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00:02There we go.
00:03Come on then, I want all of you to tell me what your family means to you.
00:07It's fucking money.
00:10Here in the floor bathroom.
00:12It's right in the fridge.
00:13Sharing a bedroom which I do not like.
00:15What does family mean to me?
00:17Being surrounded by all these little people,
00:19constantly asking for money.
00:23Oh, come on.
00:24It's about the memories and the things that we do together.
00:27I think I want to find out more about my family history.
00:30Do you?
00:30I think my family will be a bit more interesting.
00:32You reckon?
00:33Put a belt on it then.
00:3450 quid?
00:35You're on.
00:37I remember Grandma saying she was walking along with a carrier bag
00:39and it had a dead monkey in it.
00:40Wow.
00:42He ends up in the machine gun core.
00:44Frontline.
00:45Absolutely frontline.
00:46This was the most notorious crime of the 15th century.
00:50The brain fell out of his head.
00:52Oh my God, that's horrendous.
00:54I feel extremely proud of my great-grandfather.
00:57The sacrifice that he made in all these,
01:00it wasn't for them.
01:01We wouldn't have the life that we've got now, would we?
01:04It just goes to show, you know, just how precious family is, doesn't it?
01:14Hmm.
01:19Hmm
01:20Hmm rick
01:37Oh, my God.
01:40Noel and Sue are looking into their family's past
01:42and where else to begin but the attic.
01:46Oh, f***.
01:49I mean, this loft is a mess.
01:50It's, like, it's full of old clothes, old photos.
01:53There's a couple of suitcases in here as well.
01:56Gets put in here and then you forget about it, don't you?
01:59And it's dusty as hell.
02:04In the box it says D. Radford Photos.
02:071974.
02:08Oh, my God.
02:10Hang on a minute. What's that?
02:13Oh, wow.
02:14My dad said there was an old family crest
02:17that my grandad Charles had.
02:19There's photocopies of it and that looks like the original one.
02:24Seriously, Noel, the Radfords have their own family crest.
02:28It says,
02:30Meres,
02:31we,
02:32laborat.
02:33I think my dad said that translate to,
02:37he who works hard
02:38deserves it.
02:41You know, my dad was like that.
02:42Everything he did was,
02:43it was all for the family.
02:45Did everything around the house.
02:47And I guess I'm similar.
02:48You know, work hard.
02:49Do everything we can.
02:51What are them things called on the top?
02:53What do they call it?
02:54Microscope.
02:55There's a microscope
02:55and there's like a soldier's helmet.
02:59It's only if it's armor.
03:00It was the original bit
03:01my grandad's added to it.
03:04The microscope's fascinating, though.
03:07I wonder what that could mean.
03:09Yeah, I'm one of these ones
03:10that likes to think about my family history,
03:12you know, where we've all come from.
03:13It's nice that my dad's kept this
03:15of his dad.
03:16And we'll keep that somewhere safe.
03:19Noel isn't the only Radford
03:20with their family history on their mind.
03:23I think being adopted
03:25makes you just be a bit more curious.
03:28Noel obviously went looking for his birth mum,
03:30but that's really not my thing.
03:31So I really want to find out more
03:33about my family.
03:36I mean, obviously I know my mum
03:37and I know my nan and grandad
03:39and my other grandad,
03:41but besides that,
03:42I don't really know much at all.
03:44But before Sue can begin her search...
03:47I can't remember how to get out.
03:50..first she has the task
03:51of getting Noel out of the loft.
03:53Oh, ****!
03:54Sue, can you help me down?
03:57Sue!
04:03Come on, kids, hurry up!
04:05The Radfords journey
04:06through their family history
04:08is starting early.
04:10Archie, come on,
04:11you haven't time for that.
04:12Get in the car.
04:14To help them discover more
04:15about their past,
04:16Noel has enlisted the help of Glesney,
04:18who previously helped him
04:20track down his biological family.
04:22So I'm really pleased to inform you
04:24that I have found your birth mother.
04:29I spoke to Glesney,
04:30she's invited us down to her house.
04:32So hopefully she can find
04:33some history on my adoptive family,
04:35who I call my actual family.
04:37Right, come on, kids,
04:39let's hit the road,
04:39we need to go.
04:41It's a long drive,
04:43but if we want to find out these things,
04:45you know,
04:45it's what we've got to do.
04:47Let me get in.
04:48Shoes on.
04:49I'm putting shoes off.
04:51No.
04:52To start their journey of discovery,
04:55the Radfords are off to South Wales.
05:04Noel and Sue and some of the children
05:06are coming here to see us,
05:08and I can't wait to be able to see them again.
05:10It's been quite a while since I last saw them.
05:16And being a mum of five herself,
05:18Glesney knows all too well
05:20what will keep the kids happy
05:21when they arrive.
05:22I can imagine they've had quite a long drive.
05:25Maybe Noel and Sue won't like
05:26me feeding them with sugar.
05:28They're a very unique family,
05:30very unique that they were both adopted,
05:32but also that they have 22 children.
05:35I thought that my life was chaotic,
05:37but I can't imagine it at all
05:38to have 22 children.
05:47Car journeys with the kids
05:49can either be really peaceful
05:51and nice because they'll sleep
05:53or they can be absolute chaos.
05:56It was crazy.
05:58Oh, Heidi.
06:06I think it's taken as about
06:07five and a half hours to get here.
06:09The last hour and a half
06:10seems to have taken
06:11two or three days.
06:12Oh, look.
06:13Noel and Sue have never been
06:15to Glesneys before,
06:16and it's quite a change from Morecambe.
06:20Come out the puddle.
06:21You've just got here.
06:22Let's not get muddy just yet.
06:25Do you want to play with them, kids?
06:26Gosh, these kids, they're so shy.
06:28Probably looking and thinking
06:28there's no operators left.
06:29They've nicked it all.
06:31Noel and Sue haven't driven six hours
06:34to play in the mud.
06:35There's two family histories to uncover,
06:38and there's one question
06:39Sue wants answering most.
06:41Well, I'm really interested
06:42in how my family has shaped me.
06:46Like, in the generations,
06:48has there been a big family?
06:50Right.
06:50Is my love of our big family
06:53got anything to do with past, you know?
06:55OK.
06:56To find out a bit more about that
06:57would be really good.
06:58Yeah.
06:59So what are you hoping to find, Noel?
07:00I think what would really be interesting
07:02is how far you can go back, you know?
07:04Yeah.
07:04Ten grandparents back
07:05and just where we come from.
07:07OK.
07:08But other than knowing
07:10if they're the top dogs of family size
07:12and how far they go back,
07:14there's one piece of Radford folklore
07:16Noel would like an answer to
07:18more than anything.
07:20My dad's dad.
07:21OK.
07:21He sounds interesting
07:23because I remember my grandma saying...
07:24He had animal parts in jars,
07:27but I remember my grandma saying
07:28that once she was walking along
07:29with a carrier bag
07:30and it had a dead monkey in it.
07:31Wow.
07:32So...
07:32In this country?
07:33Yeah.
07:34Wow, OK.
07:35Right.
07:36People walking around with dead monkeys.
07:37Yeah.
07:38Glesney has one hell of a job.
07:41If there's anywhere near
07:42as many ancestors as they have kids,
07:45she won't be getting much sleep.
07:54Right, let's go.
07:56The Radfords are on a mission
07:58to uncover more about their family heritage.
08:01Nolan Sue's newly adopted genealogist Glesney
08:05is helping them trace their family trees
08:07and has tasked them to go on a fact-finding mission
08:10and to put together a list of names and dates
08:13that can help her with her search.
08:16I think, you know, as a doctor,
08:17it's true to say that you're trying to find out
08:19a bit more of who you actually are.
08:22I spent the last five years looking for my birth family.
08:26This journey has nothing to do with that.
08:28This is about finding out a history about, you know,
08:29my own dad, my granddad, my great-grandmas
08:31and all that sort of thing.
08:32So it'll be interesting to find out
08:33more about my family history,
08:35what I would call my real family.
08:37So my journey started today
08:39is finding out what I am,
08:41where I'm from.
08:42So let's just see where I end up.
08:45To start the search into his family history,
08:48Noel has decided to head back to where it all began.
09:00Noel has travelled to Bollington.
09:02Nice view.
09:03Just outside of Macclesfield.
09:06This is where I grew up for the first few years of my life.
09:10Nothing seems to have changed.
09:12The view, the houses look the same.
09:15It's just exactly as I left it 50 years ago.
09:19It's weird, isn't it?
09:21That's the hill we used to sledge down.
09:23We always got snow.
09:25I don't remember it being this state.
09:27There's a big hole there that you had to keep out of.
09:29I don't know if it's an old mine or something.
09:31Yeah, it was a little bit strange going back to Bollington.
09:35I've not been there for, blimey, 48, 50 years.
09:39Everything seemed a lot smaller, I think,
09:41because I was so tiny when I was there.
09:42Everything was big.
09:44But it was a nice little trip down memory lane.
09:49Noel's memory has been jolted by one thing from his past
09:52that could have influenced his future.
09:55My uncle Eric's parents,
09:57they had a bakery in the town somewhere,
09:59which I totally forgot about until I was walking down.
10:02I saw a shop that looked like a bakery.
10:04I thought, oh, my God, yeah, I remember that.
10:06It makes me wonder,
10:07did he have some impact on me wanting to go off and be a baker?
10:11Because when I lived here, my God, even then,
10:13I'll have only been six.
10:15I wanted to be a chef.
10:16And that's what, when I left school, I went off to be.
10:19I think just the way you're brought up,
10:22you're subconsciously taking it all in without you realising, I think.
10:27You know, the way your childhood is and the way you're raised
10:30definitely shapes the way you are.
10:32It was in Bollington Village
10:34where Noel's mum and dad, Fallon David, got married.
10:38So this is my picture of my mum and dad on the wedding day,
10:41outside the church, getting into a nice old fancy car.
10:45There's a church here.
10:46This will be the church they got married at.
10:48I recognise my mum from it,
10:50but, my God, my dad looks totally different.
10:52I've never seen a picture of my dad without a beard.
10:56I think that's where it is.
10:57I just think, click, click then.
10:59Seeing where his mum and dad married
11:01has reminded Noel of fun times with his family.
11:05I've got nothing but happy memories living at Bollington,
11:08so, you know, it was a bit of a shock when we moved from there.
11:12At the age of seven,
11:14Noel's mum and dad made the decision to leave Bollington
11:17and eventually ended up two hours north in Kendal,
11:21in the Lake District.
11:23Yeah, I think I did wonder, you know, why did we move?
11:26But when you're that old, you don't ask these questions,
11:29you just go with your mum and dad, don't you?
11:32This was the house they left.
11:34The house that Noel grew up in.
11:36So, that's me and my brother sat outside the actual house,
11:39just up here, there you go.
11:42That's some shirt I've got on there.
11:45When we did move,
11:47I remember being sad to leave all my friends behind.
11:53Everything's the same, the same wall.
11:5550-odd years later, not change much.
11:59Noel has a theory that the move was the beginning of a bigger decision.
12:04Eventually, my mum and dad separated and they went their own ways.
12:08Yeah, it was very sad at the time, you know,
12:10I think you think your mum and dad are together forever, aren't they?
12:13But it wasn't to be.
12:16My mum, she remarried, which, you know, she was very happy with.
12:19So, I'm happy about that.
12:20And then my dad, he just lived on his own.
12:23But he loves it, you know, he just did what he wanted, when he wanted.
12:29If we'd never have moved to Kendal, you know, I'd have never met Sue,
12:33so, you know, I wouldn't have the life I've got now.
12:47Back in Morecambe, after his trip down memory lane...
12:53Hello?
12:54Noel isn't the only one who's been delving into the family history.
12:58Hi.
12:59Hi, Glesney.
13:00Hello.
13:01You all right?
13:01Glesney has a Radford Report update.
13:04How's the research getting on?
13:06Have you found out some juicy stuff as we're chomping at the bit?
13:09He has lots of exciting information to be able to share with you.
13:13Exciting.
13:14Noel, we've discovered that your grandfather, Charles,
13:17was a scientist who studies mites and ticks.
13:21Wow.
13:22And what with mites and ticks being teeny tiny,
13:25Noel, you know what that means?
13:27That explains the microscope on the family crest, then.
13:30He wasn't any old scientist.
13:32He was one of the best scientists in the world.
13:35Oh, my God, wow.
13:36How about that?
13:38A Radford scientist.
13:39Not only that, but one of the best in the world in his field.
13:42I'm never going to hear the end of that, am I?
13:44No.
13:46Maybe he did have a monkey in the bag.
13:48Probably had mites on it.
13:49And that's what he used a microscope for.
13:51But I do wonder what's so interesting about mites, though.
13:56Funny you should ask Noel.
13:57Max, you've got a letter!
14:01Glesney has sent current resident Bradford scientist Max
14:04an update with some more information.
14:07So I've got a letter.
14:09I didn't know we still did that.
14:11I'm quite interested that one of my ancestors was a, like, scientist.
14:16It's quite cool because he discovered and named three pairs of mites.
14:23Now, I'm pretty sure I know what a mite is.
14:26It's the little insects visible to the human eye.
14:28Well, you need a microscope to see them.
14:30So it's actually quite interesting that he's, like, found some.
14:33I think what Charles Radford did was quite important.
14:37Because it says here that bites from these mites could have spread typhus.
14:41Which, in Charles Radford's time, before antibiotics were available,
14:45killed tens of thousands of people.
14:48So, I mean, that's kind of important.
14:50And what name did Charles Radford give to his mites, I wonder?
14:55That's the mite.
14:58Radfornia, Radfadella and Radfordina.
15:02What is that?
15:04They're mites that are actually named after us.
15:08They have to change names because I'm Bonnie Radford.
15:11They've got the Radford name, yeah, but they're not called Bonnie.
15:15Apart from Charles Radford being very clever and discovering some creepy crawlies...
15:20..world scientist appeals to Britain's front-room boy.
15:23Max has concluded something else about him.
15:26It's cool to see that he didn't do this for money and did it purely out of interest.
15:30Now, he didn't actually have any, like, proper, well, any higher formal education.
15:36Like, he didn't have a degree or anything of that type of thing.
15:38He's managed to learn three languages all by himself.
15:42So he was obviously a grafter.
15:45Which kind of reminds me of my dad, you know.
15:47He still works very hard and with the eccentricness and just not quite being fully right in the head.
15:55Charming.
15:57But did the Mrs. Radford of 75 years ago have much in common with the modern version?
16:04Monkeys, bats, snakes and rats are always going in the front room.
16:08But Mrs. Radford couldn't mind a bit.
16:12If my dad started bringing in monkeys, bats, snakes and rats, it's not going to be very pretty.
16:17My mum would kill my father.
16:19He's sleeping on the couch for one night and then he's out the house a second.
16:24Well, it's looking like my side of the family is looking pretty interesting.
16:27I mean, a world-class scientist.
16:30Try topping that, Sue.
16:31Early days, Noel. Early days.
16:37Determined not to be outdone, Sue has decided to step up the search herself.
16:43Hi, Mum. Hi.
16:45Do you fancy a broom?
16:48Sue was adopted in 1975.
16:51So who better to ask about what came before than Mum, Christine?
16:57That's me.
16:58Look at me, Mum.
17:00Mum, you were very cute, weren't you?
17:03So before I was a Radford, I was Baines.
17:06That was my surname.
17:08So is that Dad's mum and your dad?
17:11Yeah.
17:12And my Dad's dad.
17:14Richard.
17:14Baines, yeah.
17:16Nan was called Hilda, wasn't she?
17:18Hilda, yeah.
17:19Dad used to talk about his grandma Baines a lot, didn't he?
17:22Oh, yeah, yeah.
17:23She was lovely.
17:24She was from Lancaster.
17:25I think what I was hoping to find out from my chat with my mum about my adopted family was
17:30more about my nan and granddad and more about my mum's mum and dad, so my other nan and granddad.
17:38That's my mum's mum and dad.
17:41That's my mum's mum and dad.
17:42I knew bits but I felt like I didn't know enough so I wanted to find out more.
17:47Your mum's mum, do you know how many children she had?
17:52I don't know, she had a lot.
17:54It was like, in them days they did.
17:56They all had big families.
17:57There wasn't anything to stop it.
18:00I shouldn't say any more.
18:02Who were?
18:03Probably not Christine.
18:05Best get back to the number of kids rather than how they were made.
18:09My dad's side, she had about five on my dad's side.
18:13Yeah, see, that's interesting, isn't it?
18:16As well as her own parents, Sue's mum was also part of a big brood.
18:21There was six of us all together.
18:23Our Keith and our Victor.
18:24Keith and Victor.
18:25Our Joan and our Joyce and me.
18:28And our Bernard.
18:30But, um, Bernard died.
18:33And my dad shouted at Bernard, ran across the road and a coal lorry ran him over.
18:41So he passed away on the 15th of September 1942.
18:46He was only five.
18:48I mean, that's like losing Heidi, because Heidi's fine.
18:54I didn't really know a lot about it, but, I mean, I wasn't born then,
18:58because I was the youngest of the family,
18:59but that must have been a terrible shot for anybody, mustn't it?
19:03I can't even imagine what they must have gone through losing a child like that.
19:07It's such tragic circumstances, isn't it?
19:08You go out with your little boy, and then you just, you don't come home with them.
19:13I can't even imagine how would you ever deal with that.
19:18It must have been just so incredibly difficult,
19:22especially when they had other children to look after as well.
19:25We always had Birda at the bottom of the stairs.
19:27He had very blonde hair and blue eyes, like my dad.
19:30It's sad, really, that these things happen, don't they?
19:34Grandad and Nanna must have been quite resilient people.
19:39My mum, Annie, she was the boss.
19:43You couldn't go across her, Albert and Annie.
19:46I mean, my mum has always said that I look very much like her mum,
19:53which is strange, because obviously it's not through blood.
19:57I mean, my mum always used to say that I've come back as her mum.
20:02There's a little bit of resemblance there, I suppose.
20:12It's weird, that, isn't it?
20:15Sue, that's really strange. I can see it myself.
20:27Having delved deep into their family history,
20:30Noel and Sue aren't the only ones to have unearthed some exciting information.
20:37They're back in South Wales to meet Glesney,
20:39who has an update for Noel,
20:41and a star-sling discovery involving wealth, politics
20:45and a medieval crime that went down in the history books.
20:50So Nicholas Radford was a successful Member of Parliament,
20:53so we're talking about 1455.
20:56Blimey.
20:56And his murder was one of the major murders of the century.
21:01He was murdered?
21:02He was murdered.
21:03Nicholas.
21:04Nicholas.
21:05Blimey.
21:06Why did he get murdered?
21:07I don't know.
21:08He was obviously a Member of the Parliament,
21:10but did he do something wrong?
21:12Intrigued now to know what's happened to him.
21:14That's a bit of a cliffhanger, isn't it?
21:16Wow, we can't leave him on a cliffhanger like that.
21:18Yes, we can.
21:20That's really interesting, isn't it?
21:32After finding out a family member was murdered in the 15th century,
21:37Noel's in Manchester, to find out more.
21:40I'm here today because Glesney has let me know that a historian
21:43has come up with some really good information
21:46about one of my ancestors, Nicholas Radford.
21:51He sounds like a fascinating character.
21:54When Glesney told me about him, my jaw was on the floor.
21:58Yeah, it's really shocking, isn't it?
22:00I find out that one of my relatives was murdered.
22:03All right, I mean, it was in 1455.
22:06It's a long time ago.
22:07He's been stealing off somebody,
22:09and that's the way they dealt with it back there.
22:10They just knock them off and do away with them.
22:13Whatever it is, he's made somebody really peed off,
22:16and he's been dealt with.
22:18Hi.
22:19Hello.
22:19Noel.
22:20Picking up the story is medieval expert
22:23Dr Sophie T. Ambler.
22:25So, Noel, you've been investigating your ancestor,
22:29Nicholas Radford.
22:30Yes.
22:30What have you found out so far?
22:33Er, he was murdered.
22:34Hmm.
22:35But it wasn't just any old murder, Noel.
22:38This was the murder of the century.
22:40I think we can safely say
22:41this was the most notorious crime of the 15th century.
22:46Oh, heck.
22:47So, what we know about Nicholas Radford,
22:50Nicholas Radford was a very, very wealthy and important man.
22:55As far as we know,
22:57there aren't any images that exist of Nicholas Radford.
23:00So, we've asked AI to have a go at it.
23:03He was an MP.
23:06He represented a lot of the aristocrats of the day,
23:08and so we know from the record
23:10that Nicholas's valuables amounted to about £3,000.
23:15In today's money,
23:16that's probably at least £2 million.
23:19Quite a bit.
23:20Indeed.
23:21£2 million?
23:22That'd have been handy
23:23if it had been passed down the Radford chain.
23:25Limitless holidays for Sue
23:27and state-of-the-art bakery equipment for me.
23:31Sadly, Noel, it wasn't meant to be.
23:34What seems to have happened
23:36is that feud with another local family,
23:38these families were fighting it out for power,
23:42and Nicholas Radford seems to have been caught in the middle.
23:45Typical look of a Radford
23:46getting caught up in somebody else's argument.
23:49It's just like my modern-day life,
23:51refereeing the kids' arguments.
23:53I just feel like I need to put my arm round him
23:55and say,
23:55I know how you feel.
23:58But something tells me that Nicholas's fate
24:00might be worse than a Radford family fallout.
24:04People have got it in for us, Radfords.
24:06Go on, tell me what happened to him, then.
24:07So, we have quite a lot of details about the murder itself.
24:12This is from an account presented to Parliament
24:15by one of Nicholas's family.
24:17Is that all about him, all that?
24:18Yeah.
24:19Wow.
24:19What it tells us is that in October 1455,
24:23the group of almost 100 men,
24:25and the record says they were armed as if for war
24:28and ransacked the house.
24:30They stole money, valuables, jewellery.
24:35One of his men turned on Nicholas Radford with a glaive.
24:39It's a long weapon with a long, single-edged blade
24:43that was used to strike a hideous, deadly stroke
24:47over his face and filled him to the ground.
24:50So, Nicholas Radford, right, I'm going to tell you,
24:52it's quite gory.
24:53This guy got a big glaive,
24:56slashed it down the front of his face, right?
24:58The attacker then set about Nicholas from behind,
25:01gave him another stroke upon the head
25:04that the brain fell out of his head.
25:06The brain fell out of his head?
25:08The brain fell out of his head.
25:09Oh, my God.
25:10And they chopped the back of his head off with it,
25:12then his brain fell out.
25:14Oh, no, stop.
25:15No.
25:16Ooh.
25:17That's unreal.
25:19His brain fell out.
25:20Yeah?
25:21Wait till you hear this soon.
25:23This is the best bit yet.
25:25Oh.
25:25It was the murder of Nicholas Radford
25:28that kicks off one of the most famous periods of conflict in British history.
25:34This was the very opening stages of the Wars of the Roses.
25:38So Radford might have started the Wars of the Roses.
25:41Bloody hell.
25:43I mean, when I started looking into my family history,
25:45I didn't ever expect I'd have come across wealthy landowners
25:51or murders of the century.
25:53Nothing like this would ever cross my mind.
25:56Oh, I can't wait to tell Sue this.
25:58There is no way her family history can compete with the crime of the century.
26:03Don't be so sure, Noel.
26:10While the cat's away...
26:12Right, what about...
26:14The mice...
26:15Are wrecking the garden.
26:17Anywhere else but there.
26:20It's all in a good cause.
26:22We're making time capsule to bury in the garden.
26:26We wanted everybody involved in our history project.
26:29So we thought letting them make a time capsule to go in the garden
26:32would be a really good way to involve the kids.
26:35We need to tell people that find this in 100 years
26:39what our life is like now.
26:41So we're going to say we are a big family with 22 kids.
26:46They won't believe me.
26:48Archie, you're probably right.
26:50We have these.
26:52Tilly has a solution.
26:54We can just put that in there
26:56and then there's proof that we have a big family.
26:59They still won't believe me.
27:01Apart from the family photograph.
27:04Right, what shall we add?
27:05What else is going in?
27:06I'm putting a colourful toy
27:08because people in the future might need cuddly toys.
27:12Cut his tail off and put it in.
27:14No!
27:14He might not be so cuddly in 100 years.
27:17See? It's going in!
27:20Well, Phoebe, do you want to tell me
27:22how we're going to fit anything up in there?
27:25Oh, my God!
27:27We have one of the dog's dog colours.
27:29Then we have poo bags.
27:32Finally.
27:33So let's sign it, OK?
27:34From the rabbit.
27:35That is a terrible heart.
27:37Then...
27:38We'll bury it.
27:40Do you want to help, Hal?
27:42Yes!
27:46Noel's come to see the final burial.
27:48Squash it down with your wellies.
27:50Nice and level, because my bins go there.
27:52Do you think our family will still be in this house in 100 years?
27:55One of your great-grandchildren.
27:58Is that a weird thought?
28:16Two weeks into the Radfords' trawl through their family history,
28:20it's now Sue's turn to learn some more about her side of the family.
28:25Glesney has an update for her.
28:29So when we previously met,
28:31we were quite interested to find out
28:32whether there was anybody else that had quite a big family.
28:35Yeah.
28:35So as you know, Christine was one of six children.
28:38Yeah.
28:38Then her mother, Annie, was one of 11 children.
28:41So there was quite big families within your maternal side of the family.
28:45Right.
28:46On your paternal side of the family,
28:47there was seven to eight children in numerous families throughout the generations.
28:52Oh, wow.
28:53They all pretty much did have quite big families then, didn't they?
28:56Absolutely, yeah.
28:57We haven't discovered anybody that's had 22 children.
28:59No.
29:00But then there's nobody that has...
29:02There's nobody out there that daft is there.
29:05There's some pretty big families on my side.
29:07That's pretty interesting, isn't it?
29:09Well, it's pretty boring, really.
29:11What do you mean?
29:13Well, it's not world-class scientists, is it?
29:15And a murder of the century.
29:17I think I'm coming out on top here, so...
29:20Hold your horses, Noel.
29:22Glesney hasn't finished yet.
29:24So, on your father's side, Colin,
29:27you've actually been able to go back to the 1850s
29:29with your paternal side of the family.
29:31We discovered some information regarding your great-grandfather.
29:36So, your great-grandfather was called James Cowan.
29:41Right.
29:42And we discovered that he'd actually fought him in World War I.
29:45Oh, my God.
29:47A soldier in the First World War, now, that is not boring.
29:50Yeah, but he might have just been a dishwasher in the mess.
29:52Oh, shut up, Noel.
29:54We'll see.
29:55That is really cool, isn't it?
29:58Wow.
29:59Wow.
30:00Can you imagine that to have to go away to war?
30:03It does make you want to know more about the First World War
30:06and what do they actually do?
30:08Yeah.
30:10After this intriguing update, Sue's making a short hop, skip and a jump
30:15to visit Professor Carina Peniston-Bird at Lancaster University.
30:20Hi.
30:20Hello, lovely to meet you.
30:21I'm you.
30:22Hi.
30:22Hi.
30:25I've done some digging for you.
30:28Sue's looking into her great-grandfather, James Kerwin.
30:32We have the census from 1911.
30:35Oh, wow.
30:35So, he's aged 21.
30:38He's married to Sarah, who's 21, and then they have one daughter.
30:43Yeah.
30:43And they're living in Lancaster at this point.
30:47And then we know a little bit about his background.
30:49So, he went to Bowerham School, the school right next to Bowerham Barracks.
30:54Right.
30:54Which is where the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment was based.
30:58And he will have been very familiar with war and with service.
31:02Yeah.
31:03So, do we know how long he was roughly serving for?
31:07Britain joins the war on 4th August 1914.
31:11He joins up on 8th September.
31:14Weren't they forced to join?
31:15So, he had to join.
31:17He had no choice.
31:17This is in the period of volunteerism,
31:20because there isn't conscription in Britain until 1916.
31:24So, he chooses to go.
31:27So, why do you think he did join up so quickly?
31:29Especially when his children were obviously quite young as well.
31:33There's an awful lot of pressure.
31:35They're surrounded by propaganda.
31:37So, having posters showing the lads he grew up with and that they're all serving.
31:42He could have been tempted by some of the propaganda,
31:45saying, come to travel and to go abroad.
31:46They would see sights like the pyramids, that they would have never seen as part of their ordinary life.
31:53And maybe a lot of his friends were signing up as well, so he thought that, you know, it was
31:58the right thing to do.
31:58And at this point, they are still joining up as friends and serving together.
32:09They also put a lot of pressure on women, specifically in this one, the women of Lancashire.
32:14Ah, to read this poster, I mean, I suppose women were made to feel like you couldn't have your next
32:21door neighbour sending her son to war and then you say, no, no, mine's not going.
32:25It really is pressure on everybody.
32:28It must have been awful for every single mother.
32:31None of them must have wanted their sons to go to war.
32:33Oh, God, no.
32:34It must have been the absolute worst feeling.
32:37But there was a stigma, wasn't there, that if they didn't sign up, then you were just branded as cowards.
32:42It really was just a no-win situation for them, wasn't it?
32:48He ends up in the machine gun corps.
32:52Now, machine guns are particularly important in defence.
32:55So, like, front line?
32:57Absolutely front line.
32:59It is the first thing that the enemies will try to knock out.
33:03So people working on the machine gun units will have been very vulnerable.
33:08They'll have been in the thick of things.
33:10You can't even imagine, can you?
33:12How they must have felt, thinking that they probably weren't going to come home.
33:22So James Thomas Cowan is killed on the 30th of November, 1917.
33:31Oh.
33:33So a year before the war ends.
33:39So he basically served...
33:41So 14 to 17, yeah, four years.
33:44Yeah.
33:46If Noel would have been sent to war and then he was killed in action and left me fending with
33:51the kids, I just...
33:52I don't, I don't, I just can't even imagine, I can't even put myself in that position because it must
33:57have been just so incredibly difficult.
34:02And I couldn't have worked because I had to look after the kids.
34:05To be honest, I think I would have struggled to have fed them.
34:08And as a mother, that's the worst feeling in the world.
34:12So James is killed in action.
34:15We think it's very likely he died at the Battle of Cambrai in France.
34:22With all of these men, their bodies don't come home.
34:25So you can't visit their graves that are in your local cemetery.
34:28And so you haven't got that sense of how you can go and honour their memory even or take the
34:34children...
34:35You don't properly have closure, do you?
34:40It's just made me feel really moved.
34:43It really touches you because, you know, as a mum, the least that you would expect is to be able
34:48to visit your son's grave.
34:51So I want to honour James as one mother on behalf of another mother.
34:56And it's really made me want to go to France to pay my respects and visit James' grave.
35:04And Sue will be the first in the family to visit.
35:16Noel and Sue have left the house behind on their final leg of their journey through the past.
35:22I couldn't have ended my search without finishing something that none of my family have ever got to do.
35:28So we're on our way to France to see where my great-granddad is buried
35:31so that we can pay our respects.
35:34We're just landing into France.
35:35We are heading there to go and see where my great-granddad is buried, let's rest.
35:46Cambrai is in northern France
35:48and was the location of Sue's great-grandfather James Kerwin's final battle.
35:53It's also his final resting place.
35:57Position of the English here, along here, that's the front line, pretty much where we're stood.
36:04At the Battle of Cambrai, where Sue's grandfather fought, in less than 20 days,
36:10more than 80,000 servicemen from both sides were wounded, missing or killed.
36:20Since finding out about my great-grandfather James from Carina,
36:25I've just felt like I wanted to come here to pay my respects.
36:30So I'm really hoping that today we can find James' grave.
36:35Noel and Sue begin their search in the Louverville Military Cemetery.
36:4030th of September 1918, so that was a year after my great-granddad, wasn't it?
36:45Mm.
36:47So these are 19, 17, so I wonder if it might be here.
36:50That looked down here, then, yeah.
36:52There's just so many graves, Noel.
36:57The number of graves is not the only harsh reality to confront Noel and Sue.
37:03There's a lot of young lads, isn't there?
37:0420-year-old, 19s, 18s.
37:07I mean, they're still boys, aren't they, really?
37:0919, it's still...
37:11Still very young.
37:12It's very young, isn't it?
37:13Mm-hm.
37:15James and Josh, isn't it?
37:17James is 22, Josh is 18.
37:20But it's just all their age bracket.
37:22Mm.
37:24Seeing all of the ages on the headstones, a lot of our children are those ages.
37:29That would be five kids for me, you know, and if the mum's only had, say, two sons,
37:34and they're gone, and she has nothing left.
37:40No, I can't imagine what it must have been like to say goodbye to your sons.
37:45You know, you're sending your sons off to war when they're really just still children, aren't they?
37:55All up, no, there's a machine gun call, eh?
37:57Mm-hm.
37:5823rd of November, so that was a week before.
38:01A week before your granddad, yeah.
38:03A soldier of the Great War machine gun corps, known unto God.
38:08So, the people that were never known just had on their headstone a soldier.
38:16It's really sad, isn't it?
38:20So, we've looked at every single headstone that's here, and we can't find James' name on any of them.
38:29With every grave checked, there's still one place that they haven't looked.
38:36Got old names on the wall.
38:38There's so many.
38:39Over a few days, all these guys lost their lives.
38:43That's just one little battle out of the whole of the war.
38:47The monument for the Battle of Cambrai holds the names of 7,000 soldiers
38:52who were killed and whose bodies were never found.
38:57That's just the reality of that war back then,
39:00is that the majority of them never got found,
39:03they didn't have headstones, and their names were just wrote on the stone.
39:11Definitely the machine gun, wasn't it?
39:12Yeah.
39:14And it's Kerwin with a C.
39:18Oh, there you are.
39:20Found it, yeah.
39:23Sort of just found his name here.
39:26Kerwin J.
39:31Some of these could well have been his friends,
39:33those that have stood next to him.
39:35Yeah.
39:35Operating the same gun.
39:37It was emotional when we first saw his name,
39:40because it puts it into perspective, doesn't it,
39:41that that was my great-grandad.
39:45Nice to be able to pay my respects.
39:47The send-off that couldn't have been done 109 years ago.
39:52His wife never had closure, because he never came home.
39:57There was never anywhere to go and visit his grave.
40:01I mean, he made the ultimate sacrifice, didn't he?
40:04He left his young wife, his three young children,
40:07and he never came back.
40:11His name on the memorial means that he was never found,
40:15because all of these names of all of these people were never found.
40:21It just made you realise that looking out in those fields,
40:24he's obviously out there somewhere.
40:29I feel extremely proud of my great-grandfather.
40:33He gave up his wife, the life that we have now,
40:37as all these people did.
40:41It just goes to show, you know,
40:43just how precious family is, doesn't it?
40:45You know, your children, your family,
40:47you know, is the most important thing in life, isn't it?
40:56Come here, Bonnie Boone.
40:58Hi, do you want to get your coat on as well, darling?
40:59Noel and Sue are back home.
41:02One.
41:03There you go.
41:03But the last few weeks have reaffirmed the importance of one thing.
41:08We've been away a lot, discovering our family history.
41:10We've been here, there and everywhere.
41:12We zip you right up, nice and toasty.
41:14But it is nice just to get back, be with the kids,
41:17which is what we love most,
41:19just being surrounded by the kids and having cuddles.
41:22Where are we going?
41:23To this.
41:24To the movies.
41:25Go to the cinema.
41:26Nice family time, can't wait.
41:29Archie, darling, you're bringing your cars.
41:31Oh, look at you.
41:33You're ready.
41:35Oh, f*** me, sausage, please.
41:40Come on, stop, stop.
41:41Everybody, shut the hell up.
41:43Cas, get off your phone.
41:44We are presenting something.
41:45Before the main film starts,
41:47Max and Tilly have a supporting feature of their own.
41:51Over the past couple of weeks,
41:53we've been on a journey to find out about mum and dad's heritage
41:56and about the Radford family.
41:58So we decided to put a video together for my mum and dad
42:00to show them what the search meant for the whole family.
42:04We have found it very fascinating
42:06and distant relatives are much closer than you think.
42:09When you think of family,
42:10you think of people that you grew up with.
42:13You don't really think of the ones that are outside of that.
42:16But knowing my grandparents, my great-grandparents,
42:20and, like, what they look like and what they did
42:22is also quite important
42:23because they show our heritage.
42:25So, we present to you the movie.
42:28The whole film.
42:29Where's the movie?
42:38I think between us,
42:40we've got a really extraordinary family tree.
42:46Yeah, we've got some interesting stories.
42:49Pretty interesting heritage.
42:58Oh, they're moving.
43:03Guys, that's really clever.
43:09That's grandma.
43:12I can't believe how different your dad looked.
43:15Oh, wow.
43:21My granddad, Charles.
43:23There, look.
43:24There he is.
43:24How long have you gone with that?
43:2670 years ago, I think.
43:28A bit long, about 75.
43:31Nicholas Radford.
43:33He was murdered.
43:35Murdered in a brutal way he was.
43:38The thing that's been most emotional
43:40is your great-granddad.
43:42He didn't actually have a grave.
43:43and what he'd gone through.
43:46Oh, look at that, my look-alike.
43:48She would have never seen her then, would you?
43:50No.
43:54We've got, you know,
43:54a massive family tree of Radfords,
43:57so it's nice that we've got
43:59a lot of kids
44:00to keep the surname going.
44:03Oh, my God.
44:10Thank you so much,
44:10Hey, seriously.
44:11Thank you so much.
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