Severn Heaven
Abroad in Britain - S1 - E1
Just north of Bewdley in Worcestershire, beside the Severn Valley Railway, is the largest surviving interwars 'plotland' settlement in Britain. This is a village of dwellings built by their owners from improvised materials: old railway carriages, chicken coops, the fuselages of gliders etc. Decried as an instant slum and opposed by planning authorities it is today regarded as a valuable manifestation of working class history.
Abroad in Britain: Season 1 - 5 Episode s
1x1 - Severn Heaven
October 29, 1990
Just north of Bewdley in Worcestershire, beside the Severn Valley Railway, is the largest surviving interwars 'plotland' settlement in Britain. This is a village of dwellings built by their owners from improvised materials: old railway carriages, chicken coops, the fuselages of gliders etc. Decried as an instant slum and opposed by planning authorities it is today regarded as a valuable manifestation of working class history.
1x2 - Right is Wrong
November 5, 1990
Meades investigates a new age community beside a Scottish air base, a furniture factory in a Dorset wood, and an experimental school in East Grinstead, all of which are geometrically linked by buildings that shun the orthodoxy of the right angle.
1x3 - House Ahoy
November 12, 1990
Meades investigates unusual houses, houseboats and lifestyles of people on the Solent.
1x4 - Brick and Mortars
November 26, 1990
Jonathan Meades considers the style of army and military buildings and architectural styles.
1x5 - In Search of Bohemia
December 3, 1990
There are a surprising number of places in Britain called Bohemia. Even more surprising is the fact that two of them - in Hastings and the New Forest - have connections to the artistic bohemia of such painters as Augustus John, two of whose studios demonstrate how much domestic design would take from this type of building. Features a red Lada that's a mobile tip.