Original subtitles

Here in the UK, we spend £17 billion every year on furniture.

That's over £300 million per week.

And whether you're reclining... Dining...

..or even rocking...

..the chair is one everyday essential we can't do without.

I hope you're sitting comfortably because we've come to the

traditional heartland of British furniture making.

To a factory that makes 10,000 chairs a year.

I'm Gregg Wallace... I love this!

..and I'm following a chair from clever carving... Ah!

That's ridiculous! ..to serious steaming...

Those bits of wood are going to bend as curved as that machine? Yeah.

..and barmy bending. SPACE RADIO COMMS EFFECT

I'm Cherry Healey and I'll be finding out

how 30-metre-high trees get from forest...

Timber!

..to factory floor.

And I'll be revealing what too much sitting can do to our bodies.

Ah-ah!

And historian Ruth Goodman... I haven't used a single nail!

..goes in search of the furniture that took

shape during the Second World War.

Oh, goodness! What a blast from the past this is!

The 100 workers here really put the craft into chair making.

And I'm going to reveal just how they do it.

Welcome to Inside The Factory.

This is the Ercol factory in Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire...

..where they make everything from tables to desks

and sideboards

to love seats.

But I'll be following production of one of their best sellers,

the Windsor chair.

There's a long tradition of furniture making here,

dating back to the 1800s,

when woodlands around the Chilton Hills fed a thriving industry.

Today, I'm ready to meet a lorry load of timber

at the intake bay, with operations director Ian Peers.

Hey! Ian? I like this!

This is lovely! How much have you got on there?

Typically, we're bringing in about ten tonnes on a truck,

four to eight trucks a month. What wood is that?

Well, it's a combination of ash, oak, walnut.

Why those types of trees?

Well, there's certain types of timber that are more

suitable for furniture making. The timber needs to be stable, strong.

And where does all this come from? We do get some UK wood,

but the vast forests are not there like they are in Europe.

So what wood am I going to use for my chair? Ash today.

What are the qualities that ash have that make it good for my chair?

It's a classic timber, commonly used in furniture.

It's the strength, it's good for bending, stable.

It's got all sorts of good qualities.

Righto! Ash it is, then!

As the forklift gets busy, the production of my chair begins.

It'll take an hour to unload ten

tonnes of wood into the storage area.

Although most of the wood for the furniture made here

comes from Europe, some of it is still sourced from UK woodlands.

Cherry's been finding out how English ash

trees are transformed into this.

The 7,000 acre Rushmore Estate in Wiltshire is one of the few

remaining areas of natural woodland in Southern England.

While this forest may look natural and untouched, it is

in fact very carefully managed to make sure that it delivers

rich wildlife habitats and a healthy supply of wood,

not just for today, but also for tomorrow.

I'm joining Andy Poore,

who ensures the land here is sustainably managed.

I've found you!

So, Andy, what are we doing here?

Well, the rhythm of management here is that every ten years or

so, we'll come in and remove about 15 to 20% of the trees.

Today, we're after ash trees. Reaching up to 40 metres,

they're one of our tallest native varieties and can be

identified by their smooth grey bark and distinctive dark buds.

Have you selected the tree that we're going to fell?

We're going to fell this one here.

I know that they're called tree fellers and I'm a girl,

but can I still join in? Of course! Of course.

The specialist tree fellers are Robert Koch

and the appropriately named Tony Wood.

Hi, Tony! Hiya.

Do you need a hand? Do you fancy driving a tractor?

I thought we were felling trees. You're going to be pulling the tree.

Oh, I see. So I don't need an axe, I need a tractor. You need a tractor.

Using a technique called directional felling,

Robert makes careful incisions along the base of the tree.

Then, with a 70-metre-long metal cable, it's time for me

to pull it down.

That was not elegant!

Timber!

Woo!

That was so...amazing!

Oh, my goodness!

The wood is divided into five-metre logs

and transported 30 miles to Helmdon Sawmill, near Brackley,

where I'm meeting Geoff Tyler,

who supplies the factory with the perfect timber for making furniture.

Should have brought my wellies!

First job for my logs is to remove the bark.

So, Geoff, I know how to peel a carrot, I know how to peel an apple.

How do you peel a tree? You're about to see, Cherry.

It's pretty noisy and pretty fierce. Sounds right up my street.

This de-barking machine can strip 120 tonnes of logs in a day.

Watch this. Argh!

It's like a huge beaver!

What would happen if you just put it through the mill with the bark on?

The mud and stones would blunt and damage the saw.

That's how you peel a tree!

Next, the freshly peeled logs are cut into two-metre-long planks.

Right, so this is where the action is. It is.

The logs come in onto the runway, they're nudged,

which turns the logs, and then the log is driven against the saw.

That saw is not to be messed with. No.

Is our log queueing up to be sliced? Yes, it'll be going through shortly.

OK.

This formidable eight-metre band saw operates on a continuous loop,

around two concealed wheels.

Its even cutting motion turns huge

pieces of lumber into perfectly straight planks.

Geoff, can I see a freshly cut slice? Yeah.

Oh, that's so beautiful!

Looks like a giant slice of turkey.

Is this a good one? Are you happy with this?

Yeah, this is quite a good one.

The ideal timber is white in colour, with a straight grain and few knots.

Why are the knots a problem?

Because the grain diverts around the knot

and it doesn't allow you to bend the material.

So instead of bending, it would just break. Exactly.

But before they can be bent into furniture,

the planks are dried for six months.

Why do you have to air dry the wood?

When the trees are first felled, they're full of moisture,

water, and we have to allow that to evaporate before it can be used.

Even left outside in the rain,

the moisture content will drop from as much as 200% to just 20.

And it's a crucial part of the process.

If it's not dried, the furniture would shrink, warp or crack.

When ready, the planks are cut into thin strips called staithes.

Does it get the Geoff seal of approval?

Yes, it's straight grained, it's the right colour, it will do the job.

Well, thank goodness for that!

After 80 years as a tree and six months of drying out, wooden

staithes like this are ready to be sent to the factory to be

turned and bent into beautiful chairs.

Back in Buckinghamshire, my ash from Europe has been unloaded

and delivered to the storage area.

Oh, nice! That looks great, doesn't it? Yeah.

This vast warehouse holds around 200 tonnes of wood

and it's decidedly balmy in here.

Hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's all that mist coming out?

That's the humidification system

and that's to put water into the atmosphere

because this timber is all being kiln dried.

We have moisture of 8% in the timber

and we look for a humidity of about 50%.

Why do you want 50% humidity?

Because we want to keep the timber conditioned,

so that it's in a situation that replicates the majority of houses.

And if you didn't do that?

Then the furniture that we make wouldn't be quite as stable,

it might grow a little bit more, it might shrink a bit more.

That's brilliant! Yeah. I mean, the lengths you go to.

Time to roll up my sleeves and get started.

Well, if you grab that and we'll bring it over here

and we'll get the wood.

For my Windsor chair, I need 15 pieces - the seat...

..spindles,

legs,

leg supports,

and the bow,

which is made from Cherry's English ash.

So if you grab one of these... That's the seat. Yeah.

You can see that this is actually eight pieces of wood that

have all been stuck together.

All bits of wood present and correct,

ready to be carved into shape.

So I'm off to the cutting area to meet engineer

Duncan McGrath-Simpson, who's going to show me how to sculpt my seat.

Duncan! Morning, Gregg. What is that?

That's a very impressive looking machine.

This is the machine that's going to mould and shape your seat.

That is a CNC router. What's that mean? Computer numerical control.

A bit posh for a chair, isn't it? It will use numbers to guide it.

This will shape your seat, it will mould the seat

and put the holes in it to provide a finished seat for you.

All in there? All in one operation.

Take your part.

And that's the jig that's going to hold it in place. Jig? Like a...

No! Sadly not.

So that's the shape of the seat. You press button three.

Now try and lift your part off the table.

Argh!

Argh! Right, that is stuck firm!

Right, now what?

You hold that button there to close the doors.

It's like a Tube train, it's like the London Underground!

That's it.

This five-axis CNC machine is a very sophisticated power tool

that's programmed to cut more than 800 different types of wooden parts.

That is brilliant!

It's cutting it out. It's cutting out the shape.

Back's opened up, it'll put the tool away it's got now. Nah!

That's ridiculous! So what's this one doing?

This is your moulding tool, so it's going to mould the outside of that

shape. Does it remind you of a toilet seat at the moment?

It has an incredible 60 all-singing and dancing attachments,

each with a very specific job,

just like a motorised Swiss Army knife.

It's changing tools. Whoa!

In a matter of seconds, it switches to an adze tool, to shape the seat.

Hey!

Carving out the groove of your bum!

It's creating space for each cheek.

Brilliant! I love this!

Now it picks up its half-inch drill

and that's going to do all the holes around the back.

Six holes are drilled for the spindles, then four for the legs,

and two for the bow at the back.

So it's all numbers telling it what to do, where to do it,

and how to do it.

Is that it? That's your seat done. Amazing!

Mind the gap!

This brilliant machine cuts 30 perfectly proportioned seats

every hour. That's your bum position. That's me outer bum.

And me inner bum.

That is brilliant! So that's my bottom sorted. On to my legs.

And to shape those beauties, we use another CNC machine.

We'll come round to the lathe, where we're going to cut your legs.

It's like a traditional lathe, it's going to pick up the wood

and spin and then these are your three cutters that are going

to cut it to a round shape.

Normally, it would spin and someone would do it by hand.

We've removed the hand with the CNC side of it, so it's computer

numerical controlled, the same as the one where we done the seat.

This automated lathe uses three cutters to shape

an impressive 46 legs every hour.

It's like a big dipper for wood.

So it picked it up. Starts spinning.

The first cutter will come in and cut it to a round shape.

It's taken off loads! It's taking half the leg away.

What's the second one doing? That's cutting your finished shape.

That is going to be the shape of the leg when it's done.

That's the one that's making it curvy.

I love that little fountain of wood chip. Yeah.

And the third one? That's cut the pin, to go through the seat.

Why are you drilling a hole in the leg?

What we've got to do is the side underframe will go in the front

and the back leg and that will secure the two legs together,

so that they can't splay any further.

That's the bar that goes between the legs. That's it.

How long have you been here, Duncan? Nine years.

What made you come here?

I have a lot of family working here, so it was good for me.

Really? Who works here, then? My uncle is my boss

and my old man works down the other end of the factory.

It's like a family concern, right? Yes. Brilliant!

Yeah! There's your legs.

That's beautiful.

With my magnificently honed seat and legs,

we're perfectly prepped for the next stage of production.

Whether you want expensive designer furniture, or more affordable

flat-pack, these days, there are plenty of options to choose from.

But we haven't always had that luxury,

as Ruth has been finding out.

Over eight long months in 1940, the German Luftwaffe

dropped 24,000 tonnes of explosives on cities across Britain.

The Blitz reduced whole streets to rubble.

It was estimated at the end of the War that 750,000 new homes

were desperately needed to replace those that had been

lost during the bombing, and after the War

prefabs like this popped up in their thousands to provide

shelter for those families who had nowhere else to go.

But once you got a roof over your head, what did you put inside it?

I've come to the Chiltern Open Air Museum to meet husband

and wife team... Hello! Hello.

..Suzanne Reimer and Philip Pinch, who have been researching

the impact of the conflict on the supply of furniture.

So how much of a shortage of furniture was there, really?

There was a dire shortage at the beginning of the War

because most of the timber was going into the War effort

and of course, the big furniture manufacturers,

they were involved in war work, building

everything from Mosquito airplanes to cases for ammunition boxes.

So, what on earth did the Government do?

The Government realised that it needed to step in

and construct furniture that made use of scarce materials.

Its first step was to establish the Utility Furniture Committee,

which was tasked with envisioning what this thrifty new

furniture would look like.

And this original prefab house contains some classic

examples of what they conjured up.

Oh, goodness! What a blast from the past this is!

Are these the designs that they came up with during the War, then?

Yeah, these are the designs.

This practical utilitarian furniture was born out of a very

specific brief. To produce furniture of sound construction, of simple

but agreeable designs, available at reasonable prices,

but also maximum economy of raw materials and labour.

But how did they decide who would benefit from it?

One of the principles behind Utility was that people in most need

would gain access to it first.

Newlyweds, or people that had been bombed out of their house

and their furniture destroyed.

So they would go to a Government office

and their eligibility would be proven... Yeah.

..and then they would be issued with this, a buying permit. Oh, goodness!

It looks a bit like a ration book. In effect, it kind of is.

Each item was assigned a unit value

and this permit entitled the holder to 30 units' worth of furniture.

A wardrobe was worth 12 units, a bed five units,

and a kitchen cabinet eight units.

They're not being given the furniture,

you buy your furniture, but this is to be allowed to buy your furniture.

Yes, it's about that sense of shared sacrifice, communal coming

together for the War effort, and this is part of that, really.

Even if it's Utility furniture for priority customers

only on the points system...

At the height of the Blitz, one in six Londoners became homeless

and, to meet demand across the country,

a target was set to produce 400,000 units every month.

To achieve this ambitious goal, they granted special licences to

small scale manufacturers around Britain. And, as you see,

they've got some nice labour saving machinery to help with the work.

By the end of the War, 500 factories were in operation, some in buildings

like these, which were painstakingly transported to the museum.

So, Ruth, once the Government had designated some factories to

make the furniture, they'd be sent blueprints and we've been

very lucky to get some copies of some actual blueprints of the time.

To ensure uniformity,

these instructions had to be followed to the letter.

Using the original plans,

I'm having a go at assembling a small utility table.

There's no time limit attached though. Oh, good!

Well, I suppose I want that one there, don't I?

Let's hope it's easier than the flat-pack shelves I've got at home!

Oh, somebody's cut these joints beautifully.

I haven't used a single nail! Yes, of course.

They wanted to minimise the use of steel resources.

Oh, of course! Most of it is just wood joints, which are glued.

Look at that! That's a nice table, isn't it? That's very smart.

It is very stylish, in its own way.

And, clearly, an inspiration for later furniture.

Yes, so these kinds of clean lines were very much what

fed into companies like Ercol and G Plan,

who were very successful in the late '50s and into the '60s.

The scheme ended in 1952, but at its height,

it had produced up to nine million pieces of Utility furniture a year.

It's amazing that such basic,

practical, economical design,

born out of necessity during the War, should go on to

influence what we Brits think about design in our homes to this day.

Back at the factory, and four hours, 41 minutes into production,

my seat and legs have been carved and shaped.

And each part has been sanded to remove any rough edges.

Now I'm heading to bow bending with Duncan.

Up till now, we've been sanding and cutting your wood,

but now we need to bend it.

And the piece we're going to bend is the bow,

the arched back of the chair, made from English ash.

Wow!

What is that? That is ridiculous!

That looks like the front of an old-fashioned steam engine.

That's a steam retort. A retort? A retort.

It's a chamber that we're going to pump full of steam to allow

to circulate around the wood. What, this?

Yeah. And put it in there? Put it in there, next to the rest.

And then we steam it at 100 degrees.

So what does the steam do?

What you require to bend a bit of wood is you need firstly

moisture in the timber, because when you steam it up, the little

barrels of moisture become more supple, allowing it to flex around.

There are little bubbles, if you like, that we can't see,

of moisture inside the wood.

Yeah, almost like the grain structure of the wood.

And when you heat it up, they get bendy enough to become the back of a chair.

Yeah. How long has it got to stay in there?

It's about 20 to 30 minutes.

hot right now

For optimum bendability, the steam raises the temperature

of the moisture cells within the timber to 75 degrees.

Do you have to work with them while they're still hot? Yeah, quick as possible.

The cooler they get, the more likely they are to

collapse on the inside and fail when they bend.

Oh, really? Yeah. What is it laying on here?

It's laying on a stainless steel strap and that will bend it around

the former, so that shape is the exact same shape as your back bow

to give you your final shape.

Those bits of wood are going to bend as curved as that machine? Yeah.

The stainless steel strap acts like a brace to support the wood

and ensure it doesn't move as it bends.

If you come and put your foot on the pedal... Do they ever snap?

They do sometimes.

Nah!

What are you doing?!

Power. What the...? What are you doing?

Duncan's mallet keeps the pieces in place,

as the wood begins its miraculous 90-degree bend.

No! That's ridiculous! Keep your foot on it.

That is ridiculous!

Right. That feels like it's going to break at any minute.

Ease off a little bit on your foot.

A metal clasp secures the brace.

And my bow is wrapped tightly round the wooden former, or mould,

for just one minute before it's released.

So give it a wallop? Yeah, yeah.

Keep going. Oh, crikey! You... Keep going. That's going, man!

There you go. Stand back.

It's... It's all serious heavy-duty, isn't it?

It is. It's... Mate, there's steam and there's cutters and hammers

and lumps of metal!

Now we take the whole thing off.

So what happens to that now?

So now we'll go and put that in the oven, if you want to follow me. Yeah, sure.

The oven is like a kiln, drying the timber to set the shape of my bow...

That's hot! That is very hot. That is 70 degrees.

..reducing the moisture content to around 8%.

Does it stay in its frame while it's drying?

Stays in its frame, and tomorrow we'll take it out

and we'll have a look at your bow.

The guys here can bend a whopping 138 blocks of wood every day.

Now, that's hot and steamy work!

After some hard graft, it's nice to take the load off your feet,

but how healthy is it for us to spend too much time sitting down?

Cherry's been working hard, finding out.

Many more of us are working from home these days,

which inevitably means more sitting down and less moving around.

And whether we're emailing or streaming our favourite boxset,

us Brits spend an average of nine hours every day sat on our bottoms.

And if we don't change our sedentary ways now,

what's going to happen to our bodies?

To find out, I'm primed for a lecture from university

professor Vybarr Cregan-Reid. Knock-knock? Hi, Vybarr.

Nice to meet you. Hi, Cherry. Come on in.

Vybarr has studied the long term physical effects of too much

sitting down and believes the main cause of the problem is

staring us in the face.

So, what's happened is technology has really accelerated,

machines have really started to do quite a lot of our work for us, the

streaming services have declared war on our activity,

everything is about getting us to sit down and consume

entertainment, which I do all the time, just like everybody else.

So our pursuits are becoming more sedentary

and our work is also becoming more sedentary.

So what is this inactivity doing to our bodies?

Using a recent photo, Vybarr can reveal what

I could look like in 20 years. Let's have a look.

Oh, gosh! Here we go.

Ah-ah!

OK. Urgh...

So that's not good. No, it's not good.

My back is really curved. Yeah. And I look...

I mean, my shape is completely different.

There's much more of a curvature to your back and to your shoulders.

The musculature has weakened to such a point that it's no longer able

to support the frame any more and so it begins to collapse inwards.

And what we won't be able to see on the images actually is you've

probably got quite bad low back pain as well.

And your knees, you'll see, have started to buckle a little bit,

so you've lost the ability to carry your own body weight.

And if these photos weren't bad enough, Vybarr has another surprise.

Meet alternative Cherry! Ah-ah!

Thank you so much You shouldn't have!

So this is a kind of an extreme example of what could happen,

but they're all within the ball park of what you might

expect to see in a sustained sedentary body.

I think she needs some exercise. She needs a lot of things!

To find out how to avoid this unpleasant future, I'm meeting

movement coach Darryl Edwards, who's come up with ways to

exercise in the most sedentary of environments, the workplace.

Hello, Darryl. Lovely to meet you. Hi, Cherry. How are you doing?

Very well, thank you. I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine.

Her name is Cherry. She lives a very sedentary lifestyle.

Can you help us? Yes, for sure.

I'm just going to move her away, so she can watch and learn.

That's probably as active as she's been all day.

Most offices are designed to keep us sitting down, but Darryl believes

that we can incorporate movement or "exercise snacks" right at our desk.

So, these are called desk dips.

And there's a sneaky snack you can do under your desk without

the boss ever knowing. So just brace ourselves in the arm

of the chair. Braced. Raise our legs.

Yes. Engage the core. Yes. And then we just scissor kick.

I can feel my core is working. I'm kind of building up a bit of heat.

And you definitely feel a little bit of burn in the legs.

Darryl's final exercise is another one that can be done while

seated, the bunny pose.

Clasp your hands behind the head. Right.

You push your elbows back as far as you can. Are these my bunny ears?

OK. Those are you bunny ears. That's exactly right.

And as you engage the core, we're just going to walk on the spot.

Oh, my God! That's a great workout!

It's basically reversing the postural changes that can occur

when you're using your computer or looking at your phone.

How many snacks should you have a day? Is there a rule?

So for every 30 minutes, you have 20 minutes of seating time,

eight minutes of standing time and two minutes of movement.

And that's known as the 20, eight, two rule.

As well as the physical benefits,

studies have found that following this 20, eight,

two rule can help lower stress and improve productivity.

So I actually have quite a lot of control over my future.

Yes, a significant amount of control. Gerontologists,

those are scientists who look at the impact of genetics versus

lifestyle, used to believe that it was 50% genetics,

50% lifestyle responsible for health outcomes.

Now they realise it's 90% lifestyle and 10% genetics.

So if we all move a little more,

we can avoid a future that looks like that.

Back at the factory, we're 19 hours and six minutes into production.

Oh! And after some serious shaping and steaming...

Wow! That looks like the front of an old-fashioned steam engine.

..the back of my chair, known as the bow,

has been baking in the oven for 12 hours.

And now it's released from its straitjacket,

ready for the next stage at bow finishing.

Keeping it in the family is Duncan's uncle, Robert Taylor...

You are "Bob's your uncle", right?

Bob's your uncle, that's right, yeah.

..who's going to show me how to finesse

my beautifully bent bow.

Inside the machine...

..there's one of these cutters.

The first operation is going to shape the outside edge.

What do you mean, shape it? This is the shape.

Oh, that will be the shape.

This has got edges. That's curved. Yes.

This machine will give the back rest its rounded finish

by shaving and filing the outside edge.

Is there a way up?

Doesn't matter, any way.

That's it - easy. Easy!

That's my sort of machine!

It can't go wrong! No, it can't go wrong. Thank you.

Then it's a quick trip to Duncan at the drill station

to put six holes into my bow...

..ready for the spindles later.

Wow.

Robin Hood works wonders with one of these, you know.

Where does the string go? Across the ends.

And I'm back off to Uncle Bob.

He may not be the Prince of Thieves,

but he's definitely the King of Sanding.

What, that looks like fun.

What is that? It's a bobbin sander.

Where you've had your holes bored,

you've got all the rough bits of wood sticking out.

We're going to clean all that off.

We're going to sand with the grain to make it nice and smooth.

What do you mean, "with the grain"?

So it's along the grain, not across it.

And if you didn't do it? You'd get all the scratches that come up

and they'll show in the wood and mark.

While that's off, that sander, can I feel that? Yeah.

Mate, that paper's rough.

Yep, that's 100 grit paper on there.

Going to spin around about 2,500 revs.

I'll do the coursing.

We'll let you have a go at doing some of the fine work.

That looks really skilful. Takes a long time to learn.

And how do you know when it's right?

It's all done by feel. As I'm going round, I'm running my hand round it.

Just got to change the bobbin now into the brush sander,

and then we'll let you have a go.

To do this job, you've got to be part chippie, part engineer.

And good-looking.

So you've got brushes with bits of paper of 180 grit on it.

Can I feel the paper?

Yeah, it's a lot finer grit. Very fine.

You take pride in it, don't you?

Yes, you do. Yeah, without a doubt.

That's it. Now, if you feel it now...

Smoother again. Yeah, it's got no little knobby bits.

Nothing at all.

Right, my turn.

Just don't let go of it. That's the most important.

Don't let go of it. Just keep it moving on the bobbin.

OK.

All right. Whoa. Whoa, whoa.

It's got quite a bit of force.

Whoa! Yeah, that's what you don't do.

Whoa, whoa! Ha-ha-ha!

Ha-ha-ha!

It's like a wild animal on your arm!

Right, then, you did it like that.

There we go.

Oh! It nearly slipped out then. You've got to keep both hands on it.

Yep.

Robert, you are an artist. What do I do now?

You're now going to go off to assembly. Put it all together.

Thank you. Mate, that was wonderful.

Great.

Clever man.

The level of craftsmanship here is really impressive.

And the beauty of this chair's design is its simplicity.

But Ruth has been investigating an iconic British furniture maker

whose work was much more complicated.

How much will you pay for a piece of furniture, 50 quid?

500, maybe.

Or, if it was something really big, maybe 1,000?

But would you shell out 3.8 million?

That's the price this Harrington commode fetched in 2010,

making it the most expensive piece of British-made furniture ever sold.

The craftsman who made it was Thomas Chippendale,

who was born in 1718

and raised with eight siblings in this cottage

in Otley, West Yorkshire.

But how did a carpenter from such humble beginnings

become a global sensation?

I'm heading seven miles down the road

to the somewhat grander surroundings of Harewood House,

a place that would become synonymous with the Chippendale name.

Hello, Ann. Hello, hello, Ruth.

Professor Ann Sumner has researched his meteoric rise

from local cabinet maker to celebrity London furniture designer.

How did Thomas Chippendale really stand out above the rest?

Well, he's a great salesman

and he does this in a really, really clever way.

He had this idea of putting together a catalogue of designs,

a book that we now know as the Director.

This upmarket catalogue was the first of its kind.

Every page was packed with detailed drawings, designed

to entice wealthy clients to make a purchase.

The names of the subscribers,

the people who actually enabled him to publish this,

they're all listed here now, a bit like crowdfunding, I suppose.

And it gives people the option to choose from a number

of pieces of furniture.

It was a brilliant marketing tool.

So, before the book, he's doing OK in London,

but he's just one amongst many? Absolutely.

After the book, "That's the man we all want".

The orders flooded in and the most lucrative

was a £10,000 commission

to furnish Harewood House -

the equivalent of more than £2 million today.

And one of his greatest masterpieces is still here.

Oh, goodness!

The Diana and Minerva commode, made in 1773.

So elaborate, isn't it?

So how do you go about making something like this?

This is predominantly a mahogany piece,

and then you have this extraordinary satin wood veneer,

and the pieces of wood are cut up and placed in their position.

It's called marquetry.

Chippendale's ground-breaking work created vibrant patterns

to stand out in the most elaborate of 18th-century rooms.

Some of those hardwoods would have been dyed different colours,

so, originally, you would have had a much brighter surface here.

This is the absolute height of his talents.

People are so incredibly impressed by the standard of marquetry

that you see represented in a standout piece like this.

I want to understand what it takes to master the colourful marquetry

that Chippendale is famed for.

Jack Metcalfe is a world expert on the technique

and has restored many of Chippendale's pieces.

Hi, Jack.

Hello, Ruth.

This is a good shed!

So, I'm told you're the man

who knows all about 18th-century marquetry.

Quite a bit, and still learning.

Today, Jack is making a traditional anthemion flower

for the top of a jewellery box.

He begins by placing thin pieces of holly

into a vivid purple dye bath.

So this is holly veneer,

just as Chippendale would have used it.

Once dry, Jack cuts out the petals

using a replica 18th-century treadle saw,

which has a blade just 0.2 millimetres thick.

But to make the flower more lifelike,

Chippendale used a technique called sand shading.

This is seriously hot.

It needs to be.

The fine grit sand, known as silver sand,

is heated for 45 minutes

until it reaches 230 degrees Celsius.

So we're marking the little pieces of dyed wood by burning them.

We're just burning the edge.

It takes just a few seconds to shade the wood.

Then the individual petals are placed inside

a second pre-cut veneer called a window.

So now this is going to go onto the centrepiece

of this jewellery box lid.

The anthemion is glued in place, clamped and left to set.

I'll leave this overnight.

And in true Blue Peter style...

Oh, goodness!

..Jack has one he made earlier.

The final stage now is to just apply some polish

to bring the colours out even more.

Oh, look at that!

So when we think of Chippendale, we shouldn't be thinking

of all those honey gold colours.

THIS is what we should be thinking.

This zing! Absolutely.

Back on the factory floor,

I'm 19 hours and 18 minutes into production.

The pieces of my chair have been trimmed,

drilled, and sanded several times.

It's time to start assembling them,

so I'm meeting chair maker Steve Rolfe.

Steve. Hi, Gregg, how are you doing?

This would be the very first stage of putting together the chair

for the parts that you've made.

Does that mean when I leave your department,

I leave with the chair?

Hopefully - it's down to your skill levels.

I'm guessing you start with the chair legs and the seat.

We start with the underframe.

The underframe basically gives the whole chair its strength.

So when you sit on it, along with the seat,

that's taking your full weight.

And where does that go?

That goes between the chair legs? That goes between the chair legs.

So, first thing, plenty of glue in the holes.

It's a nice, thick wood glue.

If you happen to get any glue on the sides...

..we always rub it down with the sandpaper.

Any glue left on the wood will show up in the polishing area.

Oh, my God. I've got it all around the outside.

Don't worry about that.

Do you know what else is around the outside?

The Buffalo Gals.

Yeah!

How old are you, Steve?

Old enough, thank you.

I'm glad it's not just me.

go around the outside

round the outside

Next, I need to stick a crossbar between the back and front legs.

Foot pedal - holds that in place.

With one leg in the vice,

I can knock in the middle support bar.

Don't be afraid to really give it a good hit.

Perfect.

That's the underframe hammered.

Yeah! That looks too small.

It looks like a baby chair!

On to the seat.

Bring the frame over.

Bring the frame and the leg assembly that you've made.

With another dab of glue, the underframe is slotted

into the holes made earlier by the CNC machine.

Just force it a little. And the legs are hammered in.

Amazing.

Amazing.

You do like glue and hammer, you mob, don't you?

Steve made that look easy.

Now it's over to me to battle it out with the other two legs.

How am I going to get that in there? I can't even... Look.

Always start with the back one first.

Oh, that's in! That pushes that forward.

Oh, does it?

Oh, yeah. Look, look, look! That's amazing.

As you bang this in, it moves the other one forward.

Look at that. That's incredible, mate!

Yeah! With every bang of the hammer,

that is becoming more and more like a chair.

How many of these do you do in an hour?

You can probably do about 30.

Ooh! It's getting heavy now!

But if that was straightforward,

I'm set the serious task of sorting the spindles.

Now, there's three different sizes of spindles. Oh, no!

Two of each. There's no way I can tell the difference between them.

They're three different lengths.

Oh, yeah, there's different lengths.

I'm guessing they go at the end.

Those went in OK.

I've got a feeling this is now going to be trickier.

Now comes the good bit -

you now have to put the bow into there,

pushing down to at least where that cut-out finishes.

Right? I'm very, very nervous now,

so we've got to go in there... Yeah.

That, I can... So, always go one side first.

Well, you can't. And pull it across and down.

Now you've got to give it the wriggle.

You've been on Strictly, haven't you?

Yeah, I didn't last very long, though, mate.

Give it the Wallace wiggle. Keep going. Keep going.

Oh, my God!

Do you need an expert?

Yeah, go.

Show us your wiggle, son.

Oh, like that.

Like that.

Taller ones in.

And if that wasn't tricky enough,

now I've got to squeeze all six spindles into position.

All right.

OK. OK, OK.

Now, the big finale.

Use your mallet. I always wrap my thumb around the first stick

and hit it on that second spindle.

Hang on, I want to get that one in now. Yeah.

Oh, no, now this one's come out!

Hey-hey!

Boom!

After my expert hammering, a pressurised machine

called an elephant press forces the bow and spindles tightly together...

But most importantly, the bow comes through the bottom of the seat.

Can I release it now?

What you have to do...

Let me guess. Bang it with a hammer! Spot on.

I am DEFINITELY getting the hang of this!

To be sure of a super-tight fit, wedges are hammered into slits

at the bottom of the bow

and the ends are pared off with a saw...

..and, of course, sanded down again.

Do you know what?

I'm quite proud of this.

For a first-time effort, I'd say nine out of ten.

And now it's time for an all-important quality check.

I've got a small test for it.

How about that?

Are you ready?

I'd normally have my name on the back of the chair.

Ha-ha-ha! This is fantastic.

I love this.

Absolutely love it!

Thank you, Steve.

Absolutely brilliant, my friend.

You're welcome.

I've got a chair! A chair coming through!

Look at that! Look! I did that!

The chairs we sit on today need to be able to cope with a lot.

So how do we make sure they're up to the task?

Cherry's been putting on the pressure,

trying to find out.

The cars we drive are crash-tested for safety.

But did you know that our chairs are also put through their paces?

I've come to a test centre in Kettering to meet Phil Reynolds,

who puts our furniture under some serious strain.

Hi, Phil, lovely to meet you. Nice to meet you. Yeah.

So how do you test a chair to make sure that

when I put my bottom onto it, it doesn't collapse?

We do a whole load of tests to British standards to make sure

the chairs are fit for purpose and safe for the consumer.

Where do we start?

Well, follow me and I'll show you.

The lab looks like a boxing gym packed with robotic machines

designed to knock out even the toughest chairs.

This dining chair is currently going 12 rounds

against the fatigue tester.

So this machine is simulating sitting down.

Yes, we're applying a seat load and a back load.

We'll do it 25,000 times.

The machine applies a 100kg load to the seat

and 30kg to the back.

The total equivalent of just over 21st.

Is that modelled on anyone's particular behind?

That pad is in all the British and international standards,

and it's based on somebody in the UK

from the 1970s.

That's a famous bum. Yes.

These chairs are rolling with the punches,

but I brought along a rather less robust model,

built by a member of the production team

to see if it can stand up to the test.

Peter's going to come in and run the test for us.

Is this Peter, the chair destroyer? It is.

BELL RINGS

Peter ramps up the weight to 21st,

or 1,300 Newtons,

and our home-made chair seems to be holding it together.

So which are the parts of the chair that might potentially break

if it wasn't a strong chair?

It will mostly be the joints between the seat, the back

and the back legs.

And there we go.

1,300 Newtons.

That's 21st.

21st and it's still standing. Round one done.

But will my amateur featherweight chair survive the next challenge?

The sudden impact test.

Our professional heavyweight contender,

the easy chair, is already warming up.

Right, Phil, test number two.

I'm assuming that that hammer is going to be smashing something.

Yes, this is a back impact test.

It tests the strength of the back rail.

And then, also, if the chair does tip over,

it will test the construction to see whether it breaks.

So instead of testing whether it can cope with a gradual force,

it's a high impact.

It's an impact, yes. Right.

To ensure a fair fight, this 6.5kg hammer is raised

to exactly 28 degrees

before it's unleashed to test the chair's strength.

All right, woo!

That was underwhelming, I'll be honest.

Yes, yeah, it's a fairly well-constructed chair.

Nothing's going to happen with this one.

Let's see how my DIY chair copes.

Out with the old, in with the new,

it's hammer time.

Here we go.

BELL RINGS

Ohhhhh! She's down!

My chair may be on the ropes, but it's not out.

And even after a barrage of hits...

..it's still in one piece.

She's pretty sturdy, I've got to say.

Everything looks OK.

But it's not out of the woods yet.

The last test is armrest durability

and we are up against another old pro, the office chair.

How much weight is this chair coping with?

Well, we're putting 400 Newtons on each arm,

so that's about 6st.

For an office chair like this, you'll be doing that 60,000 times.

This test accounts for someone using the armrest

to stand up or sit down 32 times a day

over the course of five years.

60,000 rounds against this beast...

Place your bets!

Are we ready? Yes.

Three, two, one!

BELL RINGS

Doesn't sound happy.

CHAIR CREAKS

There's a lot of creaking.

Argh!

Argh!

Only one arm came off, to be fair, and I've...

Oh... Oh, no.

Both of them are gone.

OK, so maybe both came off.

For more - ahem - professionally made furniture,

there are up to 15 separate tests that need to be passed

before being certified.

But for my DIY chair, it's time to throw in the towel.

OK.

I think... I think maybe it's time for me to take my chair and leave.

Thank you very much, Phil. OK. Bye.

So, next time you pull up a chair,

rest easy in the knowledge that labs like this have rigorously tested it

to extremes to make sure that you're safe when you sit down.

Unlike this chair,

which I think is probably ready for the scrapheap.

Back at the factory, it's 19 and a half hours

since production began on my Windsor dining chair.

It's been glued and hammered

and passed my all-important weight test.

I normally have my name on the back of the chair.

Now it's time for the finishing touches,

so I'm off to the polishing shop.

And I'm taking one giant leap

to meet up with head of finishing Graham Wheeler.

Graham! Yes, sir. That's me.

Why have I got dressed up like this?

Well, I've got to keep you clean because you're a national treasure.

HE LAUGHS

OK, so what do you do here?

This is where we polish all the furniture.

Today, we're going to do clear matte lacquer.

Why do you do it?

It seals up the timber, stops the moisture getting into the wood.

Otherwise, it'll all expand and your chair will fall apart.

How much pressure is in that spray gun?

60lb per square inch.

What is that lacquer made from? That's all 100% water based.

We don't use any solvents here.

They're bad for the environment.

So you do under the rails first, under the seat,

put it down and turn your chair around

and do any of the surface that is facing you.

Ready? Ready when you are.

I hope I got all that because it's my time to shine.

Do under the feet first.

Don't forget to do the back.

Do the top of the bow.

That's it. Now from above, do the seat.

Start at the back and work to the front.

Lovely. Beautiful.

You've done it! Perfect.

I loved doing that!

Can you have a look at it, boss? Make sure I've got it all.

That's not a bad coat, actually, not bad at all, buddy.

Are you just being nice to me?

No.

How many of these would you do on your shift?

A couple of hundred.

Are you completely "lacquered" at the end of the day?

But there's no rest for my chair.

Because it hot-foots it into a 10m-long drying tunnel.

The first five minutes blow ambient air

and it's baked for another five by 64 electric lamps

heated to 100 degrees to seal the lacquered layer.

This is looking more and more like a sci-fi movie.

We catch the chair the other side.

Yeah, we'll go round there now.

Oh, it's dry!

Where do we put it now?

It'll go over on the bench over there.

That doesn't feel right.

No, what's happened there is

the water has raised the grain. Water and wood don't mix.

And the only way to get rid of it - no surprises here - is more sanding.

But, at this stage, gently does it.

So I'm using a soft sanding sponge.

Smooth all over? Yeah. It really is. Lovely!

Hang on a minute. HE LAUGHS

That doesn't look particularly lacquered to me.

No, now it's nice and smooth.

You put the final coat on it.

A final layer of lacquer seals the wood to a beautiful,

moisture-resistant finish.

Once dry, it's off to the packing area.

There you go.

There's your box. Can I put my chair in it?

Not yet, you've got to finish it out.

Let me guess. Let me guess. I've got to sand it.

You've got to sand it. Seriously? Not too hard.

Just make sure it's smooth under the bow,

because that's where the customers touch it the most.

From start to finish,

I've sanded this chair 11 times,

but doesn't it look great?

Do you know?

I don't mind telling you, I think this is a thing of beauty.

Just a final polish, and it's good to go.

That is lovely, look at that!

Beauty. Now it can go in the box.

Bye-bye, chair.

After 20 hours, my Windsor chair is ready to leave the factory,

so me and it are off to dispatch

where I'm meeting up with operations director Ian.

Hello, Ian. How are you doing, Gregg?

That's a nice sight for you, isn't it?

A lorry-load of furniture? Oh, yeah, we like to see them full.

I can't see inside that lorry. Here, how long is it?

It's 44.

So how many of those trucks leave this factory every week?

Probably three, four, four a week.

So do you know roughly how many chairs that would be?

Well, in that mix, we'd typically be shipping about 300 chairs a week.

Can I put mine on? Yeah, go on. Stick it on.

Hey, I saw the wood come in,

I might as well see the chair go out.

Bye-bye, chair!

It's been good getting to know you.

Thank you, Ian. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.

The factory sends its furniture all over the UK,

and customers take a seat across Europe too,

and as far afield as the USA and New Zealand.

I love this factory.

Chair-making is an incredible combination

of seriously high-tech and almost ridiculously old-fashioned.

What the...? What are you doing?!

I love the good old hammer

and medieval-looking bending machine to shape my bow...

..and the 64-lamp heating chamber to dry the lacquer.

It's like a wild animal on your arm!

Oh.

But what really amazes me is

how much sanding goes into making just one single chair.

Right now, I think I need some hand cream,

a manicure, and a sit-down.