drew something on your star chart.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:40.000
Then you see something like that, okay? You get these trails of the And if you sort of dotted all these lines back.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:45.000
You'd find they'd intersect at the same point. And this point is called the radiant.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:53.000
So the radiant is the point in space. From which all the, appeared to originate here to emanate.

00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:01.000
And the name of the shower. Takes its name from the constellation in which the radiant appears.

00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:11.000
So we know that the, meteors, that radiant is in the constellation of. Yes, yes.

00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:22.000
And this is perhaps a better chart. So you need to look northeast and you can start looking. As soon as it gets dark, so look northeast.

00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:30.000
And I'm sure most people are familiar with the W shape of the constellation of Cassia Pear.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:36.000
Well, look beneath that and then you've got Perseus there.

00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:44.000
Like that, and you'll also see just sort of coming down like that. A very bright star called Capella.

00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:54.000
It'll be low down early on as you start observing. But as the time goes on, capella and in fact all the other styles will rise higher in the sky.

00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:03.000
So that's how you can find it. And then just look down. And then I'll see it again.

00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:16.000
Well, I can't guarantee you're gonna see anything like that, but. Yes. Just going back to this idea about the comet, the parent comment is called Swift Tuttle.

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:33.000
And the orbital period of this is 133 years and the comic was discovered independently by 2 American astronomers, you see 3 days apart, 1862, July sixteenth and July the nineteenth, Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle.

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:46.000
And Lewis Swift, well he was a busy man. They discovered 13 comets and numerous and he discovered his last comic when he was aged 79.

00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:53.000
And he was one of the few people to see Halle's Comet. At 2 of its appearances, 76 years apart.

00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:59.000
So that means he would have seen it at the 1910 appearance. So that was 3 years before he died.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:05.000
And I'll let you work out when the other one was you can take 76 from 19.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:21.000
Let's see. Tuttle and he was a US astronomer and we've got quite a distinguished, and we've got quite a distinguished, military and a naval career and he fought in the American, military and naval career and he fought in the American Civil War.

00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:31.000
No, let's just, look at this. Okay, so. This here, well, there's the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:40.000
And this is the dust trail that's left by a comet. Comets have very elliptical orbits like that.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:48.000
And you know they pass around the sun numerous times they shed dust material and this spreads out over the orbit.

00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:55.000
So you can see that. You know, well, at moment. Next week. This is where the Earth is.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:06.000
With respect to the. Trail left by Swift Tuttle. So it's starting to plough through back to dust trail.

00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.000
Now you might think, well, does that mean we're gonna get some more, when the Earth crosses there?

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:18.000
I think occasionally that can happen, but not with Swift Tuttle. Because, the orbit of Swift Tuttle.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:27.000
Only crosses the orbit of the Earth once because Corby's and comets rather got quite different orbits from those of planets.

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:38.000
They are highly elliptical. And also very inclined. To the plane of the orbits of the other planets in the solar system.

00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:46.000
So here's some Swift title crossing the Earth's all bit. But you can see it didn't cross it over.

00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:49.000
It's not even that's all bit there, is it, but it's not crossing it over there.

00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:55.000
And that's where Swift Tuttle was about 3 years ago. So, you know, it's just moved around a bit.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:04.000
So it's probably approaching, you know, the furthest point in it's all bit from the sun over the next few years.

00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:12.000
Okay, so just clarify that bit about the radiant again in Perseus.

00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:15.000
No.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Why did we get this radiant then? Why do all the meteors appear to come from the same point in the sky?

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:34.000
Because actually these dust particles when we can regard them as traveling in essentially parallel paths when they hit the earth.

00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:40.000
So why do we see them like this? Well, it's a perspective effect. Why we say this.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:50.000
Now if you think, because if you've got parallel lines and you're looking down those parallel lines, then in the distance they appear to converge.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:57.000
And this is a railway line. I don't recommend of course that you stand on a railway line but say you were to stand on a motorway bridge.

00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:02.000
Where you've got the, you know, 2 lanes. Oh, sorry, 2 sides of the, the sort of motorway stretching ahead of you.

00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:20.000
You know that they're parallel, but they will converge at a point. So that's why these, meteors, although they're traveling in parallel paths, then as an observer on the earth, because they're so far away.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000
They appear to all emanate from this point called the radiant.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:35.000
Okay, so how do you see that? Well, I would wrap up well because, even in the summer, you know, even a nice warm summer night, it can get quite chilly.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:45.000
Take a, you know, flask out with you as well. Make sure you're sitting somewhere comfortable some sort of reclining chair Look northeast when it gets dark.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:53.000
And obviously find a dark location away from stray light. Best to go out of course with other people from you know the safety point of view but also the camaraderie.

00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:05.000
Point of view as well. Because you've sitting there for a while you haven't seen many meteors nice if you can sort of have a chat and encourage each other.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:14.000
And the thing is don't just stare at the radiant. So that point in Perseus, don't just look at that.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:24.000
Because, let me just, I'll go back here, okay? That's the radiance there.

00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:31.000
Your eyes are fixed on that point. You might miss any material that's there or there or there. Okay.

00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:39.000
So what you need to do is just scan the surrounding area. You know, Perseus and you know just keep on looking around like that.

00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.000
So good luck. And to say we are very much so in the lap of the weather gods.

00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:51.000
But, hopefully, hopefully it's going to be a, you know, slightly better by the end of next week.

00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:59.000
Okay. So it's Saturday, sorry, Sunday, thirteenth of August. But go out on the Saturday nights and make yourself comfortable.

00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:15.000
And, if you do take a style chart out with you. Then, make sure you've got a red torch to, illuminate that chart because otherwise you will ruin what we call your dark adaptation.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:22.000
And yeah, as soon as you go out, if you go from somewhere really bright and sit down, don't expect to see loads of stars in the sky.

00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:30.000
You've got to give your eyes time to condition themselves to the lower light levels.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Right. Okay. So there's.

00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:53.000
That's what, yeah, that's where Perseus is at the, beginning of the month, 7 pm, but of course over, you know, to the next morning it's going to rise higher in the sky and that of course will make it a bit easier to see some of the meetings.

00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:03.000
And I'll say a bit more later on about the constellation of Perseus itself. But let's have a look at perhaps one of the well known features of the summer sky.

00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.000
And that is something called the summer. Trying. There. Okay.

00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:15.000
It's a bright triangle of stars in the south. That's and it's not actually a constellation.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:24.000
It's what we call an asterism, just a pattern in the sky, a bit like the plow is a pattern, not an actual constellation.

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:33.000
And the 3 styles that make up the, the triangle. Of these Dennett, which is in the constellation of Cygnus.

00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.000
The swan? Vega, which is in the constellation of Lyra, the liar.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:47.000
And, which is on the in the constellation of aquila. The eagle.

00:29:47.000 --> 00:30:01.000
And, you know, if you go out, But, 110'clock, so you know, when you're out looking at the you know, just look, overhead.

00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:06.000
And you know, perhaps just turn around to the south and Denb and Vega pretty much overhead.

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:14.000
And Vega is really the brightest star in that particular region of the sky at that time. Okay, so you'll make up this triangle.

00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:19.000
Alta is the faintest of the 3, but it's still, you know, quite easy to find, okay?

00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:27.000
So, and, as it says here, the triangle points south. So look to the sort of south and.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:35.000
You should be able to see the summer triangle. And here's a photograph of, it's an actual photograph, if you can see that.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:40.000
Of the stalls. There's DENNED there.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:53.000
There's Vega. And there's Alter down the bottom. And you know, Denip is part of the Cygnus, the Swan, the Northern Cross.

00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:00.000
So you can see the sort of cross shape there. I'll say a bit more about Cygnus in a minute.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000
And there's Vega there with the liar. Yeah. In a quid of the eagle, okay.

00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:17.000
So there's the triangle there. No, it's quite easy to do. Astrophotography, you know, some smartphones are certainly quite a few smartphones these days are certainly, you know, good enough to do that.

00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:33.000
Or you can do it with a, you know, digital, you know, and this was another photo with a longer exposure time Same area of the sky.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:39.000
Dennett, Vega, and Alta. But you can see it's bringing out far more of the background stars.

00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:48.000
And also you can see some sort of How do you miss, that's the Milky Way.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:54.000
You do need to be in a dark spot really to see that with certainly with the naked eye.

00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:55.000
And what you're looking at there is the sort of concentrated light from many, many millions of.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:04.000
You know, towards the most central regions of our galaxy.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Oh, let's just say a bit about Cygnus, Swan. But let's have a bit of. Swan.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:17.000
But let's have a bit of mythology, first of all. Because sickness is, comes from the myth of Zeus.

00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:35.000
And the goddess Nemesis. Now, had been, chasing, nemesis, it got up to an awful lot of things like that, did Zeus, but in order to escape from him, Nemesis decided that she changed herself into different animals.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:45.000
And when she changed herself into a goose though. Zeus changed himself into a swamp. And obviously Nemesis didn't realize that the Swan was used.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:52.000
But anyway, Swan won the love of Nemesis. Okay. And then, ISIS then laid an egg and abandoned it.

00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.000
Unfortunately, a shepherd found the egg. And gave it to leader who was the wife of the king of Sparta.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:06.000
And from that egg came Helen of Troy and Helen was so beautiful that Leda claimed her as her own child.

00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:18.000
And in this, myth here, Cygnus the Swan, was formed to sort of celebrate, the Swan that, used to turn himself into.

00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:27.000
You know there's all sorts of different versions of this mythology so you may know something different.

00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:40.000
So now, so this a star map there. Showing the main stars in sickness the northern cross That's not an official name, but.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000
It's a good thing for it. And I'm just going to talk about a couple of these.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.000
About Dennip itself, one of the summer triangle styles. And then this one down here.

00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:05.000
The beta star which is alberio because i think i've mentioned in previous talks that some styles have got if you like proper names but all of these bright stars here have a Greek letter as a designation.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Now what about Dennett? Well, Dennip is one of the furthest stars that you can see with your naked eye.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:16.000
And we don't know exactly how far away it is for reasons that I won't go into.

00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:26.000
But it's very remote, maybe about 1,500 light years. But you know, other sources, between 1,200. 3,000.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:32.000
But I think round about the 1,500 mile is. The more accepted value these days.

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:42.000
And it's an enormous star and it's a very luminous star, you know, for us to see it when it's that distance away, it's got to be a real powerhouse.

00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:52.000
And estimates of the size of Denne again vary but if that represents the sun. Then that represents if you like an arc of the call of Den.

00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:59.000
It's enormous. Maybe 200 times the diameter of the sun. So, have a look at 10 of them.

00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:08.000
When you look at it, look, remember, you're looking at something that's very far away, but also something that's a very large star.

00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:13.000
Okay, so that's DENNI. And the other one I just want to say something about is this one here beta.

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:21.000
Which is called, And there is down there. Now, Alberio is one of the loveliest sites in the sky.

00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:30.000
When you look at it with your naked eye. And it's the main styles in the cross.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:35.000
You just see a single style. But if you put high magnification binoculars on it or a telescope, you'll see it's too styles and those stars are actually different colors.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:42.000
One's a sort of goldy, yellow color and the other one is a sort of bluey green.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:50.000
People do describe these colors in different ways because of course, you know, color description is quite subjective. But have a look at that.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:01.000
And again, if you don't have the equipment yourself, go along to your local astronomical society and tell them, please, you would like to see.

00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:19.000
So there it is. There, okay. Lyra, the, lia, well, in mythology, this was the liar of, And you know, he made such fantastic music.

00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:30.000
But even inanimate objects. You know, we're charmed by it. And he married a nymph called Eurydice, but she was killed when she stepped on a snake.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:35.000
And said to try and claim her back, Orpheus entered the underworld, playing his, liar.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:42.000
And Hades again was enchanted by his liar playing So he relented and he let Orpheus bring Eurydice back.

00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:55.000
To the upper world. But there was one condition, you mustn't look back. And always going well until basically the last few steps.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.000
Unfortunately Orpheus did look back. And so you were to see remained in the underworld.

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:09.000
And office was, you know, scrapped by grief. And despite the fact he had many marriage proposals, he never accepted them.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.000
So it's rather a sad story that isn't it? So, but anyway, there's the liar.

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:18.000
And there's Vega there. I think I've got a better slide of this in it.

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:24.000
Yeah, here we are. Let's Vega there. And you know, it is one of the brightest stars in the sky.

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:32.000
And this little quadrilateral that seems to be hanging off it there. They are much fainter stars.

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:37.000
But you know from a dark site you should be able to see them. And if you've got binoculars, get vagu in your binoculars and just sort of scan over that way.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:55.000
And you will see them and other objects. Now, Vake is full of, interest, sorry, not Vegas, Lyra, the constellation is full of interesting objects, but I'm just going to say something about Vega.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:01.000
It's the second brightest star that's visible in the northern hemisphere and it's pretty close to us.

00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:10.000
It's about 26 or 2526 light years away. So, you know, when you look at Vega tonight, the light left there.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:15.000
Just before the turn of the century to get to your eyes tonight. But it's a very hot star.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:25.000
It's a young blue star, but it's bigger than the sun. And you can see an estimate here of the different sizes of the 2 stars.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:35.000
So that's Vega. I'll leave that bit out. That the,

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:49.000
Well, sorry, A, the eagle. And you can make sure that it's out there because there are 2 site, 2 styles on either side of it's outer because there are 2 side, 2 styles on either side of it and an outer is in the middle.

00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:56.000
I look at one of the actual photographs in in a middle in the minute, but, this is based on a giant golden eagle.

00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:10.000
Which served as uses personal messenger and companion. but according to before he became an evil this was a mortal king named Perifas.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:20.000
Who was so virtuous that he came to be, it's you know honored by all of his subjects really as a god and Seuss got a bit upset about this.

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:27.000
And he was about to sort of You know, striking. The intervened and transformed the king into the eagle which we see today.

00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:40.000
So, there we are. So, Aquila is based on a very good person.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:48.000
Yeah, so, there we are. There's Alta there in the middle there. And there's the 2 stars on either side.

00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:56.000
Again, if you find out here, just depending on where you're observing from, you might want to just use binoculars too.

00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:59.000
Find those, okay?

00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:06.000
Okay, and again, I'll take it very close to us. It's about 1617 light years away.

00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:16.000
Bye, very bright blue star. And it's spinning rapidly. Okay, they actually, to be quite flattened.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:25.000
So have a look for those 3 stars in the triangle. Just one other little constellation I want to tell you about before we look at Perseus.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:28.000
And this is a constellation called Delphinus. The, the dolphin.

00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:35.000
Now, it's actually sort of quite faint stars, but they do make quite a distinctive pattern.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:43.000
And your eye is extremely good at sort of making patterns. Because if you look at this picture here, okay.

00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:52.000
There's Alter. And so it's the same song as we had before. So, and you've got Deb and Vega off the top of the screen.

00:40:52.000 --> 00:41:00.000
Now, when you find If you're somewhere dark. You better see this with your naked eye.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:10.000
Did it? Just scan slightly over in that direction and up a bit. And there's Delphinus, the dolphin.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:17.000
And I always think it looks like a flag on a flagpole, to the flag bit is find the opposite way around, okay, but it's quite distinctive.

00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.000
There's no mistaking it if you get it in your binoculars or in your naked eye, okay?

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.000
So, that's, you know, Delphi and, Delphinus was based upon a dolphin.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:39.000
That Poseidon sent to find, a nymph. And ask her to marry, Poseidon.

00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:45.000
And because of these surfaces, services, he placed the dolphin in the sky, which is fair enough, isn't it?

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:52.000
Now, to the stars in, Delphinus, interesting how they got their names.

00:41:52.000 --> 00:42:10.000
Because you've got the, alpha star here, okay. And the beta star there okay and The alpha star is called Sue, okay.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:17.000
Fair enough. And the beta star. Okay, it's called They seem strange names for stars. It's not based on any Arabic name like a lot of stars.

00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:34.000
So where did this come from? Well, this is an astronomer playing a practical joke. Because this man, and he worked at the Palermo Observatory in Sicily.

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:40.000
And the names of these styles first appear in a catalog in 1814, these names here.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:50.000
Where did they come from? Well, it turns out that, Okay. Kaka kind of the same, Kaki Kiura's name.

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:53.000
And the English person of that is Nicholas Hunter. And then if you, Latinize it, it's Nicholas Veneto.

00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:04.000
And what Kaki Tori did was he reversed the letters of his Latinized name. To give you the 2 star names.

00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:13.000
Okay, so there's the rotten of. And there's the So, quite a clever thing there and the names of stock. Okay.

00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:21.000
But do look for Delphi. This is a lovely little constellation. Right, on to the constellation of Perseus itself.

00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:35.000
You're going to be looking for the person meet yours. Let's have a look. And this is the, uranium's mirror constellation part, representation of Perseus and the head of the Medusa.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:36.000
And I'm not sure I've mentioned these before, but Uranus Mirror, it was a set of constellation cards.

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:53.000
First published in 1,824. And the whole is punched in the cards whereby you could hold the cards up to say a candle indoors and it would show you the shape of the constellation.

00:43:53.000 --> 00:44:04.000
So you'd be able to recognize it when you went out. You can buy sort of fax similes of these now.

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:26.000
Yes, we'll take care, right? He slayed the, he rescued the princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus and Andromeda was the daughter of Queen Cassipia and King Cepheus and it's quite nice but all of these were not the, but, Andromeda and Cetus and Cassiopeia and

00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:39.000
Cepheus are all in the sky together, like a little sort of family group almost. Anyway, there he is coming in trying to rescue Andromeda.

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:46.000
And I'll just show you on this chart here. This is a bit later on in the autumn, but there's Perseus.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:45:00.000
Okay, There's Andromeda. And there's And the, I'll see Monster's not on that one, but he's in Sky, I promise you, okay.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000
So, it's nice that they're all in there together. Okay. Anyway, so we've already seen that Perseus is going to be.

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:16.000
You know, since it gets stuck, it's fairly low down in the northeast at the moment, but let as the night progresses and the weeks progress.

00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:21.000
It'll ride.

00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:31.000
There's Persis there. Okay. And I will think that Percyus looks like a chair. Sorry to me. He's not a superhero. He's a chair.

00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:35.000
Is this the seat of the chair? And there are the legs. I think it's only me that sees it like that.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:42.000
But I don't think that's any less fanciful than some of these other shapes that, some of the ancient astronomers got out of the stars.

00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:52.000
Now, we're going to look at the brightest star in Perseus, which is called And again, this is an actual photograph of Perseus coming down like that.

00:45:52.000 --> 00:46:02.000
There's the. Seat of the chair and there are the legs coming down and that's myth there.

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:11.000
So you'd be able to see that. No problem, okay. It's about 600 like years away the best part of and again it's the giant style.

00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:17.000
Over 40 times the diameter of the sun. It's about 5,000 times as luminous.

00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:27.000
So real powerhouse. Okay. But what I'd like you to do when you're out there looking for the meet yours, locate Mayor FAC.

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:37.000
And then if you got Binoculars with you, have a look at that particular region of the sky around because you should be able to see them something that's called the Alpha Percyi cluster.

00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:43.000
So there's Mia Fact and underneath it is this little sort of semicircle of stars.

00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:58.000
And that is the called the Alpha Percyi cluster. The young stars are say you need binoculars and it sort this several 100 stars in that cluster, but using binoculars, of course, you can only see the, the brighter ones.

00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:02.000
So have a look for that. And again, if you look on the photo, hopefully you can see this.

00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:08.000
There's mere fact there. You see that just little semicircle there. That makes up the alpha.

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:14.000
Per CI cluster. So look for that.

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:19.000
Now, the other style that we're going to look at. It's a very famous star.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:26.000
Called, and this is beta in the constellation, but it's also called the Demon Star.

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:36.000
Because the Arab astronomers thought this star was winking at them and they thought it was a bit unlucky.

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Because all Cool. So there it is there, okay? You purchase all the chairs like that, it's the top leg there.

00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:57.000
Now, a variable starts to start the changes brightness over time. And it might be something due to what's going on in the star.

00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:03.000
Or there might be there's something outside the star that's altering the amount of light that we see from Earth.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:14.000
And alcohol is of this latter type. What we called an extrinsic variable. And it's what we call an eclipsing binary.

00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:21.000
The 2 styles in the, the system. In fact, there's a third one, but we'll forget about that now.

00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:31.000
As now as seen from the earth. It turns out that as these 2 stars . And they pass that they're aligned as such that they pass.

00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:42.000
Directly in front of one another So if we got this system here, okay. When we've got this position, when the red stars at position one, we're seeing the yellow star is staying fixed.

00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:56.000
Okay. Then you can see that we're getting the combined light of the 2 stars. But then when this star passes in front of back one, there's a dip in brightness.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Okay. And. You can see it's covering up quite a bit of that style there.

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:11.000
And then when it moves across to that position there, well, normal service is resumed. We've got the combined lines of both styles again.

00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:19.000
But then, this star passes behind that one. And again, we get another dip in brightness, but a smaller one.

00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:29.000
This time because of the different brightnesses of the 2 components. And then back to position one again.

00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:43.000
So, brightness. And astronomers can plot what we call a light curve. And this is the light curve for Algol. So this is the light curve for, so this is magnitude.

00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:48.000
And again, when I've said in previous talks that with magnitude, it's the light curve for, so this is magnitude.

00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.000
And again, when I've said in previous talks that with magnitude, it's a numerical scale and smaller the number, the brighter the object.

00:49:52.000 --> 00:50:00.000
So 2.2 one. It's brighter than 3.4, okay? So, we're getting a dip.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:06.000
And then as the was getting the combined light again, then there's the second little dip there.

00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:18.000
And this is for alcohol itself. And then we've got the big dip again. And the time it takes, is 2 days, 20 h and 49 min.

00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:35.000
Okay, so it's quite some. You know consistent okay so that would be called the period of that that variable and you know just depending on the binary system involved the you'd see different size dips and different periods.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:43.000
Okay, but this is for Algol itself. And it's really interesting that a man who did a lot of the early work on this was this man, John Goodrey.

00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:55.000
Who live between 1764 and 1786 and you'll see that he was very young when he died he was you know see that he was very young when he died he was you know 2122 and good drink.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:07.000
Chile. And, when he was 7, he, well, I think they've moved back to this country by then but they'd it was a diplomat.

00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:20.000
And when he was 7 he well I think they moved back to this country by then but they he became he caught an illness and it left him you know profoundly deaf and you know rather than you know just his parents not taking any interest in his education there was someone called Thomas Braidwood in Edinburgh.

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:33.000
Who'd set up an academy for deaf children and it's the first such school in the British Isles and in fact children came from all over the country and as far as the Americas to be educated there.

00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:38.000
So Goodric's parents, I mean they were wealthy, but they were able to send him here.

00:51:38.000 --> 00:52:03.000
And he was able to develop his mathematical skills. Thank you. And it was him, you know, he was very interested in astronomy and it was his observations of Algol that really determined with any great accuracy the the period because he wrote in his journal that he'd looked at alcohol as much am I amazed to find its brightness altered.

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:13.000
It now appears to be fourth magnitude and he observed it hardly believing that it changed its brightness because he'd never heard of any star bearing so quick.

00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:21.000
He thought it might perhaps be some optical illusion. But the SQL show that this change is true and that it was not mistaken.

00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:29.000
So he was clearly recognizing this variability here. And in fact, you say he was working in York when he did this.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:48.000
There is this, you know, commemorative pluck in in York and it's interesting and I work, But he also observed another extreme important variable star, Delta Sifi, CFI, which astronomers can use to measure distances to other styles.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:53.000
So, you know, if you're in your, try and find that. But, you know, do look up and read about, to John Goodric.

00:52:53.000 --> 00:53:01.000
And put himself on a stamping Nicaragua as well. Aquitations of the style.

00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:18.000
And that's someone Nicholas Copernicus. Actually, this, I know the the publicity of the talk, it mentioned about these not to loose and clouds, but they seem to have died so far this season but I'll just quickly very quickly say what they are.

00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:34.000
Astronomers don't normally like clouds, but they don't mind these because these are called electric blue clouds and they can be seen in the sort of earliest summer months you might still catch some now.

00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:40.000
And in fact, they're different from the ordinary weather clouds, which I can see as I'm looking out of the window here.

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:50.000
But these are formed in much higher in the atmosphere. And weather clouds are formed about this sort of up to about this sort of level.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:54:02.000
But these are formed in the sort of Mesasphere. And the very tenuous cloud was but they are beautiful if you manage to see them.

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:23.000
And the reason why we can see them at night is that because of their high altitude because there's our observer there although the sun is now below the horizon okay and all the weather clouds are in shadow because these are so high they're still catching the rays of the sun and then our observer can see them.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:38.000
And, that's a picture that I got off a website called space weather. That was taken in Norway, about, you know, 3 days ago, but do look for that quite different weather clouds and you will know what they are when you've seen them.

00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:49.000
But some yeah they are a lovely site but i haven't seen too many this year and It's been, well, I don't think our normal weather has helped, but, that's it.

00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:56.000
I just missed that. And then, Will it be clear that's the question we always ask.

00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:04.000
Well, if you go onto this website. Fair outside. And you put your location, it will give you information, or predictions as to whether it's going to be clear.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:09.000
Or predictions as to whether it's going to be clear. You know, if you think put in for the, now, then you know, really can't do it.

00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:22.000
But, you know, generally a day, few hours beforehand, it's can be pretty accurate, tell you whether it's going to be, good for observing.

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:33.000
So it is specifically for astronomy. So I will leave that. With you. So have a look for the summer triangle and the Percy of Meet Yours.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:42.000
You can investigate some of the mythology behind yourself. And perhaps remember some information about the bright styles that I've spoken to you about.

00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:50.000
So just get out there and have a look. Fingers crossed that it's clear and get in touch with your local astronomical society as well.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:55.000
The possible meteor watches that they're doing. So thank you very much.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:00.000
Thank you very much for that and let's go straight to some questions. We've got a few here.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:01.000
I can. Yes, sorry about that. Yes.

00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:06.000
We have run on a little bit. So let's see if we can get through these, get through these, a little bit quickly.

00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:15.000
So now, first of all, Jane was asking just for a bit of clarification about why the per se, is called per seat.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:22.000
Now I'm kind of thinking from what you've said, it's because that's the area of the sky where the constellation of Pesius is and that is where we're going to see them coming from.

00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:33.000
That's fine. Yeah, that's exactly, yes, the radiance, this point where they're here.

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:34.000
Yeah.

00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:38.000
Or repair to come from licensed in the consolation of purse. Yes. And you get other meet your showers throughout the year, they've got different names, the, aquiries.

00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:54.000
The Orion, the Geminids, they appear to originate from different constellations because we see them at different times of the year and they are a result of different comic shower us passing 3 to different comments.

00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:59.000
Okay. And another quick question about, you mentioned, why is it called that? Do we know?

00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:12.000
Oh yes, yeah. Well again, it's not a strict astronomical term. And, I think it's, I mean, I think the expression once in a blue moon, that must have been around for a very long time.

00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:23.000
I don't really know actually. But it is if you actually, you know, look up some data of when, you know, full names occur roughly every sort of 29 days apart.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:31.000
So in fact the chances of getting 2 of 2 full moves within the same calendar month is actually quite rare.

00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:36.000
So it's happening this August. I'm not quite sure when the next one going to be.

00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:42.000
It's certainly not going to be in September. So it's probably not for another sort of year or so, something like that.

00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Okay.

00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:46.000
I don't know exactly but I think that's it because it's quite a rare.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:53.000
You know, someone had the bright idea of calling it that or someone's put 2037 in the the chat is that when the next blue moon is?

00:57:53.000 --> 00:57:54.000
Wow.

00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:58.000
Wow. I didn't realize it was that long away. Right. So yeah, thank you.

00:57:58.000 --> 00:57:59.000
I'll remember that. Thanks.

00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:15.000
Okay. And Catalans asking, are there any, factors. I mean Clouds will be one of them that we know about but any factors like weather or geography where you are that might affect seeing the perceived meteors.

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:17.000
Next weekend.

00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:23.000
Yeah, well again, you know the weather but also sort of light pollution if you can get yourself away, you know, somewhere dark.

00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:37.000
But. You know, so if you can go to sort of more rural location. But I often find that You know, if you're in your back garden, you know, if that's fairly enclosed, that's all right.

00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:46.000
And if you're somewhere, you know, that looks reasonably dark, but perhaps there's a street lap there, put your elbow up because an elbow carefully positioned elbow against.

00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:54.000
You know, street lights can, help that. And then lots of people putting sort of locations like in there and someone said Northumberland yes it's very dark up there.

00:58:54.000 --> 00:59:04.000
And, oh, and you know, but the earliest recorded English uses of the term blue moon.

00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:10.000
And, oh, that's interesting. And, oh, and you know, about the earliest recorded English uses of the term blue moon in, oh, that's Okay, yes, please.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:11.000
Yes, thanks.

00:59:11.000 --> 00:59:15.000
Yeah, I'll make sure you get all these comments. Okay, so. And another question.

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:24.000
Now this is quite an interesting one actually from Madeline. More of a general question, but is what we see in the August sky.

00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:31.000
No. Gonna be different to what we might see in the August sky next year.

00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:33.000
Right. The stars. Yeah, it is. No, that is a good question.

00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:37.000
Like an interesting one.

00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:56.000
Yeah, the stars will be in the sort of same. Position. But you know, if you're observing on a particular date and time, the planets will be in different places and the moon, the faces of the moon will be different because, you know, the moon, a lunar, month is about 2829 days and we don't get an exact number of

00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:15.000
lunar months in our year. So, you know, the faces of the moon. I mean, I was looking at some website the other day about the Percy its last year the moon did interfere then so when it was a bright moon then but it's not this year so essentially the styles would be the same but would be different planets on view.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:20.000
But so you'll still be looking in the northeast for those.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Yeah, okay, but hope that answers your question, and, now Media was asking about recommendations for apps and websites.

01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:31.000
I was asking about recommendations for apps and websites. Now I think we put together a list last time and didn't wait about various places we could go.

01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:32.000
Yes.

01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:39.000
So we'll make sure that information gets posted up again. Beside this particular lecture recording. So I hope that helps you in Maria.

01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:53.000
And And Jilly was asking, you talked about finding your local astronomical society, you know, if you want to be able to look at things more clearly and have access to equipment and telescopes and things.

01:00:53.000 --> 01:01:02.000
Is there some way where all the astronomical societies in the country, are listed or is it just a case of getting on Google and Same person.

01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:09.000
What we're getting on Google is a good way to do, but there is a body called the Federation of Astronomical Societies, but there is a body called the Federation of Astronomical Societies to which by a large number of astronomical societies in this sort of country.

01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:21.000
Belong. And you know you get in touch with them the FAS, the Federation of Astronomical Societies.

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:30.000
But it said just Google where you are or your county. And, that would, that should point you in the right direction.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:37.000
No, excellent. I hope that helps you, Julie. Now we've got one more question, and I think, and then we'll wrap up.

01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:50.000
This is from Stuart. This is an interesting question. How far back in human history is there evidence of civilizations being familiar with star patterns.

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:52.000
And why were they interested? Awesome. Good question, isn't it?

01:01:52.000 --> 01:02:08.000
Well that is a very interesting question. I mean, every so often, you know, so often, you know, so often, you know, some of an archaeologist produces a bit of a bone on which they think, you know, someone, an archaeologist produces a bit of a bone on which they think a star map has been carved there's something called

01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:16.000
the neighbor style disc, which was found in Germany some years ago. And that dates back to the sort of Bronze Age and that's meant to sort of have representations of the moon.

01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:33.000
The sun and you know, little 7 sisters, the, but it was important for people to know about, you know, the stars and the, and the planets and the sun.

01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:40.000
The moon because of, you know, it's a way of measuring time, the passage of time, and, you know, planting crops.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:55.000
For instance, I know in ancient Egypt when they saw the bright star serious rising in the morning sky just before the sun came up then they knew that that was time to sort of plant you know crops because of the flooding of the Nile.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:03:12.000
And you know lots of in ancient civilizations have got some you know, use various markers like the plaid, 7 sisters that was very important to the Maori in you know, people in Polynesia in general put them in in New Zealand.

01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:21.000
So, you know, it's a way of measuring the passage of time. But, you know, going back to.

01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:26.000
You know, the sort of more classical civilizations perhaps like, I mean, the Babylonians.

01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:43.000
You know, many thousands of years ago, they, you know, kept records of the, you know, the movements of the stars and the planets and it was the Babylonians that first, were able to make predictions about eclipses because they recognized it as a definite period of time.

01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:51.000
Between, you know, interval, if you like, between eclipses. That's all done really by observation.

01:03:51.000 --> 01:04:06.000
So, it's very difficult to say an exact date if you like, but, I think that, you know, every so often someone comes up with something else and you know, some of these, old cave paintings as well.

01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:12.000
Cave paintings at last, in France and some people have put in interpretation that that shows some of the styles.

01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:16.000
But some people haven't put that interpretation on it as well. I think it's fair to say.

01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:17.000
Hmm. So it's a difficult question, isn't it?

01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:26.000
And then. Yes, yes, very, yeah, there's no short answer to that one, I'm afraid, but I hope it has helped.

01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:30.000
Okay, well I think that's, I think we've wrapped up all the questions, I think.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.000
So thanks again for that and and here is hoping that the weather clears up a little bit.

01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:35.000
Okay.

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.000
And it's a little bit clear here and later on this evening it has to be said and so that everyone can try and have a look at what we've been looking at today on screen.

01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:49.000
And see it in real life

00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.000
Thank you very much. Thank you for that nice introduction. I am busy. It's nice to song recognizes that. Yeah.

00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:18.000
Lovely to see you all. Thanks for having me back again. What we're gonna what I'm gonna speak to you about this afternoon.

00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:32.000
Is it afternoon or evening? It feels like afternoon. What I'm going to speech about this afternoon is about color and film, specifically looking at the the quests to bring color to film to bring a sense of natural color to film.

00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:44.000
So we're not going to come very close to the present day. We're going to come sort of chronologically up to the point of a technicolor being affected.

00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:52.000
And we are going to leave the present day for another, for another time I guess. But the real story is about how do we get to that point?

00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:01.000
How do we get from from very early film. To the all singing or dancing kind of technicolor of the forties and fifties.

00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:13.000
So it's really, it's really a quest. There's there's there's a bit of science in it and there's a bit of and there's a bit of art and I like it when those 2 things where those 2 things sort of meshed together is kind of where where I am

00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:24.000
happiest and stuff I am most interested in. So I hope you will be too. Because we're only coming up to the sort of forties by the end of our story.

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:35.000
We can start very early and it might it might surprise some of you. So have a look at something a film I'm gonna say a color film.

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:48.000
It's a film that can contains color. For which we're gonna go back to 1894 so This idea of colour film of capturing colour on film or reproducing color on film somehow It really predates sound film.

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:56.000
Sound film doesn't come along. Until the 19 twenties until 1,927.

00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:08.000
Really that's the sort of the threshold year. But experiments being made with colour film way, way before that and with capturing things, capturing color or somehow faking or reproducing color on screen.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:14.000
That's that's artificial. Cinema has always been spectacle. It's always been about spectacle.

00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:20.000
It's always been about capturing people's attention and capturing people's imaginations. So

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:27.000
This early movie that we're gonna have a brief look at a little bit of is no different. It's 2, 2 movies spliced together.

00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.000
One's called Annabel's Butterfly Dance and one's called Annabel Serpentine Dance.

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:42.000
These are both directed by William Kennedy Dixon. They come out of the States. They're both from 1,894 you would have viewed these in a kinetoscope you wouldn't have viewed these on a big screen.

00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:57.000
You would have, you would have paired into a wooden box to see these played and they would have at that point these would have been more like fairground amusements more like kind of travelling amusements than they were.

00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:02.000
Cinema as we as we know it. So I know what I mean when I say kinetoscope I can show you a picture of it.

00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000
Of a kinetoscope if you were bear with me a second. I've got one here.

00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:15.000
It's not a very big picture but if I share this you should all see kinetoscope such as and you can see it's Can everyone see that?

00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:26.000
It's it's essentially a long long roles of film on sort of pulleys and you peer in through the top the door isn't always open the doors just opening that image to show you how it works.

00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:30.000
And this is how early loops of film and early and early films would have been would have been shown.

00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000
We're going right back to 1,894 for this. How on earth is a bit of film from 1894 gonna be color?

00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:42.000
Well, I'll show you and I think When you see the clip, think you'll realise immediately.

00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:51.000
How this film can have colour in it. So, bear with me a second and I'll queue up an interesting bit of of Annabel's.

00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:58.000
It won't start in color but then you'll see what happens. Let me share this with you.

00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:10.000
I think this has if I have a call right and says no music on it so don't be dismayed you can't hear anything or perhaps it does have a horrible stop we'll see in a second

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.000
This is not about possible planets.

00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:38.000
Oh The The The The The The

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:53.000
The The

00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:01.000
The

00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:10.000
The The

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000
Believe her that now

00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:21.000
I think what you've probably figured out watching that is that Annabel didn't really have a magically color changing dress.

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:28.000
She's filmed in black and white. And the prints have been have been hand painted they've been hand-coloured in.

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:42.000
In order to make the film more attractive in order to make it more of a more of a look It's not real colour in that sense, but it is a way of viewing a colored, a kind of bit of film.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:52.000
It's it's it speaks to us it tells us how How important this idea was really early at the very birth of cinema before cinema was really cinema before it was even shown on a screen.

00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:57.000
Don't make us were already thinking. I like this but how can I make it a little bit more?

00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:05.000
Literally colourful how can I get some some color in this otherwise quite dull looking black and white black on my image so it's quite dull looking black and white black and white image.

00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:10.000
So it's something that's occupying even the very earliest cinema minds.

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:23.000
It was so popular. Annabel's Butterfly Dance, Annabel, Serpentine Dance, the 2 films that they, first of all, the prints that were sent round to the various Kelescope owners to put in their kelescope owners to put in their

00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:29.000
kelescope. They wore out and had to be replaced. And then the original negative wore out and then poor Annabel had to refill it.

00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:36.000
Once the negative wears out, the only choice you've got is make the film again. So she had to, that's why we put the 2 films.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:45.000
She had to. Just go make the film again. The other thing that's interesting about it of course is there's no attempt to make the color look natural, in fact quite the opposite.

00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:53.000
The what the film maker is going for is an attempt to make the color look completely unnatural. This isn't color you can see in the world.

00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:58.000
This is color you can't see in the world. And that's really, that's really important.

00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:10.000
So it's done in quite a simple way. Black and white film exists. You know, it's a it's a long strip of 35 millimetre film it would have been made of cellulose nitrate film it would have been made of cellulose nitrate back then so dangerous dangerous chemical

00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:26.000
stuff. And someone literally takes a tiny brush and a pot of paint and I see each individual frame. We use, we paint, we We run film at 24 frames a second now but earlier film is 1820 it's not it's not quite standardized.

00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:36.000
But someone has to paint. Painting the color on 18 or 20 little pictures to represent 1 s in the film so it's quite painstaking work.

00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:47.000
That's take us right back to 1894. It's amazing how rapidly things change and it's amazing how amazing how rapidly cinema sort of matures.

00:07:47.000 --> 00:08:01.000
And and and develops in the states and in Britain to some degree, but especially in France. So I think it'd be quite nice to have a look at something that comes out of France in 1,902.

00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:08.000
And this is definitely worth looking at as a piece of color film. So I want to show you a little bit of a trip to the moon.

00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:28.000
From 900, and 2. This is, er, George Mayier film. Was a huge innovator, a huge inventor, was doing things at this time that filmmakers in in in what Hollywood didn't exist at the time filmmakers in New York and and filmmakers in Britain just simply weren't

00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:40.000
doing. He was putting together series of shots into long long narrative stories and he was using a variety of special effects, painted backgrounds, models, pyrotechnics.

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:45.000
It's all done with a certain sort of a certain sort of whimsy and a certain sort of humor.

00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:54.000
They're all, they're all, you know, they're hugely charming at the Maya's films, but it's in amongst to appreciating for that charm I think we forget how technically groundbreaking they were.

00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:03.000
He knew. As early as 19 or 2, he knew. Of what his films needed were, color.

00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:11.000
The technology did not exist in any way to film anything that he did in color at that point. Film is simply light sensitive plastic.

00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:17.000
It's plastic with silver on it and the silver goes light or dark depending on when you expose light to it and that's it.

00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:26.000
It doesn't care what color lights it just cares that it's light. George Melier in answer to the question.

00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.000
We should have saved that one for the end, but someone put that in the chat.

00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:44.000
So there's no real way at this point to to capture. Color but he knows he wants colour for his films so he's gonna fake it And he's, and he's gonna, he's gonna fake it in exactly the same way.

00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:53.000
That. That's that's done in Annabel's response. He's gonna paint the film.

00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:59.000
But he takes it a step further. It's not just It's not just random bits of color to make things attractive.

00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:07.000
There's a there's a method to it. There's a method and a and a strategy to yes that's exactly the right spelling Stuart Miller.

00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:12.000
Thank you very much.

00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:18.000
I'll show you a clip and and you'll and you'll get the idea before we talk about it a little bit more.

00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:31.000
Now, a trip to the moon only existed in its black and white form until the until the late. The late 19 eighties only a black and white print existed and then some scraps of a color print turned up.

00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:44.000
And so the print that exists now that we see contains the scraps of the of the of the original hand colored bits and then a modern black-and-white print.

00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.000
That's been sort of digitally recolored to match the bits. There's enough exists in its original.

00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:58.000
Okay, so you'll see the transition between the 2. But it's, done in a, it's done in a really in a really neat way.

00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:11.000
Why don't we jump in? Why don't we jump in about here? So it's a you're gonna see you're gonna see a whole bunch of, sort of Victorian era.

00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:19.000
They're about to they're about to go off to the moon or go from about here because they're very colorful.

00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:24.000
Bye. They don't have any sort of, spacesuits or anything. They're gonna go.

00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:26.000
They're gonna have any sort of spacesuits or anything. They're gonna go. They're gonna go in in in what they came in.

00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:56.000
So, have a look at this.

00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:17.000
The The

00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:18.000
Oh

00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:24.000
It's really the only way to get to the moon, I think, being fired in a large projector.

00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:31.000
It's, yeah, it's a very colourful little moment that.

00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:44.000
Everything is hand colored. Every print has to be hand-colored. You can't hand color the negative because when you copy it you just get a black and white copy again there's no way to store the color so every print every real every print that goes out to every cinema gets painted.

00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:51.000
Why do we see the Spanish flag in the second half of that clip? George Melier was from France.

00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:58.000
They would paint in that sequence they'd paint the flag based on where that real was going where that copy of the film was going.

00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.000
So that copy of the film was destined to be shown in Spain. So everybody that watches the film goes, yay!

00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:10.000
Our country for the first for the first men in space. So it's a it's a brilliant way of localizing.

00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:17.000
They just wave a blank flag and someone has to paint on. Well I say someone we know who did the painting.

00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:26.000
It was done as a sort of factory operation. And if I show you a picture of the Got a couple of images here that I think are really worth seeing.

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:38.000
This is the the second share images. This is the path a color machine printing room.

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:43.000
So this is the one that pathway would have used. There's not it's not exactly the one that Melee would have used but it's essentially the same thing.

00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:51.000
This is a There's some more interesting image preparing the path a color films. So essentially a gigantic greenhouse.

00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:58.000
Filled with ladies and smocks What happens is the prints get passed along. Everybody gets given one part of color.

00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:09.000
And told to do one person. So. You do, you do that guy's purple coat. So you have a pot of purple paint and the copy of the film comes down to you, you go through it, you do all the purple coats.

00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:23.000
And he passed it on and the person next you might do all the yellow hats and they do all the yellow hats and they passed it on and so it becomes like a sort of piecework thing that gets passed around and you can get through, well with a team like that you can get through quite a lot in a day.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:31.000
This is the pathway lab. All the Media's films were colored in a lab that was owned and run by a mother and daughter.

00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:36.000
Team, the Tulias, Elizabeth Tullier and her daughter, they had their lab in Paris and they owned it.

00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.000
And they employed, 200 and it was ladies, 200 ladies and they would, and they would paint with dye on the films.

00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:54.000
But she's a, she's a really important figure in the early the early Maya's films and he would always, whenever he spoke about his films and whatever, there were sort of retrospectives and things he always pointed out.

00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:00.000
Power, her work and the work of the colorists was in making his films looked, looked how they looked.

00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.000
And it is crucial. When you see them in black and white, they look they don't look half as engaging.

00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:13.000
The colour is such an important part of how those films look. Now, it's still not real color, is it?

00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:22.000
It's color, but it's not the color that was there on the day. You can color those, you can color that in, you can give anyone any color coat, any colored hat, you can color the background however you want.

00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:32.000
And that's all well and good but it's not the color it was on the day we're still not We've we've realized the importance of coloring film, we realize the importance of it as a as a spectacular thing.

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:39.000
We're still not quite at the point of actually capturing color. That won't be a while along for a while yet.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:55.000
But that's hand coloring. That's how hand-colouring worked. During the silent era or more properly as well as the black and white era you did have another option if you wanted to if you wanted to have your film.

00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:04.000
In a form of rudimentary color and you didn't want to hand color it. I mentioned earlier on that film is essentially a bit of clear plastic.

00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:10.000
With a bunch of silver embedded in it and the silver goes dark or lights and there's your image and plastic is clear.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:16.000
Well, what if the plastic didn't have to be clear? What if we what if we use tinted film?

00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.000
But then we could tent the film whatever color we wanted and we could change it for different scenes.

00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:33.000
And what if instead of silver We used a different color metal that might go a different color instead of going dark or light it might go it might go purple or red when it gets exposed to light.

00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:43.000
Those 2, those 2 technologies are called tinting and toning. So you could use a tinted film base which would essentially change the white in your image.

00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:54.000
And you could use a different metal instead of silver oxide. By it quite quite scientifically complicated to do it but you could essentially change the black in your image as well so instead of black and white.

00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:05.000
You might have red and yellow or you could have blue and purple. And it sounds a bit random when you say like that, but actually a whole industry, a whole industry within an industry grew up.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:23.000
About about how what particular types of color we might use to symbolize different things because there's no reason you need to stick with one throughout your whole film if your editor can chop it up and put certain scenes in and and you could so maybe a certain color a certain color combination might mean night or might mean war or might mean

00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:32.000
underwater. And this gets sort of codified in the sign area. It's a bit more expensive to do this film-wise, but it is possible.

00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.000
So we've got some images from. Let me just, open this up and share them.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:48.000
These are all quite interesting. What's the best way to look at it? If I show you this image here this is from a, as a book.

00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:55.000
This is a sample plate as it says the bottom of tinted film stock from Eastman's Sonicrome positive film text.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:06.000
So Son of Chrome was the was the the brand name of the of the tinted film base that you could buy that came out of Kodak and I don't know if you can see that in detail but they've got they've got names.

00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:23.000
So you could, you might decide that you want your film to be. Shot in in instead of a clear background you might have flurred a lead or Amaranth or Caprice or Inferno and they're all given wonderfully one of his sort of descriptive names and and the idea

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:29.000
is that you will use them you will use them for different for different scenarios you'll use them for different for different things.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:35.000
Let me show you a page. Let me UN share that and show your age inside the book. Both more at once.

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:46.000
That's probably the the best way to do it. 1 s. Let me share this for you and you see what I mean.

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:58.000
So this is the very colorful Eastman son of Chrome. Book which which describes as we go through what what you might use each one for So, we might use Afterglow for low.

00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:11.000
Low radiant we get warm and stimulating, counter flame. You know, there's all of these have different descriptions, aqual green, emotionally cool, soothing.

00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:18.000
And so on and so forth. So we might pick any one of it, a complete gamut of colors they claim.

00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:31.000
We might use any of these. There's, there's, Inferno intensely stirring so they yeah they have they have sort of creative creative applications and, and we can use them.

00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:40.000
To shoot them. This is just for the film basis. The replacing the self with difficulties a little bit more complicated But it does happen.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:52.000
So a few things come out. And not necessarily, early movies, but some, some later movies, still used this for quite a while.

00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:58.000
And let's look at a little bit of. Movie called, the second the Sea Hawk.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:07.000
The Sea Hawk is as late as 1,940. hair that's all takes place in Panama.

00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:17.000
So, So for the Panama sequences in the in the Seahawk they're all they're all tinted and it's quite subtle.

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:26.000
But they're all, they're all tinted. So as to achieve, to make it feel slightly more exotic and slightly warmer.

00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:37.000
Have a look at this. You'll see what I mean.

00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:45.000
It's hard news to carry back. They'll be wondered to see only the one boat coming.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:54.000
Some of them might get through yet. Might be the captain. That's miracle any of us here, Can't see the lookout I didn't expect her so soon.

00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:03.000
It's funny they haven't posted a lookout. Maybe there's one beyond the charters.

00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:15.000
Feels warm doesn't it? It's a it's only one sort of gradation of color away from from black and white But some of the colours and some of the some of the tented film bases have a lovely sort of lustrous quality to them.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:24.000
We'll see one later on that's in that's not black and white. It's pearl and it's very similar to black and white but it just looks a little bit little bit more iridescent and shiny.

00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:31.000
So it's a way of introducing. A subtle effect like that. Or maybe you want.

00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Maybe you want something a little bit more. A little bit blunter how about this little clip here from the from the film mighty joe young which is as late as 1,949 in which a giant a giant ape is going to rescue someone from a burning house.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:23:07.000
How might we suggest the heat of a burning house using just sensing and toning. Well, have a look at this.

00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:10.000
Oh

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:16.000
The

00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:38.000
Go up! There's a baby up there, he'll go! Joe, you!

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:46.000
I mean in filmmaking terms this is the kind of clip that leaves you with more questions and answers I think in some ways as to what's what's going on and how it's all put together.

00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:54.000
But certainly Yeah, the idea of this is a dark, red-brown and and the and the yellow tent is immediately suggestive of fire and heat, isn't it?

00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:58.000
It's a very, it's a very neat way to get that across, but not much more.

00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:02.000
Cost then than just laying out some black and white film. So that's quite neat. That's just a tinted film base.

00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:20.000
One of the most interesting tinted yeah of course of course joe saves the job of course joe saves everyone yeah it's that it's that sort of movie you don't need to worry about that

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:26.000
An interesting one from much earlier uses tinting and toning. I think you're, I think you'll probably like this.

00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:35.000
So like I say, timing is about. Removing the silver and replacing it with a metal that might go a different color for the scientists.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:47.000
Any scientist that might be might be out there you might use Hey, you might use iron pharaoh cyanide, Prussian blue for blue, copper pharaoh cyanide for red or brown.

00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000
Silver silver sulphate to sepia or uranium pharaoh cyanide for reddish brown.

00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:59.000
I wouldn't want to mess around with uranium perezana but some of these guys were just you know they were just they were going for it.

00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:06.000
And so you sort of wash away the silver on the film and you replace it with that and you've got then you've got a different, then you've got a 2 color image already just with the base and the replaced metal.

00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:16.000
And a really nice moment where we see this is in the 1,927 Napoleon Able Dances Napoleon is like 5 and a half hours long this movie.

00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:24.000
It's fantastic. It's a real, it's a real epic. There's a moment here that I think is really worth us.

00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:44.000
Having a look at it's a very short one actually. Well, I'll show it to you and then I'll talk about it afterwards.

00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:56.000
You You I

00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:07.000
I

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:14.000
You

00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:25.000
You you

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:43.000
You

00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:50.000
And it almost every scene is in one a new combination of colors. It's really ambitious.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:51.000
I mean it looks beautiful doesn't it? That's a that sort of purple and blue combination.

00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:12.000
It looks really lovely. It really adds something to that moment. It's lovely photography. The interesting thing about Napoleon, the movie, is that that's all had to be digitally digitally restored but but did digitally put back together again but hand died so when they when they came to restore

00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:33.000
the film and the film gets scanned and put into the into the public into into the digital domain. For modern for modern presentation rather than rather than recolor those scenes digitally they did them they didn't buy hand before they before they went into the before they got scanned which is why it looks exactly like it would have

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:39.000
looked back in 1,927. It's got a, if we had longer I'd show you the ending of Napoleon.

00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:45.000
It has a absolutely fantastic ending that a real psychedelic use of color. It's worth seeking out.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:52.000
We'll get carried away and we'll run out of time if we look at it now but if you can get through the the 5 and a half hour version of Able Dances Napoleon.

00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:57.000
It reads that incredibly color offending and it's all you know you have to splice those colour bits in.

00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:04.000
And, and sort of construct the print which is why they were they were quite fragile.

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:12.000
So we've looked at tinting, tinting and toning. We've looked at, sort of faking the color by painting it on.

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:21.000
There was work going on at the same time. To actually capture the real colour. Around us. How are we going to do that on one role of black and white film?

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:31.000
Amazingly it was 2 guys both from the UK that that first hit on the idea. It was the fledgling British filmmakers.

00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:39.000
There are a couple of technologies. One called, kinema color, which was developed by George Albert Smith down in Brighton.

00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:49.000
And another method are called biocolor which is developed by William Free-screen. And essentially what they are is, we, we call them mimetic color systems.

00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:59.000
What he realized is and it must have come to quite some realisation. The way The way it works is a black and white film passes through a camera.

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:07.000
At a wheel spins round in front of the camera with alternately red and green lenses. So every alternate frame.

00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Is taken through either red the red lens or the green lens. So if you're filming a red object and you film it through the red lens and those frames it looks black.

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:28.000
And then through the green through the green lens it doesn't look black. The light adds to the light and the thing so you end up with a negative.

00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:37.000
That that sort of the shades sort of color that sort of go alternately one frame to another if the wheel is sort of go alternately one frame to another if the wheel has synchronized that properly.

00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:44.000
What you then do is you project your negative back. Through a projector that has the same wheel spinning in front of it.

00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:53.000
So those images then projected back through the red and green wheel. And they and that would but you but you but you then set the red and green the other way around instead of red and green.

00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:04.000
It's green and red. And then so now things that are that were filmed as red and dark are being projected back through the green wheel and things that were light are coming back through the red wheel so they come out as red.

00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:12.000
Do you see what it's the science is complicated but it's based on the on the principle of If you look through red and green glasses.

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:22.000
Things that are red looked dark through one and light through the other. And if we play that film back fast enough with alternate red and green frames.

00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:35.000
We get a sort of approximation of the colour. Again, scientists among you will know that with that color it's basically can be most colors can be made for red, green and blue lights shining together.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:40.000
Why don't we have 3? Why don't we have a blue filter as well? Too complicated.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:51.000
So to keep it simple they use an orangey red. And a bluey green and between those 2 you can saw the fudge colors you can't get true blue and you can't get true yellow.

00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.000
But by blurring those 2 together you can get a sort of approximation of real-life color.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:00.000
The only problem is because you're not taking the frames at the same time. That's the red and green registers are slightly out of sync with each other.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:11.000
So you get sort of a red and green fringing on moving objects. But it's definitely a step in the right direction.

00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:17.000
It's a it's a it's scientific progress in terms of in terms of capturing the real color around us.

00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:25.000
And William Free Screen goes around Britain and he makes a little film called The Open Road in 1,926 using this technology.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:32.000
So have a look at a little brief bit from the end here. It's It's amazing to look at this now.

00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:41.000
And to realize and to think well this is it looks fake but it is the, but it is the real, the real, the real color that was, that was there.

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:48.000
Even if the way it's captured makes it look a little bit artificial So here's a bit of the open road.

00:31:48.000 --> 00:32:18.000
The The

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:35.000
The

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:43.000
The

00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:52.000
The

00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.000
The idea. It's very poetic. The whole film is very poetic. It's a real sort of love letter to to Edwardian Britain.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.000
And that's the real color as the camera saw it. It's not faked. It's just we're only capturing the red and the green.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:21.000
And it's so it does slow with an object it's enough I don't know if you notice when there's when the bus moves there a boy runs across the road and his legs sort of fringe red and green as he moves because the the frame rate can't keep up with him so he's read in some frames

00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:28.000
of green in other. In others but it's for sort of slower moving things whether the difference in frame rate.

00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:36.000
That isn't, perceptible. It's a it's the it's the first sort of form of natural color caught on film.

00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:45.000
Now, it's a bit cumbersome as you can imagine this spinning wheel of red and green glass and the projector with spinning word of bread and green glasses.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:55.000
It's and it's the version we see now is a bit cleaned up and it it has it's a bit it's a bit How do you inducing to watch it in its raw form?

00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:05.000
So some clever boffins from MIT. In 1,941. They come up with.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:11.000
Not 84, 1, 90, 14, and everything that I probably around. They come up with a system that they call Technicolor.

00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:16.000
How about Calmary, Daniel Frost Comstock and W. Burton Westcott.

00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:34.000
From the first 2 of those studied and later taught at MIT. And they build on this idea that maybe we can just capture the red and the green but their idea is that they'll build a special prism that can split light into red and green.

00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:48.000
And capture both frames at once on the film. And then so then there's no time delay between the 2 frames that and that's that's really important and then to play it back you just play it back through that through the special prism again so it's a prism instead of a spinning wheel.

00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:56.000
And that's the prism is an important a technicolor development all technical relies on prisms to split light So the spinning wheel is out.

00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:13.000
The static prism is in. Much the same as as free screens methodology though you still need the film to be whizzing through the camera because you need to be capturing 2 frames where previously you would only catch one because you're capturing the red and the green now at the same time.

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:27.000
So you get through a lot of film and the and the camera is is being used incredibly fast this version, system technical system one that uses the prism is not very long lived and not a lot survives.

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:42.000
From that's actually shot definitively in in system one Very first film shot in it is a film called The Gulf Between from 1,914, which exists only as pictures actually.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:49.000
The film is lost, but there's a frame of, so you can see a frame here of technicolor system one.

00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:53.000
You can see it's the same color palette that's in a turquoise and rust.

00:35:53.000 --> 00:36:09.000
Calla Palla and you can see how it's the images that have broken up and bled into the area where where the sprocket holes are but it's it's a similar effect to to free screens thing you won't you won't get the the fringing this is only their first

00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:14.000
try. At, at, at, at, at, and they very quickly come up with technical assistance too.

00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:21.000
Now, Tender Comey system too is a bit more. It expands on that technology a bit.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:28.000
So we still use the prism and we still capture both at once. But what if we then took that film?

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:36.000
And did a process called step printing. So we print all the odd all the odd frames on one roll of film and then all the even frames on the other roll of film.

00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:46.000
And then we dye that one red and we dye that one green. And then we stick them together and it should have the same effect as playing back through the prison because the odd ones have gone through the old ones to the reds.

00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:52.000
And they and they even ones to the green or vice versa. I can never be sure which way around it is.

00:36:52.000 --> 00:37:01.000
So you make the subtractive color print by step, step printing. They make it on special half thickness film by way for thin film.

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:09.000
And then the idea is that those 2 films get glued together. The red and the green and then that gets put through the through the projector.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:12.000
You can imagine everything that can go wrong with that. The glue comes undone, the half thickness, on breaks and splits and the red and green get out of sync.

00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:39.000
So it's it's not a perfect solution. But it's a better one. And some movies get made in this period so there's a film that comes out that's that's a good technical assistant to is Movical the toll of the sea this is from 1922 I can

00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:45.000
share. I'll have a look at this from the from the top the toll of the sea.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:51.000
It starts out like.

00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:55.000
Okay.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.000
The

00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:06.000
The

00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:10.000
The

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:16.000
The

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:19.000
The

00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:23.000
There were so many titles on top of the film. Sorry, hey we got.

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:30.000
The

00:38:30.000 --> 00:39:00.000
The

00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:05.000
Oh

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:15.000
So you can see the color palette is still very much this 2 strip color palette which still only really got turquoise blue and rusty red and the colors that you can make by mixing those together which aren't very much.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:24.000
We're really missing that third real. But there's no color fringing. The red and the green are quite neat.

00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:29.000
Technologically in terms of captain that feel it feels better it feels less wobbly in the free screen stuff.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:38.000
And a few of these, a few of things that shot like this survive. A whole bunch turned up in the BFI a few years ago.

00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:54.000
You can see them on YouTube. Briony Dixon talks about them and they're They they've been chopped up and used as leader film for other for other films and so it's it's a it's about 20 films but only about 2 s of each film and they're amazing but

00:39:54.000 --> 00:40:04.000
they're couldn't change you now there's so many of them but they've been chopped and the reason she recognized him is because she could she spotted that they were too strict because 1 one image comes upside down and anyway.

00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:12.000
So they all turned up at the BFI but in terms of in terms of whole films the title of the C is definitely the first.

00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:19.000
So you've got these problems though. You're shooting your with their being that the image is on This way for thin film that has to be glued together.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:36.000
So. We need a new system. So we get technical assistance 3. So then they think well instead of Once we've got the red instead of making the red and green on these thin films sticking them together What if we used a method called Diamond Bibing, which is basically like potato printing?

00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:42.000
So imagine your role of film is like a potato. Okay, if you can. The silver, the or the metal sticks out.

00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:49.000
So once you've got all the reds on one role and all the queens on another You can cover that in green ink.

00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:57.000
And then stamp it onto a clean bit of film. And then you get the reds and cover those in Reading and stamp that onto the same bit of clean film.

00:40:57.000 --> 00:41:02.000
And it's like, so like you like kids at primary school, chop up a potato and use it to make prints.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:10.000
It's exactly the same method. And so that way you don't need to have the 2 2 strips of thin film that can card and break and crack.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:16.000
And that's Technicolor system 3. And off the off the 2 strip We call it 2 step of the 2 color technic other methods.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.000
It's the most advanced because the the prints it makes are really nice and really and really stable.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.000
So, a movie. That uses that that I think we work a look at is a film called King of Jazz.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:37.000
King of Jazz is fantastic. It's from 1,930. It's a it's a musical.

00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:41.000
It's like a it's just it's just wall to war musical numbers really it's like a review.

00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:54.000
It's the Paul Whiteman band. And they really make a big fuss over having this, almost natural looking kind of red and green and now and the technologies love them to make a much sharper much cleaner image.

00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:58.000
So we just have a little bit of a King of John so you've seen it.

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:04.000
Everything of course still has to be green. This this song is called Rapseody in Blue. Of course they can't do blue.

00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:07.000
So it's Ramsi and green really.

00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:10.000
You

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:16.000
The

00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:24.000
You

00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:54.000
You You

00:42:55.000 --> 00:43:00.000
The

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:05.000
Oh you

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:13.000
Some kind of practical effects going on as well. It's really it's really very neat. It's a it's a lovely movie it's just like going and watching a really silly stage show it's just wall to wall numbers.

00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:27.000
Bing Crosby makes his first appearance in this film with the rhythm Boys his first appearance in this film with the rhythm boys they do it they to a number it's it's great fun and the sisters G who were a German dance act pair of sisters who are a German dance act pair of sisters who dance in a lot of musicals one of

00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:30.000
their sisters who dance in a lot of musicals one of their one of their rare surviving films is one of their one of their rare surviving films is lovely King of Jazz.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:40.000
But it looks nice, doesn't it? It looks. The color the color capture is is it's very clean We're still only 2 colours, we're still missing the blue.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:47.000
But it's it's it feels refined. It feels like this is the sort of culmination of the 2 strip technique color.

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:53.000
So we've got to bring our story up to the before we before we stop for questions. We've got to bring our story up.

00:43:53.000 --> 00:44:07.000
I promise we'd end up with with the with the full as we know it What they do is as nice as this looks in in in 1,930 that it's it's still too stylized to really capture the world as it is.

00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:17.000
So they go away and they develop. Technical assistance for and they finally bite the bullet and go do you know what We're going to need we're going to need blue.

00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:24.000
We're going to need 3 reels. So the way a technicolor system for works is we keep the prism.

00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:31.000
So the light comes in the camera lens. And the prism splits the light into its red, green and blue.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:38.000
Separations and then 3 rolls of black and white film. Capture the Reds, the Greens and the Blues.

00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:56.000
And then you get the site that you develop that black and white film and you die. You die each role in the corresponding color and then when you squish them together and project them together the full colour is restored but it's a certain type of color it's a certain type of very colorful technicolor color.

00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:09.000
And technically I had a consultant. Who would come on your film if you made a film and you wanted to have the technicolor logo at the beginning the consultant was for a long time it was Natalie Kalmu the ex-wife of the guy who invented it and he basically sent her around

00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:18.000
the world to film sets and she would come on your set and she'd go that guy's hat needs to be more red or that wall needs to be green or that piano needs to be blue.

00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:33.000
To show off the glories of the glories of Technicolor as as as on as as as as on as as as as on as as as on as as as on as as as as on as as as as on as as So a technical film in storage exists as 3 roles of black and white film.

00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:37.000
So if you want to restore it to any kind of film, all you need is it doesn't fade because it's not colour.

00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:41.000
It's 3 rolls of black and white film. If you know what color to die those 3.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:46.000
The red, green and blue. You can always bring the color back. It doesn't fade like beta color film.

00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:55.000
So one of what I think the very first or one of the right first, not the very first, and to shame I've got a better quality of this.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.000
Things shot in 3 strip is Becky Sharp in 1,935.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:02.000
What's notable it's it's Becky's top it's it's the vanity fair story.

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:17.000
What's notable about it is although this print of it it really needs restoration this principle doesn't really show It's everybody's suddenly got blonde hair and blue dresses and it's like the film is going to great lengths to show.

00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:20.000
We can show it all now we can do all these colours. So have a quick look at Becky Sharp and then we'll finish with something.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:22.000
It's something else.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:36.000
Elizabeth. Okay. Lines to Amelia upon leaving Miss Pinkerton's academy.

00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:43.000
Okay. Farewell, farewell. Sweet friend of childhood years.

00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:54.000
So although this print is a bit faded and a bit wonky, you can suddenly, that's colors we haven't been able to see up to now isn't it the blue the yellow of their hair it's all it's all suddenly available that that palette with with the three-strip technicolor

00:46:54.000 --> 00:47:06.000
it's the most important so we've arrived. I want to end with something that that shows this three-strip technical area in all its glory.

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:13.000
And it's probably the most famous. The most famous technicolor movie and plays a little trick on us.

00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:22.000
And that's the Wizard of Oz. So, 1,900, and 39, the was a, so the technology had a few years to, bed in.

00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:32.000
Famously of course the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz are silver slippers in the book but Noel Langley the screenwriter said no for filming this in Technicolor.

00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000
The steppers are going to be a colour. Silver's not a colour so we'll have ruby steppers.

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:41.000
It's the most colourful film ever. You've got, and color plays a big role in it.

00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Ruby slippers, Yellow Brick Road. It's it's an amazingly sort of You look at it now and it almost it almost gives you a toothache.

00:47:49.000 --> 00:48:00.000
It's so it's so kind of it's so bright but it's really like a gauntlet thrown down it's like we've done it we're here we can reproduce pretty much any color now and technical has sort of fully arrived.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:06.000
But it has this very neat little, it plays a gag on us in the first sort of almost 20 min.

00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:11.000
Oh, I filmed in CPI. I said I'd show you something that was filmed in Pearl.

00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:22.000
I think I think that the the farm scenes are formed in Pearl and then we have this transition to full technical art as a duty-armed exits that the house.

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:43.000
So have a look at this and enjoy a little colourful bit of the wizard of Oz to finish up.

00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:50.000
You

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:55.000
The

00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:09.000
You

00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:34.000
The

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:37.000
Oh.

00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:43.000
I

00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:54.000
You

00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:55.000
Total?

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:02.000
Oh. It's almost like a cinematic in joke really. The opening of the door onto a tactic, the opening of the door onto a technic other world.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:04.000
It is the opening of the door onto a technical world. It is very much saying we have arrived and we can do this now.

00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:09.000
And technical, you know, it sticks around for many, many years until it gets replaced by cheaper, less good.

00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:19.000
Sort of film that can Does it comp it all in one film role? That's not to the sixtys or seventies.

00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:26.000
That's maybe a story for another day. I promised I'd wrap up in time for questions so what a lovely place to end this journey to technical run.

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:32.000
And, yeah, I'm, for some questions. So let me come out of that.

00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:33.000
And thank you all very much.

00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:37.000
Thanks very much, Christopher. I didn't know we were gonna end on that. That's one of my favorite films I have to say.

00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:38.000
Nice for you.

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:49.000
So yeah, so okay, we've got a couple of questions here. If anyone's got any other questions, put them in the chat and we'll have a look at them.

00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:54.000
We're going to go right back to the start when we were looking at, I think it was Annabel's butterfly dance was it?

00:50:54.000 --> 00:51:03.000
And Brian's asking and Annabel almost seems to even. We could be more likely that sections of the film predict and die rather than painted.

00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:09.000
I think there are some bits where I ended it at the bit where it's where the whole frame goes purple.

00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:15.000
And bits are that is where where the whole frame has died. But 35 film is quite big.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:22.000
It's big enough for it to be very little palette for you to paint on if you've got a little magnifying glass.

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:27.000
So II believe it's all hand done. It would be very hard to get those transitions from one color to another.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:36.000
They would be very hard to get those transitions from one color to another. They just sort of. Do it frame by frame and just sort of change colors in it and it fades through so I think that that shows that it's done by hand.

00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:40.000
Okay, there you go, Brian. And also we had a question for Sue.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:49.000
Now I think Sue asked this when we were looking at the George and Flip and and she's asking what kind of paint dye did they use?

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:53.000
Is it anything like the recent coloring of World War One films.

00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:59.000
That's a really interesting question. Because I mean, I think all the recent stuff is done digitally.

00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:08.000
I don't think very much is done by hand anymore. They must be painting using. It must be a transparent medium.

00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:14.000
So they can't make the film opaque by painting on it because then because then that bit of the image would turn black.

00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:26.000
Light has to pass through film to make it work. So I don't know for sure. I've always imagined they're painting with some kind of watery acrylic or something on the and the film is plastic so something that sits comfortably on the plastic and can curl.

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:41.000
So it's a really good question. I one I don't know the answer to completely but it would have to like I say it has to be paint that's transparent and it can curl because the film film through a projector takes a very How early, so if it was a film like an enamel that was

00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:49.000
that wants to be flat it would just crap an all flake off so it's more of a sort of stain than a paint it's more of a kind of a paint. It's more of a kind of dye.

00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:56.000
So I guess they're using maybe like analogies or something to do it. That's an interesting question though and I wish I knew the answer to that but I wonder if I can find that out now.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:04.000
But the moment stuff like the facial not-ro-old, all that kind of stuff is done, is done digitally I think now.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:09.000
I can't imagine anyone really gets there. Although, you know, the trip to the moon we looked at.

00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:13.000
That was done to the park. That's partially digital and

00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:17.000
Okay. Right. Actually question here from David.

00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:29.000
This is quite an interesting one actually. Can black and white films actually be better than color.

00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:30.000
Yeah.

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:38.000
I mean, any answer I give you is gonna be, it's gonna be subject and and your mileage may vary as they say but I do think there's definitely scope for either being better.

00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:47.000
I can see why early filmmakers wanted colour. And because It I mean it's it's hard to overstate how much very early film is about spectacle.

00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:58.000
Yeah, come and see this and they. That the Melbourne's in particular grow out of magic lantern slides which would have all been color so to see those in black and white would have felt like a downgrade.

00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:09.000
But if you look at For example, Warner Brothers films of the fortys, that great run of Warner Brothers films, things like Morties Fork and Casablanca.

00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:20.000
All those movies they did all shot black and white and they just they look gorgeous on screen those would be those would wouldn't look at all right if they were in color.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:28.000
There's something about those films that the black and white is so evocative and Cinematographers that worked in black and white.

00:54:28.000 --> 00:54:31.000
Got incredibly good at lighting for black and white. And light in black and white is very different to lighting for colour.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:45.000
So if you've got a good cinematographer and a good cameraman that's trained in in how to really light for black and white and you use black and white as an artistic choice.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:55:00.000
I think it can absolutely be. Be better. It's horses for courses. And then you know you look at things that are done kind of cheaply in color when the cheaper color films come along in the sixtys and seventys you get lots of stuff filmed in color that just looks a bit garish and a bit horrible.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:11.000
And you think well yeah there's no that's not as valuable as a really well-lit and well-made black and white film so yeah it's it's program dependent.

00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:15.000
It depends on what you're filming and depends on the skill of who's doing it. But absolutely the

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.000
The films that David was thinking about were Manhattan and Raging Bill.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:33.000
Yeah. Of course. I mean, Raging Bullets is, it's a, in some ways it's visually a sort of homage to, early cinema and it's interesting that you know both those films come from that era of the instead of so-called New Hollywood.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:41.000
In the seventies you get all those filmmakers coming through who have been to film school. And they've started film and they're the first generation that's been able to do that.

00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:51.000
If you were a filmmaker in the thirties and fortys. You would have learned on the job, you would have gone in as a as a teaboy and then someone would have let you play with the camera and then 10 years time you're making films.

00:55:51.000 --> 00:56:02.000
But this generation that made the generation you have your Buddy Alan's in your mom's class says they went to film school they were able to study film so they were able to think, there may be a creative reason for using black and white.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:06.000
It wasn't just, it wasn't just a mandated thing that we have to use the best available technology.

00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:12.000
So that's a real hallmark I think of films from that era that you may choose to use technology that you don't have to use.

00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:20.000
For creative reasons and certainly some of the photography and raging Bolt is glorious in black and white and would not work in color at all.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:25.000
Some of it would be too bloody in that in color. The fight at the end, gets knocked down.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.000
It'd be it'd be horrible. It'd be really gruesome. In black and white it looks So yeah, I agree on those on both those fronts.

00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:32.000
Okay.

00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:33.000
I agree.

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:46.000
Yeah, and Amanda's saying, and she's another comment more than that question. I suppose Amanda's saying the film Ivan the Terrible is in black and white but with a burst of colour to great effect.

00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:47.000
Hmm.

00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:54.000
Yes. And I mean, this's a bit of a lovely thing to talk about another time because once you've got access to color there are loads there are loads of movies that use that use splashes of colour to really interesting.

00:56:54.000 --> 00:57:00.000
Creative effect and they are it's amazingly You still jump out of your seat sometimes. There's a fantastic.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:10.000
In the 19 forties picture of Dorian Gray does that the herd atfield Dorian Gray which is all black and white about from the painting of Dorian Gray which is in color.

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:19.000
And so the film has these little colour ins and it's a it's a really clever creative thing to do it makes you feel like the painting is that is the true reality and the black and white is the film's reality in it.

00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:31.000
It off-kilters you a little bit. There are loads and loads of examples. It's a great film from 1,969 70 butney swope about an advertising detectives in New York.

00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:37.000
And the film is black and white, but the adverts they make are in colour. Do you see the adverts in color and then you see real life in black and white.

00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:40.000
Loads of things like that. Schindler's List. I mean, is the ultimate example of that.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:46.000
It's all black and white with those flashes of red on the little girl's dress and later a candle.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:57.000
Close in color. I want to anymore in case I come back and talk about the one day but yeah absolutely there's a whole tranche of films that that once the color is established they do that and run with it.

00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:05.000
Yeah, okay. Well, that was great. Really interesting and great to learn a little bit of that science actually, you know, behind the movies and I certainly didn't know it all started quite so early.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:13.000
I have to say. Quite amazing.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:20.000
Yeah, and in Britain, you know, these 2, the 2 very early guys were part of the, you know, the sort of emergent British film industry.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:21.000
They were really going for it.

00:58:21.000 --> 00:58:23.000
Okay, well thanks very much for that Chris.

00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.000
And it's over to Kate.

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000
Thank you, Fiona. Thank you for that. That introduction, and welcome everybody.

00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:17.000
I'm really impressed that everybody's joined with this wonderful weather, and it's lovely to see so many familiar faces and I've been sitting in the garden, so I probably look like a beetroot.

00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:29.000
So apologies for that, but it says something about my sartorial elegance that my husband also says said to me, Well, are you wearing beats?

00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:38.000
Are you going out somewhere? So I said, I'm doing a zoom, but you know enough of this for reality. Let's get down to the matter in hand.

00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.000
And I'm going to share my screen in a second.

00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:54.000
And, as you see what we're what we're looking at is this whole business of how spices change the world.

00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:04.000
And I think there are various types of historians, and I'm one of those historians that is really fascinated by connections.

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:22.000
Otherwise. I think history quite often is a bit like Henry Ford described it as one dance thing after another, so I like to see how maybe foods have affected history, and this particular course is is one part of a course that I did on 10 foods.

00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:32.000
That changed the world and spices is a big contributor to world change.

00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:39.000
Sometimes you can kind of over emphasize these things, but I don't think that's the case with spices.

00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:52.000
So by the time we get back to the end of the course, I hope to have shown you how spices acted as a an impetus to.

00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:14.000
World Exploration. How they were at the root of colonialization from the European powers, that they supercharged our embracing capitalism in the West, and the influence of the spice trade is still with us today.

00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:21.000
And that's what I want to show as we go through this afternoon.

00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:38.000
So little bit about the spice trade. Of course, spices have been known since antiquity for 4 millennia, but people didn't know certainly in Europe where they came from.

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:46.000
Originally, and they were traded largely through the spice route.

00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:54.000
The silk road is quite often called, and it took the spices from where they were grown.

00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:06.000
It might have been India. Other parts of Asia, Indonesia, overland through Central Asia.

00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.000
They were ideal in terms of trading commodity.

00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:16.000
There were other things traded called silk was traded as well as well.

00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:28.000
Hence the derivation of the silk road. But the great thing about spices was that you could sell them for a huge amount of money, and they were light.

00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000
So they were an ideal good, and, as I mentioned, they went all the way from China, India.

00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:43.000
Whenever or Central Asia, whenever they were grown across Asia.

00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:59.000
And arrived at a port for most of the time. It is Constantinople or Alexandria, and certainly Constantinople predominated.

00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:08.000
After the fifth century. But there were some other routes, so you know, I talked about Alexandra quite often.

00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:20.000
There was a combination of of routes, partly across the across land, using the spice route.

00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:28.000
The silk road rather, and partly by C. And Alexandria, was another port that was used, and, as I mentioned, people didn't know in Europe where they came from.

00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:38.000
They began to work out where this was over. The centuries.

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:53.000
But, it needless to say, because the trade was controlled by Arab traders, they weren't particularly keen on sharing the secrets of where they had picked up these spices.

00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:11.000
In the first place, and from the eighth century one of the big things about the well really the truth for Venice becoming as wealthy and as influential as it was certainly by 1,200, the engine for that was really the spice.

00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:28.000
Trade. It was ideally placed for bringing the spices in to Northern Europe, and onward transmission from then, and it had good business contacts with both. Alex.

00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:55.000
Andria and Constantinople by the time you get to 1,200 they've got virtually a monopoly, and anybody that's been to Venice will know how fabulous the buildings are, and course it was the collapse of this trade that started. The long-term decline of

00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:11.000
Venice, and even when they were employed, such huge amounts, they didn't really have a complete idea of when the where the spices were sourced from.

00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:20.000
So this was kept still, kept slightly controlled secret from the European traders.

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.000
Why do people want it? When I was at school?

00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:36.000
Certainly, we were told. I remember, that people wanted it, because in medieval Europe meet quite often, wasn't particularly fresh.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:41.000
So you needed a all these spices to actually make it.

00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.000
Which is actually right. It wasn't because meat was on the turn.

00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:54.000
In fact, they were very harsh penalties for butchers, fishmongers who took, who sold unfit meat.

00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:17.000
So there is one example of a poor chap who in the 13 fifties have been convicted of selling rotten pigeons, and his punishment was to sit in the stocks and have the pigeons burnt under his feet, and people could tell any vegetables.

00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:28.000
I'm not sure spices were much, much more expensive than me, so you wouldn't waste them on me.

00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:47.000
That wasn't fit to be eaten. The real reason that people so prized it was obviously it tasted nice, but for the majority of the year, certainly through the winter and early spring there was very little meat.

00:07:47.000 --> 00:08:00.000
Fresh meat. It had to be preserved. You had to be very rich to be able to keep your the whole of your flocks of sheep all through the winter.

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:18.000
What would happen was that the majority of the flocks or heard, would be slaughtered roundabout in November, and would be sorted down and they didn't taste very nice, so spices made them taste much better.

00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:29.000
The other factor which comes in here was that a medieval England and Europe?

00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:33.000
There were a large number of fast days, which meant that you couldn't.

00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:44.000
Eat me. Anyway, you had to go to saltfish, which, by all accounts, was even worse than sort of me.

00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:54.000
And there are about 200 days a year we're, strictly speaking, you weren't supposed to eat me so huge part of the year.

00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:03.000
This. You know anything tasty had to be. If you wanted to make anything tasty, rather, you had to spice it up literally.

00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:20.000
So there are recipes from the 13 forties and the recipe for fish, for example, which uses ginger garlic, cinnamon, raisins, wine with salt fish. You can imagine.

00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:26.000
Well, you'd have the sauce, even if you didn't have the salt fish, wouldn't you?

00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:34.000
I mean, it sounds sounds sounds very nice, and of course you had to be very wealthy to be able to buy these spices.

00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:53.000
In the first place, so in the middle of the fourteenth century, if you were buying, not make, for example, that was equivalent, the price of about pound of not make.

00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000
Excuse me, would be equivalent to about the price of 3 sheep, so it's a huge amount of money.

00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:05.000
So it's a very upmarket dish.

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:12.000
Not something which would be available to somebody who isn't very, very wealthy now, there were couple of other reasons why people wanted spices.

00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:33.000
One of the reasons was that they thought there was a medicinal they thought there was a medicinal use, so I mean, particularly in the fourteenth century, when that bubonic plague arrived.

00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:39.000
People believed that a mixture of spices might ward off the plague.

00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.000
Not make, was particularly valued for this, and the illustration there, of course, is later.

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:50.000
This is the second big outbreak, is afraid.

00:10:50.000 --> 00:11:00.000
In the seventeenth century, but then you can see this doctor in this illustration, has a a beak which would be filled with spices.

00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:18.000
It was felt that if you used a nose, Guy, you would stop the noxious fumes getting the my asthma getting into your and getting into your body and infecting you with the plague, I mean the irony.

00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:41.000
Of course, is that it's probably the spice trade which very much contributes to the spread of the bombic plague in 30, 48, because you can map the journey of the plague against the silk road route, and they map pretty well.

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:54.000
And there was yet another reason why they really valued spices, and this is because they thought it was an aphrodisiac.

00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.000
And this belief goes back to the days when the New Testament was written.

00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:05.000
So I've got a quote here from Proverbs.

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.000
I've perfume my bed with mers, aloes, and cinnamon.

00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:16.000
Come, let us take our feel of love until the morning. Let's just solve ourselves with love.

00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.000
So this was believed to be an aphrodisiac.

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:25.000
I mean even now, when we talk about spicing things up at home, you probably don't think somebody's going to go home and make a curry.

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:32.000
You probably use it that sort of term in another way, and this is what they believe at the time.

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:43.000
Chaucer refers to buying hot spices to kindle his love.

00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:48.000
So this one is a very widespread belief.

00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:54.000
I mean, maybe it was a good marketing ploy. You'd be amazed how many of these foods?

00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:00.000
Are considered when they're first introduced as a aphrodisiacs.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:05.000
Even potatoes, and who knew but there you go!

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:32.000
So back to the spice trade again. Needless to say, because spices were so expensive, the European powers certainly in the fifteenth century were determined that they really wanted to get to the source of these spices, cut out the middleman, if you like cut out the

00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:41.000
Arab traders and trade direct, and of course, the best known example of this is Christopher Columbus.

00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:52.000
He was desperate to get to the Indies, because this was where goods, like spices particularly, were available, and this was coupled with difficulties in using the silk road.

00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:22.000
The local empire had begun to fragment, and it became much more difficult and dangerous and expensive to use that route, and Spain and Portugal particularly, were very keen to, as I say, cut the middleman out and go there themselves, and find these fabulous spices that they could they could

00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:33.000
sell, and Columbus, of course, is the most famous.

00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:42.000
As I mentioned, looking for route to the Indies, and what would happen at this point would be that a monarch would sponsor an expedition.

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:55.000
They were massively expensive. You needed to equip a fleet of ships.

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.000
They'd be away for years, and of course it would all be lost if they didn't come back with something valuable.

00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:16.000
So it's a very risky, very risky enterprise, and some of the byproducts from this are really interesting.

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:23.000
So this is where we see the start of colonialization.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:30.000
So, Vesco de Gama in 1497, is navigated around the Cape of Good Hope.

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:40.000
He's Portuguese, and he arrives in India, I mean fortuitously.

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:53.000
He arrives in Gower and realize, is there that this is where he can, you know, pick up things like pepper, and so on, which could be sold back in Portugal for a huge amount.

00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:18.000
Of money, and in doing that not only establishes trade links, but actually plants the Portuguese flag in in India, and just a few years later Brazil is colonized by Portugal as well.

00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:26.000
I mean, this is quite interesting. Actually, because one of the issues of going with it with going round the Cape of Good Hope.

00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:35.000
Was that once you get to the equator the winds are blowing the other way.

00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:46.000
So the mariners decided that if they swung out into the Atlantic they could take advantage of the wins.

00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:54.000
Providing wins, and then go round the Cape and the particular explorer who discovered Brazil was blown off.

00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:10.000
Course, and while he was at it he claimed for sale for Portugal, as well.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:23.000
So this is the first time that European powers have been exploring the world, and planting their flag in very various territories.

00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:35.000
And it's really to the spice trade. And of course, the huge amounts of money that they can in doing that.

00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:50.000
So interestingly. Vascco de Gama. He lost half his men and 2 ships on his expedition, so you'd think that that would be a complete write off.

00:17:50.000 --> 00:18:01.000
But when he got back the cargo that he bought back things like pepper and so on, which was 60 times the cost of the expedition.

00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:17.000
So if it was successful, you could make an absolute kings ransom, and it simulated thanks expeditions in the other direction as well.

00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:26.000
So there was several explorations which, as Columbus had done.

00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:34.000
We're going in the same direction later explorers realized that there was a landmass.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:44.000
There wasn't the, but they didn't know how big the American continent was.

00:18:44.000 --> 00:19:02.000
So the northern Hunson River, for example, were explored, thinking that perhaps they would flow all the way across the continent, and you would therefore get to the Endnd's quicker and the other alternative.

00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:10.000
Of course, Cabot took, and he was sponsored by Henry the Seventh was to look for a way around the north of the American continent.

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:23.000
Was there a passage that took you to the north of America that would enable you to get to?

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:39.000
Asia quicker. So there are a number of cabbage, and Frobisher were looking for a way to get to Asia, for America.

00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:44.000
And the illustration is Frobisher and Humphrey Gilbert.

00:19:44.000 --> 00:20:03.000
It has the same idea. He's actually stepbrother, and he explores the area, claims Newfoundland for the English crown.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:15.000
And again. It's the first over. If you discount Ireland, it's the first British Overseas Colony, and it's really because he's looking for.

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:24.000
A way to get to Asia, and of course I forgot to mention Mcgann.

00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:33.000
He leads an ex-, a Spanish expedition to find the way to the Spice Islands.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:43.000
These are near Indonesia. They are the only place at the time that nutmeg and mace are grown.

00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:54.000
Unfortunately he dies on on the route, but the voyage and the crew return and that's the first circumnavigation.

00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:08.000
So a real spur to exploring the world because of the money that can be made, and I do not expect there is conflict over spice.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:25.000
So Portugal and Spain, as I mentioned, are the earliest into this particular race to try and find this source of spice.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:44.000
But in England and the Netherlands wake up to the fact that oh, hang on a second there's a lot of money which can be made in muscleling into this trade, and English naval ships capture in 1592 capture a

00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:57.000
portuguese trading ship, which is coming back from the Indies, and it's got 900 tons of cargo and this again, when they look at the value of it.

00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:09.000
It's worth, you know. Present, if you converted it to present day values will be worth millions of pounds.

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:15.000
One of the things that results from that. Not directly. But of course this is all in the air.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:25.000
Is, the East India Company is set up. As I mentioned, the.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.000
Expeditions are sponsored by the monarch in various European countries, and it's a very risky business, because the voyage might not be successful.

00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:42.000
They might all be lost at sea. So they come up with this great idea.

00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Let's spread the risk, and the East India Company and the Dutch setup.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:53.000
Their own version of this, the Duchy India Company Voc.

00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:58.000
It's sometimes called, come up with this great idea.

00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:59.000
Let's set a company up. We'll have shareholders.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:11.000
Will sell the shares, we'll have a pretty professional management of this company.

00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:35.000
The risk. Well, people buy shares. They won't be exposed to losing all their money if if just one of these voyages files, and of course it was a great idea, and single handedly if you like, they invent the modern forms of capitalism a modern joint stock

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:49.000
company. Both companies had massive powers. The Government granted both companies, charters, allowing them to take and defend colonies.

00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:54.000
They could raise armies, and they could build fortresses.

00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:03.000
So it was almost, if you like, imperialism on the cheap, because the company did did it for you.

00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:11.000
And in the seventeenth century the Dutch are much better and more successful.

00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:26.000
In the English. In breaking this monopoly, particularly of the Portuguese in in Asia, and I'll say a little bit more about why, that was later.

00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Just a word or 2 about.

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:41.000
You know the one of the things that occurred to me when I was writing this was, how much did ordinary people know about this?

00:24:41.000 --> 00:25:04.000
What were their feelings, and of course, the very point that these companies are being phones coincides with Shakespeare writing The Tempest, and there he's kind of looking at this relationship between Prospero and Caliban.

00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:10.000
And of course the audience came to see that would know what the references were.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:19.000
So people would know what was going on, and you get references through the seventeenth century.

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:45.000
So, in Samuel Pepys's diary, for example, he talks about how the British have captured a Dutch East India man, so he goes upon down onto this ship, and he talks about how there was Pepper clothes and nutmeg all over the ship and he

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:50.000
says I walked above the knees, whole room full of it.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:55.000
He says, and he he talks about it, being one of the noblest.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:07.000
So I sees ever seen, he goes on later to talk about how to sailors have sold him some.

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:09.000
Pepper and nutmeg. And they've only charged him.

00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:16.000
I think about a pound, and he's he say.

00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:25.000
Well, they sold it much too cheaply. They'd obviously stolen it, but I mean it doesn't stop you buying it.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.000
But you know it's interesting how much this was.

00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:41.000
This was valued, and this conflict comes to a head a little bit later, and one of the areas which was the spark for this particular conflict was the spice silence.

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:49.000
Abanda Islands, they called, and they just off from Indonesia.

00:26:49.000 --> 00:27:01.000
Portuguese, discovered the first, and the Dutch had taken possession of them through their Dutch East India Company.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:13.000
They would. They don't see. India Company had established a colony in the area, and they capture the bander.

00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:22.000
The East India Company managed to have control of one, and these particular islands are the source of quite a lot of conflict.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:29.000
They grow nutmeg, and they're the only place in the world that grows nutmeg.

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:40.000
And of course, at this point, if you think that nutmeg is going to protect you against the plague, you're going to pay almost anything to get your hands on it.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:51.000
So the east, the Duchy Cindy Company were ruthless in establishing their colony. There.

00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:03.000
They? Original population was very, very wiped out, and there'd been an in 1623.

00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:23.000
The Dutch had taken over one of the islands that we still possessed and there was a massacre, so there was a huge amount of angst and conflict about these particular islands.

00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:28.000
Adam, and this carries on through the period.

00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:40.000
So by the time you get to Cromwell in England in 1653, they've been a short battle with the Dutch.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:47.000
This is all over trade. It's trade that's really at the root of the conflict.

00:28:47.000 --> 00:29:00.000
But chromo because he was, he needed the Duchess Dutch support in Europe, for other reasons, was quite keen to make peace.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Soviet, he made peace, and also in terms of their religious beliefs.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:17.000
He was much more in line, I suppose, with the Dutch than he was, with lots of other parts from Europe, so there's a period of peace, and the Dutch use this period of peace productively.

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:32.000
So they began to build up their commercial fleet, and also the the warships that protected it as well.

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:58.000
And when Charles the Second comes back to the throne in 1660, he's very keen to build up trade because he sees that as a way to secure prosperity for England, and really he starts a process of really provoking the Dutch at this point the Netherlands is

00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:07.000
newly independent. The popular is much smaller, and really the the English really overplayed.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:30.000
We played our hand some of the things that were play at the time were that the Duke of York and Charles had been involved in setting up the Royal African Company, which, is, you might imagine tragically mostly deals in slaves, and they are firmly believe that the

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:37.000
Dutch are in the way of them, opening up all sorts of other opportunities for trade.

00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:47.000
The Dutch, muscle in on some of the opportunities which they felt should be theirs.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:52.000
So they one of the things they did was Capture.

00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:57.000
Some trading ships, we weren't at war at this stage.

00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:21.000
They routinely required Dutch ships to lower their flag when they came across an English ship, which lots of the judge captions, you might imagine, found that humiliating, and we also captured an island that they had called New Amsterdam in 16

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:44.000
64, the Dutch managed to capture we also rather manage to capture an island in the Banda Islands, which had been hours before the 16 twenties island of Rome.

00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:57.000
So things were. Things were hotting up, and in the end the Dutch got fed up with being bullied, and really acts of war.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:05.000
When war wasn't to, declared, and we'll break out in 1660.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:18.000
5. The English, when the first battle, but the subsequent battles are won by the Dutch, and I'll tell you a little bit more about that data.

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:25.000
Why, that was the culmination of these conflicts.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:32.000
Was in 1667, which was a national humiliation for England.

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:45.000
We'd that the whole of the fleet had been was in Chatham.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:33:05.000
We put defensive chains on the Midway to try and stop any attack but the Dutch had little trouble in cutting through those so set light to many of our naval ships, and towed away the flag. The flagship.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:11.000
The royal trolls, and they put it on display.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:24.000
When they got home so absolutely humiliating, and, of course, back in London people were terrified that you know this was going to be followed by some sort of invasion.

00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:49.000
Was it going to be an invasion by Holland, where they're going to to partner with another another state, and invite so terrible panic ensued, and of course England was very keen to make peaks at that point, because we we really had run out of

00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:54.000
things, to negotiate over. We had no hand, if you like.

00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:04.000
So we signed a treaty. We agreed to return this Bender Island that we've recaptured to the Netherlands.

00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:19.000
This is what they want. Wanted. 3 quarters of the trade of the Dutch East India Company was in spices, and a amazingly they returned to dividend for about 70 years of over 17% on each of their shares.

00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:31.000
Now, wouldn't that be lovely? But you know she mentioned she profitable.

00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:56.000
But we did get a consolation prize. They said that we could keep this island, that we had catches of New Amsterdam, and we'd rather have the bandwidth, but we got New Amsterdam, and we promptly named it New York.

00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:13.000
so one of the things that you might so to say is that this nutmeg makes New York, because this was a constellation prize for losing this particular conflict.

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:20.000
So I mentioned earlier. Why, why did the what does the Dutch do better?

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:26.000
Smaller population, as I say, they, they newly independent.

00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:45.000
What did they have that we didn't? Well, we picked up on some of the things that the Dutch were doing, and I've got an illustration here which are, talk about as we go through.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:36:01.000
So on the right hand side the Bank of England on the left hand side there is the Bill of Rights which doesn't come into legislation until 1689, so why would they so important?

00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:15.000
Then? Well, the difficulty, of course, with making war a little bit like trading for spices is that it's incredibly expensive.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:29.000
What has happened in conflict with the Dutch in 1667, is we had to put the flute, Chatham, because we had literally run out of money.

00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:34.000
We have no money to pay for repairs to the flee.

00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:42.000
We couldn't pay the. So they the fleet, was mothballed.

00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:50.000
The Dutch had already set up a national bank, and the thing about the National Bank was that people would invest in it.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:00.000
You would buy a bond, a government bond, and they would they could borrow.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000
So they they Dutch for the people that invented this idea of the national debt.

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:16.000
And it wasn't until we had a Dutch king with William the Third that we picked up on this idea and said this would be a great idea, we're going to wage war.

00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:26.000
We will need probably to raise money quickly. How can we do that?

00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:45.000
We can have a National bank, they will issue bonds, and we will then have a debt, a national debt to the people of invested, and the other document there the Bill of Rights enshrines certain rights of individuals.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:38:08.000
So insurance, for example, parliamentary sovereignty, so that people felt this was important in terms of encouraging confidence in investment, so I'm just going to take so just to sum up the bunk of England, we we followed this duchess example.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:13.000
And actually we did it better because we were bigger. So because the you know, British economy eventually was bigger.

00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:27.000
Population was bigger, we became increasingly successful, and the Bill of Rights helped.

00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:36.000
People feel confident, particularly these traders, who began to have money to invest.

00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:44.000
You know they they were confident that they could invest safely.

00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:54.000
They had a stake in the country, if you like, and of course, at the same time, and I'm talking about the time of the battles that Marlborough was involved with.

00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:14.000
There was some military success which meant that people could were encouraged with a sense of If you like, national identity and national pride.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:22.000
So you know the Bank of England meant that the debt is to the State.

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:37.000
It isn't the monarch. Previously, when Charles the Second had been king, he would, you know, invite people to lend money to him.

00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:43.000
He defaulted regularly, so it's not much of an encouragement.

00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:51.000
If you have spare money to invest. Oh, to lend money to the monarch!

00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:57.000
And once you've got this system of a national debt, you can borrow cheaply.

00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:14.000
So you can embark on large scale enterprises and the middle class have this stake in the country.

00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:23.000
So the you know, several of the things I've touched on so far in terms of the influences of spices.

00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:53.000
You know things like the way that it acts as a an engine to encourage world exploration, and in doing that we are getting into this shady world of colonization and exploitation and cause.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Later on, when we when we realized that the best way to exploit resources is setting up a joint stop company like the East India Company the Dutch do the same.

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:11.000
What goes along with that is the whole machinery of the modern world that we know now.

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:16.000
So you need. You need banks. You need a Stock Exchange.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.000
You need insurance companies, so it's the start of the if you like.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:33.000
Modern western world that we know today. So just a word or 2 about the later years.

00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:46.000
And I talked about the East India Company, and really the high day this price heyday, if you like, is in the seventeenth century.

00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:56.000
They begin to switch later on their main trading good in the eighteenth century is T.

00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:11.000
But of course they are instrumental, particularly after 1759 in actually running 1763, a bigger bond in actually administering India.

00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:24.000
So right up until 1858, they are holding responsible for the administration of India, as well as being a huge trading body.

00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:29.000
They make inroads into the Malay peninsula.

00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:46.000
They're involved in Singapore, and, of course, as a slight diversion, they crop up in stories of other foods that change the world like tea.

00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:56.000
So by 1,900 the there isn't the scarcity of spices, spices are grown around the world in numerous locations.

00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:05.000
So we we we don't ever again have this situation where one particular good is fabulously expensive.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:31.000
However, what remains is this legacy that the spice trade setup, and all of the commercial and financial networks to that to deal with them that are really still part of our module will today so I'm going to leave it there.

00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:45.000
Everybody. I hope I've stimulated a few questions, thoughts, comments, so I'll hand over to Fiona to take us through the rest of the session.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.000
Okay. Thank you very much. And for that, Kate, let's just go straight into some questions.

00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:52.000
We've got. I got a few here. I'll start from the top.

00:43:52.000 --> 00:44:00.000
It's a question from Elizabeth. She was asking.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:03.000
Are there any medieval recipes for how to use the spices?

00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:08.000
And how did the poor manage without them all that salt that you talked about in the meeting?

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:09.000
The fish sounds very bad for you, which I'm assuming.

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:12.000
It was.

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:24.000
Yeah, I there are some recipes there is risky, but I think from 1340 I'm just rushing through my yes, there are also recipes.

00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:31.000
I've got one here from 1348.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:42.000
So there are some recipe, and I think there's a recipe book from Richard the Thirds I think it's one of the royal cooks from his day.

00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:48.000
Yeah, I mean, the pool wouldn't be able to afford any of this.

00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:54.000
Of course the poll wouldn't be able to, generally speaking, afford meat, anyway.

00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:58.000
Maybe very, very occasionally a bit bacon, or something like that.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:04.000
So it would be sort of a very basic diet for Paul.

00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:10.000
4 people, and you would have to be mega rich to afford spices.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.000
Hmm, yeah. Okay. Hope that answers your question.

00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:18.000
Elizabeth, no, I've got 2 questions that are kind of similar.

00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:23.000
So I'm gonna put them both to you. So kind of similar one from Pat and one from another.

00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:24.000
Elizabeth, so perhaps asking, Was it not possible? Obviously you just said there, that things have changed by the 19 hundreds?

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:42.000
But was it not possible to grow spices needed to home in Europe, for example, Southern Spain and Elizabeth's asking similar kind of question, did Britain have any homegrown spaces which might have been traded?

00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:45.000
Or was it all from the East?

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:51.000
Yeah, I mean, they did. They did discover that they were.

00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:55.000
They did grow spices in other parts of the world.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.000
But it's surprisingly late, quite often. So not Megan may.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:09.000
I mean they're both the same from the same, of course I think it was in the Napoleonic wars that they, experimenting with growing them elsewhere.

00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:17.000
So it's very, very light in terms of what we grew in Britain.

00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:18.000
I'm trying to think. But no, it's largely it's from the East, I mean.

00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:27.000
It's certainly my, you know my use of this term spice.

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:44.000
And me talking about nutmeg, mace, clothes, pepper, and so on, and these were very sort of highly prized cinnamon, of course. Yeah.

00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:48.000
So they're all from the East.

00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:59.000
Okay, thank you. Okay, question from Jane. Obviously, lots of different countries got themselves involved in this what about the Vikings?

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:03.000
Did they ever get themselves involved in the trade? Do me know?

00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:04.000
That's a very good question. I don't know.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:08.000
I!

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:12.000
Research for you. Then.

00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:16.000
Yeah, I'm you know, sort of thinking about here.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:36.000
At that point. So I mean the difficulty with the Vikings is they don't leave the same number written records so it's you know. It's very easy to find, you know, if you're looking at the classical world in terms of Rome.

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:39.000
And and Greece, you know there are.

00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:48.000
You can pick up records, but I see they were known at that point. So I'm assuming it might be better research for me.

00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:55.000
Here we go. Okay? A question from another. Jane.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.000
You talked about Venice and the decline of Venice.

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:06.000
What actually cost the decline available venison trade cause you kind of touched on it briefly.

00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:15.000
They were other. Venice was important. If you were coming in to Constantinople overland.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:27.000
But over the years other routes were developed. That meant that you could go much further by sea, so you didn't have to come into Venice.

00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:46.000
So, for example, you know, certainly when you get into the late, what the the late, the only seventeenth century, you can come all the way round to the Netherlands, for example, by sea, which is much cheaper, you don't really want to have.

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:53.000
It's safer and cheaper to ship as far as you can possibly go.

00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:57.000
You don't really want to go over land.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:05.000
Okay, there, we go. Right? Okay. What we got next? A question from Kate.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:06.000
You talked about in 1952 that we captured to Portuguese ship.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:17.000
Where we actually at war with Portugal. At that point.

00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:21.000
D. 22.

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:22.000
That's a good question. I'd have to.

00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:29.000
I mean it did.

00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:46.000
I'm trying to think what the we had a kind of system at that point of privateering which was piracy or a government sponsored piracy, if you like.

00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:56.000
Although this particular ship, I think, was captured by a navy ship, so which would suggest that we are.

00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:05.000
We were at war at that point, but the the private hearing was strictly you were supposed to.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:17.000
It's government sponsored. So you've got, if you like, a license from the government and they would indemnify you against an in charge of piracy.

00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:24.000
You would go and pray on any ships that were hostile to the government and the Government would take a a chunk of your profits.

00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:30.000
But I think we must have been at war, and I need to.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:36.000
You know, in terms of the dates. What wall that was I don't know.

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:38.000
I'd have to look that up. Must have been.

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:46.000
Hmm, okay, right? Okay, the question from Madeline.

00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:51.000
Did Parliament have any control over the East India Company?

00:50:51.000 --> 00:50:52.000
Well, they set it up, of course, and they did from time to time.

00:50:52.000 --> 00:51:08.000
So it was a bit like I mean one of the things that I was thinking of the East India Company in connection with.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:14.000
They were too big to fail. So the Government were interested.

00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:27.000
If if they were in trouble, and occasionally they would not exactly bail them out, but they would come up with an arrangement so that their certainly with T.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:43.000
Later on they were very worried about the fact that the East India Company got themselves in a bit of a mess and had too much tea I've had a cash flow problem, but they didn't report to the Government.

00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:49.000
They? No, they, their charter, allowed them autonomy.

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:52.000
Hmm!

00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:58.000
So they had the right to raise an army. They had to write to equip ships, take colonists.

00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:04.000
So it's a huge amounts of rights that were in dealt with.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:09.000
Okay.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:24.000
And another question from Anne talked about the Bank of England setting up at the Bank of England and the National debt. Why is the borrowing from the middle classes, and not the upper classes?

00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:25.000
Hmm!

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:35.000
Well, I think it was both actually, although traditionally they aristocrats had for long time had this faith in land.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.000
So you know it. The idea that you would.

00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:51.000
I mean they did. They would still invest in the royal family were investing, but some of them quite slow to pick up the idea that you you could make a lot of money.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:56.000
People in business were very quick to, because the whole way of life was concerned with trading.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:04.000
Very quick to realize. Oh, hang on, you know I can invest in this.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:14.000
I can get a return of that, and if you were, you know, a landed aristocrat. You are a bit slower, perhaps.

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:15.000
Yeah.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:17.000
I did. I did invest as well.

00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:22.000
Alright. So you go on a question from David.

00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:28.000
Where do our spices come from today?

00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:29.000
All over the place.

00:53:29.000 --> 00:53:33.000
Oh, well, all over the place, I mean I mean, they're growing in multiple locations.

00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:38.000
So you know we're not a Pre.

00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:41.000
In the same way to fluctuations in price.

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:49.000
Well in theory, I'm sure they only go one way.

00:53:49.000 --> 00:53:54.000
But yes, around the world I mean the same way as most goods are.

00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:02.000
Obviously the climate, the conditions are gotta be right. But there's a pressure of sites now.

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:09.000
Okay, excellent. Okay? And question from?

00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:10.000
Let me ask this one. That's the means of production.

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:23.000
Change to meet increased demands, ie. Local use, and East Indies to major export crop.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:24.000
So. Can you repeat that again?

00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:31.000
Yeah, get the means of production change, you know. Obviously, you know, there's the explosion in the spice trade.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:36.000
Increased demand did the means of production change in these places.

00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:42.000
Oh, yeah, I mean, this increased, I think. Go into this in too much detail.

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:51.000
I mean, I just touched on it. I mean, it's increased use of slaves, of course.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:59.000
Virtually round the world, I mean not in the same.

00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:05.000
Huge numbers that you get associated with things like sugar and cotton.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:10.000
But you know the slavery. It does encourage use of slaves.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:31.000
Partly because labor intensive, of course, quite often. So you and it's not the sort of work that people would willingly do, and particularly in terms of the band, runs the Spice Islands.

00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:38.000
What say we? The Dutch East India Company virtually.

00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:43.000
Wiped out most of the way. Populations.

00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:55.000
So you know they what they don't. You send your company in the British East India Company do is tend to use slides.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:01.000
Okay, no, we've got a question from Stewart.

00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:05.000
This is an interesting one. I don't know if you know the answer to this one, but the'll ask it.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.000
Is it true that the nursery rhyme the King of Spain's daughter, originated from the spice trade, ie.

00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:17.000
The reference to silver, nutmeg.

00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:18.000
Oh, I don't know who I'm trying to think how it goes.

00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:26.000
The King of Spain's daughter, is it came to marry me, or something?

00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:32.000
I can't remember the word. Oh, for the sake of my little nut tree!

00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:37.000
Hmm! I don't know not sure. Hi, Jeff!

00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:38.000
Hey? Yeah.

00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:44.000
Okay, that's one of maybe one for Google. Okay, there you go, Stuart.

00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:58.000
Now actually an interesting question from Elizabeth. Obviously the traders going to Spice Islands to pick up their goods and their commodities get to fill the ships with stuff when they were going there.

00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:07.000
Or did they, you know, bring in goods over there, or were they going for empty ships? Which seems like a little bit of waste? Isn't it?

00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:18.000
Yeah, no. I mean, typically they, generally speaking, they and that this isn't only the spice on.

00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:23.000
It's just despised trade generally. Once we were trading direct.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:31.000
We would trade with occasionally goods, more often those silver and silver was worth more in the East than it was at home.

00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:38.000
They wanted it more. So you could. You know you could get more with your money if you like.

00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:41.000
Occasionally there were goods that they would trade, but more often it was.

00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:49.000
It was silver.

00:57:49.000 --> 00:58:04.000
What they would take into the I mean. Obviously, by the time the Spice Islands was being exploited, it's all under the under the control of the Dutch East India Company.

00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:05.000
So in a sense, I mean they. Obviously they would bring things out.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:18.000
That that was needed in the islands, but there's not a true trading relationship I don't know what they they may.

00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:24.000
Well, they there wasn't a sort of a separate.

00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:25.000
It was a closed colony, if you like.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:35.000
It was only about nutmeg, and so they would have been bringing things out, but not trading them on. Presumably.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:41.000
Hmm. Okay. Right? I'm gonna finish off with 1 million dollar question again.

00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:42.000
I don't know if you'll know the answer to this one.

00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:47.000
Maybe there isn't one I don't know from Madeline.

00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:51.000
When is a spice spice in the hair?

00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:52.000
If you have any thoughts on that.

00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:56.000
Oh dear! I don't know.

00:58:56.000 --> 00:59:03.000
You've got me there. That's a very interesting one.

00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:07.000
I'm not sure be interested if anybody knows actually.

00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:13.000
Uhhuh. Okay. Well, if anyone knows the answer to that, pop it into the chat and I will pass it on.

00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:14.000
Yes, yes.

00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:18.000
Okay, I think that's us. Actually, everybody.

00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:19.000
I think we've got through everything. Thanks again, Kate.

00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:39.000
That was fantastic. And it's just really interesting to hear of the links between the spice trade and the various developments in history and how it's led to the trappings of the modern world that we know today. All too well. So thank you very much for that hope everybody enjoyed.
 

1
00:00:01.130 --> 00:00:02.880
Fiona Wright: And, Mike, it's so good to you.

2
00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:09.380
Mike Grundy: Okay, thank you, Fiona, and welcome back to everybody. It's great to be back on

3
00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:15.999
Mike Grundy: on the screen with you and to now, in our series of looking at the capitals of Europe.

4
00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:22.710
Mike Grundy: go to what many people believe to be the most fabulous city of all which is Paris.

5
00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:27.880
Mike Grundy: And I've just recently learned that France is the most visited country

6
00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:32.470
Mike Grundy: in the world with 90 million visitors a year.

7
00:00:32.930 --> 00:00:40.770
Mike Grundy: Well, I'm gonna attempt to take you straight back into Paris without having to go through the problems of travel.

8
00:00:40.810 --> 00:00:48.520
Mike Grundy: and to, in fact, go back over a hundred years to start at the inception of the metro system of Paris.

9
00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:54.580
Mike Grundy: So let us see if the technology works. And

10
00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:01.760
Mike Grundy: and I will share my screen.

11
00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:18.790
Mike Grundy: and I'll bring up the first image, as so you may recall those of you who see me before I make these very visual lectures, rather than lots of words. so this is one of the last worthy slides

12
00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:23.890
Mike Grundy: you will see. essentially, we're looking at the art of the Paris Metro.

13
00:01:24.070 --> 00:01:36.539
Mike Grundy: we're looking at the all over the walls of the Metro which the Parisian authorities have deemed to see fit for our days. But we can also appreciate the design

14
00:01:36.570 --> 00:01:51.430
Mike Grundy: of the metro itself, the actual system, the stations, the entrances so. And we will start that with the story right at the beginning. In the 19 hundreds, 1,900.

15
00:01:53.050 --> 00:02:04.990
Mike Grundy: And here we are in Paris some 123 years ago, 1,900. And you see all the familiar landmarks in particular, the Eiffel Tower.

16
00:02:05.020 --> 00:02:10.189
Mike Grundy: which was only 11 years old at the time the Eiffel Tower is actually

17
00:02:10.210 --> 00:02:16.760
Mike Grundy: an object as a monument to a celebration of the 100 years ago revolution

18
00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:18.220
Mike Grundy: in France.

19
00:02:18.370 --> 00:02:27.070
Mike Grundy: and so many things are based on the French Revolution. The Eiffel Tower marks the dates of the Centenary of the Revolution.

20
00:02:27.880 --> 00:02:42.019
Mike Grundy: Looking here at Paris, there seems to be an awful lot of buildings which you wouldn't normally see like stretching back from the Eiffel Tower. These are all the pavilions of the International Exposition of 1,900

21
00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:55.080
Mike Grundy: The French like to hold in the nineteenth nineteenth century about every 12 years one of these massive international expos. and this was the last of the major ones.

22
00:02:55.380 --> 00:03:15.299
Mike Grundy: And here you see the pavilions all over the field, the military fields below the Eiffel Tower, on the bottom left of the picture we see Les and Valid, normally a huge open grass space in front of the in front of the hospital, but here occupied by temporary buildings

23
00:03:15.890 --> 00:03:30.600
Mike Grundy: and then along the banks of the same, between the 2. You see, all of the country pavilions country from all over the world onto that, wanting to advertise their great architecture and style and skills and art.

24
00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:33.609
Mike Grundy: So huge event.

25
00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:40.369
Mike Grundy: they expected 25 million people in the 6 months, the Expo went on.

26
00:03:40.830 --> 00:03:45.089
Mike Grundy: They didn't get 25 million. They got 50 million.

27
00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:56.620
Mike Grundy: And the big question, even with 25 was, how do we move people around Paris to get to the various sites here and elsewhere all the way to?

28
00:03:57.030 --> 00:04:01.249
Mike Grundy: Well, they've been talking about a metro for 30 years.

29
00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:09.480
Mike Grundy: This meant them. They had to make decisions, get those skates on, and they designed and built the Metro in fast time.

30
00:04:10.350 --> 00:04:16.370
Mike Grundy: The only slight difficulty was the the Exposition to open in April.

31
00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:20.619
Mike Grundy: The Metro wasn't actually operating until July.

32
00:04:21.190 --> 00:04:26.099
Mike Grundy: so that would have been pretty tough on the initial attendees.

33
00:04:27.290 --> 00:04:34.409
Mike Grundy: You may see at the bottom right of the picture 2 large buildings which are still there today. Fully functioning

34
00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:44.670
Mike Grundy: at the very bottom is the pretty Palais or the small palace. and just above it, across the road, is a grand. a huge exhibition building

35
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:52.040
Mike Grundy: which starred in the a recent mission. Impossible film with Tom Cruise as he ran along the glass roof.

36
00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:58.390
Mike Grundy: These 2 buildings with great galleries and exhibition halls, and they still do that today.

37
00:04:59.320 --> 00:05:03.540
Mike Grundy: This move from the expert itself to the style of the times.

38
00:05:03.630 --> 00:05:09.210
Mike Grundy: and I'll show you one of the staircases in the that building bottom right

39
00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:29.890
Mike Grundy: This is one of the most beautiful and exotic staircases. Spiral staircases I've seen is right on the end of one wing, and you see it's now a sumptuous art gallery with permanent exhibition, like you see on the walls behind, and temporary exhibitions as they go through Europe.

40
00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:44.040
Mike Grundy: But you see in the railing there some of the trend towards the art nouveau style of very organic designs for anything, from buildings to railings to light fittings.

41
00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:52.020
Mike Grundy: and our nouveau was the style of the 1890 s. And the 19 hundreds

42
00:05:52.110 --> 00:05:58.550
Mike Grundy: principally a design style for interiors furnishings last way of fine art

43
00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:12.409
Mike Grundy: the principle of the but the basic design was all about having natural organic designs rather than ugly. Industrialize Re to linear designs. Let's make everything natural and beautiful.

44
00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:22.270
Mike Grundy: So design things in the in the style of the way plants are structured, the stalks of flowers, even in insects, everything natural.

45
00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:36.939
Mike Grundy:  who are the stars of the art nouveau movement? Well, you can look throughout the world. These are the principal practitioners initially in Belgium, with a guy called Victor Halter.

46
00:06:37.100 --> 00:06:45.230
Mike Grundy: and then in France with Hecta Grima, who will be the star of this show, is the creator of the Paris Metro

47
00:06:45.850 --> 00:06:52.459
Mike Grundy: in Austria. We have also Wagner, great architect, Scotland. You will remember Charles Running Mac and Josh

48
00:06:52.470 --> 00:07:01.110
Mike Grundy: Spain. who goes to Barcelona these days without visiting the works of Gaudi and in the U.S.A. Louis Sullivan.

49
00:07:01.340 --> 00:07:09.470
Mike Grundy: so very famous architects and designers Even today, looking at their contribution. At that time

50
00:07:16.670 --> 00:07:31.650
Mike Grundy: a new. Those started in in Belgium, in Brussels, and Victor also was very much the the the man who made it possible. He designed a number of apartment houses, and you see here an example. The very first one.

51
00:07:32.030 --> 00:07:49.269
Mike Grundy: 4 of these apartments. Apartment houses are now unesco world heritage sites. That's how much they're valued. But you look at the spiral design on the stairway, the railing, the balustrade going up with those beautiful tendrils.

52
00:07:49.680 --> 00:08:02.989
Mike Grundy: the metal pillar which at the top of it it's like a a plant branching out into into a display display, and on the right hand side, more railings with exotic designs

53
00:08:03.140 --> 00:08:04.969
Mike Grundy: and on the floor.

54
00:08:05.430 --> 00:08:10.490
Mike Grundy: So this was going into a nouveau in a big way in Belgium.

55
00:08:11.070 --> 00:08:13.480
Mike Grundy: and then eventually very quickly

56
00:08:13.620 --> 00:08:17.180
Mike Grundy: moved to Paris, adopted by Paris.

57
00:08:17.370 --> 00:08:27.250
Mike Grundy: there was a a mes on a nouveau which actually promulgated the style by a a famous entrepreneur called secret Bing.

58
00:08:27.380 --> 00:08:32.579
Mike Grundy: And he basically was a focal point in Paris for this design.

59
00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:40.620
Mike Grundy: But here, no doubt, many of you have been to Maxim's and dined in fine style in this art nouveau interior.

60
00:08:40.900 --> 00:08:42.530
Mike Grundy: You look at the mirror.

61
00:08:42.669 --> 00:08:58.529
Mike Grundy: Well, what a shape that is! You look at the lights on the on the top of the cabinet on the right hand side. It's as if they have plants the little spikes on them, and drooping over the flower heads, which are the lamps.

62
00:08:58.910 --> 00:09:02.979
Mike Grundy: so to this day still in this design.

63
00:09:02.990 --> 00:09:04.600
Mike Grundy: and then a treasure.

64
00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:21.859
Mike Grundy: And Hector was one of the key architects, a very young architect of the time, and he's most famous outside of the Metro for this apartment building castle.

65
00:09:22.160 --> 00:09:29.259
Mike Grundy: and just one example of the style of that building and the decor. These are the front gates.

66
00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:31.919
Mike Grundy: Have you ever seen gates like this?

67
00:09:32.130 --> 00:09:40.380
Mike Grundy: you will see similar designs in Lille in Antwerp, right across the Divide of France and Belgium.

68
00:09:40.710 --> 00:09:49.300
Mike Grundy: and you will see lots of the badges, symbols of art nouveau like whiplash designs in some of the fine metal.

69
00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:55.519
Mike Grundy: and we even have these designs creep into the stonework. If you look at the top of that image

70
00:09:56.530 --> 00:10:06.549
Mike Grundy: so very much at the forefront of our nouveau, but not not really in terms of the established art of design community.

71
00:10:06.650 --> 00:10:16.670
Mike Grundy: So it's a bit of a surprise when the chairman of the committee to decide the architecture for the Metro decided on this young architect

72
00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:20.899
Mike Grundy: and on his style of

73
00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:32.690
Mike Grundy: one of the reasons why the French and that chairman of the committee went for a nouveau was Paris, had just been restyled

74
00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:40.179
Mike Grundy: by Louis Napoleon, Napoleon the Third, the President, the Emperor, and then under him Houseman

75
00:10:40.190 --> 00:10:44.899
Mike Grundy: House one's Paris, creating the new boulevards of Paris.

76
00:10:44.920 --> 00:10:57.200
Mike Grundy: And here you see, even in the rain, people in their best dress flaunting themselves, parading themselves around this very stock, but very elegant architecture

77
00:10:58.210 --> 00:11:13.130
Mike Grundy: you see, on the building on the top left, you see the standard, which is, you'll have a balcony railing all along the second floor, and then all along the top floor of these buildings it's very, very standardized.

78
00:11:14.470 --> 00:11:21.160
Mike Grundy: This picture, one of my favorite of Paris, by Chi Bot, one of the lesser known of the impressionist group.

79
00:11:23.530 --> 00:11:33.440
Mike Grundy: This is a picture today of a building almost next to the opera, the Garni Opera House, and you see the same thing, not quite so many stories.

80
00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:45.890
Mike Grundy: But how do you put the station building as we have in London into that scene without messing up the clarity of this view of the Parisian boulevard.

81
00:11:46.400 --> 00:11:52.199
Mike Grundy: Well, you minimize the station entrances and you put all the functions below.

82
00:11:54.700 --> 00:12:02.269
Mike Grundy: This is the minimal standard entrance to the Metro within Paris, designed by H. To Green.

83
00:12:02.790 --> 00:12:14.540
Mike Grundy: These are just steps leading down off the street. We have the Guardian all behind. So many of you, I'm sure, will have actually used the entrance to this to this station below the ground.

84
00:12:15.420 --> 00:12:30.030
Mike Grundy: And what can you say about that entrance? It's very much like the London underground entrance or 2 of them at Piccadilly Circus. But here we have these elegant organic designs.

85
00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:36.940
Mike Grundy: Do you think those stalks going up into the sky, holding those gleaming red eyes.

86
00:12:37.090 --> 00:12:38.610
Mike Grundy: Are they triffids?

87
00:12:38.670 --> 00:12:44.469
Mike Grundy: Are they going to leap down and kill anybody daring to go down these steps?

88
00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:56.180
Mike Grundy: No, they're not. They just the standard design such. That night you have enough light to be able to go down safely into the booking office and the platforms below

89
00:12:56.800 --> 00:12:58.160
Mike Grundy: and the railing.

90
00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:06.079
Mike Grundy: Okay, it's just functional to stop people falling down the whole. But it is with an exotic design which we'll look at in a moment.

91
00:13:09.100 --> 00:13:13.070
Mike Grundy: Variations on the theme. Sometimes you get a glass canopy

92
00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:21.870
Mike Grundy: here at Chatterley, the largest of all the metro stations below ground. We have this beautiful glass and iron roof.

93
00:13:22.130 --> 00:13:29.650
Mike Grundy: and this quote. these kind of designs are called liberal yules by the French or dragon flies.

94
00:13:29.770 --> 00:13:39.570
Mike Grundy: and it's almost as if if the winds get something they will jump up, it will float off from where they are anchored, and they end up somewhere else in Paris.

95
00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:41.830
Mike Grundy: Absolutely delightful.

96
00:13:42.380 --> 00:13:51.579
Mike Grundy: I only have a passing moment of regret. It's about the fact that you can see the graffiti that the bounds in Paris much more so than in London.

97
00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:58.649
Mike Grundy: And here's another version. Everything is covered in in this version.

98
00:13:58.890 --> 00:14:09.949
Mike Grundy: This is in Avenue Fosh. This is a national monument. Most of these entrances are preserved as national pieces of Architecture

99
00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:18.540
Mike Grundy: Avenue, for she is the smartest place you can live in Paris. It's between the the tree on from the Vladimir.

100
00:14:18.650 --> 00:14:28.800
Mike Grundy: Lots of people going there recently for the French open tennis tournament. So they have one of the smarter entrances, giving them cover from the weather.

101
00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:34.220
Mike Grundy: And if you examine these buildings

102
00:14:34.270 --> 00:14:59.170
Mike Grundy: carefully, you find this amazing detail on the right hand side. This would in London be just a round pole as one end of this structure here. It's like the leg of an animal or an insect with the skin tightly drawn on the skeleton. All this the structure, internal structure of whatever animal, is

103
00:14:59.710 --> 00:15:06.459
Mike Grundy: on the left hand side you see, one of these plates which are decorating the bottom half of the rules.

104
00:15:07.300 --> 00:15:14.759
Mike Grundy: One of the things about our new, though, is that it should never be symmetrical. I I was disappointed in this standard design.

105
00:15:14.770 --> 00:15:20.560
Mike Grundy: but, in fact, if you look at it very carefully, they follow the rules. It isn't quite symmetrical.

106
00:15:24.050 --> 00:15:27.520
Mike Grundy: One or 2 of these stations were substantial.

107
00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:33.700
Mike Grundy: and here they were called to go. This, as in Japanese, for those or pavilions.

108
00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:38.309
Mike Grundy: there were only 3 of them, one of Bastille, 2 at the.

109
00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.159
Mike Grundy: and they were removed in the sixties for road widening.

110
00:15:42.560 --> 00:15:49.350
Mike Grundy: However, if you go to the where they were located today. There's nothing there. The road hasn't been widened. Further.

111
00:15:50.060 --> 00:15:55.880
Mike Grundy: I think the French are so ashamed of having not these amazing build buildings down

112
00:15:55.940 --> 00:16:04.000
Mike Grundy: that they destroyed all of the photographs as well. that's just my observation. Obviously not true.

113
00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:13.449
Mike Grundy: But look at that. It's almost as you go into the station through those central color doors that you're going into the mouth of some massive insects.

114
00:16:13.780 --> 00:16:15.330
Mike Grundy: Not a pretty thought.

115
00:16:17.450 --> 00:16:22.989
Mike Grundy: It's all important on the metro, as far as Paris is concerned.

116
00:16:23.420 --> 00:16:32.150
Mike Grundy: outside of the Eiffel Tower. This is the symbol that travel companies use to say you are absolutely in Paris.

117
00:16:32.400 --> 00:16:35.679
Mike Grundy: So these 2 elements of entrances and roofs.

118
00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:42.559
Mike Grundy: In these major guides to Paris everybody recognizes Paris by the art of the Metro.

119
00:16:45.280 --> 00:16:52.610
Mike Grundy: and the Metro isn't just. In Paris you will find Paris match of entrances in

120
00:16:53.050 --> 00:16:58.230
Mike Grundy: well, Moscow, Lisbon, Mexico City, Chicago.

121
00:16:58.350 --> 00:17:02.690
Mike Grundy: New York. Washington. and Montreal.

122
00:17:03.410 --> 00:17:10.930
Mike Grundy: Sadly, these entrances are just entrances, and you can't get a ticket from Chicago to Paris on the Metro.

123
00:17:11.109 --> 00:17:13.630
Mike Grundy: But maybe one day, who knows?

124
00:17:15.569 --> 00:17:27.409
Mike Grundy: So that's about the Metro itself. But what about the art that's on the walls effectively. All of the art is showing off is celebrating the great qualities of France, and it's people

125
00:17:27.540 --> 00:17:33.819
Mike Grundy: everything from culture to science. It's military, industrial capability

126
00:17:33.850 --> 00:17:37.320
Mike Grundy: and the principles of its constitutions.

127
00:17:37.450 --> 00:17:41.800
Mike Grundy: Democracy, obviously liberty, the quality and fraternity.

128
00:17:42.230 --> 00:17:45.580
Mike Grundy: Let's see if we can take off one or 2 of those as we go.

129
00:17:48.760 --> 00:17:50.939
Mike Grundy: This is a Metro station.

130
00:17:51.050 --> 00:17:58.909
Mike Grundy: You can see the platform at the bottom of the screen, and below that the rails the same structure as Baker Street Station in London.

131
00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:06.750
Mike Grundy: But what on earth is this decor? I usually ask you a live audience for suggestions.

132
00:18:06.870 --> 00:18:15.910
Mike Grundy: but this let me put you out of any misery. This is a full scale replica of Jules Burns submarine, the Nautilus

133
00:18:16.080 --> 00:18:20.609
Mike Grundy: from 40 sorry. 20,000 leads under the sea.

134
00:18:21.030 --> 00:18:26.080
Mike Grundy: This is a submarine that can go twice around the world submerged

135
00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.920
Mike Grundy: in the imagination of Jules.

136
00:18:29.350 --> 00:18:41.199
Mike Grundy: And this is set. This station is set below the they are famous college and institution of arts and crafts and technology

137
00:18:41.260 --> 00:18:42.700
Mike Grundy: going forward.

138
00:18:43.230 --> 00:18:54.510
Mike Grundy: So you have the portholes on the side of the submarine. The whole casing of the submarine is in copper. and the drive shaft and the cogs and gear wheels are in the vault.

139
00:18:54.980 --> 00:19:04.489
Mike Grundy: so I've never seen anywhere else in the world such a an amazing and total work of art in the station itself.

140
00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:16.399
Mike Grundy: I'll just have a look here. Yeah. By the way. in every country a league is something different. A league is a Roman measurement.

141
00:19:16.630 --> 00:19:20.580
Mike Grundy: but in France it me. It's 3 miles

142
00:19:20.760 --> 00:19:23.010
Mike Grundy: in good old English models.

143
00:19:26.210 --> 00:19:34.430
Mike Grundy: So how do I tell you all about the art. What we're gonna do is go down the original line built for the Expo Universal.

144
00:19:34.740 --> 00:19:46.359
Mike Grundy: and it's line one. and we're going to go through each station with our. and just see this as a taste of what's to come. This is one of my very simple maps of

145
00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:53.839
Mike Grundy: front of Paris, but I'm sure you can see the same in blue. and the major items, the major

146
00:19:54.060 --> 00:19:58.150
Mike Grundy: on the on the Tory fell.

147
00:19:58.490 --> 00:20:00.740
Mike Grundy: and the

148
00:20:03.370 --> 00:20:09.219
Mike Grundy: so starting up by steel in the East End of Paris.

149
00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:11.849
Mike Grundy: We will look sorry.

150
00:20:11.940 --> 00:20:13.909
Mike Grundy: I'm just gonna look at my map.

151
00:20:14.110 --> 00:20:29.119
Mike Grundy: Yes, in the East End of Paris. okay, the ambassador, you wouldn't expect anything else as murals right along the platform walls, which, above above ground at this stage of the events of the Revolution.

152
00:20:29.150 --> 00:20:37.219
Mike Grundy: which were triggered by many things, but including the storming of the Bastille prison for so called

153
00:20:37.260 --> 00:20:39.089
Mike Grundy: political prisoners.

154
00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:47.210
Mike Grundy: This is one of the examples, and this gives you the timeline of the Revolution.

155
00:20:47.260 --> 00:20:49.710
Mike Grundy: famous year 1,789

156
00:20:49.740 --> 00:21:05.480
Mike Grundy: top left of the screen, the opening of the Estate General, where the King had to go to the people at the aristocracy and the common people and the church to agree fast. You taxes to make and maintain his lifestyle.

157
00:21:05.870 --> 00:21:22.830
Mike Grundy: And they didn't agree, and on the twentieth of June of the tab at the bottom of the slide they got the just the people the representatives of people got together in the show. The poem or squash court, basically a huge French version. Swash Court

158
00:21:23.100 --> 00:21:29.420
Mike Grundy: agreed that they would not rest until aid. got representation of the people.

159
00:21:29.690 --> 00:21:34.639
Mike Grundy: and then the fourteenth of July, one month later, the Bastille was stormed.

160
00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:47.020
Mike Grundy: Then the going along the platform. This just a a vast series of mosaics, of scenes from the Revolution.

161
00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:54.469
Mike Grundy: So if you want to understand the revolution and the scenes around Paris. then wander along the platform of by steel

162
00:21:58.050 --> 00:22:05.699
Mike Grundy: moving on as we have to do. We come to the City Hall or the Hotel de Veal on the City Hall.

163
00:22:05.910 --> 00:22:13.220
Mike Grundy:  But down some 30 years previously. On one of them many other revolutions.

164
00:22:13.280 --> 00:22:21.520
Mike Grundy:  basically has the coat of arms of Paris displayed on the Metro station below it.

165
00:22:22.370 --> 00:22:42.470
Mike Grundy: also of notes on the top left of your screen. these are the supports for the roadway above. as all of the metro stations on line one are just skin deep below the road, a lot of the Shawns, and the Ruda rivering along the Louvre.

166
00:22:42.650 --> 00:22:51.329
Mike Grundy: red and blue, or the colors of Paris. So let's set the scene. But let's look at that code of arms setting that kind of tile mosaic

167
00:22:52.920 --> 00:23:03.020
Mike Grundy: and see what it means. We have the red and the blue obviously, of Paris. We have the the symbol of the monarchy and of France.

168
00:23:03.450 --> 00:23:16.120
Mike Grundy: behind the red. We have a boat. You wouldn't think that so sailing would be part of the core function of Paris. But in the early 11 hundreds, 12 hundreds

169
00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:24.000
Mike Grundy: the fishing industry was a big big industry in Paris with fish bought up the same from

170
00:23:24.230 --> 00:23:33.490
Mike Grundy: from the Channel clearly, and the people who ran that industry with the marshmallow, and they got their badge on the city.

171
00:23:34.550 --> 00:23:40.969
Mike Grundy: Then we have the motto. Fluctuate to that, and that's where it's

172
00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:46.400
Mike Grundy: we float. but we don't sink.

173
00:23:47.140 --> 00:23:50.719
Mike Grundy: And then at the bottom we have a point about that in a moment.

174
00:23:50.850 --> 00:23:58.119
Mike Grundy: and then the bottom. We have the 3 great medals achieved by Paris, awarded to Paris by the French Government.

175
00:23:58.370 --> 00:24:01.739
Mike Grundy: and these are in turn the legend on that.

176
00:24:02.250 --> 00:24:13.560
Mike Grundy:  then on the fully on the right, we have the  the the flag of the occupation surviving the occupation.

177
00:24:13.800 --> 00:24:18.850
Mike Grundy: And I'll come back to the one in the middle if I forget before we get to the end.

178
00:24:20.650 --> 00:24:27.669
Mike Grundy: Oh, the quad again! Of course the awarded in 19 20 after the First World War.

179
00:24:29.630 --> 00:24:48.399
Mike Grundy: The next start we come to is on Chatterley Station, the largest station of all. It has about 11 lines going through it a bit like kings cross and pancreas. and here, or in a maze of tunnels and passageways, you you suddenly find yourself walking towards this

180
00:24:48.570 --> 00:25:00.809
Mike Grundy: extremely red and white piece of art piece of abstract dance by bash alone, and he was given a remit which he carried forward to about 6 stations on the Metro

181
00:25:00.910 --> 00:25:03.369
Mike Grundy: to create these kind of murals.

182
00:25:03.560 --> 00:25:07.859
Mike Grundy: just to decorate the structure, the building.

183
00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:25.030
Mike Grundy: And then we come to the Louvre. Whenever a metro system comes to the great museums of the world. Then it typically has replica exhibits on the platform to give you an early taster of what you will see ahead.

184
00:25:25.250 --> 00:25:33.259
Mike Grundy: and here we see what many statues on the left hand side, but in particular the bust of Marie Antoinette.

185
00:25:33.530 --> 00:25:37.380
Mike Grundy: one of the leading victims of the Revolution.

186
00:25:38.340 --> 00:25:41.099
Mike Grundy: We' it in 1,793,

187
00:25:41.170 --> 00:25:51.259
Mike Grundy: and, like many of the queens of France, the daughter of like the King and a an Austrian princess.

188
00:25:51.560 --> 00:25:56.809
Mike Grundy: somebody who had sufficient statutes of marriage becoming Queen of France.

189
00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:05.530
Mike Grundy: Much of the money exhibits from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. The classical world.

190
00:26:05.750 --> 00:26:12.089
Mike Grundy: we have the Greek sculptor practically his work on the left hand side here

191
00:26:12.100 --> 00:26:14.759
Mike Grundy: in the fourth century, Bce.

192
00:26:15.070 --> 00:26:26.809
Mike Grundy: And we'll always have Venus sculptors always go for Venus. And here Alexandra Gross of Antioch, is creating this beautiful statue of Venus.

193
00:26:27.980 --> 00:26:37.209
Mike Grundy: I'd like to hear it for Frank S. Italy's on the left hand. Side amazing detail. This is very early, full century. Bce.

194
00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:48.030
Mike Grundy: Frank Italy's was the man who first of all carved on naked Venus. which was completely unacceptable to most people in ancient Greece at the time

195
00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:54.770
Mike Grundy: women work were sculpted with flowing robes, and men were scolded typically naked.

196
00:26:55.230 --> 00:27:00.270
Mike Grundy: Well, frankly, it's change. All of that with is one statue of Venus.

197
00:27:03.510 --> 00:27:11.960
Mike Grundy: Then we come to another station which is still serving. The Louvre is so large it has 2 stations on this line, and others.

198
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:15.750
Mike Grundy: But this is at the Palais Royal, one of those royal palaces.

199
00:27:15.870 --> 00:27:22.300
Mike Grundy: and the Mexicans have decided we'd like a Metro entrance. Can we have one, please.

200
00:27:22.340 --> 00:27:34.990
Mike Grundy: And Paris said, Yes, please do. But can we have your idea of an even better major entrance? And so this is a work of art by a famous Mexican designer

201
00:27:35.040 --> 00:27:42.659
Mike Grundy: in the end, crafted by technicians from the island near Venice, famous for glassware.

202
00:27:42.790 --> 00:27:53.760
Mike Grundy: And we have so this, what exotic entrance, which you can only really appreciate how exhausting it is at night, when all of these gloves are lit up.

203
00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:08.399
Mike Grundy: and then weary the gardens in front of the Louvre. Between the Louvre and the plaster of the Concorde, we have a celebration of a hundred years of the Metro.

204
00:28:08.940 --> 00:28:13.470
Mike Grundy: and here, in a series of panels all around the platforms.

205
00:28:13.520 --> 00:28:24.449
Mike Grundy: we can see the major events of the time. and in 1,900, the decade from 1,900. We have the suffragist. the Suffragettes of Paris.

206
00:28:24.800 --> 00:28:31.480
Mike Grundy: They weren't quite as violence and as in Pre as a insistent as English suffragettes.

207
00:28:31.530 --> 00:28:37.180
Mike Grundy: So the French leaders got the vote in 1,945, a little bit late on.

208
00:28:37.550 --> 00:28:44.120
Mike Grundy: But we also see at the top of this image we see Blerio, crossing the Channel in 1,909,

209
00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:45.520
Mike Grundy: and

210
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:59.120
Mike Grundy: of notes on the top less corner we see me. which they concede in the writing was actually invented by Mr. Hornby in England in the 1890 S.

211
00:28:59.190 --> 00:29:07.390
Mike Grundy: But it we call such a the swathe through the toy shops of France, so is sufficiently important to be included here.

212
00:29:09.870 --> 00:29:13.349
Mike Grundy: We won't look at every year, but here is the 19 twenties.

213
00:29:13.370 --> 00:29:17.739
Mike Grundy: and we have the spirit of St. Louis flying single-handed

214
00:29:17.750 --> 00:29:27.279
Mike Grundy: by Charles Lindbergh all the way from America to Paris, and landing at the Paris airport.

215
00:29:27.380 --> 00:29:33.619
Mike Grundy: and I was always pretty missed about that. That. He flew over Ireland and over England.

216
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:41.310
Mike Grundy: I thought he was just showing off, and he liked to be friendly to the French. It's actually he did that to achieve a prize

217
00:29:41.500 --> 00:29:52.879
Mike Grundy: which was the prize offered to try and encourage people to do the be the first to do this transatlantic crossing. So we had to go to

218
00:29:53.260 --> 00:29:55.680
Mike Grundy: Paris. Don't blame him.

219
00:29:57.460 --> 00:30:01.089
Mike Grundy: Come to the 19 fifties, and it's the popular world of.

220
00:30:01.150 --> 00:30:21.250
Mike Grundy: And we see 2 examples of cinema icons on the left, obviously adopting, and Brigitte Bardo is just hiding behind that electric cabinet, which is a rather an unfortunate addition you often find to this the Metro, the Metro.

221
00:30:25.290 --> 00:30:33.620
Mike Grundy: 19 nineties. Clearly Nelson Mandela freed from prison, a major event across the world, and especially

222
00:30:33.670 --> 00:30:36.840
Mike Grundy: Parisians and the French, took him to their heart.

223
00:30:37.310 --> 00:30:39.459
Mike Grundy: it's also celebrating

224
00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:47.890
Mike Grundy: the the artwork on Concorde, which is the next station we're coming to, which seems to be an amazing game of scrabble

225
00:30:48.610 --> 00:30:50.720
Mike Grundy: a wonderful.

226
00:30:52.890 --> 00:31:09.889
Mike Grundy: all right before I go on to that. Obviously I have to extend my comments about the French adopting foreign celebrities as their own, and certainly a lot of people in France would think Charlie Chaplin was a Frenchman, all certainly inspired by French mime artists.

227
00:31:10.140 --> 00:31:18.880
Mike Grundy: and Josephine Baker, the American exotic dancer in the bottom of the screen. Well, the French took her to their hearts.

228
00:31:18.950 --> 00:31:23.740
Mike Grundy: so did the Berliners. but much more so than the Americans.

229
00:31:26.770 --> 00:31:29.290
Mike Grundy: so we're halfway down line one

230
00:31:29.390 --> 00:31:36.600
Mike Grundy: that symbol you are here. We just about to go to the plaster icon called the very center of Paris.

231
00:31:38.790 --> 00:31:47.910
Mike Grundy: and here we have any just a small part of that scrabble board on the walls of the of the Concorde station.

232
00:31:48.150 --> 00:32:03.880
Mike Grundy: and as you might be able to see in French. Of course it gives the the rights, the human rights, the rights of man that were publicized, that developed and publicized as a result of the French Revolution.

233
00:32:03.900 --> 00:32:09.389
Mike Grundy: and trying to put in words the rights of every individual person in the country.

234
00:32:11.120 --> 00:32:13.510
Mike Grundy:  Why

235
00:32:13.550 --> 00:32:20.390
Mike Grundy: is it so difficult to read? Well, they clearly didn't have any blank tiles to separate the words.

236
00:32:20.430 --> 00:32:29.470
Mike Grundy: Well, clearly, it's a deliberate work of art, and they thought as well and just making it easy. They make it a puzzle for you to work out

237
00:32:29.590 --> 00:32:32.199
Mike Grundy: what these all of these words say.

238
00:32:33.390 --> 00:32:39.700
Mike Grundy: She was on it on for a zoom. Innocent in English. Every man is presumed innocent, and so forth.

239
00:32:40.600 --> 00:32:48.930
Mike Grundy: So they're very proud of their record on human rights and the institution of human rights from 1,789

240
00:32:49.540 --> 00:32:53.589
Mike Grundy: as such they've got to include obviously, quite a lot

241
00:32:53.660 --> 00:33:01.489
Mike Grundy: of this provision of this document that was published. Well, the even this doesn't cut it. Really.

242
00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:08.669
Mike Grundy: these times cover the whole domain of the station below ground.

243
00:33:08.870 --> 00:33:12.239
Mike Grundy: just astonishing. and obviously it

244
00:33:12.250 --> 00:33:19.849
Mike Grundy: an extremely dangerous work of art. Because if you stand there reading the tiles on the wall and gradually read up.

245
00:33:20.040 --> 00:33:25.020
Mike Grundy: So the rest of them you will definitely stagger backwards and onto the railway lines.

246
00:33:25.540 --> 00:33:33.919
Mike Grundy: Now all of these stations have platform age walls, barriers, as we do on the Elizabeth line.

247
00:33:34.030 --> 00:33:41.849
Mike Grundy: And they are putting those barriers in every station on the Metro. Quite a challenge, and we are going that far.

248
00:33:45.950 --> 00:33:49.310
Mike Grundy: The first station on the

249
00:33:49.480 --> 00:33:58.360
Mike Grundy: is also named after the Prime Minister of France. Towards the end of the war there, Lloyd George.

250
00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:03.159
Mike Grundy: and here we get the Portuguese saying, We like to decorate this station.

251
00:34:03.940 --> 00:34:14.660
Mike Grundy: Paris Metro is famous for its beveled white tiles, or they do some Portuguese Portuguese variations on these tiles in their own style.

252
00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:18.359
Mike Grundy: Some are all these massive cities

253
00:34:18.409 --> 00:34:32.250
Mike Grundy: high rise cities in these kind of pictures. There's a number of these, but generally they're all geometric shapes in bright colors, which really do brighten up and vary the normal metro scene.

254
00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:40.529
Mike Grundy: The next one, the station named after after Franklin D. Roosevelt.

255
00:34:40.659 --> 00:34:53.019
Mike Grundy: After clearly his role in freeing France from the occupation. Unfortunately, the original designs of this station have been subsumed by a pure advertising domain

256
00:34:53.070 --> 00:34:56.789
Mike Grundy: in this case for timberland. But there is companies. Take it over.

257
00:34:57.570 --> 00:35:04.109
Mike Grundy: Why am I even bothering to show it? Well? Because this was the art station of the Metro.

258
00:35:04.630 --> 00:35:07.650
Mike Grundy: Let me go on to show you why.

259
00:35:08.460 --> 00:35:11.530
Mike Grundy: Originally they decided in the fifties

260
00:35:11.720 --> 00:35:19.599
Mike Grundy: to incorporate arts right throughout the the platforms and the step on the station booking a whole

261
00:35:19.690 --> 00:35:24.350
Mike Grundy: Us. And to do it basically do replicas of famous works of art.

262
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:34.329
Mike Grundy: from the impressionist onwards. and including a lot of live artists contributing like. I like Picasso.

263
00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:50.960
Mike Grundy: So they had to go to the representatives of all of these artists, and they got them to agree to Gmo being made, ie. Transferring the images to stained glass, and then having them eliminated from behind

264
00:35:51.010 --> 00:35:57.580
Mike Grundy: on the platforms of the station. So we had all of these wonderful works of our shining out.

265
00:35:57.910 --> 00:36:02.689
Mike Grundy: many Renoir to fee, but more so find golf.

266
00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:05.159
Mike Grundy: It was a dazzling display

267
00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:08.860
Mike Grundy: Picasso was included.

268
00:36:09.100 --> 00:36:20.049
Mike Grundy: and in fact, he said, when asked, Can we put one of your works of ours on the platform? He said, well, you can, but I'd rather decorate the whole station.

269
00:36:20.540 --> 00:36:22.959
Mike Grundy: every part of the station.

270
00:36:23.340 --> 00:36:24.330
Mike Grundy: And

271
00:36:24.520 --> 00:36:37.769
Mike Grundy: okay, he wasn't that famous so famous at the time, I mean, he was. His reputation was a wide enough to be equivalent to these, but they said, No, thank you, Pablo, I will carry on. Just give us the one.

272
00:36:40.150 --> 00:36:50.070
Mike Grundy: Well, all of that's been swept away tragically, and just 3 of the artworks have been preserved in the ticket office above the platforms.

273
00:36:50.210 --> 00:36:59.989
Mike Grundy: And you see my photograph of the work of art, the stained glass on the right. and the real work of all the the the reputter of on the left.

274
00:37:00.190 --> 00:37:03.110
Mike Grundy: So here's says an with his flowers.

275
00:37:04.590 --> 00:37:10.360
Mike Grundy: Yeah, there you go with this young one of the.

276
00:37:11.930 --> 00:37:22.639
Mike Grundy: And here at last we have Picasso with one of his typical images of guitars and mirrors and still other objects of still live.

277
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:34.479
Mike Grundy: This isn't the only part role of Picasso on the metro. Hopefully. We'll have time to go and see the other key elements of.

278
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:47.119
Mike Grundy: and the last station we'll look at on. the line, one on the beyond the Shawn's at least it towards a lot of phones is Argentine.

279
00:37:47.470 --> 00:37:55.280
Mike Grundy: The French have a very close relationship with Argentina partly because the French and the Argentines believe

280
00:37:55.300 --> 00:38:02.360
Mike Grundy: that the the French forces in times past prevented Argentina becoming an English colony.

281
00:38:03.020 --> 00:38:05.929
Mike Grundy: I he kept us away.

282
00:38:06.220 --> 00:38:16.829
Mike Grundy: They also. Argentina was very helpful to France after the Second World War, in supplying food stuff and equipment to help them in the recovery

283
00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:18.460
Mike Grundy: from the occupation.

284
00:38:18.920 --> 00:38:32.909
Mike Grundy: So in Argentine on the platform we have a whole series of celebrations of the one just wonders of Argentina. and here we have the Falls. One of the most spectacular falls in the world.

285
00:38:32.980 --> 00:38:35.199
Mike Grundy: The widest falls in the world.

286
00:38:35.230 --> 00:38:46.890
Mike Grundy: and at peak flow the the falls with the largest peak flow in the world. So it's spectacular. I've enjoyed that very much on a visit there.

287
00:38:47.730 --> 00:38:51.840
Mike Grundy: and I've also enjoyed going to the nightclub called Godel.

288
00:38:52.210 --> 00:38:57.710
Mike Grundy: God always celebrates the greatest exponent ever of the tango

289
00:38:57.810 --> 00:39:01.230
Mike Grundy: Carlos. You can see his face on top right.

290
00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:08.980
Mike Grundy: and you can see the the instrument that's peculiar to Argentine tango. On the left the band onion.

291
00:39:09.010 --> 00:39:14.290
Mike Grundy: which is a huge, huge, wide instrument.

292
00:39:14.980 --> 00:39:18.950
Mike Grundy: Why do I go on about this? Well, there's a station called Guardel.

293
00:39:19.090 --> 00:39:28.590
Mike Grundy: and there and then other places in Buenos Aires you will see elements of the tango, and

294
00:39:29.820 --> 00:39:35.390
Mike Grundy: and I bring you 2 images from the urgency, and Metro, the Buenos Aires Metro

295
00:39:35.700 --> 00:39:44.880
Mike Grundy: taken by myself on the top left. We have Godel playing his violin, and all of the dancers dancing the tango around him.

296
00:39:45.310 --> 00:39:46.310
Mike Grundy: and

297
00:39:46.460 --> 00:39:53.960
Mike Grundy: the pre eminent player of the band onion. It's very wide accordion with a.

298
00:39:54.150 --> 00:40:05.160
Mike Grundy: I'm sure you knew that, anyway. And here's this brilliant William on a take off of him, trying to take out to the maximum with this very

299
00:40:05.190 --> 00:40:08.430
Mike Grundy: plaintive, mournful instrument.

300
00:40:11.610 --> 00:40:12.450
Mike Grundy: So

301
00:40:12.990 --> 00:40:23.670
Mike Grundy: we've done line one. We've wandered around a bit to places our guys and Tina. But let's have a look at one or 2 of the best of the rest artworks on the Metro.

302
00:40:25.890 --> 00:40:33.390
Mike Grundy: I will try and find out where they are above ground. I would show you the Metro, but it is like a spider's web.

303
00:40:33.650 --> 00:40:39.190
Mike Grundy: So what about the Latin Quarter? Just south of the

304
00:40:41.180 --> 00:40:46.740
Mike Grundy: well again, they are using the whole vault of the station below ground

305
00:40:46.970 --> 00:40:51.539
Mike Grundy: over the 2 platforms and the rail lines to make the points.

306
00:40:51.680 --> 00:40:57.959
Mike Grundy: And here we have. We're celebrating 54 heroes of the Latin Quarter.

307
00:40:58.360 --> 00:41:08.419
Mike Grundy: and it. We're celebrating it in these wonderful mosaics in this case, from a bird flying across the the the Latin district.

308
00:41:08.530 --> 00:41:11.400
Mike Grundy: and on the rest of the wall. We have the

309
00:41:11.490 --> 00:41:16.709
Mike Grundy: the signatures of these great heroes of the cultural side of Paris.

310
00:41:18.940 --> 00:41:24.200
Mike Grundy: and uniquely for underground art. They have a little board explaining what it's all about.

311
00:41:24.250 --> 00:41:29.110
Mike Grundy: And essentially you can see at the top some of the people celebrated here

312
00:41:29.190 --> 00:41:35.990
Mike Grundy: Moly air Voltaire, Michel A. At the bottom, Victor Hugo, the staff, Corby

313
00:41:36.670 --> 00:41:49.990
Mike Grundy: and below it just says what what they are. This, this station celebrates the signatures of poets, writers, philosophers, artists, men of science, kings

314
00:41:50.230 --> 00:41:52.380
Mike Grundy: and the government

315
00:41:52.850 --> 00:41:58.689
Mike Grundy: who have enriched culturally Paris and France over this period.

316
00:41:59.570 --> 00:42:10.119
Mike Grundy: The one I want to take your I to significantly is all the 2 top left. You see Eloise on the top right. You see.

317
00:42:10.310 --> 00:42:19.200
Mike Grundy: these guys are from the 11, some 11 hundreds to the earliest heroes of cultural France. Why?

318
00:42:19.220 --> 00:42:25.520
Mike Grundy: Well, they were both very precocious as young people. They both eventually went into the church.

319
00:42:25.580 --> 00:42:38.639
Mike Grundy: They both were into education and creating great new advances in the way. People were educated in particular in religion, with a more rational rather than

320
00:42:38.700 --> 00:42:40.560
Mike Grundy: dictatorial approach.

321
00:42:41.940 --> 00:42:44.350
Mike Grundy: but they're mainly famous because

322
00:42:44.570 --> 00:42:48.410
Mike Grundy: Abelard was meant to be teaching Eloise

323
00:42:48.420 --> 00:42:53.719
Mike Grundy: a little bit younger than he was all about religion and all about culture.

324
00:42:53.750 --> 00:42:56.659
Mike Grundy: and he got a bit distracted by her beauty.

325
00:42:56.800 --> 00:43:01.450
Mike Grundy: and she ended up pregnant. and

326
00:43:01.670 --> 00:43:05.249
Mike Grundy: the master Full Bear. He was meant to be looking after. The 2 of them

327
00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:10.190
Mike Grundy: stumble upon them in a embrace, and they were basically.

328
00:43:10.260 --> 00:43:17.019
Mike Grundy: but in disgrace he was thrown out, and, in fact, as a punishment, he was castrated. Some days later

329
00:43:17.340 --> 00:43:22.499
Mike Grundy: they both went on to separately, become great icons of cultural learning.

330
00:43:22.740 --> 00:43:28.589
Mike Grundy: and so they they all their names known to it. Nearly every cultured Frenchman

331
00:43:31.350 --> 00:43:35.400
Mike Grundy: moving along towards the Eiffel Tower

332
00:43:37.560 --> 00:43:44.760
Mike Grundy: is the station, and Rhoda is the person we're celebrating here the great sculptor.

333
00:43:44.810 --> 00:43:51.869
Mike Grundy: and on the platform we have replicas of to his of his most famous. the thinker on the right hand side.

334
00:43:52.280 --> 00:43:56.840
Mike Grundy: It's actually a sculpture. Sculpture of

335
00:43:58.840 --> 00:44:04.680
Mike Grundy: it was the first and then one of the most important writers in

336
00:44:04.690 --> 00:44:06.280
Mike Grundy: pre Renaissance

337
00:44:06.470 --> 00:44:09.220
Mike Grundy: Italy in Florence.

338
00:44:09.480 --> 00:44:15.280
Mike Grundy: And then further along the platform you can just see a black blob top left. We have.

339
00:44:15.470 --> 00:44:27.070
Mike Grundy: honor, A, the Balzac, one of the leading French writers of the 18 hundreds, 19 hundreds. So the Rhoda Museum is just above here, as you might expect.

340
00:44:30.670 --> 00:44:40.869
Mike Grundy: the outer suburbs. the Bangladesh typically people kind of shrink when you say that because the outer sub of the Paris. a typically very concrete.

341
00:44:40.910 --> 00:44:43.590
Mike Grundy: typically pretty wild places.

342
00:44:44.050 --> 00:44:46.210
Mike Grundy: you gotta be careful when you're out there

343
00:44:46.310 --> 00:44:50.730
Mike Grundy: They all are mainly built in volume after the war.

344
00:44:51.340 --> 00:44:52.360
Mike Grundy: quickly.

345
00:44:53.940 --> 00:45:02.399
Mike Grundy: And here, in what was the old meat or cattle market? Not in the middle of the cattle market

346
00:45:02.600 --> 00:45:06.549
Mike Grundy: which was out at the gates of Paris.

347
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:13.519
Mike Grundy: Now the cattle market is gone, and now it is a great park.

348
00:45:13.570 --> 00:45:17.790
Mike Grundy: but it's the theme of the park with the new buildings in it is music.

349
00:45:18.350 --> 00:45:34.380
Mike Grundy: We have the great Conservato of music. Here we have the main new Philharmonic Hall, and we have various other areas for study of music. And so, as you'd expect to see, we have music notes on the walls of the Metro.

350
00:45:35.300 --> 00:45:44.290
Mike Grundy: I've tried to play that tune on my piano. It isn't the tune they seem to be random notes. but anyway, perhaps it's the way I play the piano.

351
00:45:46.470 --> 00:45:57.800
Mike Grundy: and if if you want to see some interesting French architects by the dominant architecture architect of France these days, John Nouvelle, this is the new

352
00:45:58.240 --> 00:46:02.549
Mike Grundy: concert hall for Paris. The

353
00:46:03.620 --> 00:46:07.169
Mike Grundy: not only does it look horrific. This is a vast building

354
00:46:07.600 --> 00:46:13.379
Mike Grundy: It looks like Darth Vader's helmet to me. If Darth Vader was a massive giant.

355
00:46:13.580 --> 00:46:21.479
Mike Grundy: and you just imagine the people pouring out of this concert hall back to the Metro station coming down these steps.

356
00:46:21.730 --> 00:46:26.969
Mike Grundy: If the steps are full at the top and then being concentrated as you come down.

357
00:46:27.430 --> 00:46:33.770
Mike Grundy: Basically, this could be another disaster waiting to happen. But anyway, that's just my observation.

358
00:46:35.680 --> 00:46:38.289
Mike Grundy: Oh, we're back to Pablo Picasso.

359
00:46:38.580 --> 00:46:43.730
Mike Grundy: one of the most god forsaken concrete suburbs of Paris, is Bobbingy.

360
00:46:44.090 --> 00:46:45.900
Mike Grundy: and it's the end of the line.

361
00:46:46.030 --> 00:47:07.740
Mike Grundy: as you can see from the from the platforms down below coming to an end to the buffers. But above, we celebrate the fact that we've given Pablo Picasso's name to the station with this great well lit, mural in glass, in strands of glass, and on the left hand side of the mural

362
00:47:07.940 --> 00:47:11.520
Mike Grundy: we have a dove, the Dove of Peace.

363
00:47:11.970 --> 00:47:15.040
Mike Grundy: the dove designed by Pablo Picasso.

364
00:47:17.230 --> 00:47:28.600
Mike Grundy: and they came, the emblem of the World Peace Council. which was a movement financed almost entirely by Russia after the war

365
00:47:28.630 --> 00:47:37.380
Mike Grundy: which was trying to drive a program of peace, or should we say Russian propaganda across the world?

366
00:47:38.070 --> 00:47:46.950
Mike Grundy: This is one of the conferences in East Berlin, with people from all over the world, including Indian representatives. You can see here

367
00:47:47.130 --> 00:47:52.009
Mike Grundy: and above you see, the badge of the movement, which is because it is Dove

368
00:47:52.390 --> 00:48:06.770
Mike Grundy: he he was alive at that time. He contributed this with with gusto to the movement. The movement died as soon as the Russians pulled the plug out of the financing for the movement.

369
00:48:06.790 --> 00:48:09.990
Mike Grundy: but also because Cnd was starting up.

370
00:48:10.040 --> 00:48:16.289
Mike Grundy: and with gathering far the more adherence to to it than this particular movement.

371
00:48:16.720 --> 00:48:20.320
Mike Grundy: but I'd never make fun clearly of a peace movement.

372
00:48:23.260 --> 00:48:28.369
Mike Grundy: And then, as we move on, we're going to come to the heart of Paris.

373
00:48:28.580 --> 00:48:30.339
Mike Grundy: the Grand Boulevard.

374
00:48:30.540 --> 00:48:35.499
Mike Grundy: the growing boulevard where they had the 4 houseman, the initial boulevards of Paris?

375
00:48:35.530 --> 00:48:38.009
Mike Grundy: And he just added a lot more.

376
00:48:38.260 --> 00:48:44.999
Mike Grundy: But what what does the art world say about the out of the Grand Boulevard?

377
00:48:46.520 --> 00:48:54.310
Mike Grundy: Well, I'm giving you a just a taste here to start with in Gallery Lafayette, one of the huge department stalls of Paris.

378
00:48:54.470 --> 00:49:06.940
Mike Grundy: it's gonna be a name we come across a lot. But I you, when I'm doing any kind of talk on Paris. I have to use that image on my left hand side of the central atrium at Christmas time.

379
00:49:07.070 --> 00:49:18.050
Mike Grundy: with that beautiful glass dome at the top. But what about the Underground? I want to get back on the agenda. and

380
00:49:18.140 --> 00:49:23.100
Mike Grundy: here we have a station dedicated to the Marquis de Lafayette.

381
00:49:23.560 --> 00:49:25.040
Mike Grundy: Unfortunately.

382
00:49:25.630 --> 00:49:40.829
Mike Grundy: most of the I work again is on the roof, the vault of the station over the over the line, so it's quite difficult to focus. But on the left or get the right angle, but on the left we have the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington.

383
00:49:41.670 --> 00:49:51.190
Mike Grundy: and over on the right we have the Marquis de Lafayette, who is celebrating with other other troops of his, the great factories.

384
00:49:51.800 --> 00:49:55.310
Mike Grundy: This is the time of the American War of Independence.

385
00:49:55.470 --> 00:50:02.110
Mike Grundy: Both France and the Americans are fighting in the old foe, the English, the British.

386
00:50:02.380 --> 00:50:08.329
Mike Grundy: and Marquis de Lafayette, against, without any permission from the French army.

387
00:50:08.340 --> 00:50:15.840
Mike Grundy: took ship to America, and offered Washington his services, and he ended up as a general

388
00:50:16.020 --> 00:50:18.639
Mike Grundy: in in battles like Bunker Hill.

389
00:50:18.650 --> 00:50:25.360
Mike Grundy:  very much the right hand man in the final phases of the war of George Washington

390
00:50:26.980 --> 00:50:34.940
Mike Grundy: when he eventually died. Many years later, the Marquis de Lafayette was buried in one of the major cemeteries of Paris.

391
00:50:35.040 --> 00:50:38.010
Mike Grundy: but under the soil of Bunker Hill.

392
00:50:38.070 --> 00:50:43.559
Mike Grundy: specially imported by the Americans as one of his famous victories.

393
00:50:45.040 --> 00:50:54.099
Mike Grundy: the Marquis de Lafayette, during the reign of Napoleon, which he did not agree with. He did not. He was a very much a constitutional character.

394
00:50:54.110 --> 00:50:57.510
Mike Grundy: he said to Napoleon. I will.

395
00:50:57.900 --> 00:51:13.399
Mike Grundy: I will not make make any revolution. I will not oppose you, but I so disapprove of your taking the role of Emperor that I cannot be engaged and support any of your activities, any retired from the Napoleonic period.

396
00:51:16.260 --> 00:51:21.239
Mike Grundy: Yeah, there's a picture of the 2 of them, Washington and Lafayette, riding

397
00:51:21.360 --> 00:51:24.249
Mike Grundy: together towards one of the battles

398
00:51:24.290 --> 00:51:26.770
Mike Grundy: of the American War of Independence.

399
00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:36.690
Mike Grundy: they. They want to keep making the points in more than one station. So very nearby cadets. Okay, they station.

400
00:51:36.740 --> 00:51:42.279
Mike Grundy: We have another celebration, mainly based on the colors of the American flag.

401
00:51:42.520 --> 00:51:54.019
Mike Grundy: So this is where the tunnel disappears, where the rails disappear into the tunnel, and they often decorate the same played in the ball of

402
00:51:54.160 --> 00:51:55.340
Mike Grundy: the station.

403
00:51:57.360 --> 00:52:03.720
Mike Grundy: And here this is the main fault of the same station. So the Stars and Stripes.

404
00:52:03.860 --> 00:52:11.820
Mike Grundy: But you'll see rather interestingly to me, anyway, that those the stars at the bottom of the screen are in a circle.

405
00:52:12.240 --> 00:52:30.359
Mike Grundy: and I was not aware of a flag American flag with the stars in a circle. This is called it. They actually were in a circle in the original find. It was called the Betsy Ross Flag. After the lady who actually

406
00:52:30.390 --> 00:52:35.029
Mike Grundy: built not built who made the first flag of this kind?

407
00:52:37.200 --> 00:52:50.000
Mike Grundy: And this is from one of the inaugurations of Barack Obama, and you see here, on the left and the right, we celebrate those very early days, revolutionary days of America

408
00:52:50.060 --> 00:52:55.840
Mike Grundy: in the War of Independence, with the original Betsy Ross flag of the styles in a circle.

409
00:52:56.210 --> 00:53:01.260
Mike Grundy: This is on the front of the capital building. really rather calmer than in some other

410
00:53:01.520 --> 00:53:04.379
Mike Grundy: times on, on those steps

411
00:53:08.070 --> 00:53:09.460
Mike Grundy: on Nouvelle.

412
00:53:10.220 --> 00:53:14.980
Mike Grundy: Well, right on the heart of the Grand Boulevard.

413
00:53:15.410 --> 00:53:22.100
Mike Grundy: and the station name just looks rather strange. It's in this wavy pattern.

414
00:53:23.210 --> 00:53:27.669
Mike Grundy: Not a no, no other station has a wavy pattern sign like this.

415
00:53:27.710 --> 00:53:31.519
Mike Grundy: What's it all about? I'm sure some of you can guess

416
00:53:33.380 --> 00:53:38.320
Mike Grundy: it's basically trying to replicate the feeling of the Hollywood sign

417
00:53:39.330 --> 00:53:42.199
Mike Grundy: the Hollywood sign itself is actually straight.

418
00:53:42.240 --> 00:53:55.709
Mike Grundy: but it's set on different parts of the hill. So when you look at it from down below. It has this wavy appearance. and this was just one item, one part of a celebration

419
00:53:55.750 --> 00:54:01.680
Mike Grundy: of the 100 years of the Metro and the achievements of the French in the world of cinema.

420
00:54:02.140 --> 00:54:14.300
Mike Grundy: Clearly the Lumiere brothers are one of the innovators who created the world of cinema, so they're quite entitled, I think, to be given the credit as one of the founders.

421
00:54:17.250 --> 00:54:24.450
Mike Grundy: If you come up from Bo Nuvell station, you find opposite you this amazing cinema.

422
00:54:24.750 --> 00:54:29.230
Mike Grundy: This is the art deco of the cinema world of the thirties

423
00:54:29.310 --> 00:54:31.379
Mike Grundy: to its extreme

424
00:54:31.730 --> 00:54:40.589
Mike Grundy: right, at the top of this central of this pillar, on the corner, you see the kind of architecture you see on the twentieth century fox.

425
00:54:40.600 --> 00:54:44.040
Mike Grundy: 9 points that you see in front of their films.

426
00:54:44.050 --> 00:54:50.550
Mike Grundy: and then all of those designs as art deco designs as you come down to the ground level.

427
00:54:51.670 --> 00:54:58.119
Mike Grundy: This is an amazing cinema. It was one of the largest cinemas in Europe.

428
00:54:58.390 --> 00:55:03.630
Mike Grundy: It now is the largest cinema in Europe. and inside it

429
00:55:04.980 --> 00:55:09.260
Mike Grundy: you see the spectacular auditorium.

430
00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:14.590
Mike Grundy: It also holds stage shows as well as cinemas

431
00:55:14.600 --> 00:55:16.490
Mike Grundy: as well as movies.

432
00:55:16.930 --> 00:55:27.340
Mike Grundy: And this is very much of a this building is at the heart of the what the French feel about the the occupation of the Second World War, because in the occupation

433
00:55:27.420 --> 00:55:31.380
Mike Grundy: only Germans were allowed to come to this cinema.

434
00:55:32.130 --> 00:55:34.520
Mike Grundy: No French people were allowed in

435
00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:40.880
Mike Grundy: Originally we had cinemas like. For instance, I have a Smith audience

436
00:55:40.960 --> 00:55:46.520
Mike Grundy: and the Chocolate Era, the Elephant Council, which work much bigger than this.

437
00:55:46.670 --> 00:55:56.170
Mike Grundy: But sadly, we've lost those in London, and, thank goodness, the French have seen fit to celebrate this as a national monument, and a reminder

438
00:55:56.340 --> 00:55:59.269
Mike Grundy: of what they lost in the occupation.

439
00:56:04.600 --> 00:56:12.410
Mike Grundy: If we come a little bit towards the Madeleine church and go down the steps to the platforms.

440
00:56:12.550 --> 00:56:19.780
Mike Grundy: Then we find a contribution from Russia. and this is this is the hen that lays the golden eggs.

441
00:56:20.390 --> 00:56:25.839
Mike Grundy: and the hen is a flat mosaic on the end of a tunnel, but

442
00:56:26.180 --> 00:56:40.920
Mike Grundy: that you can see the golden egg to the right, and that sticks out as a huge. very weighty, impossible to quickly pick up and run away with. I'm sure it's not solid gold, anyway, and you've got all of this Russian symbology

443
00:56:40.930 --> 00:56:46.920
Mike Grundy: on the wall behind it. So in better times for Franco, Russian

444
00:56:47.080 --> 00:56:57.350
Mike Grundy: connections, diplomacy! This was a well appreciated gift. but it's rather ironic that so the the French

445
00:56:57.460 --> 00:57:04.050
Mike Grundy: Metro system decided to offer them a Metro entrance in Moscow.

446
00:57:04.420 --> 00:57:08.359
Mike Grundy: and the station they chose was Kiev Sky.

447
00:57:09.300 --> 00:57:12.500
Mike Grundy: the main station from Moscow to the Ukraine.

448
00:57:16.190 --> 00:57:20.460
Mike Grundy: and here you can just about see in the gloom you can see

449
00:57:20.530 --> 00:57:28.449
Mike Grundy: the Russian station of Here sky and the Metro entrance to it.

450
00:57:31.550 --> 00:57:32.570
Mike Grundy: Harmony.

451
00:57:34.050 --> 00:57:45.759
Mike Grundy: the Canadian gift. It's from a lyrical poem which I won't bother to try and explain the the words key words are up there in French. And this is the translation.

452
00:57:45.830 --> 00:57:49.149
Mike Grundy: So it's a dream, a work of

453
00:57:53.840 --> 00:57:59.089
Mike Grundy: the guard, a list. one of the main line stations right next to the guard. You know.

454
00:58:00.410 --> 00:58:04.540
Mike Grundy: as above this major entrance, this picture.

455
00:58:04.770 --> 00:58:06.620
Mike Grundy: this huge picture

456
00:58:06.790 --> 00:58:09.909
Mike Grundy: of the departure of the infantry man

457
00:58:10.220 --> 00:58:18.410
Mike Grundy: of the First World War. This is the station that most Parisians use to join up and go to the front at they are done.

458
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:36.879
Mike Grundy: and this is this is a picture of the parents, the mother on the left, the father on the right of the young man is waving in arms in the air, going off to war confidently. In June, 1,918, as the Storm Cloud. Sorry in

459
00:58:37.240 --> 00:58:39.310
Mike Grundy: in 1,914.

460
00:58:39.330 --> 00:58:54.100
Mike Grundy: But this is a true story. He was killed after being of the surviving 4 years of the war. So a tragedy amongst over a million, 1.5 million tragedies for French people.

461
00:58:55.690 --> 00:59:03.660
Mike Grundy: But we will conclude this presentation with possibly the most important man of all. If you value your French

462
00:59:03.700 --> 00:59:13.170
Mike Grundy: fries. This is a station in honor of Par Montier. it gives his name to Palmontier potatoes, and here.

463
00:59:13.180 --> 00:59:20.719
Mike Grundy: just like on the coast of arms of Paris, we have equally important a potato plants.

464
00:59:21.370 --> 00:59:26.380
Mike Grundy: and Palmontier lived in the time of Marie Antoinette. and

465
00:59:26.570 --> 00:59:36.949
Mike Grundy: persuaded the King and Marianne for that the potato was the solution to the hunger. The family in France in particular in Paris.

466
00:59:37.020 --> 00:59:44.570
Mike Grundy: and we should not. The French should not just see it as food for pigs, but they should see it as food for the people.

467
00:59:47.170 --> 00:59:51.970
Mike Grundy: and of course my aunts, when it also like to off the Kate to the people.

468
00:59:53.820 --> 01:00:00.249
Mike Grundy: And here in a nation and alcove on the platform, this is a technique used in quite a few metro stations.

469
01:00:00.280 --> 01:00:04.410
Mike Grundy: We have on the right. giving the potato

470
01:00:04.620 --> 01:00:08.480
Mike Grundy: to seed and to grow further potato fields.

471
01:00:08.660 --> 01:00:10.639
Mike Grundy: the grateful French farmer.

472
01:00:16.050 --> 01:00:20.590
Mike Grundy: so I have to withdraw now from my underground vigil.

473
01:00:20.600 --> 01:00:29.419
Mike Grundy: I come up to to the surface the iphone tower and say farewell to parents. Farewell to the art of the Metro.

474
01:00:29.520 --> 01:00:36.479
Mike Grundy: We have probably seen about a third of the major artworks of the Metro.

475
01:00:36.620 --> 01:00:40.800
Mike Grundy: and there's been some pieces everywhere. I hope you enjoyed it.

476
01:00:40.900 --> 01:00:49.420
Mike Grundy: I hope, like me, you'll spend some time just pausing occasionally on the metro and admiring some of these great works of arts.

477
01:00:49.790 --> 01:00:50.679
Mike Grundy: Thank you.

478
01:00:51.470 --> 01:00:57.690
Fiona Wright: Thanks very much. Mike, we've got a couple of questions. I don't know if you want to sort of take your presentation down

479
01:00:57.840 --> 01:01:23.579
Fiona Wright: and there's just a couple of questions. I know we've run on a little bit, but I think it was great to see all of those other parts of the the metro system. And now quick question. And from Jan, actually, it's quite an interesting question. Where the metro stations changed or enhanced at all for any of the Paris Olympics, and will be the they'd be doing anything like that for next year's Olympics.

480
01:01:24.880 --> 01:01:25.830
Fiona Wright: Do we know

481
01:01:26.680 --> 01:01:37.069
Mike Grundy: I'm sorry I'm just filling around with my screen in my memory. Going a bit. Bonkers. I will now stop the share. Sorry. Okay, fine.

482
01:01:37.230 --> 01:01:39.570
Mike Grundy: Could you repeat the question? Sorry, of course.

483
01:01:39.620 --> 01:01:41.199
and this is from Jen.

484
01:01:41.340 --> 01:01:55.469
Fiona Wright: She's asking whether any of the metro stations were changed or enhanced for any of the past Paris Olympics, and whether they would do something like that for, or the planning to do anything like that for next year's Olympics in 2,024.

485
01:01:55.710 --> 01:01:57.709
Mike Grundy: Yes, they

486
01:01:58.110 --> 01:02:03.400
Mike Grundy: I don't know of any of the plans. I would be astonished if they don't.

487
01:02:03.580 --> 01:02:08.419
Mike Grundy: change some of some of these I've I've been I last went to Paris

488
01:02:08.540 --> 01:02:11.320
Mike Grundy: 2 years ago.

489
01:02:11.860 --> 01:02:13.999
Mike Grundy: and I did a quick audit

490
01:02:14.140 --> 01:02:25.819
Mike Grundy: and they hadn't changed a lot in that period. Obviously, we're talking about the lead up to Covid, and so forth. But so I will be keeping a very close eye on what's happening.

491
01:02:26.150 --> 01:02:31.679
Fiona Wright: but yes, I I don't know of any specific

492
01:02:31.690 --> 01:02:43.819
Fiona Wright: And another question. If that's a question from me, if nobody minds me asking questions. Franklin, do you? R about station? you talked about the glass panels.

493
01:02:44.440 --> 01:02:49.859
Fiona Wright: and only some of them remain in situ. What happened to the others do we know?

494
01:02:50.280 --> 01:02:55.370
Mike Grundy: No, I don't. Whether they were taken away and and sold off.

495
01:02:55.890 --> 01:03:08.219
Mike Grundy: or whatever happens, there is no trace of them on the Internet for sure. and you get blank looks. Well, I get like that when I ask station managers what happened to the rest of them?

496
01:03:08.290 --> 01:03:10.200
Mike Grundy: so

497
01:03:10.470 --> 01:03:40.010
Mike Grundy: I think it's a bit like Les Al. You know their common garden. They they trashed most of those beautiful old come of those holes market halls. There's only 2 remaining out in the band here. So yeah, where they? I don't know the key thing, the the technique they use. They didn't use late to join the different pieces of glass. They manage to create a, a a, a, a, a way of doing that without having led to support the image.

498
01:03:40.040 --> 01:03:43.420
Fiona Wright: And one final question, and then we'll wrap up folks.

499
01:03:44.500 --> 01:03:47.700
Fiona Wright: What's your favorite station on the on the Metro. And why

500
01:03:49.630 --> 01:03:53.920
Mike Grundy: you must have known you were. Gonna get asked that when Mike

501
01:03:55.140 --> 01:04:03.280
Mike Grundy: I'm just as quickly coming back. I have, I have to say it is. I also met here really, with the jubil firm submarine.

502
01:04:03.350 --> 01:04:06.290
Mike Grundy: it is just such an outstanding

503
01:04:06.420 --> 01:04:11.200
Mike Grundy: piece of decor design.

504
01:04:11.370 --> 01:04:15.999
Mike Grundy: So yeah, my vote every time.

505
01:04:16.300 --> 01:04:38.929
Fiona Wright: Okay, well, I think we'll have to leave it there. Folks, we have run on a little bit. I hope everybody enjoyed that. I think you did. Given some of the comments that we've seen coming in, and just very quickly. If you're still there. I'm going to launch my poll. So if you wouldn't mind spending a few seconds just filling that in for me that would be fantastic, and I'll quickly tell you what we're going to have next week. So

506
01:04:39.100 --> 01:04:43.820
Fiona Wright: next week we are going to explore how spices change the world.

507
01:04:43.900 --> 01:04:51.969
Fiona Wright: So we're going to explore why they were so valued. What they were first used for. how fabulously expensive they were.

508
01:04:51.990 --> 01:05:20.739
Fiona Wright: and we'll consider how the spice trade acted as a Sp. To successive waves, and of world exploration and early colonization. and how the wealth that could be earned from the trade also naturally led to war and conflict as well. And taking in the East India Company, which I'm sure we've all heard of, and we'll discover how the trade led to the trappings of the modern world. that we know today with banks and shoes, companies and the Stock Exchange, so that all sounds fascinating for next week.

509
01:05:20.740 --> 01:05:33.909
Fiona Wright: and I hope you can join us for that. So I think all it remains for me to say is, thank you very much, Mike. Thanks to everybody else for joining us, and I hope you enjoyed it, and I shall see you next week. Thank you.
 

1
00:00:01.510 --> 00:00:03.410
Fiona Wright: Okay, Steven, it's over to you.

2
00:00:04.790 --> 00:00:09.630
Stephen Parker: Okay, thank you for that. Let me just start to share my screen

3
00:00:10.520 --> 00:00:12.959
hopefully. You can see that.

4
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:21.309
Stephen Parker: Yeah, that's a lovely view of Glastonbury tour in the background there, looking across

5
00:00:21.370 --> 00:00:25.929
Stephen Parker: one of the many nature reserves that we find on the Somerset Wetlands.

6
00:00:26.390 --> 00:00:31.649
Stephen Parker: Now during the talk, I'll probably talk about the sunset levels and moors, because that is the name that

7
00:00:31.690 --> 00:00:38.049
Stephen Parker: they've been known for 2030 years or so before that they were known as Sedge More.

8
00:00:38.710 --> 00:00:41.310
Stephen Parker: and the name Somerset Wetlands is really

9
00:00:41.330 --> 00:00:45.839
Stephen Parker: to celebrate the fact that we've now got a super national nature reserve

10
00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:47.820
Stephen Parker: on on this area

11
00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:52.639
Stephen Parker: as soon as my.

12
00:00:54.210 --> 00:01:01.259
Stephen Parker: the area covers. a large part of of Somerset. it's about 170

13
00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:05.980
Stephen Parker: 1,000 acres. That's about 70,000 hectares

14
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.769
Stephen Parker: It goes right up to the sea at Burnham and Bridgewater.

15
00:01:09.940 --> 00:01:16.890
Stephen Parker: and the file down to as Glastonbury, and almost reaches Yov. So a very large area.

16
00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:27.789
Stephen Parker: There are 5 or 6 main rivers that that that cover this area across this area. One thing to point out is is incredibly flat, flat, flat.

17
00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:32.029
Stephen Parker: And so water travels very slowly

18
00:01:32.100 --> 00:01:43.729
Stephen Parker: across this landscape. It is also an area of international importance. particularly for overwintering mortality. and I'll talk a little bit about that in a moment.

19
00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.989
Stephen Parker: If you drive down the M. 5 and look east.

20
00:01:48.050 --> 00:01:57.170
Stephen Parker: you can just about see Glastonbury tour. But in between you and Glasgow retur. There's this large extent to extensive wetland.

21
00:01:57.470 --> 00:02:07.270
Stephen Parker: There are some hills. There's a a set of hills known as the Poldon Hills, or the Poldon reach. and that divides the area. So this talk will look at both

22
00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:12.559
Stephen Parker: the area of the river brew and the area of the river parrot.

23
00:02:13.970 --> 00:02:20.680
Stephen Parker: Close to the coast is an area known as the Somerset levels or the coastal levels.

24
00:02:21.140 --> 00:02:25.249
Stephen Parker: This is a much older landscape, and you can see in the slide. Here

25
00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:26.780
Stephen Parker: the the ditches are

26
00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:32.110
Stephen Parker: bent, the bends and meanders in them, and this reflects the

27
00:02:32.230 --> 00:02:39.560
Stephen Parker: Restoration or the reclaiming from a coastal salt marsh habitat.

28
00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:44.640
Stephen Parker: This band is a a few miles wide.

29
00:02:44.660 --> 00:02:48.500
Stephen Parker: and it's rough, roughly bounded by the M. 5 motorway.

30
00:02:49.510 --> 00:02:56.050
Stephen Parker: Further inland. The rivers and the ditches are much straight, and it's a very

31
00:02:56.070 --> 00:03:00.029
Stephen Parker: man my landscape in many ways.

32
00:03:01.040 --> 00:03:06.119
Stephen Parker: This is the king sedge more drain. dug in about 1,800

33
00:03:06.130 --> 00:03:10.900
Stephen Parker: extended a few times wide and deepened, and whatever

34
00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:20.760
Stephen Parker: it's quite deep, it's a meter or so deep in, or 2 or 3 meters deep in some parts, whereas many of the ditches are actually much shallower than that.

35
00:03:21.930 --> 00:03:24.039
Stephen Parker: As I say, this is man-made

36
00:03:24.130 --> 00:03:28.000
Stephen Parker: and the water levels are managed and controlled.

37
00:03:28.220 --> 00:03:32.559
Stephen Parker: in this case by a very large structure known as the Grey Lakes. Loose.

38
00:03:32.700 --> 00:03:36.160
Stephen Parker: What you see here is a structure across the

39
00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:37.730
Stephen Parker: drying

40
00:03:37.980 --> 00:03:46.049
Stephen Parker: with 2 large fly wells, and these can be wound up or down, and that change

41
00:03:50.320 --> 00:04:01.129
Stephen Parker: changes the water level. The highest one of many hundreds are structures across the levels. Most of them are much smaller. So this is a a smaller tilting. We are

42
00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:05.169
Stephen Parker: again the same principle as you wine. The handle

43
00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:18.490
Stephen Parker: and the blade will come up, and the water behind that will will be raised to measure the depth and the extent of the water. There are depth gages quite frequently across the area.

44
00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:29.820
Stephen Parker: and nowadays there are a series of structures, a series of telemetry points that actually measure the water height, and that is recorded by

45
00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:32.259
Stephen Parker: either the Internal Drainage Board

46
00:04:32.310 --> 00:04:35.929
Stephen Parker: or the Environment Agency. Both of those organizations

47
00:04:36.010 --> 00:04:43.120
Stephen Parker: have duties to manage the area to manage this wetland. I'm mainly going to talk about the wildlife

48
00:04:43.130 --> 00:04:48.519
Stephen Parker: But management, particularly, the farming management, is critical to the wildlife as well.

49
00:04:50.830 --> 00:05:00.789
Stephen Parker: It is the ditches that are all one of the most striking features of the area. They support a a wide range of aquatic plants.

50
00:05:01.280 --> 00:05:07.530
Stephen Parker: and they also support large numbers of a swans, geese, and ducks.

51
00:05:10.230 --> 00:05:12.079
Stephen Parker: for example, this

52
00:05:12.730 --> 00:05:16.579
Stephen Parker: ditch here would support this for Spotted chaser.

53
00:05:16.850 --> 00:05:25.509
Stephen Parker: This one's early in the morning, so it's still covered in the due. But it's just one of many dragonflies or damsel flies that are across the area.

54
00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:30.079
Stephen Parker: The wetland is is very favorable to these creatures that spend

55
00:05:30.090 --> 00:05:36.430
Stephen Parker: much of their life actually in the water, and then come out. This time of year they merge from the

56
00:05:36.940 --> 00:05:40.380
Stephen Parker: ditches and Why, the board courses

57
00:05:40.440 --> 00:05:46.380
Stephen Parker: to a fly around the air. I was out today, and the many of them flying around

58
00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:56.370
Stephen Parker: of great importance. One of the the the main importance of the area is the assembly of water beetles.

59
00:05:56.650 --> 00:06:07.939
Stephen Parker: and this is one of the largest water beetles, so it's about the size of the pop of your hand. It's called the great Silver Water Beetle. but he's just one, and probably the largest one.

60
00:06:07.950 --> 00:06:11.030
Stephen Parker: a largest beetle in in in Britain. In fact.

61
00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:18.249
Stephen Parker: it's just one of many that you find in the area. Some of them are just about the size of a grain of rice.

62
00:06:20.320 --> 00:06:25.070
Stephen Parker: so that reflects some of the interest that's in the in the ditches.

63
00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:36.439
Stephen Parker: There is, a little bit of an issue, though, a major issue that you've probably heard of across other parts of the British hours, and that is, of course, is water quality.

64
00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:47.200
Stephen Parker: So the ditch here, which is covered in a a green plant, a green algae is actually the result of very high levels of phosphate and nitrate.

65
00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.029
Stephen Parker: and this can come from several sources.

66
00:06:50.150 --> 00:06:58.529
Stephen Parker: It can come from farming, as the the little photograph in the in the bottom there suggests. But it also can come from sewage treatment works.

67
00:06:59.010 --> 00:07:04.449
Stephen Parker: A lot of work is going on, and has been going on for a long time to to try and solve this problem.

68
00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:10.960
Stephen Parker: but it does rather ma the the the era in in some ways. as I say, not only

69
00:07:11.150 --> 00:07:15.450
Stephen Parker: is that a problem in Somerset it is widely recognized as a problem

70
00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:20.169
Stephen Parker: across the many of England and and Britain's rivers

71
00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:26.669
Stephen Parker: there are in places some fantastic meadows.

72
00:07:26.950 --> 00:07:33.949
Stephen Parker: These are a very species rich. They've got lots of wild flowers, such as the southern marsh or kits in the photograph here.

73
00:07:34.450 --> 00:07:38.779
Stephen Parker: This area, and and the name, I think, gives it away East and West waste

74
00:07:39.150 --> 00:07:48.210
Stephen Parker: So in the past these these places were extremely common, and not greatly valued by by people. Hence the name waste

75
00:07:48.950 --> 00:07:55.220
Stephen Parker: sadly. This is a habitat we've lost about 97% of since the Second World War.

76
00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:00.999
Stephen Parker: Luckily, in in the Somerset Wetlands we still have some of these wonderful

77
00:08:01.020 --> 00:08:02.750
Stephen Parker: wet, and in places

78
00:08:02.780 --> 00:08:04.960
Stephen Parker: fairly dry meadows.

79
00:08:06.820 --> 00:08:09.710
Stephen Parker: This area here is known as South Lake More.

80
00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:19.809
Stephen Parker: And it's part of this super national nature reserve. So Somerset levels of Moore's National Nature Reserve or Somerset Wetlands national Nature reserve.

81
00:08:20.430 --> 00:08:23.239
Stephen Parker: And this is an area that's been deliberately flooded.

82
00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:30.370
Stephen Parker: You might ask why, that is. And every winter it's possible to to raise the water levels here.

83
00:08:30.510 --> 00:08:36.019
Stephen Parker: For the benefit of the over wintering autof out ducks, geese.

84
00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:45.419
Stephen Parker: lap wing and and other water birds. So that's a deliberate flooding. But in 2,013, and the

85
00:08:45.750 --> 00:08:58.650
Stephen Parker: winter of 2,013, 2,014 we had extensive and and long-term flooding. So here, on West sedge one, another important site, a very important site

86
00:08:58.970 --> 00:09:07.150
Stephen Parker: there was flood water around for 4 months. Of course, wetlands and wet and wildlife is very capable of

87
00:09:07.180 --> 00:09:12.809
Stephen Parker: of dealing with that problem, and it is not a huge problem for the wildlife.

88
00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:15.150
Stephen Parker: It is quite a challenge. So

89
00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:21.830
Stephen Parker: for the people that live in the era, with roads being closed and and in a very few cases houses being flooded.

90
00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:28.999
Stephen Parker: So flooding is is valuable for wildlife. But it can cause issues with in other areas.

91
00:09:31.310 --> 00:09:38.779
Stephen Parker: Somerset wetlands are basically a farmed landscape. Mostly the fields are small, divided by these ditches.

92
00:09:39.170 --> 00:09:56.740
Stephen Parker: and mostly the farming is on a a relatively small scale. So this farmer here, with a relatively modern tractor, is bailing up the hay that's been cut, and that, of course, is conserved. Grass conserved food for animals in the winter time.

93
00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:02.720
Stephen Parker: Grazing animals are mostly represented by cattle. There are very few sheep.

94
00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:13.860
Stephen Parker: It's a bit too wet for sheep that would we would suffer a feet would suffer from that. I used to be, quite a lot of dairy in the area. So

95
00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:15.670
Stephen Parker: dairy cattle

96
00:10:15.790 --> 00:10:19.550
Stephen Parker: nowadays it's tending more towards beef cattle.

97
00:10:19.700 --> 00:10:29.330
Stephen Parker: but still a highly valued and grazed area by a large number of farmers. This is an area that isn't dominated by one or 2

98
00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:33.420
Stephen Parker: large landowners. It's dominated. or it

99
00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:37.349
Stephen Parker: covered by large numbers of relatively small

100
00:10:37.380 --> 00:10:39.140
Stephen Parker: independent farmers.

101
00:10:41.850 --> 00:10:46.990
Stephen Parker: conservation and farming community, and not always had an easy relationship in the area.

102
00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:54.810
Stephen Parker: This, a historic photograph here dates back to around 19 eighties. when

103
00:10:55.020 --> 00:11:04.349
Stephen Parker: the Nature and Conservancy Council, or Natural England, as they were known then, actually designated part of West Edge more

104
00:11:04.530 --> 00:11:07.159
Stephen Parker: as a site to special scientific interest

105
00:11:07.800 --> 00:11:19.859
Stephen Parker: these documents here, which obviously can't read at that small scale. But these documents here represent the sort of the legal process would started once a a of special scientific interest

106
00:11:20.050 --> 00:11:21.600
Stephen Parker: is notified.

107
00:11:21.730 --> 00:11:34.189
Stephen Parker: Well, as you can see, the the local land owning community didn't like this, and and they went to a fairly extreme measures. Here. What you can see is is 3 dummies, 3 models

108
00:11:34.230 --> 00:11:55.579
Stephen Parker: that have been hung up. and they're being hung. And I think there's even a fire going on underneath. And these represent representatives from the Rspb. I think that's the guy with the the binoculars there, and and also government officials from English nature and from other government departments.

109
00:11:56.210 --> 00:12:04.650
Stephen Parker: Now I must say that was a. It was a bit of a low point, and since then relationship with the farming community is much improved.

110
00:12:06.270 --> 00:12:09.270
Stephen Parker: In the winter time the area is visited by

111
00:12:09.470 --> 00:12:14.589
Stephen Parker: roughly a hundred 1,000 winter winter in waterfall.

112
00:12:14.750 --> 00:12:24.839
Stephen Parker: So that's ducks like teal and widget and shovel but also herons, swans, geese to that extent.

113
00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:26.689
Stephen Parker: So for that reason

114
00:12:26.900 --> 00:12:34.559
Stephen Parker: part of the the Somerset Wetland actually of international importance. It's a special protection area

115
00:12:35.700 --> 00:12:45.089
Stephen Parker: in this case, ducks, as you consider here on a place called catcot lows. And, by the way, this used to be a carrot field until about 20 years ago.

116
00:12:45.730 --> 00:12:55.009
Stephen Parker: The sky is quite often blackened with lap wing, and and these come here in in very large numbers, and fly over

117
00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:02.650
Stephen Parker: and and and rest on the Somerset levels, here, flying over a site at Grey lake, which in this case is a

118
00:13:02.910 --> 00:13:07.069
Stephen Parker: rural society for the Protection of Birds. Reserve

119
00:13:09.550 --> 00:13:19.940
Stephen Parker: swans also are pretty common. During the the winter time we have at least 3 species of one. This is the the more common mute one, but we also get

120
00:13:20.020 --> 00:13:24.519
Stephen Parker: who for swans, and indeed we get Buick one in the area.

121
00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:34.509
Stephen Parker: There used to be about 200 Buicks, one that would regularly visit the area and because of changes in climate. they thought that only about between

122
00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:38.130
Stephen Parker: 10 and 15 birds. Now come here.

123
00:13:38.260 --> 00:13:40.900
Stephen Parker: They they tend to use other areas that

124
00:13:41.050 --> 00:13:44.690
Stephen Parker: are more favorable to spend in the winter.

125
00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:53.700
Stephen Parker: One of the big conservation efforts has been to try and restore and recover

126
00:13:53.810 --> 00:13:57.530
Stephen Parker: the sites for breeding waiters.

127
00:13:57.790 --> 00:14:06.149
Stephen Parker: So this map shows a a range of slides that in the past of held breeding wanders. That's birds like lapwing

128
00:14:06.590 --> 00:14:11.359
Stephen Parker: red shank, curly and snipe. Those are the 4 that are

129
00:14:12.220 --> 00:14:17.219
Stephen Parker: ominous across the levels as though by no means common at all nowadays.

130
00:14:18.650 --> 00:14:25.050
Stephen Parker: So this is a red shank. This is probably the rarest breeding waiter on the site, now

131
00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:32.019
Stephen Parker: a at a place called Tel, and more just in the background. There you maybe you'll see less Glastonbury tour.

132
00:14:33.090 --> 00:14:37.570
Stephen Parker: So the rate shank is quite often quite a common word

133
00:14:37.670 --> 00:14:40.089
Stephen Parker: along the coast of of Britain.

134
00:14:40.230 --> 00:14:44.790
Stephen Parker: But as inland breeding bird, it is relatively rare

135
00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:58.819
Stephen Parker: that wing used to be extremely common right across the British Isles nowadays much more restricted, and this is a lap wing nest with just 4 eggs in the nest there.

136
00:14:59.110 --> 00:15:06.300
Stephen Parker: So the nest isn't really a much of a a structure. It's just a a slight dip on the ground.

137
00:15:06.470 --> 00:15:13.839
Stephen Parker: and the 4 nests for eggs there are in the nest, the the female bird

138
00:15:13.970 --> 00:15:16.890
Stephen Parker: and the male bird will actually incubate those.

139
00:15:16.910 --> 00:15:25.050
Stephen Parker: and with luck the check will be born. So this is a a chick fairly newly hatched from that

140
00:15:26.530 --> 00:15:32.900
Stephen Parker: that wing. Numbers have declined across the Somerset wetlands, and that reflects a decline

141
00:15:33.150 --> 00:15:35.890
Stephen Parker: in their numbers across to Britain

142
00:15:36.430 --> 00:15:45.469
Stephen Parker: in the winter time. As I said, we get large flocks of these birds, but a breeding numbers are are relatively small. Those large flocks

143
00:15:45.530 --> 00:15:52.359
Stephen Parker: flying from from the other parts of Europe. and only a few remain not to breed

144
00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:03.250
Stephen Parker: a bird that is extremely characteristic of the levels is the snipe. This is a a way that is incredibly difficult to see. It's very well camouflaged.

145
00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:09.880
Stephen Parker:  but it does give itself away. The the males have this flight.

146
00:16:09.930 --> 00:16:23.290
Stephen Parker: and they've got 2 2 little feathers on the back of the tail, and they clapped together in a drumming sound. So snipe drumming is is a sound that is quite often heard.

147
00:16:23.900 --> 00:16:31.810
Stephen Parker: late in the afternoon, early evening, right through to it gets dark, and then again early in the morning. So that is one of the

148
00:16:32.210 --> 00:16:46.090
Stephen Parker: characteristic Both sounds of the Somerset levels a unfortunately becoming rarer is the curly. So this is a curly. It's not my photographic. And so you by the

149
00:16:46.140 --> 00:16:48.019
Stephen Parker: the markings on the slide here.

150
00:16:51.010 --> 00:17:05.540
Stephen Parker: So the curly has has has declined massively across its whole range. It's our largest wading bird, and as you can see here it's Its habitat, like the other Wade is, is is breeding on the ground with a relatively small nest. Here we've got.

151
00:17:05.579 --> 00:17:11.329
Stephen Parker: I think 3 young. There may be 4 in there, and they will. Well.

152
00:17:13.250 --> 00:17:21.469
Stephen Parker: and they'll take you through some sites in what we call the Avalon marshes. and it at the that starts roughly

153
00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:35.969
Stephen Parker: at Glastonbury tour. So we got Glastonbury tour in the background there, coming across a series of of nice meadows until we get to an area known as Chatway Keith, which is a national nature reserve

154
00:17:37.190 --> 00:17:40.860
Stephen Parker: and History of nature. Conservation in this area goes back to

155
00:17:40.910 --> 00:17:49.160
Stephen Parker: to 1,961, when there was an original agreement with a Pete cut in a company called License.

156
00:17:51.060 --> 00:17:53.740
Stephen Parker: Then there are various notifications to

157
00:17:53.810 --> 00:18:00.980
Stephen Parker: update the conservation laws. Most significant of those is it in 1,986, when it was notified

158
00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:15.059
Stephen Parker: under the what it's called the 1,981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. so. But Pete. Extraction carried on for a certain time in this area and from 1,994 onwards

159
00:18:16.370 --> 00:18:24.319
Stephen Parker: the peak companies pulled out of the area, and a major scheme of restoration started

160
00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:29.020
Stephen Parker: including in. That was a heritage, a lottery funding Grant

161
00:18:29.050 --> 00:18:40.199
Stephen Parker: in about 1,998 to buy another part of the site. so Charlie Keith is about 400 hectares of of Wetland reserve.

162
00:18:40.540 --> 00:18:59.669
Stephen Parker:  it's origin, as I said, was was really in peak cutting. So here we've got a a a photograph going back to 1,000 921,900 thirtys of of Pete cutters by hand, stacking the the piece up there to dry, and that would have been used to the fuel for

163
00:18:59.800 --> 00:19:04.059
Stephen Parker: the domestic housing and and and properties, and like.

164
00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:14.969
Stephen Parker: there was even at one stage a a small railway that was collected Pete before it was a shipped further away. So here we've got quite a historic photograph

165
00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:18.190
Stephen Parker: of people unloading that that railway

166
00:19:19.430 --> 00:19:29.500
Stephen Parker: At one stage the actual railway engine fell into the the main drain, which was a great fun for everyone. It had to be cut into pieces, and and there are bits of it still there.

167
00:19:30.190 --> 00:19:34.859
Stephen Parker:  but this is what the site basically looked at looked like

168
00:19:34.910 --> 00:19:38.269
Stephen Parker: once the peat extractors with the peat cutters

169
00:19:38.330 --> 00:19:40.609
Stephen Parker: had had left the area.

170
00:19:41.650 --> 00:19:46.419
Stephen Parker: It was a major challenge, a major restoration challenge, and that was taken on by

171
00:19:46.460 --> 00:19:48.930
Stephen Parker: Then English nature.

172
00:19:49.130 --> 00:19:54.200
Stephen Parker: which is government, body advertising on nature conservation.

173
00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:57.989
Stephen Parker: the

174
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:01.790
Stephen Parker:  the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

175
00:20:02.050 --> 00:20:06.770
Stephen Parker: and later, an organization known as the Whole Canal trust.

176
00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:12.429
Stephen Parker: So those organizations got together and started to restore this

177
00:20:12.540 --> 00:20:15.990
Stephen Parker:  the landscape that have been changed.

178
00:20:16.020 --> 00:20:17.410
Stephen Parker: radically altered

179
00:20:17.460 --> 00:20:22.450
Stephen Parker: by Pete extraction. It had been an area of wet heathland

180
00:20:22.710 --> 00:20:28.100
Stephen Parker: but because the levels were lowered. Here it was, and is now

181
00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:29.979
Stephen Parker: a large reed bed.

182
00:20:30.020 --> 00:20:35.939
Stephen Parker: So this is the start of that work dating to the mid 19 nineties

183
00:20:36.460 --> 00:20:43.529
Stephen Parker: and and just taking a a a map, a habitat map of that area in in 2,009.

184
00:20:43.780 --> 00:20:56.819
Stephen Parker: You can see there's quite a complex range of colors in there, and they represent different types of habitats across the Somerset levels. it's probably easy to envisage that by looking at this

185
00:20:57.690 --> 00:20:59.340
Stephen Parker: a real photograph.

186
00:21:06.260 --> 00:21:24.769
Stephen Parker: So here you can see it quite in desolate farm field, and then a a large era of reed bed, open water, wet woodland. and this area stretches for about 10 kilometers along this corridor that is now known as the Avalon Marshes.

187
00:21:25.250 --> 00:21:40.390
Stephen Parker: a lot of volunteers working for those organizations. and this this chat here is a drone or one of the drone pilot team, and they are taking photographs of this very rare breeding bird.

188
00:21:40.470 --> 00:21:47.470
Stephen Parker: known as a great white egret. This is the first place that these birds first print in the British Isles.

189
00:21:47.540 --> 00:22:00.090
Stephen Parker: And the drone pilot here can actually see individuals on their nests. It doesn't disturb the birds. It's a it's a very non intrusive way of of actually counting the nests.

190
00:22:00.600 --> 00:22:05.349
Stephen Parker: and those birds are our magnificent animals are a large white egret.

191
00:22:05.560 --> 00:22:12.439
Stephen Parker: as I say, they first bred in Somerset at that Chat week Heath. a around 10 years ago. Now

192
00:22:13.630 --> 00:22:16.760
Stephen Parker: they are now extremely common then. They are now

193
00:22:16.840 --> 00:22:23.359
Stephen Parker: almost as common as it's grey herons in the area. They're slightly larger than a grey heron. Just a

194
00:22:23.470 --> 00:22:25.529
Stephen Parker: they give you a size comparison.

195
00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:29.530
Stephen Parker: The other bird that was a target of conservation.

196
00:22:29.560 --> 00:22:31.280
Stephen Parker: particularly for the restoration

197
00:22:31.410 --> 00:22:38.730
Stephen Parker: of those peat working sites, was the bitten and bit numbers I have

198
00:22:40.060 --> 00:22:50.939
Stephen Parker: declined massively. They were actually actually extinct in Britain at one stage. but then they May. Then they returned on their own steam

199
00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:59.309
Stephen Parker: and Somerset levels. Now the Somerset Wetlands is one of the major areas for them. At one stage it has a held the largest population.

200
00:23:00.010 --> 00:23:10.299
Stephen Parker: The males create a a noise attract their their partners by creating a sort of a a booming sound

201
00:23:11.540 --> 00:23:17.549
Stephen Parker:  and that can be heard for for a very long distance across the read bits.

202
00:23:17.840 --> 00:23:20.050
Stephen Parker: They are read bed specialists.

203
00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:24.310
Stephen Parker:  I think in north they're called butter bumps

204
00:23:24.360 --> 00:23:27.440
Stephen Parker: and they were once a hunted.

205
00:23:27.490 --> 00:23:34.769
Stephen Parker: They became extinct in Britain, due to habitat loss, which is a sort of a familiar story, I think, for many people.

206
00:23:35.840 --> 00:23:38.000
Stephen Parker: So the restoration of the peak and

207
00:23:38.080 --> 00:23:50.179
Stephen Parker: because the walls of the because the land level has been lowered significantly, it created a series of shallow lakes such as this one here covered in in yellow water lilies.

208
00:23:51.030 --> 00:23:56.160
Stephen Parker: And here we've got a survey by a botanical surveyor from the

209
00:23:56.590 --> 00:24:01.109
Stephen Parker:  British from the Bsp I,

210
00:24:01.630 --> 00:24:02.590
Stephen Parker: who is

211
00:24:03.030 --> 00:24:05.120
Stephen Parker: who's Actually

212
00:24:05.270 --> 00:24:13.720
Stephen Parker: survey in the plants by by canoe. Quite an unusual job to do that. So that's a botanical society in Britain, on the island.

213
00:24:13.750 --> 00:24:15.969
Stephen Parker: looking across the sites.

214
00:24:16.930 --> 00:24:27.410
Stephen Parker: there are areas of wet and dry woodland, and these these are quite rich in breeding birds. At one stage of all 3 species of of British woodpecker there in

215
00:24:27.620 --> 00:24:34.310
Stephen Parker: and that they're still doing pretty well. They they like this dead standing timber on site.

216
00:24:34.800 --> 00:24:38.519
Stephen Parker: There are areas of marsh marshland, marsh grassland.

217
00:24:38.790 --> 00:24:50.559
Stephen Parker: bulks, and here we got some some of the the the bog species. The bog asked for their this lovely little pink plant here bog pimpernel.

218
00:24:50.580 --> 00:24:55.400
Stephen Parker: and of course sund you, and in insectivorous plants.

219
00:24:56.460 --> 00:25:04.149
Stephen Parker:  probably more exciting, for some of these is a lesser butterfly orchid quite a rarity.

220
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:13.539
Stephen Parker: and in Southern Britain frog is a rarity. becomes much commoner in the north of of the country, but in in Somerset there are only

221
00:25:13.560 --> 00:25:15.860
Stephen Parker: one or 2 locations known

222
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:23.070
Stephen Parker: now to manage these bogs and wet grasslands, and and in fact, the repades

223
00:25:23.430 --> 00:25:29.890
Stephen Parker: the organizations that work on the area. So it's a natural England in this case, at Chatwick.

224
00:25:29.980 --> 00:25:35.580
Stephen Parker: use red Devon cattle. These are fully organic. They live their entire life

225
00:25:35.910 --> 00:25:49.229
Stephen Parker: on the on the area. They were introduced in 2,000, and and they've done a a remarkable job. They capable of eating the very rank rough vegetation.

226
00:25:49.400 --> 00:25:57.849
Stephen Parker: but sometimes you need a a larger animal. So Highland cattle have been used in in other areas.

227
00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:13.370
Stephen Parker: It's not all a great success. Story. the march of artillery butterfly, one of Europe's rarest butterflies, actually became extinct and continues to be extinct in in the Somerset wetlands.

228
00:26:13.780 --> 00:26:21.709
Stephen Parker: and we also thought that a a large mass grass of her, this this rather wonderful beast here that was also extinct.

229
00:26:22.010 --> 00:26:25.480
Stephen Parker: The records suggested that there was last seen in

230
00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:31.500
Stephen Parker: in 1,998, and hadn't been seen since but a few years ago. Now, 3 or 4 years ago.

231
00:26:32.330 --> 00:26:41.870
Stephen Parker: These 2 characters here Fred and Bill discovered a large colony of them. This is their largest grasshopper in in the

232
00:26:41.990 --> 00:26:51.379
Stephen Parker: in the British Isles. It's it's nearly 2 inches in length, so whether I had had always been there, and entomologists haven't had just haven't found it.

233
00:26:51.520 --> 00:27:01.609
Stephen Parker: or whether it did recolonize, we don't know I'm I'm work is on going to try and determine that. But it it's certainly of a a very interesting and very rare

234
00:27:01.910 --> 00:27:03.780
Stephen Parker: and very beautiful animal.

235
00:27:05.140 --> 00:27:09.000
Stephen Parker: So chat with Keith. Not only is the outstanding

236
00:27:09.290 --> 00:27:14.160
Stephen Parker: wildlife. There's also a a lot of buried archaeology.

237
00:27:14.280 --> 00:27:18.970
Stephen Parker: and particularly archaeology that's It's wooden trackways and the like.

238
00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:25.559
Stephen Parker: and this represents the a prehistoric track by dating back to the

239
00:27:26.120 --> 00:27:28.130
Stephen Parker: about 6,000 years ago.

240
00:27:28.410 --> 00:27:35.989
Stephen Parker: that traveled or went about 2 kilometers across the this the Somerset wetland there at chat with Keith.

241
00:27:36.410 --> 00:27:39.709
Stephen Parker: to conserve that the organization

242
00:27:39.860 --> 00:27:48.390
Stephen Parker: natural England pumps water in. So this is the pump house, and this is the irrigation pipe, and that keeps this wooden track way

243
00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:50.290
Stephen Parker: from stop it from rotting.

244
00:27:50.470 --> 00:28:01.679
Stephen Parker: And here we've got an excavation archaeological excavation by Southwest Heritage Trust a few years ago. That's Dr. Richard Brunning, and he's monitoring the condition

245
00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:08.250
Stephen Parker: on this sweet track as it's got. and I think it's fairly good news. The track. What's stable?

246
00:28:08.510 --> 00:28:17.370
Stephen Parker: there's a lot of these trackways they date from the Neolithic period right through the Middle Ages, right up to almost the modern day.

247
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:28.830
Stephen Parker: There's also 2 iron age villages, one known as the Glastonbury Lake Village, and the other Mayor Heath Village, or near a village.

248
00:28:29.540 --> 00:28:39.420
Stephen Parker: and these are extremely rare. So it's well worth keeping the area very wet to conserve this, this wooden archaeology.

249
00:28:40.330 --> 00:28:46.079
Stephen Parker: So Chatwick is just one of the national nature reserves in the area another is West ham more.

250
00:28:47.190 --> 00:28:52.020
Stephen Parker: This is this is got a similar history to to chat with

251
00:28:52.270 --> 00:28:59.910
Stephen Parker: with. extensive peak cutting in the past now shallow lakes

252
00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:03.779
Stephen Parker: but it has got Moreland areas as well. So so

253
00:29:03.910 --> 00:29:10.959
Stephen Parker: a a rich Maya bulk out habitat developing, including some, some some rare fungi

254
00:29:11.070 --> 00:29:19.999
Stephen Parker: in this case. and this this is one of our rarest at plants on the Somerset levels. it's quite tiny.

255
00:29:20.790 --> 00:29:30.349
Stephen Parker: And here we can see Rome that's recorded at the Avalon marshes actually surveying for this plant. So Rome are volunteers

256
00:29:33.500 --> 00:29:49.689
Stephen Parker: they go out to 2 2 or 3 times a week. And how record, what species are there and all that information gets fed back to the conservation organizations? So here they're looking for this plant which is called they want. It's a tiny little briar fight.

257
00:29:49.900 --> 00:30:00.599
Stephen Parker: and it depends on open areas of of bare p to survive. So quite quite a specialist plant in this case.

258
00:30:02.040 --> 00:30:04.910
Stephen Parker: the error is also rich in

259
00:30:05.620 --> 00:30:09.840
Stephen Parker: grass, snakes, and adders. So this this grass snake here

260
00:30:09.910 --> 00:30:15.599
Stephen Parker: a very friendly grass like this one. It curled up on my Wellington boot for a few moments.

261
00:30:17.110 --> 00:30:27.930
Stephen Parker:  But from West T. More there's also a very wet site known as West a heath. So these are 2 colleagues actually

262
00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:46.999
Stephen Parker: rowing or punting through the wetland here, and and this is a strange habitat. It's a floating M. Of vegetation. If you jump up and down on this the whole thing quakes And actually, if you jump up and down too much, you might go through that matter of vegetation, and end up in the 2 or 3 meters of water under that

263
00:30:47.150 --> 00:30:55.470
Stephen Parker: that floating, that there so plants such as this, this great water dock here, but but lots of other plants as well.

264
00:30:56.690 --> 00:31:04.080
Stephen Parker: And there's there's a drove way that goes through that, and that's been colonized by by birches. It's quite rich in the

265
00:31:04.090 --> 00:31:07.250
Stephen Parker: in the autumn time for for fungi and and other

266
00:31:07.270 --> 00:31:13.530
Stephen Parker: interesting plants. Okay, so that's covered the area of

267
00:31:14.370 --> 00:31:22.150
Stephen Parker: River Brew, and the river acts up to Glastonbury. which I say now is is known as the Avalon Marshes.

268
00:31:22.190 --> 00:31:27.600
Stephen Parker: But now I want to take you over the pole and heels to the floodplains of the river tone

269
00:31:27.670 --> 00:31:29.239
Stephen Parker: and the river parrot

270
00:31:31.420 --> 00:31:35.839
Stephen Parker: I'm with. The site we're going to visit is South Lake. More

271
00:31:37.490 --> 00:31:41.330
Stephen Parker: so. Sounds like more is a part of this new

272
00:31:41.510 --> 00:31:46.990
Stephen Parker: super national nature reserve. If you've been watching spring watch on the television

273
00:31:47.180 --> 00:31:51.710
Stephen Parker: You hear them talking about the the the super national nature of

274
00:31:51.780 --> 00:31:58.609
Stephen Parker: down on the on Peninsula in Dorset. So we've got the equivalent of that in in Somerset.

275
00:31:59.040 --> 00:32:04.419
Stephen Parker: just about a bit larger than the the Dorset example.

276
00:32:04.770 --> 00:32:09.179
Stephen Parker: And this is a this is a natural island. It's called Burrow Mump

277
00:32:09.820 --> 00:32:13.399
Stephen Parker: and a place called Borough Bridge. And is this? Is that the

278
00:32:13.820 --> 00:32:16.050
a place where the river tone

279
00:32:16.100 --> 00:32:17.969
Stephen Parker: meet the river parrot?

280
00:32:18.280 --> 00:32:21.110
Stephen Parker: And it is this area that, subject to

281
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:25.040
Stephen Parker: quite a lot of flooding. So in

282
00:32:25.210 --> 00:32:27.970
Stephen Parker: 2,01314, the winter there.

283
00:32:28.090 --> 00:32:31.380
Stephen Parker: This was the area that made the national news

284
00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:33.280
Stephen Parker: for about 4 months.

285
00:32:34.130 --> 00:32:42.910
Stephen Parker: when we had a series of of rainfall events one after another, and the river system wasn't wasn't able to

286
00:32:42.930 --> 00:32:47.700
Stephen Parker: cope with that amount of rain, and we have extensive flooding

287
00:32:48.180 --> 00:32:52.570
Stephen Parker: Flooding has been an issue on the Somerset levels for

288
00:32:52.620 --> 00:32:54.880
Stephen Parker: thousands of years.

289
00:32:54.900 --> 00:32:56.500
Stephen Parker: The original

290
00:32:56.510 --> 00:33:10.090
Stephen Parker: draining of the area or the water management of the area was carried out by the Romans. and when they left the area fell into a bit of disrepair. But then the Saxons, and particularly the

291
00:33:10.120 --> 00:33:14.790
Stephen Parker: the monasteries, doubt a lot spent a lot of time and money

292
00:33:15.510 --> 00:33:22.390
Stephen Parker: draining and managing the water levels across the area. So this is South Lake more from the top of Burrow, mum.

293
00:33:22.810 --> 00:33:27.270
Stephen Parker: and you can see it's a very flat landscape here, intersected by

294
00:33:27.470 --> 00:33:30.139
Stephen Parker: a series of of small ditches.

295
00:33:30.570 --> 00:33:35.270
Stephen Parker: Some of them are a tree lines. No, others are much more open.

296
00:33:35.580 --> 00:33:48.779
Stephen Parker: So in the winter time this will. and and this is the area that is. that deliberately flooded. So here we've got members from the Somerset Internal Drainage board.

297
00:33:49.240 --> 00:33:52.630
Stephen Parker: and this was a conservation project

298
00:33:52.970 --> 00:33:54.070
Stephen Parker: carried out

299
00:33:56.450 --> 00:33:58.300
Stephen Parker: in in the

300
00:33:58.580 --> 00:34:06.100
Stephen Parker: 2,009. To reinstate this this process called Warping W. Our W. A. Rp. I. And G.

301
00:34:06.140 --> 00:34:11.859
Stephen Parker: Which is a medieval term, and it was deliberately flooded. The, the, the, the landscape.

302
00:34:12.050 --> 00:34:13.940
Stephen Parker: as in the photograph here.

303
00:34:14.260 --> 00:34:22.470
Stephen Parker: we do that now for conservation purposes. But back in the 1,800 fortys.

304
00:34:22.530 --> 00:34:32.849
Stephen Parker: It was done to bring silt on to the more. and to to control the vermin. and by vermin I probably think they mean moles, and the like, or

305
00:34:32.860 --> 00:34:39.230
Stephen Parker: or whatever nowadays, as I say, it's done for the benefit of the the winter in waterfall.

306
00:34:39.670 --> 00:34:45.019
Stephen Parker: So from about Christmas, right through to maybe the end of January. The

307
00:34:45.090 --> 00:34:48.479
Stephen Parker: the water is shallowly moved across the moor.

308
00:34:48.760 --> 00:34:53.639
Stephen Parker: It's somewhat reminiscent of the of the water meadows in in other parts of the country.

309
00:34:53.670 --> 00:34:55.680
Stephen Parker: but but slightly different.

310
00:34:58.910 --> 00:35:04.279
Stephen Parker: In the summer the area is much drier, and, as I say, it is a farmed landscape.

311
00:35:04.510 --> 00:35:12.539
Stephen Parker: Here. We've got one of the rarest, another rare plant of the Somerset wetlands. This is a greater water parsnip

312
00:35:12.650 --> 00:35:15.640
Stephen Parker: a large umbrella, for it stands

313
00:35:15.970 --> 00:35:19.810
Stephen Parker: probably 2 meters in height, so over 6 foot in height

314
00:35:19.850 --> 00:35:24.959
Stephen Parker: its feet are in the water. It's a very much a Wetland plant.

315
00:35:26.300 --> 00:35:33.680
Stephen Parker: There was a quite a big conservation effort. some time ago, now 7, 8 years ago, now to

316
00:35:33.700 --> 00:35:49.890
Stephen Parker: just to reintroduce this to areas that have been lost from so working with Bristol Zoo seedlings for grown on all seeds were germinated and grown on, and this was then spread around and and planted out in other areas

317
00:35:50.080 --> 00:35:53.020
Stephen Parker: as part of a biodiversity action plan

318
00:35:54.110 --> 00:36:11.320
Stephen Parker:  the problem with that is that the cattle and the deer really love it. They they see it out and they eat it. It must taste extremely nice to them, because they will. Cattle will actually get in the ditch and will paddle out to to eat this plant.

319
00:36:12.790 --> 00:36:20.520
Stephen Parker: The ditches also, support a wide range of other aquatic plants such as this pond we this is broad. Leave pond, weed

320
00:36:21.740 --> 00:36:34.529
Stephen Parker: and the rather beautiful marsh violet. This flows fairly early in the year. It flowers from March from my onwards. And it's got floating leaves, so it's not

321
00:36:34.570 --> 00:36:39.009
Stephen Parker: actually growing out of the the bottom of the ditch. It's a floating plant.

322
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:42.180
Stephen Parker: although.

323
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:47.830
Stephen Parker: Well, that's that you're very likely to see. You'd like to see road here that they're reasonably common.

324
00:36:47.910 --> 00:36:57.560
Stephen Parker: but especially interest, I I think, is the brown hair, and here we got the Madge March hair as the the males and the females chase around.

325
00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:09.009
Stephen Parker: Going back. Some 10 years ago there was a project with the great Crane Project run by the Wildfire and Wetlands trust

326
00:37:09.160 --> 00:37:10.860
Stephen Parker: the Rspb.

327
00:37:11.050 --> 00:37:16.120
Stephen Parker: Pennsylvania Trust, which is based in Norfolk.

328
00:37:16.340 --> 00:37:21.300
Stephen Parker: and for a door which is the local a local company.

329
00:37:22.130 --> 00:37:27.299
Stephen Parker: and they have reintroduced the crane. The common crane.

330
00:37:27.410 --> 00:37:31.540
Stephen Parker:  cranes were. Eggs were collected

331
00:37:31.590 --> 00:37:34.140
from the the North German plane.

332
00:37:34.310 --> 00:37:36.500
Stephen Parker: I brought over to

333
00:37:36.680 --> 00:37:39.969
Stephen Parker: the Wilderness Trust slim bridge where the

334
00:37:40.580 --> 00:37:41.980
eggs were hatched.

335
00:37:42.200 --> 00:37:44.259
Stephen Parker: And then the crimes were

336
00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:48.400
Stephen Parker: what talk to be cranes by humans dressed in crane suits

337
00:37:48.710 --> 00:37:51.410
Stephen Parker: and then reintroduce. I think there was about

338
00:37:51.600 --> 00:38:00.360
Stephen Parker: 50 or so eggs are introduced. They're now breathing on the Somerset levels. So that's been a very successful reintroduction

339
00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:05.620
Stephen Parker: project that's gone on. And It's it's been very popular with

340
00:38:05.700 --> 00:38:10.350
Stephen Parker: with local people that they love to see particularly here. The cranes.

341
00:38:12.910 --> 00:38:19.409
Stephen Parker: one of the the most extensive areas of lowland. Wet grassland is an area known as Wet West Sedge more.

342
00:38:19.930 --> 00:38:22.950
Stephen Parker: and this is a very special place indeed.

343
00:38:23.270 --> 00:38:27.609
It's managed now by the Rspb. A large area. It's managed by Rspb.

344
00:38:27.790 --> 00:38:33.260
Stephen Parker: and it's the type of vegetation that is now extremely rare in the British Isles.

345
00:38:34.340 --> 00:38:36.569
Stephen Parker: I think at the beginning, someone said, this is

346
00:38:36.610 --> 00:38:43.020
Stephen Parker: one of the largest area of lowland, wet grassland, or wetlands surviving in Britain, and it is truly

347
00:38:43.160 --> 00:38:45.959
Stephen Parker: an important site from that point of view.

348
00:38:46.450 --> 00:38:55.970
Stephen Parker: One of the the plants that's that's very familiar. It's not a rare plant in its own right. But these meadows form this sort of marsh marigold community

349
00:38:56.200 --> 00:38:58.840
Stephen Parker: that is is very uncommon now

350
00:38:59.190 --> 00:39:10.830
Stephen Parker: they've been lost through drainage, or through fertilization, or or whatever. So West Edge More is is one of the most important areas in the country, for

351
00:39:11.020 --> 00:39:23.259
Stephen Parker: well, it's a rare wetland community. It's also very important for breeding birds and for the winter in waterfowl and for all those things that I've talked about in its own right.

352
00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:28.990
Stephen Parker: So, although it's wet in winter. it dries out in the summer and the spring.

353
00:39:29.220 --> 00:39:34.000
Stephen Parker: and then the the hay is taken, the cattle graze

354
00:39:34.010 --> 00:39:37.960
Stephen Parker: and it's a sort of a a normal grassland. In that sense.

355
00:39:40.680 --> 00:39:52.169
Stephen Parker: One special plant is is associated with drive droves in the area with the the areas that are sort of covered in water in the in the winter time.

356
00:39:52.340 --> 00:39:56.670
Stephen Parker:  the home in the early spring

357
00:39:56.680 --> 00:39:59.740
Stephen Parker: to this little buttercup it's called mouse tail

358
00:40:00.130 --> 00:40:11.570
Stephen Parker:  very uncommon, not found in in many other places in Britain. and, as I say, it's it's dependent on the sort of the wet, muddy droves or drives

359
00:40:11.670 --> 00:40:13.910
Stephen Parker: of the Somerset wetlands.

360
00:40:15.690 --> 00:40:17.570
Close to to West S. More

361
00:40:17.610 --> 00:40:30.640
Stephen Parker: is A. Is an upland wood, or a on the one of the little ridges that run through the area. It's a good swell wood, and this has got a a rather splendid Henry

362
00:40:30.790 --> 00:40:43.820
Stephen Parker: And grey herons nest here. There's also little egret nest here. so we know the error is very important for its for its wildlife. It's very good to visit as as well. It's a not

363
00:40:46.100 --> 00:40:48.070
Stephen Parker: nice place to visit, and there's lots of

364
00:40:48.190 --> 00:40:49.380
Stephen Parker: opportunities.

365
00:40:49.470 --> 00:41:00.099
Stephen Parker: So here we've got some of the some of the many reserves in the area. We're we're very, very lucky indeed to have so many nature reserves. So we got the Theatwick Mall nature reserve.

366
00:41:00.130 --> 00:41:05.859
Stephen Parker: that's the one of the newer nature reserves in the era that's managed by the whole Canal Trust.

367
00:41:06.100 --> 00:41:08.500
Stephen Parker: Then the Wildlife Trust have

368
00:41:08.520 --> 00:41:11.059
Stephen Parker: a series of nature reserves, including

369
00:41:11.270 --> 00:41:16.070
Stephen Parker: catcot, Nature Reserve and West A, which I've shown. Some photographs of

370
00:41:16.140 --> 00:41:22.790
Stephen Parker: the Rspb. Are are big landowners in the era. They've got a reserves and wall

371
00:41:23.220 --> 00:41:32.939
Stephen Parker: they've got reserves at West such more and that they've also got a Grey Lake reserve as well. So 3

372
00:41:33.240 --> 00:41:38.470
Stephen Parker: very important wetland reserves, not only for the bird life, but also for their

373
00:41:38.990 --> 00:41:45.720
Stephen Parker: other wildlife as well. the National Trust own an area known as Burrow mump.

374
00:41:45.810 --> 00:41:48.900
Stephen Parker: and that's an area where you can get, spend your views

375
00:41:48.920 --> 00:42:04.229
Stephen Parker: over the countryside, and chat with Keith is is one of the larger national nature of those. So please come and visit. It's it's a wonderful area. Come in the winter time and see the the large flocks of of wintry mort file

376
00:42:04.300 --> 00:42:07.079
Stephen Parker: Come in the summertime see the dragonflies

377
00:42:07.140 --> 00:42:14.900
Stephen Parker: and the the wonderful wild flower meadows. So without further ado, I'll say thank you very much for listening. I hope you've enjoyed that.

378
00:42:15.010 --> 00:42:17.640
Stephen Parker: and I'm very happy to take questions.

379
00:42:18.810 --> 00:42:32.800
Fiona Wright: Thanks very much for that, Stephen. Interesting stuff. let's let some go to some questions. We've got a few here that we'll we'll start off with Steven. let's the first one actually from Catherine.

380
00:42:32.830 --> 00:42:40.410
Fiona Wright:  you were talking about farmers objecting to to natural England plans and developments.

381
00:42:40.530 --> 00:42:43.200
Fiona Wright: What were their objections? Why did they do that?

382
00:42:44.230 --> 00:42:48.019
Stephen Parker: Okay, so this is pretty early on in the history of

383
00:42:48.630 --> 00:42:50.520
Stephen Parker: government, nature conservation.

384
00:42:52.120 --> 00:43:02.269
Stephen Parker: And what happens when a site is is designated a site, a special time of interest. The landowner will get a a description called a citation

385
00:43:02.410 --> 00:43:08.090
Stephen Parker: a map showing the area, and then a list of things that they have to consult

386
00:43:08.190 --> 00:43:16.370
Stephen Parker: at natural England about. And it was that list of operations really, didn't go down very well.

387
00:43:16.560 --> 00:43:20.819
Stephen Parker: so that's they were objecting to that. It was.

388
00:43:21.310 --> 00:43:27.899
Stephen Parker: I think there was quite an element of misunderstanding in that. And there's a

389
00:43:34.380 --> 00:43:41.310
Stephen Parker: the area that the farmers and the the conservationists work hand in hand. So so it was just a

390
00:43:41.370 --> 00:43:42.830
Stephen Parker: a a moment.

391
00:43:52.640 --> 00:43:55.119
Fiona Wright: I think we've lost Steven for the minute. There.

392
00:43:58.410 --> 00:44:00.050
Fiona Wright: let's see if he comes back.

393
00:44:16.680 --> 00:44:23.409
Fiona Wright: Okay, folks. I am just going to go on to mute for a second, and I'm going to give Steven a quick call just to see if we can get him back.

394
00:45:33.340 --> 00:45:40.779
Fiona Wright: Okay, folks. Steven is going to be back with us in just a second. He's just logging himself back in. We'll be back with you in a second.

395
00:46:29.560 --> 00:46:31.310
Stephen Parker: Hello! Sorry about that.

396
00:46:33.240 --> 00:46:42.730
Stephen Parker: Welcome back, Stephen. They got cut off in your prime. There, I did. Yes.

397
00:46:42.850 --> 00:46:46.450
Stephen Parker: so yeah. So I think I'd I'd answer the question about the

398
00:46:46.730 --> 00:46:55.230
Fiona Wright: the notification and the original issues. Yeah.

399
00:46:55.980 --> 00:46:59.299
Fiona Wright: So that was our first question, wasn't it? That was a bit far, most, wasn't it?

400
00:46:59.350 --> 00:47:03.080
Fiona Wright: Okay? Now, it's a a question here from Maria.

401
00:47:03.120 --> 00:47:07.959
Fiona Wright: are the levels of liminal zone. Now, that's a term I've not heard before.

402
00:47:09.060 --> 00:47:14.490
Stephen Parker: so meaning is it? Sort of a a, a a sort of a wet.

403
00:47:14.800 --> 00:47:17.969
Stephen Parker: wet, wet zone from that.

404
00:47:19.040 --> 00:47:22.940
Stephen Parker: Well, so so the hydrology is based on

405
00:47:23.670 --> 00:47:26.399
Stephen Parker: 5 or 6 rivers that flood through.

406
00:47:29.030 --> 00:47:30.430
Stephen Parker: flow through the area

407
00:47:30.520 --> 00:47:37.330
Stephen Parker: and they over top and flood in the winter time. I don't know if that answer the question, and not quite sure what?

408
00:47:37.660 --> 00:47:41.940
Stephen Parker: we're trying to get to that. But yes, that there's certainly a

409
00:47:42.340 --> 00:47:48.380
Stephen Parker: a wetlands in the winter time, and then it's it's it's much drawer in the summer time.

410
00:47:48.470 --> 00:47:50.789
Fiona Wright: Some of floods aren't unknown.

411
00:47:51.040 --> 00:48:04.139
Fiona Wright: Okay. And I hope that answers your question, Media, you can put another another comment in if there is anything else you want to know there. And okay, so question from Bridget, you were talking about the great Crane Project

412
00:48:04.230 --> 00:48:07.970
Fiona Wright: people dressed up in.

413
00:48:08.010 --> 00:48:10.710
Fiona Wright: How do you teach a crane to be a green?

414
00:48:11.540 --> 00:48:20.299
Stephen Parker: So so when cranes are are naturally read by parent birds that they've said

415
00:48:20.620 --> 00:48:22.220
Stephen Parker: But to

416
00:48:22.290 --> 00:48:26.010
Stephen Parker: so the birds that were introduced hat from eggs.

417
00:48:26.250 --> 00:48:30.979
Stephen Parker: and what the what the organization didn't want is the cranes

418
00:48:31.480 --> 00:48:36.860
Stephen Parker: associating food with people. So the people actually dressed in crane suits

419
00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:45.069
Stephen Parker: And they fed the birds by using a pair of sort of those rubbish because you can get. You know, those things so little tongs you can get

420
00:48:45.290 --> 00:48:49.699
Stephen Parker: And so that they didn't become acclimatized or okay.

421
00:48:49.730 --> 00:48:55.380
Stephen Parker: they didn't become so associate food with with humans. And that's how they did that.

422
00:48:55.680 --> 00:49:02.150
Fiona Wright: And it well, very well, it's very, very successful. Okay. And I hope that answers your question. And

423
00:49:02.740 --> 00:49:22.850
Fiona Wright: and you talked about at the end there, how you know people visiting the various different nature reserves in the area. And is it is it easy for people? I mean, there are lots of fit paths. And is there a website that people can go to to find out more. Yes, the the so access is that it's from Miranda. By the way.

424
00:49:23.220 --> 00:49:30.799
Stephen Parker: some very good nature is a so so the site I went to today. it's known as the Avalon Marshes Center

425
00:49:31.430 --> 00:49:36.120
Stephen Parker: and that's between. That's on the Glastonbury Road. if you

426
00:49:36.250 --> 00:49:51.970
Stephen Parker: I'm sure as you search Avalon Marshall center. You'll find that. and there's a big nature reserve there. and lovely facilities. There's cafes and toilets and all the sorts of things that you you really need, and that gives you access to a number of nature reserves.

427
00:49:52.210 --> 00:50:01.740
Stephen Parker:  some areas are are private, and you can't go there, obviously. But but I would direct people if they wanted to come down to to the Avalon Marshes center.

428
00:50:01.830 --> 00:50:05.380
Stephen Parker: So if you Google. oh, search

429
00:50:05.420 --> 00:50:11.429
Stephen Parker: Avalon marshes, then you should be able to to find that. And how you access the area

430
00:50:11.510 --> 00:50:13.590
Fiona Wright: okay, there, you go, miranda.

431
00:50:13.620 --> 00:50:19.270
Fiona Wright: okay, so, i have a question here from Steve.

432
00:50:19.720 --> 00:50:25.350
Fiona Wright: how do you anticipate climate change impacting on the area?

433
00:50:25.520 --> 00:50:36.929
Stephen Parker: Very, very good, very, very good question. Well. in the long run with sea level rise. this area will be returned to the sea.

434
00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:43.070
Stephen Parker:  At the moment there's there's the sea will keeping the sea out effectively.

435
00:50:43.350 --> 00:50:53.940
Stephen Parker: But this time you get to the moors, the inland area, you're actually below sea level. So once sea level rises a meter or so, it is okay. A 100 years time. Maybe.

436
00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:56.819
Let's see that will be breached.

437
00:50:57.250 --> 00:50:59.809
Stephen Parker: They're currently building a

438
00:51:00.210 --> 00:51:08.269
Stephen Parker: barrier across the river parrot, a sort of a tidal barrier. such as the one in in in London. The Thames barrier.

439
00:51:09.630 --> 00:51:19.849
Stephen Parker: So in the the long, the long run this will area will go back to see, and that that's where it came from. The first place. It was once a part of the 7 s. 3

440
00:51:20.820 --> 00:51:35.769
Stephen Parker: in the shelter term. we're seeing much Drier springs, and that it's pretty bad news for those breeding waiters, because the ground dries out so much. It's starting to show signs of that now.

441
00:51:36.010 --> 00:51:47.490
Stephen Parker: after a few weeks. hot, sunny weather. So if this goes on that the the land will dry out, and wetlands are are highly dependent on on water

442
00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:49.250
Stephen Parker: and rainfall.

443
00:51:49.660 --> 00:51:58.899
Stephen Parker: This happened last year. But the good news was that, you know, once the rains came again, then the wildlife tends to bounce back

444
00:51:59.160 --> 00:52:01.250
Stephen Parker: so via

445
00:52:01.290 --> 00:52:02.490
Stephen Parker: summers.

446
00:52:02.750 --> 00:52:07.859
Stephen Parker: but also the other challenge is going to be much wetter winters rainfall events.

447
00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:13.920
Stephen Parker: We saw that in 2,01314 and we've seen it in the 19

448
00:52:14.160 --> 00:52:18.520
Stephen Parker: seventies and 1,960 is to a so that flooding will

449
00:52:18.700 --> 00:52:29.990
Stephen Parker: be more frequent. And I think the wildlife can probably cope with that. it's the challenge is going to be for the people that live in the scattered villages across the area.

450
00:52:30.190 --> 00:52:33.860
Stephen Parker: So the villages don't flood so much. It's the road and the

451
00:52:34.020 --> 00:52:37.390
Stephen Parker: communication networks between them that become challenging.

452
00:52:37.830 --> 00:52:41.089
Stephen Parker: Yeah, in in the winter time. So I think we're going to see

453
00:52:41.240 --> 00:52:42.920
Stephen Parker: more flooding in the winter

454
00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:46.240
Stephen Parker: and possibly draft things, and in the long run.

455
00:52:46.250 --> 00:52:51.819
Stephen Parker: so you will inevitably reclaim this this bit of land.

456
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:56.980
Stephen Parker: that's that's gonna happen, I'm afraid. But that's a very long run.

457
00:52:57.300 --> 00:53:01.010
Fiona Wright: Yeah, okay, I hope that answers your your question, Stephen.

458
00:53:01.310 --> 00:53:05.379
Fiona Wright: okay. Now, what else do we have?

459
00:53:05.880 --> 00:53:12.779
Fiona Wright: Oh, question from Kim, do you have beavers in areas that's obviously an animal that's been reintroduced in a number of areas, isn't it?

460
00:53:14.200 --> 00:53:18.139
Stephen Parker: They have been reintroduced into a number of areas, not on the Somerset levels.

461
00:53:18.760 --> 00:53:24.239
Stephen Parker:  the Somerset levels looks ideal for that.

462
00:53:24.300 --> 00:53:28.400
Stephen Parker: for that animal. and that animal was great.

463
00:53:28.450 --> 00:53:30.050
Stephen Parker: ecosystem engineer.

464
00:53:34.410 --> 00:53:47.530
Stephen Parker: They will, I think, if they're not. Even if they're not deliberately introduced, they will find their own way here in Somerset. There are a number of populations that have arrived one way or another. and they they will turn up.

465
00:53:48.200 --> 00:53:53.840
Stephen Parker: It's going to be a challenge for people like the environment agency and the internal drainage boards

466
00:53:54.270 --> 00:53:57.999
Stephen Parker: because they they do create these dams.

467
00:53:58.390 --> 00:54:05.609
Stephen Parker: which is great, because that that creates a wonderful wetland for them. And I think a lot of conservations would welcome that.

468
00:54:05.750 --> 00:54:10.910
Stephen Parker: But, It would be a challenge for the farming community.

469
00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:15.839
Stephen Parker: and everywhere that beavers have been introduced. I know there's been

470
00:54:18.590 --> 00:54:32.330
Stephen Parker: a lot of effort put into talking to the local population, to people like fishermen foresters and the like. So as I, as I understand it. Can I no longer work for natural England? But, as I understand it, there are certainly no plans

471
00:54:32.460 --> 00:54:34.190
Stephen Parker: for a reintroduction

472
00:54:34.270 --> 00:54:42.459
Stephen Parker: of for those animals at the moment. But again, I think, like long term, that they will, they will

473
00:54:42.500 --> 00:54:44.669
Stephen Parker: find the way here one way or another.

474
00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:51.330
Fiona Wright: Okay? Interesting. Right? We've got a question here from Paul. hopefully, I get this right.

475
00:54:51.530 --> 00:54:54.860
Fiona Wright: Can you repeat the Norfolk dialect for

476
00:54:55.130 --> 00:54:58.290
Fiona Wright: Britain's? I think it was

477
00:54:58.420 --> 00:55:06.570
Stephen Parker: the Norfolk Broads for 40 years and never had the term

478
00:55:07.250 --> 00:55:10.929
Fiona Wright: used to be called the butter bump.

479
00:55:12.690 --> 00:55:17.369
Stephen Parker: that's probably the I think that that

480
00:55:17.520 --> 00:55:22.629
Stephen Parker: they're large birds, so that you know they like the swan size effectively

481
00:55:22.690 --> 00:55:26.740
Stephen Parker: a bit smaller, but they would have been a very good meal, and I I can imagine

482
00:55:26.840 --> 00:55:33.720
Stephen Parker: living in the in the wetlands in the past, and and people would have would have taken them, and apparently they were called butter bumps.

483
00:55:34.240 --> 00:55:39.409
Fiona Wright: There's no local name in Somerset that I'm aware of.

484
00:55:39.580 --> 00:55:44.740
Fiona Wright: Okay, let's see what else we have. actually, we've got a question here from Jackie.

485
00:55:44.770 --> 00:55:50.570
Fiona Wright: what were the names of the 3 types of one that you mentioned earlier.

486
00:55:50.630 --> 00:55:56.160
Stephen Parker: Okay, we have mute one, which is the this one that the everyone knows.

487
00:55:56.530 --> 00:56:01.669
Stephen Parker: that's that's an ancient introduction, probably introduced by the by, the Normans. Okay.

488
00:56:02.080 --> 00:56:07.410
Stephen Parker: we have the Hoop swamp. and we had the Buicks one.

489
00:56:07.470 --> 00:56:10.130
Fiona Wright: Now, those are both migratory.

490
00:56:10.250 --> 00:56:17.730
Stephen Parker: so Hooper swans, for example, breeding Iceland, and they fly into to Britain and the Continent

491
00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:24.069
Stephen Parker: to to over winter, when it's it's much. much less cold there than that it would be an ice that

492
00:56:24.470 --> 00:56:30.000
Stephen Parker: and and the and the bitter sorry the the buick one

493
00:56:33.070 --> 00:56:42.699
Stephen Parker: is the other one that we get here. So their numbers have declined, because weather conditions aren't. All climate isn't quite the same as it was, so that they tumble into places like

494
00:56:42.830 --> 00:56:52.680
Stephen Parker: the Netherlands, and then come across onto the the Was she in over in Norfolk? But they're not visiting this part of the world at the moment.

495
00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:58.240
Stephen Parker: So the when I was to winter visitors, the the mute one is, is here all year round.

496
00:56:58.680 --> 00:56:59.630
Fiona Wright: Okay.

497
00:57:00.140 --> 00:57:24.990
Fiona Wright: I think that might be us. Actually, I think it is. thanks very much for that, Steven. I I hope you all enjoyed that out there. And even though we have that little break for a minute or so in the middle, and thing is really interesting to hear about the wildlife and the natural history of the area, and although there are challenges, there are also some positives as well. Stephen.

498
00:57:27.980 --> 00:57:31.410
Stephen Parker: absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. The the future is is good, I think, and

499
00:57:31.430 --> 00:57:43.179
Stephen Parker: very pleased to say that there's quite a lot of investment, including in the last well, last month. a new visitor center at the at the Aval marshes. So it's a place to to come and visit and enjoy

500
00:57:43.340 --> 00:57:46.109
Fiona Wright: great well, thanks. Again, Steven.

501
00:57:46.350 --> 00:57:47.919
Stephen Parker: okay, thank you very much.
 

00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:16.000
Well, welcome everyone to this. Talk to saved in on the history of the windmill.

00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:26.000
The, windmills can be found. In all areas of the UK, so England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:35.000
So I don't know where. Any of you come from? But, I'm sure they will be a windmill.

00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:46.000
They spy. Even if for many people It is a ruin tower. Is all that is left.

00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:57.000
They're not too many working windmills. And we will discover why that was. As we go through the talk.

00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:12.000
Now I'll give you, a brief introduction. And then we will move on to slides because I feel that, You say a picture is worth a thousand words.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:28.000
And it will make it much more understandable. You particularly if you know very little. The subject. It's a subject which, Hi, found fascinating.

00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:37.000
Even from my, you, I recognized a tower. On a hill but didn't know what it was.

00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:47.000
It wasn't until later research. Ind the Cornish windmills. That I realize. It was an old wind mode tower.

00:01:47.000 --> 00:02:00.000
But then I had to. Acquire a car. Before I can visit it because many of these, Very isolated.

00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:09.000
And you either have to. Jeremy yourself by car. Or you have the bulk.

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:21.000
Well, first of all, When did windmills. Up here. Well, the crucial date is 1137.

00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:33.000
Now that is after the Tuesday survey. Doomsday, recorded a large number of mills, but they were all Water males.

00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:38.000
So the windmill appeared after Doomsday.

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:56.000
But the oldest windmill. Still standing. Dates from the middle of the 16 hundreds. So there's a large gap of 500 years between documentary evidence of a windmill.

00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:10.000
Physical evidence that you can actually go and see if yourself. They might wonder. Well, how do we know then in those 500 years?

00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.000
What the early windmill was like.

00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:24.000
Well, fortunately we have a large number of illustrations. We have many evil manuscripts.

00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:36.000
Which have, drawings. And pictures. Of the early windmill. We have stained glass windows in our churches.

00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:46.000
Which include a windmill. In stained glass. We have.

00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:55.000
And carvings in churches on the bench ends in wood. And we also have carvings in stone.

00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:14.000
In the porches, upon of charges. Now this collection. All records. Indicate to us that first of all windmills were quite numerous.

00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:24.000
Because it is these. The sorted artist. Who looked around the countryside and wondered what they would it include.

00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:39.000
In their picture. And they became of sleep for mayor. We windmills. They remarkably All the windmills, it turned this 500 years.

00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:47.000
Are all of one type. Called a postmill.

00:04:47.000 --> 00:05:00.000
And when we come to the slides. I will show you what a postmeal is and the point out the main features.

00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:10.000
But it didn't remain at this one type. We moved on to another type called a Smoke Mill.

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:20.000
And then after that. A tower mail. So we have 3. Basic types.

00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:29.000
And I will be showing you examples. These. During the evening. So we will go on to.

00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:39.000
Share screen. And we will look. At the pictures.

00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:57.000
So hopefully you can all see the title slide. The history of the windmill.

00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:10.000
And the first slide is. A number of key dates. In any historical subject of course there are many days to remember.

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:20.000
But, as it is very much an introductory talk. I limited it to 4. The first.

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.000
The one I just mentioned, 1137.

00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:36.000
And then we have smart males coming in. In the late 15 hundreds. And then we have the late 70.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:50.000
Even though there were some tower mills before that time. But, this is the period when we have these, Tapering brick towers.

00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:57.000
Which are really coming to the pinnacle. Of the design of windmills.

00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:07.000
And then the fourth one is that we'll see that some post males. Had a roundhouse.

00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:18.000
And this idea came in in the 17 hundreds. So when I show you some of the When males from the 16 hundreds.

00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.000
They weren't originally built. With a roundhouse.

00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000
Hmm.

00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:37.000
They're all the things that. We have records of. I just picked that one example.

00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:45.000
And this is a brass rubbing. From Samarcas Church. Kingsley in Northache.

00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:50.000
You can see the date there.

00:07:50.000 --> 00:08:00.000
Now this on the left hand side is a picture of a post mill. It's a very small building.

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:09.000
Indeed, you could almost describe it. As a garden shed.

00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:17.000
So give you 90 of the size. And we have a main post here.

00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:30.000
Which gives us his name. And then it's supported by these quarter bars. Go back. Sorry.

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:40.000
Cool to bars and then at the very bottom. We have what's called the cross trees.

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:56.000
Now all of this where the and below. Is fixed. But everything above this. Is capable of being turned.

00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:10.000
Because the sales have to turn into the wind. 2 operate. And to do that. The minute would first of all raise this ladder up.

00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:21.000
Touch it to the tail pole here. So the latter resolved the ground. And then he would use this tail pole.

00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:30.000
Hit push a hold of this body. And the sales. Back into the wind.

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:39.000
There are many of these, illustrations. Include a horse. As we'll see the area on the right.

00:09:39.000 --> 00:10:00.000
And. It's an interesting story because the it tells us a little bit about. How would they, who was regarded as something that of the social in many evil society.

00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:16.000
And this story. Was to try to put the the midter. In his place. And the story is, is that, this is the manner here.

00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:27.000
On the back of the horse. But initially, He walks alongside the horse. Away from the windmill.

00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:33.000
Into the village. To collect the corn for grinding.

00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:42.000
And on his way back. The horse is carrying the sack of grain.

00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:57.000
The manor is walking alongside. The horse. But us the horses approaching the windmill. The miller sees the horse is getting tired.

00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:05.000
And so he takes the sack of grain off the back of the horse. And put it on his own back.

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:10.000
And then he gets on the horse.

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:19.000
So the poor horse. Had twice as much weight. They carry the struggle back to the male.

00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:28.000
But this is a medieval story. And is often featured. In these.

00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:34.000
Diagrams.

00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:38.000
Now this is one of the

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:47.000
Windmills the post males you can see the date there is 1636 It's, new to Cambridge.

00:11:47.000 --> 00:12:02.000
And it really shows it's in that the only one we have, which is. Just like. The illustration we've just seen.

00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:12.000
You can see here the. The letter, the pack. We can see the poll here used for.

00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:23.000
Lifting the ladder off the ground. Touching it in a hook. To the tail pole.

00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:36.000
Now because of the age of this windmill. It no longer works.

00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:50.000
But it's quite a famous windmill, so much so that British railways produces quite colored or attractive

00:12:50.000 --> 00:13:01.000
Painting for a poster. And you can see here, more clearly than the photograph. The main post.

00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:12.000
The quarter bars. And the cross trees. Now the important things here is that Even though it doesn't appear.

00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:21.000
In the picture to be resting on the cross trees. It is known.

00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:34.000
The weight of the male is taking down through the quarter bars. Into the cross trees. And into these brick foundations.

00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:44.000
So no wait. Comes on the center. We if it did, it was split the wood.

00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.000
Hmm.

00:13:48.000 --> 00:14:00.000
Now this is a national trust. How smell? Similar date. This one is that

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:12.000
We'll see in a minute, it's a carbon. Inside of 1627. Now I included this because it's got a around house.

00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:21.000
So we now know that. This was an addition.

00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:30.000
The rained house had a number of functions. One is that we protected the. Across trees and the quarter bars.

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:38.000
And. From the weather. He provided, additional storage.

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:43.000
Or both grain and flower.

00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:53.000
Because the body at the mill and the cells turn into the wind. It's possible at some time that they're taking sales.

00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:58.000
Would pass by this door.

00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:02.000
And to overcome that.

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:15.000
The, houses had 2 doors, one. Opposite each other. So, whichever. Orientation the male was in.

00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:21.000
Then the medical safety get into the roundhouse.

00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:28.000
Notice here, take the weight. Of the

00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:39.000
This timber, they've got a cartwheel which is also quite a usual feature.

00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:48.000
And inside we've got the date card in the timber. 1627.

00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:55.000
Year it was built. Hmm.

00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:11.000
Now we move on to the next,. Smoke mail. Well, his name comes from the The smocks warmed by those who worked and lived in the countryside.

00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:15.000
And these are a couple of examples here.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:27.000
And national trust. In the other way.

00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:39.000
Now. Immediately you realize that these smok mills We're huge. And.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:52.000
This particular one because it was built actually in a village. Sales had to declare. The tops of the houses.

00:16:52.000 --> 00:17:02.000
Because they it would interrupt the wind. It was too low. So we got this enormous.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.000
Brick base.

00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:16.000
Recallery. To reach the the sales. And then we have timber weather boarding.

00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:27.000
And these were built multi-sided.

00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:37.000
And. As an example of a tower mill. I've got this, example from Scotland.

00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:49.000
From 5. It has been radically, altered over the years. Now, use as an observatory, which is why.

00:17:49.000 --> 00:18:01.000
We've got all these windows. I the cap. Which is not, the thing you would find in your work in windmill.

00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:13.000
And also the. This is just a representation. Of when Mill Sales.

00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:19.000
It's not, open at the moment to the public. I'm not quite sure why.

00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:28.000
But it was, used for, pumping water, seawater. Into these ponds here.

00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:34.000
To extract the salt.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:49.000
So this was not a traditional. Cool, but a splendid, location, isn't it?

00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.000
Hmm.

00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:03.000
Now there are several methods of. Turn in the middle into the wind. And first of all, we're going back to look at the.

00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:12.000
House Mill. One of the, with these post mills is that it could be very stiff.

00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:22.000
To turn. And. And so is one example in Derbyshire.

00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:37.000
Called the the cat and fiddle. Post mill. In which, we've got, Here, attached to beer is at a post.

00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:45.000
I ran the circumference. And then block and tackle. In order to.

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:55.000
Hold the mill around. Now you will notice that. Unusually this is a circular.

00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:03.000
Tail pole. And it's got little slots cut out of it. Some here or some there.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:10.000
And you come to realize that in fact this is an old telegraph post.

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:21.000
Because quite close to this particular post mill. Is the great North Road. Today we call it the A one.

00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:32.000
And sometime. The Telegraph posts were replaced. And the mirror managed to get hold of one.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:44.000
And to incorporate in his windmill.

00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:55.000
Now this is that. The method of turning. The camp of Smoke Mill.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:02.000
So the whole, the body, the smoke, they all the timber frame in here and the weather boarded.

00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:12.000
All this is fixed. And it's only the cap. And the sails return into the wind.

00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:18.000
Now this is the Dutch style of doing that.

00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:30.000
Indeed, if you. Get Christmas cards, paintings of their windmills. You will find that Jack.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:41.000
This is the common method. It wasn't really adopted much in this country. But, and you will see there, there were a few.

00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:46.000
Windmills like that.

00:21:46.000 --> 00:22:03.000
And of course you had to pull this is really a And the minute I had to. Push this around.

00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:13.000
Hmm. The natural windmills are a nice tall tapering towers.

00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:27.000
Many are quite. Short. But entirely cylindrical all the way up. And many of them in the West Country are like this.

00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.000
And the method of turning this one into the wind.

00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:41.000
Is that on the back here? There's a cable. Hanging down it will hang right down to the bottom.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:52.000
And the miller would have to come out of the mill. And then wind the cable round. And that would, engage in various.

00:22:52.000 --> 00:23:05.000
Yeah, And so the cap and the sails. Will be turned back into the wind.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.000
Now this was rather laborious.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:25.000
But in, 1745. Thank you there. Excuse me. Invented the Hmm.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:35.000
And this. Automatically. As the wind direction changed. It's automatically kept the cap.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:41.000
And the sails into the wind.

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:52.000
So this was. Great invention.

00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:57.000
Let's have a look at the sales.

00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:07.000
While they all the early windmills or the post males. Had common sales.

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:12.000
And what I mean by that is that,

00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:23.000
The sales were originally built of latter's work of timber. And then you could lay on top.

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Of the timber. A canvas sale. But you could vary the amount of canvas.

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:43.000
That was spread onto the sail. Now this is just like a yacht. If you go out in a yard.

00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:55.000
And there's very little wind. You have, you set full sale. In order to capture what wind is there.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:08.000
But as the wind gets up. So you reduce the amount of sale there is. On the vessel. And same principle applies to windmill.

00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:21.000
We common sales. So if there was very little wind. You had the canvas over the entire framework.

00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:27.000
And this is called for sale.

00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:38.000
But you could take off. The amount of sale. And this is called first reef.

00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:46.000
And this one here. Is called.

00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:59.000
So they had these names for the different settings. Or the amount of cell cloud. On the.

00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:15.000
And this is an actual windmill. And you can see it for common sales. And then, around the sales dog.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000
It's a cell call.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:28.000
Now set in the sail on the windmill was why the hazardous operation.

00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:39.000
First of all, you had to release the break. And then you had a long poll. To pull your sale down.

00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:50.000
Today it was in the vertical position. And then you had to clamber up. Here to undo.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:03.000
The common sale. And to drape it. Over these bars. Depending upon the frame for the wind.

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:13.000
Once you've done that. You would then, Release the brink. And there will be enough.

00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:27.000
Power from this one sale. To allow the sail with greatly move around. Until the next one. Was coming up to the vertical position.

00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:38.000
You then applied to break it. And you said. The second sale. And you had to do the same thing for.

00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:48.000
The other 2 is well.

00:27:48.000 --> 00:28:03.000
They're all the pictures we've seen so far. Happy with 4 sales. And that is undoubtedly the traditional way of doing it.

00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:13.000
But if you could increase the number of sales. And therefore you were extracting the power from the wind. You could.

00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:24.000
Increase the power. Into the windmill. By having more sales.

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:31.000
But you can only do that. When.

00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:35.000
Another engineer called Don Smeton.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:40.000
Invented an iron cross.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:54.000
So the sales originally the sales stop pass right through What was called Poland? But that was the right if you had 4 cells.

00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:03.000
But if you it was no good if you had 5. John's meeting invented this, Iron Cross.

00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:10.000
In which each individual cell was bolted. To the cross.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:23.000
Now, it was said that the most powerful windmills had 5 sales. But some male rice. Them with 6.

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:34.000
And there was even one. Wait 8.

00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:45.000
Also notice that, the sale clock. Has disappeared. And what we have now is that we have shutters.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:54.000
You see the lines here. Just like a Venetian blind. We have in our kitchen.

00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:09.000
And these Shutters were all linked up. To the center. And they pass through the. So shaft.

00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:18.000
To the back of the mail. And there was a chain coming down. I don't know, you can see that there is a chain.

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:32.000
Here and the middle could come out of the and by pulling the chain. He can alter the angle of these shutters.

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.000
On every sale.

00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:47.000
At once. This was a wonderful invention. Because, with the cell cloth you had to.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:59.000
And stop the mail. And alter every So individually. But now you didn't have to stop the windmill.

00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:09.000
But you could change the. Ankle the shutters. Depend upon the strength of the wind.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:21.000
Now the reason why The speed of the cells was important. Was that. You need it for your millstones.

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:31.000
To be added fairly constant speed. If they rotated too fast. The grain will be burnt.

00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:42.000
And if they rotate it too slowly. Then the grain would not be ground. So the speed was crucial.

00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:55.000
And the speed came from the wind. Which is we all know. Varies tremendously. And so the windmill needed to be capable.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:11.000
Or extracting whatever when was available. In order to maintain. Constant rotation. Of the milestones.

00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:20.000
And we'll go on to look at these.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:35.000
The process was, is that, as the, then there was a sack voice. That was power by the wind.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:42.000
And so the first of all, Put your chain around the the sack of, grain.

00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:52.000
And then he could operate the remotely. The sack voice. And the SAC would then go up.

00:32:52.000 --> 00:33:02.000
Through the floors, the mail. And the the media would listen to the trap doors. Going down behind the sack.

00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:13.000
And you would know exactly where that sack of grain was. And when he knew that it was up to the top of the mill.

00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:23.000
Then he released the break. And the sack of grain settled down. On top of the clues trap door.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:38.000
He would then have to climb up the mill himself. Let's do some help. And then tip the grain into the bins.

00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:49.000
And that would be. It's sort of a process that you would have to go through. So this is the 1 million floor.

00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:56.000
And the grain here is coming down. From the bins.

00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:00.000
Into this hopper.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:11.000
Now it was most important. That the the grain should flow into the mill stones. At a steady pace.

00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:24.000
And not be used up. Because you could not afford the milestones. Do rotate. Without the gray passing through.

00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:35.000
Because there was a risk of sparks. And so much the windmill was timber. There was a very risk of fire.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:44.000
Now, because they may or may not be actually standing here. All the time you might have other jobs to do.

00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:55.000
He had an ingenious method. Because inside the hopper was a leather strap.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:06.000
And normally when the hopper was full of grain. Then that strap was kept toward.

00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:17.000
But as the grain ran out. That strap became loose. And it was attached to this piece of stream.

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:23.000
Here and it will ring the bell.

00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:33.000
So alert in the manner. That the hopper was run out of gr. So we would have to, quickly.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:43.000
Get back. And. L more grain. From these bins on the upper floor.

00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:49.000
Into the hopper.

00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:57.000
The grain itself came from the bottom of the hopper. Into what's called the shoe.

00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:07.000
And here that, you needed some vibration. To shape the grain. Into this hole here.

00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:18.000
Which is in the upper. Stone. And you do that this particular shape. Which is rotating.

00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:27.000
Is swear. But it's kept toured. By this piece of string here.

00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:37.000
So as this rotates. So is sets up a vibration. So the grain is shaking down.

00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:46.000
In this you at his studies pace. Into the upper stone.

00:36:46.000 --> 00:37:03.000
What comes off these millstones? Is called male. No flower. Because what comes off is a mixture of Ground grain.

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:15.000
He's got husk in it. It also has particles of millstone. As well. So it's not suitable for bacon.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:24.000
Just straight off the milestones.

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:31.000
Now the millstones themselves, they're There are a pair.

00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:37.000
We have one which is fixed. Which is called the bedstone.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:49.000
And then we have one. On top. We just call the runners down. And what we've just seen is that where the grain trickles down.

00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:54.000
Through the center of the runner's down.

00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:03.000
Now you will notice that the this bad stone is not smooth. It's got a whole series of.

00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:13.000
Cut out. And it is these. Together with some fine stitching.

00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Between them. That produces the meal. It's like, in in action. So the grain is shared.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:41.000
Now, in time, of course, the, with the millstones in use. This pattern begins to wear out.

00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:54.000
And so it has to be redressed. And this particular. Mail, unfortunately, got a a little crane.

00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:05.000
Which, is attached to other side of the runners down. Notice the shape. Of the supports.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:16.000
Because of course the the grooving is on the underside. Oh, the runners down.

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:32.000
So what you needed to do, you want to be able to turn. This runners down around. So the this phase is face it up to allow the matter.

00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:41.000
To redress. This stone.

00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:54.000
Well after the meal comes off the grain it has to go into some form of Steve. And it's from the same.

00:39:54.000 --> 00:40:02.000
That comes to flower. Used for bacon bread.

00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:13.000
And all of this, all this machinery. Is operated by the wind. So it is a remarkable.

00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:16.000
Device.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:29.000
Well, you may wonder why we don't have so many windmills. Around today is they were in the 18 hundreds.

00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:40.000
Basically, there were 2 reasons. One is the, repeal of the corn laws which meant that.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:53.000
Grain was coming in from other countries principally from America. And that grain was so much harder.

00:40:53.000 --> 00:41:05.000
And. Uk grain. The reason for that is, What did we call soft grain in this country?

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:19.000
Is because we have so much. Right. The prairies of America are extremely dry. And it's amazing that anything grows.

00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:28.000
But the grain they do produce is also referred to as hard grain. And that is not suitable.

00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:38.000
To be ground. Under a pair of millstones. And so a new. Oh idea.

00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:57.000
Of. Which came originally from Switzerland. And is cold roller. And because this grain was coming in from, across the world by sea.

00:41:57.000 --> 00:42:06.000
They set up them large mills. At sea ports.

00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:18.000
And today I would say probably 99%. Of our flower is produced by a roller.

00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:32.000
It's very fast. Very efficient. And produces vast quantities of flower. Which, we buy.

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:49.000
In our supermarkets. And so the result of these 2 factors meant that. Our traditional rural. We'll, And that is why so few.

00:42:49.000 --> 00:43:01.000
Working bills, there are a few still. Only a few, today. So if you have a chance to go and see.

00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:09.000
A work in windmill. Go and do so because. It is quite a fascinating.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:20.000
Bit of equipment. And I'll now hand back. To Fiona.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:25.000
Thanks a day. Thanks very much, Michael. That's really interesting stuff there. And we'll go to some questions.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:30.000
We've got 2 or 3 here, so just send your questions and folks and we'll get to them.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:43.000
Okay, this is a question from Mike. Obviously you talked about when males first competing here, sort of in I think it was 1137 we said.

00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:49.000
When and where in the world were the first windmills seen? Were the first ones here or were they elsewhere?

00:43:49.000 --> 00:44:00.000
Well, I, the evidence at the moment. Is that, the windmill build in 1137.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:12.000
Was the first of his type. In the world. That there are. In the Middle East.

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:18.000
There were windmills which were called horizontal windmills.

00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:28.000
But nothing like a postm. Hot smell, therefore, is believed to be. Very much.

00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:38.000
And English invention. And other countries. Principally in Europe. And America.

00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:52.000
Took the idea on And when you study their records. Their dates of building were later. Then 1137.

00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:57.000
So the conclusion is that, We would the first.

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:04.000
Hmm. Okay. I hope that answers your question, Mike. And this kind of leads me on.

00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:15.000
You, I think you may be partially he was asking, are windmills in other countries of the same designs as the UK and you've just touched on that a little bit.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:20.000
He's thinking of unusual looking windmills that he's seen in the Greek island so don't know if there's a bit more that you can say about the different.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.000
Types of windmills in other places.

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:44.000
Right, yeah. You're quite right in the Magiterranean countries. They have large numbers of, rather like the West Country windmill I showed you.

00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:57.000
A short parallel. Tower, but the principal difference between the Mediterranean males and the British ones is comes with the sales.

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:12.000
They the sales themselves were like triangular. Pieces of sail cloth. And the other factor was, is that around the circumference.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:31.000
Of these cells were a number of our firmware. And the reason for those Is that, The miners in the Mediterranean countries would also be tending their farms.

00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:42.000
And close to the windmill. And so they wouldn't actually be. They are present. To actually manage things.

00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:49.000
But what happened if the wind direction changed? Hey, they didn't have, they'd never adopted.

00:46:49.000 --> 00:47:04.000
The English. Design. Of a But when the wind direction change Because of these Earthmware ponds.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:14.000
The same would change. And this would alert the, the. To the need to go back to the mail.

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:22.000
And to turn the and the sales. Back into the wind.

00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:36.000
But, so that's the main difference between, UK. Windmill and one from the Mediterranean area.

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:44.000
Interesting. Okay, I hope that helps you there, Richard. Actually another one from Mike here.

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:50.000
This is a quite an interesting one. You talked about these historic mills that more sales. Faster speed.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:48:03.000
And it's interesting that modern wood mills that we see everywhere now only have the 3 sales but turn a lot faster than the old ones I guess that's technology.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:20.000
It is technology. But it is also because of the design of the sales. Now, in the modern, windmills which produce electricity.

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:25.000
The cells themselves have a twist.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:39.000
And it's rather like the old. Method of World War 2 planes. When they remember the peters themselves.

00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:48.000
Had a twist in them. Now, it was realized that Quite early on that, by twisting the sale.

00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:59.000
You could extract more power. From the wind. But if you imagine that, the windmills that we've seen today.

00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:12.000
With all their shutters. There's a limit. To the that you can provide. Because the actual shutters themselves.

00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:20.000
With start the jam up. And so the windmill, there's additional windmill we've seen today.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:29.000
Wasn't able to extract. As much power from the wind. As these, modern electrical.

00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:42.000
Windmills. Providing this with power. So that's the basic difference. The traditional male rights knew.

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:56.000
They needed to twist the sales. Tricks, the power, but there were practical limits. Fortunately today we don't have those reflections.

00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:03.000
Hmm. Very interesting. Okay, another question. This is from Norman.

00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:12.000
Did anyone ever complain about the windmills on the grounds that they disturbed the visual amenity of the village?

00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:13.000
I.

00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:16.000
It's quite some of them would be quite imposing within the village.

00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:28.000
Well, that's right. I've never seen anyone complain. It's not, the sound of the cells.

00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:45.000
It's not, unpleasant. And I know that some of these modern. When meals produce, there's been complaints about the sound they generate.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:55.000
I never been that close to but, The windmills that have seen working, it's not.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:08.000
And unpleasant. Sound. And, I think because they were providing a direct. Service to the local population.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:11.000
That was quite acceptable.

00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:19.000
Okay. Right, now we've got a question here from, let me just find it from, and also a sort of similar, well not similar, but a related question.

00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:34.000
From somebody else that I can't remember, from Brian. No. Oh, let me just find it again.

00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:46.000
And Marilyn was asking about water mills. Are they less efficient than windmills? She knows of a couple, they're still working, actually watermelons.

00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:54.000
And Brian is saying, and, he's asking if there are still any watermills And well, obviously, water.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:05.000
Yeah, well they. The vantage water mills have. He said, that they have greater control.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:18.000
Over the amount of water. That's directed onto the water wheel. And, Apart from times of severe drink.

00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:29.000
And there's usually sufficient water. To keep a water will turn it. In, in the case of a windmill.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:39.000
Which of you are lying on the wind? Then it could be days and weeks. When there was insufficient wind.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:51.000
To actually operate the windmill. So that, if you wanted reliability. I personally would build a watermelon.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:54.000
Other than the window.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:59.000
Okay.

00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:10.000
Oh, here's another question. Where Miller's dislike to buy their customers and Brian heard that they could divide the flower coming out so that some was diverted off for the Miller's own use.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:12.000
Is that any evidence of that?

00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:24.000
Well, they in the many evil period. And where there was no payment except involved, there were no coins.

00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:45.000
There was no charge. Then the minute was paid in kind. And, The intention was is that that Each windmill would have a large brass saucer, quite large.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:58.000
Probably 2 foot across. And as the flowers being produced. So that, it was directed into the saucer.

00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:09.000
And as it powered up. And started to spill onto the ground you would stop at then. And the middle would have a piece of timber.

00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:19.000
She would strike. Across the top of the soul, sir. And everything that fell off the sorcerer.

00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:31.000
Onto a sheet. Would be his. That will be his payment. Or turn in the grain into flower.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:46.000
Now of course, This was all done. In secret. And you can well imagine that the villagers Would, suspect.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:58.000
That the miller was taken more than he deserved. And, there's again, cause a lot of upset and anger.

00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:10.000
In many evil society. And that is why the, was very much. Not only physically on the outskirts of the village.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:22.000
But also he was. Mentally. I've recorded is someone that, was not part of local society.

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:38.000
So it was not an easy task being Miller. Because you weren't, liked by many people.

00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:39.000
Hmm.

00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:50.000
Yeah. Right, here's a really interesting one from Peter and I know this, and Peter saying he was told keeping your nose to the millstone is a phrase which came about because someone would be keeping their nose close to be able to smell if the grain was burning.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:52.000
Is this true?

00:55:52.000 --> 00:56:02.000
Well, I've never. Heard that expression in regards to the male stones. I can tell you where it does come from.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:13.000
Because I've been to a water meal in North Devon. Which is, by the National Trust.

00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:20.000
It produced them. Igricultural tools. And.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:34.000
These tools had to be sharpened. And so the actual operator. Let on his stomach. Over the top of a grain stone.

00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:48.000
And, it leaned across this platform where he was lying on. And what is 5. Which, he would then sharpen up.

00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:58.000
And. That was very much. Keeping his nose to the

00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:20.000
There we go. And okay, and now we've got a couple more questions and then I think we'll wrap up folks because we' this is a question here from Patricia and the windmills and presumably they would have been strategically located in windy places.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:21.000
Hmm.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:28.000
Well, indeed, indeed. We have this picture and there's many paintings of course of windmills.

00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:38.000
On top of hills, which is the most natural place. But when you realize that, This particular wooden mail will.

00:57:38.000 --> 00:58:00.000
In 1137. Was Ashley in Lincolnshire. Which is extremely flat. But of course there weren't many water males because You needed them lots of hills and streams and rivers to operate a watermelon.

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:11.000
And so in. This very flat country of Lincolnshire in the Norfolk Broads. You had large number of windmills.

00:58:11.000 --> 00:58:20.000
Being built. And in the Norfolk rolls they weren't all core mills. They were used for pumping water.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:35.000
To train the fence. Defense in Lincolnshire. And, foot of orchard principally during the winter period.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:44.000
And. . This lamb was pumped dry And this was done by windmills.

00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:49.000
In land which was very flat.

00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:56.000
Hmm, interesting. Didn't know that. Right, one final question, from Sue.

00:58:56.000 --> 00:59:01.000
She's asking were there any cooperative or community when mills?

00:59:01.000 --> 00:59:12.000
Oh, most certainly, yes. In fact, they. The smoke mill I showed you, that very tall one.

00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:23.000
The full title. Of the windmill. Smoke.

00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:37.000
So it included the word union. In his title. And this met that, it was owned by The villagers.

00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:50.000
And they property. From the actual. Profits generated by the windmill. Because obviously by the 18 hundreds.

00:59:50.000 --> 01:00:02.000
And cash. Was being exchanged. For the actual work undertaken. So yes, there were a number.

01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:06.000
Of these cooperative. Windmills.

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:08.000
Interesting, well there you go, Sue. Okay, I think we need to wrap up there.

01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:17.000
Thanks again for that, Michael. That was really interesting. Lots of really interesting facts there actually.

01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:24.000
And just really interesting to hear that the background to these structures that we just don't see anymore, certainly not in those forms.

01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:30.000
Okay, so thanks very much.

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:20.000
Thank you very much Fiona and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the lecture. I'm going to share, be sharing slides of course and this afternoon as Fiona said, we're going to be talking about.

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.000
A man called Patrick Bronte. Who was the father of the famous Bronte sisters?

00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.000
Charlotte, Emily and Anne. And of course, we mustn't forget their brother Branwell as well.

00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:47.000
Not a published. Novelist, but nevertheless it's worth remembering and I will repeat this as we go on that he was actually published.

00:00:47.000 --> 00:01:04.000
4 years before his sisters. So without further ado, I will share my slides.

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:16.000
And I hope that everyone can see that, okay? And, that's the title of the talk and I will now, I will now move on.

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:28.000
So this is the subject of the afternoon's lecture. Patrick Bronte or Was he Patrick Bronte or was he something else?

00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:37.000
Well, the first, query is over his actual last name. As you know, 100, a hundred and more years ago.

00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:48.000
Spelling. Didn't need to be exact. You could smell your name any way you wanted to.

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:56.000
And we weren't all on massive databases for things like the NHS as we are today.

00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:09.000
So Patrick's name has varied when we look back at old documents and bear in mind Patrick was born on a amazingly enough the seventeenth of March St.

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:19.000
Patrick's Day and in the year 1777 so it got this go it goes back a long way.

00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:24.000
And spelling wasn't exact, it didn't need to be. There wasn't the bureaucracy.

00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:36.000
But in different documents connected with the Bronte name. There are different spellings and this goes for Patrick.

00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:46.000
His name has been spelt, Branty, Bronte and various other variations of that name.

00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:57.000
It wasn't until he went to college. To Cambridge to St. John's College to be precise and that he was registered as a college student.

00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:11.000
But the registrar who was recording his entry to the college recorded it as Bronte. And it's been Bronte ever since.

00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:21.000
It may have been affected by the fact that Patrick's hero was, Admiral Nelson.

00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:32.000
He loved military figures, great interest in military figures, and Nelson had just been created. To Cabronty.

00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.000
So maybe Patrick thought, oh, that's a good name. I'll spell it this way and so it remained.

00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:50.000
This, Walsh colour? We believe was some where Patrick was at college, probably by one of his undergraduates.

00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:01.000
Friends at college so we obviously don't know how like this was of the young man who was in his twenties then.

00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:16.000
So which story actually begin? Well, Patrick's father, Hugh! Worked the land. He was a farmer, but he wasn't rich enough to own his own.

00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:23.000
Farm. So he rented. A farm. And, Patrick.

00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:31.000
It's seems almost 100%. Convinced, convincing that he was Protestant.

00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000
And,

00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:47.000
Patrick's father? Hugh, we know, recorded himself as a protestant. He recorded his children as being protestants.

00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:52.000
But there is a question mark over Patrick's mother who was known by 2 different names, Alice or Eleanor.

00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:14.000
Her maiden name was McClory. And apparently it's very likely that she was Catholic. So in Ireland of the eighteenth century this was a marriage between 2 different faiths.

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:31.000
Where was Patrick actually born? Well, this is his birthplace. This is in Emdale in County Down in Northern Ireland and it's in the parish of Drum Bally Roney.

00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.000
Or Drum Bally Rooney, there's only one all. But people pronounce it in different ways.

00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:43.000
And you can still visit the site of Patrick's birthplace. And if you're looking at the site, you're probably thinking, well, this not a lot of it.

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:57.000
Left. The house that he was built in, he was born in, was relatively humble and it was built by his father.

00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:12.000
And until about the last 25 years or so it was believed by Brunchy scholars and biographers that Patrick came from a very Po, farming family.

00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:24.000
We now know that further research has revealed and it's fairly well authenticated that actually his father Hugh prospered.

00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:38.000
And he built at least One other house for his family later on. And the house, the houses that he built are recorded as getting larger and larger.

00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000
So it's fair to assume that actually Patrick was not born to a peasant labourer.

00:06:42.000 --> 00:07:04.000
He was born to a man and a woman who although they invent they didn't own their own land were actually made enough money to be able to afford something grander as the time went by.

00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:17.000
Now, how many children were there in the family? Well, Patrick, bonus, I've said, seventeenth of March, the seventeenth, 77, was the eldest child in a family of 10.

00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:35.000
So they were a big family. Just out of interest in later years, Patrick's siblings, his brothers, took up a variety of mainly manual occupations, builder, road labourer, that type of thing.

00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:48.000
His sisters of course married and no occupation is recorded for them. Patrick, we're told, was a very intelligent child, even as a small boy.

00:07:48.000 --> 00:08:00.000
He loved to get hold of books and he loved reading. He was probably, although we had no conclusive proof, one of these children who learned to read very early.

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.000
And whether his mother, Alice or Eleanor, told him or whether it was his father, Hugh, we don't know.

00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:26.000
But by a relatively young age he was reading a lot. Now books were expensive, so most of the books that would have come to him would have either been second hand that his father could afford to buy or they would have been gifted by other people.

00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:39.000
And the young boy who only ever received a basic village school education. Drum Bally Roney Parish was very agricultural, it was rural.

00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:50.000
So it wasn't a big town or a city. And it probably would have been a very small local village school where Patrick would have gone.

00:08:50.000 --> 00:09:01.000
Probably no more. Than past his eleventh or twelfth birthday. Patrick had a thirst for knowledge.

00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:15.000
And this bright young boy was noticed by the local clergyman. In many cases the local clergyman was the only educated man in the town of the village.

00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:25.000
And, this particular clergyman was a man called the Reverend Thomas Tighe. And he took Patrick under his wing.

00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:36.000
He gave him books he even, we believe, tutored Patrick. And, Patrick's first for knowledge grow, but he had to work.

00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.000
His father made it quite clear to him that up until 15 was as far as his education would take him.

00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:52.000
He couldn't go beyond the age of 15 because his father had 10 children to provide for. Patrick did a number of jobs to her money.

00:09:52.000 --> 00:10:05.000
We believe that at one time he worked as a linen weaver. Another time he may have worked for a blacksmith.

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:14.000
But as soon as he called as soon as he saved a little bit of money He was able to open his own school.

00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:27.000
Now, It would have been a basic village school teaching village boys. And probably charging a couple of pennies awake.

00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:40.000
So how did this young lad? Patrick managed to get from a basic education in Ireland to St. John's College, Cambridge.

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:51.000
Well, he did and he did it with the help of Thomas Tighe. Thomas Tighe himself was a former undergrad at St.

00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:59.000
John's College, Cambridge. And as an undergraduate of St. John's, he had the right to nominate.

00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:10.000
Promising young boys. To go to his college and to study. And he decided to nominate Patrick Bronte.

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:25.000
But before Patrick could get to college, he needed his education. Honed if you like so that it went beyond the basic Village School type learning.

00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:35.000
So Thomas Tighe teaches and coaches Patrick outside his working hours. He has to work, father can't afford to keep him.

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:47.000
Anymore so in his spare time probably evening some weekends he studies with Thomas and he learned great and he learned Latin.

00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:57.000
Now, Creek, Latin and ancient history were the hallmarks of an education for a gentleman in the nineteenth century.

00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:07.000
And Patrick's route to becoming a gentleman. Was clear to him. He wanted to enter the church.

00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.000
Because the church was a route to advancing your status in life and Patrick desperately wanted to advance his status.

00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:26.000
So Patrick would go to Sir John's nominated by time but he went there as a mature shoot.

00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:42.000
He was about 24/25 when he enters St John's. Now bear in mind this is at a time when boys commonly went up to university at the age of 15.

00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:51.000
But they were privately educated and usually had spent some years at public school. Patrick hasn't got that.

00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:00.000
So when time nominates him, he's accepted. For St. John's College, Cambridge.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:13.000
And he tells us himself. That he arrived in England from Ireland from this rural parish in Ireland that he'd probably never left.

00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:23.000
He arrives in England with little more than 5 pounds in his pocket. Tighe, Thomas Tighe, the Reverend Thomas Tighe.

00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:35.000
We believe subsidized him and gave him some money so that he could at least exist for the first few weeks of term before the term started.

00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:49.000
The rest of the money, Patrick, had saved himself from the various jobs that he had. Now, university fees had to be paid and you don't need me to tell you anything about that.

00:13:49.000 --> 00:14:02.000
If you've got children or grandchildren, you'll know that. So how did how did he afford to pay for his university fees?

00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:11.000
Well, quite simply, Sir John's College was attractive to him because he offered a sizarship.

00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:24.000
Now, a sizarship was a sort of route where poor boys could study for a degree on the same terms as fee paying students.

00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:40.000
In return for some manual duties and one of those duties would have been Serving meals to the fee paying undergraduates, which was a bit demeaning for a man of 25 a mature student.

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:49.000
Whose serving meals to 15 year old boys. However, Patrick was frugal. He was used to being frugal.

00:14:49.000 --> 00:15:02.000
He'd come from a frugal background. And he somehow made ends meet. One of the ways he did that was by giving, coaching to other boys.

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:14.000
So this boy from a rural Irish village is coaching I thought younger students, younger undergraduates, who have been to public school.

00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000
And whose knowledge of Greek and Latin wasn't as good as his. So it's quite an achievement.

00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:39.000
The other way he achieved some kind of financial. And help was by applying for prices. Now prices were usually either given in the form of books or money cash prices.

00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:49.000
And you could achieve prices by coming. Very high up. In your year when the exams came around.

00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:59.000
So when exams come around and the undergraduates sit their yearly exams. Tricks name appears near the top.

00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:09.000
So that's how he was able to make ends meet. But those ends. Were very frugal.

00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:19.000
I'm 4 years it took him. Trying to obtain his degree.

00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:25.000
Sorry about that, it jumped. Yeah, so it was hard. He could have stayed on for an extra year.

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:32.000
And, and, worked for an honest degree, but he decided to leave after 4 years with a degree without honours.

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:51.000
He afterwards said that was the biggest mistake he ever made because had he have stayed on an extra year and got honours, then he would probably have being placed and much.

00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:01.000
More higher up in the church hierarchy. So he follows Thomas Tides example and he studies theology.

00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:18.000
And at the end of 4 years. Hey, and he will become. A clergyman of the Church of England.

00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:29.000
Now this is his ambition and he's achieved it. So he must have been failing extremely good about himself.

00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:38.000
When he is all kind. He's then eligible for a job. And, the church.

00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:47.000
Were very good at looking out for suitable posts for newly qualified young clergymen. And sure enough, this is the early eighteenth century.

00:17:47.000 --> 00:18:01.000
They almost act like a job centre. For the clergy. And in 1806, Patrick finds himself sent.

00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:18.000
To deepest Essex. So big change again from the parish of Drum Bally Roney, the rural environment that he's used to in Ireland, it's very different to the rural environment in England.

00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:33.000
And this is where he comes. And if you're an Essex regime. An Essex resident, you will not probably recognize the name of Wethersfield in Essex, a very pretty village.

00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:48.000
And certainly if  Patrick was to come back. He would recognize many of the houses because there are a number of eighteenth century houses.

00:18:48.000 --> 00:19:02.000
Somewhere along the line. Wethersfield. Lost an A. Today, it's WE in Patrick's Day, it was WEA.

00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:12.000
So somehow it's lost its A. But yes, yeah, lots of eighteenth century houses and buildings that Patrick would recognize today.

00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:29.000
So Wethersfield, the population was small. 1,300. In 1806. No surprises, 70% of the population worked in agriculture.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:43.000
It was not an easy time. To be taking up your first job. And Patrick's first job would be as curate or assistant clergyman.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:51.000
And, he comes there a time when not only was there a typhoid epidemic.

00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:03.000
In fact, there would be more than one typhoid epidemic during the 3 years or almost 3 years that he works and lived in Wethersfield.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:10.000
Now not only was there an epidemic but also there was a threat. Of a French invasion.

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:33.000
This of course is the time when we're at war with France, the old enemy. And people confidently expected that Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was busily marching over Europe, would invade England at any time and particularly if you lived within a day's march.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:41.000
Of a port. And Essex has a number of ports. So.

00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:49.000
It was not an easy time. There were, militia based in the area to watch out for possible invasions.

00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:54.000
And Patrick from the whole of the rest of his life would have a really strong interest in things military.

00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:08.000
In fact, when he was at Cambridge as an undergraduate student, he had enrolled in the volunteer militia there.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:16.000
So, Patrick! Is working for the actual vicar. Of the village and this is the church.

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:25.000
This would have been Patrick's base. His workplace. Sir Mary Magdalene Church still there today in the village.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:39.000
It's worth the visit. It's a very pretty church. His employer was the Reverend Jowett of Reverend Joseph Jowett to give him his full name.

00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:47.000
Now, Jowett was what was known as an absentee vicar, which sounds a bit of a contradiction in terms.

00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:56.000
How can you be a vicar and an absentee one? Well, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century it was very common for the clergy to combine their occupation with another occupation.

00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:14.000
And, was no exception. Jowett's main job, if you like, was professor of law at Cambridge, which was much more lucrative than the church.

00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:24.000
So he's actually only at Wethersfield for 3 months out of every year. The rest of the time, Patrick is in charge.

00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:33.000
Births, marriages. Deaths, confirmations, Sunday services, visiting the sick.

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:43.000
Or felt Patrick. So it was a bit of a baptism of fire. But here a good reputation in the village.

00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:50.000
And he, a secondary reputation, it's a dog walker. More about that in a moment.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:23:02.000
This is the inside of the church. Looking today, probably much as Patrick would have known it.

00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:09.000
At some very old stained glass in the windows.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:18.000
Almost like a gargoyle, the one in the middle. And of course, some ancient tombs.

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:27.000
The family connected very much with Wethersfield who were the local benefactors were the Mott family.

00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:35.000
And, yeah, this tombstone, obviously, commemorates a husband and wife.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:51.000
And it's probably fourteenth or fifteenth century and Patrick would walk past this tome every day of his working life.

00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:58.000
Now when Patrick was in the village, he had to live somewhere. He had to lodge somewhere.

00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:04.000
And this is where he lodged. Sir George's house which is right opposite. The church.

00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:16.000
So if you find the church, you will find Patrick's lodgings. And this Sir George's house was the home of a lady called Miss Mildred Davey.

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Now, Miss Davey was a spinster, she was wild to do. She lived in this very large house on her own.

00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:36.000
But, she ends time members of the family and one of them family members she ends timed was her niece.

00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:46.000
Mary Burder. And, yeah, this is a larger. Slide of St George's house.

00:24:46.000 --> 00:25:03.000
And it said that the first meeting between the new young curate in his first job. And Mary Burder, the niece of Mildred Davey, came about soon after he arrived in the village.

00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:13.000
And the meeting took place in Miss Davey's kitchen where Mary Burder was preparing a festival for the oven.

00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:18.000
So A very romantic first meeting.

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:32.000
Patrick would lodge here for the 3 years or so that he lived in the village. Now Patrick by now was about 30 years of age.

00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:45.000
He's young or 80 friend Mary Burder was 12 years younger. And there still exists in the possession of the Wethersfield Historical Society.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:56.000
I let her, well, it's a poem and a letter. That Patrick composed in honour of Mary Burder's eighteenth birthday.

00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:07.000
It's not the sort of thing that probably we would welcome today as an eighteenth birthday composition. It talks about.

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:16.000
Has short life is and how so we're all dead. So, yeah. Strange choice, but there we are.

00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:28.000
I said Patrick was a keen dog walker and he was. He earned a golden reputation in the village for taking people's dogs for walks.

00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:36.000
And one of the places he loved to visit was a few miles down the road. At finching field.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:55.000
Very pretty, very picturesque village. And if you're an Essex resident, you will know, So here it was that he came and we can imagine that not only did he walk the dogs, but he probably walked here with Mary.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:08.000
Because they begin calling in earnest. And, What, what happened? Why is it that he didn't marry Mary?

00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:23.000
And if he had of married Mary, then the tourists today wouldn't be flocking to Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire, which is one of the probably the most visited.

00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:36.000
Literary Shrine in the country, although the Jane Austen society might not agree with that. The visitors, the tourists could be coming to Essex.

00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:48.000
Had things been different. The first stumbling block, the young couple. Encountered was really, summed up by this slide.

00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:53.000
This is Wethersfield Chapel. The This is a non-conformist chapel.

00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:04.000
It's not the one that Patrick and Mary know. It was built after. Patrick left the village round about 1822, 1823.

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:19.000
Mary Berger was a non-conformist. Patrick was Church of England. Patrick was ambitious and he wanted to rise up the greasy pole of the Church of England.

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:34.000
Married to a non-conformists. Questions might be asked. So that may have been one of the stumbling blocks, but an even bigger stumbling block was Mary Burder's uncle.

00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:45.000
Her father and mother were dead and she lived with her uncle in the next village. Now her uncle was not impressed by this young Irish curate.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:58.000
In his first job who had a strong Irish accent. Uncle was quite rude about Patrick and demanded to know what his income was.

00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:10.000
Words were had between the young man and the uncle. And the upshot was that Mary was forbidden to associate with Patrick Bronte.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:23.000
And furthermore, she was removed from her aunt's company. In Wethersfield and most to her uncle's farm down the road at Great Yeldon.

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:32.000
So she was almost under half arrest. Now, at this length of time, we can't know for certain.

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:44.000
The exact circumstances and we have no documentary proof that tells us what happened. But the relationship broke up.

00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:54.000
Now, was it because Patrick put his career before his romance? Was it because he was deterred by the anger of uncle?

00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Oh, was it for some other reason? Later on, events revealed that Mary was still very bitter. About what she saw as Patrick deserting her without a fight for her.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:18.000
Now whether that's true or not, we just don't know. But we do know that in 1809.

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:22.000
Patrick begins to formulate plans to move away from Wethersfield and to take the next step in his career and that's exactly what he did.

00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:34.000
So in October, 1809, he moves to Shropshire. To Wellington in Shropshire to a curacy in Shropshire.

00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:51.000
He later moved on. And finally ends up in Yorkshire, a county that he afterwards Never left as far as employment was concerned.

00:30:51.000 --> 00:31:10.000
So just going back briefly to the chapel. Mary eventually married. She didn't obviously marry Patrick, but she did marry a non-conformist clergyman, the Reverend Peter Sibrey, and she had 4 daughters.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:21.000
And we lose sight of her after that, but it's believed that she went with her husband. To his new ministry.

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:36.000
In Birmingham first time where she moved after that. We don't know. And, when Patrick moves away from Really?

00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:49.000
The rest then becomes history. Because Patrick arrives in Yorkshire and he gets himself a part time job.

00:31:49.000 --> 00:32:03.000
To supplement his income and secure it. A boy school! And the at the boys school he's examining the boys in their knowledge of scripture in their knowledge of the Bible.

00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:11.000
While he's at the school, he meets the niece of the headmaster of the school.

00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:21.000
And the niece of the headmaster of the school was a lady called Mariah Branwell who came from Penzance in Cornwall.

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:37.000
And she sang with her uncle. The 2 fall in love. They have a courtship. And eventually they marry.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:47.000
Mariah was a wealthy. No, I thought it was Patrick. Mariah had a small annuity from her late father, 50 pounds a year.

00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:57.000
And that would die when she died. It didn't pass to her husband or children.

00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:04.000
Chicken Maria appeared to have been happy. They had 6 children. 5 daughters and one son.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:14.000
The 2 oldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, sadly died before their twelfth birthday. But that left 4 children.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:31.000
And those 4 children are the ones that we know of, the geniuses of English literature. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte and to a lesser degree their brother Branwell who was a very competent writer.

00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:40.000
Poet and musician. So, but did Patrick forget? His Essex go. No.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:53.000
Because sadly his marriage to Mariah was short-lived. She died of cancer. When his 4 surviving children were very young.

00:33:53.000 --> 00:34:06.000
And. He was by then the vicar hit most up the pole enough. Of the Church of England to be appointed vicar to Howard in Yorkshire.

00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:25.000
And suddenly he's left without a wife. And he That's to rely on the assistance of his wife and marriage older sister, Miss Elizabeth Branwell, who comes up from Cornwall to help out with the family.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:36.000
Patrick would look around for a second wife. We know he proposed marriage to at least one other lady in Yorkshire.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:53.000
But she turned him down flat. And then he thoughts turned. To Mariah Burder, or Mary Burder I should say, back in Essex and he writes a letter to Mary Burder.

00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:58.000
And the letter is discreetly inquiring if she's still single. Well, at that time Mary was still single.

00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:13.000
She hadn't yet married the Reverend Peter Sibrey. When she gets the letter, she sends him quite a terse abrupt.

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:32.000
Someone, some of you, some people might say vitriolic letter back saying you know you basically you left me and I have no intentions of re-establishing our romantic relationship.

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:43.000
Patrick Undeterred writes to her again. And if at this point you're saying no, no, don't do it.

00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:54.000
Well, yeah, absolutely. She rejects him again. And even more rudely the second time she writes this sort of end to her letter.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:04.000
I, you tell me you have a small but sweet family. That was his 4 children, of course.

00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:16.000
The Lord will supply all your and their wants so she's really digging the knife in here. And at this point, he decides to stop.

00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:32.000
Corresponding with her. He decides that any cult ship by mail is just a waste of time. But when his 3 daughters were famous in the 1850.

00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:50.000
And 2 of them, sadly, were Emily who died in 1848 and Anne who died in 1849 Charlotte was the only survivor of the 3 daughters that were left.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:58.000
Patrick writes to Mary burder again. Now how he got her address, we can only think that he still had friends.

00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:11.000
Or contacts in the village that he was in correspondence with. And this time he sends her foot, her his photograph.

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:17.000
Because hey, he's famous! He's the father of the Bronte Sisters.

00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:27.000
And, he wants everyone to know about it. And there's a rather unpleasant sense of, boasting.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:49.000
About the letter that he sensed Mary Burder. And of course by now. She's married and she would have 4 daughters as I've said and one of her doctors recorded in later years that when she got the photograph and the letter from Patrick she tore them up.

00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:55.000
So who can blame her? I mean, he was, he was turning into a stalker, really.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:08.000
But yeah, he was obviously anxious to re-establish relationships or was he just anxious to boast that I am the father of the famous Bronte sisters?

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:19.000
Of course by now was a published author himself, albeit self-published. No publisher ever offered.

00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:28.000
To pay him for his books. He paid himself, he paid the publisher. And, cottage poems.

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:38.000
A cottage in the wood. A 2 of his known literary productions, neither of which are very good.

00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:45.000
You can still buy them if you want to read them because reprints are available. Us the books.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:54.000
So we can see whether literary tradition came from. This love of literature. Patrick was passionate about education.

00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:11.000
Look what education had done for him and he passed on that love of education, of reading, of writing and expressing yourself creatively to all of his children.

00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:16.000
All of them, including his son Branwell.

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:30.000
And here we have Patrick in his later years on the left. The 3 daughters from the left. And Emily and Charlotte and of course the son of the family, Branwell.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:41.000
Always portrayed as a bit of a bad boy. Who eventually drunk and drugged himself to a very early grave.

00:39:41.000 --> 00:40:00.000
So, but we forget that Bramwell was talented. Yes, he was published only in the local newspaper, but his poems were published a full 4 years before his sister's work ever saw the light of day.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:10.000
And this was the family home in Yorkshire for 40 years from 1821 to 1861.

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:19.000
This is where Branwell died at the age of 31. Emily died at the age of 30.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:33.000
Patrick himself died at the age of 84. The last surviving member of the family. On the seventh of June, 1861.

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:41.000
I'm where Charlotte, perhaps the best known of the Bronte sisters, died.

00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:51.000
When after marriage she was the only member of the Bronte siblings who married she married her father's curer Arthur Bell Nichols.

00:40:51.000 --> 00:41:07.000
And sadly although she we believe became pregnant after her marriage. Illness claimed her. And she died less than a year after her marriage.

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:15.000
She died in March of 1855 she married in June, 1854 and she died in this house.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:25.000
Where she and her husband, the Reverend Arthur Bell Nichols were living with her father.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:37.000
So, it was a sad house, but it was a creative house. The only member of the family who Didn't die in this house.

00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:48.000
Was Anne Bronte and Anne Bronte died at Scarborough. She gone to Scarborough for her health or to try and recoup her health.

00:41:48.000 --> 00:42:04.000
In 1849 and sadly died there. But the other members of the Bronte family, including the 2 eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died before their twelfth birthday all died under this roof.

00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:23.000
She today, it's the Parsonage Bronte Paths in each museum. And I don't know whether any of you have ever visited, but if you are in Yorkshire and you find your way to Haworth not far from, Keithley, about 4 miles from the town of

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:30.000
Keithley and about 10 miles from Bradford. Then do visit the Parsonage Museum.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:37.000
Now on this slide, over on the top left hand side, you'll notice the gentleman that I haven't talked about.

00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:45.000
This is the man that Charlotte married. Her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nichols.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.000
And, yeah, a marriage destined to be very short. But we can see where that literary influence came from.

00:42:49.000 --> 00:43:09.000
Father was self published. Passionate about his children getting a good education. Passionate about them reading and writing. And expressing themselves creatively.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:22.000
All of them drew and painted. They were. Fairly accomplished artist, Emily in particular. I'm Brian World was a very able musician.

00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:36.000
He played a number of different musical instruments. The only member of the 4 surviving siblings who wasn't musical was Charlotte and that was mainly due to poor eyesight.

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:45.000
So yeah, office on the left, in the middle at the top. And of course, Mariah their mother.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:54.000
As a young woman. And An Emily and Charlotte on the bottom.

00:43:54.000 --> 00:44:02.000
So I I've whistle stopped through the Bronte's and the Essex connection.

00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:13.000
And, I hope that you found it of interest. And I should be very pleased to answer any questions that you might have.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:21.000
In Essex those that know of the Bronte Connection feel quite proud of it. But I guess we feel a little bit cheated.

00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:31.000
That it's Yorkshire that's getting all the tourism and not Essex.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:32.000
I see.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:36.000
Thank you very much, Margaret, an interesting story and that's some size of house they had.

00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:37.000
Very much so, yes. Yeah.

00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:44.000
Okay. Okay, so we've got a few questions here. I'm just gonna start from the top.

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:53.000
Question from Mary actually. She'd always thought that Patrick was a perpetual curate and not a vicar.

00:44:53.000 --> 00:45:09.000
He was a curate, but actually when he went to, Haworth, not what was known as a perpetual incumbent Now, that was church.

00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:21.000
Church speak for You're really you're a vicar. You may not be called a vicar, but but you're the Reverend Bronte.

00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:31.000
And, you employ or you are I'm subsidized to employ a cure yourself. So he certainly wasn't a curate at Haworth.

00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:38.000
He had a curate of his own.

00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:49.000
Okay, interesting. And another question here, this is really about the lodgings, it's at George's house in wethersfield no rectories or, for clergy in the 18 hundreds.

00:45:49.000 --> 00:46:00.000
No, no, the house at Haworth. Looks very impressive, but I hasten to say he didn't own that house.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:09.000
It was owned by the Church of England. And, as, the thicker. Of Haworth.

00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:29.000
He was entitled to live there for life. Unless he became incapable of doing his duties. If he became incapable through illness or some other calls or he was dismissed from his post then he was out of the house.

00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:35.000
Hmm. And actually just a comment here from Chris. He had thought the house was enlarged after Patrick died.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:43.000
It was it was it was enlarged not by any member of the Bronte family because they were all dead by then.

00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:51.000
But it was enlarged by the next incumbent, the next vicar. With a man called John Wade.

00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:57.000
And John Wade, unlike Patrick Bronte, he was, he was quite a well-to-do man.

00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:04.000
He had private income in addition to his church salary. And he had a wife and he had 8 children.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:19.000
And the house just was not big enough. So his own expense, he built on a wing to the house.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:22.000
Right, I see. Okay, now. I've got a couple of, I suppose, comments here actually that are quite interesting.

00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:30.000
Now, I'm not entirely clear whether this is about, or about Patrick, cause you've just been talking about Branwell when these came in.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.000
Right.

00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:40.000
From 2 Ann's, firstly, did you know he was thought to be a hypochondriac?

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:47.000
And he was paranoid about the risk of fire and refused to allow curtains in the house.

00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:48.000
Gotcha.

00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:56.000
Oh yes, absolutely Patrick, that would have been Patrick. Patrick, absolutely forbade curtains in the house.

00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:07.000
However When Charlotte started to earn money through her writing, She insisted on curtains at the windows.

00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:21.000
Patrick had I said himself. Buried too many children who were the victim of fires in the home.

00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:22.000
Okay.

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:29.000
So, absolutely right. He, he was very cautious about fire. Now bear in mind, this is the nineteenth century.

00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:47.000
If you has caught fire There was no fire engine to come dashing up. It was, if you were lucky, people would come and help you put out the fire, local people.

00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:54.000
As for a village fire service, that would have consisted of a wholesome car and buckets of water.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:49:01.000
Yeah.

00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:02.000
Well, thank you all.

00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:05.000
I have to say I don't have curtains in my house either. Not for That reason though. Okay.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:06.000
Now.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:18.000
Yeah, that is absolutely correct, Patrick. And has left us letters. We have documentary evidence that he was very much opposed.

00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:24.000
To current anything that could catch fire.

00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:38.000
Okay, well there we have it. A question here from, this is about Charlotte, How is it believed Charlotte managed to be a novelist if she had poor eyesight?

00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:53.000
Right. Now, interestingly, Earlier you mentioned somebody had mentioned hypochondria. Patrick, a lot of biographers today do believe that he was a hypochondriac.

00:49:53.000 --> 00:50:09.000
Patrick suffered from bronchitis throughout the whole of his life. And, Yeah, he may well have been a hypochondriac, but if we look at the evidence, his children, the oldest.

00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:16.000
Surviving Child was Charlotte. And she was not quite 39 when she died.

00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:27.000
Patrick was 84, which in I, 1861 was a very, very old age.

00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:37.000
Now, hypochondria. Yeah, there is some evidence that Patrick, was a bit of a hypochondriac.

00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:46.000
Very difficult at this point in time to be able to judge for sure. But Charlotte's eyesight.

00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:57.000
Charlotte is believed today by medical historians. To have a, suffered from, we're talking about.

00:50:57.000 --> 00:51:04.000
Hypochondria, it may, historians, medical historians today believe. That her poor eyesight may have been self-induced.

00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:24.000
It may to some extent I'm, I'm saying some extent have been imaginary. She would frequently Come on, her eyes being bad.

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:38.000
She wore spectacles. I did Patrick, her father. But. Today, looking at the symptoms and the signs she describes, many medical historians would agree that it was a sort of form.

00:51:38.000 --> 00:52:05.000
I hesitate to say hysterical blindness. But when she wanted to use her eyes, when she was writing her books, then her writing if we look at the surviving manuscripts today, the writing is excellent.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.000
So there's a bit of a contradiction there.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:12.000
Yeah. Okay. Right, we've got another couple of questions here and I let me just find it.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:25.000
Yes, this is from Valerie. I believe he had a reputation as a rather hard father.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:26.000
Was that true?

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:38.000
He did have that reputation. That he was a cold, harsh, unfeeling father. There was a story that biographers have have gleefully.

00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:46.000
Repeated over the years that he fed his children only potatoes. Now, that isn't true.

00:52:46.000 --> 00:53:02.000
We now know that isn't true. Not only from his own accounts and bear in mind he was a scrupulously Honest, frank man.

00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:13.000
He always said, Happy numbered amongst the eccentrics of the world, but I've been eccentric.

00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:28.000
I wouldn't have had the children that I had. Which is the perfect comeback. But we also know from Mrs. Gaskell, the novelist who wrote the biography of Charlotte Bronte.

00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:46.000
He didn't feed the children on nothing but potatoes. And there is every evidence from documents left behind by his children that he was a caring, loving father.

00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:56.000
Hmm, right. Another question here from Jane and then we'll have one final one and then I think we will wrap up.

00:53:56.000 --> 00:54:02.000
Now let me Here we go, from Jane. Did Patrick ever return to Ireland?

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:08.000
Not that we know of. Not that we know of. He may have done. I mean, it's not documented anywhere.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:26.000
We believe that when he graduated from Cambridge, St. John's. He made, he may have made a brief visit home to see his parents and his siblings, but we don't know that for certain.

00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:33.000
Okay. Right, hope that answers your question, Jane. I'm one final one. This is from Esther.

00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:42.000
Talking about Reverend Tighe. Was he a church of England? Reverend in a rural Irish village.

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:49.000
He was Church of Ireland. He was Protestant!

00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:56.000
Nice. Okay, there we go, No, let me just check to see if we have anything else here.

00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:58.000
I think that's probably us.

00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:08.000
Yeah, I should qualify that by saying, Patrick's ambition was always to enter the church of England.

00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:17.000
Because he believed that that was the route to advancement. He, Hot a feeling for the job.

00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:21.000
He wants you to be a clergyman. He didn't do it solely for ambition.

00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:36.000
Or for money, but I think advancement. Phone part of it. He was quite an ambitious young man.

00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:42.000
Yeah, okay. Well, thanks again, Margaret. I, I think that's us for today.

00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:49.000
I hope everybody enjoyed that and just really interesting to hear about that Essex connection because history could have been so very different.

00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:50.000
Good night.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:53.000
Thank you very much everyone for some really thought provoking questions. Thank you.

00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.000
Well, thank you very much for that, and welcome to today's lecture.

00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000
We're gonna be talking today about biodiversity.

00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:32.000
Here in the UK. And yes, as you mentioned, I am not originally from the UK.

00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.000
As you could probably tell, been here for a couple of years.

00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000
Now, but with that I've talked quite a few ecology courses and just looking at lots of different environments around the world.

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000
So like talking about that today, but particularly with a lens looking at here in here in Britain.

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:52.000
Speaking of today from London. I do apologize if you hear shouts in the background.

00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000
Our students just got off of detention. So they're incredibly happy, as you can imagine.

00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:02.000
Should, it should be quite quiet otherwise. No.

00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:07.000
And today's session, the way I've structured it is I'm going to talk about the concept of biodiversity sort of what it is, how we, as ecologists and as scientists, we measure it.

00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:16.000
And actually actually go about measuring it as a value, and then also following that up with why, it's important.

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:31.000
And all of my examples today are going to be from my adopted home here in Britain, in the British Isles, from London, where I live all the way out to the northern reaches of Scotland and Ireland, and I will be leaving time for questions and discussion at the end Fiona did

00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.000
mention she will be monitoring the chat throughout the talk.

00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.000
So please throw in questions as we go, or save them later, for the end.

00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:43.000
I also have a list which I believe Fiona will be sending out of articles and further readings for anyone who's interested.

00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:52.000
And you're also welcome to contact me if you want to have my details for any follow-up questions you have at the end of the talk so say, we're just gonna go over.

00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:06.000
Why, it's important, and what it is. In the first place, when saving some time for questions at the end, so to start, we're gonna get into what exactly biodiversity is and what it looks like here in the British isles.

00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:24.000
So if we're going on a really strict scientific, ecological definition of biodiversity, all it is, all it represents is the sum total of all of the organisms where they're plants, animals, fungi bugs, birds, bees, tiny microbes in an area.

00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:29.000
That's it generally, in addition to the number of species in an area, we'll also look at how genetically diverse those are.

00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:38.000
Which we'll get into in a little bit, but also the variety of environments and ecosystems that are in that area.

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.000
Now, this may be a little bit technical, so I will break it down a bit.

00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:47.000
It's kind of a funny definition, because in some ways it's very technical and in other ways it's very simple.

00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.000
So first, as he called, just when we're looking at area.

00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:54.000
And we're looking at biodiversity. Really, it can be anywhere.

00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:58.000
So you could simply be looking at just the biodiversity of a town or city.

00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:14.000
You could be looking at a larger sort of county or island view like the Isle of Great Britain, which we'll be doing today, or, you know, even regions such as the British Isles in general, or even depending on the question that you're asking it could even be as broad as an entire

00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:27.000
continent could be looking at Europe, North America, South America, or even the entire globe, depending on the types of questions you're asking about biodiversity.

00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000
Now for the second part of that definition. When we get into species, this is one of those things where a simplest area sounds.

00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:41.000
Species is not terribly simple. If you ever want to rile up and excite and enrage a biologist ask them what a species is.

00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:49.000
It's actually kind of a bit bit fun, especially if multiple different kinds of biologists in a room you're in for a several hour long Debate.

00:03:49.000 --> 00:04:05.000
But generally, if you are asking an ecologist like myself, or someone who deals with living animals like full size organisms, planets, etc., they're going to say that a species is a group of organisms that can meet with one another and produce what are called viable fertile

00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.000
offspring that can reproduce themselves, so they have to be able to produce babies.

00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:17.000
They have to be able to produce offspring and their offspring have to be able to produce young offspring themselves.

00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:22.000
So usually, we're looking at species. It's that fertility bit that defines a species so sterile.

00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:32.000
Offspring don't count. So this is one of the reasons why mules so those those horse donkey hybrids sometimes see in like farms and whatnot.

00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.000
They're not considered their own species because they're sterile.

00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000
They can't they can't have their own babies.

00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:51.000
However different biologists do use different definitions of species so if you're talking to a paleontologist, for instance, if you find yourself at the natural History Museum, or like up at the National Museum up in Edinburgh.

00:04:51.000 --> 00:05:01.000
They look at bone structure, so what's called a morphological species concept don't worry about too much, but basically it's hard for them to be able to determine on extinct species.

00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:17.000
Who can mate with, who, if you talk to a geneticist, they have a completely definition, completely different definition so if you're talking with the call, just an environmental perspective, a group of individuals I can meet with one another and produce offspring.

00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:22.000
That's a species.

00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:36.000
And speaking of genetics and geneticists, not only ecologists are geneticists, but quite a few of them actually are and use genetic tools to try to answer questions about the environment and we're mainly to be able to look at the genetic diversity upstream so generally the

00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:41.000
more genetically diverse species is, the more stable it will be.

00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:54.000
We'll go into this in a bit more detail later, but generally the larger population, the more genetically diverse it is, the more stable the healthier it will be more able it will be to resist change.

00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.000
Again. We'll go into. Why, that's important. Later.

00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.000
And then finally, in addition to jeans ecologists are also interested in really large scales, such as entire ecosystems.

00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:10.000
The physical environments that the species live in themselves so ecosystems.

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:22.000
These are going to represent all of the biological, but also all those physical earth elements in a defined area and they're also connected to other ecosystems.

00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:29.000
So the nutrients, for instance, in the hills up here in this photo of Cumbria, are eventually going to flow down to the fields.

00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:30.000
So ecosystems do not exist in isolation.

00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:42.000
They're all connected to one another. There's animals and plants and nutrients and water flowing in between them all.

00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:50.000
So, for instance, in this photo here from the aisle sky, there are several different ecosystems within this landscape, so in the distance we have several lake ecosystems.

00:06:50.000 --> 00:07:00.000
Those are going to be separate, but still having inputs and outputs to the fields that you see closer to the foreground, but also the hills and the mountains that you have there as well.

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.000
And again, even though these would be considered sort of separate ecosystems.

00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:19.000
The way we sort of classify them out. They are connected to one another so the nutrients and the soil they're going to weather out of the mountains and the hills flow down into the valleys and fields, and then these nutrients will eventually end up in lakes and

00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:23.000
streams, and eventually flowing out to the ocean, and then, meanwhile, animals, especially are going to be moving in between them, in and out.

00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:35.000
I've even heard even things that you think would move between ecosystems such as fish and things like plank zooplankton things like that.

00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:41.000
They actually do. So lots of lots of movement all about in this.

00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:42.000
So knowing that, how do we actually get down and measure biodiversity?

00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:48.000
It's the sort of 2 ways to do it. One is to simply sit down and just count the species.

00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.000
This can be like the variations of genes as well.

00:07:49.000 --> 00:08:04.000
So, looking at the different, you know the amount of variability in those species, or also just the sheer number of ecosystems in a landscape.

00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.000
The other way is to number 2, not number one, but they're both important.

00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:18.000
Is that also compare how common, or also how rare species or genes or ecosystems are in a landscape.

00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000
So we'll go kind of break these down into more detail.

00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:31.000
So, while simply counting the number of species in the landscape, sounds pretty easy, like asking a biologist what a species is.

00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:46.000
It's actually really difficult. And even though this is something we've been working at since the mid eighteenth century in a really strict, formal academic capacity and working on it for many millennia before that we still don't we still haven't identified every species.

00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.000
on the planet. We've only currently counted a.

00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:54.000
It's believed that we've counted 1.3 million different species so far, which sounds like a lot.

00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:00.000
But scientists have sat down and tried to estimate how many species are actually should be given.

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:07.000
The amount that we already know and that values closer to 1.8 sorry 8.7 million.

00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:14.000
So so far we've only we've described less than 20% of the species on the planet.

00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:29.000
Now, there's a couple reasons for that. But even given the crazy genetic tools we can use, and all sorts of, you know, computer insistence that we have now and promote sensing using satellites to take photos of the Earth, there's still a lot of ecosystems that we

00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:40.000
just haven't been able to look at yet. Things like the deep oceans, things like thermal events, especially down in the deep oceans that are just incredibly hard to reach.

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:47.000
It actually is true. We know more about the service of the moon than we do about the deep ocean here on earth.

00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:53.000
There's some other reasons as well. A lot of species are considered inconspicuous. Things like soil.

00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000
Microbes, and you know certain different types of insects there's just not that big.

00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:59.000
So we're really good at counting, you know.

00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:07.000
Birds, mammals, nice, large, what we call megafauna.

00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:10.000
Some of the little critters get left behind and forgotten about.

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.000
So, for instance, this little photo here on the top right.

00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:17.000
This is a photo of a pseudo scorpion what's called a soil. Arthropod.

00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:27.000
These guys live in soil. I've got one estimate that there may be up to 20 million species of little arthropods living in soil alone.

00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:28.000
Again. We haven't counted them all, but they guess that there should be a about 20 million of them.

00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:36.000
So, there are lots of scientists with lots of work ahead of them.

00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:44.000
Another issue is that sometimes, again, because species concepts are kind of fuzzy, and scientists fight about them a lot.

00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:45.000
It's actually hard to identify all of these different species.

00:10:45.000 --> 00:11:02.000
It's really difficult with the smaller in animal or plant or organism is, but it still occurs with large ones and this is when we have to start using genetic methods and really start to get into the nitty gritty the photo here that I have at the bottom are of different

00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:17.000
species of gulper shark, which are genetically different, do not interbreed, but if you pulled one out of the water you'd be a bit hard-pressed to sort of compare them and we have a lot of issues sometimes trying to look at you know, is just because something's

00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:19.000
a different colour. Does that mean? It's a different species.

00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:23.000
And sometimes species look really similar, but they don't, interbreed.

00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:29.000
So it is just very muddy and very messy.

00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:36.000
Another way, in addition to just simply counting the species, we can also compare how rare or how common species are.

00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:40.000
So just today's example here, this is sort of in your heads.

00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:52.000
Take a look at these 2 forest diagrams that I have here so both of these diagrams have 4 species of tree, and of course which I'll pose to you, and I post to my students.

00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000
Is, it should be okay. When you look at it and makes sense.

00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:07.000
But the reason why is a bit interesting is which one do you think is more diverse? So if I were to ask you which of these 2 forests would you say, is a more diverse forest which one would you pick?

00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:19.000
And the answer is, and the most likely the one that you selected is the first one, and the reason why is because the species what's called the distribution.

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:28.000
So the sort of the number of individuals in each species is more even so this community this ecosystem, isn't.

00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000
Is it really dominated by one super common species?

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:36.000
And then a bunch of really rare ones. There's you know, there's a couple individuals.

00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000
There's probably a 4 or 5 of each tree species there.

00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000
Because of this. This means that it's more even, which means it's more diverse overall.

00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:50.000
So, even though you could have an ecosystem, you could have an environment that has 4 species.

00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.000
If most of the trees in that forest are only comprised of one species, they're all the same.

00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:00.000
It's actually, not really that diverse.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:14.000
Now there's some portions of the world, and some portions of the UK that have a specially high biodiversity, and these are called biodiversity Hotspots and generally they're also if a region or an area has been identified as a

00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:20.000
biodiversity hotspot it usually is also being threatened by human activity.

00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.000
So official biodiversity hotspots here in the UK.

00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:32.000
This they're actually protected by the government. A great example of that, and I'll show you a few more in a couple of slides are the kelp forests off the coast of the UK.

00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.000
Most of the biodiversity hotspots here in Britain are actually marine.

00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:44.000
We're actually in our oceans, though there are some on land as well as you'll see.

00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:53.000
So now that that was basically it I've given you sort of a 10 min crash course in ecology and that you're now all budding ecologists.

00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:59.000
Let's take a look at what biodiversity actually looks like here in the British Isles.

00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:00.000
So generally when people think of Britain, I would be probably hard pressed if you asked people about the Uk.

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:11.000
Abroad, it's not generally thought of as being in having a really high biodiversity.

00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.000
Now, there's a couple reasons for that, and it doesn't all have to do with humans.

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:17.000
Part of it is that there is lots of development in that.

00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:24.000
It is just an area that has been sort of developed and urbanised for an incredibly long period of time.

00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.000
But that's that's not the only reason.

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:36.000
Yes, it does have a high population. Density. Yes, there's been really, reasonably large cities here for quite a long time.

00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:41.000
It also has to do with the fact that we're just simply closer to the poll, to the North Pole.

00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:59.000
In this case down to the equator. So overall. If you look at all of the ecosystems across the whole planet, biodiversity is always going to be greater at the equator then is farther away at the than from the equator, so the equator, the equatorial regions those warmer regions are

00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.000
always going to have higher biodiversity than the more polar ones, the ones more north and South.

00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:10.000
From there. The other reason is, it's an island so islands, especially smaller islands.

00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:16.000
We're kind of reasonably sized island, but generally you're going to have lower biodiversity that say a continent.

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:33.000
And this is just a square meter in issue. The larger area of land, the more species it can hold, the greater biodiversity can hold, and you can compare that to smaller regions. Smaller islands have fewer species. They're less diverse.

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:40.000
Now that said, there are lots of areas of high biodiversity here in Britain.

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:45.000
Again. People don't you don't really hear about people going on holiday for the wildlife here, and that isn't just to say that this isn't something we should work on.

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:51.000
But there are some incredibly internationally important areas here.

00:15:51.000 --> 00:16:00.000
I could go on and spend entire lecture just in talk, just going over to all these different areas but I've selected just a couple here to go over as examples.

00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:15.000
First one up. St Kilda. Up in Scotland, in the Outer Hebrides is considered a biodiversity hotspot, mainly because it has absolutely massive seabird colonies that are vitally important globally the colonies of Gannets

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.000
Atlantic Puffins, Leaches Petrels, Fulmars

00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:28.000
it'll also has species of wren, and actually species of mice of all things that are genetically unique to the island so if you're going up to St.

00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:36.000
Kilda, and you're looking at. You have a a mouse in your house that's actually a different species of mouse than you would find here in London and elsewhere.

00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:51.000
And so St Kilda is an interesting one where the sheer number of species that are found there is not crazy high, the ones that are found there, though, are just so vitally important to us that it is considered a biodiversity hotspot it's they're incredibly unique.

00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:02.000
And it's just these are sort of globally important breeding grounds for a lot of these bird species. And a lot of these massive, these seabird colonies.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:09.000
Another example, looking more mainland is the Braunton Burrows down in North Devon, it's a sand dune system.

00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:15.000
It's actually a UNESCO. So it's been recognized by the United Nations as a vitally important habitat.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:23.000
It's considered a biosphere reserve. And this is mainly because it has really for Britain has a very, very high plant biodiversity.

00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:26.000
So the types of plants and wildflowers that you find in brown burrows are much higher than phone elsewhere.

00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:44.000
Here, and there's also very rare plants there as well, which also tracked lots of butterflies, which generally are having a tough time in Britain at the moment the Water Germander, which is the lovely little flower shown here, is only found at a couple sites naturally in the UK one of which

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.000
is brought, and boroughs it's found in gardens, and it's been cultivated.

00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:58.000
But if you're looking for in its natural habitat from Braunton Burrows is one of the places to go it's also protected, because it's a very delicate site.

00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:04.000
So it has a lot of erosion which, funny enough, was due to military training during the Second World War.

00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:15.000
After which we planted a lot of non-native species to help stabilise the soils, but also introduce lots of species that were not native to Britain.

00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:26.000
Which has made it really tough for these really delicate native species, such as the water grammar, to maintain.

00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:34.000
2 more examples here, one up the coast up in Norfolk, actually from Blakeney to Brancaster coast is incredibly important.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.000
One for turn, nesting but one species that's probably a little bit more charismatic, and people find a little bit more fun.

00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:49.000
Are the showstoppers, the large Grey Seal colonies that are found there and this region of Britain, it's considered it has really actually high, quite high biodiversity for Britain, and also in at the same time also has really rare species.

00:18:49.000 --> 00:19:01.000
So kind of similar to brown burrows in that regard versus you can compare that to St.

00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:09.000
Kilda, which has a ton of species, but the ones that are there are super important.

00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:23.000
And finally a bit of a fun one off the coast of Northern Ireland is Rathlin Island, which is really exciting, not just because of the rare plants that are found there in the bird biodiversity, but more so even for the animals that are found underwater.

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:29.000
We have lots of Nudibranchs and Sea Anemonies which honestly are the things that most folks would associate with the tropics.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.000
But are growing at high abundance, and are doing quite well off the coast of Ireland.

00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:43.000
So if anyone is into scuba, I'm more of a snorkel person myself, though, but if you go off the coast of Rathlin Island, you can find some really exciting animals there again.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:50.000
Things that you usually would see more commonly associated with the tropics up here in the North.

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.000
So why does Britain have these biodiversity hotspots?

00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:59.000
Why has? Why have scientists like me lobbied government to protect these areas?

00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:09.000
And the sad reason is. And the reason you probably already know is because biodiversity is decreasing, not just here in Britain, but all across the world.

00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:11.000
Scientists. We've estimated that by default diversity has decreased rapidly since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:20.000
And that's been the real demarcation here.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.000
The graphs that I have here. I hope they're visible enough for you guys.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:32.000
Show 2 estimates of extinction rates, since about 1,500.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:47.000
So we have on the left. What is a highly conservative estimate which is considered sort of the best case scenario that we that we can have, and on the right the conservative estimate, which is the one that's more likely to occur and the dotted black line that you see sort of

00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:56.000
down there at the bottom. That says background. These are background extinction rates, 's the normal amount of extinction that should be occurring just due to natural evolution.

00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:05.000
So species go extinct, naturally, there's always like sort of this background rate of meaning species coming about, other ones going extinct.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:11.000
It's when the extinction rates are above that that we should start to get a bit worried.

00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:16.000
Also note when you're looking at these 2 graphs, the scale bars on the Y axis are a bit different.

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:36.000
So the highly conservative estimates. It's found that about one to 1.5% of species have gone extinct in the last few couple 100 years versus the conservative estimate which depicts a range closer to 1.5 to 2% of species are have been going extinct as

00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:44.000
of late.

00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:56.000
So because of this, starting in the twentieth century, do, we've had internationally, but also sort of more within Europe, you know, on a continent scale.

00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:02.000
Here in Europe, and also nationally, we've had come up with what are called Red List species.

00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:12.000
And these are lists of species that are either at risk of extinction for various reasons and sort of ranking them as how likely they're going to go extinct.

00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.000
And these are terms you've likely heard before. If you've read news articles.

00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:20.000
About things like giant pandas, or you know, and other species orangutans that are at risk.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:26.000
And these lists internationally are managed by a group that's called the IUCN.

00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:41.000
This is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and these lists are also set regionally and sort of nationally as well, and you are gonna have some species that may be at risk at a national level.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:48.000
That are fine internationally, an example of this in Britain is it's a bird called the Corn Crake.

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.000
You've heard them before. They're a priority sort.

00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:59.000
Of. They're a, you know, at risk species here in Britain, because they're populations are really small, and its habitat range is really is very limited.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:04.000
I think, off the top of my head. I believe it's not Northern Ireland, but globally.

00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.000
They're actually doing. Okay. They have massive populations in Russia.

00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:15.000
So the species as a whole is doing. Ok, it's just that the species here in Britain is a bit at risk.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:21.000
So these, the categories are the least at threat.

00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:26.000
So you have first species of least concern. They're doing totally fine.

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.000
We have species that are near threatened. They just simply mean that they they're sensitive to human activities.

00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:38.000
Their populations are starting to go down, but otherwise they're doing okay.

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:45.000
We have vulnerable species. So these are species that are likely to become endangered if human activity continues as normal, and endangered species.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:54.000
And this is a term you probably definitely have heard before. So these are species that are at risk of extirpation or extinction.

00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:04.000
And extirpation simply means a localised extinction. So if a species goes extinct here in Britain, but not elsewhere, it's considered extirpated.

00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000
It's been sort of driven off the island and have examples of these in a moment.

00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.000
So extirpation, more local extinction is global.

00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:16.000
So we've gotten critically endangered species.

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:21.000
These are the ones that are at immediate risk for extirpation or extinction.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:35.000
These may even be ones that are sometimes considered functionally extinct in that they may only exist in zoos, or maybe there aren't enough males and females, or one sex or the other, to really have a nice viable healthy population, and produce lots of offspring.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:40.000
If you think back I think it's the black, the black rhino, or the white rhinos population in Africa.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:58.000
Kind of got to the point where there were several females, but only one male left so kind of functionally extinct, and then, finally, the simplest one, and the saddest one, which is just extinction, which means that the species no longer exists anywhere in the world.

00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000
So are some examples of this here in Britain. Examples of different species from all these different levels, something that's going to be least concern are going to be.

00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:11.000
Things are just incredibly common. They give, you know, the European Robin any you know.

00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Species such as that there! There's loads of them in our gardens, but if we start to look at some of the near-threatened species, a good example of this are Leisler's Bat.

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:38.000
These are a little insectivorous bats, in that they eat insects which is actually the reason why they're in decline here in England and Wales, although they are actually doing okay on in Ireland, due to a loss of a lot of large insects here in

00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:44.000
Britain, due to development, lots of wetlands and areas that insects generally grow in and live in because we've lost those insects.

00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:49.000
And we also because we've lost a lot of forestry forests in woodland habitat.

00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:57.000
That's such as Leisler's Bat is, doing quite poorly at the moment their populations are starting to go down there.

00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:07.000
The species in particular, as well as really sensitive to some of the chemicals that we use to treat wood and things like decks and sort of back patios, and those sorts of things.

00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:11.000
So they're doing basically, they're doing poorly.

00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:15.000
And their populations are starting to go down.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.000
A species that is starting to go down and continue to get worse.

00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:30.000
If we continue business as normal is the brown hair streak, and these ones are this butterflies mostly declining because of a loss of hedgerows here in Britain.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:46.000
So instead of the traditional hedgerows we use as fence lines, and in between fields and along roads, we've been using fences instead and brown hair streaks have declined drastically because they use blackthorn to lay their eggs in they exclusively lay their

00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:53.000
eggs in blackthorn and blackthorn makes a great hedgerow, so it would generally be as the decline.

00:26:53.000 --> 00:27:01.000
In hedgerow, we seen a decline in black thrown across Britain, and as such a decline in brown hair streaks as well which is really highlights.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:06.000
One of the reasons why hedgerow conservation is incredibly important here in Britain.

00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:17.000
There's a lot of species, brown hair streaks or hedgehogs that really use hedgerows and heavily adapted to that type of environment to live in.

00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:26.000
A species that's endangered here in the UK, due to habitat loss, but also due to predation by other birds that are thriving due to humans.

00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:38.000
But are of least concern globally, are willow tits, and this kind of shows the interesting one to show that there are some winners and some losers when it comes to human development.

00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:56.000
Peregrine falcons, for instance, are doing incredibly well lately, because, instead of nesting in high trees and cliffs like, they would historically, they're now nesting on tall buildings so if you're a perigrine falcon there's more and more habitat being developed as

00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:13.000
we build more and more tall buildings and towers. The problem is, though, if you have lots and increase in the number of predators in a system, you start to have a decrease in the number of prey, and a lot of bird prey are predator birds eat tits, especially willow tits so their populations.

00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:18.000
Are decreasing quite drastically, I have an estimate here that their population is decreased.

00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:24.000
64% in the last 10 years, just quite dramatic, so will it turn endangered here in Britain.

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:30.000
They're doing okay, globally, though.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:36.000
And finally, what I think is one of the more exciting species on this list, although it's they're critically endangered.

00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:45.000
Are the Scottish wild cats. I have a link here, and it is in the list of resources I have available at the end of this good.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:50.000
There's a great. There's great documentary on groups trying to save the Scottish wildcat.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:29:00.000
And one of the reasons why Scottish wildcats are doing so poorly is because, as you can tell by this photo, they look incredibly similar to a domestic tabby cat which is part of the problem.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:06.000
They keep being treated as if they are feral cats being removed, except they're not.

00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:14.000
They're wild cats, they will attack you. These guys they're subspecies of the European wildcat.

00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:22.000
They can interbreed with domestic cats, so you can end up with hybrids, but they are wild, they are native, they are the largest predator here in the UK.

00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:30.000
So keep an eye out for them. There are. There's a few different features.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.000
If you're interested, I can show some photos later.

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:40.000
If these guys have kind of more square heads compared to a domestic cat, and they're also a bit more stocky and generally not too keen on humans.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:51.000
If you call one over it will definitely run away, and then finally, an example of a species that's been extirpated here in Britain, which means it's been.

00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:54.000
It's extinct in Britain, though it does.

00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:58.000
It is living elsewhere? As the Eurasian wolf, so canis lupus lupus.

00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:05.000
I have here that they wolves were hunted out of Wales, and 1166.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:17.000
The last ones were hunted out of England in 1390, Scotland they survived until 1680, and then the last ones in Ireland actually lasted until 1786.

00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:24.000
So this is a species that's been extirpated for quite a while. The obvious reason that people are generally concerned about them with farm animals, although they're still common in Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia.

00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:34.000
So the population is doing okay globally. I know.

00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:48.000
And and issuing to talk more in the. And when we get to questions and discussion at the end, I know there's lots of discussion about whether or not to bring wolves back, whether or not they should be reintroduced in Scotland, lots of pros and cons associated with that so we can be able to talk more

00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:53.000
about that kind of an interesting topic.

00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:00.000
So? Why is Bio diversity decreasing? Why do we have so many of these endangered, critically endangered and near-threatened species?

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:09.000
A couple of reasons. One of the largest is just habitat alteration, so mostly caused by clearing land for us, and it's not just forests.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:22.000
All ecosystems being converted into agriculture, which really does highlight a need to figure out how to grow food more efficiently than we do currently to keep up with our large growing population.

00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:31.000
And sort of a way to think about. It is land and land available for agriculture in a lot of ways is a non renewable resource.

00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:34.000
It's limited. There's only so much of it out there.

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.000
I have one stat here that at least in the United States, that 99% of all of the grassland prairie in the US.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.000
Has been converted into agricultural fields.

00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:49.000
So we've the us at least has lost 99% of all of its prairie.

00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:52.000
The statistics are much lower here in Britain, but it is kind of brings up.

00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:00.000
The question should be be using all of our land to grow food. Is there a way to do it a bit more efficiently?

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:06.000
A lot of species are also having issues because they're having to face competition with non-native species.

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:22.000
Species, such as grey squirrels, which one are ones that, like a lot of people, are familiar with other ones, though such as the Egyptian goose, which was introduced in the eighteenth century, the Chinese muntjac deer, which was introduced in the twentieth century

00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:34.000
and the Chinese mitten crab, which is also introduced in the but the nineteenth century, though it was started to use, even be found in the Thames in the twentieth century.

00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:37.000
Most of these non native species come to Northern Europe through by way of transit and trade.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:44.000
Sometimes they come in the ballast water of ships, other times they can be escapees from food, food, shipments.

00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:57.000
You have insects that can bore themselves until lumber that's being imported from abroad, or quite a few of them, as most the ones here that I've shown you are.

00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:12.000
We're brought here on purpose. Grey squirrels, for instance, were brought over from North America because it was considered fashionable to have on a States, and as we know, they've really displaced a lot of the Native Red squirrels who are now only found in Scotland same goes for

00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:18.000
the muntjac deer originally brought here for hunts, but now are running rampant.

00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:26.000
Don't really have native predators. They're eating lots of bark off of developing trees, which is really destroying forests across Britain.

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:31.000
So really troublesome species.

00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Pollution is also a large issue. One. It's really a tremendous issue, especially in aquatic environments, because species that live in water are just more sensitive to pollutants cause it's surrounding them at all times versus skin and membranes.

00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:51.000
What not on land offer a bit more protection this is one of the reasons why you may hear of. You know.

00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:58.000
Frogs, for instance, and other amphibians, as being the sort of canary in the coal mines.

00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:04.000
For pollution, examples of pollution impacting the environment.

00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.000
If you think back to the 1960 s. Seventies, DDT.

00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:17.000
Which was used to kill off mosquitoes cause thinning, and eggshells in birds, which cause massive crashes and bird populations across the globe.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:27.000
Things like nutrient pollution, so runoff from farms, causing algal blooms which can increase snails, which then increases parasites which then impacts frogs.

00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:36.000
It's another example of how everyone in the ecosystem is connected. And all of these inputs and outputs.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.000
2 more reasons before we start to get into why biodiversity is important.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.000
Another reason why it's decreasing, though, is over harvesting.

00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:47.000
We're great at eating things to extinction.

00:34:47.000 --> 00:35:05.000
Fabulous at it. Shark fins from shark fin soup to, you know, tigers, skins, and body parts being used to, especially the black rhino, and also the white rhino we're really good at killing off things to eat them and to use their body parts this is

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:21.000
a tremendous issue, especially in a lot of tropical regions as well, and it's also a global issue, because a lot of times the markets for these animal products are not the countries and not the regions where they're being collected from so for instance, in the white rhino poaching market

00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:33.000
rhinos are being harvested from, you know, a lot of African nations Mozambique, South Africa, and then being sold on to other destinations abroad.

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:44.000
So it's there's some interesting economics associated with this burning need, like global legislation, to really tackle these issues and to go after the buyers, not just the hunters.

00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.000
That said one of the solutions to this, especially when it comes to the non-native species.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.000
It's trying to encourage people to actually eat the non-native species.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:05.000
There's a very large push in North America, for instance, to try to encourage people to eat Asian carp, which is an introduced fish species, which is a really common food fish in each East Asia but it's considered a nuisance in North America.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:14.000
Trying to increase that. So over harvesting, it's a curse, but it could potentially be a tool to manage non-native species.

00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:21.000
And then finally the large overarching issue that we're all dealing with, not just about biodiversity, but with all environmental issues.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:27.000
Really is climate change. Some species can adapt to climate change.

00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:33.000
The problem is climate change currently is occurring faster than normal background rates.

00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:52.000
So normally, when you have things like the melting of the ice caps and sort of more natural or glacial areas and non-glacials, and the sort of natural cycles species do adapt to that, because those changes are really slow and drawn out the problem is with human caused

00:36:52.000 --> 00:37:00.000
climate change. It's just happening incredibly fast. And organisms they can try to migrate into cooler areas, into areas that suit them. Still.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:11.000
But they just can't keep up tree species, for instance, need millennia to move farther north and south, and to stay in their ideal conditions.

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:12.000
But instead, we are seeing climate change on the course of centuries, if not decades.

00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:19.000
So they just can't keep up.

00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:25.000
So that's a lot of bad news uplifting thing to hear on a Thursday afternoon.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:37.000
But I do have a few reasons why we should value biodiversity, which also highlight tools that we can use to try to encourage people to follow by a diversity more and work harder at trying to protect it.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:44.000
So why is biodiversity important? The first reason is something that is called the insurance Hypothesis.

00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:56.000
So generally diverse communities, diverse ecosystems, areas with really high biodiversity are just more stable and a great way to show you this is this little diagram that I have here.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:00.000
So take, for example, we had 3 different islands for 3 different communities.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:08.000
Whichever works better in your head, one is gonna be dominated just by a green species, and this one does really well in warm weather.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.000
The second one is gonna be dominated by a blue species.

00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:19.000
This one does really well in cold weather, and the finally, there's a third area that has both the blue-green blue species and a green species.

00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:29.000
So the warm one and the cooler one. So when you have changes in climate like we're seeing now your warm years, cold years, things crashing up and down quite rapidly.

00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:34.000
If you have an island where only the speed where that only has warm, adapted species.

00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:38.000
If you have a cold snap, so just, you know, here in the year 3.

00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:40.000
Okay, a lot of individuals will die off because of that. You can end up with a lot of empty niches.

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:58.000
That's a lot of empty space and ecosystem, that's not quite functioning the way it should be and the same goes for if you have, say, a blue community that's only dominated by species that grow really well in cold climates if you have a heat, wave it may go in there

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:06.000
kill out half the species and you end up with like a kind of a dysfunctional non working ecosystem.

00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:15.000
If, instead, you have a diverse community that has both, you know, green species, blue species, orange purple, red, etcetera, that are all adapted to different environments.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:21.000
That community that island, that forest, for instance, can deal with whatever is thrown at it.

00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:22.000
So if you have a heat wave, sure you may lose some of the blue species, but the green ones grow better.

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:29.000
We'll sort of fill up those gaps and say, if you have a cold snap of cold, a frost.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:43.000
That's a bit early. Lot of the green individuals die off. The blue can kinda come in there and sort of fill the gaps that'd be left behind.

00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:48.000
So, that's a bit of a it's sort of an abstract example of that.

00:39:48.000 --> 00:40:05.000
But I have a really great example of that in action here in London last year, during the 2020 drought, so I've got photos here from friends here in London the first one on the left is of Greenwich Park and then on the right is State Hill Ecological Park, so Greenwich Park if you've been there

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:06.000
before it's just. It's a monoculture.

00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:14.000
It's your traditional sort of Grass Park, if you you know token trees out and about but it's a monoculture.

00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:21.000
It only really contains one or 2 species, and, as you can see here during that heat wave, it died out.

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:26.000
It was very dead. It was crispy. There incredibly lots and lots of bare patches really.

00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:32.000
Wasn't that functional? And he can compare that to something like the State Hill Ecological Park, which is only half hour.

00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:36.000
Bus ride away quite close by on the Rotherhithe Peninsula.

00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:53.000
Here in London, and it has a lot of maintained wildflower meadows that are sort of taken care of to promote diversity and a lot of natural wildfire species that are native here to Britain, and even though there's a heat wave a lot of them, are still green it's a bit hard to

00:40:53.000 --> 00:41:04.000
tell them the photos a bit artistic, but we still had wildflowers that were growing well, and because there were some species there that could cope with that heat wave, even though not all of them could.

00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:07.000
It was still functional. There were still, you know, more birds in the one shown here in their eating.

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:16.000
There were still butterflies. The bees were still being able to get some food wasn't great, but it was still functional.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:29.000
Then, because it was maintained for biodiversity, it just maintained a much more functional ecosystem than something like maintained monoculture like Greenwich Park.

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:34.000
Another reason why biodiversity is important has to do with something that are called ecosystem services.

00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.000
So these are the way. Think about ecosystem services is these are jobs that the environment does for us.

00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:47.000
And these jobs are really only maintained and continued through high biodiversity.

00:41:47.000 --> 00:42:02.000
So where's ecosystem functions are sort of the scientific thing, like the nitty gritty bits of how ecosystems work the things that scientists like myself study ecosystems goods and services are the benefits that people that we

00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:07.000
derive from these ecosystems. In these can be direct, they can be indirect, but they help us.

00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:12.000
They're basically jobs that the environment is doing for us for free.

00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:16.000
This may seem a bit confusing, so I have some examples that make it a lot clearer.

00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:21.000
So generally when we talk about ecosystems, they're usually broken down into 4 subcategories.

00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:26.000
So there's provisioning ones. The regulating services, cultural services.

00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:30.000
And then finally supporting services.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:39.000
Provisioning services are just things that the environment, that healthy diverse ecosystems provide for us, for free in a lot of ways.

00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:44.000
Think about food, sunlight for energy, the fact that we have water minerals that we can use for all sorts of things, or even just, you know, medicinal compounds.

00:42:44.000 --> 00:43:03.000
You know everything from enzymes that people with digestive issues use to antibiotics, to, you know, aspirin from willow a lot of the compounds that we now can synthesize to make medicines originate in the natural world.

00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:12.000
Were discovered in plants and animals, and you know other places.

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:23.000
The regulating ecosystem services. These are gonna be ones that help maintain our environment, keep it functioning things like decomposition some of the reasons why we're not up to our ears.

00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:30.000
And you know, dead animal material, water, purification is a really big one.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:36.000
CO2, sequestration, pest control, a really big one is flood prevention.

00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:50.000
Wetlands and across the globe do a lot of heavy lifting at preventing floods, and when we start to develop over and pave over and build over our wetlands that's when we start to have an increase in floods because we're removing that sort of sponge from

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:56.000
the environment that helps prevent these floods from happening. In the first place.

00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:04.000
There are cultural ecosystem services, these are the sort of non material benefits that we get that enriched human experience.

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:13.000
Things like recreation, arts, education from the environment, even just like a spiritual sense, just being able to go out and just enjoy the environment.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:20.000
These are all services that healthy, diverse ecosystems provide for us.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:30.000
And finally, we have. What are the supporting services, and these are just the source, the services, the processes that healthy, diverse ecosystems provide us, that help maintain life on this planet.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:44.000
Again, decomposition is considered one, but also soil formation that we can grow food and soil, that in that that's soil will be regenerated or just photosynthesis.

00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:45.000
And another way to think about it is ecosystem.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:48.000
Services are all those things that the earth takes care of for us, but things we don't even have to think about while we're living on Earth.

00:44:48.000 --> 00:45:09.000
But are going to require a massive team of engineers, and you know, decades worth of development, and millions, if not billions of pounds to develop, to take, to save space the things that we don't have to worry about here, but on say, the artemis moon mission we're gonna have to develop ways to process

00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:22.000
our water to grow, our food to, you know, scrub our air, to get the carbon dioxide out of it, and maintain high levels of oxygen so all the things we don't have to think about here.

00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:26.000
Oh, require an entire team of engineers to work on in space.

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:31.000
Those are the ecosystem services.

00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:36.000
And finally, the last reason, real big reason why we should care about biodiversity.

00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:43.000
We like it. Humans like being outside these.

00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:48.000
You may have heard of the famous ecologist EO Wilson. I'm not seeing on some documentaries.

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:57.000
He developed an idea called biophilia, which states that humans, we subconsciously seek out nature we'd like to be around other life.

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:02.000
And his evidence for this that he provided is, you know, we've created parks.

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:04.000
We have pets. We keep animals in our homes.

00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:10.000
We value real estate, that have beautiful views. We go hiking and tied to.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:26.000
This is an idea, a bit controversial, but it's an idea called nature deficit disorder, which is developed by a by someone named Richard Louv, where the idea that if you have children who are deprived of nature and connection to other species that you may actually these kids may

00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:30.000
actually end up with emotional and physical problems because of that.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:35.000
And he actually argues that some of the problems that may be plaguing us here in a lot of developed Western countries.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:37.000
You know things like obesity. ADHD. Depression.

00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:41.000
Myopia may be, I would argue strongly that are not caused by, but maybe definitely made worse by a lack of time in the environment.

00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:50.000
But there is lots of debate around this. I do recommend checking out his book, though.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:56.000
At least for the debate purposes.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:59.000
If I had to wrap up my last slide before we get to questions.

00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:09.000
Here is just the idea that you know. Do we have an ethical responsibility towards other species to help maintain these healthy, you know, maintain high levels of biodiversity.

00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:13.000
And really, this is up to philosophical debate.

00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:16.000
I would argue, so personally, I think we do have an obligation to care for them.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:25.000
But this could lead to an incredibly long philosophical, and even theological debate, and just 2 sides of this, that you will see around in this debates.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:41.000
You have something like the writer, like Aldo Leopold who stayed in his book, sent called The County Almanac. If you haven't read his lovely but the last word of ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, what good is, it and he can contrast that to the

00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:50.000
former president of the US. Ronald Reagan he said. Quote, if I mean, if you've looked at a hundred 1,000 acres of or so of trees, you know a tree is a tree, how much more do you need?

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:53.000
So there is ignorance out there, and it is something we need to work out.

00:47:53.000 --> 00:48:00.000
But I think this idea of using this idea of ecosystem services as a jumping off point shows to people who even intrinsically made.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.000
You know, not necessarily value diversity may show them reasons why.

00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:13.000
I'm sure to lift the veil on that. And with that I believe I've got about 10 min for questions, if not a bit more.

00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:17.000
I don't mind staying a little bit after. Thank you for that.

00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:18.000
Do let me know if you have any questions about the content.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:29.000
Many questions about the ideas. If you'd like to follow up, I will be teaching some my quick plug before Fiona jumps in here is that I will be.

00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:30.000
I should be teaching some courses in the fall on green issues.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:37.000
So if you do want to drop in on those, I can let you know, but otherwise thank you very much.

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:41.000
And I'll turn it over to Fiona with questions.

00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:46.000
Thanks thanks very much, Audrey. That's really really interesting and really important stuff, isn't it?

00:48:46.000 --> 00:49:00.000
Okay, so we've got a question here. And I think if everybody's been absolutely riveted by what you've been saying I've got a question here from Liz she's saying, and I'm sure there is no silver bullet to increase biodiversity.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:05.000
But what measures should we prioritize the protection of habitats rewilding our gardens?

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:11.000
Improving farming methods. Introduction of species, such as Beavers.

00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:20.000
I think, protecting what we have in the first place, is a real big one, cause it's it takes more effort to replace something that's gone than it is to just protect stuff.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:37.000
In the first place. So if we can try to protect the areas of Britain that are still wild, that would be my first step would be make sure that those are rock solid, safe, or protected from development from there, you can start to expand out and sort of look at the nearby areas because one of the funny, things about

00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:40.000
biodiversity is biodiversity. You get the best results when areas are connected to one another, and you end up with a big, long network.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:52.000
So one of the reasons why, even here in London and other cities, all those little pocket parks that they have, they're nice, but they don't really work that.

00:49:52.000 --> 00:50:10.000
Well, you need sort of interconnected spaces. So once you really really locked down the conservation of the areas that we already have, then look at the surrounding areas and see how you can increase the functionality there and sort of go outwards from there and also in by protecting the areas

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:16.000
we have. I think this really is gonna have to lead to things like more intense development in areas that are already developed.

00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:23.000
So just trying to avoid developing on land that's already or to avoid developing on land that has not been developed before.

00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:25.000
So if it's it's gonna sound kind of terrible.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:31.000
But it's already been spoilt. Focus on that. Just try to keep the wild areas still wild.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:38.000
Above all else, that would be my first first task if given the ability to come up with policy.

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:43.000
I suppose that the rewilding thing it's quite controversial, isn't it?

00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:47.000
It is, and and I see it's one of those things where I understand.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:51.000
I have empathy for both sides of the issue, and rewilding can work.

00:50:51.000 --> 00:50:58.000
It depends on the way it's done, and it really needs to be used sort of like with that scientific lens.

00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:59.000
Looking at that functionality and really targeting. Okay, why are we?

00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:05.000
Why are we rewilding? What areas are we doing this in?

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.000
Is this the best place for it, etc.

00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:10.000
Yeah.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:15.000
Hmm! This may be links into question. It's just actually come in from Carolyn, this kind of related to what you put you've just been saying.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:22.000
She's asking would you be able to summarize the benefits or otherwise of reintroducing lynx or wolves to the UK.

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:27.000
And has Europe had any problems with the increase in these species?

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:28.000
We thought so on that.

00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:30.000
I told them the examples. And yeah, so the reason?

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:33.000
And there's a really good I'll send it after.

00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:39.000
There's a really good video that explains this better than I can in a minute or 2.

00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:46.000
But wolves, and these other links in these big top predators they're called something. There's something called keystone species.

00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:49.000
And these are species that you don't need a lot of them.

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:53.000
But you just need a couple because they're really, really important to that system.

00:51:53.000 --> 00:52:02.000
And what they've found is, if you can reintroduce wolves or lynx, or other predators, they'll help decrease the number of prey and animals in an area.

00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:08.000
So the number of deer, for instance, which is great because deer are actually really terrible for forests.

00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:09.000
Yeah.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:14.000
They eat bark, they eat little young trees, and they can really really impact forests.

00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:19.000
So if you decrease the number of deer back to sort of traditional levels.

00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:30.000
You then will have healthier forests, and when you have healthier forests, that's when you start to see the birds are going to come back the bees are going to come back beavers actually come back, they found this in the US.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:45.000
When they reintroduced wolves, at the number of beavers they found increased quite drastically, because they had healthier forests and they're able to build up dams again, and whatnot, and it doesn't take a lot that's the thing it only takes a few and I

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:50.000
know, there's issues surrounding agriculture, and especially with farm animals and people being concerned.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.000
And I think a lot of that is just sort of supporting farmers to take that hit.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:59.000
I think, in just sort of government, stepping in and being like, Hey, we know that you're going to lose X, y, and Z.

00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:10.000
You know a few cattle, a few sheep. But here's compensation to make up for that, and just sort of incorporating that into the program because they are important and it just ends up being healthier all around.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.000
If you just have a couple of those predators, just because everything's connected but yeah, if you're remind me at the end, I will add it to my list of links.

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:21.000
There's a really good video that explains it in the context of in the context of Yellowstone National Park in the Us.

00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:34.000
Where they've done this study. They got rid of wolves in the 1930s, and they brought them back recently, and the park is much, much, much more functional and healthier.

00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:35.000
Now, yeah, it's a good question.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:41.000
Okay. Yeah, and here's the question from Pearl.

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:42.000
Hello!

00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:46.000
I'm sure you know Pearl. What's your view on invasive species?

00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:55.000
Should we try and eliminate them, or do we let nature take its course?

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:56.000
Hmm!

00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:58.000
That's a tricky one. The problem with invasive species is they can really disrupt things.

00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:08.000
But at the same time, once they get embedded, it's almost like a losing game like, no matter how many, no matter how much effort you put into save removing grey squirrels in England, it's like this endless thing.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:15.000
You can never win. So I think there's some interesting ways to go about getting rid of them.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:17.000
A fun one to look up is something called an invasive war.

00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:29.000
It's invasive, or as in like a food, lifestyle, that is generally trying to eat our way out of the problems and trying to increase demand for some of these invasive species.

00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:30.000
Hmm!

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:42.000
I think other big ones are just trying to prevent new ones from coming into so really cracking down on things like shipments and whatnot, almost taking Australia and New Zealand have done great at preventing this.

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:46.000
As you know, they've been decimated by say, like rabbits and rats.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:51.000
But if you look at their sort of legislation for plan, animal material coming into the country, it's incredibly incredibly strict, and that's really prevented a lot.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:55:08.000
Their problems from getting worse but it's a really tricky one, because I know you could spend lifetimes pulling out invasive plants and hunting down squirrels, doing these things.

00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:09.000
So it's that's a really tough one.

00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:11.000
Yeah.

00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:14.000
Yeah, and was mentioning Japanese, knotweed.

00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:15.000
Hmm!

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:18.000
Yeah, again, it's just trying to prevent it.

00:55:18.000 --> 00:55:19.000
Prevent them in the first place. But then, yeah, trying to be really targeted as well.

00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:28.000
Like going after the areas. So, for instance, I'd be less concerned about them going a bit wild and really urban areas.

00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:36.000
But the focusing more so on the natural ones, more the countryside in those areas that are being rewired to really make sure that they don't have, that you can kind of knock them down in those areas.

00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:41.000
So, being really targeted with it.

00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:45.000
Hmm, you talked about problems with rabbits and rats.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:48.000
We've got a question here from Marilyn how their retirement village intends to try and increase?

00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:55.000
Its biodiversity. But they have a real problem with with rabbits and rats.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.000
So how do they differentiate between good and bad biodiversity?

00:55:59.000 --> 00:56:17.000
This is a good one, because there's actually there's so even a category kind of going back to the invasive species to where they're also nuisance species which are native to Britain.

00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:18.000
Hmm!

00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:19.000
But there's just too many of them at the moment, because of just the way human activity and Hello, Marilyn, from one of my classes, I think it's again looking at that.

00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:23.000
Even this thing, too. So things like rabbits and rats.

00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:31.000
Yes, you need a few of them, but, my lord, my word, if if allowed to go out of control untouched, can cause a lot of damage themselves.

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:50.000
So, not every just because I would say, just because a species is native doesn't mean it's not a nuisance, for instance.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:51.000
Hmm!

00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:53.000
So yeah, rabbits in rats again. Too many of them because of human activity, partly because there's not a lot of predators and people don't hunt that them that much anymore.

00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:55.000
It's the same with the deer as well, since it hmm!

00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:04.000
Same with the deer. So the deer issue with our forests was maintained when hunting deer was considered in vogue, and people were doing it as a food source.

00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:08.000
But because that's not really done anymore. The populations have gone sort of create.

00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.000
So you gotta figure out you need to keep those animals like deer rabbits, rats.

00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:20.000
They need to be either kept in check by nature, or kept and checked by people, and currently, we're doing neither and that's why they're sort of going crazy.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:21.000
So, yeah.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:25.000
Yeah, okay, but we've got 2 more questions, and then we'll wrap up.

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:37.000
Okay, this one from she thinks that one of the problems is that every generation gets used to what is around them in their times and doesn't see the decrease.

00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:41.000
How, how can we deal with that?

00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:42.000
It's a tough one, and I think a lot of it.

00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Big question?

00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:50.000
Big question as someone who also works in a school, and I think one of the big answers is just get kids outside a hundred percent.

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:53.000
I mean, I work here in Hackney, which isn't exactly the most.

00:57:53.000 --> 00:57:57.000
There's some green spaces, but it's pretty built up, and it's tough, and I think the real big thing is just trying to get kids in the environment.

00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:06.000
Try to get everybody out there, and just seeing what they are missing in building up the appreciation for it.

00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:09.000
So one of the things I do here, at least in the school.

00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:19.000
My sort of day job is I'm a Duke of Edinburgh, mentor, and leader, and just yeah, some of these kids I work with students who just they've never been outside of even Hackney, the borough, which is a very small area.

00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:27.000
So taking them outdoors and just seeing what they're missing, I think, can really build up an appreciation of that.

00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:35.000
Even just little things, just like having a garden working on the allotment going bird watching in a city park.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:41.000
All of those little activities, especially if you start really young and really start to work with small children to build up that appreciation.

00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:49.000
Maybe, instead of sitting inside, going outdoors to the park, things like that can really drastically increase their appreciation of that.

00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:59.000
And I know not. Everyone can go off and just go camping in the countryside for weeks on end, but just trying to do those full things and appreciate the nature that you have around around you.

00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:06.000
I've taken a bird watching here in London, and I am absolutely shocked at the diversity of birds that they're here.

00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:20.000
It's phenomenal and even just the things that you can see just walking down, and the little city parks so really trying to build that up from youth. And that's why it kind of goes back to sort of a lot that last child in the woods idea I think there are some

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:25.000
there's a lot of controversies around it, because I think the author of that book associates a lot of sort of medical diagnoses with that, and I don't think that's quite it.

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:28.000
I think it's more of a cultural thing. We just need to get out.

00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:32.000
Get outdoors. That's my 2 cents.

00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:39.000
Hmm, okay. Great. Okay. One more question. This is a bit of a biggie as well.

00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:41.000
Actually, it'd be interesting to get your thoughts on it.

00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:47.000
This is from. Are there too many humans for the planet to support?

00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:48.000
Is there really nothing we can do about it?

00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:51.000
Hmm! This is a tricky one. So this is a funny one.

00:59:51.000 --> 00:59:55.000
So, there's a lot of people. This is, I. Actually, I could almost say I have an entire lecture on this.

00:59:55.000 --> 01:00:02.000
This is actually a really interesting question. So, yes, there are a lot of people.

01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:05.000
I think the problem isn't that there's too many people.

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:22.000
The problem is, we use too much stuff. So if you look at the amount of resources consumed by somebody with a large lavish upper middle class, Western lifestyle, it's tremendous compared to even just a middle-class lifestyle and other more developing areas, and it's it's not that

01:00:22.000 --> 01:00:26.000
we should all be living, you know, down on the earth, and just, you know, stop buying everything.

01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:33.000
But I think we consume way too much, and I think that's the issue more so than just the number of people that we have.

01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:38.000
And starting to look at things like carbon footprints and trying to drastically decrease that.

01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:44.000
And there are ways to go about that and decrease that in ways that aren't actually as painful as you think.

01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:53.000
But when it comes to the number of people, the other kind of good news is, yes, our population keeps rising, but it's going to plateau statistically.

01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:57.000
We've been looking like scientists really looked at this.

01:00:57.000 --> 01:00:59.000
There's a good there's 2 good websites.

01:00:59.000 --> 01:01:05.000
If you want to look at this, the numbers one is called our world in data, their research group.

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:10.000
I think they're housed in Oxford, but they're sort of more of an NGO type group.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:21.000
The, population, statistics and stuff. And you can see it will level off, and the other thing, too, is you don't even necessarily. It's kind of a fun math, quk for the day.

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:26.000
The way population growth works is you don't even necessarily have to have fewer children.

01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:30.000
You just have to have them later in life to slow down population growth.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:40.000
So just the fact that kind of stereotypically, I guess. Generalise, millennials are having fewer children and having them later is gonna cause that to plateau quite quickly.

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.000
So our population isn't nearly as out of control as you think.

01:01:44.000 --> 01:02:03.000
It would be just the way the numbers work. So having children in your thirties actually helps the environment a lot compared to having children in your twenties as do just having a few fewer kids and yet few fewer things, I had a this is gonna sound really like

01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:08.000
I'm really trying to plug here hard, but I had a course I taught, and probably will be teaching again in the autumn called Green Solutions, and there are lots of things you can do to help the environment.

01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:18.000
Even if it is just taking a train instead of a plane and just trying to live a little dimensionally.

01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:23.000
So it is not all dooming gloom, because if it was doing bloom we would have crashed by now.

01:02:23.000 --> 01:02:27.000
So there is hope, and yeah, our population is stabilizing.

01:02:27.000 --> 01:02:28.000
So!

01:02:28.000 --> 01:02:30.000
Okay.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:33.000
Yeah. It's it's not all bad news.

01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:34.000
Yeah.

01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:41.000
Oh, the other. The second website is, oh, one freaking the name of it off the top of my head.

01:02:41.000 --> 01:02:49.000
Gap, reminder, Gapminder as in like mine, the gap a research group based on out of Sweden that looks at like human development indices.

01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:59.000
And actually, they're quite fun, because their whole sort of stick is that the world's not as bleak as it is, and they use math and statistics to show that things are actually getting better.

01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:00.000
So, yeah.

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.000
Yeah. Cool. Okay. Well, thanks. Again. Kj, that was fantastic. I hope you all enjoyed that.

01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:05.000
Hey! Welcome!

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.000
I, know, taking away a good bit of food for thoughts after that on biodiversity, and why we really need to value it.