From Our Home Correspondent
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mishal Husain presents dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country. In the latest programme, we hear from Chris Warburton on how Bolton in Greater Manchester is responding to the dramatically changing retail scene on its streets. The BBC's Religion Editor, Martin Bashir, draws on his own family's experience to consider the significance of the Church of England's intervention in the debate about pre-natal screening for Down's syndrome. Elizabeth Gowing reveals what one ex-offender has derived from his work with yoga and meditation - disciplines she has been struggling with - both out of gaol and while behind bars, and Martin Vennard explores a fifty year-old housing development with a new resident and the building's architect to see what ideas it may offer for tackling today's housing crisis. Finally, Felipe Fernández-Armesto - a globe-trotting historian with Spanish ancestry and impeccable British credentials - ponders the unravelling of the once tightly-furled British umbrella and the mores it represented.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.7 | Thank you for downloading from our home correspondent. I'm Michelle Hussein. |
| 0:08.5 | In this edition, we have the story of a rather unsung 50-year-old building that could well be a model for house builders of the future. |
| 0:16.6 | We'll hear from an ex-offender who credits meditation and yoga with changing his life. |
| 0:22.3 | We'll be pondering why the Church of England is talking about Down syndrome |
| 0:25.9 | and discovering what the wobbling of the British stiff upper lip should tell us. |
| 0:32.6 | Hello, in today's program, we have the story of a rather unsung, 50-year-old building that could well be a model for housebuilders of the future. We'll hear from an ex-offender who credits meditation and yoga with changing his life. We'll be pondering why the Church of England is talking about Down syndrome and discovering what the wobbling of the British stiff upper lip |
| 0:55.6 | should tell us. First, to the shops, or what remains of them. Over the last few years and |
| 1:02.5 | particularly since the financial crisis, our high streets have become more uniform, fewer |
| 1:07.8 | distinctive local retailers, more outposts of nationwide chains. In Bolton, Greater |
| 1:13.9 | Manchester, the recent demise of two retail landmarks has prompted some soul-searching. But as Radio |
| 1:20.4 | Five Lives Chris Warburton explains, the story isn't all about a better yesterday. Sue Mead always dreamt of working at Prestons of Bolton. |
| 1:30.9 | As a 12-year-old, she used to walk past the four-story jewellers building |
| 1:34.5 | with its glinting chandeliers and tell her father just that. |
| 1:39.0 | The so-called diamond centre of the north had been a fixture in the town since 1869, |
| 1:45.6 | with couples travelling from across the country to buy their engagement and wedding rings. Sue's childhood dream came true. |
| 1:52.6 | She would be the manager of Preston's for 20 years. It would take over her life. I was the manager, |
| 1:59.8 | but I thought of it as my store, she says. Her dad would joke that if they cut Sue in two, Prestons would run through her from head to toe. After almost 150 years of trading, Prestons closed its doors for good on New Year's Day 2017. Twelve months later, and Sue admits she's still struggling, still mourning. |
| 2:23.3 | The town lost two locally renowned stores that day. |
| 2:27.3 | The black and white Tudor-style fronting of Whitaker's department store, which opened in 1829, |
| 2:33.3 | was as familiar to the townsfolk as Bolton Wanderers |
| 2:36.0 | Football Club. Then, Bolton was a thriving commercial centre, an engineering hub, and one of the |
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