1974: Charles Waterton, TAXIDERMIST and ECCENTRIC | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Squire Charles Waterton was a prominent early naturalist, creating the first wildlife sanctuary in the UK around his home. He was also a serious scientist and bona fide eccentric, who used parts left over from his taxidermy to make imaginary animals and an insulting bust of the Lord of the Treasury.
In this excerpt, Nationwide reporter Martin Young rummages through Waterton’s mounted animals, explores Waterton’s Walton Hall estate, and dons unwieldy wings to launch himself from the roof of a cottage.
Clip taken from Nationwide, originally broadcast on 10 October 1974 on BBC One.
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Well, that opening shot is going to be in my nightmares.
It gets better if you imagine it being there in a fridge passing you the milk
Haha--Yes! That's what I was thinking I've seen a wide share of horror films from basically all of decades of film and that opening shot ranks pretty high in the nightmare fuel department. What the hell is that!? Answer something that likely ONLY exists in Charles Waterton's collection of taxidermy.
Well at the very least he did create a private wildlife sanctuary for many of the furred and feathered, so at least he wasn't as ghastly as some. I guess he just had this bizarre, intense fascination with seemingly facet of their being, or at least on the physical side.
I don't know anymore about him aside from this video. He is new to me, but I don't go looking for videos about taxidermy. I was just remarking to a friend recently that I found it in general to be off putting. So I'm both surprised I stumbled onto this and also that I didn't click back immediately. That thumbnail pic whittled quickly into my mind and overrided my defense against the title I saw before clicking it. I think I'm gonna have to hot potato share this with a person or two I know. I bet I won't be the only one.
When the UK government introduced the taxidermist laws (listed under annex 4 of the Habitats Directive) he thought that the taxman had told him to go get stuffed.
you are proud of the one i can tell!
I try to be funny myself, but never this clever. Well played sir!
So glad I'm British. I'm determined to be an old eccentric in a few decades 😂
While the general outlines of the career of Charles Watterton are true as far as they go, the tone of it is misleading. He was probably high functioning autistic, and had a wry sense of humour; he was a kindly if shy man unless he was interacting with other scientists . Despite his eccentric ways, he was described by his neighbours as being a quiet man of natural dignity.
Watterton's modern "crew cut" and bare feet were pragmatic adaptations for his outdoor lifestyle. He was a superb naturalist, and made more that one trip to the Amazon basin to study wildlife. Charles Watterton came of a devout (recusant) Catholic family, and though a squire, the penal laws against Catholics deprived him of his rightful title of Lord Watterton. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, and most of his life attended the yearly alumni reunions, where he was cherished for his ability to tell interesting stories about his travels, and amused students and masters by walking on his hands for some distance in the dining hall (refectory)
. In mid-llfe he married the young daughter of another Catholic naturalist; they were very fond of each other;. She gave them one son, and then she died at a young age, and he was heartbroken. By his own wish, when he died at advanced age, Charles Watterton was buried on an island in a lake on his land. His son had no heirs, nor had any feeling or interest in his father's conservation interests and efforts. He neglected and then sold off Watterton Hall.
Wow, what a strange cat, interesting though. I'm disturbed by his re-creations via taxidermy, especially the re-creature from the opening. A longer documentary about him would probably be interesting to watch as suggested by the biographical info you've provided here.
Despite not being really ok with his taxidermy work, I can appreciate that he at least provided a wildlife sanctuary for many animals. I don't know that that is necessarily a very typical thing done by the average person involved in taxidermy. Regardless of what he did with them, he did obviously respect animals as a whole. But yeah I'm new to him, so there's only so much I can say other than he seems to be an original by estimation.
natural dignity?
his actions speak more truthfully than the generous words of someone not wanting to speak ill of the dead, shooting fish with a bow and arrow, come on now he is a man of means not some indigenous tribesman attempting to feed the village😂
"He was the last of the great British eccentrics..."
My man obviously hadn't foreseen Boris.
Well now I'm never sleeping again 😅
omg i love this hahahaa
2.58 vampire bats saliva produces painkiller so the victim is minimally disturbed!
Charging duty on monkeys pissed the squire😂😂😂😂It kind of pissed me too when buying whisky😂😂😂
10/10/74, the day this was broadcast, was a general election day.
Indeed it was, the second election of that year.
Also the rumble in the jungle took place later that month
A Flock Of Seagulls?
😂
Brazil 🇧🇷
Interesting piece but the tee-hee narration and the wacky music are really irritating.
Takes the edge off what is essentially a video of mutilated animal corpses
Absolutely grotesque