Hampton Court Palace (Channel 4 Documentaries) (VCI & Channel 4 Video) (VHS 1999)

[Music] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to Hampton Court Palace this is the King's staircase that Wren built it leads to two hundred and seven bedrooms ten kitchens 288 historic works of art all part of the Queen's Royal Collection and down there was the great house of easement an enormous communal toilet seating twenty-eight people at a time but there's far more to Hampton Court than ancient bricks and mortar and historic bathrooms a lot of human effort goes into making it all run smoothly in fact there's a whole community here running Britain's largest royal palace five hundred and twenty three people live or work within the palace walls and if their lives are going to be dipping into I hope you can join us Henry the eighth is the monarch most closely associated in the public mind with Hampton Court the buildings of Henry's royal palace have changed dramatically but it's here in the sixty acres of formal gardens that Henry left a lasting legacy innovative in design and a milestone in the history of British gardening were the much marriage King to return today he might still recognize parts of the gardens where he would Catrin and Jane the task of safeguarding and developing Henry's legacy Falls to Deputy gardens and estate manager Graham de L'Amour usually wearing his distinctive hat and his deputy Gary Wie's the two of them don't always see eye to eye when it comes to garden design nice combination yeah you've got to use this one again it would be nice to get all the colors well Shane we got the red in mixed in with the fella deliberate we put that there deliberately carry on past I see they blend him well you accidentally drifted a box of read through the purple yes our Tuesday mornings walk around is a highlight of the week for me it's a nice time for us to get together isn't it and have a look at the gardens see what kind of condition it is Tuesdays at times we know we're gonna have a battle this is one hell about one yeah this is when I say to him this need to be done and he says no this doesn't need to be done I think we have that out as well because I think that looks the white was even worse we've got white over there we just took it all out Gary dredged some of the things about twos do you tell you because some things you try and hide so you'll try and steer me around the gardens in an opposite direction to what we normally do or room will whiz over a part that you really made it I think and go we were in the gardens it's really clean isn't it too much it looks like ice cream yeah day to day running of the gardens Falls to Gary Graham his boss looks after the one and a half million pound budget the overall color scheme and the grand design of the gardens but he still likes to keep his hand in I like to meddle in what we go on and get involved in and interfere as much as I can really because I can't let go obviously like most managers know and he won't move offices we're never fallen out seriously over gardening but Gary Moore from the call blind musescore a gardening yeah is what it's called I come from I come from respawn and then Eastbourne you have big bold beds beds that shout out years they come and look at me and grime on the other hand doesn't like big bowl but no no I'm a bit more sophisticated I know I think we're a bit to accrual on the public we don't give him enough credit for their taste I mean the flowers in the beds I think you've got to sort of design carefully I think the area this size I always need to shout at you it's too big yeah any so there's areas we can have more sophisticated wedding yeah this is a big area it's got 53 flower beds out here they need to share it let me say come and look at me yeah you can't be too wishy-washy couldn't no but it's not seaside bedding we're not saying you love deck chairs and candy floss up next the East Front at 25 acres is the largest of the palace gardens and dates from the 17th century garden originally started off as the great fountain garden and now here there would have been 13 fountains and a huge part hare garden which is small low clipped box hedges and coloured gravels and some flowers but then it changed and developed and different monarchs came and went and gardening tastes generally changed and what we have now really is is the remains of the Victorian era [Music] nearly three-quarters of a million visitors are welcome to Hampton Court each year but there's also a lot of unwanted guests for centuries palace staff have fought to save the building from the attacks of insect pests eating their way through the fabric of this historic royal home there's a particular problem with pests in the Tudor kitchens the first line of defense is the for strong team of trained conservators who clean and care for the building on a day to day basis they're led by head housekeeper Caroline Allington yes this role here's actually got some of the larvae still sticking out of it which is quite amazing actually all run away there's one here this one here this is all the stuff they've eaten away I've been quite busy then haven't they may be I'm very busy that one sticking out there the larvae are from moths which are breeding in the bread rolls on display in the kitchen for authenticity real bread rolls are used coated in resin to preserve them but that hasn't deterred them off I mean these pretty stupid mothers January to be going through the resin because it comes in very pleasant fourth it must be once they've got through they've got you know bread inside so supposedly a moths that likes multigrain yes that's probably very likely really interesting I think we should keep this one at Ritter but in the battle to repeal this invasion they're going to need expert help not a very effective way of removing them is it but we've got the next book coming in this afternoon who is hopefully going to spray everything to take care of all the infestation here housekeeper Caroline wages a constant war against insects their target the priceless and irreplaceable contents of the palace I don't like larvae I don't like squishy things at all and they're the ones that do all the damage and of course I'm very thorough about trying to be sure there aren't any as I'm scared of them tapestries are made of silk wool golden silver threads and both the silk and the world is susceptible to insect attack you can actually sometimes see small larvae on the front Willie bears the larvae of the carpet beetle are called because they actually collect little hairs around themselves if it was Moss you might actually see a moth on it but it is the larvae again who do all the damage you actually eat the little holes in the tapestry on the rails here I'm just going to see if we've got any new wood worm damage underneath the upholstery that's where we have to look wood worm eat the wood and leave a dusty trail of droppings called Fras it's quite easy sometimes to think that you've got an active infestation when actually all you've got his old fress coming out of the holes we don't obviously want to treat the stool unnecessarily Caroline isn't the only one on pest control parts of assistant curator Jonathan foils job is to protect the fabric of the building so he regularly tours areas hidden from public view where insects may have begun their assault today he's up in the Attic of the palaces West front I'm looking for any signs of Deathwatch beetle there's a lot of indication there's woodworm around some of these small holes for about a millimeter and a half two millimeters that like woodworm but I saw some larger holes in this area and I thought I saw a pupae in there now just when I when I touched this piece of bark it was actually very loose and very fragile for a good reason because it has lots of sawdust on the back of it which is symptomatic of beetles Naurang the way it would and instead of kicking it with their back legs and and making areas of timber fairly loose so it'll be worth looking around here to see if there are any further signs of of beetle sometimes we hear that knocking so they rub their back legs to go in the same way the crickets do in order to attract a mate it's a signal kind of cool that's why they call Deathwatch beetle because the knocking sound sounds like a ticking clock they've come into legend as as in making the noise of a clock which is counting your hours away of existence so that's why I called Deathwatch beetle along here along the archways along here you cuz you've got the cobwebs up around the archway here and those away we find the cardinal spiders actually up in the web's in the arc they call Cardinal spiders because I've got a cross on them and they're so named after Cardinal Wolsey he was of course first owner of the palace here little despite as inside the State Department's building webs across our paintings or anything and to remove them the cobwebs are slightly sticky so we don't want to risk removing any bits of paint with it so to try not to with who do try to discourage they're looking within the apartments but they're very welcome out here to catch the Flies for us for hundreds of years the Tudor stares have served as breakfast lunch and dinner for generations of Deathwatch beetle so they're closely monitored by Jonathan these are the servant steps and they linked the kitchens to the hall so all of the food for any of the eight courtiers would have been brought up these steps it's ironic really that the steps themselves are now providing food for beetles we treat it as a disease of the building and so we owe it to the building to make a check-in and to keep score of how the building is doing there's a dead one actually so I don't know quite how long that's been there ticks and with a hard shot could remain dead for a long time it doesn't really tell us very much but I thought I noticed up here a live one so it may be active which spells bad news for them for that for the building over the long term its run away actually there's at least prove things live but it would be nice to be able to collect a specimen chemical treatment could harm the Timbers and to cut out the infected areas could fatally weakened the stairs but for now Jonathan isn't unduly worried through my observations it doesn't seem that the buildings really in any danger of collapse or anything half as drastic I mean those steps have had five hundred years almost to get to that condition and so it may be a very slow process meanwhile on their Tuesday tour Graham and Gary have reached the Privy garden or Kings private garden which was restored in 1995 to its original eighteenth-century glory [Music] there's built for William and Mary in 1702 and the garden then reflected their own personal tastes in gardening but the formal garden really was at its peak when this garden was built it's all about man's power over nature isn't it yet how I can turn this lovely looking tree into a grotesque shape no one will recognize it's showing its demonstrating how powerful the Kings because he is really powerful he can buy all the yew trees and really control how they grow and so to say to his mates be nice though hanging on rocky bed Philadelphus office yeah huge yeah far too big it's just or to look quite nice the things I just been started growing nicely we want to pieces and we just leave it alone for a few more months a big it's not it's perfectly smooth living it takes over the garden it dominates you shouldn't cut it to pieces now just leave it leave it alone for me a garden should have a wow factor you should walk into that ago and go wow I don't think this garden has the wow factor I think it's it's very delicate and it just blends in all nicely together in it I say it needs to be viewed from the roof then it has it's a bit of a balancing act is trying to maintain the historical integrity of the gardens which is really important but at the same time we've got visitors who enjoy flowers and enjoy beautiful looking gardens and we've got to make sure they look attractive and I think we do it then we do very well I think we should take the building away and just build another garden there make another management make another maze in the palace yeah yeah because I think the building supposed the garden don't you back at the kitchens a specialist punkbuster arrives to deal with the problem moths his mission is to stop the insects invading other areas of the palace where objects more valuable than bread rolls could be on the moths menu [Music] I think you've got one okay Bob child is a world expert in ridding historic buildings of pests you're one enough film canister I want a nice checkered one to go with the gray one you'll never do it you'll never do it that's why they're sometimes called you know the city moth because it looks as if it's it on a silvery background they like mouths clothes moths they flutter they don't fly elegantly they just hop and button and run about and scuttle how we actually try and catch them very often is is by using their pheromones their sex pheromones and I think it's a dirtiest trick in the book because it's always the female sex pheromones that they use they synthesize chemically and they put it out in all the males emerge from bread rolls as moths and they've only got sex that's the only thing on their minds and they can smell it wafting through the air and they'll zoom round onto the trap and get stuck on the trap then very disappointed male not indeed they die in frustration but will Bob's attempts to remove the moths end in frustration - or will sex be his secret weapon [Music] the great vine is one of the oldest and largest vines in the world it was planted by the famous gardener Lancelot capability Brown in 1768 and he took the cutting from a manor house in Ilford in Essex Jill Cox has tended the vine for the last 13 of its 230 years and her job title this is extraordinary as the work she does she is the keeper of the great vine the plant itself is pretty Hardy it's been here a long time it's producing the fruit that's slightly more tricky every year although my husband always says if it dies you know I straight up the tower and look Mike I think he says really what he's a little bit fed up with me you know when he has a sly off day most divine keeping involves curbing its natural exuberance hacking bits off at every stage it produces a huge crop every year and I could let it have a huge crop one year and it would probably never fruit again it would almost certainly start fruiting very erratically so I control the size of the crop every year and I start off by reducing the number of bunches down to about a thousand and then I thin each individual Bunch which is what I'm doing now and the idea is to thin each individual Bunch by a third to a half and I want to keep the overall shape of the Bunch so I'm looking to remove the ones that are on the inside jill has to be careful not to touch the grapes in case she rubs off their bloom and natural defense against mildew she's got a lot of ground to cover after two hundred and thirty years of growth the vine stem now has a girth of 78 inches and its longest branch measures 114 feet Jill's boss nursery manager Tony bolding knows the importance of the care she lavishes on it the vine is very well pampered possibly we give it a bit more attention than it really deserves but being such an old plant it does require a lot of attention as much that whoever looks after it has a great responsibility and a great amount of history that they're taking care of there and you wouldn't want to be known as the person that killed the cool people to say don't I have nightmares about it dying and I don't now I don't because you know I can sort of see that it's okay I usually have a few anxious moments in August because it wouldn't be possible to lose the whole crop with something like botrytis I mean it's never happened sort of touchwood but it's you know just at that last stage I want them to be ripe and then I want to cut them and I usually hear the great size relief when they've all gone just for that you know another crop sort of safely delivered the vines harvested in late August and early September and it produces six to seven hundred pounds of black Hamburg grapes the sweet red fruit was traditionally eaten by the royal household and then in 1938 george v started sending the grapes to hospitals and within five years they were being sold to visitors to the palace today the crop is still sold in the palace shops people say to me do I talk to it and I I don't I occasionally curse at it when I'm trying to reach somebody that's [Music] hills present day crop is giving her a few sleepless nights I don't like to admit like it's preying on your mind and it is always I always dream that people have got in here and I'm happy to be put to getting them out because I work in here on my own and the door is locked and people looking through the glass I always dream that there's less and those people wandering about and they say you know excuse me you're not supposed to be in here would you mind and they won't you know and as I'm talking politely to one lot of people another lot come in and I'm having difficulty trying to usher them out well I think they must be a sort of almost a spiritual connection between the two a sort of symbiosis but that divine needs the divine keeper in the vine creeper needs the vine it's a strange arrangement I think Jill's are strong enough person has enough interest elsewhere that she wouldn't let it take over her life it has occasionally interfered however on our wedding day my husband and I were married in the chapel here and I came round and did the ventilation in in the morning and then when everybody had gone home after the reception I came round and chatted back up again and we had our honeymoon in the autumn after all the grapes of souls and that of course that's when we have our holiday every year in the autumn [Music] there are still two months to go now before the grapes will be sweet enough to harvest Jill just hopes they'll be good enough to eat [Music] bug Pastor Bob child has been called in to rid the tudor kitchens of some unwanted visitors moths he had intended to use a female pheromone to lure the male moths on to traps where they would die in a state of sexual frustration and the good news for them is that Bob couldn't get hold of the right sort of pheromone the bad news is he's opted for a faster solution insecticide it's one of these insecticides that's upsets the insects metabolism but doesn't affect heart it's only active on invertebrates and it's kind of a nerve poison for them but because they've got such a completely radically different structure for ourselves it's has no effect on us it's particularly designed for historic houses so it has no kind of oily base to it doesn't stain it doesn't smell and by tomorrow morning these areas can be opened up again perfectly safe due to the visiting public to guarantee total extermination Bob sprays throughout the kitchen especially the stuffed animals where the moths could lay their eggs [Music] and as for those bread rolls the source of the infestation housekeeper gel has been instructed to put them in the freezer but only temporarily I have been sprayed but we do know that the eggs and the grubs were coming in out of here so to freeze it it's one way absolutely making sure killed his daddy good afternoon this is actually a portrait of Elizabeth of Bohemia with the height of fashion one minute 15 40 guides dressed in historically accurate costumes were introduced into the palace in 1992 the reproduction outfits from the Tudor and Georgian periods with a brainchild of Ann Fletcher head of interpretation and education thinking at that time was that we ought to really bring to life the past history of the building because if you're talking about royal history and how people lived at court it's a concept that not many people understand so we thought what we should do is put people back into the rooms re-enacting life of the past wearing clothes of the past and really explain the building in that sense William would have had all his rooms covered in tapestries and actually he used the same tapestries that have been made for Henry the eighth over a hundred and fifty years before a good costume guide to ask is somebody who above all is a communicator we deliberately decided that we didn't want people pretending to be a person from the past so we didn't want people speaking in hey nonny nonny language and pretending to be a Tudor because that would be irritating we wanted people who could really talk to our visitors and be friendly and approachable so we look for people who are extremely knowledgeable are sort of twinkly and bright and look like you can go and ask them anything the contract to provide the costume guides went to an outside company Caroline Johnson one of the 15 guides working at the palace is also the company's costume manager costume does help because it introduces a personal note the places that we're showing people were of course inhabited and that's one of the most difficult things for people to understand so the frightening we are dressed as an example of the type of person who might have been here immediately brings into people's minds oh yes of course these rooms were inhabited lucy capito has been on maternity leave for the last 7 months and has just returned to work part time her old costume no longer fits properly so a new one is to be made for her they needed a new gown anyway and so they chose me to have it and it's going to be much grander than the one I had before which is rather nice I'm going to go up the social scale so I'm quite excited about that the process of making a new and historically accurate Tudor gown is painstaking before Lucy's gun can be started designs must first be submitted to the palace curators for their approval a costumed guide himself Matthew Tyler Jones is the draftsman when we're making a costume we have to provide the palace with a sketch of what it's going to look like and samples of the sort of fabric and so that's what I'm doing I'm drawing an approximation of what it's going to look like the problem is my drawing has got to show enough of the structure how the things actually put together to satisfy the curators that we know what we're talking about essentially so without a work with Caroline discussing well exactly how it goes together so that comes across this one but I'm very uncertain about how the sleeves work it comes down to a point there that's a structural point so it's worth putting in house it was it all meant to hang what what happens is that this this bit here is happening underneath here is historical accuracy is the absolute be-all and end-all we're not here in order to be a costume show we have an absolute in Sarah of duty to be utterly accurate to the best of our knowledge it's not easy in the Tudor period because there's virtually nothing in the way of archaeological evidence remaining so we are limited really to the written sources and the pictorial sources jewelry have just something oh yes now there you need to be looking at this one again because the idea with this we're not trying to recreate a dress that's shown in any one particular portrait but we're taking elements of gallons from all over and putting them all together into what we hope will provide quite a typical dress from the period it's been a textile decoration has been laid on over the velvet the gown will be one of the grandest in the costume guy's repertoire the wearer would have been a high-ranking noblewoman in 1540 at the time of Henry's last wife Catherine Parr is showing a rather intermediate stage the way I intend to dress Lucy would have cost her in those days 15 to 25 pounds something around that time now this is in an age when even a knight might have a disposable income of only 50 pounds a year so York imagined his wife isn't going to get an outfit worth 15 to 25 pounds it gives you an idea of how much money people were investing in peacocking in front of everybody else at court [Music] Lucy's come in to have the first fitting of her new dress with historical costume yay Nia Nia Michaela this is what's known as a twirl the fabric pattern and it forms the basis of the whole costume so this is the shape we really have to get right make sure it fits very snugly and Lucy's comfortable the typical look of this and of early 1540s and very square low neckline very rigid body with no curving bustline it's to our eyes it seems very kind of severe I suppose I think the overall look is very feminine so it could welcome back to have a brand new frock and it's always this is a kind of you know again for us in modern day a romantic dream to be dressed in old clothes and especially have a personal fitting and we very few people can wear couture clothes which is essentially what this is so coming to work it's a pet wear clothes like this is quite an incentive really reproduction costumes should be you should be able to display them and say if you bumped into Henry the 8th in the street this is what it would have looked like and someone could go in and look underneath all the layers and it would be as it was so that schoolchildren or visitors can go up and say how do you get into that and what's what's it made of and what's it lined with how do you go to the toilet all of those things that everyone wants to know that you can't tell looking at portrait it's all about detail it's just attention to the most Miney boring little things costume manager Caroline Johnson has traveled into London in search of suitable material for the main body of the gown she's keen to use brown silk velvet a color and fabric she hasn't used before in the costumes this is all specially dyed I don't know whether I should you know there are nice oh yeah oh it's not gorgeous wow that is really beautiful yes yes I definitely fancy that one what's the ground is that the ground is this goes right okay well that's all right because that's going to give it a you know greater strength yes but the what you're actually looking at and handling because people do actually come up and Stroke us and they can feel the difference between silk and any other fiber that that we use and also it just it hangs differently it's so liquid isn't it I really want this one this is the one that I think is going to be the best so that well yes but it isn't my decision you see I've got to present samples to the curators [Music] I'm on my way to Joanna Martian er the assistant curator I'm going to show her the finished proposal and pass over all the research that we've done and the swatches and all the rest of it and I'm just hoping that she's really going to like it and approve of everything so really this is the big moment fingers crossed yes also at the bottom no we've got I notice here you've got - yes I I prefer the darker one that Brian velvet that's actually very nice isn't it yes it is to be cautious Caroline of anything no because I am aware of Lading out of it to do yes and of course some tree legislation actually says it's related this stand was a stationary nothing away but we've got to see if I wonder if we but though we do we got a purple at all no I think that's probably going to going to sir no the color purple is going to be restricted I'm to the Queen the daughters of the monarch and a very very tight circle of people just underneath that we then descend down through the Reds to then other colors which everyone can wear we are going to have to be concerned that in choosing a rich brown that it doesn't become one of those really rather kind of brown purples which is characteristic of the color used in the mid 16th century beginning should look really good I think we've got something really you know going ahead now I think you should go buy your fabrics right away before they disappear good right thank you [Music] for many of its royal residence Hampton courts most thrilling attraction was the chance to hunt ironically those same hunting grounds our 750 acre park to the east of the Palace provided protected home to 300 fellow deer the deer are direct descendants of the herd introduced by Henry the eighth's back in the 16th century garland estates manager Terry Goff whose home is actually in the park often casts an affectionate eye of his neighbors I've lived in this part now for 14 years and it's really like a large back garden you you feel sort of passionate and possessing about the whole the whole place and the deer and the wildlife you can't help but constantly keep looking around and keeping your eye on them because you feel they are your responsibility the deer have always been well cared for but for very different reasons Henry the eighth's introduced then partly as a source of food but primary to feed his passion for hunting and Henry wasn't the only monarch obsessed with the sport James the first neglected state business to hunt his wife Ann was known as the Huntress Queen and it cost William the 3rd his life he died two weeks after a fall from his horse hunting deer for his dinner it was part of the live larder where the king would hunt with greyhounds part of the park in those days was called the chase where they would chase deer and hunt deer much of the time Terry has more trouble with the human visitors in home park and with his herd of deer excuse me no you can't have barbecues in here I'm afraid you can't stop here I'm sorry am this you you can walk in the park but you mustn't bring your car in and you're gonna have to put that out I'm afraid a takeshi's on the long grass okay thank you very much barbecue for tote Terri's more watchful than usual because it's fawning season he anticipates that 70 baby deer will be born this year this park has lots of different zones of grass of different heights it's important that the deer have cover particularly at this time of the year when when the the females are fawning so they can hide their their youngsters in the long grass what normally happens is they will give birth they will hide the phone leave the phone in the long grass go away feed and recover and then they'll come back and find the youngsters which they do by smelling sound and they will move them to another location they will keep moving the youngsters until they are fast enough to run with a herd these animals have been protected in the park for more than a hundred years but because they're no longer hunted Terry has to make difficult decisions well obviously the deer have no natural predators and we have 300 deer they have to be controlled we must make sure that the herd remains at a manageable size and that there is enough available brazon to support that herd so culling although it's unpopular we don't like doing it it is a very important part of deer management and we have to do it in order to maintain and conserve the quality of the herd that's one of the great major conservation successes I feel that were able to display deer in this park today and that people could come into this park and can enjoy these beautiful graceful animals feeding and wandering within their natural habitat historically deer were introduced for food today the deer are here as ornaments really [Music] wherever you look at Hampton Court there's water gallons of it in lakes fountains and of course the passing river Thames it's played a significant role in the palaces history according to assistant curator Jonathan Foyle water is very important not only in Hampton Court but Windsor Greenwich Richmond all those palaces were along the Thames and is the means by which the royalty could could get to the palace and indeed most of noble visitors would come by water rather than dirt tracks from London so it was important in that respect as well water is important both to from people's drinking water a bit for the vast to provide for the kitchens and water of course help to clean the palace as well so it was fundamental that Hampton Court was based on water and the Thames provided everything it needed hampton court boasts a french-inspired artificial lake called long water built by charles ii and a complex plumbing system built by cardinal wolsey gall stones and a distrust of thames water quality forced Wolsey to be inventive the hill on the horizon is Coombe Hill this behind kingston and it's the original place where Wolsey brought his water down to the palace and had a series of lead pipes all joined together with canvas bound together to serve the the palace from about four miles away it served the palace for over 300 years until about 1876 I think that the precise date when during a period of drought and the Thames dropped a barge going along the river actually fouled the lead pipe and snapped it in half Wolsey system was ahead of its time but it had two major drawbacks the first was that the water kept coming down the hill whether it was wanted or not so gravity-powered fountains had to be built to take the excess and the second was the lead water which turned the cooks vegetables black I'm about I'm about three feet down under the Henry Gates kitchens but four hundred and fifty years ago I'd be surrounded by Tudor kitchen waste rotting vegetable things and boiling water and so on being tipped into the kitchen does it make its way down to the Thames never been down here before it's really quite a discovery for me really I've got a very basic plan of the layout of the culverts but this is such a such an interesting environment it must be about a mile and a half or something might have two miles Henry obviously felt the need for some pretty heavy-duty drainage he took personal hygiene very seriously and comfort along with it his toilets known as the closed stool had richly upholstered seat for the Royal bottom he even had a special attendant known as the groom of the stool to look after the toilet and him when he was using it lovely job Henry must have felt that he had a particular problem with that because by 1540 he built the Great House of easement as it was as his as it was called on the south side of the of the West facade that serves both to balance that West Western Front and also to provide a a 40 strong toilet seating provision it's a very communal kind of effort I think required there but after Henry had built his Great Hall and had six hundred people a day eating twice and must have had an extra need for lose the building now houses the chief executives office and needs much less cleaning than it used to you would get build up a sort after a while and for that reason I understand that a chap called Sampson was employed to to clear out the underside of the latrines and was paid partly in rum to build himself up for the job the terms must have been pretty murky in those days but from 1871 new regulations prohibited the palace from discharging effluent making the river a much cleaner place for everyone Hampton Court was first opened to the public in 1839 by Queen Victoria and within three years it was attracting more than a quarter of a million visitors today it's one of the top ten tourist attractions in the country for many visitors now first port of call is the Information Center 10-minute film Henry the eighth's upon water Ian Franklin has worked here for 18 months and on his desk is a rather unusual postcard it's a fabrication is a whole series of these that date back to sort of Edward you know the Georgian period and basically what they did was they went round the palace taking photographs like the Great Hall and the horn room and whatever and superimpose in these very sad playful cutouts on top of them and the ghosts that appear for instance Catherine Howard here is never known to haunt the Great Hall at all so as if you believe in the ghosts it's quite a funny thing it's there for the children really because one of the first questions we get asked on a quiet day is where are the ghosts Hampton Court is said to be one of the most haunted palaces in the country ian is fascinated by the ghostly stories and as an amateur historian he's decided to record them but first he needs to make people aware of his project [Music] actually interested in it to try and get more reminiscences from a lot of people are being quite responsive but obviously a lot of people don't want their name attached to it I think the Stewart social stigma against things when Ian's not at work he collects his written and recorded evidence at home I've always been interested in the supernatural but I'm a bit of a skeptic one story he's been told is that of Lady a who lived in the palace in 1940 her testimony says I remember once that I saw Cardinal Wolsey I was sitting down I looked up and I saw a figure standing with his elbow resting on the mantelpiece with a really contemplative look on his face before vanishing and when I think back I tried to remember what made me look up when I was reading there was no real reason but I remember that I heard the rustle of silk like his clothes and it made me look up and then I looked up and he disappeared all these stories are now floating around some are very old some are quite modern in a couple of hundred years time the modern stories may still be going around but they'll have been elaborated on and I hope I'm doing historians in the future a favor by actually taking these down either at firsthand or secondhand or whenever I can [Music] now that the palace has approved the design and fabrics for costumed guide Lucy's new dress she's having her final fitting historical costume yay Nia Nia Mikayla has been cutting and stitching for the last six weeks I think the costume is gonna be absolutely gorgeous and so much fishtest down to the materials I mean you could make a Sakura of that silt dermis can it look beautiful and when it has the brown velvet over the top I think it's very nice indeed it's a lovely period to do this she's going to look like a delicious chocolate historical accuracy is absolutely paramount if I'd have not been interested in that I could have gone and had a no worries kind of job working in a theater or for a film company and not have all the responsibilities that I do but there's very few people doing what I'm doing on a full-time basis and all those details like getting handmade who can eyes and linen threads and all of the proper things that we all know are in there and we know they're right it's very exciting to me well this feels amazing it's really beautifully fitted around here people always think that having boned bodices is really uncomfortable but it isn't if they're fitted it really supports you so you feel well it just fits it's it's not uncomfortable at all the weight of the skirts great not too heavy the sound of the sound of it is fantastic two weeks later and every stitch is finally in place for the first time since the 16th century the gown of a great tutor noblewoman is about to grace Hampton Court it's a special moment for Lucy how does it feel it looks gorgeous it feels alright actually it's amazing isn't it the night's almost over it's a beautiful fantastic and then a hood yes now you got to get the hat the head we're on and that's and that's called Anarkali got French coupe well this style is yes and it was the most popular from the 1520's right through the 40s and 50s so cool because it was supposedly invented in France but it was worn in England very widely the most popular style for a good 20 years it's very flattering is it it is it's lovely but it's not ready yet we've got to we got to dress it up a bit the Tudors would never wear anything bare like this so there's quite a lot of jewelry and adornments that goes on now this one is one of my favorites it's not lovely it was a market stall find and I got a jeweler to change the jewels on this one but it's it's very very similar to one that Catherine Parr is painted wearing and designs by Holbein show these perpetual crosses well how about this something isn't it behind and how does it make you feel do you feel different do you feel Obama it's pretty special really I have to say it's great I think that noise yes you can't help but feel different when you're dressed like this you look absolutely wonderful two minutes to go then my public awaits the clothes that I'm wearing are the sort of thing you would have seen a very grand lady at the court wearing I'm dressed head to toe in silk-lined her out with taffeta so this would be a very very wealthy lady perhaps somebody like Lady Denny now she was married to Sir Anthony Denny who was perhaps the most important servant of the King the next most important person is his son and heir Edward was born in October 1537 28 years and in fact three wives it took to get this son so you can imagine the excitement he was carried out of his nursery that used to be in that direction all the way along this gallery and straight through the two rooms that we just came through down to the chapel at ground level the desperate to get it back into your normal clothes knowing its Hall I will say that but I'm not actually sweating no you look good looking forward to the rest of their yeah yes I hope it doesn't get much hotter than this but I shall stay in this shade and some of the men's clothing even heavier than this actually I shouldn't complain too much at least I have nice cool area here so your immediate future is Lady Denny is looking good as I hope so she didn't get executed ever so I think we're doing all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] ghost hunter ian has had a breakthrough a current resident of the palace has agreed to recount his ghostly experiences it's none other than X police officer and head of operations Dennis McGinnis taking a break from his daily rounds during building work Dennis and his wife Sylvia had to move temporarily to a different department within the palace the previous tenant of the apartment tended to report poltergeist ape happening you know I was very blase about it who pood everything Sylvia told me she felt uncomfortable I had this creepy I mean I always felt that my head was creeping I was aware that it was definitely something in that room no doubt about it I tended to poopoo it I really did but I had a different experience not so many weeks ago I passed the half open doorway of our then City room you know as it turns to casually glanced in I believed I'd seen a shape in there mmm and about a couple of steps I thought oh I'll have a look anyway just to see I went into the room was in semi-darkness and there's obviously nothing there nod I did I expect to see a thing there but as I stood ready to turn and go out I felt the hairs on my arms stand on end mmm then I felt the hair of back of my neck stand mm-hmm and as I began to go up the stairs I felt it from behind there were two padded planks pressing on the sides of my head and that's all I really I can describe it and that feeling that pressure intensified as I walked gently upstairs the feeling was so intense I just thought for the only time in my five years here can I actually live here anymore even though they're back in their own apartment now Dennis still has mysterious experiences this is the doorway where I allegedly see things allegedly to myself that is on seven occasions I've seen some great occasions the little lady I believe in blue and each time is a glance first of all in a second on second glance she just clean this wall way but this doughy and then the wall behind it on one occasion this apparition in blue instead went very serenely and sedately into my hallway at the time she got to vote here I was running behind her saying please stop come back and speak to me so very real was that feeling that there was something there of course I got the middle of a hallway nothing there me feeling very stupid coming back very sheepishly in sitting in my chair again reliving what was once an apartment occupied by Catherine of Aragon and of course our lovely sitting-room was actually used by Catherine as a her presence chamber where she met her official guests very interestingly our living blue was a member of court here for many years her name was almond spell olw I in and she was a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon but all that seems fairly mild compared with the tales ian has heard about the haunted gallery where for centuries people claimed to have heard shrieks and screams this is the doorway that Catherine Howard is reputed to have knocked on when Henry the eighth's was actually in this room and she was basically she had escaped from her guards and she was trying to communicate with the king trying to tell him that they were about to take her away presumably to the tower and it's supposedly her ghost being dragged away the ear piercing shrieks of terror and she was being dragged away from the king from the her last chance perhaps to communicate with the king before our execution Henry didn't respond the phenomenon of ghosts could well be a natural phenomenon that we don't completely understand but as a historian it's a great way of opening up the past you talk about ghosts and energizes people people are interested in talking to you when you talk about something exciting and that can lead to memories of things that happened here in the past and it has done it's given me a lot of extra historical information about the palace which I wouldn't have had if I hadn't been going around asking questions about the ghosts [Music] there are 60 acres of formal gardens here at Hampton Court they're the most visited gardens in the whole of Britain more than a million people come to see them every year the responsibility for keeping the gardens blooming all year round falls to the gardener's this is held well yeah it's really hanging on noise for deputy gardens and estates manager Graham Diller more regular tours of the gardens are crucial to ensure that standards are kept up and who won't often find it one inspection duty without his hat and his assistant Gary Weis we're standing in the pond garden so called because it was once a pond believe it or not where I'm standing would have been about six feet of water and there would have been carp swimming around here they would have been served up on the breakfast table or dinner table and the the Tudor king or queen William and Mary spotted the gardens great potential and their love of flowers combined with their great collection of plants I thought it would be good to turn it into a flower garden yeah yeah they certainly need sharpening up don't they cuz you're right they do no actually they look more like turkeys than think of they could be interpreted a number of ways this is one of the most popular gardens we have certainly I think because of the color and I think because of its formality makes it very popular and it's also got a vantage point so you see all the color you see all the formality forty gardeners work full-time to keep the 60 acres of formal gardens up to scratch each year the palace nurseries grow one hundred and forty thousand bedding plants including twenty three thousand war flowers and twenty nine different types of geranium their color schemes that you see here in the garden are the schemes that I developed about a year ago and one of the great satisfactions that I have with my job is to do the color design for the floral displays and it brings me enormous amounts of pleasure to see ideas that were once on paper with a piece of colored crayon or pencil suddenly come to life in the form of tulips and pansies I don't like this Alison no I know you don't you made that obviously clear did I think it's very regular I like it it's another yellow nice bright yellow and it goes well with that tune it's alright in a rock garden I'm not sure as a bedding plant usually well you find me another you know like that or something else yellow getting the flower that time you know I love it I know what you mean it's a bit raggedy it's a bit hanging basket in the yes it's a bit Chelsea Flower Show we don't want [Music] [Applause] it's an astonishing fact that 80% of ordinary household dust is actually made up of flakes of skin and other human debris so the 600,000 or so people who walk in here through the palace front door every year actually constitute a serious problem with dust it's rather ironic really that the very visitors that the palace needs to attract to pay its way actually do pose a serious threat to the priceless artifacts around us [Music] the job of protecting the precious furniture and furnishings falls to the palace housekeepers who a small band working the palace on the historic areas of the state departments the parts that are open to the public our jobs to care for and protect all the furniture and the furnishings half the job at a Tsaritsa three-quarters of the job in actually cleaning of various different kinds using specialist techniques 26 year old Helen Smith has worked at the palace for three years and is now supervisor of housekeeping she has a degree in archaeology and this has proved invaluable for the sort of specialist conservation cleaning her job requires what I'm doing is dusting these carvings by grilling Gibbins they're made of lime wood and so they're very very delicate I'm using a brush made of Pony hair which it's got very very soft bristles the brush is lifting the dust away from the surface in a flicking action we're not we're trying not to scrub at the surface we're just lifting the dust away and the vacuum cleaner acts as a dustpan the pieces are individually pinned on and if some of them are very fragile this piece is very fragile here so I have to be careful not to knock any of the pieces while I'm cleaning they also have to be careful not to use too harsh a brush that will actually wear away the surface this irreplaceable lime wood carving was created by greenling Gibbons the master craftsman of his day he began working on the carving for the Kings apartments in 1699 it forms an over mantle for a painting of Charles the first and it's the most complex example of Gibbons work at Hampton Court because it's so delicate Helen rarely gets a chance to clean it this is actually one of my favorite jobs doing this it's very rewarding because you only come out twice a year you can really see the dust that you're taking off and it's just the privilege of being able to work with such beautifully carved objects the newest recruit to the housekeeping team is Jonathon Trevelyan he's been at the palace for three months now and he'll remain an apprentice for the rest of his first year I think on finding my feet slowly and surely there's some very many considerations which would not be immediately obvious so unlearning learn a little extra every day really these Georgie ins tools are gently vacuumed through nylon mesh to protect the vulnerable upholstery gloves are worn at all times to prevent acidic sweat touching the objects and each job is approached with painstaking precision I suppose it is bit akin to painting the Forth Bridge but I suppose when members of the general public comment on how it's spectacular the the objects are looking it makes the task seemed a little less daunting and that a little appreciation goes a long way I guess I can't go into a pub or into a friends house even without actually seeing dust in places that they wouldn't notice it themselves I quite like going around other historic houses and sneakily having a look around to see if there are any dust levels there it's probably made me shut my eyes to the air the use of a condition of my my house actually it seems it's just too much like a busman's holiday really dust that we get in the palace mostly comes from people we share huge amounts of skin all the time but also you'll bring in bits of soil from outside pollen and funnily enough around different parts of the palace the dust actually looks a different color on the South front the gravel actually gets billowed up as people walk over it and that accounts for quite a large amount of the dust on that side of the palace the ironwork on the king's staircase was created by the great french blacksmith Zhang tiejun who came to the palace in the late 1600s at the invitation of Christopher Wren as William the third was keen to outdo the glory of the court of Louis the fourteenth tu modeled his work on that at Versailles sometimes it can be a little soul-destroying and you sometimes feel like you're cleaning a surface which is already clean but if you didn't dust it then the very next day it would look absolutely terrible so in that respect it can be a little daunting to have to go back and do the same job again but most of the time it's very satisfying to know that the pace has kept beautifully clean and in good condition and it's not going to suffer any damage through the way that you cleaned it [Music] Henry the eighth was Hampton courts first royal owner his Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey lived here before him having designed and built the first Palace on the site here unfortunately for Wolsey he felt badly out of favour with Henry for having failed to secure a divorce for him from his first wife Catherine of Aragon so Henry commandeered his much prized home and set about rebuilding the palace spending 18 million pounds in today's money totally eliminating every trace of Woolsey's existence here or so he thought [Music] the towering 50-foot high Oriel window of the Great Hall is the kind of architectural feature that interests assistant curator Jonathan Foyle as the palaces architectural boffin he knows a good piece of building work when he sees it but Jonathan noticed something unusual about the window when he first came to work at the palace two years ago it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the hall I was I was mulling around the outside and a couple of things didn't quite add up you see the way that the string course has a vertical horizontal wire band of stone when it reaches the top of the bay window it has to dip down if a thing was designed at the same time as the rest of the hall you'd expect it to be on the same line the same kind of design running through it doesn't make sense at all secondarily the window here meets the wall not at the top of the arch it's about a third of the way down the arch that there Junction happens that doesn't make sense either the stringcourse underneath the main windows of the hall window we know was built by Henry the eighth's when that approaches the bay window what are you doing just it just chickens out it stops and it can't articulate herself with that if it's not part of Henry the eighth's Great Hall then when was it built and who built it the history books will tell you it was Henry but Jonathan is not convinced he suspects Henry was bending the truth Henry gates of course wanted to take credit for everything that he did and so rather than knocking everything down and rebuilding it entirely he would he would just adjust things to suit him so he would take away cut and walled his arms he'd knocked them off and replace his own and he was just modernized and updated I mean rather like we do today if if you move into a house and we take down the done Roman sign and put up Mount Pleasant instead or whatever the original Hampton Court was a magnificent Palace befitting Woolsey's status as the second most important man in England he wined and dined his many guests it is Great Hall the oral window was was part of a standard medieval Hall it would like to the area where people set to eat the most important people in the hall so they would have this huge great window tearing above them throwing down light on them and the window would often be full of stained glass or showing at least their arms and their heraldry and symbolism and there's other signifiers of status so the the oral window was the most important part of the most important room of a medieval house so it's crucial reads in the history of engine core so if Jonathan is to challenge the accepted history of the window he's got a lot of work to do well I'm gonna meet Robin Sanderson this morning whose consultant geologist and we'll be having a look at the oil window of the Great Hall so if you can tell us where the stone comes from it goes some way toward answering whether or not it's at Wolsey or Henry gate building so should be very useful taking advantage of the scaffolding that's now in place with innovation of the Great Hall roof they can make a close examination if Robin can identify the stone Jonathan can check the records to see if it was shipped to Hampton Court in Cardinal Wolsey's time well which of the stones would you point out as being the Oxfordshire type that you'd welcome maybe quite early probably the Oxfordshire types are these creamy brown ones and the darker Brom the payoff material some is a bath stone I'll stick my neck out and say that these two are baths and that looks pretty much like a Lincolnshire limestone this would indicate elites repair this pale patch here unpleasant I feel that this is probably corn stone from Normandy in which case it might be original yeah I mean it's quite a jigsaw isn't it yeah well as I said it's a jigsaw whatever I've suggested about five different types already goodness knows we go down at least make four colourful I pass it over to Jonathan or head to the slide which is original and which is [Music] with so many different types of stone used over the centuries to maintain the window there's going to be a long and difficult task identifying the original stone let alone finding a reference to it in the records back home Johnathan's continuing his detective work he's searching through records of craftsmen who worked on the palace as another line of inquiry and establishing a construction date for the oriole window but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack you know anything you do at Hampton Court is it's complicated by something or another really and the more I read into it the more I see what a huge number of people worked at Hampton Court and trying to find a common strand it's actually very difficult despite the increasing complexities Jonathan does have one more ace up his sleeve he's about to investigate christchurch College in Oxford which was built by Cardinal Wolsey it's crucial we go to Oxford because it's Woolsey's other Great Hall is a Christ Church now we may find some very close relationships between the bay window if that is bulls is building and Christchurch so what I'm going to do is have a look for things like the details of the masonry to see whether they're more likely to be walls he worked at end of the 8th or whether it proves to be the other way around at the college jonathan has once again called on the help of geologists Robin Sanderson is constant of the inside here it's a lunatic limestone almost certainly from paintin in the Windrush Valley which is only a few miles west of here it suggests perhaps that this window was carved here in Oxford whereas the Hanten quark window was carved it's not the answer Jonathan was hoping for the stonework doesn't provide a link to the palace but something else has caught his eye the window tracery patterns are virtually identical the way that the vaulting is set out at Center data through almost but what we've got here in the center of Woolsey's coat of arms this is Hampton Court and you'll see that we've got these two pendants with two for fans and these sections of fans in the corner now if we if we look up compare back what we've got here we've got a virtually identical arrangement and it's very exciting because it means either that what we've got at Hampton Court is Wolsey building or Henry the eighth's Masons for whatever reason whether it's Henry wanting a copy well because the Masons had worked here and weren't very and familiar with it were producing a piece of one-upmanship at Hampton Court which would be bigger than one so it's either Wolsey or Henry keeping up with the Woolsey's as it were and outside there are more links with Hampton Court at a glance standing here looking at the at the bay window it's he wouldn't know whether you were in Hampton Court or or here it's so similar but on the side instead of the way the hampton court looks quite odd and built up against this one is very neatly finished off when it when it comes into the wall and you know this is a kind of thing that makes Hampton Court look like something's been built up to and this shows how it should have been finished off me neatly know how it could have been finished off and if it wasn't and we need to ask ourselves why Jonathan's visit to Oxford is the turning point in his quest back at Hampton Court he realizes that the design similarities between the two windows are too great to be ignored so Henry's claim on the oriole window is looking decidedly shaky and there's another set of clues for Jonathan to follow he now concentrates his efforts on the work of a Mason Redmond who built the vaults above the window at Hampton Court and his partner virtue who built similar vaults at Bath and Westminster and this information will provide the final piece of his elaborate historical jigsaw what unquestionable is the fact that virtue is master Mason at Westminster and he was so busy William Bertie this is so busy that in 1518 he was made joint Master Mason with Henry Redmond who was an animation at Hampton Court so they were partners in trade in the 1520's if Henry Redman responsible for Hampton Court wanted a fan vault to be built he could have said to virtue well how do you do it because you're a specialist he ever said look up what I've done a bath look at what's happened at Westminster put them together there you've got your vault there are two buildings from different parts of Britain in 1527 virtue was dead in 1528 Redmond was dead they're both dead before Wolsey leaves the palace so after those multiple deaths how would Henry have sourced or why would he have sourced from buildings so far apart so after months of difficult research and exploration what point is Jonathan reached now I think they've proved something um conclusive in my mind that the oral window is Woolsey's they're not Henry gates as previously assumed Jonathan's findings are controversial they'll stir up a hornet's nest in academic circles despite the difficulties he has managed to prove the historians wrong and they won't thank him for that it's really only through acceptance and supposition of the Hall being Henry's that the notion exists at all so but the thing is that all of the all of their cancer to now have accepted that so those people who have written beforehand that that's that's what the state of play is may well have something to to say about why they believe that but it seems to me to be very right very for debate it will be controversial and I'm glad of that so after nearly 500 years will Henry the eighth's finally surrender his claim on the oriole window will Cardinal Wolsey is architectural legacy appear in future history books meantime Jonathan can stand back and take pleasure he's newfound knowledge it's not every day you get to rewrite history [Music] [Applause] in 1689 just a few months after coming to the throne will in the third and his wife Mary came here to Hampton Court and immediately fell in love with the place like any young couple moving to a new home and they made ambitious plans to modernize the place and in fact it's their transformations that we still largely see around us here today but why has it been love at first sight with the palace haven't been quite like that for the two of them Mary's marriage to William was not at first the stuff that love stories are made of but it became Sir when she found out she was going to be marrying her first cousin Prince William of Orange she apparently burst into tears and cried for day and a half the couple spent their first years of marriage in Williams homeland Holland where they grew to love each other after more than a decade they returned to England with grand plans to display their European tastes it took 11 years to modernize Hampton Court to the the style that they wanted and because of that they weren't able to share it together Mary never saw the work completed at 32 she died of smallpox this small room Queen Mary's closet was an intimate chamber she used for private interviews writing letters and conducting business it also connected the King and Queens apartments it became Williams memorial to his departed wife now it's about to be reopened after three years of restoration work Helen Smith and Vicki Richards from housekeeping have just one day to clean up dust has accumulated while restorers were studying the room looking for clues to reconstruct the closet as accurately as possible one of the things that some have been found from the evidence is this silk which is how they think it would have been done for Mary it's hand woven and hand dyed and the color was found when the archaeologists had a look at the wall little tiny tiny fragments were found behind some nails and from that they were actually able to come up with the silk for the wall which it's quite amazing the silk was the backdrop for a set of embroideries they hung in Queen Mary's closet for 200 years and it was rumored they were the work of the Queen herself however she shouldn't be the one taking the credit as assistant curator Joanna Marshall are discovered during the restoration project they were the work of French whooping across people who were perhaps leading European design at this time the embroideries were removed from the palace by Queen Victoria and taken to Holyrood house in Edinburgh and this will be the first time they've been displayed at Hampton Court for nearly a century they were influenced by the style of Mary's interior designer Frenchman Danielle Merrill I think it's wonderful that they're back it's going to create a wonderful little jewel of a room and and perhaps get back that sort of you know the bright enthusiasm the love of interior design the love of designing gardens and home making that's very much part of Queen Mary the second of all of them I think perhaps this one is my favorite as a bottom ornament just here there is a blue and white ceramic pot and it's important to know that one of married the second other great enthusiasms and interest was the collecting of oriental porcelain pieces from Mary's treasured collection are being chosen to feature in the closet under the guidance of the head of works of art Sebastian Edwards Mary wasn't the first person taken properly but I think this year's scale of Hercule and the originality we've actually displayed it and the fact that it was very visible at court meant that she was an enormous influence on the taste for English aristocrats for the next two centuries and the legacy of their collecting can be seen in any country house today carefully handing over the Chinese style porcelain is Joe Cole superintendent of the Royal Collection these belonging be mirrors closet Ashley and they were already brought through here as a temporary measure for when we we have females profit and then we will find other pots made to go in this area [Music] the Privy Garden today is an exact recreation of William and Mary's private gardens which were designed and planted between 1689 and 1702 every hedge every tree is clipped absolutely to historically accurate specifications but as summer approaches high season there's one vital ingredient missing a touch of the exotic [Music] this morning we're bringing out for the summer season the collection of our industries which form part of a larger exotic collection that we have here at Hampton Court Palace 20 trees that have you put into position in the garden they spent the winter in the warmth of the palace greenhouses under the watchful eye of the nursery manager Tony building this is a recreation of a collection of tender plants that were gathered at Hampton Court by Queen Mary in the late 17th century they are frost tender so we need to wait until the chances of frost has gone before we can really bring them out into the gardens this is the bitter orange citrus Saran tiem which was usually used for making marmalade they're quite a vigorous tree hence all this nice lush growth that you can see on it now Tony's boss Terry Gough has a keen interest in seventeenth-century garden history oranges were very special at Hampton Court because William the third was the Prince of orange and they represented the house of orange dynasty and in England at the time they had the largest collection of oranges anywhere so it was it's very special and significant plant the plants will be staged out in precise positions within the garden as they were in the 17th century and they form part of the overall sort of form and shape of the garden they add a bit of architectural lift to the garden shaped trees in white tubs and with the bright sunshine and the green grass the white tubs reflect light and look very attractive the 17th century garden was about man demonstrating his power over nature by design so everything was contrived to look artificial and man-made and collecting plants from all over the world was was a symbol of power the exotics really were the icing on the cake they represented the real ornate finishes to what is a very formal decorative design of garden we're a little bit blase these days because orange is now a commonplace you can buy them in most shops and supermarkets they're not as special as they were in the 17th century those trees which can be a positioned by tractor however modern machinery isn't always enough [Applause] [Music] the trees are very large and difficult to maneuver so we will have to be manually lifted by 8 people much as they were in the 17th century using the same style of lifting with a number of poles and pure manpower and coordination to get them into their final positions for the summertime [Music] their winter home in the palace greenhouses is a cool and airy one despite their exotic origins orange trees don't like to get hot and humid Tony and his team know that the trees thrive West when they're allowed to dry out between waterings but now it's time for a good drink a little bit of insect damage on them there's one or two bits of dieback which would normally expect after the winter period but once pruned up and enjoying the sunshine there they'll soon get over that we find that the birds in beneficial insects that around in the gardens help to clean them up as well we don't really suffer from a food problem once around the gar everything in this garden is a seventeenth-century clock there is a one single plant in this garden that would not have been used in 17th century so people come through that gate get the feel of coming back 300 years in time and that's precisely the workshop [Music] the restoration of queen mary's closet is nearly complete Joe Cowell and the palace curators need one last work of art to hang above the fireplace they've chosen the work from the studio of Titian the renowned Venetian artist it's been many years since the picture known as the allegory of Duke de velas was lost on display at the palace this is as well you see on the level and bottom it's after Titian so that I meant really that there's probably two or three different hands on the painting so not strictly speaking back Titian alone but a very very fine representation of Titian to work so it obviously had great influence during the composition of the painting we are very very pleased of course to get it out of limbo land if you like and back into the state of parlance as the housekeeper's finished their cleaning it's time to bring in the furnishing [Music] after three years of conservation work finally the restoration of Williams tribute to Mary is completed one last romantic detail though comes from the end of Williams own life in 1700 and 2 when his body was in bombed ready for burial his doctor found that he wore around his neck a locket which contained a tress of Mary's hair which i think is a a poignant little detail to the the romantic story of William and Mary and Hanson quarter course stands today is a tribute to them with the Queen's closet being the only room that we can specifically link with Mary herself [Music] that's about it at last wants to have the room back to how it should be after nearly three years when it's been closed and then everything's just about done now so I think we can let the public in [Music] in the 18th century George the third decided not to live in the palace but to give the vacant rooms rent-free to loyal subjects this grace and favor practice is being phased out by the Queen now but it leaves Hampton Court with a problem in this commercial world that palace must find a lucrative you through these apartments they may even go up for rent the decision lies with the director of palaces Robin Evans we have quite a large number of vacant apartments in the palace now about 25% of the palace will be vacant by the year 2000 so we're looking at new ways to occupy those they're not suitable for the visitor because they're on the second third floors they're quite small rooms they were courtiers rooms originally they've been graced in favour apartments they're not state apartments we don't need them so we're going to try and find us an outside och occupier being a royal estate agent isn't an easy task the curatorial staff including assistant Jonathan Foyle must put together reports detailing which important historical features needs to be preserved is a long way and it makes you wonder how some of these relatives have coped in the past yeah what are those baskets for well these are the only way that people could really do any shopping and they could winch the basket down about 40 feet and then the person would take the shopping list off and come back bring their shopping and don't put it back and you'd have to haul the whole lot up again ride it until you have a dinner party between two yes and then you're just magnificent be wonderful would it to have a view like that ready for you who needs paintings who would have had this room there were on this area above the Kings rooms there were people I can the king's personal attendants and grooms of the bedchamber that kind of thing end em a couple of oddly title necessary women necessary women were in fact ladies-in-waiting but they weren't the only occupants of the apartments many were widows or relatives of state officials the Duke of Wellington's mother lived here in the 19th century and he fondly named this alcove per corner after the gossiping old ladies whose dulcet tones he thought resembled the purring of cats more modern grace and favor residents included mrs. Hannah Scott mother of Scott of the Antarctic and Lady baden-powell whose husband Robert founded the scouting movement beautiful isn't it wonderful piece of craftsmanship I think this one's about George the first period and it may well have come from the Queens apartments because some of these knobs look like Queens crowns and others kings Hampton courts Grayson favorite apartments were once sought-after homes even famous dictionary writer dr. Johnson was refused accommodation here but in 1986 they gained attention for a very different reason as the seat of the fire which caused so much devastation to the palace most of this paneling is original you can see where modern boarding has been inserted between these you can see also some of the scorch damage where the fire has crept up the walls here where this paint peeled off you can see the remains of fake oak graining someone has painted the oak on with a brush to disguise the fact that this is pine paneling it's a cheaper wood which made it look like oak so that's what the fake oak graining is about 1700 really yes so nothing much has changed really has it hardly anything at all really it seems tragic that they're empty what sort of people would be suitable residence do you think will there be strong making lots of regulations there have to be certain conditions really I mean it's very extraordinary thing to live in inner Palace where you know what you do had a bicycle for example and all we wanted satellite television I mean goodness everyday things like that which you couldn't just you know go and do I mean even things like you know what are you putting pot pans in the window or something things that anybody would have a right to do you know in their own house which have to be very carefully monitored here to make sure they didn't wreck the appearance of the building I'd be able to put pictures up on the walls with that that's another thing I mean just nailing into some of these walls really wouldn't be feasible in some of the timber in these walls if you bang nails into it you know it can start to split because it's dried out over the years and you could be damaging this tractus Jonathan I approached him from slightly different directions I mean again he's there to try and ensure that that those apartments are passed on in no worse and hopefully a little better condition than we've inherited them and I absolutely understand that of course my view is that you can't let him own apartment and tell someone you can't put a picture of him it's just not real I think that there are concerns about how do you make sure they're passed and overflow I mean it's a real concern because down below you've got a wonderful State Department this isn't just a block of flats in Mayfair it's five hundred years this place has been here getting the right solution is what's important not getting a solution ridiculous even though there's some data for the ancient to the modern as well classic 70s kitchen the last report of the palace is empty now isn't it it is yes it is we had there only about four residents left and the palace used to be full of them in the Victorian mood and it we rather ashamed to treat the building entirely as a museum mmm and taking you to present it as in fixed points of history I think we've got the house some got some lungs of the building to keep it breathing and living and and the way this always has done ideal des roads for somebody with no pets no bicycle no pictures dying on their walls I'm quite happy I'm probably a huge amount of money I think the Malthus right now I think it might be beyond me in prize there's so far conscious after the father they would stipulate that you couldn't do this it couldn't do that then a fire alarms blaring about if they've burnt a bit of toast and I don't think a lot of people would be very keen on that you know wonderful songs you didn't actually want a barbecue on the law be fine yeah put me down [Music] housekeeper 6 - control over housekeepers must be prepared for the most bizarre encounters I'm just about to enter the haunted gallery area over Jill Taylor a housekeeper for just four months will this morning come face to face with her most unusual task yet she's about to meet the biggest boar in the palace a challenge requiring strategic planning and specialist equipment no it's okay my brushes I've got the wax cotton more cotton buds for the eyes brushes Neela I better get some from the chemical cupboard when I first started here I was asked are you going to mind cleaning a dead animal and I said no no no just no bother but now I'm coming to her it'd be interesting Jill's mission to spring clean Boris a stuffed boar who has pride of place in the to distorter house as it's her first encounter with Boris he's enlisted the help of Vicky her fellow housekeeper thing is is to prove him over just to get the dust off and clean his eyes out old poor love with deionized water and Symphonic oh gosh what a job to do ever end up doing a job like this study that suppose we can wipe over his teeth couldn't wait what do you think about his nose I think we perhaps might like to do a test on his nose you say some symbolic part of how my problems is actually going to turn him because yeah he's a glider Boris his name [Music] there you go Morris [Music] after the dust is removed from his coat Boris's less hairy services must be shined with a special conservation wax which also protects him against moisture damage if he's well looked after a Boris could last forever a mild detergent called sue pranic is used with specially purified water to deal with his more delicate areas I feel like I'm in the operation theatre isn't she really got nice shiny eyes I'm quite impressed about those eyelashes go the only wonderful honor is to die for old I should have said that [Music] when he wasn't bowling Henry the eighth hunted extensively for sport and food the Judah Royals ate a huge amount of meat it formed up to 80 percent of their diet and the hunting of boar like Boris depicted throughout the palace was an integral part of royal life it was both hunting and the loss of woodlands during the 17th century which led to the boars extinction with no boars left in British woods Boris's origins are a bit of a mystery apparently he arrived just 6 years ago when the Tudor kitchens were being revamped only one man knows the secret of Boris's past David Beaton chief executive of Royal Palaces so David where did Boris come from oh that's a fascinating story because we were representing the two occasions the first thing we did when we starting the palace and I was absolutely determined everything would be authentic so we had to have a real wild boar and we found the Queen of Holland had one of the few remaining herd of wild boar in Europe so we burned out and actually spoke to the Queen of Holland herself who said yes I'll send her my game keep it a shoot one which is what she did phone back a week later and said it's ready for you and that was when our troubles began because we found out rather late in the day that you can't bring back the dead carcass of a wild animal into this country Boris could only be legally imported if he was properly preserved and organizing that proved to be a bit of a bore we tried to find a suitable taxidermist in Holland we can find one not one that we felt would be able to do the job so we had to get it over the border to Germany where there a lot of very skilled taxidermist so we had to smuggle it over the border to Germany where we got a taxidermist to do it they did a marvelous job on it as you can see and once he was well and truly stuffed Boris could travel to England to take his place in the palace so he sits there every time I walk through the kitchen as that story sort of comes flashing back to me dear old Boris so Hampton Court was involved in smuggling but I shouldn't call it that but I was determined he's lovely I think he'd stay now to come and just check on Boris and make sure he's okay the gardens of Hampton Court play a vital role in attracting visitors to the palace and it means the pressures constantly on the gardeners to keep them looking their best every season that's four times a year 100,000 plants had to be dug up and replaced with new displays the Kuan garden originally was one of the pools supplying the court of Henry the eighth's with fresh fish now it's the jewel in the crown of the palace gardens every year the beds have to be meticulously designed and color-coordinated and that's all down to the creative skills of deputy gardens and estate manager Graham Dilawar the pond garden is a great canvas to work on and I certainly use it as a place where I can let my imagination run riot and really experiment with colors it is a little bit rigid in the fact that it's that it's very square the beds are very square and so there's not a lot of flexibility with the width of the size of the beds most people in visit it has been planted in straight lines and that doesn't have to be the case that the flower bed may be square but the actual bedding design doesn't have to be square root or you can use circles triangles and curves you can use any kind of shape you like as long as it fits in with the design the plants needed for Graham's design have been grown by nursery manager Tony building nice join him isn't it is that the sub for that Nicotiana yes it's a nice off but it needs something stronger with it doesn't it well it really will have that right impatiens with it so yeah and these are pond garden top top layer top see since we're on it yeah perfectly lovely they're just right now the inspiration for this year's pond garden comes from certainly making the beds a lot longer and a lot broader and to gate and to get as much out of the color in the garden as possible by using fewer colors I'm a little bit worried about these stricter Sims I don't know whether they're gonna make it to me no I think I misunderstood what he really wanted in that area no it's not giving me enough orange no we might be able to work on it in the time we had left a little bit doubtful okay feed leads to death you've been getting going a bit one plant and a few problems with I I know it's one of your favorite else's are yeah it's a nice thing but he's a bit shy on rooting cutting for us we didn't really start early enough last summer to get these in quantity that we require okay so we're going to have to substitute a yellow marigold for this in the pond garden all right numbers rise for this on the east front too late walk it back the other way coming I suppose we could do it depends where we think we're getting the most didn't patent I'm quite clean to keep us in the pond garden because I wanted this Foley it's one of the foliage effect for me the Victorians really knew how to use bedding they would be quite bold and extravagant with their use of color and quite rightly so because it was a royal palace and they really wanted to make a statement and and I backed them all the way thank God for the victory I just want to show these curves now and it just I don't we've done them before just want to go over it unfortunately the replanting of Graham's beloved pond garden coincides with his annual holiday so he wants to be sure that Andy who'll supervise the planting operation understands the design he's a front of a bend in the snake and really I would say about two Jet's geranium so oh you want to come at least something like that when you first look at the plant it looks quite straightforward and nothing can go wrong but then from past experience that can go wrong although the desired shows where the plants have got to go Andy needs to know how they're going to be displayed how close or far apart yeah okay but the beds always give Graham a headache years we've been bloody trying to get this right and every year we make it right pig's ear of it don't we so this year we're gonna get it right up me Andy I'll always get it right go ahead well I know yes it's always my fault exactly yeah perhaps this year I just I just copy the plan now we can either use these are Beauty mom's so nice and I still got that orange feel about it always look all the steps trapped Ursula but I'm not cleaning my step just in the wrong way on its own I just think it looks a bit weak I quite like these yeah unless you use both and you sort of trimmed you can trim these down a little bit I'm good to get the height with the object on yeah and maybe you can keep these down to a lower level and you get a better of progression upwards yeah might not be a bad idea if we use these as a kind of Center a real real sort of peak of the mountain kind of thing yeah yeah almost like that handy yeah and those ones there was a pivot so we've got a a real orange sensation we've been tangoed I like to work with a color theme now and again not all the time and this there is an orange theme which is something I've not done before all the plants are a shade of orange which sort of gives this complementary if you like mountain or kind of profusion of color and it wants to be as gentle as it possibly can it's no good going up and then jumping up to four or five feet it must come up from the outside nice and gently and then reach into this kind of pinnacle of your beauty ones which is a lovely orange cut I think it's gonna work if Andy plants it properly which will make a change then I think we'll be all right [Laughter] no you always fancied properly most of the day it's a designer I think my fault so now Graham can go Wade leaving Andy and his team of eight gardeners in charge of the planting it's vital the front garden is back to its best as soon as possible because this is an area which the public paid to see very certain seeks will want to get them in and at the same time 'god maintained the other areas i haven't given up hope of getting ready when Graham comes back say twenty close [Applause] [Music] the palaces self-elevation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren for William Mary and was completed in 1702 it's considered to be one of wrens finest achievements but it now needs four hundred thousand pounds worth of repairs which are expected to take nearly a year in charge of the restoration as curator Edward MP he's a real fan of the South facade I could look at it for a long time and from different distances and it will be always be equally satisfying the mass is just right proportions of the windows their height their width relative to the facade the neat that decorate it but not over emphasize the central part in stone in the middle it just works very well we've restored the inside of the building to an appearance it might have had at that date the garden outside likewise and there are one or two things that remain to be done if that logic is to be taken to its ultimate conclusion to the facade of the building itself as well as cleaning the facade they'll be repairing the cracked stone work and painting 94 windows but as always at Hampton Court the demands of conservation cause complications it's quite a tricky job because we can't touch the face of the building except in some very small places so we have to make it a very wide and very strong structure it's very time consuming obviously but it's the way it's got to be bad because of the history of the building and it has to be protected [Music] the palaces desire for historical accuracy has hit a snag nobody knows what color when originally painted his windows and some architectural detective work is going to be needed we don't know exactly what color they were we know that they weren't white as they are now we know that there have been a slightly darker tone so for the point of view accuracy we must be as accurate as we can be within the limits of what we know now the other reason is it's simply an aesthetic one if we leave the windows white we are not being true to what was in the mind of the designer if we put them back to the color which he would have accepted then we're being true to Ren's vision of his building and therefore we have to trust Ren it works better as a facade as a structure the first clues that may help solve the mystery come from the nearby barracks block it was built at the same time as the South facade and could provide some original paint samples assistant curator Jonathan Foyle investigates if I give you a flake you can but they see the same yellows yellow gray stock bricks they'll put it under a microscope and have a look for things like lead paint which which we indicate a pre twentieth-century date and things i zinc and titanium which in more modern and then they'll give us a reference for each of the layers of color so we can have a good idea of when the paint was applied and what its original color was even though it's faded you have to avoid in a way choosing a color that you would personally approve of if the historical information isn't quite what you like then in a way it's tough because you're really trying to give a flavor of the buildings as the architects and the patrons saw them at that time a team of English heritage inspectors has turned up to judge the body of evidence assembled by Jonathan we found a fairly early window that showed us 36 schemes of paint now when we received the report and they provide us with photographs and a diagram of the of the paint layers most of those are off-white or or cream and it shows us quite a good range and quite quite a clear as soon as the paint layers unfortunately despite all Jonathan's efforts the paint analysis cannot go far enough back in the building's history so based on known paint compositions of the 18th century a sample color has been painted on one of the windows it's this window and you can see that it's it's been half painted it's a sample area extends to there and is the is the creamier color this is generated from our consultants knowledge of the way that pink was mixed with linseed oil and and and LED white and but it's not specifically matching no it isn't because the earliest have got that we can really put some kind of a date on a probably early to mid 19th century on this a decision is reached and work gets underway but not everyone appreciates the detailed detective work that's been involved in recreating wrens decorative vision this is heritage white that's just to left I don't know why they've gone but I think it's a case of it's a heritage building and they've gone through the color charts and probably seen heritage what they've just decided to go there that I think it's more or Magnolia but it's just a posh buyer selling the jewel acts [Music] Andy and his team have only had a week to replant the pond garden with its summer beds and is worried that the two front beds aren't even slightly taller one is much better on one side so I think he finds the more compact ones and just swap them over they just got where they got drawn up in the nursery today their boss Graham who designed the garden is back from his holiday I'm just trying to make sure that they match up in a way to space in or the plants from each group from this side on the other side really so when you're looking from inside the guard and they look identical Graham is back and eager to see Andy's handiwork all right come on done that well well this is this was experimental we've not ever done anything like this before well I've never done anything with an orange theme anyway and certainly two or three other plants I've never even used in bedding before so I'll be very interested to watch this progress over the summer so far so good but lack of supplies forced Andy to substitute a plant not on Grahams design great for the grace of the variegated torrefied spider plants you know that's the only gray in the garden and it just sticks out a bit like a sore thumb it just draws you down there straight away in this thing so I'll have to get that changed so we'll have to see if we can find and Bend tone easy and twisties arm and tried to on him a bit so we can get some clarified with it but grams very impressed with Andy's hard work I don't think he's ever done this in a week so I think he's probably probably broke his own record it's a bit nerve-racking them because it could really look awful and he got a you know that reputation just to stand by that his Gardens quite well known as a real postcard garden and make a mess of it you really will be seen it'd be nice to think that them you leaving your mark on the place and perhaps in 150 years time would be ugly look backside the bedding in the 1990s was was really awful oh it was really good and that was still amor who did that who knew nothing about color [Music] [Music] the chapel royals historic organ was installed in the early 1700s for queen anne it's one of the finest examples of its type due to temperature and humidity changes in the chapel it has to be tuned every six to eight weeks [Music] Chris Trafford and Colin jokes arrived to tune the chapel's organ between them they have more than 75 years experience they tune organs great and small from st. Paul's Cathedral to the humblest parish church or organs are special and this is a very special one to me because of this age of its history and its wonderful building and setting try the pictures see if we are in tune it's not there's not too many I drew but the heating's been on Nelson sir they were last here that's right that's fine it's probably the oldest Auckland and I look after it was built in 1710 by Christopher Strider it's almost 300 years old these pipes where we're hearing today they were played by Jeremiah Clark the chap who wrote the trumpet voluntary that most people would know handled called Frederick Handel was master of the Kings music at a time when this organ was was installed and he probably came here and played it and he would have heard these very same pipes [Music] a very few people that can come along and sit at an organ and play it and listen to the very same pipes that that handle will have heard it's a wonderful experience really to come here regularly and to be able to hear and open like this my life would be a lot poorer without it [Music] the pipes that you see the front do speak they are in fact the daisen pipes but behind all the ones that are that make up the choruses in fact there are 2202 pipes in little woman with so many pipes to get pitch perfect colin has a busy few hours ahead of him he needs peace and quiet so he often works during the evening when all the visitors have gone home all right all right Christopher I'm on the choir organ so can we start with the great principal and the choir principal two middle C's [Music] organs are very cramped and difficult faces to work like to travel see great middle C choir one this will be very careful not to knock a pipe and removing amongst the pipes just a brush will move one of these little tuning slides out of a position and that note will be out of tune now just by taking that pipe out of its hole we're putting out of tune the heat of my hand the warmth of my hand will sharpen it by at least a quarter of a semitone and it will have to be stood back in its record this hole where which keeps it standing upright and you have to only have to cool for about half an hour before it can be properly tuned [Music] next fact one these are Reid knives constructive little hook bits on the ends the pipes have silver bands at the top and they're the tuning slides and could be moved down or up very very slightly to lengthen or shorten the pipe so that is what all I'm doing I'm making the pipe slightly longer or slightly shorter depending on whether it's sharp or flat [Music] [Music] I finished when I think it's right when the orphans right not just spending all the time most people look at the clock if they're working in an office or factory waiting for the hours to move but for me I'd look at the clock and the time has gone I find I can be here for six or seven hours and where that time goes I don't know Her Majesty the Queen has kept me working in this way lovely Chapel and some of our other royal chapels as well I'm a very fortunate person the organs now tuned and they can head for home but Colin and Chris will be back in six weeks time to start the job all over again [Music] the original owner of the palace was Cardinal Wolsey he was an avid collector of tapestries they hung in all the public and many of the private chambers in fact in one month alone in 1522 he purchased no fewer than 132 of them there was a whole division of the household staff given over to their maintenance and there's still a department like that here at the palace today it's called the textile conservation studio the studio may not be what you expect it's in a nursery greenhouse as conservation work requires lots of space a tapestry from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle has just arrived the conservators must inspect and assess the condition of this priceless 18th century French work of art right thunderous genuine lifts can you take away the dust sheet straps okay what I'd like to do is um just if you come around the side and just hold it by the edge and just let the leading edge down then thunder can hang on to that you hung on to the tapestry there then I'll have to unroll it from this side so lifting turn the tapestry depicts a scene from Greek mythology in which hero Mellie ager hunts down a wild boar it was presented to Queen Victoria in 1844 by King louis-philippe of France this is the first opportunity for head of tapestry conservation that Lyndsey Shepard to cast her expertise over it I was warned that this was some very dirty and needed cleaning and it is very dirty it's really stiff to the touch and it smells horrible yes it smells of soot and smoke it deposits which will mean that the tax tree is probably quite acidic at this level of soiling it's had some really strange repairs done to it you see all those tiny patches that have been put on there Oh eek they've just been placed on top of one another quite randomly very densely them here well I don't know that we will take them out I think that it will disrupt the structure so much that I think of it we would be left with almost nothing to talk about for vanda's got to do a condition report on this every time a tapestry comes into the premises we have to assess it and find out what's wrong with it I have to write everything down I've got to talk about silk degradation I've got to talk about how the wool is I got to see if there's any holes or anything wrong with the tapestry and I've got to see everything now if I see something later on while it's on the loom and I haven't costed for it then the studio loses money answer and it's a lot of money once the client has accepted a quote the studio has to do the work for the agreed price the repairs they do can cost from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands and this one isn't going to be cheap a price agreed for the work their main objective is to clean the tapestry studio technician julia everett starts by gently vacuuming the back of it to remove any surface debris she vacuums in straight lines along the vertical and horizontal weavers a delicate tapestry known as the warp and the weft I'm going with at the moment and you can go walkways as well obviously you wouldn't go diagonally or just you know any old angles it would damage the fibers even more with 14 square metres to cover it we'll take Julia half a day to vacuum the tapestry surface and that's just the very first stage of the cleaning process final crucial tests are needed before the tapestry can be washed to discover if the dyes will run I'm going to take a song pull almost every color I can on the tapestry to test for wet fastness the tapestry is divided into sections so that Julia knows exactly where the threads have come from each thread is covered in cotton wool soaked in a detergent and water solution it's the only safe way to test whether the tapestry can be wet cleaned and what intensity of detergent it can tolerate I'll leave these overnight and cover them with plastic and come back tomorrow morning and have a look to see if any of run or our fugitive as we say we're not sure that this tablet has ever been what clean before so this will be it's possibly its first time that it's been completely submerged and washed [Music] in a quiet corner on the south front lives the palaces oldest resident the 230 year old great vine the most important event of its year is about to begin harvest the work is done by the keeper of the grapevine Jill Cox and helped by gardening apprentice Michelle cleave but before picking the grapes the boxes for them have to be made up I normally do its put pieces of tissue paper in and the idea is to make a little nest so the grapes are going to go in the middle anything anything like that will do just fine jill has looked after the vine for 13 years but this is Michelle's first harvest I'm gonna pick some down here to start off with because they're handy but we're looking to pick any other two right and sometimes they look pink and they're ripe and sometimes they look pink and they're not quite so do feel free to taste them sometimes it's the only way so we pick them in a very traditional way which is with a handle about an inch on either side without the leaf we're come onto the Leafs in a minute we want the leaves medium to large ones to go in the boxes this one looks very nice I think I've just cut a bit it's quite exciting because I haven't done this before but at the same time a little nervous now when I'm looking at these and sorting sometimes there's just the odd berry that's a little bit traveled or sometimes there's just the odd berry that isn't right when the rest are okay is a very pink one there I'll and taste it but I have a fancy that might be just under ripe sometimes in order to get at them it seems necessary I'm trying not to handle them because if I handle them too much it rubs off the bloom and that's their natural matte finish and I want to keep as much of that intact as possible I'm under certain amount of pressure to pick for 30 pounds every day you know it's relentless management don't like it if I were to pick a few days and then say there weren't enough right for a couple of days once I start picking now under pressure then to pick every morning but nature sometimes has a way of biting back last year we had thousands of wasps in here and they were eating whole bunches you know it was alive with wasps and they they're crafty things they they eat all the flesh and they leave the skins and the pips but it would take more than a swarm of wasps to finish off the great vine planted by capability Brown in 1768 it's believed to be the largest and oldest one in the world people always seem to very surprised that they taste okay considering the vine is so old quite follow that logic myself but people seem to the thing they would have got sour over the years or something I don't know but people often say he's surprised it's sort of sweet grapes of such an old vine that time of year again the shops are eagerly awaiting the fruits of Jill and Michelle's labor from the palaces point of view of making money the old superintendent who's long gone now used to say you know they didn't what they were sold for didn't pay my wages and I used to reply said this every year and I used to reply every year that's because I'm worth my weight in gold and we used to leave the discussion there [Music] the tapestry has been immersed in a huge metal container of deionized water it's now sprayed the diluted detergent mix specially formulated to this particular fabric and for the really tough stains Lindsay and Julia gently massage the textile with sponges to ease the dirt out [Music] relax you guys do the whole the whole surface really caused me to concentrate on the paler colors where some of the rulers sort of fluffed on the surface and it is holding quite a lot of dirt we just want to make sure that they're quite clean they also measure the level of acidity in the tapestry by taking a pH reading I'm putting this on the top of the tapestry surface and I'm trying to take a measurement of the water and the pH of the inner fibers acidity caused by pollutants in the environment like smoke and human dust destroys the delicate threads so if the tapestry is to survive it's imperative its acidity is neutralized we're monitoring their pH because the tapestry the pH was very acidic it was three to begin with and obviously the wash process is going to chemically change the tapestry so we're going to happen we're going to change the pH make it less acidic which is going to stop the degradation process so we monitor throughout the waters beginning to look really satisfyingly dirty now took a while I was beginning to get a bit disappointed but it's now it's lovely in yellow and brown and they sort of smell like wet sheep [Music] it takes about an hour to rinse out all the detergent but the tapestry still has to be dried long cotton towels act like giant blotting papers than plastic drain pipes that gently roll over them and it's given the blow-dry treatment for at least a day already the improvements are becoming apparent the tapestry is now ready to be repaired after mounting it on a loom Vandana dolna is beginning the painstaking process of conservation it's really really beautiful the figures I think my Legos come out of it very well I mean he really looks like he's been done last week he's been just been away but Vonda has underestimated the time it will take to do the repairs we know when it was dirty it was difficult to see the work in it also I didn't take that into consideration which is what's so dirty and so motor together but neither it's been washed and everything sort of opened out because all the fibers had sort of but come up on a softer I can actually see so I've got more work I know it was my first project and so I want to Joe I said I could do that in less time then and there possibly I really could I mean I'd probably be here till midnight one night with the candles no not candles in the palace I'm working my way through the tapestry from the beginning but this side right the way through it and doing basically very minimal conservation work of mainly slit and slits means I'm sewing up areas that have come apart the conservation you make something whole again you make it structurally sound without adding to the design in any way if something isn't there you can't put it back in again it's such a fine dividing line conservation restoration sometimes it's confusing because sometimes you're doing some work and like around these fingers here if this was missing if I didn't put some sort of linear line therefore artistically aesthetically those wouldn't read his fingers yet if I put too much work into them and actually like a painter do the tonal qualities around them I could be interfering with that piece of work putting my idea of how her fingers are how fat they are how they Bend how they move the tonal qualities and then shading in the light and that would be restoration to do a slit incident doesn't take very long just save something up but I'm probably taking twice as long because I'm having to push and pull through the tapestry this is a very tight tapestry it's very difficult to put the needle through and so I'm actually changing needles about every three turns because they blunt and they Bend and I have to change them I've got a huge supply of stock terrible I particularly like 18th century and 19th century French paintings and tapestry they are derived from paintings from cartoons from prints and so it's a natural extension and really love French tapestries they have a sort of quirkiness about them and fun and their color the palette I can't and you need to be able to width red create leopard skin I think that's incredible it's such and to be able to define silk you can see that something's silk drape next to flesh and toenails and eyelashes I think I might I'm over bowled by how they came to do this and pearls even in jewels I thought it was painted in fact I asked someone to look at this because I thought hey they can't have done that you can't get the jewel work like this it can't be I thought gosh it's got paint on everything we've got paint on it perhaps if I'm rubbing against it my thumb often isn't but the luminosity of that it looks like it's paint I can't believe that that's why I like them after many hours of work the tapestry is ready for a last inspection before it's sent back to Windsor Castle where it'll be rehung [Music] it's finished this washed-up exceedingly well and it's stable there so it'll last 600 years hopefully that's it falling apart or the next person 100 years later or do what I've just done and hopefully they have an easier time they spent my summer doing this not that I regret it I enjoyed it but I'm going to have my holiday now I hope they like it [Music] Hampton Court a scheduled ancient monument has stood the test of time for 500 years but it's under constant threat from the elements and if the battle for the palace to survive the late 20th century assistant curator Jonathan Foyle writes an annual report on the state of the building for the curatorial Department the surveyor of the fabric and maintenance problem here we have with Reigate stone it's a funny material because it's not a limestone it's not a sandstone it's a mix of the two and you can clean the windowsill one night the next morning you'll find some some fall because this stuff has an inherent disease probably looks like diseased skin almost and that's because the binder doesn't know what it is it's not one thing or another so two can't hold this up together and consequently we've got to find ourselves a solution to you know to repair the material as possible that's one of the overriding problems flooring also is a problem we've got this Swedish marble is what Wren used it can be worn down it could be very difficult to try and replace successfully you can see for example patterns of where like this corner where people walk around the corner and it'll gradually put a trough in the stone now the stone you see here is a piece of Purbeck from Dorset which has already replaced some of the Swedish limestone so this is a second-generation stone at least that still got that curve anywhere where many hundreds of thousands of people a year walk around and where the stone down in the 1990s alone some 5 million people of meandered through Hampton Court so it's no surprise to learn that visitors are by far the single biggest cause of damage to the palace housekeeping supervisor Helen Smith has some problem areas to show Jonathan at first side it looks like a lot of damage and you think well people must be kicking it pretty hard but 700,000 people a year that's just baby damage then it's just coats brushing and special it's just hundreds of hundreds of people doing it every day there were two major and quite difficult to reconcile duties the first one is to maintain his palace it's the best of our ability because they are unique in history and once they've gone they've gone forever but secondly we've got to present them and make them accessible and explain them because if you don't show their importance then they're not worth as much as they could be so it's a constant battle to try and find the balancing line between those things the oriole window of the Great Hall is also showing signs of wear and tear my favorite part of the palace and a couple of frightening episodes yeah joints in the windows and also do you remember the glass I remember a piece of glass coming out yes that was odd because it looked like it was broken from the outside in when Henry the eighth built Hampton Court little could he know it would be right under the flight path of the world's busiest airport I was aware of vibration being caused from aircraft in particular and you can you can walk through the Great Hall and when Concorde comes over and you can hear the glass rattling economy anywhere in the palace you can feel going it undoubtedly causes cumulative damage of some sort if Concorde comes over twice a day throughout a year it's 700 times a year times 10 years 7,000 times that happens it made you may take that or longer to see anything happen but I'll keep monitoring what's happening and I think well you know we'll have to make some sort of representation because sometimes it's just unbearable and this is fragile material and there are other airborne pests to contend with but the problem with pigeons is not one of vibration it's what they leave behind them to the right of the column it looks like someone's dropped a pot of white paint now what's euphemistically called guano to those interested in buildings can be a real headache to get off a building now any sort of bird magnets that sits on the surface of brickwork had to be it embeds itself and forms a very hard crust on the surface and if you try and scrape it off you take the service of the brick off as well and there are no solvents which can satisfactorily remove it so you could try brushing you could try scraping risk the only unpleasant business and this never guaranteed to come off very well there's only one problem of caused by animals there's another one actually particular to this area of the palace which which is water rats which scurry up from the Thames run across the privy garden so it seems and they've taken to sharpening their front teeth on the toes of these lead statues now I don't know what happens when animals eat lead and I'm quite what lead does to their brain but they seem to like it for sharpening their teeth so we had some damage to the sculptures as well so rats and pigeons are just a couple of [Music] although it had so much to contend with Hampton Court still stands today is one of the finest examples of both Tudor and Baroque architecture Jonathan will highlight the area's most in need of attention they looks to the outside and we may be keeping the thing on a life-support machine you know propping it up and putting materials in it to keep it going but we must remember that Henry the Eighth had 50 houses this is by far the best survival I just walked around 6 acres of building today and you're painting the 4th bridges a weekend job it really is keeping Hampton Court going is it is a phenomenal thing and that's because so much of it remains so much of it's in good condition we've concentrated on the areas that are faring least well and it's not like a life-support machine you really it's right like a doctor pretend to a patient to make sure it keeps me in the piece of Health and we're really trying to do the same thing and you know the prognosis would be there too coercing pretty good shape [Music] [Music]

Channel: Chris Earthquake

Views: 149,949

Rating: 4.7258964 out of 5

Keywords: VCI, Channel 4 Video, Channel 4 Documentaries, Thomas & Friends, Amber The Fangirl, Obsessed With Videos, Nostalgic Television, VHS Previewer 2000, George's retro channel, Gondarth, Shaun O'Hagan, Louis Walkden, UK, 1998, 1999, TV Series, VHS, Video, Collection, International, Industry, Tudor, Henry VIII, Six Wives, Hampton, Court, Palace, Royal, Greater London, 1515, Art, Garden, River Thames, King William III, Stuart times, Chapel, Historic, History, video collection international

Id: B1kmonWquKk

Length: 144min 16sec (8656 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 23 2020