Durham to Grosmont Great British Railway Journeys

In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.

His name was George Bradshaw, and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.

Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see, and where to stay.

Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length

and breadth of the country, to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

Using my 19th century Bradshaw's guide, I'm continuing my journey

from the cradle of the railways, the North East of England, headed south.

Town and country soon became more accessible,

and this green and pleasant land was soon transformed for ever.

Along the way, I'll be stopping off at some of the sights recommended in this extraordinary book,

and finding out how the places it describes were changed by the railways.

On this leg of the journey, I'll experience how tough it was to drive a steam engine...

The heat from the boiler is intense,

and the coal is heavy.

And the locomotive is very hungry.

..Meeting one of the first locomotives...

It's in the most beautiful condition. Am I allowed to...?

-I think you are, absolutely.

-Quite thrilling, actually.

..And sounding out Whitby, which inspired the Victorian horror story, Dracula...

Aaaaaaargh!

How was that?

I started this journey in Newcastle, and now I'm following

some of the earliest railway lines, built for freight.

My route through Yorkshire takes in the spa town of Harrogate

and the industrial cities of Leeds and Sheffield.

Then I'll be crossing into rural Leicestershire, ending up

at picturesque Melton Mowbray.

On this stretch, I start in Durham,

then cross the Yorkshire Moors

to Whitby, and at Grosmont, catch a Heritage line.

'This is Durham.'

-Cheers.

-Thank you. 'My first stop is the historically

'important city of Durham, whose overwhelming cathedral is rightly praised in my Bradshaw's guide.'

Bradshaw's says of Durham, "from all the neighbouring points of view, its

"appearance is unique and striking and the public edifices exhibit a great degree of magnificence.

"The centre of the eminence is occupied by the cathedral and castle."

Victorian writers could be pretty pompous, but the point is well made.

The view is stunning.

In the Victorian era, the cathedral more than dominated the skyline.

It was one of the most powerful landowners in the county.

When the railway arrived, the Chapter, its governing body,

demanded huge sums of money to allow it to cross ecclesiastical land.

And even today, the cathedral is central to Durham's way of life.

-Are you a native of Durham?

-I am, and a student, so...

-Oh, that's unusual. So you're studying in your own city?

-I am.

Do you go to the cathedral very often?

It's such an impressive building and I'm graduating there in

January, which is going to be great for myself, personally.

-Isn't that lovely?

-Absolutely. It's such a good setting.

And I think, as well, so historic.

The railway reached Durham in the 1840s, and in the

succeeding decades, the railway companies promoted the cathedral as an attraction worth the journey.

They appealed to a new type of Victorian tourist - the wealthy

middle classes, seeking to educate themselves through travel.

And a Bradshaw's guide made a perfect tutor.

It records, "This venerable building is a cross, 420 feet long,

"built between 1093 and 1220,

"chiefly Norman, with many examples of the early pointed style."

I love Durham Cathedral.

As you march up this enormous nave,

you're aware of this impressive, heavy, ancient architecture.

The great big columns and the rounded arches.

And it's all one. It's all of a period.

And yet, I'm marching towards

what I assume is a later, beautiful rose window.

And the whole place is majestic and tranquil.

And vast.

In the early 19th century, the bishops of Durham were powerful and wealthy men.

They were so well remunerated that a celebrated kerfuffle over

the pension paid to one bishop is highlighted in my Bradshaw's guide.

Perhaps unfairly, I put the present day Dean, Michael Sadgrove, on the spot.

Now, there's a curious reference in my Bradshaw.

It says, "In 1856, an Act of Parliament was obtained to enable the bishops of London

"and Durham to retire from their sees with handsome pensions." Now, what was he referring to?

That was the retirement of Bishop Edward Maltby.

He was a cause celebre, because that was unheard of.

You didn't retire, you simply went on until you died.

He was given permission to retire,

because the Bishop of London was also given similar permission at the same time.

And the pensions on which they retired were huge.

I think £4,500 per annum, which equates to about £350,000 a year, in today's money.

With the Victorian press in full cry about the bishop's pension,

the Prime Minister faced angry questions.

I looked up the parliamentary debate, actually, and it's interesting.

One MP gets up and says, "Why should these chaps have £4,500, when the average churchman has only £100?"

So it's all about disparity of income.

-It's got echoes of the present day. Hasn't it?

-It is.

CHOIR SINGS

Before I resume my journey south, there's just time to hear the

Cathedral School Choir in rehearsal, led by Choir Master, James Lancelot.

CHORAL SINGING

-You must be James. Very good to meet you. That was lovely.

-Welcome.

Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much, everybody.

How long has there been a choir in this cathedral?

Since it was built, I think, probably.

-Ninth century?

-And boys since 1416, at least.

Yes.

The young voices really fill the entire space, don't they?

They do, they do. They know a thing or two about singing,

and the people who built it knew a thing or two about acoustics! This is not the whole choir.

We've got 16 boys, ten men and we've now got 20 girls as well, since last November.

Now, I believe I'm talking not only to a choir master but also a bit of an aficionado of trains.

-Is that true?

-That is true, yes.

Both the interest in music and trains go back to early childhood.

When you were this age, what did you want to be?

I think I wanted to be an engine driver!

I think it's very difficult to explain,

well, to really anyone under about the age of 55, just what the romance of railway travel was in those days.

The sheer varieties, the complexity.

And at its heart, of course, the steam engine, which was the nearest

thing to a living creature that any machine has ever been.

Well, I'm safely over 55, so you're OK with me!

I'm sorry to leave such a glorious city behind, but I must embark on the next stage of my journey.

'The next station is Darlington, in 15 minutes time.'

I'm now headed for a place that George Bradshaw would have found very exciting.

Towards the 22 miles of track that he says are "memorable as being the first locomotive rail in England",

and he might have added, "or anywhere else in the world."

Built between 1821 and 1825 by George Stephenson,

I'm headed for the highly historic Darlington to Stockton railway.

Darlington is considered by many to be the home of the first modern freight railway ever built.

'This is Darlington.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

It is indeed remarkable to think, moving to think,

that in the early 1820s this was where George Stephenson laid the

first iron tracks to take the coal from the collieries of Darlington, down to the river at Stockton.

Lots of people had laid tracks before, but what was to make this railway unique, a first,

was that it wasn't horse drawn, it wasn't driven by stationary engines.

This railway was going to be powered by locomotives,

by moving engines.

Are you very aware of the history of this place?

I know quite a bit of it. I've spent many years, I'm in my 32nd year now.

I started in 1978, at this station.

The railways here go back even longer than you do, back to 1825!

They certainly do. I'm glad they do, as well!

My 19th century Bradshaw's guide says this is the first

locomotive rail in England, but actually, that's to understate it.

It's the first locomotive rail in the world.

Maybe, but England always comes first, doesn't it?

That's a good way of putting it! Lovely to talk to you.

Thank you very much.

Close by is the resting place of some of the earliest engines,

where I'm meeting railway expert, Mark Allott.

How did it come about that there was a railway between Stockton and Darlington?

It was the usual thing around that period - the need of growing industry for coal.

And the canals weren't particularly fast at transporting things,

and hence the decision was made to build a railway in its place.

Initially, it was thought horse-drawn vehicles would ply the new line.

But engineer, George Stephenson, was convinced steam was the future

and devised a new engine called Locomotion Number One.

Locomotion is one of the most important locomotives,

the first one to haul passengers on a public railway back in 1825.

So it really is the grandfather of all the railways that we've got today.

And what we're looking at here, is this a replica of Locomotion?

No, it's the real engine and it's been preserved since 1841.

So, isn't it fascinating to think that even when that was only 16 years old, people had realised

-the important part that that engine had played in history?

-It's in the most beautiful condition.

-It really is.

-Am I allowed to...?

I think you are, absolutely!

Quite thrilling, actually.

Although the new railway was designed for freight, it soon

began to take passengers too, who were doubtless also thrilled,

even though the first train took over two hours

to travel just twelve miles.

What was it like when they began to take passengers?

-Did they have carriages ready for them?

-Not quite.

What you'll see - and I'll show you, if you come this way - is that coal trucks like this

were some of the vehicles that were carrying the first passengers.

Some of them would have ridden on top to start with, and some would have been empty, with people inside.

How quickly did things advance?

Really quickly. One of the things I think is a good analogy,

is looking how computers have really changed very, very quickly in the last few years.

Or how mobile phones have shrunk.

So in only ten years, you went from a really fragile locomotive like that, like Locomotion,

through Rocket, which had all the essential components of the end of

steam, effectively, to locomotives like Derwent, that were operating in collieries only ten years later.

Look at the size of it, compared to Locomotion.

Size and sophistication.

From these small beginnings, the railways spread rapidly across Britain.

By the time my Bradshaw's guide was written in the 1860s,

the country was linked by nearly 10,000 miles of track.

It was a railway revolution, with the most deep-reaching industrial and social consequences.

I'm now quitting Darlington for Whitby, one of the towns transformed by the new railways.

Bradshaw, in his flowery Victorian language, says, "There are, among the watering places of England,

"few that have more greatly benefited than Whitby from railway communications.

"Or that have become better adapted for the reception of visitors."

He's really enthusiastic about Whitby's natural beauty, and about the quality of its hotels.

I'm looking forward to it.

'Ladies and gentlemen, we shall shortly be arriving at Whitby, where this service terminates.'

Train travel came to Whitby in 1847, and by the end of the century,

had helped turn a small fishing village into a bustling seaside resort of fashion.

Visitors came to admire the romantic ruins of Whitby's Abbey,

but I'm here to investigate its more chilling claim to fame.

Do you know you're in Dracula's town?

Oh, yes, I do, yes.

Do you know how Dracula arrived in Whitby?

No.

Do you know the story of Dracula?

Not really. I thought it was a ship.

Yeah, it was a ship.

Have you come to Whitby because of Dracula?

No, I haven't. No, we've just come for a girls' night out!

Which we had last night.

Was there much blood-sucking involved?

Well, I'm not telling!

All right, thank you very much.

-Thanks. Bye!

-What weapon do you use to see off a vampire?

Erm...well, I don't want to brag, but I do have a lot of garlic in the kitchen, ready and waiting.

So I'm more than willing to take him on.

And what's the way of killing off a vampire?

A stake through the heart, I would think.

-Do you have any stakes in the kitchen?

-Only meat...

-Probably the wrong sort!

-Thank you very much!

-No problem.

Bram Stoker's Dracula, published in 1897, recounts

how solicitor, Jonathan Harker, and other innocents fall victim to the terrifying Vampire Count.

Stoker used Whitby as the location for some of the book's most dramatic scenes.

Famously, Dracula arrived by ship from Transylvania, here in Whitby.

What's less well known is that Jonathan Harker writes of

one of his first encounters with the Count in his castle,

"I found the Count lying on the sofa, reading,

"of all things in the world, an English Bradshaw's guide."

It's not reassuring to know that Dracula and I share the same taste in books.

As the rain descends, I need no convincing that this is a perfect setting for a tale of horror.

Welcome to Wetby! Whitby.

Ideal weather for my Terror Tour with Harry Collett.

If I were a betting man, I would wager that you know something about Dracula, dressed like that!

-Yes, just a little bit.

-Why do you think Bram Stoker chose Whitby for this Gothic novel?

He came here as a holiday. Stoker came, took residency in the Royal Crescent,

and for the first week of his month long holiday,

he stayed by himself whilst his family came up by rail from London.

And during that week, the Irishman started to put pen to paper to write a play.

The play ultimately became the novel, Dracula.

The Count brings terror to Whitby, after a shipwreck that reeks of the supernatural.

And when the ship arrived, that was a pretty frightening moment for people. Just describe its arrival.

Big storm,

pulled in, crashed onto the beach.

And there they found the captain, dead.

Lashed to steering wheel, clutching his crucifix and his rosary.

Onto Tate Sands, through the harbour entrance, running aground on Tate Sands.

And, of course, off that ship leapt a large black dog with saucer-like eyes and

fang-like teeth, to go and run helter skelter up the 199 church stairs and go and hide in the graveyard.

And who was that fearful hound?

Dracula himself.

Welcome to the Screaming Tunnel.

-The Screaming Tunnel?

-Yes.

That's because it's said that if you venture in here after dark, you might meet You Know Who.

Well, we did say to you that this was the Screaming Tunnel, so after three,

I'd like you to fill your lungs and have a good long scream.

You must be joking, I'll get arrested for that, won't I?

-I doubt it.

-OK, here goes.

Aaaaaaaaargh!

-How was that?

-Excellent.

Mmm, I feel better for that!

Another fantastic view of Whitby, that's beautiful.

It is. It's one of the best views in the town, this.

One of the first times we meet Dracula in the novel, he is

reading Bradshaw' timetable, isn't he? What's he doing?

He's working out how to get the 50 coffins of earth,

which he brings with him from Transylvania into Whitby, how to get them down to the railway station

in Whitby to catch the 09.30 express to London, which will get him there at 5.30 the following afternoon.

Even to the undead, Bradshaw's railway timetables were indispensable.

'The last stop on my Dracula tour is also where I shall spend the night.'

It's pretty blowy out there!

'The Royal Hotel.' Bram Stoker used to write here, is that right?

He did indeed, yes.

He was in one of our reading lounges upstairs, that's now guest accommodation.

-And where am I staying?

-You're in room 101, which is on the 1st floor, sir. Have a wonderful stay with us.

-And will I sleep well?

-You'll sleep very well.

Thank you! Bye.

Built around 1850, the hotel is described in my

Bradshaw's as, "Splendid, containing warm baths and every convenience for the accommodation of visitors."

From this cliff top site, Stoker could plot Dracula's nocturnal flits

around Whitby's impressive topography.

Ah, the famous view!

And here I shall stay until midnight.

Unpunctured by any fang, I've woken to see what Whitby offers, other than vampires.

Bradshaw's says, "Whitby has long been admired for

"the peculiarity of its position and the grandeur of its coastal scenery.

"To the eastward, the cliffs rise almost 200 feet above the sea,

"and towards the south, present a procession of bold headlands."

This is clearly a place worth exploring.

Early railway travellers were attracted by the views, no doubt.

But many came determined to acquire precious souvenirs,

with the highest possible seal of approval.

One item that Victorian tourists latched onto was jet,

a black gemstone that could be carved into jewellery, which, after the death of her husband,

Prince Albert, became very popular with Her Majesty the Queen herself.

'Jeweller, Chris Sellors, will show me where to look for jet,

'a search that's continued since Bradshaw's day.'

Interesting journey down here!

Down the cliff, absolutely.

What is jet?

It's a fossilised monkey puzzle tree, actually. Araucaria.

180 million years ago these were laid down and, under the pressure, have turned into the black magic.

I think of precious gemstones as coming from the heart of Africa.

-Are there many in Britain?

-There's only two.

There's obviously Blue John from Derbyshire,

but jet is so highly prized, and going back to Victorian days,

was made and used extensively in jewellery.

The only jet to be found in Britain is on the coast near Whitby.

The Victorian fashion for black jewels created

a huge demand for this rare stone, and jet hunters combed the shore.

How did the Victorians quarry it, if that's the word?

They weren't very eco-friendly, I'm afraid. There's evidence at certain times you can see here,

where they'd been drilling and they used explosives on these cliffs.

Where do you find it today?

The material today is largely beach combed.

There's some small seams that appear in the cliffs, but

we've got people collecting it all the time out on the beach.

Can you see any jet in the cliffs nowadays?

Yes, there's evidence of a few collectors that have been down here

and following some very thin, small seams.

It's actually harder to see when it's wet.

Back of that there, you can see a very, very thin seam.

It's lovely the way it glints in the bottom there.

Yeah. It's beautiful stuff.

In Bradshaw's epoch, Whitby had 200 jet workshops.

Only a few remain, including Chris's, established in 1860.

Morning. So what do you do?

I'm making some rings at the moment.

Just a matter of cutting the pieces down to size.

Just show me you've got ten fingers?

Oh, you have!

These are some antique pieces from our collection.

I'm noticing that the Victorian taste is for very big pieces?

They were very bold in what they did.

Jet was a material that enabled this to happen, because it's so light, you know, there's no weight to it at all.

-No, none at all.

-It's interesting that jet actually found its way

to the Great Exhibition in London in 1851,

where some important orders were gained by local manufacturers.

Again, that's the kind of thing that helped put Whitby on the map.

Without the railways, that really wouldn't have been possible.

Chris has one last marvel to show me.

The largest piece of Whitby jet ever found. It's absolutely beautiful.

That's enormous, isn't it?

Looking at the edge, you see this?

It's total gem quality all the way through.

An interesting part about it is, on this side, you can see

all the ammonites that actually were crushed when the branch went down.

Covered in tiny little fossils.

All the way across.

The whole length of it.

I must be on my way, and I shall board the train at Grosmont, just outside Whitby.

By now, you may know that I'm thrilled by steam trains,

and so my pulse is quickening.

Bradshaw's says of the Grosmont to Pickering line that it

"passes through the most picturesque scenery.

"The vales of Newton and Goatland present a wild country, with bold ranges of rock on either side."

It was referring to what is now called the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

-Hello.

-You're going to drive this handsome beast, are you?

Yes, it's a nice handsome beast. It was built for the Southern Railway in 1934,

spent all its life in the south of England, and now it lives in Yorkshire.

They tell me that amongst the Heritage Railways in Britain,

the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is the most popular now?

Yes, we carried around 350,000 passengers last year, and we made

a little bit of money, but we spend it all back in on the railway.

It's our love, and we do it for not a lot. A lot of us do it for nothing.

I'm an retired railwayman, and I used to drive trains for a living.

But I've driven these all my life as well.

-Shall we get on board?

-Yes.

Chris Cubitt has been driving steam trains here since 1969.

Once we've got her up and running on her feet, we'll put it across and she'll just romp up the hill.

Right.

Meanwhile, Harry is shovelling the coal in.

Lovely heat, isn't it? Wow!

-It's going to get a lot hotter than that.

-It's going to hotter?

About 3,000 degrees.

3,000 degrees in there?

The engine talks to you, it tells you everything you want to know.

-It talks to you!

-Yes.

It talks to everyone, not just me.

-Well, only you can hear what it's saying!

-No, if you listen to the chimney, it's nice and soft.

If you put some more steam in, it goes harsh.

-CHUGGING NOISE

-Yes, yes.

The louder it is, the more Harry has to shovel.

When I get the chance, It's great to do something I've never done before.

The heat from the boiler is intense.

And the coal is heavy.

And the locomotive...

is very hungry, very demanding of coal.

And I have a lot of admiration for Harry,

because it's very hard work.

-Hard work?

-Hard work.

-And you better get it right to the front, as well.

-Oh right!

I'll leave that bit to you.

In the thirty years after one of the first public railway lines opened

between Stockton and Darlington, Britain was transformed.

Bradshaw's readers would already take for granted

rail journeys behind powerful and reliable locomotives.

In a generation, the train had become an essential part of daily life.

Ever since I was a boy with a train set,

I've loved steam engines.

But now, as an adult, travelling along track

that was built by George Stephenson, I share Bradshaw's admiration for the pioneers of locomotion.

They built the future.

On the next leg of my journey, I'll be hearing how Victorian women reacted to the railways...

Women reputedly used to hide pins in their lips, so if a man actually

stole a kiss from them as they went through a railway tunnel in the dark,

obviously their lips were lacerated!

..Sampling the benefits of Harrogate's famous spa waters...

The whole point about the waters were they are a strong purge.

So you would NOT have breakfast, then come out and drink the waters and parade about the town.

It's explosive power, internally. Explosive.

..And meeting some Alpacas, whose fleeces made a Victorian fortune...

This is Holly. She likes smelling hair.

LAUGHTER

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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