All language subtitles for Edwardian Britain in Colour 1of2 Ch5 720p EN SUB_Subtitles01.ENG

This is Edwardian Britain,

the remarkable years at the turn
of the 20th century.

It's an incredible period.

It's the shaping of our modern era.

We wouldn't be where we are
without the Edwardians.

And now, for the first
time, in colour.

History tends to be about the rich,
the famous, the powerful,

whereas these people,
they're ordinary people.

This footage is about them.

Britain was the richest country in
the world

on the back of the hard
work of men, women and children.

We often think of the working class
as very drab, in old clothes,

in black and white,

and it shows what they did have -

that they led these lives
of colour and of richness.

It is an age when workers
were allowed to enjoy life

after the long austerity
of the Victorians.

Look at those colours, gorgeous.

People out to enjoy themselves.

Families out together.

But it is also a time of conflict,

as workers and women demand new
rights.

Their use of three colours -
purple, white, and green -

and everybody knew what that stood
for - three words, votes for women.

Change did come, but on a scale
nobody could foresee.

And this is incredibly poignant
because it is filmed just two weeks

before the start of the war,

and that war was going
to change everything.

Life in Edwardian Britain
began with the death

of Queen Victoria in 1901.

Millions lined London's streets
to witness the funeral.

Behind Victoria's coffin
rode her son and successor -

Edward VII -

the last king to give
his name to an era.

With a new century and a new king,

the nation now looked
forward to change.

The summer of 1902, on the day
of Edward VII's Coronation,

the nation takes to the streets
to celebrate,

like this one here in Accrington -

shown in colour for the first time.

See, this one just fascinates me

to see it because the pageantry

of it, from Accrington.

It's just another kind of, northern,
kind of, old industrial town.

And when we look at the efforts
that have been put into

the costumes, the sort of expense
that would have gone

into this parade.

It is bright to the
point of being blindingly bright,

but that is part of the spectacle.

In the absence of TV, in the absence
of the internet and a computer

screen on every phone -
this is the spectacle

that brings people together.

When you look at the whole history
of the Edwardian and Victorian

period, people were on the streets
all the time.

They would parade for temperance,

they would parade for the
Whit Walks,

they would parade for Catholic
processions, Protestant positions.

So they paraded massive, big
banners, huge pageantry, dressed up,

and it was a spectacle.

And this Coronation procession
would have lasted about two hours.

I think what we're seeing here is a
film of how conscious people

are of what is happening in the rest
of the British Empire.

How people have absorbed
descriptions of empire

from newspapers, from popular
culture, and so on.

Remember, this is only three months
after the end of the Boer War.

There would have been a lot
of talk about Africans.

And I think this film reflects
how globalised thinking was

at of this moment in time.

These are people, in the absence
of having sufficient people

of colour, have blacked themselves
up to include those people of colour

as part of the British story.

So, they want the British
story to be authentic

and, for it to be authentic, it has
to include people of the empire.

The British Empire was made
up of 400 million people

and its capital, London,
was the richest city on the planet,

with the biggest port in the world -

importing food, steel, wool
and timber.

This film from 1904 shows 11 miles
of wharfs

handling 60,000 ships a year.

Tens of thousands worked
in the docks and in the markets.

My great-grandfather was a driver,

he used to pick up chemicals from

the docks onto a horse-driven cart

and drive them back to a
chemical factory in south London.

He started his life in this
very sphere.

I think that's a pretty
dangerous job,

driving chemicals on the back of...

..of a cart through
central London, yeah.

Amazing I'm here.

So, the London Docks,
it's a real hub.

It's built on physical labour,
the physical transport of goods.

And a lot of these men in the
pictures, they would be

casual workers, hired by the day.

They would have to turn
up to the dock to see

if there is work for them that day.

The Edwardian period's a pretty
tough time to be alive.

OK, society's changing and reforms
are being introduced, but people

are working very long hours.

Average working week
of 60 hours plus.

Low wages, on the whole,
for most people.

So, everybody you see here would
have a story to tell,

I'm sure, about their working lives.

Bobby Cooley works at the new Covent
Garden Flower Market in Vauxhall.

He was the third generation
of porters to work in the old

Covent Garden, then a fruit and the
market - not just flowers.

My dad's grandad worked

as a porter in Covent Garden

and my dad's dad had lots of uncles,

at one time, I think I had

seven relatives working.

I was 16 when I started.

I was one of the last kiddies
to be working hard in Covent Garden.

Little had changed in the way
the market

was run since Edwardian times.

Lots and lots of vegetables
for sale, all sorts of stuff, looks

like spring,
with all the vegetables.

Guys portering with cotchels on
their heads and...

..all sorts of things on their head.

Bushels, which I know have 28 pound
in them.

Apples, looks like cabbages.

You could tell a market porter,
he normally had a scarf and a cap

because you're carrying a lot
of stuff on your nut

and you don't want it to completely
do your brains in!

Ladies, now this is an
important part.

Ladies here working hard in the
market, the flower market's

porters, and in the veg market,
shucking peas and processing stuff.

I can really relate to these people
in this picture here,

because they're
working as I used to work.

They're working with wicker
and boxes, where we used to work

with cardboard and plastic.

But, yeah, we shoved as much
stuff around as they did.

Covent Garden, back in the 1900s,
it was the larder of London.

You had the Borough Market
and Spitalfields, but Covent Garden

was the big hub.

Anything that was going anywhere
was going to Covent Garden first.

You can imagine, quite a dangerous
place to work, a lot of heavy goods

being shifted around and
horses moving.

You know, them ladies up there were
quite fearsome ladies.

They used to...

..as much as the men, as far
as the swearing goes, I was told!

Having a hard life is a good life
because, if you're working hard,

you're getting paid.

And all the guys in here, they're up
early, whether we have a good trade

or bad, they're here to do a
day's work.

And mostly, as it's eased off over
the years, it is harder

because there is less money to go
around

but we're all after that money.

It is lovely to see it in colour.

I'm seeing flowers you can
identify -

daffodils, hyacinths, daffodils,
looks like irises.

I'm seeing vegetables that look
edible, rather than black and white.

I might have spotted one
of my grandads here,

if I'm careful, back in the day,

because we've been here since 1905
and that looks about

round about when it was.

London might have been the capital
of the Empire, but Britain's real

wealth lay further north,
where millions worked in the mills

and the mines.

Long hours, accidents, deaths -

it's a really dangerous industry.

You had to work so fast.

You had to really...

..go like that.

You couldn't stop.

And woe betide you if you missed any
of the dirt.

Edwardian Britain was built
on grindingly hard work.

More than 10% of the population
relied on coal for their livelihood.

Never had more coal been dug.

Britain's status as the most
powerful nation in the world

depended on coal.

It was our biggest export,
it powered our industry

and heated our homes.

Here, for the first time in colour,
we see the life of a coal miner

in Wigan in 1910.

Coal kept the nation going,

the country would not have survived
without it,

because it was so
heavily reliant on industry.

And with new technology coming in,

they needed it more than ever.

So, when we see these men, you know,
the nation is on their shoulders.

We just can't imagine what it would
be like

to be a miner at that time.
I mean...

..extremely tough conditions,
extremes of temperature,

both hot and cold.

Long hours, accidents, deaths,
I mean,

it's a really dangerous industry.

That was absolutely integral

to everybody's everyday life

and the industrial
life of the country.

In Lancashire, its coal
heritage is well remembered

by the Chorley Empire
Film Community.

My grandfather worked in the pit...

..in Golborne at this time.

In fact, he was injured in
a disaster.

There was a fall of coal,
several people were killed,

but he lost his leg.
He never worked again.

And when you look at the
conditions they were working under,

it looks absolutely terrifying.

So I look at them and I think one
of them could be my grandfather,

yes, which is extraordinary.

It is very moving, it really is.

There were 350 collieries
in Lancashire alone.

Eric Lancaster worked as a miner
on the Wigan coalface,

where they mined using the same
process as the Edwardians.

I started at the colliery
at 14 and a half.

I worked in the stores

until I could go down the mine.

And then I went down the mine,

and was on what they called the
haulage,

where the rope used to pull the
tubs along,

and then I eventually
got on the coalface.

They're getting in the cage now
to descend the mine.

You went down at seven because the
pit whistle would go then.

You could have two miles
to get to the coalface.

The other man rider, local, that
took you a mile, and then you walked

a mile, then you got to
the coalface,

and then you started work.

You'd keep on working until you'd
cleared your coal -

it was called the breadth.

It was about the length of a terrace
sitting room, about 12 feet

and about four-foot thick,
and four-foot advance.

When you cleared it, you had
advanced the face four foot.

It was a tough, and it was
hot and it was sweaty.

Just watching this film,
it is realistic

because it was quite dirty,
you got black.

And when you finished your shift,
you was covered in coal dust,

so you wanted to get
into the pithead baths

for a real hot shower.

It wasn't just the men who worked
in the coal industry -

women did, too.

Banned from working underground,
thousands of girls and women worked

on the surface, sorting coal and
loading wagons - they were known

as the pit brow lasses.

Rita Culshaw is the fourth
generation from her family

who worked in the mines.

I left school when I was 15
and I started work on the Monday,

on the pit brow,

and I worked with my sister.

Your hands got really cold,
and black, and dirty.

You used to put Vaseline on your
eyelids, so that it was easy

to wash the coal dust out,
but, after you'd had a bath,

you were still picking bits of coal
out of the corner of your eyes!

Those pit brow girls, happy
and smiling, like we all did.

Pushing the tubs.

I remember they still dressed
like that, and they still folded

their arms like that, as well.

Aggressive, defensive,

because they won't let
the men pick on them.

They're picking the dirt out of
the coal

and you had to work so fast.

You had to really...

..go like that.

You couldn't stop.

And woe betide you if
you missed any of the dirt.

You weren't allowed to speak to
each other.

But one girl there, named
Edna Woodcock, she was a comic.

She used to pick a spade up

and she used to get the spade.

# I'm leaning on a lump

# I'll step the corner, up
the sleeve... #

And she used to sing,
they all used to sing,

but they weren't allowed to speak.

I think it was the atmosphere
of being with such friendly girls.

There was no arguing,
or backbiting, or anything.

It was just...well, it was a job.

I loved it, I loved it, and I loved
the camaraderie of the girls.

Oh, memories!

Besides coal, cotton was one
of the biggest employers

in Edwardian Britain.

Britain's cotton industry
reached its peak in 1912,

when eight billion yards of cloth
were being produced, using raw

materials from around the Empire.

With thousands of mills and weaving
sheds across the county, Lancashire

was the cotton capital of the world
-

and it wouldn't have been possible
without the women who made

up more than 60% of the workforce.

Chief employer of women at this time

was the cotton industry.

They were employed as weavers.

A really good weaver
could operate up to eight looms,

so they would work in a section
of the factory, and they would

just watch the looms,
and, if there was any snags,

or the shuttle needed to
be refilled,

they would get that ready.

Very, very highly skilled work,
weaving, at this point.

Deafening, as well.

Actually, my mum worked in mill -
it was Fountain Mill.

And, as soon as the doors opened,

it was deafening,

was the sound of it.

And my mum was partly deaf, well,
a lot of the ladies were.

And they had to lip-read to each
other, or they would make

hand signals to communicate with
each other because of the amount

of noise and dust.

Edwardian film-makers couldn't
easily film

inside the mills, but this film
shows the women workers leaving

the Alfred Butterworth cotton
factory, near Manchester, in 1901.

What's fascinating is that the
girls' hair is all covered,

so women do not show long hair.

So, if you see the girls, the shawls
are completely covering them

and you don't see their hair at
all, you just see their faces.

There is all this debate now
about the hijab and about women

covering their hair, and we forget
that, we've lost that as part

of our culture.

About 100 years ago, you wouldn't
walk out in the streets

of Lancashire with your hair down.

In Edwardian Britain, men's roles
have been publicly documented.

But women's work could be
every bit as skilled,

as captured in this rare
footage from 1910.

Of the Siemens Brothers factory
in Dalston, east London,

where women are busy making
electric lamps.

Watching the work that she's doing,
it's skilled work,

you know, it is really intricate,
detailed work.

Difficult work, as well,
which would have taken a lot

of concentration, a lot of effort.

When we think about the working
hours as well,

how long you would
sit and do that for.

And the colours of it, again,
we often think of the working class

as very drab, in old clothes,
in black and white.

And you see the different patterns,
the different textures,

it makes them real.

It shows what they did have.

That these aren't people to pity,
that they lead these lives

of colour, and of richness
as well, in one way.

And I love that she's wearing
her locket and her jewellery

as well, you know, it challenges
a lot of people's perceptions

of what the working class would have
looked like in Edwardian Britain.

This is a working woman, she isn't
something out of a Dickens novel,

she is real, she's got her
jewellery, she's neat, she's tidy.

The quality of the film,
the exactitude of the images,

it's really extraordinary.

We're used to everybody being a bit

distant, but these images of

ordinary people working,

they're very touching, really,

they're very moving,
because you feel a kind of human

connection with somebody who is
just, you know, they're doing

something and there's nothing
more human than working

with your hands, really.

And to have these very, very
beautiful and very clear images,

people doing intricate work -
for you to watch.

You can't help but look at her hair
and her hair's been done

very nicely for the film,

but it seems to be moved
by a gust of wind.

It's a small thing which goes
beyond what's in the image

and reminds you that you're looking
at a real person, a real incident.

Those are the things
that connect us to the past.

It's just a lovely to see life

as it was being lived and see

people at work.

It's the mundaneness,
the humanity of it somehow.

Concentration.

They used to talk about women
and low-paid work, you know,

the invisible work, five Cs,
so women as cleaning, cooking,

cashiering, clerking and caring.

They were also women in factories,
as we've seen here,

but it's the lowest-paid work,
often the slightly dangerous work.

But, having said that, the options
for men as well were much

more defined and confined
for particular classes of people

than they are now.

In Edwardian Britain, all classes
of people had to wear hats -

you weren't fully dressed
if you didn't wear one -

and the hat defined
your position in society.

From top hats and boaters,
to bowlers and flat caps.

Stockport was the world
centre for hat-making in 1910.

Here, it's the men who are hard
at work

making the popular fur felt hat.

Steve Cossey is perhaps the last
apprentice from Stockport

still working in the hat industry.

The processes that they go
through are over 130 processes,

just from that,

to actually get it blocked

into a shape.

The blocking aspect is done
with the boiling water.

So the hats are put into the boiling
water, so which means the hat body

then is pliable, so they're able
to stretch the hat body

over the wooden blocks.

Sometimes the air gets trapped
between the hat body and the block,

so they used to blow in it to get
all the air out.

The men could block around probably
200 to 300 hats a day.

You can imagine the problem
they have with their hands, putting

it in and out of the boiling water.

But it wasn't just their hands
which suffered.

I'm a hatter and many people
would know the term from Alice

in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter.

Now, the Mad Hatter comes
from when they used to use Mercury

to make the hats and it made
all the men who made the hats

go nutty, basically.

And this wasn't realised until quite
late after they'd been using it

and then once that was found,
then they abolished it

and was never to be used again.

It was very hard, very hard.

It's quite a lot of pressure
on the hand and it's the vibration

of the fur rubbing on your hands
which can cause the sores.

What we want to do is keep this
tradition going so the hat industry

is still alive, but we want to keep
using the traditional

methods and make them in the UK,
in Stockport or Denton,

just like they did in the
early 1900s.

If life over nd another. Hundred
years ago was a very different,

the biggest difference was in
the lives that

children were forced to lead
in Edwardian Britain.

It would have been hard work, heavy,
dirty, hard work, and children

were useful because they could
get between the looms.

Talk about social mobility,
these days, these kids

wouldn't have had an opportunity
to stay on at school very long

and going to university would be
like going to a different planet.

Edwardian Britain was the richest,
most powerful nation in the world.

Its power and wealth was built
on the hard work of men,

women and children.

All children had a basic education,
but most left school by 12.

The factories and mills
depended on child workers

and families needed the income.

Across the nation, even the smallest
of children

would try and find
work doing something.

Former politician Alan Johnson grew
up in poverty in post-war London,

in conditions similar to many of the
children featured

here in the early 1900s.

I love this.

You see, I used to drink water
out of those fountains,

where there was a fountain
for the horse, and then drinking

water on the end.

You saw them all around
North Kensington,

and on the corner of my street,
there was a horse trough

and the totters would come
and tie their horse up at lunchtime,

usually pop in the Earl
of Warwick for a pint.

And they'd put a nose bag
over the horse's ears for the food

and then take them to the trough for
the water.

And those kids look as if they're up
to no good, three ragamuffins.

Difficult to know what they are,
they could be rag pickers -

people who make an existence by just

harvesting discarded clothes

and recycling them in some way.

It certainly doesn't look like a toy
cart, it looks like they're at work

probably on the Embankment.

Some children worked as half-timers
-

school until noon, then to work -

like these seen here, at the
Butterworth cotton factory near
Manchester.

So, this is the reason why
Lancashire was such a prosperous

county in the Edwardian
and the Victorian age,

because the women worked, the men
worked and the children worked.

So they would have three or four
incomes per household

and the factories, they would employ
up to 6,000-8,000 people,

some of these factories. It would
have been hard work, heavy, dirty,

hard work, and children were useful

because they could get
between the looms.

The way we now see children
is very different from the way

in which
Edwardian society saw children.

For working families, they saw
children as a source of labour,

extra labour, especially labour
that men didn't want to do,

that women couldn't perhaps do
and that they could.

But there was a call for reform,
and for children to attend schools,

and certainly laws came in to try
and force all children to attend

school, but many didn't, many still
worked, and many of the families

relied on the labour
that children provided.

This was the first age of
film-making, so it was still unusual

to see a film camera
outside your factory gate.

The children are intrigued.

It's almost like he's looking,
going, "Look at me." And he looks,

and he's playing in front
and he hits his friend.

But he's so natural
in front of the camera,

he's like the instant film star.

He does look like the Artful Dodger,
you've really brought him to life.

In their faces,

there's a lot in there.

They look old beyond their years
and it's partly the clothes,

it's partly that they're at work,
it's partly that some of those faces

are pinched with poverty.

And they will have seen a lot
in their short lives, I'm sure.

All the missed opportunities,
I mean, you talk about social

mobility these days,

these kids wouldn't have had an
opportunity to...

..certainly not to stay
on at school very long

and going to university would be
like going to a different planet.

So they knew where they were
going, into the factory.

There's a bloke with bowlegs
coming down there - that's rickets.

Can hardly walk, look... Painful.

Children were at risk of rickets
whilst they were still growing.

It's caused by malnutrition, lack
of vitamin D and lack of sunlight.

Well, it was beginning to die
out, but it was still

a fairly common feature.

So, living conditions are improving,
infant health beginning to improve,

all these things that contribute
to those kind of changes,

but, as you can see, it's still very
present in some of these films.

Kind of gets me is that some
of these lads probably didn't come

back from the war.

You start to project our knowledge

of what would happen

in the build-up,

you think of these lads who are

staring at the camera and, you know,
look so innocent.

This generation, this decade of
time

would change their lives forever.

So it feels like quite poignant,
when you do see them coming out.

It's what I find fascinating
about these films, picking out

an individual and wondering exactly
what became of them...

..and where their children are
today, or their grandchildren.

This was a new century,
with a new king and new thinking.

For the British people, this meant,

while they worked hard,
they got to play, too.

What we're seeing here is children
from Altrincham really excited,

about to board a train to Mobberley,
which is only seven miles away,

and it's their big day out.

For these kids, they get to see
acrobats, bizarre puppeteers,

it may seem a little bit
underpowered for the kids of today,

but, at that time, for these
children, this is a really special,

really liberating experience.

It was a hard time,

the Edwardian period, for children,

because their parents often

were working full-time,

they didn't have a lot of
opportunity to get outdoors.

This is one of the reasons why
outings like this were so important,

to try and get children out
into the countryside, away

from the sort of polluted areas
in towns, and into the fresh air,

so they could run around and play.

Childhood was very short at
this point.

You know, people had to grow up very
quickly and get to work and...

..we have a concept of childhood
really lasting now until sort of 18,

but childhood in many ways
was over by the time you were 12

in the Edwardian period.

But men, women and children
were united in their pride

for their king,
country and community.

They came together for huge
celebrations, like this one in 1902,

the once every 20 years
Preston Guild,

opened by the mayor Frederick Arthur
Stanley, the 16th Earl of Derby.

The week-long processions date back
to Medieval times,

but now a new world is being
celebrated and new inventions.

So it's not unlike a modern
carnival, different floats coming

through the town, and they're all
part of the textile trade,

and of course that's the thing that
had made this region,

had made the area what it was.

And that is the symbol of the trade,
I mean, the loom.

That would have meant so much
to so many people.

Generations of people's families
would have worked in different

elements around those kinds
of machines, from the kids sweeping

the floor to the supervisors running
a whole floor of hundreds

of these things.

It would have been a huge occasion
for the town, you can see

the pavements thronged, especially
if it's only happening every 20

years or so.

What's that pig doing?!

I'm surprised to see a pig
in the middle of a textile parade!

Wow!

The famous Myerscough pig.

So, Myerscough were a butchers based
in Preston, on Shepherd Street,

and they had a factory, but in the
19th century they became

famous for their sausages,
which were called MP sausages.

The pig became a sort of mascot
for them, it went on to appear

in two more guilds in 1922 and
in 1952,

so it became a bit of a star.

Sadly, we don't know what happened
to it.

I mean, look at the guys, you've got
butchers with huge knives as well.

I've never...that, it's crazy.

I think, because you've got
colourised, things stand out

that you wouldn't have seen before.

It's a fantastic piece of footage.

Leisure time, previously just for
the rich, was now available

to the working class -

even if it was just one day a week.

Seasonal fun parks were very popular
in the early 1900s, like this one

near Halifax in Yorkshire.

This is Sunny Vale Hipperholme
pleasure gardens.

It was two shillings to get in

and it was a place where the
emerging middle-class,

and also the aspirational
working class, would go

for their leisure time.

So you'd have boating lakes,
you'd have swings, and people

dancing, so it was just...

You dressed up,
it was your Sunday best.

You put your best shoes on,
you didn't wear your clogs,

you wore everything.

This is actually a early form
of a roller-coaster, it's called

a mountain glider, or a switchback.

We were taken up the hill
by a horse, and you can see

the horse in the shot,

and then you just were let
down on this almost like a carriage

that you would see in coal mines,
and you're on this little rickety

carriage and then it would
brake at the bottom.

The man operating the mountain
glider is Joseph Bunce,

owner of Sunnyvale Gardens,

who paid for the filming
as an early tourist film.

One of the other activities filmed
was donkey riding, a seemingly

hazardous pursuit for the ladies.

Oh!

Ouch!

That looks very painful!

Humiliation on film has never ceased
to be everybody's favourite thing,

you know!

Also, I thought perhaps
maybe she is drunk.

They do look as if they're having a
wonderful time,

the lady who fell off the donkey
laughs and gets straight back on!

I mean, you know, good for her!

They're
obviously having a great time!

Film-makers would often introduce
comic interludes to their films

to keep cinema
audiences entertained.

If you look closer at the lady,

you can see that her hair
is cut short.

Perhaps this is an early example
of a stuntman caught on film.

With the northern mill workers
allowed one full week off a year,

that created a whole new sector -

the world's first seaside holiday

resorts for working and middle
classes alike,

and one towered above them all.

Blackpool had a unique offer.

Nowhere else had three piers,
nowhere else had a Blackpool Tower.

It was the place to be.

Written in the Edwardian era

was the richest, most powerful
nation in the world.

All this was thanks to the enormous
hard work by its people.

Finally, leisure, too,
was part of their lives.

For the mill workers of the north,
they could now enjoy one week's

unpaid holiday a year

and, for millions of people
in the early 1900s,

that meant the seaside.

And the ultimate place for Edwardian
entertainment, Blackpool.

This is Blackpool Victoria Pier, and
this is really a fascinating film

because this is the third pier
that was built in Blackpool.

So, Blackpool has three piers,
it has the North Pier,

the Central Pier and this was
called the Victoria Pier

and it was opened in 1893.

Now it's called the South Pier.

The three piers were all connected
by the promenade and the trams

running along Blackpool's
central seafront.

This film was made commemorating
the opening of the new promenade

in 1904, which allowed, you know,
this fantastic promenade walkway

right up to the new pier,
Victoria Pier.

And what they're doing is
promenading, really what piers

were built for,
you promenaded on the pier.

It's the idea of you being able
to walk out to sea and being able

to look back at Blackpool.

I mean, that was a huge attraction.

I mean, promenading was a big social
activity at this point.

Wonderful glimpse back at the Sands
there,

of the early housing in Blackpool.

Most of that is now gone.

It's been replaced by large hotels.

This tram is also incredible
because it's also advertising

Blackpool's famous Winter Gardens,

fantastic indoor entertainment
complex, with the opera house

and then the Empress Ballroom.

So, a real palace of entertainment,
one of the big attractions

in Blackpool, where everybody went
to enjoy the greatest stars

of the day, or dance on the
fantastic Empress Ballroom dance
floor.

You've got middle-class people
and working-class people

all mingling together in ballrooms,
everybody knew how to dance,

everybody could waltz,

and it was a big part of the culture
of this time.

You dressed up to go to the seaside
in the way that you dress

up to go out on a Saturday night.

You only had that week off
and you didn't get paid for it.

You'd save your money
or you'd have holiday clubs.

They came here for access
to the sea, to bathe.

They came here for the sweets,
the treats, the ice cream.

You know, they came for things

that they couldn't really
get at home.

At the same time as the Victoria
Pier, the great Blackpool

institution of the Pleasure Beach
was opening and developing.

They brought these incredible rides
from all over the world.

And the River Caves
was this incredible journey,

so you went through and you went
through all the caves

of the world, in Blackpool,

so it was an astonishing attraction.

The River Caves attraction
is still running here today.

The other ride going strong
is the captive flying machines

by Sir Hiram Maxim, the oldest
ride on the Pleasure Beach,

thrilling the public since 1904.

Maxim is best known for designing
the first automatic machine gun,

but he dreamt of inventing
powered flight.

By designing this amusement ride,

he hoped to raise funds to build
a working aircraft.

Sadly, this was the nearest
to the flying machine he achieved

in his lifetime.

The Wright brothers got there first.

With four million visitors a year,
Blackpool became a magnet

for a new wave of entrepreneurs.

The Illuminations we enjoy today
first lit up the town in 1912

and nowhere else had the ultimate
moneymaking attraction -

Blackpool Tower.

It was built on the most prominent
position,

overlooking the Central Beach,

was where a Blackpool sprung from,
it was where all

the entertainment was first offered
to the masses who arrived

on their day trips and holidays.

Blackpool Tower was always
about making money

and it made a lot of money.

It could have thousands of people
go through its door every day

for a mixture of attractions,

so you could go dancing,
you could have a cup of tea.

It was almost like a multipurpose
venue that we think of nowadays,

before they were built.

There's nothing wasted in this
building,

every single bit of this building is
economically viable.

Even the legs of Blackpool Tower
were used to house a circus,

designed by Frank Matcham.

Blackpool Tower Circus is the oldest
continuous circus in the world

cos it's never broke season.

3,000 people would come here for
three shows a day.

It was advertised as a variety
and aquatic circus.

So, basically, this ring would drop
down and 40,000 gallons of water

would come in, and then people would
swim, horses would dive into it.

The central stars were the clowns.

The Blackpool Tower clowns were
very famous.

In the early period,
there was definitely elephants

and in the morning, during
the season, they would take them

down and you'd go out onto the
promenade and they would

actually go swimming in the water,
in the sea.

And it was a very clever attraction
because basically the people

would come to see the elephants
going in the sea, but it was also

a way of advertising the circus.

Blackpool is very much a place
of showing and enjoying.

Obviously, after the death of Queen
Victoria, people could actually

just feel more relieved and Edward

was a fantastic king in that way.

He was a very jolly king,

but those nine years of his reign
are particularly poignant,

because so much social change,
but so much joy as well.

This is a form of time travel.

These are lives being lived out
in front of your eyes

to act as our witness,
really, to the past.

I think they're wonderful.

Seeing these films, with their full
colour again, you get a sense

of life in a way which is much
more direct and much more kind

of immediate and affecting.

I think what some of these images
show you is the individual

behind the wider story

and, in the individual,
you have those who enjoy their life.

I mean, they have limited
opportunities and aspirations,

but they're still having fun one day

and there's an awful story the next,

and I think the images take you to
that level

of the individual's experiences

and I think there's something
really powerful and beautiful

about that, actually, because too
often in history you put

people into boxes, and then the box
has a narrative

around how hard life was.

And, yes, it was hard, but there was
so much more going on.

Next time...

Edwardian Britain locked
in a power struggle.

Workers unite and fight
for fairer work and pay.

Women demand a voice, the vote
and a place in the world.

Victories are won,
but a whole generation would make

the ultimate sacrifice.

All this is captured
on Edwardian Britain In Colour.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media