Archive lectures and events

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And it's over to Kate.

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Thank you, Fiona. Thank you for that. That introduction, and welcome everybody.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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And I'm going to share my screen in a second.

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And, as you see what we're what we're looking at is this whole business of how spices change the world.

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And I think there are various types of historians, and I'm one of those historians that is really fascinated by connections.

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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.

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That changed the world and spices is a big contributor to world change.

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Sometimes you can kind of over emphasize these things, but I don't think that's the case with spices.

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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.

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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.

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And that's what I want to show as we go through this afternoon.

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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.

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Originally, and they were traded largely through the spice route.

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The silk road is quite often called, and it took the spices from where they were grown.

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It might have been India. Other parts of Asia, Indonesia, overland through Central Asia.

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They were ideal in terms of trading commodity.

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There were other things traded called silk was traded as well as well.

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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.

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So they were an ideal good, and, as I mentioned, they went all the way from China, India.

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Whenever or Central Asia, whenever they were grown across Asia.

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And arrived at a port for most of the time. It is Constantinople or Alexandria, and certainly Constantinople predominated.

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After the fifth century. But there were some other routes, so you know, I talked about Alexandra quite often.

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There was a combination of of routes, partly across the across land, using the spice route.

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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.

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They began to work out where this was over. The centuries.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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So this was kept still, kept slightly controlled secret from the European traders.

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Why do people want it? When I was at school?

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Certainly, we were told. I remember, that people wanted it, because in medieval Europe meet quite often, wasn't particularly fresh.

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So you needed a all these spices to actually make it.

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Which is actually right. It wasn't because meat was on the turn.

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In fact, they were very harsh penalties for butchers, fishmongers who took, who sold unfit meat.

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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.

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I'm not sure spices were much, much more expensive than me, so you wouldn't waste them on me.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The other factor which comes in here was that a medieval England and Europe?

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There were a large number of fast days, which meant that you couldn't.

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Eat me. Anyway, you had to go to saltfish, which, by all accounts, was even worse than sort of me.

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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.

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This. You know anything tasty had to be. If you wanted to make anything tasty, rather, you had to spice it up literally.

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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.

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Well, you'd have the sauce, even if you didn't have the salt fish, wouldn't you?

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I mean, it sounds sounds sounds very nice, and of course you had to be very wealthy to be able to buy these spices.

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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.

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Excuse me, would be equivalent to about the price of 3 sheep, so it's a huge amount of money.

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So it's a very upmarket dish.

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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.

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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.

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People believed that a mixture of spices might ward off the plague.

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Not make, was particularly valued for this, and the illustration there, of course, is later.

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This is the second big outbreak, is afraid.

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In the seventeenth century, but then you can see this doctor in this illustration, has a a beak which would be filled with spices.

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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.

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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.

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And there was yet another reason why they really valued spices, and this is because they thought it was an aphrodisiac.

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And this belief goes back to the days when the New Testament was written.

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So I've got a quote here from Proverbs.

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I've perfume my bed with mers, aloes, and cinnamon.

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Come, let us take our feel of love until the morning. Let's just solve ourselves with love.

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So this was believed to be an aphrodisiac.

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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.

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You probably use it that sort of term in another way, and this is what they believe at the time.

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Chaucer refers to buying hot spices to kindle his love.

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So this one is a very widespread belief.

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I mean, maybe it was a good marketing ploy. You'd be amazed how many of these foods?

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Are considered when they're first introduced as a aphrodisiacs.

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Even potatoes, and who knew but there you go!

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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

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Arab traders and trade direct, and of course, the best known example of this is Christopher Columbus.

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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.

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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

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sell, and Columbus, of course, is the most famous.

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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.

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They were massively expensive. You needed to equip a fleet of ships.

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They'd be away for years, and of course it would all be lost if they didn't come back with something valuable.

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So it's a very risky, very risky enterprise, and some of the byproducts from this are really interesting.

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So this is where we see the start of colonialization.

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So, Vesco de Gama in 1497, is navigated around the Cape of Good Hope.

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He's Portuguese, and he arrives in India, I mean fortuitously.

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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.

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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.

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I mean, this is quite interesting. Actually, because one of the issues of going with it with going round the Cape of Good Hope.

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Was that once you get to the equator the winds are blowing the other way.

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So the mariners decided that if they swung out into the Atlantic they could take advantage of the wins.

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Providing wins, and then go round the Cape and the particular explorer who discovered Brazil was blown off.

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Course, and while he was at it he claimed for sale for Portugal, as well.

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So this is the first time that European powers have been exploring the world, and planting their flag in very various territories.

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And it's really to the spice trade. And of course, the huge amounts of money that they can in doing that.

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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.

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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.

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So if it was successful, you could make an absolute kings ransom, and it simulated thanks expeditions in the other direction as well.

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So there was several explorations which, as Columbus had done.

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We're going in the same direction later explorers realized that there was a landmass.

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There wasn't the, but they didn't know how big the American continent was.

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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.

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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.

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Was there a passage that took you to the north of America that would enable you to get to?

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Asia quicker. So there are a number of cabbage, and Frobisher were looking for a way to get to Asia, for America.

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And the illustration is Frobisher and Humphrey Gilbert.

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It has the same idea. He's actually stepbrother, and he explores the area, claims Newfoundland for the English crown.

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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.

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A way to get to Asia, and of course I forgot to mention Mcgann.

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He leads an ex-, a Spanish expedition to find the way to the Spice Islands.

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These are near Indonesia. They are the only place at the time that nutmeg and mace are grown.

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Unfortunately he dies on on the route, but the voyage and the crew return and that's the first circumnavigation.

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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.

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So Portugal and Spain, as I mentioned, are the earliest into this particular race to try and find this source of spice.

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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

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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.

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It's worth, you know. Present, if you converted it to present day values will be worth millions of pounds.

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One of the things that results from that. Not directly. But of course this is all in the air.

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Is, the East India Company is set up. As I mentioned, the.

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Expeditions are sponsored by the monarch in various European countries, and it's a very risky business, because the voyage might not be successful.

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They might all be lost at sea. So they come up with this great idea.

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Let's spread the risk, and the East India Company and the Dutch setup.

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Their own version of this, the Duchy India Company Voc.

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It's sometimes called, come up with this great idea.

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Let's set a company up. We'll have shareholders.

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Will sell the shares, we'll have a pretty professional management of this company.

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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

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company. Both companies had massive powers. The Government granted both companies, charters, allowing them to take and defend colonies.

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They could raise armies, and they could build fortresses.

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So it was almost, if you like, imperialism on the cheap, because the company did did it for you.

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And in the seventeenth century the Dutch are much better and more successful.

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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.

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Just a word or 2 about.

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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?

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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.

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And of course the audience came to see that would know what the references were.

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So people would know what was going on, and you get references through the seventeenth century.

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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

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says I walked above the knees, whole room full of it.

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He says, and he he talks about it, being one of the noblest.

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So I sees ever seen, he goes on later to talk about how to sailors have sold him some.

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Pepper and nutmeg. And they've only charged him.

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I think about a pound, and he's he say.

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Well, they sold it much too cheaply. They'd obviously stolen it, but I mean it doesn't stop you buying it.

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But you know it's interesting how much this was.

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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.

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Abanda Islands, they called, and they just off from Indonesia.

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Portuguese, discovered the first, and the Dutch had taken possession of them through their Dutch East India Company.

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They would. They don't see. India Company had established a colony in the area, and they capture the bander.

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The East India Company managed to have control of one, and these particular islands are the source of quite a lot of conflict.

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They grow nutmeg, and they're the only place in the world that grows nutmeg.

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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.

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So the east, the Duchy Cindy Company were ruthless in establishing their colony. There.

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They? Original population was very, very wiped out, and there'd been an in 1623.

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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.

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Adam, and this carries on through the period.

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So by the time you get to Cromwell in England in 1653, they've been a short battle with the Dutch.

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This is all over trade. It's trade that's really at the root of the conflict.

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But chromo because he was, he needed the Duchess Dutch support in Europe, for other reasons, was quite keen to make peace.

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Soviet, he made peace, and also in terms of their religious beliefs.

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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.

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So they began to build up their commercial fleet, and also the the warships that protected it as well.

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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

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newly independent. The popular is much smaller, and really the the English really overplayed.

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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

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Dutch are in the way of them, opening up all sorts of other opportunities for trade.

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The Dutch, muscle in on some of the opportunities which they felt should be theirs.

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So they one of the things they did was Capture.

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Some trading ships, we weren't at war at this stage.

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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

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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.

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So things were. Things were hotting up, and in the end the Dutch got fed up with being bullied, and really acts of war.

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When war wasn't to, declared, and we'll break out in 1660.

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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.

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Why, that was the culmination of these conflicts.

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Was in 1667, which was a national humiliation for England.

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We'd that the whole of the fleet had been was in Chatham.

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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.

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The royal trolls, and they put it on display.

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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.

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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

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things, to negotiate over. We had no hand, if you like.

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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.
 

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Fiona Wright: And, Mike, it's so good to you.

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Mike Grundy: Okay, thank you, Fiona, and welcome back to everybody. It's great to be back on

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Mike Grundy: on the screen with you and to now, in our series of looking at the capitals of Europe.

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Mike Grundy: go to what many people believe to be the most fabulous city of all which is Paris.

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Mike Grundy: And I've just recently learned that France is the most visited country

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Mike Grundy: in the world with 90 million visitors a year.

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Mike Grundy: Well, I'm gonna attempt to take you straight back into Paris without having to go through the problems of travel.

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Mike Grundy: and to, in fact, go back over a hundred years to start at the inception of the metro system of Paris.

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Mike Grundy: So let us see if the technology works. And

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Mike Grundy: and I will share my screen.

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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

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Mike Grundy: you will see. essentially, we're looking at the art of the Paris Metro.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: which was only 11 years old at the time the Eiffel Tower is actually

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Mike Grundy: an object as a monument to a celebration of the 100 years ago revolution

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Mike Grundy: in France.

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Mike Grundy: and so many things are based on the French Revolution. The Eiffel Tower marks the dates of the Centenary of the Revolution.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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Mike Grundy: So huge event.

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Mike Grundy: they expected 25 million people in the 6 months, the Expo went on.

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Mike Grundy: They didn't get 25 million. They got 50 million.

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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?

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Mike Grundy: Well, they've been talking about a metro for 30 years.

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Mike Grundy: This meant them. They had to make decisions, get those skates on, and they designed and built the Metro in fast time.

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Mike Grundy: The only slight difficulty was the the Exposition to open in April.

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Mike Grundy: The Metro wasn't actually operating until July.

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Mike Grundy: so that would have been pretty tough on the initial attendees.

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Mike Grundy: You may see at the bottom right of the picture 2 large buildings which are still there today. Fully functioning

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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

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Mike Grundy: which starred in the a recent mission. Impossible film with Tom Cruise as he ran along the glass roof.

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Mike Grundy: These 2 buildings with great galleries and exhibition halls, and they still do that today.

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Mike Grundy: This move from the expert itself to the style of the times.

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Mike Grundy: and I'll show you one of the staircases in the that building bottom right

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and our nouveau was the style of the 1890 s. And the 19 hundreds

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Mike Grundy: principally a design style for interiors furnishings last way of fine art

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and then in France with Hecta Grima, who will be the star of this show, is the creator of the Paris Metro

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Mike Grundy: in Austria. We have also Wagner, great architect, Scotland. You will remember Charles Running Mac and Josh

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Mike Grundy: Spain. who goes to Barcelona these days without visiting the works of Gaudi and in the U.S.A. Louis Sullivan.

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Mike Grundy: so very famous architects and designers Even today, looking at their contribution. At that time

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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.

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: and on the floor.

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Mike Grundy: So this was going into a nouveau in a big way in Belgium.

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Mike Grundy: and then eventually very quickly

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Mike Grundy: moved to Paris, adopted by Paris.

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Mike Grundy: there was a a mes on a nouveau which actually promulgated the style by a a famous entrepreneur called secret Bing.

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Mike Grundy: And he basically was a focal point in Paris for this design.

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Mike Grundy: But here, no doubt, many of you have been to Maxim's and dined in fine style in this art nouveau interior.

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Mike Grundy: You look at the mirror.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: so to this day still in this design.

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Mike Grundy: and then a treasure.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and just one example of the style of that building and the decor. These are the front gates.

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Mike Grundy: Have you ever seen gates like this?

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Mike Grundy: you will see similar designs in Lille in Antwerp, right across the Divide of France and Belgium.

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Mike Grundy: and you will see lots of the badges, symbols of art nouveau like whiplash designs in some of the fine metal.

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Mike Grundy: and we even have these designs creep into the stonework. If you look at the top of that image

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Mike Grundy: so very much at the forefront of our nouveau, but not not really in terms of the established art of design community.

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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

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Mike Grundy: and on his style of

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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

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Mike Grundy: by Louis Napoleon, Napoleon the Third, the President, the Emperor, and then under him Houseman

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Mike Grundy: House one's Paris, creating the new boulevards of Paris.

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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

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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.

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Mike Grundy: This picture, one of my favorite of Paris, by Chi Bot, one of the lesser known of the impressionist group.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Well, you minimize the station entrances and you put all the functions below.

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Mike Grundy: This is the minimal standard entrance to the Metro within Paris, designed by H. To Green.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Do you think those stalks going up into the sky, holding those gleaming red eyes.

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Mike Grundy: Are they triffids?

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Mike Grundy: Are they going to leap down and kill anybody daring to go down these steps?

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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

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Mike Grundy: and the railing.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Variations on the theme. Sometimes you get a glass canopy

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Mike Grundy: here at Chatterley, the largest of all the metro stations below ground. We have this beautiful glass and iron roof.

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Mike Grundy: and this quote. these kind of designs are called liberal yules by the French or dragon flies.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Absolutely delightful.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: And here's another version. Everything is covered in in this version.

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Mike Grundy: This is in Avenue Fosh. This is a national monument. Most of these entrances are preserved as national pieces of Architecture

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Mike Grundy: Avenue, for she is the smartest place you can live in Paris. It's between the the tree on from the Vladimir.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: And if you examine these buildings

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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

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Mike Grundy: on the left hand side you see, one of these plates which are decorating the bottom half of the rules.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: but, in fact, if you look at it very carefully, they follow the rules. It isn't quite symmetrical.

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Mike Grundy: One or 2 of these stations were substantial.

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Mike Grundy: and here they were called to go. This, as in Japanese, for those or pavilions.

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Mike Grundy: there were only 3 of them, one of Bastille, 2 at the.

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Mike Grundy: and they were removed in the sixties for road widening.

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Mike Grundy: However, if you go to the where they were located today. There's nothing there. The road hasn't been widened. Further.

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Mike Grundy: I think the French are so ashamed of having not these amazing build buildings down

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Mike Grundy: that they destroyed all of the photographs as well. that's just my observation. Obviously not true.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Not a pretty thought.

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Mike Grundy: It's all important on the metro, as far as Paris is concerned.

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Mike Grundy: outside of the Eiffel Tower. This is the symbol that travel companies use to say you are absolutely in Paris.

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Mike Grundy: So these 2 elements of entrances and roofs.

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Mike Grundy: In these major guides to Paris everybody recognizes Paris by the art of the Metro.

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Mike Grundy: and the Metro isn't just. In Paris you will find Paris match of entrances in

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Mike Grundy: well, Moscow, Lisbon, Mexico City, Chicago.

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Mike Grundy: New York. Washington. and Montreal.

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Mike Grundy: Sadly, these entrances are just entrances, and you can't get a ticket from Chicago to Paris on the Metro.

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Mike Grundy: But maybe one day, who knows?

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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

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Mike Grundy: everything from culture to science. It's military, industrial capability

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Mike Grundy: and the principles of its constitutions.

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Mike Grundy: Democracy, obviously liberty, the quality and fraternity.

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Mike Grundy: Let's see if we can take off one or 2 of those as we go.

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Mike Grundy: This is a Metro station.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: But what on earth is this decor? I usually ask you a live audience for suggestions.

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Mike Grundy: but this let me put you out of any misery. This is a full scale replica of Jules Burns submarine, the Nautilus

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Mike Grundy: from 40 sorry. 20,000 leads under the sea.

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Mike Grundy: This is a submarine that can go twice around the world submerged

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Mike Grundy: in the imagination of Jules.

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Mike Grundy: And this is set. This station is set below the they are famous college and institution of arts and crafts and technology

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Mike Grundy: going forward.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: but in France it me. It's 3 miles

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Mike Grundy: in good old English models.

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: front of Paris, but I'm sure you can see the same in blue. and the major items, the major

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Mike Grundy: on the on the Tory fell.

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Mike Grundy: and the

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Mike Grundy: so starting up by steel in the East End of Paris.

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Mike Grundy: We will look sorry.

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Mike Grundy: I'm just gonna look at my map.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: which were triggered by many things, but including the storming of the Bastille prison for so called

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Mike Grundy: political prisoners.

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Mike Grundy: This is one of the examples, and this gives you the timeline of the Revolution.

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Mike Grundy: famous year 1,789

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: agreed that they would not rest until aid. got representation of the people.

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Mike Grundy: and then the fourteenth of July, one month later, the Bastille was stormed.

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Mike Grundy: Then the going along the platform. This just a a vast series of mosaics, of scenes from the Revolution.

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Mike Grundy: So if you want to understand the revolution and the scenes around Paris. then wander along the platform of by steel

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Mike Grundy: moving on as we have to do. We come to the City Hall or the Hotel de Veal on the City Hall.

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Mike Grundy:  But down some 30 years previously. On one of them many other revolutions.

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Mike Grundy:  basically has the coat of arms of Paris displayed on the Metro station below it.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: the fishing industry was a big big industry in Paris with fish bought up the same from

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Mike Grundy: from the Channel clearly, and the people who ran that industry with the marshmallow, and they got their badge on the city.

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Mike Grundy: Then we have the motto. Fluctuate to that, and that's where it's

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Mike Grundy: we float. but we don't sink.

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Mike Grundy: And then at the bottom we have a point about that in a moment.

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Mike Grundy: and then the bottom. We have the 3 great medals achieved by Paris, awarded to Paris by the French Government.

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Mike Grundy: and these are in turn the legend on that.

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Mike Grundy:  then on the fully on the right, we have the  the the flag of the occupation surviving the occupation.

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Mike Grundy: And I'll come back to the one in the middle if I forget before we get to the end.

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Mike Grundy: Oh, the quad again! Of course the awarded in 19 20 after the First World War.

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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

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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

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Mike Grundy: to create these kind of murals.

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Mike Grundy: just to decorate the structure, the building.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and here we see what many statues on the left hand side, but in particular the bust of Marie Antoinette.

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Mike Grundy: one of the leading victims of the Revolution.

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Mike Grundy: We' it in 1,793,

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Mike Grundy: and, like many of the queens of France, the daughter of like the King and a an Austrian princess.

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Mike Grundy: somebody who had sufficient statutes of marriage becoming Queen of France.

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Mike Grundy: Much of the money exhibits from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. The classical world.

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Mike Grundy: we have the Greek sculptor practically his work on the left hand side here

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Mike Grundy: in the fourth century, Bce.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: women work were sculpted with flowing robes, and men were scolded typically naked.

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Mike Grundy: Well, frankly, it's change. All of that with is one statue of Venus.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: But this is at the Palais Royal, one of those royal palaces.

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Mike Grundy: and the Mexicans have decided we'd like a Metro entrance. Can we have one, please.

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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

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Mike Grundy: in the end, crafted by technicians from the island near Venice, famous for glassware.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and here, in a series of panels all around the platforms.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: They weren't quite as violence and as in Pre as a insistent as English suffragettes.

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Mike Grundy: So the French leaders got the vote in 1,945, a little bit late on.

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Mike Grundy: But we also see at the top of this image we see Blerio, crossing the Channel in 1,909,

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Mike Grundy: and

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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.

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Mike Grundy: But it we call such a the swathe through the toy shops of France, so is sufficiently important to be included here.

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Mike Grundy: We won't look at every year, but here is the 19 twenties.

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Mike Grundy: and we have the spirit of St. Louis flying single-handed

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Mike Grundy: by Charles Lindbergh all the way from America to Paris, and landing at the Paris airport.

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Mike Grundy: and I was always pretty missed about that. That. He flew over Ireland and over England.

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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

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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

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Mike Grundy: Paris. Don't blame him.

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Mike Grundy: Come to the 19 fifties, and it's the popular world of.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: 19 nineties. Clearly Nelson Mandela freed from prison, a major event across the world, and especially

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Mike Grundy: Parisians and the French, took him to their heart.

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Mike Grundy: it's also celebrating

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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

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Mike Grundy: a wonderful.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and Josephine Baker, the American exotic dancer in the bottom of the screen. Well, the French took her to their hearts.

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Mike Grundy: so did the Berliners. but much more so than the Americans.

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Mike Grundy: so we're halfway down line one

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Mike Grundy: that symbol you are here. We just about to go to the plaster icon called the very center of Paris.

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Mike Grundy: and here we have any just a small part of that scrabble board on the walls of the of the Concorde station.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and trying to put in words the rights of every individual person in the country.

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Mike Grundy:  Why

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Mike Grundy: is it so difficult to read? Well, they clearly didn't have any blank tiles to separate the words.

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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

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Mike Grundy: what these all of these words say.

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Mike Grundy: She was on it on for a zoom. Innocent in English. Every man is presumed innocent, and so forth.

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Mike Grundy: So they're very proud of their record on human rights and the institution of human rights from 1,789

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Mike Grundy: as such they've got to include obviously, quite a lot

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Mike Grundy: of this provision of this document that was published. Well, the even this doesn't cut it. Really.

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Mike Grundy: these times cover the whole domain of the station below ground.

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Mike Grundy: just astonishing. and obviously it

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Mike Grundy: an extremely dangerous work of art. Because if you stand there reading the tiles on the wall and gradually read up.

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Mike Grundy: So the rest of them you will definitely stagger backwards and onto the railway lines.

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Mike Grundy: Now all of these stations have platform age walls, barriers, as we do on the Elizabeth line.

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Mike Grundy: And they are putting those barriers in every station on the Metro. Quite a challenge, and we are going that far.

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Mike Grundy: The first station on the

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Mike Grundy: is also named after the Prime Minister of France. Towards the end of the war there, Lloyd George.

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Mike Grundy: and here we get the Portuguese saying, We like to decorate this station.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: Some are all these massive cities

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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.

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Mike Grundy: The next one, the station named after after Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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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

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Mike Grundy: in this case for timberland. But there is companies. Take it over.

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Mike Grundy: Why am I even bothering to show it? Well? Because this was the art station of the Metro.

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Mike Grundy: Let me go on to show you why.

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Mike Grundy: Originally they decided in the fifties

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Mike Grundy: to incorporate arts right throughout the the platforms and the step on the station booking a whole

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Mike Grundy: Us. And to do it basically do replicas of famous works of art.

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Mike Grundy: from the impressionist onwards. and including a lot of live artists contributing like. I like Picasso.

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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

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Mike Grundy: on the platforms of the station. So we had all of these wonderful works of our shining out.

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Mike Grundy: many Renoir to fee, but more so find golf.

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Mike Grundy: It was a dazzling display

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Mike Grundy: Picasso was included.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: every part of the station.

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Mike Grundy: And

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: So here's says an with his flowers.

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Mike Grundy: Yeah, there you go with this young one of the.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: The French have a very close relationship with Argentina partly because the French and the Argentines believe

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Mike Grundy: that the the French forces in times past prevented Argentina becoming an English colony.

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Mike Grundy: I he kept us away.

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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

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Mike Grundy: from the occupation.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: The widest falls in the world.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and I've also enjoyed going to the nightclub called Godel.

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Mike Grundy: God always celebrates the greatest exponent ever of the tango

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Mike Grundy: Carlos. You can see his face on top right.

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Mike Grundy: and you can see the the instrument that's peculiar to Argentine tango. On the left the band onion.

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Mike Grundy: which is a huge, huge, wide instrument.

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Mike Grundy: Why do I go on about this? Well, there's a station called Guardel.

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Mike Grundy: and there and then other places in Buenos Aires you will see elements of the tango, and

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Mike Grundy: and I bring you 2 images from the urgency, and Metro, the Buenos Aires Metro

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and

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Mike Grundy: the pre eminent player of the band onion. It's very wide accordion with a.

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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

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Mike Grundy: plaintive, mournful instrument.

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Mike Grundy: So

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: So what about the Latin Quarter? Just south of the

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Mike Grundy: well again, they are using the whole vault of the station below ground

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Mike Grundy: over the 2 platforms and the rail lines to make the points.

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Mike Grundy: And here we have. We're celebrating 54 heroes of the Latin Quarter.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: and on the rest of the wall. We have the

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Mike Grundy: the signatures of these great heroes of the cultural side of Paris.

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Mike Grundy: and uniquely for underground art. They have a little board explaining what it's all about.

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Mike Grundy: And essentially you can see at the top some of the people celebrated here

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Mike Grundy: Moly air Voltaire, Michel A. At the bottom, Victor Hugo, the staff, Corby

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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

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Mike Grundy: and the government

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Mike Grundy: who have enriched culturally Paris and France over this period.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: these guys are from the 11, some 11 hundreds to the earliest heroes of cultural France. Why?

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Mike Grundy: Well, they were both very precocious as young people. They both eventually went into the church.

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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

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Mike Grundy: dictatorial approach.

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Mike Grundy: but they're mainly famous because

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Mike Grundy: Abelard was meant to be teaching Eloise

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Mike Grundy: a little bit younger than he was all about religion and all about culture.

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Mike Grundy: and he got a bit distracted by her beauty.

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Mike Grundy: and she ended up pregnant. and

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Mike Grundy: the master Full Bear. He was meant to be looking after. The 2 of them

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Mike Grundy: stumble upon them in a embrace, and they were basically.

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Mike Grundy: but in disgrace he was thrown out, and, in fact, as a punishment, he was castrated. Some days later

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Mike Grundy: they both went on to separately, become great icons of cultural learning.

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Mike Grundy: and so they they all their names known to it. Nearly every cultured Frenchman

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Mike Grundy: moving along towards the Eiffel Tower

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Mike Grundy: is the station, and Rhoda is the person we're celebrating here the great sculptor.

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Mike Grundy: and on the platform we have replicas of to his of his most famous. the thinker on the right hand side.

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Mike Grundy: It's actually a sculpture. Sculpture of

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Mike Grundy: it was the first and then one of the most important writers in

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Mike Grundy: pre Renaissance

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Mike Grundy: Italy in Florence.

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Mike Grundy: And then further along the platform you can just see a black blob top left. We have.

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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.

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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.

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Mike Grundy: typically pretty wild places.

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Mike Grundy: you gotta be careful when you're out there

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Mike Grundy: They all are mainly built in volume after the war.

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Mike Grundy: quickly.

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Mike Grundy: And here, in what was the old meat or cattle market? Not in the middle of the cattle market

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Mike Grundy: which was out at the gates of Paris.

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Mike Grundy: Now the cattle market is gone, and now it is a great park.

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Mike Grundy: but it's the theme of the park with the new buildings in it is music.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Mike Grundy: concert hall for Paris. The

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Mike Grundy: not only does it look horrific. This is a vast building

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Mike Grundy: It looks like Darth Vader's helmet to me. If Darth Vader was a massive giant.

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Mike Grundy: and you just imagine the people pouring out of this concert hall back to the Metro station coming down these steps.

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Mike Grundy: If the steps are full at the top and then being concentrated as you come down.

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Mike Grundy: Basically, this could be another disaster waiting to happen. But anyway, that's just my observation.

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Mike Grundy: Oh, we're back to Pablo Picasso.

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Mike Grundy: one of the most god forsaken concrete suburbs of Paris, is Bobbingy.

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Mike Grundy: and it's the end of the line.

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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

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Mike Grundy: we have a dove, the Dove of Peace.

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Mike Grundy: the dove designed by Pablo Picasso.

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Mike Grundy: and they came, the emblem of the World Peace Council. which was a movement financed almost entirely by Russia after the war

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Mike Grundy: which was trying to drive a program of peace, or should we say Russian propaganda across the world?

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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

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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.

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Stephen Parker: in this case by a very large structure known as the Grey Lakes. Loose.

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Stephen Parker: What you see here is a structure across the

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Stephen Parker: drying

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Stephen Parker: with 2 large fly wells, and these can be wound up or down, and that change

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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

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Stephen Parker: again the same principle as you wine. The handle

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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.

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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

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Stephen Parker: either the Internal Drainage Board

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Stephen Parker: or the Environment Agency. Both of those organizations

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Stephen Parker: have duties to manage the area to manage this wetland. I'm mainly going to talk about the wildlife

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Stephen Parker: But management, particularly, the farming management, is critical to the wildlife as well.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and they also support large numbers of a swans, geese, and ducks.

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Stephen Parker: for example, this

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Stephen Parker: ditch here would support this for Spotted chaser.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: The wetland is is very favorable to these creatures that spend

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Stephen Parker: much of their life actually in the water, and then come out. This time of year they merge from the

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Stephen Parker: ditches and Why, the board courses

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Stephen Parker: to a fly around the air. I was out today, and the many of them flying around

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Stephen Parker: of great importance. One of the the the main importance of the area is the assembly of water beetles.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: a largest beetle in in in Britain. In fact.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: so that reflects some of the interest that's in the in the ditches.

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and this can come from several sources.

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: but it does rather ma the the the era in in some ways. as I say, not only

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Stephen Parker: is that a problem in Somerset it is widely recognized as a problem

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Stephen Parker: across the many of England and and Britain's rivers

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Stephen Parker: there are in places some fantastic meadows.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: This area, and and the name, I think, gives it away East and West waste

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Stephen Parker: So in the past these these places were extremely common, and not greatly valued by by people. Hence the name waste

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Stephen Parker: sadly. This is a habitat we've lost about 97% of since the Second World War.

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Stephen Parker: Luckily, in in the Somerset Wetlands we still have some of these wonderful

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Stephen Parker: wet, and in places

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Stephen Parker: fairly dry meadows.

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Stephen Parker: This area here is known as South Lake More.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: And this is an area that's been deliberately flooded.

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Stephen Parker: You might ask why, that is. And every winter it's possible to to raise the water levels here.

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Stephen Parker: For the benefit of the over wintering autof out ducks, geese.

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Stephen Parker: lap wing and and other water birds. So that's a deliberate flooding. But in 2,013, and the

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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

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Stephen Parker: there was flood water around for 4 months. Of course, wetlands and wet and wildlife is very capable of

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Stephen Parker: of dealing with that problem, and it is not a huge problem for the wildlife.

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Stephen Parker: It is quite a challenge. So

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Stephen Parker: for the people that live in the era, with roads being closed and and in a very few cases houses being flooded.

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Stephen Parker: So flooding is is valuable for wildlife. But it can cause issues with in other areas.

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Stephen Parker: Somerset wetlands are basically a farmed landscape. Mostly the fields are small, divided by these ditches.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: Grazing animals are mostly represented by cattle. There are very few sheep.

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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

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Stephen Parker: dairy cattle

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Stephen Parker: nowadays it's tending more towards beef cattle.

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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

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Stephen Parker: large landowners. It's dominated. or it

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Stephen Parker: covered by large numbers of relatively small

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Stephen Parker: independent farmers.

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Stephen Parker: conservation and farming community, and not always had an easy relationship in the area.

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Stephen Parker: This, a historic photograph here dates back to around 19 eighties. when

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Stephen Parker: the Nature and Conservancy Council, or Natural England, as they were known then, actually designated part of West Edge more

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Stephen Parker: as a site to special scientific interest

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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

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Stephen Parker: is notified.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: In the winter time the area is visited by

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Stephen Parker: roughly a hundred 1,000 winter winter in waterfall.

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Stephen Parker: So that's ducks like teal and widget and shovel but also herons, swans, geese to that extent.

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Stephen Parker: So for that reason

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Stephen Parker: part of the the Somerset Wetland actually of international importance. It's a special protection area

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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.

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Stephen Parker: The sky is quite often blackened with lap wing, and and these come here in in very large numbers, and fly over

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Stephen Parker: and and and rest on the Somerset levels, here, flying over a site at Grey lake, which in this case is a

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Stephen Parker: rural society for the Protection of Birds. Reserve

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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

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Stephen Parker: who for swans, and indeed we get Buick one in the area.

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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

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Stephen Parker: 10 and 15 birds. Now come here.

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Stephen Parker: They they tend to use other areas that

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Stephen Parker: are more favorable to spend in the winter.

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Stephen Parker: One of the big conservation efforts has been to try and restore and recover

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Stephen Parker: the sites for breeding waiters.

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Stephen Parker: So this map shows a a range of slides that in the past of held breeding wanders. That's birds like lapwing

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Stephen Parker: red shank, curly and snipe. Those are the 4 that are

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Stephen Parker: ominous across the levels as though by no means common at all nowadays.

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Stephen Parker: So this is a red shank. This is probably the rarest breeding waiter on the site, now

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Stephen Parker: a at a place called Tel, and more just in the background. There you maybe you'll see less Glastonbury tour.

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Stephen Parker: So the rate shank is quite often quite a common word

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Stephen Parker: along the coast of of Britain.

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Stephen Parker: But as inland breeding bird, it is relatively rare

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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.

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Stephen Parker: So the nest isn't really a much of a a structure. It's just a a slight dip on the ground.

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Stephen Parker: and the 4 nests for eggs there are in the nest, the the female bird

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Stephen Parker: and the male bird will actually incubate those.

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Stephen Parker: and with luck the check will be born. So this is a a chick fairly newly hatched from that

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Stephen Parker: that wing. Numbers have declined across the Somerset wetlands, and that reflects a decline

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Stephen Parker: in their numbers across to Britain

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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

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Stephen Parker: flying from from the other parts of Europe. and only a few remain not to breed

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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.

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Stephen Parker:  but it does give itself away. The the males have this flight.

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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.

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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

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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

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Stephen Parker: the markings on the slide here.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: I think 3 young. There may be 4 in there, and they will. Well.

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Stephen Parker: and they'll take you through some sites in what we call the Avalon marshes. and it at the that starts roughly

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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

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Stephen Parker: and History of nature. Conservation in this area goes back to

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Stephen Parker: to 1,961, when there was an original agreement with a Pete cut in a company called License.

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Stephen Parker: Then there are various notifications to

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Stephen Parker: update the conservation laws. Most significant of those is it in 1,986, when it was notified

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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

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Stephen Parker: the peak companies pulled out of the area, and a major scheme of restoration started

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Stephen Parker: including in. That was a heritage, a lottery funding Grant

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Stephen Parker: in about 1,998 to buy another part of the site. so Charlie Keith is about 400 hectares of of Wetland reserve.

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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

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Stephen Parker: the domestic housing and and and properties, and like.

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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

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Stephen Parker: of people unloading that that railway

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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.

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Stephen Parker:  but this is what the site basically looked at looked like

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Stephen Parker: once the peat extractors with the peat cutters

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Stephen Parker: had had left the area.

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Stephen Parker: It was a major challenge, a major restoration challenge, and that was taken on by

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Stephen Parker: Then English nature.

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Stephen Parker: which is government, body advertising on nature conservation.

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Stephen Parker: the

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Stephen Parker:  the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

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Stephen Parker: and later, an organization known as the Whole Canal trust.

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Stephen Parker: So those organizations got together and started to restore this

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Stephen Parker:  the landscape that have been changed.

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Stephen Parker: radically altered

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Stephen Parker: by Pete extraction. It had been an area of wet heathland

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Stephen Parker: but because the levels were lowered. Here it was, and is now

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Stephen Parker: a large reed bed.

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Stephen Parker: So this is the start of that work dating to the mid 19 nineties

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Stephen Parker: and and just taking a a a map, a habitat map of that area in in 2,009.

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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

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Stephen Parker: a real photograph.

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: known as a great white egret. This is the first place that these birds first print in the British Isles.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and those birds are our magnificent animals are a large white egret.

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Stephen Parker: as I say, they first bred in Somerset at that Chat week Heath. a around 10 years ago. Now

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Stephen Parker: they are now extremely common then. They are now

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Stephen Parker: almost as common as it's grey herons in the area. They're slightly larger than a grey heron. Just a

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Stephen Parker: they give you a size comparison.

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Stephen Parker: The other bird that was a target of conservation.

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Stephen Parker: particularly for the restoration

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Stephen Parker: of those peat working sites, was the bitten and bit numbers I have

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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

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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.

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Stephen Parker: The males create a a noise attract their their partners by creating a sort of a a booming sound

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Stephen Parker:  and that can be heard for for a very long distance across the read bits.

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Stephen Parker: They are read bed specialists.

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Stephen Parker:  I think in north they're called butter bumps

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Stephen Parker: and they were once a hunted.

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Stephen Parker: They became extinct in Britain, due to habitat loss, which is a sort of a familiar story, I think, for many people.

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Stephen Parker: So the restoration of the peak and

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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.

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Stephen Parker: And here we've got a survey by a botanical surveyor from the

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Stephen Parker:  British from the Bsp I,

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Stephen Parker: who is

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Stephen Parker: who's Actually

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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.

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Stephen Parker: looking across the sites.

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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

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Stephen Parker: and that they're still doing pretty well. They they like this dead standing timber on site.

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Stephen Parker: There are areas of marsh marshland, marsh grassland.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and of course sund you, and in insectivorous plants.

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Stephen Parker:  probably more exciting, for some of these is a lesser butterfly orchid quite a rarity.

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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

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Stephen Parker: one or 2 locations known

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Stephen Parker: now to manage these bogs and wet grasslands, and and in fact, the repades

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Stephen Parker: the organizations that work on the area. So it's a natural England in this case, at Chatwick.

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Stephen Parker: use red Devon cattle. These are fully organic. They live their entire life

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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.

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Stephen Parker: but sometimes you need a a larger animal. So Highland cattle have been used in in other areas.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and we also thought that a a large mass grass of her, this this rather wonderful beast here that was also extinct.

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Stephen Parker: The records suggested that there was last seen in

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Stephen Parker: in 1,998, and hadn't been seen since but a few years ago. Now, 3 or 4 years ago.

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Stephen Parker: These 2 characters here Fred and Bill discovered a large colony of them. This is their largest grasshopper in in the

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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.

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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

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Stephen Parker: and very beautiful animal.

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Stephen Parker: So chat with Keith. Not only is the outstanding

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Stephen Parker: wildlife. There's also a a lot of buried archaeology.

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Stephen Parker: and particularly archaeology that's It's wooden trackways and the like.

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Stephen Parker: and this represents the a prehistoric track by dating back to the

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Stephen Parker: about 6,000 years ago.

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Stephen Parker: that traveled or went about 2 kilometers across the this the Somerset wetland there at chat with Keith.

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Stephen Parker: to conserve that the organization

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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

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Stephen Parker: from stop it from rotting.

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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

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Stephen Parker: on this sweet track as it's got. and I think it's fairly good news. The track. What's stable?

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and these are extremely rare. So it's well worth keeping the area very wet to conserve this, this wooden archaeology.

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Stephen Parker: So Chatwick is just one of the national nature reserves in the area another is West ham more.

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Stephen Parker: This is this is got a similar history to to chat with

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Stephen Parker: with. extensive peak cutting in the past now shallow lakes

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Stephen Parker: but it has got Moreland areas as well. So so

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Stephen Parker: a a rich Maya bulk out habitat developing, including some, some some rare fungi

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Stephen Parker: in this case. and this this is one of our rarest at plants on the Somerset levels. it's quite tiny.

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Stephen Parker: And here we can see Rome that's recorded at the Avalon marshes actually surveying for this plant. So Rome are volunteers

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and it depends on open areas of of bare p to survive. So quite quite a specialist plant in this case.

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Stephen Parker: the error is also rich in

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Stephen Parker: grass, snakes, and adders. So this this grass snake here

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Stephen Parker: a very friendly grass like this one. It curled up on my Wellington boot for a few moments.

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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

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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

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Stephen Parker: that floating, that there so plants such as this, this great water dock here, but but lots of other plants as well.

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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

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Stephen Parker: in the autumn time for for fungi and and other

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Stephen Parker: interesting plants. Okay, so that's covered the area of

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Stephen Parker: River Brew, and the river acts up to Glastonbury. which I say now is is known as the Avalon Marshes.

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Stephen Parker: But now I want to take you over the pole and heels to the floodplains of the river tone

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Stephen Parker: and the river parrot

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Stephen Parker: I'm with. The site we're going to visit is South Lake. More

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Stephen Parker: so. Sounds like more is a part of this new

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Stephen Parker: super national nature reserve. If you've been watching spring watch on the television

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Stephen Parker: You hear them talking about the the the super national nature of

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Stephen Parker: down on the on Peninsula in Dorset. So we've got the equivalent of that in in Somerset.

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Stephen Parker: just about a bit larger than the the Dorset example.

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Stephen Parker: And this is a this is a natural island. It's called Burrow Mump

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Stephen Parker: and a place called Borough Bridge. And is this? Is that the

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a place where the river tone

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Stephen Parker: meet the river parrot?

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Stephen Parker: And it is this area that, subject to

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Stephen Parker: quite a lot of flooding. So in

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Stephen Parker: 2,01314, the winter there.

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Stephen Parker: This was the area that made the national news

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Stephen Parker: for about 4 months.

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Stephen Parker: when we had a series of of rainfall events one after another, and the river system wasn't wasn't able to

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Stephen Parker: cope with that amount of rain, and we have extensive flooding

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Stephen Parker: Flooding has been an issue on the Somerset levels for

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Stephen Parker: thousands of years.

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Stephen Parker: The original

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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

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Stephen Parker: the monasteries, doubt a lot spent a lot of time and money

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Stephen Parker: draining and managing the water levels across the area. So this is South Lake more from the top of Burrow, mum.

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Stephen Parker: and you can see it's a very flat landscape here, intersected by

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Stephen Parker: a series of of small ditches.

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Stephen Parker: Some of them are a tree lines. No, others are much more open.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: and this was a conservation project

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Stephen Parker: carried out

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Stephen Parker: in in the

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Stephen Parker: 2,009. To reinstate this this process called Warping W. Our W. A. Rp. I. And G.

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Stephen Parker: Which is a medieval term, and it was deliberately flooded. The, the, the, the landscape.

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Stephen Parker: as in the photograph here.

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Stephen Parker: we do that now for conservation purposes. But back in the 1,800 fortys.

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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

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Stephen Parker: or whatever nowadays, as I say, it's done for the benefit of the the winter in waterfall.

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Stephen Parker: So from about Christmas, right through to maybe the end of January. The

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Stephen Parker: the water is shallowly moved across the moor.

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Stephen Parker: It's somewhat reminiscent of the of the water meadows in in other parts of the country.

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Stephen Parker: but but slightly different.

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Stephen Parker: In the summer the area is much drier, and, as I say, it is a farmed landscape.

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Stephen Parker: Here. We've got one of the rarest, another rare plant of the Somerset wetlands. This is a greater water parsnip

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Stephen Parker: a large umbrella, for it stands

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Stephen Parker: probably 2 meters in height, so over 6 foot in height

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Stephen Parker: its feet are in the water. It's a very much a Wetland plant.

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Stephen Parker: There was a quite a big conservation effort. some time ago, now 7, 8 years ago, now to

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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

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Stephen Parker: as part of a biodiversity action plan

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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.

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Stephen Parker: The ditches also, support a wide range of other aquatic plants such as this pond we this is broad. Leave pond, weed

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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

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Stephen Parker: actually growing out of the the bottom of the ditch. It's a floating plant.

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Stephen Parker: although.

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Stephen Parker: Well, that's that you're very likely to see. You'd like to see road here that they're reasonably common.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: Going back. Some 10 years ago there was a project with the great Crane Project run by the Wildfire and Wetlands trust

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Stephen Parker: the Rspb.

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Stephen Parker: Pennsylvania Trust, which is based in Norfolk.

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Stephen Parker: and for a door which is the local a local company.

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Stephen Parker: and they have reintroduced the crane. The common crane.

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Stephen Parker:  cranes were. Eggs were collected

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from the the North German plane.

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Stephen Parker: I brought over to

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Stephen Parker: the Wilderness Trust slim bridge where the

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eggs were hatched.

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Stephen Parker: And then the crimes were

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Stephen Parker: what talk to be cranes by humans dressed in crane suits

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Stephen Parker: and then reintroduce. I think there was about

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Stephen Parker: 50 or so eggs are introduced. They're now breathing on the Somerset levels. So that's been a very successful reintroduction

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Stephen Parker: project that's gone on. And It's it's been very popular with

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Stephen Parker: with local people that they love to see particularly here. The cranes.

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Stephen Parker: one of the the most extensive areas of lowland. Wet grassland is an area known as Wet West Sedge more.

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Stephen Parker: and this is a very special place indeed.

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It's managed now by the Rspb. A large area. It's managed by Rspb.

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Stephen Parker: and it's the type of vegetation that is now extremely rare in the British Isles.

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Stephen Parker: I think at the beginning, someone said, this is

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Stephen Parker: one of the largest area of lowland, wet grassland, or wetlands surviving in Britain, and it is truly

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Stephen Parker: an important site from that point of view.

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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

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Stephen Parker: that is is very uncommon now

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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
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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.

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Stephen Parker: So, although it's wet in winter. it dries out in the summer and the spring.

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Stephen Parker: and then the the hay is taken, the cattle graze

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Stephen Parker: and it's a sort of a a normal grassland. In that sense.

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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.

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Stephen Parker:  the home in the early spring

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Stephen Parker: to this little buttercup it's called mouse tail

358
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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

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Stephen Parker: of the Somerset wetlands.

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Close to to West S. More

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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

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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
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Stephen Parker: nice place to visit, and there's lots of

364
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Stephen Parker: opportunities.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: that's the one of the newer nature reserves in the era that's managed by the whole Canal Trust.

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Stephen Parker: Then the Wildlife Trust have

368
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Stephen Parker: a series of nature reserves, including

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Stephen Parker: catcot, Nature Reserve and West A, which I've shown. Some photographs of

370
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Stephen Parker: the Rspb. Are are big landowners in the era. They've got a reserves and wall

371
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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
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Stephen Parker: very important wetland reserves, not only for the bird life, but also for their

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Stephen Parker: other wildlife as well. the National Trust own an area known as Burrow mump.

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Stephen Parker: and that's an area where you can get, spend your views

375
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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
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Stephen Parker: Come in the summertime see the dragonflies

377
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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.

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Stephen Parker: and I'm very happy to take questions.

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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.

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Fiona Wright:  you were talking about farmers objecting to to natural England plans and developments.

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Fiona Wright: What were their objections? Why did they do that?

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Stephen Parker: Okay, so this is pretty early on in the history of

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Stephen Parker: government, nature conservation.

384
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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
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Stephen Parker: a map showing the area, and then a list of things that they have to consult

386
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Stephen Parker: at natural England about. And it was that list of operations really, didn't go down very well.

387
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Stephen Parker: so that's they were objecting to that. It was.

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Stephen Parker: I think there was quite an element of misunderstanding in that. And there's a

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Stephen Parker: the area that the farmers and the the conservationists work hand in hand. So so it was just a

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Stephen Parker: a a moment.

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Fiona Wright: I think we've lost Steven for the minute. There.

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Fiona Wright: let's see if he comes back.

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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.

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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.

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Stephen Parker: Hello! Sorry about that.

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Stephen Parker: Welcome back, Stephen. They got cut off in your prime. There, I did. Yes.

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Stephen Parker: so yeah. So I think I'd I'd answer the question about the

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Fiona Wright: the notification and the original issues. Yeah.

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Fiona Wright: So that was our first question, wasn't it? That was a bit far, most, wasn't it?

400
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Fiona Wright: Okay? Now, it's a a question here from Maria.

401
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Fiona Wright: are the levels of liminal zone. Now, that's a term I've not heard before.

402
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Stephen Parker: so meaning is it? Sort of a a, a a sort of a wet.

403
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Stephen Parker: wet, wet zone from that.

404
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Stephen Parker: Well, so so the hydrology is based on

405
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Stephen Parker: 5 or 6 rivers that flood through.

406
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Stephen Parker: flow through the area

407
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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
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Stephen Parker: we're trying to get to that. But yes, that there's certainly a

409
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So first, as he called, just when we're looking at area.

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And we're looking at biodiversity. Really, it can be anywhere.

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So you could simply be looking at just the biodiversity of a town or city.

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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

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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.

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Now for the second part of that definition. When we get into species, this is one of those things where a simplest area sounds.

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Species is not terribly simple. If you ever want to rile up and excite and enrage a biologist ask them what a species is.

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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.

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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.

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They have to be able to produce offspring and their offspring have to be able to produce young offspring themselves.

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So usually, we're looking at species. It's that fertility bit that defines a species so sterile.

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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.

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They're not considered their own species because they're sterile.

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They can't they can't have their own babies.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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That's a species.

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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

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more genetically diverse species is, the more stable it will be.

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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.

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Again. We'll go into. Why, that's important. Later.

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And then finally, in addition to jeans ecologists are also interested in really large scales, such as entire ecosystems.

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The physical environments that the species live in themselves so ecosystems.

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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.

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So the nutrients, for instance, in the hills up here in this photo of Cumbria, are eventually going to flow down to the fields.

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So ecosystems do not exist in isolation.

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They're all connected to one another. There's animals and plants and nutrients and water flowing in between them all.

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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.

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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.

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And again, even though these would be considered sort of separate ecosystems.

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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

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streams, and eventually flowing out to the ocean, and then, meanwhile, animals, especially are going to be moving in between them, in and out.

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I've even heard even things that you think would move between ecosystems such as fish and things like plank zooplankton things like that.

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They actually do. So lots of lots of movement all about in this.

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So knowing that, how do we actually get down and measure biodiversity?

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It's the sort of 2 ways to do it. One is to simply sit down and just count the species.

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This can be like the variations of genes as well.

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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.

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The other way is to number 2, not number one, but they're both important.

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Is that also compare how common, or also how rare species or genes or ecosystems are in a landscape.

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So we'll go kind of break these down into more detail.

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So, while simply counting the number of species in the landscape, sounds pretty easy, like asking a biologist what a species is.

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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.

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on the planet. We've only currently counted a.

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It's believed that we've counted 1.3 million different species so far, which sounds like a lot.

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But scientists have sat down and tried to estimate how many species are actually should be given.

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The amount that we already know and that values closer to 1.8 sorry 8.7 million.

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So so far we've only we've described less than 20% of the species on the planet.

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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

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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.

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It actually is true. We know more about the service of the moon than we do about the deep ocean here on earth.

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There's some other reasons as well. A lot of species are considered inconspicuous. Things like soil.

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Microbes, and you know certain different types of insects there's just not that big.

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So we're really good at counting, you know.

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Birds, mammals, nice, large, what we call megafauna.

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Some of the little critters get left behind and forgotten about.

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So, for instance, this little photo here on the top right.

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This is a photo of a pseudo scorpion what's called a soil. Arthropod.

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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.

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Again. We haven't counted them all, but they guess that there should be a about 20 million of them.

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So, there are lots of scientists with lots of work ahead of them.

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Another issue is that sometimes, again, because species concepts are kind of fuzzy, and scientists fight about them a lot.

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It's actually hard to identify all of these different species.

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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.

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And sometimes species look really similar, but they don't, interbreed.

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So it is just very muddy and very messy.

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Another way, in addition to just simply counting the species, we can also compare how rare or how common species are.

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So just today's example here, this is sort of in your heads.

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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.

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Is, it should be okay. When you look at it and makes sense.

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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?

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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.

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So the sort of the number of individuals in each species is more even so this community this ecosystem, isn't.

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Is it really dominated by one super common species?

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And then a bunch of really rare ones. There's you know, there's a couple individuals.

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There's probably a 4 or 5 of each tree species there.

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Because of this. This means that it's more even, which means it's more diverse overall.

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So, even though you could have an ecosystem, you could have an environment that has 4 species.

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If most of the trees in that forest are only comprised of one species, they're all the same.

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It's actually, not really that diverse.

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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

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biodiversity hotspot it usually is also being threatened by human activity.

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So official biodiversity hotspots here in the UK.

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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.

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Most of the biodiversity hotspots here in Britain are actually marine.

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We're actually in our oceans, though there are some on land as well as you'll see.

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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.

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Let's take a look at what biodiversity actually looks like here in the British Isles.

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So generally when people think of Britain, I would be probably hard pressed if you asked people about the Uk.

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Abroad, it's not generally thought of as being in having a really high biodiversity.

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Now, there's a couple reasons for that, and it doesn't all have to do with humans.

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Part of it is that there is lots of development in that.

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It is just an area that has been sort of developed and urbanised for an incredibly long period of time.

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But that's that's not the only reason.

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Yes, it does have a high population. Density. Yes, there's been really, reasonably large cities here for quite a long time.

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It also has to do with the fact that we're just simply closer to the poll, to the North Pole.

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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.

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From there. The other reason is, it's an island so islands, especially smaller islands.

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We're kind of reasonably sized island, but generally you're going to have lower biodiversity that say a continent.

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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.

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Now that said, there are lots of areas of high biodiversity here in Britain.

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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.

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But there are some incredibly internationally important areas here.

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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.

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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

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Atlantic Puffins, Leaches Petrels, Fulmars

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Another example, looking more mainland is the Braunton Burrows down in North Devon, it's a sand dune system.

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It's actually a UNESCO. So it's been recognized by the United Nations as a vitally important habitat.

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It's considered a biosphere reserve. And this is mainly because it has really for Britain has a very, very high plant biodiversity.

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So the types of plants and wildflowers that you find in brown burrows are much higher than phone elsewhere.

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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

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is brought, and boroughs it's found in gardens, and it's been cultivated.

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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.

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So it has a lot of erosion which, funny enough, was due to military training during the Second World War.

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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.

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Which has made it really tough for these really delicate native species, such as the water grammar, to maintain.

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2 more examples here, one up the coast up in Norfolk, actually from Blakeney to Brancaster coast is incredibly important.

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One for turn, nesting but one species that's probably a little bit more charismatic, and people find a little bit more fun.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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We have lots of Nudibranchs and Sea Anemonies which honestly are the things that most folks would associate with the tropics.

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But are growing at high abundance, and are doing quite well off the coast of Ireland.

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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.

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Things that you usually would see more commonly associated with the tropics up here in the North.

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So why does Britain have these biodiversity hotspots?

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Why has? Why have scientists like me lobbied government to protect these areas?

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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.

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Scientists. We've estimated that by default diversity has decreased rapidly since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

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And that's been the real demarcation here.

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The graphs that I have here. I hope they're visible enough for you guys.

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Show 2 estimates of extinction rates, since about 1,500.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:44.000
Some of the rituals that are involved in the coronation are actually older than some of the other ones.

00:00:44.000 --> 00:01:02.000
What I'm gonna do is take you back to Edward the Confessor Edwards, the Confessor, has a really important role to play in the whole of the coronation ritual.

00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:10.000
The whole of the coronation procedure, and a lot of the things that happen on Saturday actually do go date, at least in their essence, back as far as Edward.

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To confess himself, Edward the Confessor was King of England between 1042, and 1066, and one of the most important things he did was to build Westminster Abbey.

00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:39.000
Now the Westminster Abbey. We see nowadays on the site of Westminster Abbey is a little bit different to the one that Edward built in starting in 1042.

00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.000
This is an artist impression of what that Abby looked like in those days.

00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:51.000
There are some features that are still there today, but there are other features that have been changed, and enhanced over the years.

00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:56.000
The fact is, however, that Edward did actually build Westminster Abbey.

00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:09.000
Hey! How did it was consecrated in 1065 on the 20 eighth of October, and it started becoming an abbey from that point.

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000
Now obviously King Edward the Confessor was already king. At this point.

00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:21.000
He didn't need to have a concrete coronation, so he wasn't the first person crowned in Westminster Abbey, but he did.

00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:26.000
Was the person near built. Winston Westminster Abbey, and of course, because of that he has a very strong involvement in the story.

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When the consecration of Westminster Abbey took place on the 20 eighth of October, 1065.

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Unfortunately, Edward, the Confessor was already quite poorly with the illness that would take him away in January.

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If 1066, and so when it came to the consecration on the 20 eighth of October, 1065, he was actually too ill to attend that consecration.

00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:08.000
So his among the first big services he will actually available to attend, able to attend the Abbey was actually his own funeral.

00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:16.000
The funeral of Edward Confessor that took place on the sixth of January, 1066 like I said.

00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000
He died on the fifth, and his funeral was on the sixth.

00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:38.000
The funeral event with the confessor. On the sixth of January, 1066 also coincided with another big ceremony that also took place in Westminster Abbey on the sixth of January, and that Ceremony that ritual that

00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:46.000
took place on the sixth of January, 1066 was the coronation of Harold the Second.

00:03:46.000 --> 00:04:05.000
Harold Godwinson, if you remember the story of the Bayer Tapestry and the story of the the war, the Norman invasion, the Battle of Hastings involved Harold Godwinson being king at the time Howard Godwinson at the time with

00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:30.000
confessors. Death was one of the most important, and I respected people mainly because he owned a lot of the land in the south of England, and a lot of his estates were among the biggest in the country, and he had also created alliances with other land owners in the North his brother

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:52.000
Tostick used to be the landowner around Northumberland, but he was taken over in a uprising, and he ended up with Harold being the biggest and most prestigious of the landowners in the country, was a story that went along the lines of the fact that the

00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:10.000
wizard gamot which was the Council of Elders of the time, chose Harold Godwinson to be king, but it seems as a lot of evidence to suggest a power it actually shows for himself the crown of England, which again, was a different complexion on the whole, bottle of

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:27.000
Hastings and the Norman invasion. But anyway, the coronation, Harold Godwinson, as far as we know, took place in Westminster Abbey, and, as far as we know, it took place on the sixth of January, on the same day as the funeral of Edward.

00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:35.000
the confessor, and this is the first. Coronation in Westminster Abbey.

00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:41.000
The one tiny issue with it is that there aren't actually any records of it taking place.

00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:44.000
All we have is hearsay, and all we have is a little bit of conjecture.

00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:54.000
I suppose. Harold Godwinson Was definitely crowned.

00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:04.000
And we. It's more than likely that's what that's where it took place.

00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.000
Obviously 1066 was an important year for Harold Godwinson, as well as becoming king.

00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:17.000
He had the battle of Stanford Bridge against the Danes, and also in 1066.

00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:33.000
There was the battle, of course. Again William the Conqueror later in the year in August, and of course he lost his life in that battle which led a course to the next person to be crowned in Westminster Abbey.

00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.000
The next person be crowned in Westminster Abbey.

00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:52.000
In 1066 was William the Conqueror. Now one of the things about William the Conquerors coronation in Westminster Abbey is that it is the first official coronation in Westminster Abbey that we have on record William the Conqueror and his

00:06:52.000 --> 00:07:08.000
Normans are very good at keeping records of these things, and so his is the first one we know of to have happened in Westminster Abbey, and from that day of William the Conquerors, the coronation in Westminster Abbey until Charles the Third Coronation on

00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:15.000
Saturday, every single King of England, apart from 2, both called Edward.

00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000
Every single coronation has taken place in Westminster Abbey.

00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:23.000
Now, William, the Conqueror coronation was actually interesting for a slightly different reason, as well.

00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:33.000
It took place on the 20 fifth of December, in turn 66.

00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:45.000
He was king from? August to October time he had the right to have a coronation anytime, either chose Christmas Day.

00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.000
Now one of the things that people are going to say about that.

00:07:47.000 --> 00:08:00.000
Well, why do you choose Christmas Day? Well, one of the issues with Christmas Day in medieval and mid dark Ages times, was that it didn't have the same kudos as it has nowadays, in fact, it could spare fairly true to say that the date.

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:30.000
For Jesus is birthday. Celebrations wasn't, wasn't actually decided upon by the Church until the the fifteenth century, and so, in the time of the King William the First, the Sarahration of Christmas took place all the way from the before the 20 fifth the 20

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fourth, the 20, fifth, and then all the way to 30, first of January of the 30, and into January the fifth and sixth.

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In fact, those later days were more of a celebration than Christmas Day itself.

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What Christmas Day did have that was of an advantage was the fact that.

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The barons, the nobles, the landowners of the country, traditionally gathered in London at Christmas to celebrate Christmas.

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Their homes being quite cold in the winter, it made sense to have this as a time of year when you go to London, and you meet with your relatives, you meet with your friends, so he had a captive audience.

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The Barons and the earl's, and the those people were already in London.

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Now the significance of that in this particular occasion, on this particular occasion, was the part of the Coronation service that gets all the Lords, the nobles to actually pay homage to the person being crowned, and it was a really big and really important part of the coronation particularly in those

00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:54.000
days, William the Conqueror wanted everybody to see that he was the King.

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He wanted the pomp and circumstance of the fact that there was a coronation service in Westminster Abbey.

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He wanted the rituals, he wanted the display, and, most importantly, he wanted those locals and nobles to bow their knee to him and offer him their fealty. Offer him that pledge of loyalty, because that was the way he tied the country together, that was the way that he

00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:36.000
got discipline, that he got loyalty, that he got the people who already lived in the country to recognize him as king, and to give him service, and that was really important for William, coming in as a as a new king.

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Also, it's known that William, the Conqueror gave gifts of land to people from the time he became king, and that also became part of the Coronation service.

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From the point of view of the fact that those new nobles, new people who had been given land also were there playing homage, and there was seen to be paying homage in that particular service.

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Okay, so.

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Let's move on. Okay from Williams. First, a number of other kings from the period of time we're talking about, we're also ground in Westminster Abbey, and they also went through the same process of having coronation in Westminster abbey with the same kind of

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:55.000
pump and certain sense. So so on. From Edward the Confessor we've looked at, and Harold Godwinson, who is the first, be crowned in Westminster Abbey we have the official coronation of William the first who also was crowned in Westminster

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Abbey at this time with an official notice. Then, of course, we have William the Second, who was also crowned in Westminster Abbey.

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Henry the First, Steve King Stephen Henry the Second.

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One of the things that it's quite important to recognize.

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With all these coronations, and the depictions of the coronation is the fact that they're all seem to make having a similar shape or style of brown on the head in the depictions that they have.

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And it's shows that there was already a tradition of passing the crown down from one head to another.

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Over the crown we're looking at in this particular instance, as you can see, it's quite different from the crown that we have nowadays.

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And if you look at the crowd on the coin of William the First, just here you can see the shape, and this is obviously is quite like the realism, because it is a coin mint, and they use an actual likeness to do the cop dementing of the coins.

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We need to stop at Henry the second, however, because there was a huge change in the way we regarded our monarchs, and in the way the coronation services were held in the way.

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We regarded our monarchs, and in the way the coronation services were held in 1170, which was during the time of Henry the Second, and that's changed, takes us back to Edward the Confessor.

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Okay, so, Edward the Confessor, if you remember, was king before Harold Godwinson.

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But the big change that happened was that he was canonized and Edward the Confessor was made a saint.

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In the year 1170. Why was this such an important change?

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As far as the the coronation is concerned. Well, as soon as us a person is canonized, the objects, the artefacts, the things they owned in their lifetime take on a holy significance, they became holy relics which meant that the crown that Edward the

00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:11.000
Confessor, war and the it's higher that he wore, and the things.

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He held for his coronation, which is before Westminster Abbey.

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They are now we're now holy relics, the Middle Ages were really hot on saints, and if we can associate our kinghood with certain saintliness, then that is, going to see something we want to do.

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Added to this, the monks of Westminster Abbey stated to everybody in the world, wanted to hear.

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The dad would have actually requested before his death death, that objects from his coronation should be used at every coronation.

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From then on, so all the coronations that followed on from 1170 were based upon this idea of using the artefacts, the holy relics that were from Edward the Confessor.

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So a lot of the things that we talk about in the coronation, and the reasons we have still have them date back to this particular date.

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The artefacts in question were kept by the monks of Westminster Abbey, and brought out on the coronation days, so that they could be used for the coronation.

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The first of these coronations was in 1189.

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They objects are mentioned specifically by the monks as being from Edward the Confessor.

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Coronation. Begin with a tunicle, a dalmatic hi, liam, and other vestments.

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So basically it means that when the king or queen, who's crowned, they had to wear the clothes that were suggested by this this document, a tunicle is like a tunic really the idea of the tunicle is it went over the entire.

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We're wearing actually a diabetic and a tulium, a tunicle, and a domatic.

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Were really really similar in in their design and their function.

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So the chances are that it would have. He would have either won a domatic or a tunic or not both at the same time, because that would have been really made them hot with all the other vestments that are going to go on top as well, so we have the Albe that you would normally wear underneath

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the the robe that goes at the bottom, then a tunicle or the domatic goes over the top, and then the pallium would go over the top of that, and the pallium is this shape of it's like a tie, I suppose and it goes around your neck.

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And hangs down over your tunicle.

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If like that. Okay, so that's what these look like. The picture you can see.

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Here was from 1383. Robert Littlington, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time.

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Add this drawn up as a part of a lift into missile, which was instructions for people who were doing the services and show it, using pictures to show how to do coronation and things like that.

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So this is actually a king. This is just a person being crowned as a hey?

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Illustration to people how to do the coronation.

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Okay, as well as our tunicle. Domatic pallium, and other vestments.

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The king was expected to hold a few other things. Golden Sector, we know, and the will hold the golden sector on Saturday, 2 rods and a crown.

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Comb and spoon. Now in those days, of course, when we're talking about a comb, this comb wasn't there to brush his hair with.

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This is actually in his head. I hold his hair in place while he was being ground.

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And the 2 rods that I've gotten pictured here are actually the ones that are going to be used on Saturday.

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So that tradition also is coming down the line. The spoon is the anointing spoon.

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I noticed somebody already mentioned. I had a question about the anointing spoon we'll come back to the anointing spoon later.

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Again again, because of the date of when it, this particular anointing spoon started being used.

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But the anointing was something that also happened right from the very beginning of the coronation of every king, every queen has been anointed with oil, using the United States and anointing student, including Elizabeth the Second, and it will be part of the coronation of King Charles, It's

00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:19.000
normally done out of the public eye, and even to the point where, when Queen Elizabeth, I.

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Was anointed with the oil, it was done under a canopy. So the annoying thing is a very private affair, that it doesn't take place really in public view, but it does still happen as part of the service.

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But King had, with the confessor, also made a allowance for the fact that there would be a crown and 2 rods for the Queen to be crowned at the same time as the king, and in this case you can see we have an image of hey?

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Edmund the Second, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who 1154, became king, during whose reign, of course, Edwards, the professor, became a saint.

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The picture of the crown in this image is Queen Mary is Crown, which we used in 1911, when George the Fifth and Mary were both together on the the throne.

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Interestingly, Queen Mary is crowning's actually being used again by Camilla Kur. King Charles is Queen consort, and it's the first time in any coronation this year.

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That crown is being reused for a queen. When the Queens are being crowned in the past.

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It's always been a brand new crown, freshly made with this time.

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It's being Queen Mary's crown that's being reused, with the exception of the Cohen or Diamond, because that's not being used in the Crown, because it's a bit sensitivity in and 1272 Edward the first became King of

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:31.000
England and I know we've jumped on a little bit from 1170, but he is really the next person to have a huge impact on how the coronation took place, and the accoutrements and the regalia that we have in the coronation.

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Edward the First, as you may know, was really really, really militaristic.

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He had castles built in Wales, and most importantly, he was known as the Hammer of the Scots, because in 1296, after John Baliol decided he was going to side with the French against him.

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Edwards, the first invaded Scotland, and he went in 1296 in.

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Into Scotland he went up as far as Dunbar.

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What he beat John Bailey and took over the thrown of Scotland for a period of time.

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In that interchange between Baiel and Edward, the sorry Edward the First.

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A an artefact, an ancient artefact of Scotland was taken from the Scots and taken back down to England, and this, of course, was the Stone of Destiny, of the stone of stone that was part of the Scottish crowning rituals for many hundreds of years as you can see from

00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:51.000
the right, thing. The other thing that happened in Edward the first rain that was to do with coronations was the building of St.

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Edwards chair. It's an Edwards chair was not built in the time of Edwards, the Confessor.

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It was built in the time of Edward the First. The chair was actually built by Walter of Durham, and the picture you can see there is some Edwards chair in Westminster Abbey where it's the place where it's kept.

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When it's not being used for coronation. Now, the Stone of Destiny was put upon St.

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Edward's chair during coronations, and the King, who was being crowned, would sit on the Stone of Destiny, and the Stone of Destiny would be on the chair, and the coronation will take place upon the chair, and the coronation will take place upon the stone with their destiny, and that

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:41.000
again has also been part of the tradition of coronation ever since.

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In this particular case, 3,007. When Edward the Second became king, he was the first king to use the chair and the stern of destiny in coronation.

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Add with the second, also housing important part to play in the coronation in a much more well, some people would say a more important way, as well as being the first person to use and Ed was chair in a coronation, and as well as being the first person to sit upon the stone, of destiny, as an

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:22.000
English king in Westminster Abbey. Edward the Second.

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Well, he painted in a bit of trouble with the earl's and barons.

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It was all to do with his lover. He had been giving his mail lover too many privileges, too many jobs that other people should have.

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Obviously he wanted his love around him or the time. But the people, all the barons weren't very happy with this, and so they imposed upon a Edward the Confessor.

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Sorry, Edward, the same he keep saying that don't know why Edward the Second.

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They imposed on Edward the Second had extra oath.

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Normally, that was 3 h the King took on the throne, and they have the same 3 oaths that have been taken by William the First and all the other kings, and those 3 oaths were that the King should have hold the Lawson customs and limit is Granted by their ancestors that they should

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:39.000
preserve and protect the Holy Church, and they should render justice to the people of the kingdom, and those have always been there as the 3 main what happened with Henry the Edward the Second and his lover was that the barons and earls were able to install a third of fourth Oath for other and that

00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:47.000
forced both was to uphold the rightful laws and customs which the community of the realm have chosen.

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So this last one was really very much a if you like a curbing of the kings.

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Power, and the monarchs power, because by this for oh, this isn't the the laws of the King has created.

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This isn't about the king saying I'm gonna rule in this way, but it's about the king.

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Following the rule, laws and customs, the chosen by the community of the realm.

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This is a big change at this particular time, and part of what is a longer process of curbing, if you like.

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The actual powers of the monarchy. So at this particular time the Kit monarchy had unlimited, almost unlimited powers.

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But this curbing of his powers brought him as well, or that whoever was Monica within the restriction of the laws of the community of the realm.

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Okay, so then we move on to Edward the Third is just really to show you the image of Edward the Third, because we get more and more images of these coronation sections taking place.

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And among these images we start to see things like, for example, the orb, also something which we will see at the coronation in the medieval period.

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The orb was an important part of the coronation, because the orb had the significance of showing that the king or queen was part of this worldly realm.

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And it shows that they have power within this worldly realm.

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The bands on the over interesting, because the bands on the orb represent the 3 continents that they knew about.

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In the medieval period. We obviously know now more continents, but there was a the Europe they knew of Africa, the Africa of Antarctica, Australia.

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These were not places that were known of, so the 3 continents were shown on the orb, and by holding the orb in his hand as a symbol.

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The king was showing he had a responsibility to the globe and to the planet also in the image of that would be good.

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Here, you can see he's holding us sword, and again swords are gonna be an important part of the coronation of on on Saturday.

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There are going to be 4 swords involved in the coronation.

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The first sword is going to be the sort of state which could it shows Prince Charles is King Charles Authority.

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This will course be held by the king, and it will be held with the point up.

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Also in the coronation procession of 3 other stores which are at the sort of temporal justice about the King being a leader of the armed forces, the sort of spiritual duff justice for his role as defender of the faith which will come back to and the sort of mercy of

00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:02.000
which is the one that's in the picture on the screen.

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What you'll notice about the katana is that it is blunted because, as the sword of mercy, it's representing the king has the power to grant mercy and lenience on people, and so the sword is blunted to represent this.

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All 3 of these swords will be seen as part of the procession.

00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:52.000
Heyry, the fifth is in the picture, because he also is seen to be wearing a crown, and this crown, with following through the ages, and the one that was worn by Henry the Third in the previous picture, is looking very similar every time we see it Henry the Fifth Crown we haven't

00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:06.000
got very many pictures of Henry the Fifth, because he was only king for 9 years, and they just aren't that many pictures what we do have is some coins, and you can see in the coins we have the same similar type.

00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:14.000
Of crown, and again Henry the Sixth, Corinthian, Henry the Sixth was only a child when he was crowned in 1413.

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That was not. That date isn't right, 1422.

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He was crowned. So he was only a child.

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Right on we go with the Tudors, the Tudors.

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How a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really big impact on the coronation services up until the period of time.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:54.000
Of course we have the regalia and the coronation services up until the period of time. Of course, we have the regalia, and we have the foreignations, and we had all of the rights, but the Tudors, as with all things to that they really went to town, with a lot of these

00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:07.000
things, and part of this that was down. The fact that Henry the Eighth was really having to announce his kingship and show people that he was the king.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:15.000
In 1,509, Henry was obviously crowned, but he was actually second choice for kingship at the time.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:35.000
Henry had a brother called Arthur, who was older than he was also betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, but Arthur unfortunately died in Wales when he was 18, so Henry the Eighth became king instead and married Catherine of Aragon, which again led to

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:43.000
by hook or by crook. Henry becoming the head of the Church of England.

00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:54.000
Now one of the things that happened in Henry the eighth time, which was really really important as far as the the coronations are concerned.

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:01.000
From then on was to do with this notion of becoming the head of the Church of England.

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:08.000
Henry was quite on getting rid of quite a lot of the old stuff.

00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:14.000
That was associated with the previous church, and along with the dissolution of the monastery, is one of the actions that Henry took.

00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:25.000
Was to get rid of a number of the things that were involved in the coronations of previous kings and queens.

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So this legacy of Ed with the Confessor, that being kept in Westminster Abbey Abbey, a number of items from that were replaced by Henry Viii.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:49.000
When he was on the throne. So when it came to the crowning of Mary and Edward the Sixth at Elizabeth first, a lot of the regalia had actually been replaced by Henry.

00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:51.000
In the meantime, so you can see Henry wearing the coronation grounds and the possessions.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:33:03.000
But a lot of these were 3 made by Henry to show that it was a new start as much as anything else.

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Obviously seeing being as a lot of these also had been around for a few 100 years.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:17.000
It was probably quite a practical move to replace them with something newer. Anyway.

00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:32.000
But you can see from Henry's picture and from Elizabeth's picture, that the crown that we're looking at here looks different from the crown that we saw where, for example, in Henry the Thirds Coronation, or Henry the Fifth picture so We're looking at a

00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:39.000
different style, and a different design of crowd. And there's talk of something called the Tudor Crown.

00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:51.000
Which the design of the crown changed from the old medieval style of crown to the Tudor crown.

00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:03.000
Okay. Okay. Next on the scene, we have, of course, our friend James the First, and James James the First of England.

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:15.000
James Sixth, of Scotland. He was the first king to have both the thrones of Scotland, and the throne of England in his hold.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:21.000
People talk about the fact, we'll have. It's been thought that he was.

00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:32.000
It's a slight distinction between being a king of 2 separate countries, or being a combined king of one country, and James the First was king of 2 countries.

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:37.000
He wasn't King of England and Scotland. He was King of England, and he was the King of Scotland.

00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:59.000
He was crowned in Scotland on the 20 ninth of July, 1567 when he was only a baby, so he had already had the Scottish crowd on his head, and then he was crowned in England in 1,600, and 3 when he became King of England.

00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:04.000
So there are 2 sets of regalia really associated with James the First.

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.000
We have the Scottish regalia which includes the Scottish Crown.

00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:23.000
The Scottish sceptre there's a Scottish sword that goes with the coronation, which is a huge claymore, a different to the ones that were you being used in the English coronation, and obviously you have the regalia from the English coronation, as well, being the

00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:35.000
Tudor crown, the old, the rod that we're handed to him from from Elizabeth, from Mary, from Edward, and from Henry.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Obviously the next person on the scene was Charles the First.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:59.000
He was crowned in 1625, some 22 years later, and again, you can see in the image that we have of here that we can see the Tudor crown again, and this Tudor crown was used for Charles is coronation as well as well as the orb and

00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:10.000
the sceptre that we see depicted in this this particular image, and you can see how these are carrying through in the line to Charles the the First.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.000
Charles the first impact on the coronation was, how's a result of any of his actions in particular?

00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:28.000
He was crowned in the second of February, 1626. Hey!

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:46.000
Oh! A lady called Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic, and she didn't come to the Coronation Service because she thought it was a Protestant service, and so she wasn't crowned and sat on the seat next to in Charles the first as should

00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:54.000
have been happening because she refused to take part in a Protestant religious service.

00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:22.000
After Charles the First death in 1649. We have a very complicated setup as far as crowns and kings, and coronation goes, because as soon as King Charles the First was dead in Scotland, they immediately said that King Charles the Second was King he was declared King by the

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:31.000
Scottish Parliament in 1649, and he was crowned in Scotland on the first of January, 1651, as a Scottish king.

00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:35.000
This is not the English coronation. This is the Scottish king.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:38:00.000
Coronation. However, soon after the coronation, in 1651 there was a battle called the Battle of Worcester, which was the third of September, 1651, which was unfortunately a very bad low for Charles the Second, because he lost the battle, of Worcester. In fact the battle of Worcester, was such

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:11.000
a bad blow for Charles II's forces. The Charles was actually forced to into exile in France, and also the the round heads.

00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:27.000
The army of no colleague. The Cromwell actually went into Scotland and took over the Parliament in Scotland, as well as the Parliament in England, so there wasn't a king from 1,651 in Scotland as opposed to 16 foot 40

00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:35.000
9 in in England, when? Yes, we can see the picture here.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:43.000
These coins by the way, if you ever find one of these coins, do hang on to them, they're extremely rare.

00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:47.000
They were issued for the coronation of Charles.

00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:59.000
The second in 1651, by the Scots, and they're a lot worth a lot of money, because they are so rare and now quite old.

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:17.000
Now, of course. But anyway, problem well, of course, put a spanner in the works as far as the monarchy was concerned, and he also put a spanner in the works as far as the coronation were concerned, because the course that wasn't a coronation of the Oliver Cromwell and the

00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:38.000
Parliament that he ran were very keen on getting the money's worth out of the previous monarchies, and they sold off a lot of lands, and they sold off a lot of goods, and one of the things that Charles sorry Oliver Cromwell did was to

00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:44.000
meltdown most of the rest of the Crown jewels that were there.

00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:49.000
So the crowd went, the rods went, sword went.

00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:56.000
Now the source were kept. Actually the sword did survive, but they were sold off.

00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:06.000
But certainly a lot of the stuff was was melted down for scrapped, and the money was used to help with the government of the of the country.

00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:07.000
From Wells Protector until 1658, after Cromwell died as protector.

00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:21.000
They tried to have another protect the ship, go on, but they were in a bit of state to this ray.

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:22.000
Richard Cromwell, who was Oliver's son, was weak.

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:31.000
He didn't have Oliver Cromwell's charisma and his stern, strict upbringing.

00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:38.000
I suppose we should say Cromwell had a firm hand on the tiller.

00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:45.000
Richard Cromwell didn't have the same hand, and there wasn't anybody with chromos charisma.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:54.000
So in 1661, Charles the Second came out of exile and came back to England.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:59.000
He became king in 1660, and his coronation was in 60 and 61.

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:00.000
On the 20 third of April. Big problem for Charles.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:03.000
Second. What was the big problem for jail's second?

00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:10.000
Well that of course it was the fact that there wasn't a crown.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:16.000
Jewels, a coronation crowd anymore, because it all been melt my down.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:25.000
So Charles a second add a whole new set of regalia, built Robert Vineer, who was a jeweller at the time.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:30.000
Hey! Made the I'm pure. He made the anointing spoon.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:38.000
He made a new crown. He made new spurs, which we use to show do with his.

00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:46.000
The military side of things, and all these are made in 1661 for Charles the Second.

00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:50.000
The anointing spoon is actually older. Talk to the anointing spoon.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:58.000
The fact that they're still being used actually dates back to 1349 when it's first using it could even be older than that.

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:03.000
But it wasn't as sold for scrap.

00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:06.000
It wasn't broken down is actually sold to an individual buyer. A man called Mr.

00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:28.000
Kinnsley, who he bought in 1649 for 16 shillings, but when the coronation of Charles the Second was getting ready, he actually returned it to the king, and it was placed with the royal regalia, and using the coronation has been used in coronation ever

00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:33.000
since I'm just looking at the time and being conscious of allowing some time some questions.

00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:43.000
So we're gonna whizz through. So the crown that was made by Robert Viner was a replica of the one that's in the picture of Charles the First.

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:48.000
But it's not quite the same. But that crown and those accoutrements were used are being used virtually ever since.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:58.000
In 1,707 a big change happened, because that was the active union in Queen Anne's reign.

00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:08.000
The active Union was where Scotland and England were declared to be one country, and so the that's what happened with the active Union.

00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:09.000
And then in George. The First was the first King of England and Scotland.

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:35.000
He was crowned in 1714, and as we go through these pictures you can see that each of these pictures of the Georges all are wearing the same accoutrements or style of clothes for their coronation, when it came to Victoria obviously things had to change slightly because she wasn't

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:46.000
Male, but even so, you can see that some of the the accoutrements are there, the sword they all the crown, but adjusted obviously for Queen Victoria.

00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:49.000
Edward the Seventh also got crowned in St.

00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:54.000
Edwards Chair, also crowned with the same or same kind of brown.

00:43:54.000 --> 00:44:01.000
Mary, the First Mary's crown, Queen Mary is brown hair is the one that's gonna be used on Saturday.

00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:14.000
It was a new crown, Queen Mary, but the same crown restyled and read, polished and refitted, was on over the seventh head also, when George the Fifth was crowned.

00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:21.000
He also will the same crown on the same accoutrements, and a new crown was there for Queen Elizabeth.

00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:30.000
No. Now, Queen Mary. We're talking about, anyway. Edward the Eighth add the fittings to that for himself, even though he was never crowned.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.000
He was one of the 2 crap to kings of England that weren't crowned in Westminster Abbey.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.000
The other one being Edward the Fifth because, of course, he never had a coronation.

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:46.000
Either being one of the princes in the Tower, who never, never saw the throne.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:58.000
George is 6. In 1936 the same kind of crown, and George the Sixth Coronation was important because it was televised televised.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:05.000
And while people say, Oh! And Queen Elizabeth's coronation was televised. But George, the Sixth Coronation, was also Televised, but not as much as Queen Elizabeth.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:20.000
Seconds was, and again he uses a deadl's chair and the same regalia and the same crown, and Elizabeth the Second.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.000
Again. These things had to be adapted for her.

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:41.000
But again she was pictured in the same same clothes or the same style of clothes. Some of the things she's using, some of the investments obviously wouldn't be suitable for her, but some are in her.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:46:02.000
Holding them, as you can see from the images here. Of course, by the time we get to Elizabeth the use of media is much better, so from Queen Victoria's time we have photographs of the Queen in robes and Edwards as well with photographs and George Fifth George the sixth and tell

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:03.000
us, and then we get to our own new king, who is Charles the Third, and then Charles the Third.

00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:14.000
He will again be using a lot of the same things that we use before.

00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:27.000
Obviously there are going to be new bits and pieces there are always are every coronation, new music, new styles, but a lot of the things are.

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:34.000
Things are that we've been handed down and use in these previous coronations.

00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:39.000
And lastly, that picture was finished with a picture of Quinn, Camilla, and also the fact that we have got that's Queen Mary's crown from 1,911.

00:46:39.000 --> 00:47:00.000
That she will be wearing on her head. Okay, so thank you for listening to my talk and if you have any questions well, if Andrew's got any questions, I will take them.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:01.000
Okay, that's all right.

00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:08.000
Thanks. Then I'm sure we would all agree, a really really interesting presentation, a huge amount of information, lots of things.

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:11.000
I certainly didn't know around kind of. They all. But the different continents.

00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:15.000
The number of swords, coronations on Christmas Day.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:16.000
Even so really, really interesting. Let's let's get to the question.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:24.000
So we've had a few in our. I would just remind people as well.

00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:26.000
Please put a queue at the start of your question.

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:38.000
If you come from here on end. So any that come in now I can find easily and quickly, with time being quite pressing, you kind of covered the anointment piece a little bit.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:44.000
But Maria did ask as well. When did the original anointment of oil run out?

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:45.000
Okay.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:46.000
So they all used. When did that run out?

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:47.000
Okay. So the notion of the anointing oil running out isn't really what happens.

00:47:47.000 --> 00:48:01.000
Because what happens for the anointment is oil is brought in for the coronation, and it is blessed by the camera through before it happens.

00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:10.000
So every time there's a coronation it's a a bit of a oil that comes in, and they really would only have a small amount enough for the coronation.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:13.000
They had oils for the services, but again each one was blessed.

00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:15.000
Each time it happened, okay.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:21.000
Run it. Interesting. Okay, thank you. Next question question from Jen.

00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:25.000
Where was Matilda? Crown? So I'm not.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:27.000
I wasn't sure if he went through that in the presentation, but Matilda!

00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.000
Okay, I, to be honest about it, I didn't look up Queen Matildas Coronation.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:44.000
See where she was. Ground. I know Steven was crowned in Westminster Abbey, but I didn't check, so I couldn't actually tell you on that.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:51.000
I'd have to do some research. But what I'll do is I'll look it up, and I will. When we do the canvass questions. I'll put it on there as as a thing. All right.

00:48:51.000 --> 00:48:58.000
Populous. Really? Thank you. Next question from Liz.

00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:05.000
Why is that with the first, the first, when there's already been an Edwards referring to Edward the Confessor.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:12.000
Okay, this is a really good question. And I'm have to say I don't know the answer to the question.

00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:26.000
The only real thing that I can think of, and I think this is the thing that what's the only thing I can think of is because he was sanctified by his canonized.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:33.000
So he went out of the list because he was now a saint.

00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:34.000
Yeah.

00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:35.000
And he, being a saint, was bigger than being a king, and so he wasn't.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:42.000
He wasn't in the lists from that. And you're quite right, because a Harold airport was Harald the First, and he was before Ed with the confessor, and Howard the second Arrow.

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:54.000
Godwinson was just after the confessor. So if that's the only thing I can think of, but once again, I will check that, and I'll put it on the link.

00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:55.000
I know, I know.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:58.000
Brilliant. Thank you. Given yourself a long list there. Next question from Trudy.

00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:03.000
Is there any significance on the debts chosen for the coronation?

00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:22.000
Hey? Well, each of the monarchs themselves, with obviously with discussion, with their advisors, chooses the date of the coronation, and that really the only significance I can see apart from when William the First was crowned, and he deliberately chose Christmas Day it's really

00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:25.000
more about giving people time to get ready for the coronation.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:41.000
Obviously there are going to be a discussions between each of the people. But as far as I'm aware, there isn't a specific significance except for a personal significance to the people involved.

00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:52.000
Okay, interesting couple of crown-based questions did send Edwards and survive melting down.

00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:53.000
Okay.

00:50:53.000 --> 00:50:54.000
That's from Bridget and then Karen asked, Which crown will King Charles?

00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:56.000
Where?

00:50:56.000 --> 00:51:04.000
Okay, this is an interesting question. So hanging out with the St.

00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:15.000
Edwards crown that was used obviously when he was crowned was among the the things that actually Henry the Eighth got rid of.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:32.000
He replaced her head. Edwards crown. By the time it got that far, of course, every time a new king was crowned it was the original crown, but it had polishing and changing and new jewels and new linings, and so it probably wasn't even the same crown by the time.

00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:33.000
It got to Henry Viii. Henry the Eighth got actually got rid of it.

00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:45.000
So by the time it was 1649, and Oliver Cromwell's melting things down, Willie, Nellie!

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:54.000
It was the Tudor crown. And he did mount that down the Tudor cram was melted down, and the jewels in it were sold off, and the use the the money to support the Parliament.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:12.000
So the crowd we call Saint Edwards. Crown nowadays is the crown that was made in 1661 by what for King Charles the First coronation by Vienna, and it's the one that King Charles will be using he will use the crown of Edwards

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:33.000
for the coronation. Having said that there is another crown called the State ground that King Charles will be using most of the time when he is doing State visits when he's out in Parliament, and the Synag was Crown really only does come out for the coronation and then

00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:34.000
Yeah.

00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:49.000
it's kind of put away again. They are actually about 4 crowns involved for the king and the Queen, and obviously everybody who is a baron and earl, and a vicount. All those people that entitles their own crowns as well, so a lot of the old pictures have got them all with

00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:53.000
crams, diadems, coronets, those kind of things.

00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:54.000
Right? Interesting. I didn't know that about multiple crowns, either.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:56.000
Hmm!

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:04.000
So that's really interesting. And one question that I imagine, does come up quite a bit Sylvia's asked this one.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:09.000
The difference between queen and queen, consort.

00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:12.000
Okay.

00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:21.000
If you are the daughter of a king, and you become the next person to be on the throne, you're automatically a queen.

00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:32.000
That's fine. If you are married to a king through the normal.

00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:41.000
Way. Then you count you are a queen. The difficulty with the situation with Camilla, as I understand it, is because of the fact that Camilla has already been married.

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:54.000
He's been through a divorce procedure, so she can't actually qualify as proper queen because of that.

00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:04.000
So this queen consort role has been given to her as a kind of Midway house.

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:18.000
We could. We've seen other consorts, for example, when Queen Victoria was Queen, Prince Albert was consort because he wasn't entitled to be king, King King out trumps a queen, so he became a consort, and that's the same with

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:23.000
Camilla, it's the same thing, because she's got this history.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:29.000
Unfortunately, it means that she won't be given. That title of queen passed between consort.

00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:33.000
Alright interesting. Thank you. Couple of people have asked this I think it's an interesting one.

00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:50.000
Any record, I guess, going back through history of any coronation kind of being disrupted by protests by Republicans, any any kind of record of that.

00:54:50.000 --> 00:55:04.000
I haven't come across any. I know that when Queen Victoria was crowned there was so some descent on the route when she was on the way to being being crowned.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:14.000
But it was, well, quite quickly, and it wasn't very big, but haven't had any, and don't have any other coronation where it's happened.

00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:21.000
But again I can have a look. I just I don't think it's that have has been.

00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:22.000
Alright!

00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:26.000
Okay, interesting. We've got 1 min left. So squeeze one more question in Madeline.

00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:34.000
I'll ask as your question the picture of Harold the Second showed him, with his hands on the crown.

00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:39.000
Was that to was that to show he was the one who decided he should be king.

00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:46.000
Okay, yes, fundamentally, because all the other pictures of coronation that you will see.

00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:52.000
Are of the archbishop, or a person of authority placing the crown on the head.

00:55:52.000 --> 00:56:11.000
But that image is particularly important, because this is literally Harold Godwinson, grabbing the crowd and Browning himself, saying, I'm going to be your king, whether you like it or not, which is fundamentally what happened.

00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:12.000
Hmm!

00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:13.000
Right? Yeah, okay, right? I think we'll call and answer questions that cause we have bang on 60'clock.

00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:14.000
Good.

00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:15.000
Now, as we said at the start, we will mop up any other questions and put those answers.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:28.000
Tim's really kindly offered to kind of answer any of those that come through and put those on campus, so people can see the answers to those.

00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:33.000
Let's all join. And giving Tim a big Thank you.

00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:19.000
Thank you very much, Tiana. Good evening, everyone. I am really really delighted to be here this evening, and of the afternoon, and to be us speaking about the history of the Louvre I find this is a really interesting subject.

00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.000
It's a very famous museum, but I think it's where worth knowing.

00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:29.000
A little bit more about its history. So this is what I'm going to do to today.

00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:30.000
I'm going to take you through some of the main stages of the history of this fantastic museum.

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:39.000
The world's most visited museum. All right.

00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:47.000
So here's a first sort of like a reminder of what the Loo looks like from the sky, and where it is in Paris.

00:00:47.000 --> 00:01:04.000
Let me choose my laser. Pointer. Hey! We are so this is a map of Paris, and you see, the Louvre is really very centrally placed, as you know, really by the river right in the centre of the city, and this is what it looks

00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000
like today, it really is a very large museum. It covers a lot of ground, and it has changed a lot throughout the centuries.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:23.000
So it's a place that is, you know, very famous for several works of art, I think, in particular, Mona Lisa is a really, you know, it's on on everyone's bucket list.

00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:27.000
I guess you have to go and see it in your lifetime.

00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:35.000
And indeed you today you can only spend a few minutes, a couple of minutes in front of it, because there are so many people queuing to see Liu and other Devin shoes.

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:57.000
Masterpiece. So, for example, a number that has become emblematic of the Louvre success, its popularity with visitors throughout coming from everywhere in the world is that in 2018, just before the Pandemic 10.8 million people visited the Louvre that year 10.8

00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:03.000
1 million. And so this is this number that met it. The most visited museum in the world.

00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:15.000
So a really really popular place to visit, to have seen in one's life, and the reason for this is, of course, you know, masterpieces, like Mona Lisa, but also the Venus of Milo.

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:26.000
The victory of Sematrass, the Egyptian scribe, Delacroix, liberty guiding the people, or Michelangelo's Slaves.

00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:38.000
These are, you know, great works of art that you will see very often reproduced in books about the history of art, and in the Louvre has them, has a lot of these great works about.

00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.000
So it has a fantastic collection, a very big collection.

00:02:39.000 --> 00:03:02.000
It would take you several days. Actually, if you were to look at every works of art on display, it would take you several days to be able to see all of the works on display at any given time and many many objects and works of art are not on display currently because the museum holds so

00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:11.000
many pieces. So today as I have just 1 h, I have chosen a few points of interest to recount a bit the history of this great museum, I will first tell you what D.

00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:24.000
Ulu has actually been there since the twelfth century.

00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:43.000
I will then tell you about its creation as a museum, how it became a museum during the age of the Enlightenment, and I'll then speak a bit about the history of its collections, how it came to have so many great objects, and finally, if I have time at the end

00:03:43.000 --> 00:04:04.000
I'll try and show you how the Louvre, compared with other great European museums in particular, the Musso del Prado in Madrid, and the National Gallery in London, which, by the way, you may have heard will you know has an anniversary coming next year, in 2020

00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:08.000
4. It will be the 200 years anniversary of its creation.

00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:14.000
Alright! So the loop originally was a palace for the kings of France.

00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.000
It started as a medieval castle, so the construction of this Louvre and it was already called the Louvre, started in the late twelfth century, under King Philip Ii.

00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:32.000
Of France and, as you can see in the illustration, the illumination and the right hand side, it had a very different appearance. Back then.

00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:39.000
This was a fortified castle, and of course the king had chosen this site because it was very centrally placed.

00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:47.000
It had the river right next to you it, but it also had these very large, and you know, heavy walls to the sand.

00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:53.000
The King's castle. It also had a massive dungeon or a keeper, and recently actually, in in the 1980, s.

00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:06.000
When they did a lot of works to modernize the Louvre, they found some remains from that original tower, the central tower, the so-called ghost tool.

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:13.000
So today on the lower level, the under the underground.

00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:25.000
If you will under the Louvre, you can actually see the remains of that doleful that so called close to that are still, you know, visible today.

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:35.000
So these are the only remains from this medieval castle, built by the kings of France during the Renaissance, King of Francis the First decided that this medieval castle was not fit for purpose.

00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:47.000
It was too medieval, not modern.

00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000
It's, you know. And so, in order, the demolition of part of medieval castle and the reconstruction of a new royal residence.

00:05:51.000 --> 00:06:06.000
This time in the Italian style. So the fortified, you know, Aesthetic just went completely away, and in came indeed, a much more modern style, inspired by Florence and Rome.

00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:18.000
And you see here part of what King Francis the First built.

00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000
So this part here that I'm highlighting with my pointer.

00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.000
This here is what Francis the First built everything that's around was built later.

00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:36.000
So it is one of the things with the Louvre is that it was built progressively, you know, century after century, a king after another king.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:46.000
That commissioned more, more, more, words, more building. So the Louvre of Francis the First is just this building actually in that Italian style.

00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.000
The buildings next to it were built later. So here he is.

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Friends, is the first very important king for the history of France, and here you seem sort of drawing of the architecture.

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The Italian inspired architecture of this, the beginning of the Louvre, as we know it.

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So this is this still stands today and is the aesthetic that will inspire all the other buildings all part of that museum after it.

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And this is inside. And so it's important really, to remember to keep in mind that originally this place was a royal residence, and even today, as you walk through the Louvre, through the rooms of this great museum, you will be reminded here and there of this you know the existence.

00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:46.000
Of this place as a palace. So this is an example, for example, with the gallery of Apollo, which was meant for reception in, you know, when the Louvre was a royal residence.

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It was designed by Louisovo under the time of Louis the Fourteenth, before he moved his residence to Versailles.

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It has very much the pump of indeed a royal residence.

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So this is today still visible in this museum.

00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.000
That started as a castle in palace. So this is a quick sort of like a design, a map.

00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:17.000
It's a map of the Louvre or plan of the Louvre that shows you this piecemeal approach, if I may see how it was built.

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Little by little you have a successive construction stages, so I've mentioned here number one.

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This is what Francis the First built, and the rest was built later by his successes, and you can see about some of it was actually built in the nineteenth century, as the case for Number 19, for example, it was built as late as the nineteenth century.

00:08:35.000 --> 00:09:05.000
Under Napoleon the Third. So in the 18 fifties, 18 sixties, so it has a very long history, and again, as I said it, really, you know, things, buildings and parts have been added throughout the centuries, so that it is now this really again, massive complex and the latest edition.

00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:07.000
As you may know, is actually in the courtyard, right in the center.

00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:20.000
And so you have again. Sorry. You see here the court here the main courtyard and cars used to pass all around it.

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Now they can only pass this way. And so the latest edition is this great Pyramid.

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It's a glass and steel pyramid.

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The architect was in pay, it was Don. During Francois Mitterand's Presidency, and so pay was tasked with transforming the louvre.

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So it would be a modern museum, and yeah, I did this underground level, which was indeed is the risk reception area.

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So you can see here the bottom of the slide. If you look through the glass pyramid, where, when you are on ground level, you can actually see this reception hall or the lobby down there, which is where it's one of the points of entrance into the museum, it's

00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:12.000
the main entrance actually to the Museum. To this this was a very controversial project.

00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:13.000
This latest transformation of the loo and the addition of the pyramid, it really divided.

00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:29.000
You know the French population as to whether or not this was a great idea, whether it would be beautiful or catastrophic and detrimental to the beautiful historical building around.

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And today it has proven. You know, it has become iconic. Today. The pyramid of the Loo is a well liked addition to this historical site, and yes, it has absolutely become an icon of this museum.

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.000
So if we now we have, you know we've discussed this for the early history of the Louvre as a royal residence.

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I want to focus on how the Loo became a museum.

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And so this transformation from royal residence to public museum happened in the age of enlightenment, and in particular, around the French Revolution, and it started before the French Revolution.

00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000
But it ended up being a project of the revolutionaries as well.

00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:23.000
Who were the ones who opened the doors of this public museum.

00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:41.000
So the Louvre, you know, was inhabited by the kings until Louis the Fourteenth, Louis the Fourteenth, in the seventeenth century, decided to move his residence in his main residence to Versailles, and the Louvre was then inhabited, but it was

00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:42.000
occupied. It was occupied by artist workshops.

00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:49.000
Court artists had their workshops at the Louvre.

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It also was the seat for the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:56.000
It was also the place for the Annual Art Exhibition of the Academy.

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The very famous. So the salon which is going to become a very important artistic.

00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:19.000
Event in Paris, you know. Up until the end of the nineteenth century the salon took place originally in the Louvre, in a room that was called L.

00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:29.000
So this is actually the name of the room that gave its name to this annual exhibition of paintings and sculptures of engraving.

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So this exhibition was really a very popular event, and you can see here on this print you can see the people.

00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:45.000
So for climbing the stairs to see the paintings that had been selected to be to be displayed to the audience that year.

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So this is an annual exhibition. It's a bit like in England.

00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:01.000
The the annual show, the summer show of the Royal Academy, for example, and this is the same principle.

00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:02.000
Every year living artists are showing their latest productions.

00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:15.000
Their latest works, and so finally, the Loo, in the seventeenth century is also a place to store the royal collection.

00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:25.000
So there are many casts, many of sculptures, paintings, models, all sorts of things, tapestries as well, are stored in the loof if they're not in use, you know, in Versailles, or in any other castles.

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:32.000
They're stored in the loop. So it is.

00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.000
How. Actually, this is an important transitional moment for the Loo.

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As it was used by the art world. The artistic establishment, the Academy, and as it was used by the King to store its collection, it will become the natural site for a museum for this idea of show ways the collection to the public so this id to show you know the royal collection, to

00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:07.000
the public, it actually again it came out of the the philosophy of the of the enlightenment.

00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:22.000
It is you know, these philosophers and these members of Parliament who first add the idea that the role of royal collection should be displayed to the public, that the public would benefit from seeing these works, and so the idea was put forward.

00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:29.000
By the Parliament to open up the Loo on certain days to certain people.

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So it it happened actually in a different place, not in the loop, but in the paradigm where people who wanted it could ask to.

00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:45.000
You know, be given the keys, if you will, to certain rooms, and they were showed around.

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They could see the paintings. You know the paintings by Da Vinci, by Rafael, by Veronesse, and so on, and enjoy all this art.

00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:01.000
But still only a few select people could request to see these works a lot.

00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:09.000
In 1776, Lucas Donvillier started working on plans to turn the Louvre into a proper museum.

00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.000
With this idea of opening and opening it to everyone and anyone.

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Represented by Groves. You see here, when 1776, this is before the French Revolution.

00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:34.000
So again, this is important as well to know that even before the French Revolution, if there were plans to create a public museum based on the royal collection.

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But these plans were not finished, were not accomplished.

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Realized before the Revolution started. So in 1789 the Revolution happened.

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It. Really, you know, it sent France down a turmoil like a really a whirlpool of you know, of troubles these are very troubled.

00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:13.000
Years indeed, very bloody years in the history of France, but which you know years that transformed France from an absolute monarchy to a republic for and it is actually just a few years after the French Revolution that D.

00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:17.000
Louvre finally opened its doors as a museum.

00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:39.000
So this happened on the tenth of August, 1793, and the name chosen for it was also the the Central Museum of Arts of the Republic, and it really, you know, you know, that the Committee really insisted on the fact that those works of art on

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:43.000
display were now the nation's property. This is how it happened.

00:16:43.000 --> 00:17:06.000
So during the Republic the work that belonged to churches, to convince, to, you know, to the king the works that belonged as well to aristocrats that had fled the country, all these works of art had been seized that they had been, you know the second seized, indeed and

00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.000
so they're going to constitute the basis for the art collection of the Loo.

00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:15.000
Re. It is the seized works of art, confiscated works of art.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:21.000
If you will, that will be the very basis of the fantastic collection of the loop.

00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.000
To start with when the museum first opened its doors.

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It had 666 works of art so I want you to emphasize here, for example, a difference with the National Gallery when the National Gallery opened its doors.

00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:44.000
It had some 37 works of art. This is what the members of the Parliament had managed to purchase, because they started with nothing.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:18:05.000
They really started from scratch in the Louvre we have a very different scenario, a very different history, where it is, you know, the confiscation of in particular, the royal collection that really is making the basis of this fantastic permanent collection that the louvre still has so now all these

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:25.000
works were the nation's property. When the Louvre opened it was a public museum, open on some days for artists on the painters, sculptors, engravers, and so on, and on other days, for both artists and everyone and anyone an entrance was free the entrance was free until

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:32.000
quite recently, actually, this is a painting by Uber, who is going to be the first sort of keeper of this museum.

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He was a revolutionary. He was a painter as well, and here he is depicting for us the great gallery, like home.

00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:59.000
Gallery. This is the first place in the Louvre where paintings were put on display paints and a few sculptures, but mainly paintings, and, as you can see, they were displayed from eye level all the way to the ceiling, and it's a really long gallery it's

00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:04.000
over 500 metres. It's a really large space with big windows. At least it had been.

00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:05.000
We windows today. It has skylights rather than side windows.

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:23.000
And so this is the first place where the Louvre became a museum in the so-called great gallery, with some 660 works of art that the public could see and enjoy.

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:28.000
So all these works, 660 works that were, you know, on display.

00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.000
And it was a tiny, fruit. It was a fraction of what they had confiscated.

00:19:32.000 --> 00:20:02.000
All these works they were almost destroyed. They were almost just completely destroyed, because in the in this revolutionary order, indeed, violence that characterized the early republic in France, many republicans, many revolutionaries, thought that all these works of art were the remains were the leftovers of a past system a past system a past system a

00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:26.000
past system, a past, and in that spirit that spirit of, you know, sort of you, raising everything from the past, some some in the new Parliament wanted to destroy all the works seized from, you know, aristocrats from the king from convent, simply and purely wanted to destroy them and here again we have

00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:42.000
to thank the spirit of, you know the edge of the enlightenment that so in these words, not simply, you know, markers of a bygone past where these works, were the privilege of only a few, but this.

00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:48.000
So in these works of art, the history of humanity, and as such, no, they.

00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:58.000
They were part of humanity's patrimony heritage, and as such had to be protected and promoted, studied, as well.

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And here we have a very important figure in the history of French, you know, thought, philosophy, and in history of France it's the East called Abeg Rigo.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:15.000
He was actually a cleric, but also a revolutionary. And so he defended the cultural heritage.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:22.000
The idea of cultural heritage, and it announced the vandalism of many revolutionaries.

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He said, let's inscribe on all our money.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:34.000
Monuments, and engrave in our hearts this sentence, barbarians and slaves hate sciences, and destroy art monuments.

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Free men love and freedom, and so, as free men, you know, people should be able to indeed, to study, to look at these works, of art, to study them, and to, you know, to be educated by looking at these works of art, to be ennobled by looking at these works of art, and this is where you know where the idea

00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:21.000
of the museum also comes from the idea of this place, where one can study the greatest objects ever created by men and women, and so the museum is there to keep them to preserve these works about to display them, but also to study them and here and again, this is so typical of the edge of

00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:25.000
the enlightenment, the museum is going to be thought of.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:28.000
So the Louvre is going to be thought of, conceived as an encyclopedia of Fine Arts.

00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:48.000
So this is something we find in a text from 1794, this idea of an encyclopedia of Fine Arts, so before that when you know when collections have been on this play, it was a bit of a Miss mishmash you know you would have I don't know you would

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.000
have Lunar da Vinci. Next to you know.

00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.000
Next to a cocoa artist, and so everything would be a bit like mixed together.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:04.000
Maybe things would be met to be look good together. But you didn't have any order per se.

00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:14.000
But from that moment onward, when the museum has this educational function, when its purpose is indeed to preserve.

00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:15.000
You know historical objects of great value for mankind.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:41.000
Its purpose is also to understand these objects better as markers of, you know, a history, a past history, and as such you suddenly have this idea that the works of art should be displayed in you know in a history call manner, so that people visiting the Loo would be able to understand better these works of art

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:55.000
would see them with other from the same schools, same area of the world, and would be able to to deepen their understanding of this time period and this geographical era.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.000
This civilization, and so on. So here it becomes really, yes, there's an educational effort.

00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:11.000
Was this idea that looking at works of art and understanding them, will make of you, make of you a better person.

00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:22.000
On this idea of betterment is very important. In the enlightenment, and the idea that with education, knowledge, more knowledge, you become even more free.

00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:35.000
And indeed, yes, more educated, so the you know, the works of art were redisplayed in a more scientific manner.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:36.000
A catalogue was returned. Of all these collections, to present them in a scientific way.

00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:50.000
And the museum was then seen as a sanctuary, where the peoples will elevate themselves through knowledge and beauty.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:25:05.000
So really, this idea of being edified by art by beautiful objects, fantastic, no masterpieces, is very important, and it really is part of why this place was created, why the Louvre was created.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:13.000
The idea is that it's a place where you find the most amazing objects that this you know humanity has ever created, and that they're there for the benefit of everyone.

00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:31.000
Of anyone and everyone who can come and visit this place and that as a result you should find yourself in it edified and nobled, educated by looking at these works.

00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:38.000
So, to begin with, it's interesting just again to know that the was first opened for artists and only for everyone.

00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:49.000
On Sundays, and it was free to go there. And this is because, to begin with, the idea that this is a place for education is narrow.

00:25:49.000 --> 00:26:04.000
And so it's a place for the education of artists, and only a slightly later from the nineteenth century onward it will be seen as a place for education for everyone, not just artists, but indeed everyone.

00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:15.000
And here you see just a few a few paintings that depict, you know, people visiting the as it was at the time so you had a paintings from 180.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:23.000
2, with the so-called sales which had the collection of casts and antique sculptures.

00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:35.000
And here you see the so called, where the annual exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts used to happen, and you see just a variety of of visitors.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.000
You know, foreigners and women have men with a top hat.

00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:44.000
You have a copyist here, this woman here is copying a painting.

00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:49.000
This is a very, also a very frequent sign at the Louvre copy.

00:26:49.000 --> 00:27:00.000
Yes, there was so many copies, and on the wall you have a large painting by, and here you have a an immaculate conception by morilio.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:12.000
So some of the greatest works of the time are in this little room, and and here just 2 paintings by modern painters, Edgar Duga and James Tiso.

00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.000
Around these paintings are contemporary.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:22.000
You have Mary Cassad aduluvre on the left hand side, and just Tiso, showing us some visitors of the rule.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:42.000
In the 18 seventies. This was a very frequent destination, for indeed, artists, we know that, you know many Duga birth, Moorizo, Fontanito, looking at works of art, but also copying them.

00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:48.000
I mean even says and said to one of the models that was sitting for him, he did say, I'm going to visit you.

00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:55.000
I'm going to the loop this afternoon, and if my visit goes well I shall be able to finish your portrait.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:09.000
So. It was a very important place for artists in the nineteenth century, and up to today, and of course it was in every tourist book in the nineteenth century a place to absolutely visit.

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:19.000
So now that we know a little bit more about how and why the Louvre was created, I wanted to have a look at how the galleries were filled.

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:32.000
So the first thing and I've said it already is that the basis of the collection was, you know, the private collections of King, King, King of France, and different convents.

00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Churches, and other aristocrats that had fled the country, and the Revolution.

00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:44.000
So, for example, this is how the very famous Mona Lisa ended up in the collections of the Louvre.

00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:52.000
Mona Lisa was actually bought by King Francis the First, from Leonardo da Vinci's assistants in the sixteenth century.

00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:53.000
So when Leonardo da Vinci died, died in France.

00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:08.000
You know his workshop was in front at a time, and King Francis the First bought a few paintings from the masters, assistants, and among the paintings were indeed was Monadisa.

00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.000
So it's been in the, you know, in France for several centuries.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:32.000
King Francis the First is actually well known for having purchased great works a lot, and commissioned as well other works works by Titian, by seed, Estiano del Pumbo, by a Hafan, and so on by Marquis Lange, Michelangelo sorry so these Royal

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:37.000
Collection, this royal collection is really, yeah, at the heart of the collection of the Louvre.

00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:40.000
This is a selection of paintings purchased under Louis the Fourteenth, again, paintings by Raphael, Baptistian, and so on.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:30:02.000
Masterpieces, it is considered to the as masterpieces I think it's also like the Cardinal mezza hum country member under which king he worked, but he purchased a lot of paintings from the collections of Charles the First, you know, coming from England when

00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:20.000
the collection had to be sold, you know, because of Cromwell Mazahar purchased a lot a lot of the paintings that Charles the First had acquired over the years, and another really like a sort of an important and well known episodes of collecting you know, of

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:41.000
accumulating works of art, for the Louvre is during the Napoleonic Europe, as as you know, probably naturally, Napoleon and his army looted a lot of works of art throughout Europe and North America, North Africa, from 1794 to 1815 and here is so British

00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:58.000
caricature to illustrate this, which represents, you know, Napoleon's sizing the Italian relics, the caricature is from 1815, when Napoleon actually had or his team, yeah, France had to restitute to give back a lot of the works

00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:10.000
of all that had been looted throughout these years. Now, you see his soldiers sizing an Italian sculpture, or a Roman sculpture, and putting them in chests.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:18.000
And just you know, taking everything they can. Napoleon had this idea, and again he wasn't the only one.

00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:44.000
Yeah. This idea that France was a leading nation in Europe, that it represented the future, and as such its museum, which is soon renamed he had this idea that the the Louvre, the Misjud rule, should be a universal Museum hosting you know, all the greatest objects of

00:31:44.000 --> 00:32:01.000
the world, and that if someone were to visit the Louvre, that person should be able to have access to all the greatest objects of the world, so for him it made sense to take the things that had been in Rome for centuries and he plays them in France, as France, was the sort of sort of

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.000
New capital, if you will, of Europe. So it was very much.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:23.000
You know his. How do you say it's his, giant ego, you know that that led him to think this way, but it's also the propaganda in France at the time are sort of placing France at the forefront of progress, and change.

00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:34.000
In Europe, so among the works that were taken during these years are 2 really famous sculptures, the Apollo Belvedere and the local.

00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:35.000
These captures were taken from the Vatican, and today they have been returned to the Vatican.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:45.000
But for a few years they were visible in the Loo, the horses of St.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:51.000
Mark of San Marco in Venice. They were taken down from the Basilica.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:54.000
They used to be on the fac side of the basilica.

00:32:54.000 --> 00:33:11.000
The horses were there, and they were taken down in 1797, and you see one of them here, pooled by real horses in a sort of a very prestigious linear procession, and they're going to be brought back to France and actually when these works arrived in Paris

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:17.000
it was usually a celebration, you know. A processions were organized.

00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:30.000
And yes, a procession was organized with all sorts of manifestations to welcome these great masterpieces into the Louvre, and so for a few years the horses of St.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:43.000
Mark of San Marco, which today are in the basilica, were visible in Paris as a matter of fact, Napoleon had placed them on top of a little triumphal act.

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:54.000
Arch, which is facing the Louvre today, you still have horses up there, but their replica of the horses of St.

00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.000
Mark or St. Mark, which have been returned to the Basilica.

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:16.000
So when you know, when Napoleon was defeated, finally defeated in 1815, France had to restitute to give back most of the works, it had looted over these few years.

00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:29.000
So you know the we're given back to the countries where they had been taken.

00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:36.000
And, by the way, it's quite interesting, because the horses of San Marco were actually had been tech from Constantinople.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:43.000
Originally taken from Constantinople by the Romans, and had then been in Italy for several centuries.

00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:53.000
But you know, they sort of they. They have travelled quite a bit in their very long history, and they're from the second or third century of our era.

00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:59.000
So some of the works were returned, others were not returned. It's the case for Paolo Veronasi.

00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:04.000
The wedding feast at Kana. It can still be seen in the Louvre to this date.

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:08.000
That's because of the works. Fragility. It is a very.

00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:09.000
It's a very fragile working of art to transport it.

00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:10.000
Napoleon's army had to cut it in pieces.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.000
And to then sew it back together, reassemble it.

00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:39.000
Once in Paris, but in 1815 I think it came from Venice, and the city kick I was no convinced to leave it in the Loo to make sure not to damage the masterpiece any further, because it was too fragile to be transported, another time, and

00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:45.000
so they were given, although works of art by the Louvre, in exchange for this masterpiece.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:47.000
It's a really large work of art, as you can see.

00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:56.000
It's 9.9 meters long, I mean, if you've been in Al Louvre, chances are you remember this one because of its fundamentality?

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:02.000
It is a really an extremely large canvas. So you know, this.

00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:08.000
The royal collection. The Lutan's. These are 2 ways.

00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:10.000
That's the loo sort of, you know, augmented or created.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.000
It's permanent collections the other way.

00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:21.000
Many works came into the Loos collection, and this is also very problematic.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:35.000
It is through sharing arrangements on excavations abroad, so, as you may know, uhulu holds many paintings, paintings from the Renaissance all the way to the nineteenth century.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:37.000
It holds cultures as well, but it also holds antiquities, Greek antiquities, but also Islamic art.

00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:43.000
It has ancient Egyptian art, a Syrian art, and so on.

00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:51.000
And so a lot of the works from these, you know, from Northern Africa, from the Middle East.

00:36:51.000 --> 00:37:09.000
A lot of these works came to the Louvre in the nineteenth century, and a time when French archaeologists would be sent on, you know, on sites to dig, to explore.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:27.000
You know remnants of past civilizations, and they usually had agreements with local authorities that they would have the right to tech some of the works back to France, and to have ownership over these works.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:28.000
And so this is how you know fantastic works about are now still displayed in the Louvre, and a bit like in the Louvre, and a bit like like in the British Museum in London.

00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:38.000
And a bit like like in the British Museum in London.

00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:43.000
The Louvre is currently in discussions, in negotiations with several countries.

00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:56.000
To repatriate some works of art, that many think you know have their rightful places in their countries.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:05.000
Of origins rather than a French museum. So here from you know, for example, from 1847.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:15.000
From that date a Syrian sculptures arrived in the loop, and they were soon displayed in their own little section, called the Assyrian Museum.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Another way to, you know, to accumulate connections, or to, you know, to let the collection grow.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:43.000
Like, for the National Gallery was free. Donations, bequests, for example, a very important one, is the donation lacquer in 1,869 that saw the Louvre. You know it. It.

00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:52.000
Was given 580 free items, some of them really famous paintings, important paintings like Antoine.

00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:59.000
Wato's Kyhu, which arrived in the collections.

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:13.000
This way, so the nations and bequest, and of course, acquisition up to this day the Louvre continues to purchase works of art, to complement its collections, to feel in gaps.

00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:14.000
For example, women, artists, and again, like the National Gallery.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.000
Today the rule is trying to fill in the gaps when it comes to women.

00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:25.000
Artists who haven't been collected as acidously as male artist throughout the years.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:43.000
Also, it is a current development. It is a constant development, then, to build the collection today it has more than 35,000 items in its possession.

00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:44.000
So it really is a really large collection, with most of its objects.

00:39:44.000 --> 00:40:01.000
In storage, and, as you may know as well, this is why recently came the idea of having sort of satellites of the Louvre.

00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:16.000
So there's, for example, one in France, in a northern city in Los Angeles, is called Louvre Lance, so that part of the collection can be seen in another museum, but there's also the one in Agua B for example, where also part of the collection can be

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:21.000
delocalized and be seen elsewhere in the world.

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:29.000
So to finish, I'd like to come back on, and the Louvre as a model for other art museums.

00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:33.000
An inspiration, certainly for other art museums.

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:38.000
It is, you know, so the date to remember for us is 1790, free.

00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:59.000
It's when the Louvre opened its doors to the public, and it really makes it the first national Art Museum in Europe, and as such, and because it became prominent so quickly, you know, through Napoleon's looting through the Prestigious Academy of fine Arts in Paris and all

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:02.000
the exhibitions. The Louvre quickly inspired other countries to create national museums as well.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:11.000
Museums dedicated to sure to display art to the public.

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:12.000
So the Louvre is considered as one of the earliest national museum.

00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:22.000
A museum in Europe, 1793. We have then 1819, with the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.000
It opened in 1819. It actually opened after the fall of Napoleon.

00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:33.000
So Napoleon had also looted many works from Spain.

00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:57.000
It took works from convents, you know, in Seville, in Toledo works, from the role of collection in Madrid and brought them to Paris, and of course he had to return them to Madrid, and upon their return instead of dispatching the works back to where they had come from the King

00:41:57.000 --> 00:42:17.000
of the time 39, 7, with his wife, the Queen decided to keep the works, to place them into a museum, so, instead of putting the works back in church chairs and convents and palaces, they put the works together into a museum, which then was called a little bit later, the and so it was

00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:22.000
open to the public in 1819. And again, it's it had exactly the same function.

00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:23.000
It was to showcase great works of art to the public.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:42.000
So the public could be enlightened, educated, and through the proximity, you know, through the contact with great objects, great objects created by other men and women in Berlin, the Artist Museum opened in 1830.

00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:58.000
This was here again the collection of the king also is the same with the Musa with Al Qaeda. It's actually the king who's giving no works for this for this purpose.

00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:15.000
The same in Berlin. The Museum opened in 1830, so here we don't have you know we're not starting with the nationalization of the collection or the sizing of a royal collection and it's a more amicable process and so it leads me to the national

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:25.000
gallery, where the process was a little bit different. So the National Gallery in London was funded, was created in 1824.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:46.000
There have been talks in Parliament for many years, actually at least 20 years before that, where regularly members of the part of the Parliament put forward the idea that the country needed a museum, it needed a public museum that would showcase.

00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:47.000
It was. It's a bit of a was, you know, showcased the power of France.

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:58.000
Other nations wanted as well. A museum, a public art museum.

00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:06.000
However, there was no money for it. There was literally no money, and there was never a question of using the royal collection to start.

00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:21.000
And National Museum. The members of just had to wait for the right occasion, and that occasion happened in 1824, when a great collection came up for sale is the collection.

00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:31.000
It was the collection of John Julius Angerstein had died, and so his collection was up for sale, and here the MPs mob mobilized.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:38.000
They found money to patches the whole collection. So the work you can see on the canvas.

00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:42.000
It was it's the first work of art to enter the collection of the National Gallery.

00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:47.000
It has the inventory number, Ng. One, and it was Daniel.

00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:51.000
He was practically was purchased with 37 other paintings.

00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:56.000
So these are the 38. First works, the National Gallery ever owned.

00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:02.000
It was an 1824, and as the very beginning of this great Art Museum, so it has, as you can see, a very different history than the Louvre did it, doesn't it?

00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:13.000
It started with nothing. It didn't even have a building.

00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:35.000
And so these, you know, when MPs bought this collection to, you know, to create an art collection for the nation with the idea that the works belonged to the people, not just to a group or not just to the king, but to the people the of course wanted to display the works of art the idea is that people will be able to

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:40.000
enjoy it will be able to be edified and educated by it.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:41.000
So you have to display these works. And again, the Government had no place nowhere where to show these works.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:49.000
They chose a building on Pall Mall. This is here.

00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:58.000
This is the building that was the First National Gallery. This building here, and so I put on the screen, and I sort of like an engraving.

00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:05.000
That was a satirical engraving published in published in published, I know, in England. Actually it's published in England. And so it reads.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:08.000
The the caption reads the Louvre, or the National Gallery of France, and number 100.

00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:20.000
or the National Gallery of England, and you have this great great gallery here that is really long.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.000
That is the Louvre, which you know has this really long history.

00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:47.000
That started with already several 100 works of art, and of course a National Gallery of England that started much more harm in a more humble manner, more modest manner, but was built piece by piece, and is to this day an exceptional collection, and for very long actually at a National Gallery all the works, of art.

00:46:47.000 --> 00:47:08.000
that they possessed were on display. There was nothing in storage, because all they had was on display, because again it took many years, as you can imagine, to accumulate all the paintings you can now see at the National Gallery, so finally, in 1832, it was decided that this No.

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:17.000
What was starting to be a very good art collection. This served its building, you know, its own building, and a great building, and so this will be built from 1,832 to 1838.

00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:30.000
The architect was William Wilkins, and he built the building that we know to the on the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:39.000
When discussions were had to decide where to put this building, where to construct it.

00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:46.000
Many Mps suggested a site in South Kensington, because, after all, it would make sense.

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:50.000
There were already, you know, institutions for culture and education. There.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:52.000
So why not South Kensington? But Trafalgar Square was put forward as a more as a central place, as a more central place.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:48:22.000
And if the Id was indeed to display art for the enjoyment of all of everyone, then it should be in a place that is as central as possible in the capital, and this is what made them sort of like sway towards the Father square in the end this idea of centrality this idea of you know these this collection

00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:29.000
belonging to every one, and being accessible. So this will be indeed a gallery for all.

00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:50.000
And here you see a picture published in the Graphics Supplement in 1870, and the caption read, a party of working men at the National Gallery, and this is absolutely it's part of the history of these museums the Louvre, the National Gallery, the Museum del

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:55.000
Prado, there is this essential idea that this is the nation's property.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:02.000
It is the people's, you know, collection, and as such it should be enjoyed by everyone.

00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:06.000
And so the fact that entrance is free.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:10.000
Is free is absolutely, you know. It comes from there as well.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:26.000
It belongs to everyone. Everybody should be able to enjoy these works a lot, and to be indeed educated, edified by looking at these works, are not learning from looking at these works, and so hence the idea of working men indeed, visiting this museum.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:42.000
There's a bit of a patronized state, you know attitude here where his need the guy in the top hat that seems to be showing, showing, you know, the the other people what to look at and what to do.

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:51.000
But why not? The idea is that it is accessible, and it's key to the idea of the museum as it came to us.

00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:52.000
From the enlightenment. It's a place for the education of everyone.

00:49:52.000 --> 00:50:00.000
So education and enjoyment, beauty and knowledge. These are 2 absolutely essential. Id.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:10.000
Coming from the history of the Louvre, and itself coming from the edge of enlightenment.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:20.000
Alright. So I think I'm going to stop here, and maybe we're going to text some questions and continue with a discussion.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.000
Yeah. Bye, thank you. Thank you very much. Caroline.

00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:31.000
That was absolutely fascinating, and I don't know if anyone noticed that that was our second lecture in a role with the word a mishmash in it.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:35.000
I did notice that with with a lecture on the English language last week.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.000
Okay, let's go to some questions. We've got a few here.

00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:46.000
Let me just start at the top here and now let me just find the right place.

00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:47.000
Yeah.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:51.000
Now this is from Richard, that's the word. Have a particular meaning.

00:50:51.000 --> 00:50:54.000
Yeah. So a no one really knows. It's so.

00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:57.000
It's a word that existed in the Middle Ages.

00:50:57.000 --> 00:51:03.000
The place was already referred to as Louvre, and it's it's we don't know.

00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:08.000
Actually, there's no satisfying explanation as to where this word comes from.

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.000
Sorry.

00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:13.000
Yes, it's a bit of a mystery.

00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:17.000
Oh, well, well, well, interesting. Okay, now. So excuse me.

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:34.000
I know you touched on some of the things that happened around the repatriation of some of the collection from the Louvre, and particularly around the stuff that Napoleon looted him, and some of them may be more current negotiations about the repatriation

00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:50.000
of somebody works, and the Anthony was asking, you know, I don't know if there's any more you can say about whether the descendants of the original owners of the artworks have any claim for the restitution.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:51.000
Hmm!

00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.000
That's interesting. So I figured, for example, aristocrats who, you know, whose collections were seized.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:59.000
I don't think so. I haven't.

00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:11.000
I heard actually of anything I mean, you know I could not know, but I haven't heard of any claims. And yeah, so of aristocrats claiming the possessions that they were.

00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:20.000
Second, I mean those who fled. Really, you know, fled after leaving things behind, and often these things were in the Tekken, and the King.

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:29.000
There was just no, you know, as part of this brutal history of the French Revolution, the possessions of the kings were just meant.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:34.000
Part of you know the nation's property. Yes, and that was it.

00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:38.000
There was no, you know, way to claim that back. If you will.

00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:45.000
Okay, right? Okay, what do we have next? This from Judith.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:51.000
She noticed even some of the images that you were showing.

00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:56.000
There were quite a great number of female artists working and some of the images that you were showing.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:07.000
Does this sort of suggest that the Louvre was considered a safe and acceptable place for young women to work at that time?

00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:15.000
Yes, so they were in Paris at the time. They were a lot of copyists, were women, because it was a way to earn an income which was acceptable.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:31.000
If you were from the working class, or were if you were from the low, you know middle class, it was a way like you could teach off, for example, in the local school, you could also copy the old masters and sell these copies.

00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:36.000
So in the nineteenth century there's a real business, for you know, copies of the old Masters.

00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:39.000
So let's say you're an American traveling to Paris.

00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:49.000
You love a painting by Rembrandt, but you know you're from like 1823, you cannot take a photo of it back home, and certainly not a colour reproduction.

00:53:49.000 --> 00:53:56.000
So it was quite common to ask the copyist to do a reproduction to paint a reproduction of the work of art.

00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:58.000
You wanted to have as a souvenir, if you will.

00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:00.000
If you were quite wealthy, and a lot of these copy.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.000
Yes, we know that a lot of these copyists were actually women.

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.000
So. Yes, it was quite safe for them to work in this environment.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:11.000
It was acceptable. So many of them were professionals, you know.

00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:15.000
It was their their job, and some of them were students as well.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:30.000
Thanks, Mariezo spent a lot of time copying in the galleries of the Louvre, and this is how she met with many with Duga and Fontana, too, who also frequented these galleries.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.000
The difference with Beth Mohizo is that she was not from the working class or the low middle class.

00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:49.000
She was from the upper boards ready, and as searched she had to be accompanied. So whenever she went to the loof to copy paintings, she had to go with her mother, her mother was always chaperoning her daughter and her unmarried young daughter in these galleries but it

00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:51.000
was generally safe. Yes.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:55.000
Okay, interesting. I hope that answers your question. No question from Liz.

00:54:55.000 --> 00:55:01.000
And she's asking how large are the archives?

00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:06.000
At the for all the works of arts and antiquities that are not on display.

00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:16.000
She remembers trying to see, to be told that it was in storage.

00:55:16.000 --> 00:55:26.000
Yes, there are. So storage. It's immense, and there's so you have to imagine today that a lot of what you see here exist as well underground.

00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:32.000
So you have the same surface underground, and they are other sites as well, where things are stored.

00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:33.000
So it really is. It's a monumental place.

00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:39.000
It really yes, it's kinda kind of hard to comprehend.

00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:40.000
Yes, no, it's really I don't have any, you know.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:48.000
Actual numbers, I'm sure we can find that I can find that after the session, if you want to.

00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:54.000
But yeah, there are also other places where things are stored, not just here, but other safer sites.

00:55:54.000 --> 00:56:02.000
Hmm, okay, right? Okay. And then we've got questions from soup.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:12.000
Why was the British Museum collection not considered art? The Louvre combines painting and other works.

00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:17.000
Sorry. I'm not sure I understand the question. Why wasn't it considered Art, like an art museum?

00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:18.000
Hmm!

00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:19.000
I mean. Yes, it was considered an art museum.

00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:31.000
However, they chose from quite early in the history, chose to focus on painting at the National Gallery, and I think you know, it's obvious when you go visited.

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:33.000
It really is just painting. So it's a much more focused collection.

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:37.000
Paintings from the West and from the late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century.

00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:49.000
So it's a it's a much smaller area for the National Gallery.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:50.000
In terms of cost, collection.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:53.000
It's it's like it was the British Museum that Sue was referring to rather than National Gallery.

00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:58.000
Oh, sorry! Oh, sorry! Sorry I missed that. Oh, yeah. So what can you repeat the question then? If you're not?

00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:03.000
Hmm, yeah. Sure. Why was the British Museum collection?

00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:04.000
Yeah.

00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:05.000
Not considered arts, because obviously you look at the Louvre, and it has.

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:11.000
It combines lots of different works, paintings, and other works.

00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:20.000
Yeah, it might be that, because the so the collection at the British Museum actually started with manuscripts and books.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:35.000
So it might, you know, because it had a slightly different point of departure, might have impacted the way it was seen yes, true, it's it's more seen as a universal museum rather than just an art museum, because it has 4 souls.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:40.000
For example, it has any books, so it has a much more diverse collection.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Then just the so-called works of art that we would think as paintings and sculpture.

00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:50.000
It has that, too, but not just. If you see what I mean.

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.000
Hmm, okay. I hope that answers your question soon, and this from Jane.

00:57:54.000 --> 00:58:02.000
I'm probably gonna have to stop fairly soon. Folks. I think we're just about out of time.

00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:08.000
This is from Jane, the female director of the Louvre.

00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:16.000
In a recent interview with financial times, indicated that the museum needed to have a more modern attitude in order to attract people.

00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:25.000
Have the collections been redisplayed at other periods.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:31.000
Hmm!

00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:32.000
Hmm!

00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:38.000
So if I understand correctly, like so for our history of the collections being, you know, redisplayed and sort of like reshuffled, yeah, I think the most major modification that comes to mind was in the 19 eighties.

00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:45.000
What is a complete rethinking indeed, of the collections, and how they organize, how they were organized.

00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:54.000
The departments, and etc. So yes, I mean it has a collection that has moved a lot in the ways been presented.

00:58:54.000 --> 00:59:15.000
Yes, in the ways been approached, you know, and displayed to the public, and I think, like the other, the most important modification was far choosing satellites to, you know, really realizing that this is way too big your collection for just this site, and that if truly the

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:29.000
nation or people should enjoy it. Then it, you know, they have to find other sites to show these works at like in the loss in those in Northern France and other places.

00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:37.000
Yeah, I think, yeah, that's it. From in the 1980 was the work around the so-called project.

00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:43.000
A lot of modifications were made as to how the collections were displayed.

00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:44.000
Okay. Thank you very much for that. Now we're going to take one more question.

00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:48.000
Then I think we'll need to wrap up folks.

00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:54.000
Now, this is quite an important question. I think, and this is from Julia.

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Is the reviewing its connections with slavery and colonialization.

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:06.000
As many institutions around the world are doing.

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:10.000
Well, not as much, actually, not as much. It's this is really interesting.

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:19.000
It's been really interesting for me, actually, because this discussion hasn't been as important in France than it has been in England or in the States.

01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:23.000
And I'm not sure why, but it might be because I don't know if you know that.

01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:38.000
But in France we have a very different attitude to the question of race, and, for example, in France you cannot make any statistics based on you know, ethnicities, so it is illegal to ask.

01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:42.000
You know, on a questionnaire, on the form. What is your ethnic background?

01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:55.000
You cannot ask. That it's just it's completely it's forbidden it's one of the things that shocked me when I arrived here, so that questions like, How would you define your ethnic backgrounds like what what as the first year it shouldn't be part of the discussion so there's

01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:03.000
it's less of a discussion like a public debate in France, that it is here. It is there.

01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:06.000
But less so. I remember this discussion around Covid as well.

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We're here around Covid. We had this idea that you know some some communities were more affected than others, and this discussion did not happen in France at all, because we just do not speak about it.

01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:19.000
We don't. The debate is not oriented like that.

01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:34.000
So museums have not had to to assess that part of their past as much as in other countries like like in England.

01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:38.000
Interesting. Well, I hope that answers your question, Julia. Right?

01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:44.000
We're gonna have to wrap up things there, and yes, Carol, I'm going to remember to launch the poll this week.

01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:48.000
I forgot to do it last week, so thank you.

01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:52.000
Thanks very much for that, Caroline. I hope you all enjoyed that out there.

01:01:52.000 --> 01:01:53.000
I certainly did. I feel a trip to Paris coming on.

01:01:53.000 --> 01:01:58.000
I think possibly in the not too distant future, but really interesting to hear how the museum sort of became that pioneer.

01:01:58.000 --> 01:02:03.000
For many other public sort of art museums that we see see around the world today.