Action.
SNICKERING
Cut! LAUGHTER
So on your left now is St Gregory's,
also known as the Phoenix Club.
Oh, I think they've still got the sign. Have they?
Yeah.
Ancl that's where we filmed Phoenix Nights.
Paddy McGuinness is one of Britain's best loved TV stars.
You going bald? No!
I can see your head through your hair.
It's always been like that!
He got his big break aged 27 when working as a fitness instructor
after his old school friend Peter Kay gave him a part
in sitcom Phoenix Nights.
Baldy Bouncer!
Leave it. Baldy, Baldy.
Baldy, Baldy, Baldy, Bal...
Leave it!
Since then, he's brought his comedy skills
to presenting hit shows like Top Gear...
Whoa!
Oh, clear.
...and a Question Of Sport.
We've got to make this round quick tonight,
cos Hugo's got to get off and do a bit of stewarding on easy jet.
LAUGHTER
I was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1973
and I was raised by my mum, Patricia Leonard, a single parent.
Always worked, used to take me to work with her.
So, my mum was a cleaner.
My childhood growing up was spent...
...pretty much in bingo halls and pubs in Bolton.
My clad isjoe McGuinness but I found out he wasn't actually called Joe.
That's his middle name. He was actually called Patrick, weirdly.
I used to see my clad every other weekend.
He'd served in the Army.
He'd worked in the scrap industry for a short time.
just a happy, fun-loving bloke.
And, you know, it's a bit cliche,
but we were poor, but we were happy.
Down the mighty Auburn Street where I was born and bred.
I lived at number 26, which is coming up here on the right.
Number 26 is there with the white door.
Ancl then we moved to the bright lights and big city of...
...number 30, two doors down.
I don't know if you've had anyone on the show
who knows as little about the family as me.
I know very, very little about my grandparents.
I can name my mum's mum - I think she was called Winifred,
and my dad's mum and clad, I couldn't tell you their names, full stop.
My mum and my clad have both passed away
and that makes it more difficult finding out anything, really.
I think my family is nailed-on working class.
I'd put a hefty bet on there being an Irish connection somewhere.
I mean, "Ooh, where is Paddy McGuinness' family from?"
That's a tricky one!
You know, I'll hazard a guess at Ireland!
If I'm in Ireland working, everyone always asks me,
"Where are your family from?" And it's...
I won't say it's embarrassing, but it's just a bit like...
I feel like, "God, I should know this."
I'd love to find out more about that.
You know, that really interests me.
Even if you told me a little bit about my grandparents,
that would be amazing to me,
never mind, you know, two or three generations back.
It's just...anything is a treat for me.
Anything-
Father-of-three Paddy lives in Cheshire.
He's starting his search with his mum's side of the family,
so he's heading home to meet his Uncle Tony,
his late mum's brother.
My Uncle Tony, I just...
I've got a lot of respect for him and I love him clearly.
He's just a very special bloke to me.
He gave me a good male role model, which I never had.
Good to see you. Thanks for coming over. Yeah, no problem.
Right, come on, get through here. This is where t' kettle is.
TONY CHUCKLES
Right. Start with the first one here.
Yeah. Me and my mum. That's your mum, yeah, and you.
I'm trying to think how old my mum would be.
Maybe 36.
I look about two there.
You know, I tell you what I'd love - that head of hair back!
Yeah! HE LAUGHS
That'd be an absolute treat, that.
No, we'll not talk about that, shall we?
Do you know, one of the things with my mum, obviously... Very sharp.
I was going to say that's where I think I get
my quick-wittedness from, my mum. Yeah.
She was always like that, weren't she? Yeah.
No airs and graces, that's it. Yeah. Yeah.
So I think my clad might have been...
...maybe 50s when I was born. Yeah.
Ancl do you know what, that picture there sums up my clad for me. Yeah.
But it's like, when I think about growing up,
you know, I love my clad, obviously,
but he wasn't a clad who really took me to football
or encouraged me to do things, really,
and I never had anyone like a male role model... Yeah.
...until you came on the scene, I think.
Me and you became closer when we started working at...
Well, you got me a job at Vibraplant -
that plant, machinery place. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
I think you encouraged me a lot with different things I did.
Oh, yeah. And, like, when I was doing my karate,
you gave me your old Army kit bag
and we filled it full of sawdust. Which I haven't got back!
Says he's not got it!
I still use it!
So we're getting a little bit more, um...into the deeper waters now. Ah.
So these are your mum and dad, my grandma and grandad.
Yeah.
I literally have no memories of either of these two,
so can you tell me a little bit more about them now
while we're sat here? Firstly, their names.
James Leonard.
I was told for years it was Paddy!
Yeah, because his dad was Irish, everybody called him Paddy.
I love that. Back in the clays when a bit of casual racism was accepted!
Yeah. So that's where I've heard Paddy, then. Yeah.
So he's called James?
If you'd said James, he'd probably just go, "Who's James?"
So with my grand mum, your mum...
Yeah. I think this is the only name I know - Winifred.
Yeah. So it is Winifred?
Yeah. Oh, thank the Lord! Taylor.
Winifred Taylor. Taylor? Yeah.
My mum brought the family up.
We were none the worse. All of us. All of us.
Ancl she was always in the background grafting.
I remember, you know, 16, I think, when I was properly working
on a Saturday job over at Warburtons. Yeah.
But even before I could legally work,
I'd always do little part-time bits and bats. Yeah.
Ancl that's kind of been instilled in me from that generation, I think.
Yeah. Yeah. Even now in what I do, that's why I'm always doing stuff,
because I just can't... I feel as though if you're not...
You've got to put the work in, haven't you?
You've got to put the work in, yeah.
So can you tell me a little bit about your dad's younger years?
No. Did he ever speak about anything?
No, they... No.
What is it, do you think, about us lot
where we just never spoke about anything?
Well, you didn't tell children anything.
So I know you don't know much about your own mum
and dad's childhood. Do you know anything about their mums and dads?
Nothing at all. Zero.
I wouldn't even know 'em if I saw 'em.
So even if you saw a photo, you wouldn't...
You'd have to tell me.
Wow. As a family,
we literally know nothing about the next lot behind us. Yeah.
No.
I... I genuinely can't wait to find out.
Thanks to his Uncle Tony, Paddy has found out the name
of his grandfather, James Leonard, for the first time.
He's keen to see what else he can discover about his life,
so he's come to his home town of Bolton to meet genealogist
and historian Michala Hulme.
Hello, Michala. Hello, Paddy. How are you?
Very good. Thank you. Shall we go in?
Yeah.
Right, Michala, we're here to find out
a little bit more about this fella -
my grandad James Leonard, but better known as Paddy Leonard.
So can you help?
I can, and we can actually start right at the beginning
with his birth certificate.
OK, let's have a look here.
26th of February, 1911.
James Herbert.
Does that say Herbert? Herbert.
Well, you live and learn!
James Herbert.
Patrick Lenoard.
So that is the name of his clad.
Oh, wow.
Annie Lenoard. Yeah.
That'll be his mum.
So, Patrick and Annie, they'll be my great-grandparents.
Absolutely. Great-grandparents. Yeah. Right, OK.
Also, they've spelt Leonard - L-E-N-O-A-R-D.
Yeah. So spelling mistakes are quite common
as we go back through the records, and that's just because often
they'll just spell it how they hear it.
So that is just purely the person writing it
has just misheard the name
or it's their interpretation of how they spell it?
Exactly, yeah.
That's mind-blowing.
This is on a birth certificate!
It's just like, "What's that?
"All right, get that down."
Anything else, Michala? I'm eager.
Yeah. So we actually have the 1911 census.
Let's have a look here.
Patrick Leonard was the head.
Annie Leonard, wife.
My grandad, James Herbert Leonard, son.
Personal occupation, bricklayer's labourer. We've got that.
Charwoman? So that's brewing up?
No. So a charwoman is, in effect, like a cleaner.
Probably, to be honest, Paddy, just supplementing her husband's wage
and keeping the family afloat.
Is it common when you do this and you look back on families
that the same job carries on through?
With some occupations, yeah. Because my mum was a cleaner as well,
that's all I'm saying. Right. And her mum had clone a bit of cleaning.
I've been a labourer.
It's just... It's bonkers how that's just carried on -
labourers and cleaners.
Do we know anything else about what happened to them after this
or what they did?
We do. So this is in 1911,
but in 1915, things take a bit of a tragic turn for the family.
Oh, right, OK.
Let's have a look here.
The Bolton Evening News, Monday, August 30th, 1915.
"Patrick Leonard, a labourer, was committed to prison
"for one month's hard lab our.
"On the night of August 4th,
"the accused went home the worse for drink.
"He quarrel led with his wife..." Wow.
"..bruised her head and blackened her eyes."
Oh, my God.
"On the following Monday morning, he went out,
"apparently to go to work, but he never returned."
That is actually horrendous.
So he's gone off to prison, quite rightly.
She was traumatised at home with the children.
What happens then?
Well, I can show you, actually.
So this is the workhouse admissions register.
So what happens is he gets admitted to prison. Right.
Obviously, he's the main breadwinner. Yeah.
She gets taken into the workhouse.
The chances are that she's come in here because she needs medical care
and the workhouse would provide that medical care for her.
What happened to her children?
Did they go...? Are they there with her?
So, if you can see here,
we've got your great-grandmother. Annie.
But you'll notice somebody's missing.
My grandad James. James. Yeah.
Sojames is actually... He's gone to one of the cottage homes.
Cottage homes were introduced to separate children
from adult inmates in the main workhouse.
There they were taught skills and given schooling.
The idea was to keep them away from bad moral influences,
including their own parents, who could only take their children
out again once they could prove they had the means
to provide for them.
God, it's amazing, innit, when you think back to that kind of mindset
where you go, "Well, there won't be any negative experiences."
But being taken away from your mum and your clad is the most negative,
traumatic experience you can ever have. Yeah.
Do we know what happened to the pair of them?
So we actually find them on the next census, which is the 1921 census.
Right, 0|<.
Hang on a minute.
Patrick Leonard's back on there. So is he back on the scene?
He is, yeah. Out of prison
and my great-grandma's took him back.
Yeah.
HE EXHALES SHARPLY The mind boggles.
The thing is, Paddy, her choices would have been really limited,
right? So he is the main breadwinner. Mm.
She can't get a divorce. It's expensive.
That's out of the question.
It's a Roman Catholic family. Yeah.
So it's... Frowned upon. ..frowned upon.
It's amazing, isn't it, how people were morals-wise back then?
When you say, you know, Roman Catholic - frowned upon divorce,
but spousal abuse, prison...
It's like... Yeah. "We can live with that."
"Whoa! Divorce?! How dare you!"
It's crazy.
Do we know, then, what happened with my grandad after that?
We do. So I've got another document for you to have a look at.
Fantastic. Slightly later.
Right, OK, so let's have a look here.
1935.
Oh, he's been married!
Oh, my word, Winifred Taylor.
So that's my grandma. It is.
Rank or profession - "colliery haulage hand below".
Below ground.
Miner. Miner.
HE EXHALES SHARPLY What happens from there?
I've got another record to show you. Oh!
Here we go!
Registration...
Oh, birth certificate!
1939, so four years after they were married.
Oh, hang on a minute! I recognise this name!
Is this my mum?
Patricia Winifred...
That's... That's my mum!
Oh, my clays!
This, for me, is the best thing,
just having this, because, you know, when you think about your parents,
you forget they were actually born and they were babies and everything
else, you know? Cos to me, my mum's just always my mum, but...
Oh, my word.
Wow.
Name and surname of father -
James Herbert Leonard.
Mother - Winifred Leonard.
Occupation of father...
What's that? Handle...
...rectifier, is it?
Handle rectifier? Is that right?
Yeah.
A handle rectifier.
Something works...
Airplane. Oh, airplane works.
Wow.
So when we look at my grandad James Leonard,
even after all that adversity,
he's now married with children,
and it seems to me he's got a half decent job at an airplane works.
The plot thickens. But I'm glad about that.
Paddy's discovered that his grandfather was a handle rectifier
at an aeroplane factory.
Now he wants to know what this work involved.
The only aircraft company in the area was De Havilland,
whose factory was four miles outside Bolton city centre,
so Paddy's come to see the former site at Lostock.
Lovely clay for it.
He's meeting local expert Mick Crossley.
Good morning, Mick! Ancl look at that view!
Best view in Bolton, Paddy. How are you, pal?
Excellent, thank you. Gorgeous, that, isn't it?
I hope you can help me out a little bit,
because my grandad, James Leonard,
the last thing I learned about him was that he worked
as a handle rectifier around about 1939. Mm-hm.
Now, I'm hoping you can sort of give me the answers to this.
Let's start with this photograph. Right.
So mid-1930s, we were heading for war.
The government went off on what they call a rearmament program me.
Most of the aerospace industry was around London.
The big risk was any bombing,
you would have taken the entire aerospace industry out.
So there was a thing called the Shadow Factory program me,
and what they wanted to do was take the aerospace industry out of London
and put it into lower bombing risk areas,
as well as areas of high unemployment.
So Bolton ticked both boxes, really, there. It did.
If we look over there... Yeah.
...that was the Lostock site. Right, 0|<.
Why here, Mick? Why did they build it there?
I've got loads of stuff inside, Paddy,
and I'll tell you all about it.
That's... Basically I'm angling to get in a pub!
MICK LAUGHS
So, Paddy, what we're looking at here,
this is a blueprint from the factory in 1944.
You know, I can just see there
it actually says "sniper's post". Correct.
There was anti-aircraft guns sort of a bit further
outside of the perimeter of the factory.
So this bit of the factory here,
that's exactly where your grandad James used to work... Wow.
...every morning for the best part of 40 years. Wow.
Butties under the arm, away we go.
So this was built as a pretty secret factory.
You've seen where we are in the hollow. Yeah. OK.
That's a defence in itself.
There were big drums of oil,
and if they thought there was an air raid coming,
they'd set fire to those - big billowing black smoke,
and it could cover the factory.
I mean, that's mind-blowing.
I mean, it's genius.
Your grandfather, his role here, a very, very important role.
He would have been bound by the Official Secrets Act.
Ancl what this factory was set up for
was to build variable pitch propellers in massive volumes.
Wow.
So, weirdly, war breaking out
has given my grandad a chance to get into a better job.
You know, come out of the coal mine and learn a skilled trade.
The one thing for me which I still don't know,
what is a handle rectifier? Cos we've mentioned propellers,
but what is...? What is that?
So handle rectifier, Paddy, is basically a blade grinder.
The original propellers were all clone
by people like your grandad James. All of the profiling,
all of the surface finish would have been clone by hand.
So those propellers that he worked on would have been on aircraft
that were used during the war. Exactly.
Do we know particularly what aircraft?
Like, I'm thinking Spitfires, Lancaster bombers.
Correct. So he did do all that?
Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster bombers -
every aircraft you could name,
that propeller would have come out of Lostock. See, for me now,
whenever I'm anywhere,
and if I'm at an airshow or in the pub with my mates
and we're talking about Spitfires, as you do,
I'll go, "My grandad helped build them." Indeed he did.
Oh, the bragging rights!
He did indeed. Fantastic!
James Leonard and workers like him kept Britain in the war.
His factory helped turn the tide in the Battle of Britain,
making upgrades for fighter planes,
as well as manufacturing 77,000 propellers
and helping repair thousands more to ensure the RAF stayed in the air.
Paddy wants to see for himself
what his grandadjames was making in the factory.
so he's meeting curator Ewen Cameron at the RAF Museum in Cosford.
Oh! Well, Ewen, I recognise the name.
Talk about iconic.
This is a Supermarine Spitfire Mark 1a.
This is full of the latest bits of kit,
like the variable pitch propeller your grandad worked on.
This allows you to do things with the aircraft
you couldn't do before. It shortens your take-off run.
You can actually fly faster. You can fly higher.
Ancl that's always an advantage with a combat aircraft.
So what's this particular Spitfire's history, Ewen?
It's went into RAF service with No. 72 Squadron in April 1939.
My grandad was at De Havilland in '39 onwards, so...
Well, there is a chance that prop might be one of the ones
that your grandad worked on.
So you can sit there and say, "|t's my grandad that won the war."
There you go. Exactly!
Most of the propellers that are produced during the war
don't have any branding or logos on them. Mm.
Have a quick look at the front of this spinner.
Oh, yeah, I can see that!
Picture moment. I think that is a picture moment.
Let's have a look.
There it is.
De Havilland.
Contr... Oh, controllable pitch air screw.
Controllable pitch air screw.
Very proud to see that.
I'm very proud. Yeah.
Well, Paddy, it just so happens
we've got a little something extra for you here.
There is somebody I think you might know here.
I clocked him straight away!
Ancl that is your grandad's retirement party in 1978.
Look at that.
Cor blimey!
Oh, that's a better, that, isn't it? Look at that!
I'll show my Uncle Tony this.
Like his grandfather, Paddy has also spent time in factories.
We seem to be a family of grafters,
whether it's working in the pit or being a labourer
or being a cleaner, and I'm proud of that.
It's interesting finding out about my grandad's contribution
to the war effort, really. I never knew that about him.
Born into poverty, working in a coal mine,
and then war breaks out,
and then there he is making the propellers for Spitfires
and Hurricanes and, you know, all these kind of iconic aircraft.
It's amazing, really. Very proud.
Paddy has followed his maternal line back through his grandfather,
James Leonard, to his great-grandparents,
Patrick Leonard and Annie Cunningham.
Now he's moving on to his dad's side of the family, the McGuinnesses,
where he's hoping to find a connection to Ireland.
If you thought I didn't know much about my mum's side,
my dad's side is nonexistent.
Literally, I know nothing about the McGuinnesses,
so genuinely excited to find out who they were,
where they were from and what they did.
Starting his search from scratch, Paddy has come to Macclesfield
to meet an expert on the north-west of England, Charlotte Wildman.
Hello, Charlotte. Hi, Paddy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
If you'd like to come this way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Well, Charlotte, all I've got to go off is my dad's name.
All his life, I thought he was called Joe,
but it turns out that was his middle name.
I think he was called Patrick Joseph McGuinness.
That's it. That's my dad's name. That's all you've got.
So this is your dad's birth certificate.
Right, wow.
1925. Yeah.
Name and surname of father... Is that William?
Yes. Name, surname, maiden name of mother...
Oh, right! Is that Agnes?
Yes. Yeah, so that's your grandmother.
What is amazing for me, Charlotte, is that's the first time
I've known my grandparents' names.
Wow. So I've found that out today. Yeah.
So William and Agnes. Yeah.
Occupation of father. Oh! General hawker.
Now, I think my clad mentioned... He spoke very rarely about his parents,
but he said his clad was like a rag-and-bone man.
Is that what that is?
It's not too far off the mark.
He would have had a cart and he would have been selling quite
kind of cheap goods to local people, like rags and things like that.
I vaguely remember him saying about going out with his clad
on like a trolley or something like that. Yeah, yeah.
Can you tell me anything about William and Agnes
outside of what I can see here?
Yes. We have some information about your grandfather, William, actually.
Right, 0|<.
So this is a copy of his service record.
You can see that number there.
Yeah. 3321.
So that would be his Army number.
Right, OK. So I've got a transcript here
if you want to have a little look at this. Oh, right. Brilliant.
Oh, great.
Royal Lancaster Regiment, joined 1891.
We're only at my grandparents, but we're already back to the 1890s.
I presume back then, you know, they were very, very poor. Yeah.
Was joining the Army a means to sort of just being clothed
and fed and...? Possibly, yeah. You know, for a young working class man,
there weren't many options for him.
You can see his previous job here.
Collier.
A collier was working in the coal mines. Yeah.
So a dangerous, low-paid job,
a lot of risk. Pretty tough, pretty hard going. Yeah.
It's amazing, isn't it, when you talk about jobs like that
and you go, you know, working in the pit, it was quite a dangerous job.
It was. "I'll join the Army!" Yeah. "Cos that's safer!" Yeah.
Which is staggering, really. I know.
"That'll be better than working in the pit!" Yeah.
Cor blimey! Yeah.
What's interesting for me is reading it says,
"parish or town you were born - Bolton." Yeah.
I just presumed he was from Ireland, that he was born in Ireland. Yeah.
We also have some more information,
particularly around what he looked like, a bit of detail here.
Oh, right, OK.
Five...
WOW!
He was a little fella, wasn't he?
Five foot three inches! Yeah.
So we have some information about where he went
during his Army career. Right, 0|<.
You can see there.
Oh, India.
So he went off to India in '94.
Imagine going somewhere like India then -
the different sights and sounds and smells
and food and colours and everything. It must have been like... The heat.
Yeah, the heat. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Malta '96 to '97.
Hong Kong!
Do you know anywhere else he went outside of what's on here?
We do, actually.
So we know that in 1899 he travelled to South Africa.
Right, OK. And we have a picture of his battalion
getting ready to leave for South Africa. Wow!
So he'd have been in there somewhere?
Yeah. Your grandfather William would be in here somewhere.
Oh, my clays! Imagine...
Well, we also have a newspaper report.
Right, OK. Let's have a look.
"Local officers at the front.
"The transport SS Dilwara is reported to have arrived
"at Cape Town on Christmas Day."
What must that have been like?
So why South Africa, 1899?
So 1899 is significant because it sees the beginning of the Boer War
against the Afrikaners, the Boers in South Africa.
So would you be able to help with,
you know, where his regiment actually were in battle
or what happened with them there in the Boer War?
Well, it'll be really interesting to find out,
and for that you will need a military historian.
HE EXHALES SHARPLY I am going through historians
here like a...at a rate of knots!
This is unbelievable.
The Boer War was a bitter conflict between two colonial powers
that broke out in South Africa in October 1899.
On one side was the British Empire, which wanted greater control
over the country, and on the other were the Boers,
descendants of Dutch colonists who fought to stay independent.
Both sides wanted the country's gold mines for themselves.
Paddy's come to the Royal Armouries in Leeds
to meet military historian Peter Donaldson.
Hello, Peter. Hello, Paddy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, pal.
Shall we head off? Lead on, yeah.
Paddy wants to know what happened to his grandfather,
William McGuinness, during the conflict.
So, Peter, I know my grandad fought in the Boer War,
which is mind-blowing in itself, but you're going to tell me
a little bit more about it. I am. That's right, Paddy.
Ancl we've got a document here which will help you with
finding out exactly what your grandfather William did do.
Let's have a look here. Talk me through these, Peter.
So this is a roll for the medals given to all the soldiers
who fought in the South African War. Oh, right, OK. Wow.
So you can see there... So, 3321.
So we've got McGuinness there.
Um... Now, then, what are we on here?
These little ticks at the side here... That's right, yeah.
...what are they? These are the engagements, specific battles
that your grandfather William would have been involved in.
Bloody hell. Right, OK.
Tugela Heights.
Relief of Ladysmith.
That's right. The main focus of the British Army is trying to relieve
this town of Ladysmith.
At Ladysmith, the Boers had trapped the main British Army
and thousands of civilians.
The race was on to lift the siege before the town was captured
and the empire humiliated.
William McGuinness's regiment was sent to capture a strategic
high point along the route into Ladysmith, known as Spion Kop.
Your grandfather William is going to have a really challenging task.
Ancl just to get a sense of how challenging it is,
we've got this other document, a nice photograph.
What are we looking at here, Peter?
So this is a photograph of your grandfather's regiment,
the King's Own Royal Lancaster, in Natal,
crossing - this is the Tugela River,
and this is them on their way to Spion Kop, which means Lookout Hill.
It's one of the higher hills surrounding Ladysmith.
Ancl their idea is they're going to seize this highest point,
and from that, they'll open the road to Ladysmith.
I mean, there are about 20,000 soldiers on the march here,
but amongst this 20,000, your grandfather, William, obviously.
Also Winston Churchill is in there.
He was a journalist and then he got himself a commission.
Mahatma Gandhi is there as a stretcher bearer.
Wow! Yeah, yeah. So... Wow!
...they're heading for a really titanic battle.
My God. Tell me more, Peter. Tell me more.
Well, we've got a letter from a soldier
in your grandfather's regiment,
and he writes shortly after the Battle of Spion Kop
and he's going to describe what happened to him,
and what happened to him is also what will have happened
to your grandfather. My word. Right, OK.
Here's an extract from it.
"As the clouds lifted, the sniping became a general rifle fire.
"And presently, about 6am,
"we were under the hottest fire from about 8,000 rifles.
"Then they started shelling us from both sides.
"One man within a few feet behind me was blown in pieces by one,
"and the trenches were soon filled with the dead and wounded.
"The mystery is how any of us escaped, and what was it all for?
"None of us know."
It's such a powerful thing reading that
because these young men out there asking themselves,
"Why are we fighting?" Absolutely. None of them know, you know? Yeah.
Nothing's really changed with war, in my mind, in that sense. Yeah.
I mean, Spion Kop was an absolute disaster for the British.
300 were killed, about 600 wounded.
Ancl it doesn't seem like big numbers to the First World War,
but at the time, that was, I mean, incredibly shocking to the British.
Not only did they lose, but they lost over 1,000 men out of action,
and for 16 hours, stuck on the plateau under this shellfire,
the rifle fire, burning heat, raging thirst. Oh...
Literally just like being in hell, essentially.
Yeah, it would be. Paddy, just, you know, to show you the impact
that this had, the shock it had for the British public was that
back home, many football grounds, most of them in the North West,
because that's where the men came from who fought in it,
named their football stands after Spion Kop
because it looked like the hill of Spion Kop. So Liverpool, famously,
but I think Preston North End, I think, had a Kop. So, hang on
a minute. When you hear about Liverpool and the Kop,
that's what it was...? Yeah, that's where it comes from.
That is absolutely mind-blowing. Yeah.
So after this battle,
do we know what happened with William after that?
We do. So we've got some records which will show us.
Right, OK. And I've got something which you might really be interested
in seeing, Paddy. So have a look.
Oh, right, OK.
Oh, my word.
Wow. So obviously a medal.
Yeah, absolutely. Um...
Something Heights. That's right - Tugela Heights.
So this is after Spion Kop, and this is another battle
that your grandfather William was involved in. Yeah.
They tried to breach the Tugela and open up the road to Ladysmith.
They failed with Spion Kop.
Two weeks later, they try again. They fail again.
So this is their fourth go, in fact, of crossing the Tugela River.
Ancl on 27th February, they have a battle
called the Battle of Pieters Hill, which is the last major engagement,
and they push the Boers out of Pieters Hill,
open up the road to Ladysmith, and that's the end of the siege. Wow.
Let's have a look here.
Hold on. I'm just about...
No way! Yeah! Yeah.
That is un...
Where the heck have you found that?
That says McGuinness on it! It does.
So a private collector has it.
My Word!
Ancl there's his number - 332... Yeah.
Oh, my God!
That is actually mind-blowing!
WOW!
That is...
Seriously, and I'm not often lost for words, Peter,
but that has left me speechless.
It's lovely, isn't it? It's a real connection.
My God! It really is.
I really feel that as |'m...as I'm holding it. It's...
The fact that...that's been on...
...you know, in his hand, on his chest... Yeah, I know.
It's amazing. And what he went through to get it.
Right. Yes.
What an honour to sort of hold this in my hand and just...
Wow.
Me dad's passed away, but I'd have loved to have shown him this
cos this is his father's. Yeah. Right.
I think he'd have loved to have had this medal.
No, absolutely. It would be really moving for him.
My word.
So, after this, what happened then?
Right. We can have a look at another document. Yeah.
So this is the original, and here's a transcript of it.
So this is a statement of the services of 3321,
who is obviously William McGuinness. Yes.
Hang on a minute. I'm seeing...
The first thing I've seen is "awaiting trial." Yes.
My word. Right, OK.
Number one - "When on active service,
"disobeying a lawful command given to." Right.
Ancl number two - "When on active service,
"using insubordinate languages to superior officer
"with HL for 168 clays." Yeah.
Now, the first thing I want to ask you is, do you know what that is?
Right. And the second thing is, doesn't surprise me
cos I am a very similar mindset. OK.
I don't think it's ever been lost on the McGuinnesses
to challenge authority. Right.
I mean, so the 168 clays is imprisonment with hard lab our - HL,
so a pretty hefty punishment. What?!
Yeah, I know.
He's got 168 clays' hard lab our. Yeah, I know.
I mean... I mean, what has he said? Or was it just that was the thing
back then, it didn't matter. Well, actually, so what probably happened
is he's let his sort of more spirited side get the better of him
and when he's been ordered to do something, and this is probably some
routine duty that he just doesn't want to do,
and he's let the senior officer know exactly what he thinks of it. Yeah.
And the ordinary soldier, William, is from a working-class background,
and the officers are going to come from the upper middle classes.
Yeah. Ancl there's going to be no meeting point between the two
and they're not going to tolerate anybody...any cheek
from a working-class soldier to an upper-middle-class officer.
And, you know, after being in a battle like that,
whatever was asked for him there, you know, he's probably going,
"Have you not had enough?" Indeed. Right.
If you look a little bit further down... Ha! Right.
Yeah. Well, firstly, I've just seen massive letters -
"Character Bad". Yes, yeah.
Wow. We've gone from hero to convict here... No, indeed.
...in one fell swoop. I know. Within the space of a year, really.
Yeah. Dear me. That's right.
Gosh, it's so interesting.
Knowing he was in the Boer War was something,
but to actually hold a medal that he wore -
you know, he looked at it with his own eyes and touched it
and pinned it on his chest, to have that now, in this clay and age,
it's a miracle, really, to get hold of that.
Ancl it just gave me a real sense of pride,
but a connection as well
to someone who I've never met or laid eyes on.
So far, Paddy has not found any connection
between the McGuinnesses and Ireland.
Now he wants to trace his paternal line further back,
to try to find a link.
I always had it in me mind. I wanted to know about
whereabouts in Ireland me family came from.
Ancl I think the shock of me grandad being born in Bolton,
where I thought he was Irish,
the only way to kind of find out about his parents
is on his birth certificate, which I've got here,
so this is really exciting for me.
Let's have a look.
Name and surname of father...
That's blank.
Crikey!
Ancl I'll tell you how shocking that is -
I don't think I've said crikey in me life!
Name, surname of mother,
Bridget McGuinness.
So Bridget McGuinness would have been my great-grandmother.
What is a mystery is where me great-grandfather is.
To uncover the identity of his missing great-grandfather
and how the McGuinnesses are connected to Ireland,
Paddy is meeting genealogist Laura Berry
at the former Church of St Mary's in Bolton.
So, Laura, me grandad's birth certificate has
his mum on there, Bridget McGuinness.
But where his father's name is was just left blank. Mm.
That's not his name - just literally nothing there. Nothing there.
So I don't know his name or where he's from. Mm.
Please help! SHE CH UCKLES
OK, well, I've looked for your great-grandmother Bridget
on the 1871 census, so a few years before his birth,
and that you can see here.
That's the address. Name and surname of each person.
Bridget McGuinness, head.
William Birtwistle, boarder?
It's quite common to have a boarder at this time to help pay the rent.
So still missing off here is the mystery man.
Me great-grandad is still not to be found.
Well, I've found a baptism record for your grandfather
and it actually provides us with his dad's name there.
Here he is. William, 1875.
Parents...
Oh!
William Birtwistle. Is that right?
That's right.
Hang on, so the boarder...
...is me grandad's clad.
That's it, yep.
This is all getting a bit Jeremy Kyle for me now.
Why is he down as "boarder" and why is he not on the birth certificate?
Yeah, that's an interesting question.
So when your grandfather's birth was registered in 1875... Yeah.
..Bridget and William Birtwistle were not actually married,
so although your grandfather was registered at birth
with the surname McGuinness,
he was christened with the Birtwistle surname.
So McGuinness is from Bridget, then?
That's right, yeah. Wow.
William and Bridget did actually marry eventually,
nine years after your grandfather was born, in 1884.
So this is your great-grandmother marrying your great-grandfather
right here in this very church.
In here, now? Yeah, where we are now.
Yeah, this was the Roman Catholic Church. That is bonkers!
WOW!
That's mind-blowing, honestly. It really is.
So they got married, 1884.
I presume if they were married, Bridget would have been Birtwistle.
That's right, yeah.
Now, firstly, no disrespect to the Birtwistles - lovely name -
glad I ended up as a McGuinness!
"Welcome to the show. He's your host, Paddy Birtwistle!"
Doesn't really do it for me.
That aside, why did I not end up as a Birtwistle?
Yeah, it's interesting, that.
Do you think he's...there's a bit of rebellious streak there
and it's like, "|'m taking me mum's name because I don't like you"?
Yeah, it's hard to know,
but for whatever reason, from the 1890s onwards,
he stuck with the McGuinness surname. Right.
Ancl Mr Birtwistle has been written out of history.
Oh, poor William Birtwistle.
Oh, my God.
The other thing for me an' all, Laura, when I'm looking at this,
William Birtwistle - where born, Bolton.
Where's the bloody Irish lot?
So this record... This is a baptism record from 1836
for your great-grandmother,
and it tells us where the McGuinness part of your surname comes from.
Right, 0|<.
Parents, Mark McGuinness and Winifred Molloy.
My great great-grandparents.
Yes. Right.
Ancl this is where they've baptised their daughter, Bridget.
Oh, right, OK.
Parish of Kilmore Moy, Counties of Mayo and Sligo.
Mind blown.
Wow.
Bloody hell. Well, at least we have actually
got now an Irish connection.
This church is actually in a town called Ballina in Mayo.
You know, I'm loving finding out about me family
cos I knew nothing about any of them,
but the amount of times over the years, whenever I've been to Ireland
and people will say to me, "You know, where are you...?"
Ancl I felt so bloody ignorant, not knowing.
Yeah, it must be difficult being a man who's got Guinness in his name
not to be able to say where in Ireland that Guinness comes from.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Mark McGuinness.
Winifred Molloy.
We know that's where Bridget was baptised,
but does that mean Mark and Winifred are from here?
Like, born there? I think you're going to have to
go to Ireland to find out, to be honest.
Get us a first-class flight...
What do you mean they don't do first-class, the BBC?!
Paddy has finally found his Irish roots by tracing the McGuinness
family back over 200 years to his great great-grandparents,
Mark McGuinness and Winifred Molloy,
who baptised their daughter Bridget at a church in Ireland.
Paddy is following in his great great-grandparents footsteps
to their hometown of Ballina in the west of Ireland.
I've been to Belfast, I've been to Dublin, I've been to Kilkenny.
This is me first time here on the West Coast,
and a beautiful part of the world.
I definitely feel a connection to Ireland.
When people have asked me whereabouts me family are from,
I've just had no idea, so it's a treat, really.
I'm excited.
I'm not sure which McGuinness arrived first in Bolton,
to be honest, and that's going to be really interesting to find out.
And also, we might find out why they ended up in Bolton.
NOW... Ah!
Now, there you go.
The old family connection has its perks!
Ey up. Slainte.
Paddy's meeting social historian Judy Bolger to find out more
about the lives of his great great-grandparents.
Oh, Judy, this is my kind of morning!
Cup of team, scone, indoors, chatting.
So I know me great great-grandparents...
Yeah. ..Mark and Winifred... Yeah.
...had a daughter, Bridget. Yeah.
She was born in Ballina, but that's all I know.
OK. Brilliant. Well, you might find out a bit more
from this document here. Right.
Let's have a look here. So, Register of Marriages.
Mark McGuinness, occupation...
Is that weaver? That is, yeah. Well clone.
Ancl Winifred Molloy, spinster. Yeah.
Residence, Ballina. Mm-hm.
This doesn't say this - I know it doesn't -
but that looks like it says, to me, "Anniversary watch".
But I know it's definitely not going to be that, Judy, is it?
No, it's definitely not that. No, no, it's "runaway match".
Runaway match? What's that?
What do you think?
Um... It feels to me like they've kind of...
The romantic side of me, it sounds like they've sort of absconded
from somewhere and got married.
Yeah, yeah, which is very likely.
If you look at their two witnesses, it doesn't look like Winifred
had any of her family there to stand by her marriage.
Oh, right, OK. So it looks like it's a note from,
say, it would have been the priest, commenting on their marriage,
cos normally the maternal and paternal family would kind of
support the... Oh, right. OK.
If you look at some of the other comments in here,
it'll give you an idea about some of the other marriages.
Yeah, you can see "lived in..."
What's that?
Fornication. Fornication.
What a time to be alive, back then!
Yeah, for sure! Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right, so...
So this is the year they got married. 1823.
Ballina, getting married - what would life have been like then?
Well, we actually have an image here to give you a taste.
Oh, right, OK. Yeah. Give you an idea.
Let's just see what you think of that.
Ooh! Now, is this bridge this bit here,
or is it the other side? It's farther down.
So this bridge would be this one. Exactly.
Ancl this would have been slightly after they got married,
in the 1830s or 1840s, but it'll give you an idea, a flavour.
The cathedral was being built here.
If you see, it's missing some of the bits. Oh, yeah.
So Ireland at this point is very poor, very agricultural,
lots of little families living as tenants on big landlorded estates,
most of them labourers, whereas your great great-grandfather
was a weaver, so he would have been slightly more skilled
than the average labourer. Right, 0|<.
But he wouldn't have been living a luxurious life.
He would have been living kind of just above the poverty line.
Yeah. Cos I'm just wondering an' all, why did they go to England?
Why Bolton, in specific? And, um...
Ancl I don't know if, again, that's just purely a money thing
and what have you. ls there anything else you can tell me
about them, though?
Yeah, we can find out about some of Mark and Winifred's children.
Let's have a look here. Sol can see...
"John McGuinness. Yeah. So he was born 1825.
Yep. Then, three years later,
1828, Bryan was born.
They lived in Garden Street.
Then Peter was born,
and then another two years after that, Michael was born.
It's like every two years, they must have gone, "Here we go."
Yeah, well, that was quite the norm at the time. Right.
With breast-feeding and things like that, it was usually a two-year
cycle that women had children. Right. Yeah.
So we've got 1834, Mary was born. Yeah.
Again, Garden Street. Could that have just been where they were born,
or was that where they were living?
No, 100% that could be where the actual birth took place.
That's quite possible, yeah. Right, 0|<.
Ancl then 1836 again, yeah, two years later, Bridget.
Bridget. Who's me...grandad's mum.
There you are, yeah. Right, OK.
It seems to me, back in the clay, big families -
I mean, really big families were the norm. Yeah.
This would be very typical to have two, four, six children,
and especially in that cycle of every two years.
That is amazing.
To see if he can find out
why the McGuinnesses left Ireland for Bolton,
Paddy's meeting local historian Terry Reilly.
Hello, Terry. Hello, Paddy. Nice to meet you, sir.
You're welcome. Are you OK? Welcome to Ballina.
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Let's go inside. Let's get in there, yeah.
So, Terry, me two times great-grandparents,
Mark and Winifred, we've traced them back to Garden Street.
Can you tell me anything else about that?
I can indeed, Paddy. And if you take a look at a map
of that period when Winifred and Mark were here,
the streets are still there. This is called Tone Street now.
As you can see, not too many houses in Garden Street then. No.
There were actually 12 pubs in Garden Street.
This is my kind of town! Yeah, because the market square
and the fairs and all that were here. Yeah.
So it was quite a prosperous street.
So me two times great-grandad...
Well, I know he was a weaver.
Would he have been working from his home at the time?
He would have been working from his home.
Ancl do you know who he had as a neighbour?
He had a very famous neighbour -
Edward Blewitt, the great great great-grandfather
ofjoe Biden, the President of America.
Really? So you're in big company there.
Oh!
This is... This just keeps getting better.
Can you tell me anything else? What happened to him,
you know, around this time or after?
Well, we have a record of 1835, Paddy.
You might have a look at that. Right, OK. Yeah.
Decline in the linen trade.
Mr Armstrong. "I have observed that the condition of the labourers
"has been deteriorating for several years.
"The decline of the linen trade has clone much
"towards this deterioration. Great numbers of weavers
"having abandoned their trade and become labourers."
Yeah. They were out of work, really, at that stage.
They were becoming out of work, so they had to go labouring. Right.
Ancl the guys from the country were coming into the town,
and they were taking the jobs of these guys who are now labourers
and driving the income down. Oh!
Ireland was in a bit of a mess and people were leaving at this stage
to go to England and go to America. This is before the famine, even.
Right. What have we got here, Terry?
You've got the Census of Stockport, 1841.
Oh, my God.
So they've left here to go to Stockport.
That's right.
Some journey.
Winney McGuinness.
John McGuinness.
Peter, another son.
Bridget McGuinness.
Mark McGuinness.
Then, obviously, Bridget's my great-grandmother. Yeah.
Clothes seller - we've got down there.
Then we've got cotton spinners assistant, dyers assistant.
So it's all... We're all staying on this kind of cotton...
You're all still in the fabric business, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So I know the north of England
has got strong connections to this kind of work,
but would that have been the reason to set off there?
Yeah. They were looking for people in the weaving industry in the UK
at that time, in England, so there was work there.
Ancl these were skilled guys. Yeah.
They would have carried with them addresses back home of their people
or their friends, and they would probably write to them and say,
"Mark, there's a job here for you
"because this business is buzzing over here."
Yeah.
Between 1815 and 1845, before the Potato Famine,
around half a million economic migrants left Ireland
to work in Britain.
Many were drawn to the textile heartland of northern England.
just to gather all your family together -
all the kids are quite young,
what processes would they have had to have gone through then?
Well, having made the decision to move on and move out
and follow a better life, they would have had to sell up their looms,
you know, their weaving equipment, whatever they had,
and they probably would have to get their way from here to Dublin.
But to get from here to Dublin was even a task.
It probably took them 36 hours or something like that.
Oh, my word! Yeah, yeah.
Anyone who goes away with their kids now,
knows how stressful that's going to be. Yes, exactly!
But, God, in 1841, you can't even imagine
what that journey was like. No, no.
No, I know. Desperate. Desperate. My word!
So they've clone this long journey,
they've got to Stockport, and then do you know anything
about how they've come from to go from Stockport to Bolton?
I've got one last document for you.
I think you'll be interested in this one.
Here we go.
The Census of Bolton.
1851. Yes.
Name and surname of each person who were boarding in the house
on the night of 30th March, 1851.
Ten years... Ten years after they... ..after they came over.
So now they are firmly settled in Bolton.
Ancl the rest is history, as they say.
The rest is history. Yeah.
This is how we came to sort of come from Ireland
and finish up in Bolton.
We've come full circle now.
When you think back to how it was
in those clays, to suddenly uproot yourself
and your wife and all your children, your young children,
and to go off to a country you don't know anything about
and set up shop over there,
you can't even fathom how difficult that would be.
The thing for me, and I don't know if this is the same
with other people who've been on here,
but, um...| do feel a real spiritual connection.
You know, even on this beach today - it's absolutely beautiful
here on the West Coast of Ireland - they could have been playing
on here as kids, walking up and down it. You know, who knows?
It's quite a romantic thought,
but I like it.
It's just been one of them
where there's so many lovely little surprises.
You know, me grandad on me mum's side with the Spitfire connection.
Me ancestors over here in Ballina
who lived on the same street as Joe Biden's ancestors.
I think the biggest highlight for me was actually
seeing me grandad's war medal.
That, for me, was a real moment where I felt like I was holding
a piece of history in me hand.
Me clad would have loved finding out more about our Irish ancestors,
and it'd have been nice to bring him out to Ballina and what have you,
but I'll have a pint of the black stuff for him,
don't you worry about that.