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00:07I don't know anything about myself, or my family, or what's made me who I am today.
00:16I can't go back any further than my grandparents. I'm a cockney, I come from East End of London,
00:24but I was always denied the East End, because my mother, God bless her, thought it was the best thing.
00:31She was a bit of a snob, because she thought, as far as she was concerned, it was very working
00:35class,
00:36and she'd done everything to better herself and get away from that,
00:40and she wanted everyone to think I came from North London.
00:43So I want to know, do I, you know, are my ancestors, are they from the East End?
00:49Is it, I'd love that to be East End through and through, or do I come from anywhere else?
00:54East End
01:34Actress Barbara Windsor, MBE, lives in central London with her husband, Scott.
01:40What are you going to do today after we've done this?
01:42Because you know I've got to go off and find out about my life.
01:47I'm really nervous. I'm terribly nervous.
01:50I think it'll be exciting.
01:51Do you think so?
01:51Yeah.
01:51I've got these feelings, these butterflies in my stomach.
01:55See, if I could come in now and go, da-da-da-da-da, you know, know it all, then
02:01it would be fine.
02:02You know, it's like, what are you nervous of finding out?
02:04It's a bit like that.
02:05I mean, I'd like to find out whether there's any of your ancestors that keep losing their keys.
02:12I mean, that would be a very kind of good thing for me to know.
02:16I am aggravating, I like.
02:23My mother and father, that's Rose Alexandra Ellis, and my father, John Henry James Deeks.
02:28They were an incredible-looking couple.
02:30They were fantastic.
02:31It was funny because they were totally different.
02:32My father was a barrow boy and my mother was a dressmaker.
02:36But she always said, couture, because my mother, bless her, always wanted to better herself, which I appreciate now.
02:45When I got older at the time, I'd say, why, what for, you know, and my father always wanted to
02:50stay in the East End.
02:51And so that made the marriage, oh, you know, quite hairy.
02:56Barbara was born Barbara Ann Deeks in 1937 in the East End of London.
03:03Much to her mother's irritation, she inherited the cheeky looks and clever patter of her father, John.
03:08I mean, look at the forehead, exactly the same, and the same little blonde hair, you know, same smile, that
03:16big smile.
03:18I felt very much a daddy's girl.
03:20I never felt a mummy's girl, ever, ever, ever.
03:24While Daddy was away at war, Mummy moved us out of the East End to North London, and I suppose
03:32she saw it as a move up the social ladder.
03:35But when Daddy came home, he wasn't happy at all there.
03:39There'd always been, rifts had always been there, you know, and I was always aware of rows and arguments.
03:47Gradually, the marriage fell apart, and then Daddy, well, he started to get a bit violent with Mummy.
03:52And then at the age of 14, I was called to testify at the divorce hearing.
03:57And I came out, and Mummy said, well, they've awarded you to me, darling.
04:02He said, she said, Daddy's going to give me five shillings a week.
04:04And I said, well, what's going to happen with Daddy?
04:07Will I see him?
04:07And she said, yes, I'll make sure he takes you to the cinema like you like every week and all
04:13the rest of it.
04:13And with that, Daddy walked down, and I always remember he had this terrible yellow sweater on, which I was
04:18amazed, because he was always so smart.
04:20He walked with this yellow sweater, his face was bright red, and I thought, he's going to just hit everybody,
04:27because I've seen him like that.
04:28And he just walked past me and looked at me, and Mummy, he almost spat at us, and just walked
04:35away.
04:36And it was, you know, it was, I didn't understand it at all.
04:46Hello, darling.
04:48What's your name?
04:50Hello.
04:50Lovely to see you.
04:53After Barbara's father left, the dominant male figure in her life was her maternal grandfather, Charlie Ellis.
05:00Charlie was a dock worker by day and an amateur singer by night.
05:04He used to let himself down, my granddad, because he did used to like a bit of a tipple.
05:10And when he worked at the docks, you see, he used to drink, when he finished, he'd finish early and
05:15have the few before he came home.
05:18And my mother used to say, because I went to school, that's where I went to school, there, you see.
05:22And granddad used to get off the bus, and he used to walk up here, you see.
05:26And my mum used to say, if you see your granddad, ignore him.
05:30He is not your granddad.
05:32Well, of course, I loved him.
05:33I loved that, you see.
05:34And I knew that if I saw my granddad, I could get tappents for a jam donut, you see.
05:41And the bakers was just there.
05:43So I would go out my way and hope and pray, he'd had a few.
05:48And he used to come, always be singing, always up the street, singing down the street.
05:53But everyone knew Charlie Ellis.
05:58When Charlie worked at the docks, London was the largest port in the world, having traded via the Thames since
06:04Roman times.
06:10In the 19th century, the river had become so congested, that companies built their own docks to allow their ships
06:16to moor alongside their warehouses.
06:20By the 1930s, there were nine separate docks, and over 30 miles of quayside, with an average of 1,000
06:27ships arriving and departing each week.
06:32The docks were a self-contained, secret world in the heart of the East End.
06:46I'm now going back to the docks to find out more about my granddad, Charlie Ellis.
06:51I know in the latter part of his life, he was a tea boy.
06:56I mean, and that's in his late 70s into 80s, at the docks.
07:00You know, we say a tea boy at the docks, but they all loved Charlie.
07:03I think they wanted him around, because he was, he just, as I say, the people just adored him.
07:09And I just want to find out more about him.
07:11And also, it's interesting to see, I mean, I have been here before, but see how much it's changed.
07:17Parts of it is lovely, I mean, it's like being in Manhattan.
07:21But there's a lack of community, you know.
07:24I just feel that they've pushed out the true EastEnders.
07:28Well, I know they have.
07:31But that's progress.
07:32And my granddad was very much of today.
07:35I mean, he used to keep up to fashion and with all the music.
07:38So he wouldn't have said, oh, let's stay in this way we are now.
07:42So I think he would have liked it.
07:44I think he would have dined out on this.
07:46Well, I'm going, Canary Wolf, he said, it's all posh duck now.
07:49He would have liked that, yes.
07:53The next stop is Canary Wharf.
08:08Grandfather Charlie worked at the London Dock, the most romantic of all the docks,
08:13as it dealt in exotic goods from all parts of the thriving British Empire.
08:27Charlie spent much of his life working as a labourer underground.
08:33Barbara has come to meet Chris Elmers, consultant historian for the museum in Docklands.
08:38Did you know that the vaults down here was where your granddad worked, where Charlie worked down here?
08:44No, no, I didn't.
08:44He worked for the wine department.
08:45In the vaults?
08:46In the vaults, he worked for the wine department.
08:48Of course.
08:48At the Port London Authority.
08:50He would, that's why I used to get off the bus.
08:52So he spent 26 years of his life in areas like this, you know, looking after wines, port, sherries, brandies.
08:59Later on down in this, in this vault, they stored rum up from the mid-1930s.
09:04Of course.
09:05So there were lots of possible temptations.
09:07Occasionally, some of the men sort of helped themselves, and that was called sucking the monkey.
09:11They drilled a little hole into the side of the barrels, put a little pipe in, had a, you know,
09:15filled up a mug or something.
09:16Shouldn't do it at all.
09:17And then plugged up the hole, you know?
09:19In the latter years, he was late, just not long before he died, they kept him on as a tea
09:23boy.
09:24Yeah.
09:24Because they were so very fond of him.
09:26Yeah, that's right, because I think he retired when he was 65, which is for many people, still quite a
09:30young person.
09:31That was him, yeah.
09:31His pension wouldn't have been enormous, and it would have been nice for him to have topped that up.
09:35And also, I think, people like the joviality of the guys who they worked with.
09:39These were small communities who worked down here.
09:41I mean, the total number of labourers in the wine department was about 70.
09:45Something here, I think you'll find of interest, Barbara.
09:48It's the staff employment card from the Port London Authority, which is in the museum in Docklands Archive now,
09:54relating to your grandfather, Charlie Ellis.
09:57And you can see it tracks everything from his birth in the 15th of November, 1877,
10:02to his retirement on the 19th of November, 1942.
10:07And he starts work in 1916 as an extra labourer.
10:12When he was born, 1877, extra labourers were the lowest of the low in terms of port workers.
10:18Right.
10:18Because they were really casual, and above those you had preference labourers, above those you had permanent labourers.
10:24But you can see with Charlie's case, within three years, he's become a B labourer, that's a preferable labourer.
10:32So he's got far more chance of finding regular work working for the PLA.
10:36So he's moving up a sort of social hierarchy.
10:39Oh, my mum would be pleased.
10:39Really good, OK.
10:41And then, within sort of two years, he's become a permanent labourer, OK?
10:45Yes.
10:45Really good.
10:57I do know, I've had a smashing day.
11:00I've not been let down one little bit.
11:02You know, I found out that my granddad, Charlie, you know, started at the docks and at the lowest kind
11:09of a job and worked his way up and wanted to better himself.
11:15And I suppose that's where my mother got that from, you know, wanting to better herself.
11:19And I suppose that's a reason why he would have looked down on the Deacs' side, because they never, ever
11:25did.
11:25My granddad, Deacs, never wanted a better himself.
11:30Unlike Charlie Ellis, Barbara's paternal grandfather, Jack Deacs, had no ambition.
11:36He was content to work as a casual labourer or as a barrow boy, a costumonger.
11:42His wife, Polly, was a factory cleaner in the East End.
11:47But Barbara wants to find out whether there's more to granddad Jack and nan Polly Deacs than she's been led
11:52to believe.
11:54We're going to Clangton to see my, I call him my cousin Gerald, but he's more like a distant cousin.
12:00And he's on the Deacs' side.
12:02And I, it's funny, I always used to argue about it.
12:04He can't be on the Deacs' side, because he's so sweet.
12:07You know, he really was.
12:09You know, I might find out something different about the Deacs' family, but of course I was always told that
12:13they weren't a very nice lot.
12:15Like, on my dad's side.
12:16And I got sent this, which is these two jolly men.
12:21And my granddad, Jack Deacs.
12:24He was called John Deacs, but we, or everyone, called him Jack Deacs.
12:27So I know nothing about these two men.
12:31And, er, and then there's this terrific culture of fat nanny Deacs, and my father, looking absolutely fantastic, the pair
12:41of them.
12:42And fat nanny, she was a very sweet, sweet little lady.
12:45She was, you know, I always felt that, that granddad Deacs did bully her.
12:51And, you know, and I think that's what daddy inherited.
12:55Many, many years later, when there used to be the arguments with me and my mum when I was growing
13:00up,
13:00she used to say, you're getting more like your fat nanny every day.
13:05I'd say, oh, mummy, no, no, no, you say, good, good, good.
13:30You see, I haven't been on a train for a long time.
13:33I stood there waiting, thinking the doors had opened.
13:43Hello, Gerard, how are you, darling?
13:46You OK?
13:47Oh, good to see you, too.
13:49Oh, very friendly, yes, OK?
13:51OK.
13:51Oh, isn't this lovely?
13:53Yes, I just did.
13:54Oh, this is lovely.
13:55You brought the sunshine with you.
13:56Yeah, where do I go?
13:57Straight through here?
13:58Yeah, straight through here.
13:59Granddad had a bit of a reputation.
14:01My granddad?
14:02Yeah, yeah.
14:02Jack?
14:03Yeah, Jack Deacs.
14:04Did he?
14:05You know.
14:05That doesn't surprise me.
14:06They say he used to be.
14:08Yeah, handed his fist.
14:09Yeah, and handed his fist.
14:11And with her.
14:11Well, I do know that, because mummy stopped me going down to see them, because she came
14:16by on a bus one day and saw me standing outside a pub with crisps.
14:20Oh.
14:20The other story is that when he first started going out with Polly, my grandmother didn't
14:28like the idea of her going out and being, because she was in the pub, she ran the pub.
14:32Yeah.
14:34And Jack was across the munger, you know, I suppose, sort of a bit below the line.
14:38Yes, yeah, yes, yes.
14:38And so she stopped Polly from seeing him, wouldn't let her go out.
14:42Oh, really?
14:43But he came round, the story goes, how true it is, I don't know, that he came round with
14:48an axe and he smashed the piano up in the pub in a tempo.
14:52That doesn't surprise me, actually, from what I've heard.
14:55Yeah, it's that quick, fiery tempo.
14:57That's right, yeah.
14:58See red, and Daddy was the same.
15:01Yeah.
15:01I love this photo.
15:03I love this photo.
15:03And that's Fat Nanny.
15:05And that is Daddy.
15:06That's right, yeah.
15:07In a sailor's suit.
15:08All young men, they all was put on sailor's suit.
15:09But she wasn't Fat Nanny then.
15:11No, no, she's not there.
15:12No, but you've got to think, I know nothing about her before, you know, what was her life
15:19like before she got, you know, married or whatever, I don't know.
15:22I remember her telling me that when she was quite young still, she was a...
15:28a huffer for a time at a musical in Hoxton, and it was called the Britannia Musical.
15:38I know Britannia Musical because I know, because it's playing Mari Lloyd.
15:42Oh, yeah, of course, yeah.
15:43So, yeah, so I know the musicals, which are no longer there, unfortunately.
15:46Well, don't tell me.
15:48So she was on the halls.
15:50Yeah.
15:50Now that's amazing because my granddad Ellis, Charlie Ellis, would be devastated.
15:56I got the little bit of talent I had from him, you know what I mean?
16:01Oh, I see, yeah.
16:01And wait till then, oh, my God, it could have come from the Deeks' side.
16:04Some of it.
16:04Some of it, yeah.
16:05Some of it, yes.
16:10I don't know much about the Deeks' family, apart from Nanny and Granddad.
16:15And to hear that Fat Nanny was a huffer, I just think is amazing.
16:21And was in the music hall, because I love music hall.
16:26But what is it about the Deeks'es?
16:28You know, like my great grandmother didn't want my granddad, Jack, to marry my grandma,
16:35Polly.
16:36In fact, she was so against it, it took him to go around and smash the piano up in the
16:41pub
16:42to let him marry her.
16:44Well, that's the same thing with my mother.
16:47You know, my nanny and granddad on the Ellis side didn't want my mother to marry my father.
16:52So I'm now desperate to know more about the Deeks'es, which I never particularly did before.
17:02Both Barbara's father John and grandfather Jack were barrow boys, known in the trade as costamongers.
17:09Larry Barnes is an authority on the history of London market life.
17:14My family on my mother's side, the Ellis'es, looked down on the costamongers, the Deeks'es.
17:22Now, why did they look down on costamongers?
17:24In the early days, before they started leasing out the pitches,
17:30when you put your pitch down wherever you could, the policemen could come along and say,
17:34you're causing an obstruction, move it, and you got no choice, you moved it.
17:38Yes, I see.
17:38So you were an itinerant.
17:40Yes, yes, yes.
17:41And itinerants were very much brogues and vagabonds.
17:44OK.
17:46In the 18th century, if you were thirsty on the streets of London, you bought an apple,
17:51a costard apple, and the traders who sold them in baskets became known as costard mongers.
17:58In Victorian times, when Jack Deeks was born, there were about 30,000 costars in London selling all manner of
18:05produce.
18:08The costar mongers began to distinguish themselves from the punters by the way they dressed.
18:13They sewed lines of pearl buttons known as the flash on their jackets and hats.
18:18That was just the flash as was.
18:22So we get the term flash git and flash boy cloth.
18:24Ah, you flash git.
18:25Ah, I see.
18:27And if you bought a flash in a market, you were a costar.
18:30And slowly, the costar king of each market became the pearly king of that area.
18:38East End market life is responsible for some of the most enduring contributions to London's popular culture.
18:44The most inventive, started by the costars, is undoubtedly rhyming slang.
18:50Slang.
18:50Do you know where that comes from?
18:51No.
18:53Slang.
18:53Secret language.
18:54Secret language.
18:56Oh, wow.
18:56Yeah.
18:57It wasn't really trying to be cool and wicked and all like that.
19:02It had a purpose.
19:04You wanted to talk secretly with somebody.
19:06Yeah, yeah.
19:06Without that, kids are over there knowing what was going on.
19:09On my mother's side, I always remember them saying, don't talk rhyming slang.
19:15Don't talk like the barrel boys, like the costar among us.
19:17I mean, that's the market.
19:18Yes.
19:19You're slightly above that.
19:20Well, I think that was why, on my mother's side, they were always worried about me going
19:24to see my paternal nan and granddad because they didn't speak like that, you see.
19:30Oh.
19:30Especially just my granddad.
19:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:33Granddad Deeks.
19:38Barbara hopes that a distant cousin, who she's never met before, can help her trace
19:43the Deeks family further back.
19:47Hello.
19:48Hi.
19:48Hello, darling.
19:49How are you?
19:50Good to meet you.
19:51Oh.
19:52Oh, we match, don't we?
19:53Oh, yeah.
19:54Yeah.
19:55Good taste.
19:56And you're Gloria, aren't you?
19:57Nice to meet you, Barbara.
19:59I love it.
19:59Nice to see you, darling.
20:01And so I've been told that you know something about the Deeks family.
20:07Well, my name was Gloria Deeks.
20:09Oh, you're Gloria Deeks.
20:10Yeah.
20:12Yeah, go on.
20:12So my, um, what I'd like to show you is this here.
20:15Oh, goodness me.
20:17This is, this is your great-grandfather.
20:20Oh.
20:21There.
20:22Oh, goodness me.
20:24Hey.
20:25Oh, I wondered at who that was, that gentleman.
20:28Yeah.
20:28It didn't dawn on me.
20:30Yeah.
20:30That's quite an old picture.
20:31So we share the same great-grandfather.
20:33Great-grandfather.
20:34Yeah.
20:34He had over ten children.
20:36Ten?
20:37Yeah.
20:38My goodness.
20:39Yeah.
20:39And some of, they all went into obviously different, um, trades.
20:43And some were in the furniture business, the chair makers.
20:46And, um, some were in the, they had fruit and vegetables.
20:49Yeah.
20:50Costamongers.
20:50Costamongers, yeah.
20:51This is my father.
20:53Mm-hmm.
20:54Very handsome.
20:55It's just something, they look about them, isn't there, that...
20:58Yeah.
20:59Absolutely.
20:59They were very attractive then.
21:00Oh, you know, the Deeks.
21:01Yeah.
21:01Yeah, yeah.
21:02And my father was, my father was very aware of that, as well as my granddad.
21:06Yeah.
21:06You know, he'd, er...
21:07Yeah.
21:08And my thing, I always think my mother did marry for looks and the personality of my father.
21:12Because when it boiled down to it, he was everything she didn't want in a man.
21:16Because he had no ambition.
21:17Yeah.
21:17You know, he just wanted to go and drink in the pubs in the East End.
21:20And yet he was a highly, highly intelligent.
21:22Yeah.
21:22And so was my granddad.
21:24Yeah.
21:24Yeah, they were.
21:25They all won their scholarships.
21:26Yeah, my dad did.
21:27My dad won a scholarship.
21:29Yeah.
21:29Yes, it's funny.
21:30And I did when I was ten and a half eleven.
21:33Yeah.
21:33Yeah.
21:33It's, er...
21:34Oh, on the highest marks in the whole of North London.
21:36Well done.
21:37Well done.
21:39I'd like to show you this one as well, Barbara.
21:41Oh, that's this pub.
21:42Yeah.
21:42This is this pub.
21:43Yeah.
21:44Oh, gosh.
21:46And it's the same, isn't it?
21:47Yeah.
21:48The shape of it's still the same.
21:49It's still the same.
21:50Yes, yes.
21:52And, um...
21:52So who are you going to point out for me?
21:54There he is.
21:54That's great granddad.
21:56They're on one of their outings.
21:58Excuse me.
21:59There's something that might interest you down the back here.
22:01Oh, really?
22:02Yeah.
22:02Okay.
22:07Oh!
22:10Oh!
22:11Wow!
22:12That's fantastic.
22:13Oh, isn't that...
22:15Oh, you must be thrilled.
22:16Yeah.
22:17Oh, that's lovely.
22:18Oh, look.
22:19Oh, much clearer too, isn't it?
22:20There's great granddad.
22:21Look in there.
22:22Yeah.
22:22And there's...
22:23That's my granddad.
22:24Wow.
22:24Do people comment on it?
22:26Yeah.
22:26Everyone goes up to it and looks at it.
22:28You get...
22:28Well, can you say that they're...
22:30Huddling round it.
22:30They're Barbara Windsors.
22:33Who...
22:33You might know her.
22:34She's a lady who, you know, carry on in EastEnders.
22:39And say that that's my great-grandfather.
22:42This gentleman here.
22:42This one with a moustache.
22:43Okay.
22:43On a cigarette machine.
22:45It's...
22:45That's...
22:46That's fantastic.
22:49The Deexes.
22:51Gosh.
22:52I never thought I'd find anything like this.
22:55Raving.
22:56Terrific.
22:58Before she leaves, there's more information for Barbara on an even earlier generation of Deexes.
23:04What have you got here, Chloe?
23:05Right.
23:05This is the 1871 census.
23:08Right.
23:08And it shows you there.
23:10This is your great-grandfather, which is John Deex.
23:13And this is his father, your great-great-grandfather, also called John.
23:17Oh, our original.
23:18Yeah.
23:20There seems to be quite a lot of them.
23:21So that's great-great-grandfather.
23:24That's right.
23:24And they lived at 14 Howard Street, which unfortunately is no longer there, so...
23:28He was a bricklayer.
23:29He was a bricklayer.
23:30That's quite a good job then, wasn't it?
23:32Yeah.
23:32Probably helped build the EastEnd, I would think.
23:34Yes, I would think so.
23:39What I loved about me, St Gloria, was finding out that I've got two more generations of EastEnders in me.
23:46As Mummy always denied me being a Cockney, and I feel like I might be a true East Ender.
23:53With two more Johns added to the Deex family tree, Barbara now wants to know more about the life her
23:59great-great-grandfather would have led in 19th century EastEnd.
24:09So she's off to the Metropolitan Archives to talk to Professor Paul Johnson.
24:16Paul, darling, I've just found out that I've got...
24:20I had a great-great-grandfather called, like they all were, John Deeks.
24:27And this is where he lived.
24:2914 Harold Street in Bethnal Green.
24:32Right.
24:33And he was a bricklayer.
24:34Mm-hm.
24:36There were a huge number of bricklayers in London.
24:39Yeah, I thought there would be.
24:40In the 1870s.
24:41Because London, back then, was like, I don't know, like Shanghai today.
24:45It was the boom city.
24:47You could say it was a huge construction site, really.
24:49Mm-hm.
24:49So being a bricklayer was a pretty good job to have.
24:52Oh, good.
24:53It was a skilled job, but it was a tough living, because this is an example.
24:59Wow.
24:59Of a construction site, OK, in the 1870s.
25:04Here, actually, is a builder.
25:06Maybe that's John Deeks.
25:07You never know.
25:08And you could say, well, that looks like any sort of construction site like today.
25:12Except there's just no equipment there.
25:14No, there's not.
25:15There's a cart and a horse and there are men.
25:17That's right.
25:17And there's nothing else.
25:19Yes.
25:19And so it was a huge amount of work that the bricklayers and others had to do.
25:27The East End had always been the poor sister to the west of London.
25:30But they were further polarized by the 19th century Industrial Revolution.
25:36In the East End, land and labor were cheap.
25:39And unlike other parts of London, there was no regulation of dangerous industries, such as chemical and tanning factories.
25:47Noxious fumes engulfed the already polluted and filthy streets.
25:51London in the 1870s was a city of three million people.
25:55And it had essentially no drainage system.
25:59Oh, must have stunk.
26:00And it also had tens of thousands of horses.
26:05It stunk.
26:06Absolutely.
26:09There was chronic overcrowding.
26:11In the 1880s, the Booth Poverty Survey of London included the street where John Deeks was living.
26:17Like most East Enders, in a tiny terraced house with at least 12 other people.
26:23We know that John Deeks lived in Harold Street in Bethlehem Green.
26:27Harold Street is described as being very poor.
26:31And then, this is a description of it.
26:34Hardly a single house had unbroken windows.
26:39All windows clean.
26:41All children, of whom there were a great number, booted.
26:45But the majority, hatless.
26:49Very rough.
26:50That's right.
26:51And constant trouble to the police.
26:53Oh.
26:54Oh dear.
26:56So...
26:57I might kiss.
26:58I might kiss.
27:03The miserable conditions in the East End spurred the burgeoning middle classes to migrate to North London.
27:12The introduction of horse-drawn buses made it easier to get into the city from further afield than the East
27:17End.
27:21At the end of the 19th century, large-scale East European immigration put further pressure on the housing.
27:28The middle classes left behind a hell of poverty.
27:33The term East Enders was invented in the 1880s.
27:38Was it?
27:39And it was in popular use and it was picked up by the press.
27:43There were poor people dotted around all over London.
27:46OK.
27:46But they were described as the respectable poor.
27:51And then there were the East Enders.
27:53And what newspapers said was, if you come across an East Ender, you need to hold on to your wallet
27:57and get the bug pounder out.
27:59OK.
28:00Because they were thieves and they were flea ridden.
28:02Press again, you see.
28:03That's right.
28:06There was also a depression of trade.
28:10Long before the advent of unemployment benefit, there were grim consequences for men like John Deeks if they couldn't find
28:17work.
28:19Where we are now at the London Metropolitan Archives, they've got the records of the poor houses of London, including
28:25Bethnal Green.
28:26Yeah.
28:27So we could go and have a look at those to see if John Deeks ever ended up on hard
28:33times.
28:34Or don't.
28:34Or don't have to take my Kleenex, my tissues then.
28:37Oh, I couldn't bear it.
28:39So this is one of the Bethnal Green poor law registers.
28:45But the names are all a bit of a muddle.
28:47So it takes some time to...
28:49Ah, here we are, on to the Ds.
28:51So what we're doing now is looking for...
28:54Deeks.
28:56Nope.
29:01Oh, blimey, yes.
29:04John Deeks.
29:05Harold...
29:06Oh.
29:07Harold Street was admitted to the workhouse, Bethnal Green workhouse, on October the 12th, 1887.
29:161887.
29:18And...
29:19So how old would he have been?
29:21Was let out on the 15th of November, so early 50s.
29:27It was in the workhouse for five weeks, so the bricklaying wasn't so good.
29:34Victorian workhouses were dreaded institutions, where conditions were purposefully bad to deter people from claiming poor relief.
29:43They cast a stigma, not just on the individuals that went into them, but also on their families.
29:52Barbara, what we've got here is another workhouse register, but this time it's 1904.
30:00He goes into the workhouse.
30:02Right.
30:03He's there for two years.
30:07Two years?
30:08Right.
30:08Right.
30:08So by this time, he's no longer in the labour market.
30:12No.
30:12He's aged.
30:14Yes.
30:14And what we see is that the workhouse now is acting, for him, as an old age home.
30:20Oh, right.
30:21I wouldn't say an old age care home, an old age home.
30:25Yes.
30:26And he's got no other means of support.
30:31Well, my great-grandad, his son John, had ten children.
30:37So you kind of understand how maybe he couldn't help at all.
30:41Yeah.
30:42But one thinks of, well, you've got to look after you.
30:44Mum and Dad, don't you?
30:46Yeah.
30:46We've been brought up to think that way.
30:49But then as your children is...
30:51But just think, you know, if you've got ten children, you're living in one of those small houses.
30:55Yeah.
30:55But you've got a 72-year-old who needs nursing care.
30:59Absolutely.
30:59How could you provide it?
31:00And I was thinking, you look after the kids.
31:03Yeah.
31:03Yeah, they're the future.
31:05That's right.
31:08Life was tough.
31:12It just made me sad.
31:14I thought going that far back, it wouldn't affect me, you know.
31:19But it has.
31:20Because it's me, it's...
31:24It's part of me.
31:36Where's my tissues?
31:43Was it the shame of John Deeks ending up in the workhouse that began the bad reputation of the Deekses?
31:52Barbara knows her grandfather on her mother's side, Charlie Ellis, bettered himself.
31:57But he also started out poor.
31:59So where did he come from?
32:01This is a photograph of my great-grandmother, my granddad Charlie Ellis' mother.
32:07I can see the likeness very much.
32:10And in fact, I can see my mother in her.
32:12It's the nose.
32:14Barbara doesn't know her great-grandmother's name.
32:17So she needs to look up the 1881 census.
32:20But she has to enlist the help of husband Scott,
32:23or she's never used a computer in her life.
32:26He was born 1877.
32:30Okay.
32:31And where was he born?
32:32Oh, Bethnal Green.
32:34Okay.
32:39View record.
32:43Mal, Bethnal Green.
32:45Street address, 59 Old Nichols Street.
32:48Yeah.
32:48Yeah.
32:49Okay.
32:50Ellis.
32:50That looks like Phoebe.
32:53Is that Phoebe Ellis?
32:54Phoebe Ellis, doesn't it?
32:55Oh, yeah.
32:57Phoebe Ellis.
32:58So would that be his mother, do you reckon?
33:02Son.
33:03But that can't be Phoebe.
33:04Charles.
33:05Yeah.
33:06What's the DO afterwards?
33:07It's not Phoebe, it's Charles.
33:10Charles Doe, William Doe, son.
33:13Why, how come they took, I mean, if Mary's name's Doe,
33:17was that, is her, maybe that was her maiden name?
33:19Hold on.
33:20No.
33:21No.
33:22Oh, it's not Doe, is it?
33:23It's Ditto.
33:26We'll erase the family name of Doe.
33:31Okay.
33:31Right, okay, fine.
33:32So, we still don't know what his mother was called, right?
33:36We're clueless, aren't we?
33:38No, we're doing well, darling.
33:39Elizabeth Doe.
33:41So, there's Charles Ellis.
33:43Yeah.
33:43And then there's wife, look.
33:45Mary.
33:46So, age 26, is that?
33:47Yeah, it looks.
33:49Now, what does that say?
33:50Something about a box.
33:51Oh, match, oh, matchbox maker.
33:55Oh, gosh, I saw a show about that.
33:57Wow.
33:58The Matchstick Girls.
34:00Shoreditch.
34:01Yeah.
34:04So, Charlie Ellis' mother was called Mary Ann,
34:09and she was a matchbox maker in the East End.
34:15Barbara has come to the Bryant and May factory in Bow, East London,
34:19to meet matchgirl expert Louise Rohr.
34:26I found out from the census 1881 that my great-grandmother was Mary, I think Ann Ellis.
34:36Right.
34:36And she was a matchbox maker.
34:40Right.
34:40And she lived in Old Nickel Street.
34:44Old Nickel Street, that was part, I don't know if you know, of the Old Nickel slum, basically.
34:49No, I didn't.
34:50Yeah, it was a very poor area of London.
34:53Right.
34:53Indeed.
34:54People would be living, one or two families, maybe in one room sometimes.
34:58No sanitation at all.
35:01Lots of crime.
35:03Lots of crime.
35:04Lots of crime.
35:04The Old Nickel did have a reputation as being the worst part of the East End at the time.
35:09But quite a lot of matchbox makers came from that area.
35:13Yes.
35:13And they would mostly be working from the Bryant and May factory.
35:18They'd have, here at the factory, perhaps 2,000 people working.
35:23Yes.
35:23Plus an, you know, unlimited number of what they called in-and-outers,
35:27which is what she would have been.
35:28She would have been, yes.
35:28What the girls here, the matchmakers called in-and-outers.
35:31Who'd been making the boxes at home.
35:33Uh-huh.
35:34But she'd still be quite familiar with the factory.
35:36She would probably get up around five in the morning and come down here to actually pick
35:42up the paste and the boxes.
35:45Oh, right.
35:45And the cardboard.
35:46Bring it back home.
35:48Yes.
35:48They would then spend perhaps 16 hours all day making boxes.
35:53Oh, don't tell me.
35:53And bring them back in the evening to pick up their money.
35:58Home working was a popular choice for many East End women, as it meant the whole family
36:03could help out.
36:04But the work was relentless.
36:08Matchbox girls had to make about 1,000 boxes a day in cramped and squalid surroundings.
36:14But home conditions were nothing compared to those suffered by the factory girls.
36:21Strict fines were imposed for dropping matches or having dirty feet, and the work was highly
36:27dangerous.
36:29Toxic fumes from the white phosphorus used in the matches could cause Fosse Jaw, a painful
36:34disfiguring and occasionally fatal disease.
36:40This appalling suffering in the workplace led to the Bryant and May match strike of 1888,
36:46when 1,400 women walked out, putting a halt to manufacturing for three weeks.
36:54Although there's no evidence that Mary Ann took part in the strike, the majority of in-and-outers
36:59showed solidarity by contributing to the strike fund.
37:04The match girls succeeded in changing the fines system and improving conditions.
37:09Crucially, it was the first strike by unorganised workers to gain national publicity and inspired
37:15the formation of trade unions.
37:19And these are some of the girls that went on strike then.
37:23I do love the fact they've got their hats on, they were famous for their hats.
37:27Even though they earned such low wages, they used to club together whatever they could afford
37:31and pay into what they called feather clubs.
37:33Feather clubs, yeah.
37:34They'd buy hats, and none of your little discreet jobs.
37:37They'd get the biggest hats they could, with the biggest feathers, and they'd share them.
37:41They'd be communal hats.
37:43Oh, they'd share them?
37:44So if you had a date with a docker on Saturday night, I can have a hat.
37:47You can have a hat and have a hat.
37:48No, you had it last weekend.
37:48Oh, I'd love that.
37:49So I love the fact that although they're dressed for grotty work, they've still got their little bit of glamour.
37:54The tip for tap, yeah.
37:54Always a little bit of glamour, exactly.
37:56And they used to also, when they were out of work, like to wear really high-heeled boots as well.
38:01Oh, really?
38:01Because they were quite little, a lot of them.
38:03Were they?
38:03Quite small.
38:04Because I'm four foot ten and a half.
38:06There you go.
38:06So I'd made a...
38:07You'd have been absolutely perfect, wouldn't you?
38:09Little lace-up high-heeled boots.
38:11I definitely would have been a match girl without a doubt.
38:13I can see it.
38:14Yeah, I think I can see it.
38:15A lot of these women probably were Irish as well.
38:18Oh, were they?
38:19They were of Irish heritage, yeah.
38:21Bryant and May actually said to the girls' own paper, bizarrely enough, when they were giving an interview,
38:25that all our hands hail, by heritage or by birth, from the Emerald Isle.
38:31So Mary Ann?
38:31Well, it's entirely possible.
38:34Yes, entirely.
38:34It's entirely possible that there was some Irish blood in there.
38:37Okay.
38:37Yeah, quite likely I would say.
38:39That will please my friend, Danny LaRue.
38:41I'd love it if I got a bit of Irish on you.
38:43Oh, really?
38:43You'd love that.
38:46It was interesting to learn that Mary Ann lived in the worst slum in London.
38:51I mean, the Deetsys may have been in the workhouse, but the Ellisys were no better off really, were they?
38:58But I loved finding out about Mary Ann.
39:00I mean, it was a very, very hard life.
39:03But they sounded really ballsy, those ladies.
39:11I've got my granddad Charlie Ellis' birth certificate, and I see that Mary Ann Ellis was formerly Collins.
39:19Now, we all know that Collins isn't an Irish name.
39:22So, I've got a feeling I've got a bit of the old Blarney in me, Irish, and I'm so thrilled.
39:28I'd love that.
39:30To find out if she does have Irish blood, Barbara must begin with the 1871 census to find Mary Ann's
39:37parents, the Collins.
39:38Right.
39:40Right.
39:41Let's have a look.
39:44Let's...
39:44There we go.
39:46Right.
39:47Now then.
39:50Head.
39:50What does that say?
39:51We've got the head and wife.
39:51We've got Ellen and...
39:53What's that say?
39:53Is that William?
39:55Yeah, William, Collins.
39:56William and Ellen.
39:57Let's find out where they live.
39:58That's the head of the family.
40:00Yeah.
40:01That's 48, that looks like.
40:02Yeah, 48.
40:03And he was a cabinet maker?
40:05Cabinet maker.
40:05Okay.
40:06Oh, right.
40:07And where's that?
40:08Ireland.
40:09Ireland.
40:10So, there you go.
40:11Oh, we've done...
40:13Look, look, look, look.
40:18That's good, isn't it?
40:19Yeah.
40:21Ireland.
40:22Oh, lovely.
40:23Cork.
40:24Cork!
40:25Cork!
40:28Is it really?
40:30That's funny, isn't it?
40:31Oh, dear.
40:32Oh, that's brilliant, brilliant.
40:35Carry on up the Blarney.
40:36Yeah.
40:37That's interesting.
40:41Mary Ann's parents, William and Ellen Collins,
40:44are stated as living in the East End on the 1871 census.
40:48There are clues as to when they left Ireland on the census of 1851.
40:53They left Ireland round about 1846 to 1850.
41:00And the reason I know this is because Mary Ann was born in the city of Cork,
41:07but James, the first son, was born in the East End of London.
41:12So what I want to know is,
41:14why did William Collins bring the family to the East End of London?
41:19He was a cabinetmaker.
41:21I mean, did he bring them because he wanted to better himself,
41:24thought there might be better prospects? I don't know.
41:26So that's why I'm on my way to Cork to find out.
41:36In the early 1840s, Cork was an important cosmopolitan city,
41:41rivaling Dublin in size and prosperity.
41:44It had a thriving and expanding economy with plenty of work for cabinetmakers.
41:50Irish historian Dr John Bew can help Barbara understand William's life there.
41:56William, as a skilled tradesman, would have had some sort of standing society,
42:01would have had, you know, a skill to offer and a part in this economy.
42:07What class?
42:08Well, I think it would have been called an artisan,
42:11but I guess if we're thinking in modern terms, possibly lower middle class.
42:14Between 1846 and 50, they moved to England.
42:18And I just want to know, would you know why?
42:21Well, there's no question, if they're moving between that period,
42:25that it's something to do with the Irish Famine, which really starts in 1845.
42:31Is that the potato family?
42:32The potato family.
42:33Oh, right, right.
42:33Obviously, I learnt that at school, but it's not something we knew much about.
42:38You know, we just say, oh, yeah, the potato family in Ireland.
42:41Well, I'm talking about us, the English, the children, no.
42:44So I just... Tell me, how was it?
42:47Well, just to sort of give you some idea of the scale of the crisis,
42:50we're talking, you know, millions of people,
42:53possibly over a million dying in Ireland of starving and of other illnesses.
42:59The Irish potato famine was the result of a fatal combination of potato blight
43:03and British foreign policy.
43:06It had taken nearly six centuries and a series of bloody wars for Britain to colonise Ireland.
43:12But by 1700, all the principal Catholic landowners
43:15had been replaced by their Protestant conquerors.
43:19Modern agricultural methods were introduced,
43:22aimed at increasing the production of new cash crops
43:25for export to the markets in England.
43:28The Irish themselves had become almost entirely dependent on the potato
43:32when a devastating fungus wiped out the crop.
43:39While the landowners continued to ship out their grain
43:42to where it realised the best prices,
43:44it's estimated that two million Irish were forced to emigrate.
43:49It's hard to conceive of the horrors that William and Ellen would have seen,
43:53especially in Cork.
43:54I mean, literally, people half naked, bodies on the side of the street,
43:59mothers with children,
44:01sometimes having to leave a dead child by the roadside.
44:04The extent of the crisis is just unfathomable in sort of modern Europe.
44:09As a cabinetmaker,
44:11William Collins would have had enough money to get his family out to London.
44:15But they arrived to a hostile reception
44:18in a city where commentators wrote of the bloody Irish bringing over famine fever
44:23and living like pigs.
44:33Yeah, I have two thoughts about this.
44:35It's one that it's good that William got his family out to London, to England.
44:42But the other one is, you know, he had a very good living.
44:46He was lower middle class.
44:47He was a cabinetmaker.
44:48And I should imagine it was quite a good life.
44:51And this beautiful place, Cork, I mean, look at it.
44:55And to have to leave this because of famine
44:58and go to the slums of London,
45:01I mean, that must have been so hard.
45:03I'm sure he wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it was.
45:06But it was pretty bad when he got there.
45:09I mean, it is a tragedy to leave this beautiful, beautiful place.
45:13I've fallen in love with it.
45:14It's fantastic.
45:36Whilst in County Cork, Barbara visits the Abistrory Famine Memorial
45:40and talks to Dennis O'Sullivan, treasurer for the famine commemoration for Cork.
45:47The English, they weren't too kind to us, you know.
45:49No, I know.
45:50Before the English came, we were dead happy.
45:52It would be five, eight, three, no, seven.
45:53Oh, I'm so sorry.
45:55That's all.
45:55Oh, dear.
45:56At school, when we came to this period in history, we'd say,
46:00oh, yes, they had a potato famine in Ireland, and that was it.
46:05And I feel a bit ashamed.
46:06I didn't know.
46:07Are you English or any part of the Irish?
46:09I'm English, but I've just found out that my ancestors,
46:14great-great-grandparents, came from Cork.
46:18Isn't that lovely?
46:19I'm never so proud.
46:20Because I've always loved the Irish.
46:23That's very nice.
46:24You know, but this is dreadful.
46:26It has 9,000.
46:28God, it's awful.
46:30In this plot here, the people weren't buried individually.
46:34They were just healed in.
46:36So, in this pitch, there are nine.
46:39You can see the outline of the nine pits.
46:42And there are between 8,000 and 10,000 people buried here.
46:46Oh, my goodness me.
46:48Oh.
46:49At one time, there wasn't even enough clay or earth to cover them.
46:53They were covered with sardis for a while.
46:55You know, and if you go down, I'd say four inches the most,
46:59you'll still find the bones of these misfortunate people
47:02that died with hunger.
47:10This was where a child of three years was buried.
47:14Three years old.
47:14Belonged to some very rich person that could afford to put up this iron work,
47:20you know.
47:20Yes.
47:20You just hear of this child, but, I mean, how many thousand more children
47:23that we didn't hear anything about, you know.
47:25Yeah.
47:26So, really, I count myself lucky to be here,
47:29because my great-great-grandfather got his wife, Ellen,
47:35and his daughter, Mary Ann, out.
47:38Out of here.
47:41To London.
47:42They were the lucky ones, you know.
47:44Yeah.
47:44The crowd is in my greatest.
48:00I never had any idea that I had any Irish blood in me whatsoever.
48:04And that's made me think, why?
48:07And I would have thought my mother did have to know about that.
48:11And I don't think she would have liked it,
48:13because she would have thought,
48:15oh, I know where they come from, those Irish,
48:18where they were living in the real, real slums of the East End.
48:23And she wouldn't have told me.
48:25Or, well, she didn't tell me,
48:27or she would have kept it quiet.
48:29So, it's quite something to learn about that I've got Irish in me.
48:34It's good.
48:35I feel really good about it.
48:40So, now I know where Mummy's side of the family came to the East End from.
48:44I can't wait to get back to England to find out where the Deeks' side were from.
48:53On Barbara's return to London,
48:54there's a package from Paul Johnson from the Metropolitan Archives,
48:58with news of her great-great-grandfather, John Deeks,
49:02who she last left in the workhouse.
49:05Dear Barbara, I've managed to track down John Deeks' death certificate,
49:09and I'm afraid it's not good news.
49:12He died of pneumonia and senile decay in the Bethnal Green Infirmary in 1909,
49:20and was of no fixed abode.
49:23Also, I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news,
49:26but I've traced the death certificate of John's father,
49:30who was called Golding Deeks,
49:33and he died in the Bethnal Green workhouse.
49:37Golding Deeks.
49:38Golding, that's an unusual name.
49:40I know Golding as a surname, a Jewish surname,
49:45but I don't know Golding as a Christian name.
49:49So, I wonder where Golding Deeks comes from.
49:55The documents reveal that John Deeks was in the workhouse until he died.
50:00His father, Golding Deeks, also died a pauper in the East End.
50:05But Golding had not been born there.
50:11Golding Deeks, age 56, bricklayer.
50:15Oh, well, that runs through the family.
50:17He was born...
50:21Bures, St. Mary, Suff... Suffolk?
50:26Oh.
50:29Suffolk. Oh, that's a surprise.
50:32I could believe Ireland, but not Suffolk.
50:36Why do they talk like that?
50:38How do they talk in Suffolk? I can't remember.
50:40Played a nice little theatre there in Bury St Edmunds.
50:44Well, that would be nice to go there to Suffolk, then.
50:54The funny thing about me, I always think of myself as a townie.
50:58Cos I don't like the country. I like to go and visit.
51:00It's lovely to go and visit, you know.
51:02But then, two days later, I want to come home, you know.
51:06Cos I'm a high-heeled lady, I'm not flats,
51:09and I take all the wrong clothes to the country, and it's the mud.
51:13When it rains, it rains a lot.
51:15And when it's hot, it's too hot.
51:17And I can hear all those birds all the time, and things like that.
51:20I mean, real townie.
51:22So, you know, to me, Suffolk is real countryside.
51:28The village of Bures is split by the River Stour,
51:31with one half in Essex, the other in Suffolk.
51:35In Golding Dix's day, Bures was a brick-making centre,
51:39and regularly sent bricks to London in barges on the river.
51:43But with the Industrial Revolution,
51:46employment in the countryside for bricklayers like Golding collapsed.
51:50So he was forced to seek work in the East End.
51:55They would have seen all the traffic, all the bricks,
51:58and thought, well, he was a bricklayer,
52:00and maybe prospects would have been better in London.
52:03So I'll go to London.
52:05And, of course, he ends up in the workhouse.
52:09Makes you think that maybe they should have stayed put.
52:14But then, would I have been here? I don't know.
52:18Oh, I don't know. That's a funny thought.
52:34Barbara's on her way to Bury St Edmunds
52:36to meet Sheila Reid at the Suffolk Record Office.
52:39She hopes she can throw more light on the Deeks family
52:42and the unusual Christian name of Golding.
52:47Sheila, I found out that my great-great-great-granddad,
52:50Golding Deeks, was a bricklayer who came from Suffolk.
52:56So I just want to find out more about the Deeks,
52:59and I believe you might have some news for me.
53:01Yeah. I do.
53:02Good.
53:03Deeks is a name that crops up in Suffolk,
53:05and here we have a marriage entry.
53:08Yeah.
53:08And we believe this is the marriage entry of Golding Deeks's parents.
53:13Uh-huh.
53:13So you have the marriage here between William Deeks
53:16and Elizabeth Golding.
53:18Uh-huh.
53:18And William Deeks is actually signing his name.
53:21Yes.
53:22Where Elizabeth Golding can't, there's a cross next to her.
53:24Oh, is that what the cross is?
53:26Yeah.
53:26That's what the cross is, yeah.
53:27So it's because she can't actually write her own name,
53:30so it's been written in for her.
53:32Yeah.
53:32And she's put an X, that's her mark.
53:34In this period of time in Suffolk,
53:38Golding was quite a prominent family in the Beers and Glemsford area.
53:42Uh-huh.
53:42And Golding was often used as a Christian name
53:45to carry it through the line.
53:47Oh, I see. I see.
53:48Right, so because it's coming from the mother's side,
53:50her surname isn't carried forward,
53:52but she's brought it through at one of her son's names.
53:53It's a lovely name.
53:55I think it's a lovely Christian name.
53:57Yes.
53:57And there's other Goldings in the area.
53:59So there's Golding Garrard, Golding Boggin, and Golding Bird.
54:03And the Boggins family and the Garrard family
54:05definitely have quite a lot of land and wealth.
54:08And there was a Golding constable born in Beers,
54:11who was the father of the painter John Constable.
54:15Really?
54:16Yes.
54:16Could that be anything to do with my son?
54:18Well, we have done some research,
54:20and we think there is a connection.
54:23No.
54:23Yes.
54:25Oh, goodness me.
54:27John Constable.
54:28Yes.
54:28Oh, in the family.
54:30Oh, goodness.
54:31Oh.
54:31Oh.
54:32Oh.
54:33Right.
54:33And we have actually prepared a family tree.
54:40To try and illustrate this.
54:44There's Elizabeth Deeks, Golding Deeks' mum,
54:47and her father Mark, grandfather, great-grandfather, all Marks.
54:52Yeah.
54:53And there's this John Golding here, who has a daughter Judith.
54:56And she is the mother of John Constable.
54:59Constable.
55:00Whose son is called Golding Constable.
55:02Yeah.
55:02And that is John Constable the painter.
55:04This one down here?
55:05This one down here, yes.
55:07John Constable was born 1776.
55:09And Elizabeth Deeks was born 1776.
55:12So they're the same age, yes.
55:14But very distant cousins.
55:16Mm-hm.
55:17Um, so whether they actually knew each other or not.
55:20I'm sure they did.
55:20Open to question.
55:25I bet you did a painting for their wedding.
55:29I'll put it somewhere.
55:34William Deeks and Elizabeth Golding were married in 1798.
55:39Elizabeth's great-great-grandfather, John Golding,
55:43was a very wealthy landowner in 17th century Suffolk.
55:46He divided his fortune between his children,
55:49but it was the descendants of his daughter Judith
55:52who benefited the most.
55:56And because she married quite old,
55:59she actually only had a couple of children
56:01rather than a big family of children
56:03Yeah.
56:03to share the money between.
56:04Mm-hm.
56:04So there's still quite a substantial amount in the family
56:07when it comes down to Golding Constable.
56:09And then you end up with John Constable.
56:11It's just the Deeks' luck that the money
56:13didn't go down this side.
56:15It went all the way down that side, didn't it?
56:16It did, yes.
56:17Yeah, yeah.
56:19Oh, I'm not good with doors.
56:21I'm a little bit flung,
56:22because I can't believe John Constable.
56:26Me, little Barbara Windsor, Barbara and Deeks.
56:29You know, I think that's amazing.
56:32But what the funny thing about it is,
56:34it seems on the Deeks' side,
56:37they're a bit more upmarket than the Ellis' side.
56:40Oh, mother, if you're looking down.
56:44Love it, love it.
56:58While she's in East Anglia,
57:00Barbara can't resist going to Flatford
57:02to see where Golding Constable once lived,
57:05and where John Constable painted the hayway.
57:07I've come here today to pay my respects to my distant cousin, John Constable.
57:14Did you get that? John Constable.
57:17And it got me to think about fate and destiny, what it all throws up, you know,
57:23who you fall in love with and who the money goes to and who it doesn't go to.
57:29I mean, look at that beautiful house. That's where Golden Constable lived.
57:34And then John Constable went on to live in a very posh Hampstead
57:40and Golden Deeks went to live in poor East End.
57:47That's fate, isn't it?
57:50But it's just been a lovely journey and I'm very proud of my ancestors,
57:56what I found out about them.
57:58They're a good working stock, you know.
58:02The majority of them, yeah, all very poor.
58:05But I wouldn't have wanted to be on the rich side at all.
58:08Because then I wouldn't be me, would I?
58:12I wouldn't have made me what I am, who I am.
58:24It's a testament to the power of storytelling.
58:27Press read now for East Ender's 40 years on the Square on iPlayer.
58:31And on Sounds, Nat and Joe celebrate some iconic moments with Bianca,
58:35a.k.a. Patsy Palmer, off the telly.
58:43Thank you very much for joining us today.
58:44Thank you very much for joining us today.
58:44Thank you very much for joining us today.
58:44Thank you very much for joining us today.
58:44Thank you very much for joining us today.
58:47Thank you very much for joining us today.