• Returning Series
  • #<Network:0x00007fc975554c40>
  • 2013-03-07T00:00:00Z
  • 42m
  • 2h 6m (3 episodes)
  • United Kingdom
  • English
  • Documentary

3 episodes

Series Premiere

2013-03-07T00:00:00Z

1x01 From Old Bones to Precious Stones

Series Premiere

1x01 From Old Bones to Precious Stones

  • 2013-03-07T00:00:00Z42m

Charting the birth of the heritage movement and the first arguments of radical thought, from figures including John Lubbock MP, Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, Charles Darwin and John Ruskin. These remarkable individuals asked important questions and came up with the building blocks of a new world that valued the past. Their actions led to the first piece of legislation to safeguard prehistoric and ancient structures which until then had often fallen prey to the short-term interests of farmers and landowners.

2013-03-14T00:00:00Z

1x02 The Men from the Ministry

1x02 The Men from the Ministry

  • 2013-03-14T00:00:00Z42m

The second episode reveals the unsung heroes of the heritage movement, the clever civil servants who saved the great ruins of Britain. It explores the determination of Charles Reed Peers from the Office of Works, who seized the chance in the interwar years to make history a popular cause, and looks at how the increasingly mobile British public began to embrace the idea of a day out at an historic site.

2013-03-21T00:00:00Z

1x03 Broken Propylaeums

1x03 Broken Propylaeums

  • 2013-03-21T00:00:00Z42m

The final episode follows the changing fortunes of a heritage movement floored by the after effects of World War II and looks at how people like Sir John Betjeman and Dan Cruickshank gave families access to heritage and architecture on television from the comfort of their living rooms. It looks at the preservation of sometimes ugly, certainly unpleasant parts of our built past such as workhouses and underground mineshafts, and contemplates what the future may hold for heritage in Britain - a nation faced with economic uncertainty, depleting resources and increasing challenges of sustainability.

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