Full transcript
0:03when we live in a house
0:04we're just passing through people
0:08have occupied it before us and others
0:10will take our place
0:11when we leave a hundred human dramas
0:15played out in every room
0:19every house in britain has a story to
0:22tell but in this series
0:23i'm going to uncover the secret life of
0:26just one
0:27a single townhouse here in liverpool
0:35a city that rivaled new york in the 19th
0:38century
0:39yet a hundred years later was one of the
0:41poorest places
0:43in europe in many ways 62 falconer
0:46street
0:47is an ordinary house but as i'll show
0:50you
0:50in reality it is an amazing treasure
0:53trove
0:54as he leaves them not just 100 pounds
0:56but also number 62
0:58faulkner street in march 1885 again
1:01in this house he grabbed her by the
1:04throat and assaulted her
1:05the life that you can see recorded in
1:07these old documents
1:09is extraordinary delving into the
1:11archives i'll use the personal histories
1:14of the residents of this house to reveal
1:16the story of britain over almost
1:18200 years
1:22it's a period of seismic social change
1:25from the early years of victoria's reign
1:28right through to the present day
1:33this episode a man with a taste for the
1:36high life moves in
1:38a couple rise from domestic service to
1:41fantastic wealth
1:43and one resident's journey takes him
1:45from debtors prison
1:46to a foreign war he's left his children
1:51[Music]
1:52behind i'm going on the ultimate
1:55detective hunts to uncover lives that
1:57haven't been recorded
1:59in the history books but which can tell
2:01us a new version
2:03of our nation's past a new history of
2:05britain
2:06hidden within the walls of a single
2:10[Music]
2:20house
2:26today liverpool is a dynamic city of
2:29half a million people
2:31and just a mile south of the center in a
2:34quiet
2:35residential district is 62 faulkner
2:37street
2:39gainer is a working mum i'll bake it
2:43be ready for about six o'clock she lives
2:46here with her two children
2:47rosie and tom
2:51they share the house with a family
2:53friend kailyn
2:54who has a room in the basement
2:58gainer has agreed to let us into her
3:00home to see what stories we can find
3:03inside it
3:07so gainer how long have you lived here
3:09we've lived here since march 2010
3:12do you know much about its history i
3:14know that it hasn't always been a single
3:16family dwelling
3:17it was flats at one point but i don't
3:20know anything about the people
3:21who lived here before us what would
3:23really surprise you
3:24as we dig up the history of this house
3:26what would shock you
3:28if any crimes had been committed i think
3:30it would shock me and then
3:32worry me but i think whatever history is
3:34found becomes part of your history
3:36because you lived where they lived and
3:38we are walking on the floors where they
3:40walked
3:41um can i have a look around of course
3:44thank you i'll start by showing you the
3:47front room
3:49i think 100 years ago this might well
3:51have been
3:52a very formal dining room with the
3:54kitchen downstairs
3:56that's very different from today the
3:58kitchen
3:59is now on the ground floor and there
4:02have been
4:02lots more changes over the years
4:05don't be too surprised there are not
4:07many original features in the living
4:09room
4:11there's no fireplace so it is
4:13effectively just a white box
4:14it is a white box but the sash windows
4:17make it all right
4:18they are wonderful and at the back is a
4:21play room
4:22for gainers children
4:26and above that is another floor where
4:28the family have their bedrooms
4:32from my first look inside his house i
4:35can already begin to imagine
4:36how these rooms might have looked in
4:39earlier times
4:41and how other people might have lived
4:43here when they had
4:44oil lamps and open fires
4:49but if i'm going to piece together the
4:51stories of those past lives
4:53i need to go back over 200 years
4:58to before this house was even built
5:02and liverpool was a town of just 80 000
5:05people
5:07joseph sharples is an architectural
5:09historian who can tell me
5:11how this street came to be here
5:15joseph david hello very nice to meet you
5:17thank you so what was here before
5:19falcon street was built well this area
5:21of liverpool
5:22was known as moss lake fields this is a
5:24map of 1796
5:26and here you can see several fields
5:28owned by mr faulkner
5:30winding its way between the fields you
5:32can see crabtree lane
5:33and that's what became faulkner street
5:35right so when do you think this house
5:37was built well it seems that the house
5:38was in existence by
5:40january 1841 um we don't know how much
5:43house like this would have cost but
5:44maybe in the region of a thousand pounds
5:46something like that
5:47so this is a home that's financially out
5:49of the reach of
5:5199 of the population i should think
5:53that's true yes
5:55[Music]
5:56by the time this house was built
5:59liverpool
6:00was already one of the biggest ports in
6:02the british empire
6:04and business was booming
6:07the town's new middle class wanted
6:09houses away from the slums by the dogs
6:12and so farmland on the outskirts was
6:15snapped up by developers
6:16and built on bit by bit
6:24so many of these projects were built
6:26individually and then the rest of the
6:28street is filled in around them
6:29yes and this piecemeal development's
6:31also reflected in street numbering this
6:32house was originally number 58
6:34but it's now number 62.
6:38because faulconer street was built
6:39without a plan houses
6:41had to be renumbered as new ones were
6:43added
6:45so knowing that this was once number 58
6:47is vitally important
6:49as i start my investigation
6:50[Music]
6:56records for the early years of faulkner
6:58street are hard to find
7:00but in a private library i've discovered
7:02a rare collection
7:03of victorian trade directories
7:06buried within these pages i hope is the
7:09name
7:10of the very first resident of our house
7:14this is a copy of goes directory it's a
7:16list
7:17of all the traders and the merchants and
7:19the business owners
7:20in liverpool and this directory was
7:22regularly updated
7:24from the 1760s onwards and thanks to
7:26gore's directory we can tell
7:28exactly who's living at 58 falconer
7:31street
7:31in the year 1841 because it lists the
7:34name
7:34richard clenton and it tells us that he
7:37is working
7:38for her majesty's customs with the help
7:42of a census
7:43also of 1841 we can learn a little bit
7:46more
7:46about richard lenten because this
7:48confirms that he's 45 years old
7:50and that he's not the only person living
7:52at 58 falconer street
7:55there is no mrs glenton on the census
7:58but there is someone
7:59called ernst muller a clerk who's 20
8:03and a middle-aged woman julia schwind
8:06my guess is that they're both lodgers
8:10there's also a catherine smith who's
8:13just 15 years old
8:14the letters fs mean female servant
8:18which means richard had made as did most
8:21middle-class households at the time so
8:24from these two documents we can deduce
8:27that
8:27richard glenton was the master of his
8:29own home that he was wealthy enough
8:31to employ a female servant but he
8:33appears
8:34to be subsidizing his lifestyle by
8:37taking rent
8:38from two paying lodges so it is a bit
8:41of a mixed picture
8:44richard certainly had room to spare in
8:47his substantial new house
8:50the basement would have been where the
8:52servant worked in the kitchen
8:54and the scullery the ground floor would
8:57probably
8:58have had a dining room at the front and
8:59a morning room at the rear
9:01plus a toilet
9:05the first floor rooms are the most
9:07expansive at the front would have been a
9:09drawing room and behind it
9:11the master bedroom richard's no doubt
9:16finally on the top floor were the
9:18bedrooms where richard lodges
9:20and his servant would have slept
9:23already though this house has thrown up
9:26its first mystery
9:28we know it would have cost about a
9:29thousand pounds which was out of the
9:31reach
9:32of most people so i wonder if richard
9:35denton had taken in lodges
9:37to make ends meet especially if his job
9:40in customs
9:40didn't quite pay enough
9:46to find out i'm following the trail back
9:49to where richard once worked
9:51[Music]
9:54in his day these docks were the
9:56commercial heart of liverpool
9:59ships from every corner of the globe
10:01carried millions of tons of cargo
10:03in and out of here every year
10:08but what was richard glenton's part in
10:10all this
10:13i'm hoping that dr william ashworth from
10:15the university of liverpool can tell me
10:18will hi hi how you doing so this is
10:22the center of liverpool's story the
10:24docks yeah by the end of the 18th
10:26century early 19th century
10:28liverpool is beginning to even challenge
10:29london as the heart of trade
10:31what would the docks have looked like
10:33when richard was working here
10:34well i've got a picture here of the
10:36custom house built in
10:381839 it was here yeah if you look just
10:42to the left of the pump house
10:43that's where the custom house was and
10:45that's where richard's spending his
10:47career
10:48yeah the first record of him is from
10:501832 and it has him down as a clerk to
10:53the register
10:54now there are an array of different
10:56clerks they're everywhere
10:57remember there's no photocopiers so
10:59these guys just sit there
11:00scribbling and copying documents from
11:02the treasury letters
11:04but it looks to me like he was one of
11:06the many clerks
11:07that would keep a register of all the
11:09ships coming into the port
11:11so how would richard have got this job
11:13it seems fairly clear
11:15that his father was instrumental in
11:18getting him the job
11:19now his father was a land surveyor which
11:21basically means
11:23he's one of the top boys working the
11:25docks this is jobs for the boys this
11:27is not what you know but who you know
11:29yes
11:30the whole of the 18th century is about
11:32patronage
11:33so this is not unusual
11:35[Music]
11:37when richard's father jonas started work
11:40here in the 1790s
11:42a job in customs was an invitation to
11:44line your own pockets
11:47crooked officials took backhanders to
11:50turn a blind eye to smuggling
11:52and thieving was rife
11:56but by the time richard was a customs
11:58clerk the government had cracked down
12:01on corruption and criminality
12:04jobs for the boys were on the way out
12:06promotions
12:07were to be strictly on merit and the
12:10days of casual bribery
12:11were all but over the epitome of the new
12:15regime
12:16was the albert dock which richard would
12:18have seen being built
12:20in 1846 so where we are now represents
12:24that new
12:25professional world that's developing
12:26down here at the docks
12:28yes we're in a bonded warehouse the idea
12:31is that the vessel comes in
12:33and it's then swiftly offloaded and
12:35placed in
12:36these warehouses there's bars on the
12:38windows
12:39yes the architecture here is
12:41specifically designed
12:42to stop this wild west world of
12:45corruption and
12:46backhanders yes it's almost like a
12:48victorian prison
12:50there's a clerk what's happening to
12:52richard clinton
12:53personally not a lot he remains a clerk
12:57we don't know much about him and his
13:00attributes
13:01but he doesn't seem to go anywhere
13:04there's no promotions no advancement he
13:06doesn't climb the ladder if we're to
13:08believe
13:08that this is the start of a kind of new
13:11world
13:12in which meritocracy for example is
13:14important
13:15i i get the feeling he's a little bit
13:18inept a little bit useless
13:20at what he's doing what does that mean
13:21for him financially
13:24it means he stays at the bottom rung on
13:26the wage probably on a salary of about
13:2850 pounds a year
13:29a lot more than most people in victoria
13:31and britain but it's not
13:32a lot for somebody living in a very big
13:35house
13:35on falcon street no that makes no sense
13:38at all
13:39if you're looking at purely at him and
13:41his income so there's a bit of a mystery
13:42there
13:43there is a bit of a mystery there
13:44something else is going on
13:48the mystery deepens when you look at the
13:50occupations
13:51of richard's neighbors on faulkner
13:53street in 1841
13:55it certainly tells you a lot about their
13:57income bracket
13:58compared to his
14:03and the expense of a house like this
14:06wasn't just
14:07in the bricks and mortar of course the
14:09interior would have been
14:11highly decorated especially the
14:14centerpiece of the house
14:15the drawing room
14:16[Music]
14:20i imagine that when richard glenton
14:22first got the keys to this house
14:24this would have been the room that he
14:26was most excited to see
14:28there were catalogues at the time just
14:29like this one and because richard
14:31was the first owner of this house he
14:33would have had the chance to have
14:35selected
14:36the cornicing and the other decorative
14:38features
14:39and the whole idea was to make rooms
14:41like this into statements
14:43about their owners about their
14:45refinement and their taste
14:50the plastic harnessing would have been
14:52elaborately ornate
14:54[Music]
14:56with a sealing rose in a matching style
15:00and there would have been a fireplace
15:02too marble i'd imagine
15:05[Music]
15:07having personally selected the decor
15:09richard lenton would of course have
15:11wanted
15:11the furniture to match now incredibly by
15:14going through the back issues
15:16of the liverpool mail i found a list of
15:19the furniture
15:20that richard clinton actually owned and
15:22had in this room
15:23there's items like a rosewood couch
15:26trafalgar chairs
15:27and a chiffonade now i am by no means an
15:31expert
15:31in victorian furniture but to me none of
15:34this stuff sounds like it's going to be
15:38cheap
15:40i've given the list to professor deborah
15:42sugrayan
15:43a design history she's come to the
15:46jeffree museum in london
15:47to see what she can discover about
15:49richard's lifestyle
15:50from the objects in his home here is
15:53somebody
15:54who has a very fashionable interior
15:57we've got lots of luxurious furniture
16:00expensive fabrics an expensive carpet
16:04too this is a brussels carpet here like
16:07richard and they were absolutely the
16:09most high quality kind of
16:11carpet you could get this it's a card
16:14table
16:15richard had a pair of these you pull the
16:18legs out
16:18the top flips over and lo and behold
16:22you've got a lovely
16:23green bays top for playing cards on i
16:26could imagine
16:27richard at this card table maybe with
16:29some friends
16:30placing a little bit of a bet and
16:32downing a few drinks
16:33i think you know it might have got a
16:34little bit rowdy
16:36[Music]
16:39the loose bachelor was a favorite figure
16:42of
16:42fun in 19th century cartoons so perhaps
16:46a night of gambling with his drinking
16:48cronies was richard's idea of an
16:50entertaining
16:51evening at home and deborah's found
16:54another
16:55eye-catching item on the furniture list
16:59we should have a couch like this one
17:02this is mahogany richards was rosewood
17:05which would have been even more
17:06luxurious
17:08and to my mind this is somewhere where
17:10maybe richard would have entertained his
17:12lady
17:12visitors the couch is lovely for the
17:15female visitor because it
17:17accommodates her clothing and allows her
17:19dress not to be crushed
17:21and i can imagine him cozying up to them
17:23on the couch
17:24pauline bachelor perhaps that richard
17:30was
17:3558 faulkner street might have echoed
17:38with the shouts of rowdy card players
17:40and the laughter of female guests as for
17:43three years
17:44richard enjoyed the lifestyle of a
17:46wealthy bachelor
17:49albeit on the salary of a customs clerk
17:53but i've found a document that seems to
17:55mark a dramatic
17:57change in richard's fortunes in 1844
18:01it's his father's will still stored in
18:03the archives
18:04of the lancashire record office and what
18:07it shows
18:08is that jonas clinton left all his money
18:11his entire estate
18:12to one of his children and it's not
18:14richard
18:16it's his sister eliza
18:21eliza was unmarried so i can see why
18:24jonas wanted to provide
18:25for her future but it speaks volumes i
18:28think
18:29that richard didn't get a penny
18:33from this point everything begins to
18:36unravel for richard linton that list of
18:40richard's furniture from the liverpool
18:41mail
18:42now makes perfect sense because it's
18:44actually an advertisement
18:46for an auction at 58 faulconer street
18:50but richard wasn't about to replace all
18:52these expensive items
18:54he was selling up and moving out or as
18:57the notice puts it
18:58changing his residence
19:02but i think this is the saddest document
19:05it's a page from the liverpool census
19:07from 1861. now he's living
19:10in a much smaller house in everton a far
19:13less
19:14prestigious part of the city
19:17richard's departure from faulconer
19:19street just a few months after his
19:21father's death
19:22would seem to solve the mystery of his
19:25lavish lifestyle
19:27richard had been living off the bank of
19:30dad
19:31and when his father died the party
19:34really was over
19:37now there's a lot of people living in
19:39the liverpool of 1844 who are far more
19:41deserving
19:42about sympathy richard clinton's not
19:44living in a slum he's not starving
19:47but i can't help still feeling
19:50a bit sorry for him because he's clearly
19:53someone who
19:54was a bit of a daddy's boy but he has
19:57been to an extent humiliated and been
20:01exposed to the harshness the cruelty of
20:04victorian society
20:07to him 58 falcon street had been a stage
20:10on which he had played the role
20:12of a man of means a role that he never
20:15really had the money
20:16to pull off
20:25after richard dranton the next people to
20:27move in to 58 faulconer street
20:29in 1844 we think were james and ann
20:33all
20:37and james's story starts with a journey
20:40[Music]
20:42liverpool has always been associated
20:44with movement and migration
20:46this was the port of entry for hundreds
20:49of thousands of people from
20:50right across the british empire from
20:52across the world
20:55in the 19th century liverpool was famous
20:57for its huge
20:58irish population but one community who
21:01are
21:01often overlooked in liverpool's story
21:04are the scots
21:06in fact there were more scottish
21:08migrants in liverpool
21:09than in any city outside london and
21:12james all was one of them
21:14born in peoples in 1814
21:17now he appears in gau's directory for
21:19the year 1847
21:21and he's listed here as a gentleman
21:24pretty
21:24general catch-all term and it could mean
21:27little more than somebody doing
21:28a class occupation what we do know about
21:31james
21:31is that he was 33 years old and that
21:33three years earlier
21:34he'd married ann waters so on the face
21:38of it this is a
21:39simple domestic story a nice middle
21:41class couple have got married
21:43and they've got themselves a nice house
21:45but there's one
21:46detail about james and anne that just
21:48doesn't fit
21:49that simple story because their marriage
21:52certificate
21:53lists their profession as servants
21:56[Music]
21:57think that james and anne may have moved
21:59into 58 faulconer street
22:01as early as 1844 because as a rule
22:04couples had to leave domestic service
22:07once they got married
22:09a house like this would have been a big
22:11step up for most victorian newlyweds
22:14but for two former servants it seems
22:17almost miraculous
22:18[Music]
22:22it's quite easy to imagine james and
22:25annal
22:25sitting here in what after all was their
22:28living room
22:29enjoying the fact that they could pour
22:31cups of tea for their guests rather than
22:33the guests of
22:35some employer so how on earth did this
22:37couple
22:38manage to change their fortunes so
22:41radically we know from the records that
22:43both james and anne had fathers
22:46who worked as laborers and there's
22:47almost no chance that they inherited
22:49any money from their families and this
22:52document
22:52the liverpool census from 1841 shows
22:55them both working as
22:56servants in the household of richard
22:58earl now
23:00he was a wealthy barrister but there's
23:02absolutely no evidence that he left this
23:04couple
23:05any money or property so you're left to
23:08conclude that this scene of this
23:11middle-class couple pouring cups of tea
23:14for their guests in their nice new
23:17middle-class home
23:18that all of that was down to their own
23:20efforts
23:21and their own ingenuity
23:25the hunt for clues as to how they
23:26managed it has to start i think
23:29with james and anne's time in the
23:31service of richard ill
23:34richard l's household is really quite
23:36substantial
23:37he's got eight indoor staff and one
23:40gardener
23:41i think we can assume james orr
23:44is probably something like a butler
23:47because he is the oldest
23:48male indoor servant he's 25
23:52which seems young now but in those days
23:53would have been relatively
23:56old in work experience terms
24:00it's easy to imagine james serving
24:02dinner guests
24:03or polishing the silver but a butler in
24:06the truest sense
24:07was much more than just a man's servant
24:10as a butler
24:11james would also have run the household
24:14accounts
24:14so he must have been both literate and
24:17numerate
24:18someone who has skills of managing other
24:20people in james's case a staff of eight
24:23would have had talents which would have
24:25been very useful in all sorts of jobs in
24:27the outside world and the most obvious
24:29one
24:29is going into the hotel business into
24:33guest houses in keeping and a great
24:36number of servants
24:37including mr and mrs claridge who set up
24:40carriages
24:41hotel in london had come from service
24:46so for james butlering was perhaps like
24:49an apprenticeship
24:50in business management and he must have
24:53already taken up a well-paid job
24:55when he and anne moved into this house
24:58in 1844 we think
25:00but it's not until the next census seven
25:03years later
25:04that we are finally able to discover
25:06what james was doing
25:08that enabled him to live on fashionable
25:11faulkner street this document tells us
25:14that his profession by then
25:16is master of newsroom i think today we
25:19presume
25:20that this is a journalistic job but if
25:22you were involved in the world
25:24of business in the 19th century you'd
25:26instantly recognize this
25:28as a managerial job in a gentleman's
25:30club
25:33liverpool was becoming ever more
25:35prosperous in james orr's day
25:37and grand new buildings were being
25:39erected to cater
25:40for a growing professional class
25:46gentlemen's clubs were places of
25:48business and leisure
25:49and there were many including the
25:51rotunda where james all worked
25:56the athenaeum is one of the last
25:58survivors from the city's victorian
26:00heyday
26:01the current master of the newsroom is
26:03vincent robert
26:04[Music]
26:08vence
26:11welcome to jasmine new room thank you
26:13very much
26:15wow impressive isn't it vincent what
26:18would a newsroom
26:19in a gentleman's club have been like in
26:21the middle of the 19th century
26:23not very different to this we'd have had
26:25newspapers
26:27there'd have been a bar there's also bar
26:30and a big conversation going on all
26:32around us people
26:33reading the newspapers talking having
26:35meetings discussing business
26:36yes
26:40newspapers and magazines were then the
26:42only mass medium
26:44there were over 50 titles in london
26:47alone
26:48and clubs like the athenaeum would have
26:49had the latest additions
26:51sent up overnight by train to meet the
26:54demands
26:55of their news hungry business clientele
26:58thinking about james all do we know what
27:00sort of man
27:01was recruited what sort of skills they
27:03looked for one of my predecessors mr
27:06roscoe
27:06the master in 1851 wrote down everything
27:10they're looking for the master of the
27:12newsroom should be an active
27:14and intelligent man don't look skeptical
27:16about that
27:17he should be between 30 to 40 years old
27:21if married so much the better so they
27:24want stable men family men
27:26yes so to have got this job james or
27:29was clearly a man of some
27:32character he wouldn't get it otherwise
27:37it sounds very conceited my point
27:38doesn't it that's the way it goes
27:41in the archives here they still have an
27:44original list
27:44of duties for the master of the newsroom
27:47which include everything
27:49from collecting fees to lighting fires
27:52most chillingly it says his duties start
27:54at seven o'clock in the morning
27:56yes but also they finished at midnight
27:58so he runs
27:59this enterprise all day long from 7am to
28:03midnight
28:04he's a manager he is responsible for
28:06everything that goes on in here
28:09james all would probably have earned
28:11around 250 pounds a year
28:13five times what richard glenton earned
28:16but his job
28:17offered much more than just a good
28:19salary
28:21so james would have known pretty much
28:22everybody in liverpool who was
28:25significant anyone who's a major
28:27businessman
28:28yes liverpool was made one of the
28:30richest sisters in the world at that
28:32stage
28:33and they were becoming in his club the
28:35same as they would come into
28:37the afternoon so he has the the ear
28:40of the most powerful men in the city
28:42you'd have a lot of influence
28:44with them as well they would tell him
28:45things they could ask his opinion
28:47so you have the contacts if you want to
28:49use them
28:52and james clearly did make the most of
28:55his position
28:57by 1850 he and ann could afford a larger
29:00house on falconer street
29:02at number 28
29:05and i've found evidence of him taking on
29:07new prestigious roles
29:09in the world of finance the details are
29:12in one of the same papers that would
29:14have been
29:14in james's newsroom in 1860
29:18the liverpool mercury reports that james
29:20or is
29:21a trustee of the harrington permanent
29:23building society
29:24seven years later the same newspaper
29:26notes that he's the treasurer
29:28of the south lancashire permanent
29:30benefit building societies
29:31now these societies were one of the
29:33great financial or one of the great
29:35social
29:35innovations of the 19th century and it
29:37seems that james all
29:38is involved from quite early on
29:41[Music]
29:43building societies began as savings
29:45cooperatives for aspiring homeowners
29:49they were so successful that the number
29:51went up from 250
29:52in 1800 to almost 3000 by 1860
29:58james had acquired the skills and the
30:00contacts to join the ranks
30:02of trustees and treasurers managing
30:04other people's money
30:06but i think he saw that the new housing
30:08market held opportunities
30:10for him as well
30:13this isn't a man who's involved in this
30:16world of finance
30:17just for these glamorous titles i think
30:20he's using his growing knowledge
30:22to build his own fortune and change his
30:24own story
30:25because this document from 1874
30:29shows that james ohr is an investor in
30:3218 houses just across the mersey in
30:35birkenhead
30:38birkenhead was a property hotspot the
30:41demand for housing
30:42had skyrocketed thanks not least to the
30:45growth of the lead shipyard
30:47where the latest steamships were being
30:49built
30:49[Music]
30:53but there's more to admire in james all
30:55than just his eye for a shrewd
30:56investment
30:59these same newspapers from the 1860s
31:02show that he was collecting
31:03funds for local charities one that was
31:07vaccinating children
31:08and another that was helping women
31:10trapped in poverty
31:15by any standards the life of james or
31:18the life that you can see
31:19recorded in these old documents is
31:22extraordinary he was somebody who found
31:25himself in 1844
31:27a servant a man on the wrong side of a
31:30social barrier that millions of people
31:32no matter how hard they tried could
31:34never even dream of crossing
31:36and yet when james dies in 1881
31:40he's able to leave his widow and the sum
31:43of sixteen thousand pounds now there's
31:46lots of different ways that we could
31:48estimate how much that sum is worth
31:50today
31:51but the most conservative of those
31:53estimates
31:54puts that amount as being worth around
31:57one and a half
31:58million pounds the transformation
32:02of the life of james oh and his wife
32:04anne i think began in those years
32:06in falconer street and what his life
32:08demonstrates
32:09is that for the very luckiest and the
32:12most talented
32:14victorian britain could be a society in
32:17which there were
32:18phenomenal levels of social mobility
32:22this is a journey from the parlor and
32:24the kitchen
32:25to the boardroom this is a life
32:27transformed
32:32a transformation was going on in
32:34faulkner street as well
32:35[Music]
32:38when prince albert visited liverpool in
32:401846
32:41to open the albert dock he toured the
32:44city's finest sites
32:45and his carriage passed right by 58
32:48falconer street
32:52it was then still part of a new
32:54development on the outskirts
32:57but by the 1850s there were many more
33:00houses on the street
33:01and the owners an even broader mix of
33:03liverpool's up
33:04and coming middle class
33:10after james and anne all we know that a
33:12shipping agent
33:13called alexander gillespie lived here
33:15briefly in 1851
33:18and a single woman isabella mcneil
33:22then in 1853 the records show two new
33:26residents
33:27eliza and wilfred steele
33:30[Music]
33:33looking at these documents it's possible
33:34to come away with the impression
33:36that eliza and wilford steele are just
33:39another
33:39young couple moving into one of the posh
33:41houses on falconer street but if you
33:43look
33:44a little bit closer you realize that
33:46isn't the case at all because
33:48eliza isn't wilfred's wife she's his
33:51mother
33:51he's just a bachelor of 25 years old and
33:54she
33:55is listed as the head of the household
33:57now
33:58this is another document that helps us
34:00paint a better picture
34:01of the relationship between eliza and
34:03wilfred because this
34:05is the will of wilford steele's father
34:07and he dies
34:08when wilfred is just a baby so the
34:11impression that you come away with is of
34:13a
34:14woman who's brought up her son by
34:16herself
34:17of a protective mother and of a young
34:20man
34:20who's going out into the world to try to
34:22make his fortune
34:23the question is what is the profession
34:25that he's chosen
34:26in which he's going to make this fortune
34:29well i found this tiny clipping it's
34:32from
34:33a liverpool newspaper called the general
34:35advertiser from 1851
34:37and it's an advertisement for an auction
34:39that's going to take place
34:40at the premises of the company born and
34:43steal
34:44now this document to me casts wilfred's
34:47deal
34:48in a new light because what it tells us
34:50is that
34:51the commodity in which he is trading
34:54is the most profitable it's the most
34:58risky but it's also the most
35:00controversial commodity
35:02of the age because wilfred's steel is a
35:05cotton broker
35:06[Music]
35:10if the docks were the commercial heart
35:12of this city in the 19th century
35:14then cotton was its lifeblood
35:18a quarter of a million tons of raw
35:20cotton
35:21passed through the port of liverpool
35:23each year destined for the giant mills
35:26of lancashire which produced
35:27almost half of all the world's cotton
35:30cloth
35:33most of that cotton came from the slave
35:35plantations
35:36of the american south
35:38[Music]
35:40so although slavery had been abolished
35:42in the british empire
35:43it was still at the core of the business
35:45that wilfred steele was in
35:51it was a business worth 70 billion
35:53pounds a year
35:54in today's money and it put people like
35:57wilfred
35:58at the top table of liverpool society
36:01[Music]
36:04this is the very first time i've been
36:06able to look into the face
36:08of somebody who lived in our house on
36:11faulkner street
36:12because this figure on the horse this
36:15is wilfred's deal
36:18his likeness hangs anonymously in the
36:21walker art gallery
36:22where it's been for the last half
36:24century or so
36:27i've been able to identify this as
36:29wilfred steele from a history
36:31of liverpool's early victorian painters
36:33published in 1904
36:36wilfred was a friend of the artist's
36:38wealthy patron but there's no other
36:40explanation
36:41for why he agreed to pose
36:45the picture is an imaginary scene
36:48inspired by a scottish ballad
36:51the woman helen is pregnant with her
36:53lover's child
36:54but he will not give up his ride for her
36:57and she's forced
36:58to walk alongside his horse across the
37:01highlands
37:04this painting was produced in 1856 so
37:06wilfred was in his twenties
37:08and he was by then fully established as
37:11a cotton broker
37:12in liverpool so this is how at the
37:15moment he's risen to middle class status
37:18he allows himself
37:19to be portrayed is this cruel and
37:22callous character
37:23from literature perhaps wilfred
37:27didn't care about the meaning of the
37:29painting perhaps it was enough for him
37:31to know he was now mixing in the highest
37:34circles
37:38[Music]
37:42as a cotton broker this square would
37:44have been wilfred's place of work
37:47it's where all of liverpool's wealthiest
37:49businessmen would gather to make deals
37:54i'm meeting dr nigel hall to find out
37:56exactly
37:57what wilfred would have been doing here
38:00hi john
38:00david hi lovely to meet you good to meet
38:03you
38:04so although we're outside in the open
38:06air this is
38:07a trading floor yes here we have a
38:10a picture of exchange flags in 1847
38:14and we can see these splendid top-hatted
38:17gentleman
38:17around the memorial networking is what
38:20the
38:20race we use today so these frock coats
38:23in the top hat that's like the versace
38:25suits of the mid-90s
38:26absolutely yes you've got to look the
38:28part you've got to look like a merchant
38:30someone like wilfred steele we know he
38:31comes from quite humble backgrounds yet
38:33he's here parading the flags
38:35with the wealthy looking like the
38:36wealthy it's all part of the image
38:38for up and coming and aspiring cotton
38:41broker
38:43exchange flags with liverpool's wall
38:45street at a time when the city was a
38:47serious rival
38:48to new york as a center of trade
38:51[Music]
38:53and the young wilford steele was poised
38:56to make a fortune
38:59so he's in the business elite of one of
39:01the most dynamic cities in the world
39:03yes it must have been immensely exciting
39:05incredibly exciting and particularly
39:06this time in the 1850s
39:08when the cotton industry is roaring
39:10ahead and booming
39:11people are making huge profits he must
39:13of thought he was made for life
39:15it looks like a safe bet buying cotton
39:17and what happens
39:19it's not a safe bet one sunday in late
39:221857
39:23the ship arrives with news from america
39:25and that news is
39:27the banks have closed there's a run on
39:29the banks the stock market's crashing
39:31the price of cotton is collapsing come
39:34monday then liverpool
39:35on the market opens excellence turmoil
39:37pandemonium they can't even
39:39quote the price of cotton within weeks
39:41the price of cotton falls by 40 percent
39:44so wilfred steel a bright young thing
39:47what happens to him
39:48anybody holding cotton will be ruined in
39:51that situation
39:52and on the 6th of november 1857 wilfred
39:55steele
39:56is listed as being out of business
39:59he's gone burst it looks that way and it
40:02gets even worse for him
40:03the 10th of november we find wilfred
40:06steele
40:06has been sent to lancaster jail and
40:09that's odetta's prison for liverpool
40:11so one month is a cotton trader a city
40:14trader effect
40:15the next month he's literally in the
40:17neck he's finished absolutely finished
40:26it must have felt to wilfred like a very
40:29long fall
40:30from the comfortable surroundings of
40:31faulkner street to the harsh confines
40:34of lancaster jail and anyone sent to
40:38odetta's prison
40:39in victorian times would have had to
40:41stay there until they cleared their
40:43debts
40:44or reached a deal to have them wiped out
40:46[Music]
40:48wilfred steele suffered this terrible
40:50reversal of fortunes
40:52i imagine he's feeling sorry for himself
40:53and i think he has reason to the
40:55victorian debtors prison
40:56is an appalling place i really wish i
41:00could feel sorry for wilford steele
41:01but i don't the cotton bales that land
41:05in liverpool the last hand
41:06to have loaded them onto a ship in new
41:09orleans
41:09is that of a black person who is a slave
41:16it's a profession that's steeped in
41:17blood and exploitation and evil and he's
41:20part of it
41:21[Music]
41:27it might be a worthy fate for wilfred to
41:30be languishing in jail
41:31but i need to know how long he was there
41:34and what happened to him next
41:36[Music]
41:37i'm hoping i can find the answers in
41:40liverpool central library
41:41which houses the city's record office
41:45all right lovely to meet you
41:48i found wilfred after he left jail so he
41:51clearly managed to pay his way out
41:53eventually
41:54and in 1859 he's living in percy street
41:57in liverpool which was actually his
41:58mother's address
42:00and he marries this widow marian
42:02elizabeth
42:03clegg a widow at just 28.
42:06[Music]
42:09so wilford's life had taken some
42:11dramatic twists
42:12in just a few short years from falconer
42:15street
42:16to jail then back to living with his
42:17mother at a new address
42:19and now married
42:22marion clegg's first husband edward had
42:25been a pharmacist
42:27he had died of scarlet fever in november
42:291858
42:31leaving marion with two young daughters
42:34wilfred married her just four months
42:36later and settled with his ready-made
42:39family
42:39in the new industrial town of witness 12
42:43miles upriver
42:44from liverpool
42:47but there's a final piece in the puzzle
42:49of this hasty marriage
42:50that laura has managed to uncover and it
42:53links wilfred
42:54his new wife and her first husband
42:58what's really interesting is that edward
43:01turnbull clegg
43:03was in debtors prison at the same time
43:07as wilfred right so he's married a widow
43:10with two very young daughters
43:13and their father was someone he'd met in
43:14prison yeah that's what it looks like
43:18so far yeah well um maybe he was doing
43:21the chivalrous thing and
43:23looking after this this young family
43:25that he's taken pity on
43:27we've got the family together on the
43:281861 census but interestingly
43:31wilfred's occupation has changed he's
43:34now a clerk
43:35in the chemist's trade he's really
43:37stepping into the shoes of her
43:40dead husband basically yes it's all a
43:42bit dubious
43:44you wonder whether it's opportunistic
43:46but um seems like he's trying to begin
43:48his life again
43:49yes exactly and there's a young son
43:51there as well wilfred augustus
43:54who's seven months old so wilfred and
43:56marin have had their own child now
43:58it looks initially like things are
43:59looking up for the family but very sadly
44:02on the 7th of october 1861 wilfred jr
44:05passes away
44:06right he was exactly one year old
44:12died on his birthday he died on his
44:13birthday yeah
44:15it's a pretty terrible blow for wilfred
44:18yes yes it must be wilfred steele
44:22registers the death that's actually the
44:25last
44:25record that we have of wilfrid in the
44:27liverpool area
44:28right whatever hopes wilfred might have
44:32had
44:33of building a new life had turned to
44:35dust
44:36and if he had now left liverpool i worry
44:39what that meant
44:40for his young family i have managed to
44:44find
44:44a couple of records with the two
44:46step-daughters marion and francis
44:49they're in kirkdale industrial school
44:52we've actually got a picture of it here
44:53it was this huge institution just north
44:56of the city
44:57built because the workhouse is getting
44:58so overcrowded they wanted to move
45:00as many children as they could workhouse
45:03yes
45:04where the children of the destitute end
45:06up
45:07so this isn't looking good
45:10in the 1860s kirkdale held over a
45:13thousand children
45:14in overcrowded and squalid conditions
45:19boys learned trades like tailoring and
45:21shoemaking
45:24girls like marion and francis were
45:26trained for domestic service
45:31so we actually find the girls here in
45:331862.
45:35where are they here we are yeah steel so
45:38there they are listed under their
45:39stepfather's surname
45:42so they're here because they're orphans
45:46well this tells us that their stepfather
45:49had gone to america
45:51so he's left his children he's left them
45:54and yeah
45:59he's gone to america what's the date
46:01september 1862. so he's gone to america
46:04in 1862 in the middle of the american
46:06civil war
46:09and he's left his children behind
46:18[Music]
46:20there's nothing in the cocktail records
46:22to say what happened to the girl's
46:24mother
46:25marion so her fate is a mystery for now
46:30but to find that somebody who'd once
46:32lived in this house
46:33was in the united states in the midst of
46:36the bloodiest conflict
46:38in its history is astonishing
46:42[Music]
46:46by the time wilfred was there in
46:48september 1862
46:50america had already been gripped by
46:52civil war for more than a year
46:56on one side were the southern
46:57confederate states
46:59who had gone to war to defend the rights
47:01of slave owners
47:03opposing them with the northern states
47:05fighting to save the union
47:11although britain was officially neutral
47:14in liverpool
47:14there was strong support for the
47:16southern states because of their
47:18historic link
47:19to the cotton trend i think
47:22the cotton connection is what's taken
47:25wilfred to america
47:26in the midst of civil war
47:30and if i'm going to find out what
47:32happened to him i've got to go there too
47:41richmond virginia was the capital of the
47:44confederacy
47:45and 30 miles outside the city is
47:47petersburg
47:48national battlefield
47:49[Music]
47:51the union and confederate armies fought
47:53each other to a standstill here
47:55for nine months with tens of thousands
47:58of casualties
47:59on both sides
48:03and there is evidence that wilfred
48:04steele was here
48:06more than 3 000 miles from liverpool as
48:09the battle
48:09for petersburg began civil war historian
48:13henry jones
48:14has the information i'm looking for
48:18harry how are you good to meet you my
48:20pleasure good morning dave
48:21this is a beautiful landscape it feels
48:24like a park
48:26this is a park where we commemorate
48:28history
48:29but it's not a park where we play the
48:31last time wilfred steele appeared in the
48:33record we discover
48:34that he's in america what's he doing
48:36here well when he
48:38comes here he establishes a business on
48:40wall street he's in new york
48:42cotton and tobacco 91 wall street steel
48:45and hot hill so he's back in the cotton
48:46trade yes
48:48then in august of 1863 he enlists
48:52an artillery regiment the fifth light
48:54artillery
48:55there he is in the union army
48:59the union army in the union army
49:02i have to say i'm surprised because
49:06my fear was that wilfred steele cotton
49:09broker
49:10had come to america and that he joined
49:12the confederate army to fight
49:13for slavery rather than against it my
49:16worst fears about wilfred
49:18have not been realized well i'm glad to
49:20be the bearer of that good news
49:24wilfred steele a man who had made his
49:26living from cotton produced by slaves
49:29was now standing shoulder to shoulder
49:31with men
49:32like these in the union army fighting
49:35against slavery in fact
49:38around 50 000 british volunteers fought
49:41in the american civil war
49:43most of them on the union side
49:48you see what i want to believe is that
49:50he's come to new york where there's a
49:51big black population
49:52and he's had a conversion a moral
49:54conversion
49:56against slavery well merchants in new
49:58york at this time
49:59tend to be pro-slavery so he's really
50:01not in that atmosphere
50:03but on wall street near where his office
50:05is you have these brokerage firms
50:07who for rich men find
50:10substitutes for the draft so you pay
50:13somebody to do your
50:14military service that's correct many
50:16immigrants would actually
50:17enlist as substitutes so this is
50:20probably more about money than
50:22models that's where the evidence leads
50:24me
50:30so it looks as if wilfred wasn't
50:32fighting against slavery
50:33because of his conscience and if he was
50:36in effect a mercenary
50:37he was risking his life in a war that
50:39left 650
50:41000 dead
50:47at petersburg they've reconstructed part
50:49of the union line
50:50where artillery units like wilfrid's
50:52were based
50:54so what was it like being a soldier in
50:56the civil war manning these sort of
50:58defenses
50:59on a day-to-day basis your biggest
51:01concern is actually sharpshooters
51:03snipers that's what we'd call them today
51:08so if you're in an artillery regiment
51:10like wilford still was
51:11it's very easy to get killed well
51:13wilford steele his life is a little
51:15better than the average artillery man
51:17right he's not
51:18a gunner he's not on the guns he is a
51:21quartermaster sergeant
51:22he's accountable for all the equipment
51:24that you have in the artillery
51:25but he's not a front-line soldier so
51:27he's not out here exposed to fire
51:30keeping his head down this is correct
51:31this is a letter
51:33from an englishman who's a part of the
51:35union army as well
51:36james horcks so this is one of wilford's
51:38colleagues and when he writes home
51:40he talks about this quartermaster a
51:42fellow englishman wilfred steele
51:44the orderly and the quartermaster and
51:45sergeant and myself sat down
51:47to beefsteak and onions and coffee and
51:49bread
51:50tonight we're going to have some stewed
51:52oysters
51:54if you're an infantryman down in the
51:55trenches you're not sitting down just
51:57eat oysters and beef
52:00you're eating rations out of a tin in
52:01the trench the privilege of a
52:03quartermaster sergeant
52:04village is the word so having abandoned
52:08his wife
52:09and stepdaughters to their fates and
52:11having signed up to fight
52:12in a brutal civil war thousands of miles
52:15from home
52:16wilfred steele has nevertheless managed
52:19to land on his feet
52:22it is a bit of a charmed life isn't it
52:24if you have to go to war
52:26and you do not have the angst for
52:29shooting your fellow man wilfred steals
52:32life is the life you want
52:33i mean part of me thinks you know good
52:35for him did you find yourself
52:38finding at least maybe not in his
52:39character but in his story something
52:41quite remarkable
52:44yes
52:49the war ended in 1865 with victory for
52:52the union army
52:54wilfred was of course on the winning
52:57side
52:59by this time he was 37 years old so
53:02still a relatively young man
53:04having to make a big decision about his
53:06future
53:09i wonder if he thought about returning
53:11to liverpool
53:13or if the news had reached him that his
53:15wife marion
53:17and her eldest daughter had both died of
53:19tuberculosis
53:20the previous year
53:23[Music]
53:27his younger stepdaughter francis was now
53:30an orphan
53:35if i'm going to find out what wilfred
53:38did decide to do
53:39i'll have to look at the american
53:41records
53:44five years after the war wilford is
53:46still here in the united states
53:48he settled in philadelphia on poplar
53:51street
53:52and if he is with emma steele his wife
53:55emma
53:56yes his wife yes wilfred in 1869
54:01marries an emma f mcglathery
54:04he still describes himself as a coffee
54:06hotbroker yes
54:07and he has a son born in 1871
54:11milford milford steele so another new
54:14life
54:15exactly he's definitely starting over
54:17again but
54:18sadly milford
54:22dies at nine weeks so the second time in
54:25his life
54:26he's lost a baby boy right
54:31and do you know much more about what
54:32happens to wilfred we do
54:35he died march 23 1873
54:3942 years old he dies ophthitis
54:42pulmonaris or tuberculosis
54:45he dies of the same disease as the woman
54:47he married and stepdaughter that he
54:49promised to care for
54:54so this is where the story ends for
54:55wilfred for wilfred it does yes
54:57for 42 it's a full life he's had two
55:00families he's lived in two countries
55:01he's been
55:03to war he's been in prison he's been a
55:06bankrupt he's been a businessman
55:08and he passes away in philadelphia
55:11a long way from liverpool
55:24i think if you gather all the evidence
55:25that i've learned about the life of
55:27wilford steele here
55:28in america and you put it alongside what
55:30we already knew about him
55:32from his time in liverpool what emerges
55:34is a man
55:35with an incredible gift for reinvention
55:39every time he seems despite the
55:41adversity to land on his feet
55:43and yet it's impossible to look at
55:47death certificates for children who
55:49faded away in workhouses
55:51of a wife who dies in her twenties
55:53abandoned and not
55:54conclude that what wilfred steele's life
55:56demonstrates is the flip side of all of
55:59those virtues that the victorians admire
56:01the virtues of self-help
56:02an inner drive and a determination to
56:05make it in business because the flip
56:07side of those virtues
56:08is ruthlessness and i think you get that
56:10in spades in the life of wilfred steele
56:23[Music]
56:28so far i've only looked into the first
56:3115 years
56:32of the history of this house but the
56:34stories i've already uncovered
56:36could hardly have been a more vivid
56:38reflection of their time
56:43what all the first residents of this
56:45house had in common was that they were
56:47strivers they were people who were
56:48trying to rise up
56:49the social ladder and for each of them
56:52this house represented everything
56:54that they aspired to comfort wealth
56:57status and respectability but if you
57:00take all of their stories together what
57:02they
57:03lay bear are the forces that were then
57:05sweeping through
57:07victorian society in the 15 or so years
57:10after the house was built because at
57:11that time the old world
57:13of patronage upon which the very first
57:16resident of this house
57:17richard clanton had so heavily relied
57:20that was being shaken
57:21to its foundations and the new forces
57:25trade finance the forces that had
57:27propelled the careers
57:29of james all and wilfred steele they
57:31were the forces
57:32that were going to change the future of
57:34this city and this house
57:36in the decades to come
57:44[Music]
57:55next time a deadly disease strikes
57:58liverpool
58:00residents of falcone street must have
58:02thought they were going to be safe
58:04i think the sense would have been none
58:06of us are safe up here
58:07the dark shadow of domestic abuse alfred
58:10robinson dragged her by the hair of her
58:12head
58:13and violently assaulted her in this
58:15house
58:16and an unexplained death but the police
58:19still don't know
58:20what's happened no that's the mystery
58:22that's a mystery
58:23[Music]
58:31her house through time continues next
58:33thursday at the same time nine o'clock
58:35here on bbc2
58:36next tonight we're live at the apollo on
58:38the bill from liverpool chris mccauslan
58:40and new york-born desiree birch with
58:43your host and a bridger of fifty shades
58:45of grey
58:46dane baptiste
58:58you