0:00:05 > 0:00:10In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12His name was George Bradshaw
0:00:12 > 0:00:17and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
0:00:17 > 0:00:24Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see, and where to stay.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length
0:00:28 > 0:00:35and breadth of the country to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Starting off in London, I've embarked on a new journey.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03My Bradshaw's Guide is going to take me to Kent,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05which was regarded as a very important county
0:01:05 > 0:01:09because it was the front line of our defences against continental enemies.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14It was a rich agricultural area, supplying food to the capital,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and of course it was a good habitat for commuters.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21Almost the whole county was put within two hours journey of London by a network of railways.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27In Bradshaw's time, Kent was the gateway to Europe.
0:01:27 > 0:01:34Its railways provided fast links to the continent for tourists, businesses and sometimes armies.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40On this journey, I'll be finding out how the trains synchronised time across Britain.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44If you wanted to catch a train and you had your watch set to local time
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and the trains were running on London time,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50you needed to know that or you'd miss your train.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55Daring to follow the Victorian along the world's first underwater tunnel...
0:01:55 > 0:02:00People came here in their millions, but not everyone had the courage to walk under river.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02I have some sympathy with that.
0:02:02 > 0:02:09..and travelling on a new generation of high speed lines that would have delighted Bradshaw.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Darren, this is very exciting.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Already you can feel the thing really thrusting forward.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24On this route, I'll be journeying east out of the capital,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28before winding around Kent on some of its many railway lines.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31From the cathedral city of Canterbury, I'll aim for Whitstable,
0:02:31 > 0:02:37then explore seaside towns that sit along our closest border with the continent
0:02:37 > 0:02:39on my way to Hastings.
0:02:41 > 0:02:48Today I'll start in London, and travel via Greenwich to the strategic naval port of Chatham.
0:02:51 > 0:02:57My first stop is London Bridge, the oldest station in the capital.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02My guide says, "The South Eastern Railway conveys to and from this terminus
0:03:02 > 0:03:08"the passenger and goods traffic to and from France and the north of Europe."
0:03:08 > 0:03:14In Bradshaw's day, this station provided the gateway to continental adventures.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17My Bradshaw's Guide refers to the platforms
0:03:17 > 0:03:22being "spacious and extensive, the wooden roofs over them are light and airy, and the plates of glass
0:03:22 > 0:03:27"with which they're covered admit and defuse sufficient light to every part of the vast area."
0:03:27 > 0:03:33And I can see the Victorian station behind me, but many people's experience of London Bridge
0:03:33 > 0:03:38are the four platforms over there and this kind of 1970s, rather horrid station.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42These are very busy. You can see all the time trains waiting to come
0:03:42 > 0:03:46into the platforms, like planes being stacked over an airport.
0:03:50 > 0:03:56Over the years, London Bridge has grown into a hotchpotch of dark buildings and sprawling platforms.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01Thankfully, now it's undergoing a billion pound refurbishment.
0:04:01 > 0:04:08And it will sit beneath Europe's tallest building, the Shard, which is due for completion in 2012.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Having caught my connection, I'm travelling five miles
0:04:13 > 0:04:18along the south bank of the Thames, following London's first railway line.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26I'm now travelling to Greenwich on London's oldest railway.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31Bradshaw says, "There are as many as 60 trains daily by this railway, to and from London.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34"The line runs over viaducts the whole distance,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38"through the populous districts of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe."
0:04:38 > 0:04:42And it is indeed built on brick arches, 878 of them.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47Apparently it took 60 million bricks to build and they were using 10,000 a day,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50causing a brick shortage all the way through London.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52Imagine how it changed the capital.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58Suddenly you found these railways in the sky plunged through the place where you'd been used to living.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Before the railways, the Thames provided the fastest means of travel.
0:05:05 > 0:05:11When the Greenwich line opened in 1836, travellers were reluctant to exchange the boats for trains.
0:05:11 > 0:05:17But within a short time, 1,500 passengers a day were using the service.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Greenwich, with its stunning park, was transformed from a leafy village
0:05:21 > 0:05:28outside London to one of the capital's most popular suburbs, and Bradshaw could see why.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Talking of Greenwich Park, Bradshaw says,
0:05:30 > 0:05:35"We cannot but hope that the park and heath may be preserved for ages to come
0:05:35 > 0:05:40"as an oasis in the desert, when the mighty city has spread its suburbs
0:05:40 > 0:05:44"far beyond it, into the hills and dales of the surrounding country."
0:05:44 > 0:05:48And Bradshaw's wish has come true. The park and the heath have been preserved.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53But even George Bradshaw, with his great imagination about the future, cannot have anticipated
0:05:53 > 0:05:59the mighty bulk of the structures of Canary Wharf, which are magnificent.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06In Bradshaw's time, the splendid historical buildings at Greenwich
0:06:06 > 0:06:09attracted tourists from across the world.
0:06:09 > 0:06:16Now the naval hospital and the Queen's House form part of a World Heritage site,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20which includes the park's crowning marvel, the Royal Observatory.
0:06:20 > 0:06:26My Bradshaw's Guide says, "The Royal Observatory occupies the most elevated spot in Greenwich Park.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31"For the guidance of shipping, the round globe at its summit
0:06:31 > 0:06:36"drops precisely at 1pm to give the exact Greenwich Time."
0:06:43 > 0:06:45Oh dear. I'm going to need a better watch.
0:06:47 > 0:06:54The Greenwich Observatory's Time Ball has been helping accurately to set watches and clocks since 1833.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57- Hello, Jonathan.- Hello, Michael.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00'Jonathan Betts is the senior curator of horology.'
0:07:00 > 0:07:05The famous ball here. What is that for, what does it do?
0:07:05 > 0:07:10It was necessary before you left your home port to set to local time,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12and that's what the Time Ball was for.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17To enable the ships in the docklands below to set their chronometers correctly.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20So they'd be on the ships with their telescopes, looking up
0:07:20 > 0:07:23and measuring the exact moment at which the ball fell?
0:07:23 > 0:07:25At 1pm every day, they were all down there.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30And of course the public regarded it very much as a time service for them.
0:07:31 > 0:07:37With the dawn of the railway age, Greenwich assumed additional importance.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43Until then, time was set locally, so Bristol was 14 minutes behind London time and Plymouth 20 minutes.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47That caused havoc for train timetables.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Is it really the case that the railways were the main force
0:07:50 > 0:07:54driving towards having standardised time in this country?
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Principally it was, yes. The railways and the electric telegraph went hand in hand.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01With the introduction of the railways and the telegraph
0:08:01 > 0:08:04it was realised we needed one time for the nation.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08If you wanted to catch a train and you had your watch set to your local time and they had
0:08:08 > 0:08:12their timetables on London time, you needed to know that or you'd miss your train.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Then eventually Greenwich gets into the business of telegraphing
0:08:16 > 0:08:19the time to towns and cities all over Britain?
0:08:19 > 0:08:25Yes, electric clocks had been created in the 1840s, and we created here something called an electric
0:08:25 > 0:08:32master and slave system, in which the master clock sent out electrical time signals using the electric telegraph
0:08:32 > 0:08:37along the railway lines to virtually anywhere in the country, to provide Greenwich Time.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Towns and villages outside London instantly received the Greenwich Time,
0:08:43 > 0:08:48which would be displayed in public places using signal devices.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Jonathan has several Victorian examples.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Your workshop is a busy-looking place.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01Yeah. There's plenty going on here. I've actually got two time signals out for you to see.
0:09:01 > 0:09:08From the 1870s, this type of time signal was being used by subscribers all over the country
0:09:08 > 0:09:11to provide a Greenwich Time service for their customers.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15In front of jewellers shops, like Hancocks here in Bond Street,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19you'd find a group of people with their pocket watches, waiting to set the time.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23As the moment approached, there'd be mounting excitement.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27This one is more like your ball here at Greenwich.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Very much so. This is a little miniature version of the Time Ball.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32There were many of these made.
0:09:32 > 0:09:39First of all, this would happen at about five minutes before 1pm.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41The person receiving the time signal
0:09:41 > 0:09:46would arrange for the ball to be raised to the top of the mast
0:09:46 > 0:09:50in time for the Greenwich Time signal to go through.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Then, with everybody standing outside waiting with their watches,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58at the moment of the signal, the ball would drop.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03- And there you have it.- Wow. That's magnificent.- Isn't that fun?- It is.
0:10:03 > 0:10:09It's absolutely wonderful. I've been thinking about railway time since I started making these journeys.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14But it's really brought it home to me today. That really is fascinating. This is how it worked.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15Precision time-keeping.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27The railways created the need for standardised time in Britain, and in other countries, too.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29That gave rise to time zones.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35Since 1884, time around the globe has been set by reference to Greenwich.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38One last thing to do before I leave Greenwich.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44Bradshaw comments that, "Large quantities of whitebait are caught in the season.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48"Whitebait dinners form the chief attractions to the taverns adjacent.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53"And here, Her Majesty's ministers regale themselves annually on that fish.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58"The seasons from May to the latter end of July, when Parliament generally closes for the season.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01I can tell you that those dinners aren't just historic.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07When I was a minister, I went to one of those whitebait dinners at this very tavern.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10- Hi.- How many of you?- Just one of me.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Can I have a table, please?
0:11:12 > 0:11:18- Follow me.- Thank you. Have you got any whitebait on today? - Of course.- Your great tradition.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22- Very traditional.- It's certainly a table with a view. Isn't that fantastic! Thank you.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26I'll have a whitebait dinner, please. Thank you.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Famous statesmen from William Pitt to William Gladstone enjoyed whitebait suppers.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36So I follow rather eminent diners.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Thank you very much. Fresh from the Thames?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Not any more, unfortunately. From the North Sea now.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46I believe that this tavern was particularly associated with Liberal politicians?
0:11:46 > 0:11:50I'm slightly out of place here. Well, maybe not in coalition times! Thank you so much.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52- My pleasure. Enjoy.- I will.
0:11:55 > 0:11:56As good as ever.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Absolutely great. Crisp, beautiful.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18I've left Greenwich and made my way to nearby New Cross,
0:12:18 > 0:12:23and now I'm headed for Rotherhithe on London's newest railway service.
0:12:25 > 0:12:31Part of the London overground, it opened in 2010, although a portion
0:12:31 > 0:12:35follows the route of a railway that dates back to Bradshaw's era.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37In the 1860s, when it was first built,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40it was known as the East London Railway.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43I'm travelling just two miles to my next stop.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49The refurbished East London line has wonderful new trains.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54They remind me of trains I've seen in places like Hong Kong.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58You pass from one car to the next.
0:12:58 > 0:13:04With no doors. And the whole thing is like one long continuous tube.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07'I'm pleased to find that my enthusiasm for this new rail service
0:13:07 > 0:13:11'is matched or exceeded by one of its passengers.'
0:13:11 > 0:13:15- Hello.- Hello.- It's terrific, isn't it, the new service?- Yeah.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Have you been on it before?
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Yeah. I was the first ever person
0:13:19 > 0:13:24to go on the new line from Shoreditch High Street to New Cross Gate,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27- to Dalston Junction and back to Shoreditch.- First ever person?
0:13:27 > 0:13:34- Yeah, on 15 April.- You wrote in, did you, or telephoned?- I e-mailed in.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36What's so special about the East London line?
0:13:36 > 0:13:41What's special is the Thames Tunnel between Wapping and Rotherhithe stations,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48- Well, we'll be arriving at Rotherhithe soon. That's where the tunnel begins, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:13:48 > 0:13:54- That's where I'm getting off and I'm going to have a close look at that tunnel myself. Bye-bye.- Bye.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57I'm getting off at Rotherhithe, where the new line follows
0:13:57 > 0:14:05the original Victorian route, and takes advantage of one of the 19th century's most daring achievements.
0:14:05 > 0:14:12So it's London's newest railway service, but it passes through a tunnel familiar to Bradshaw.
0:14:12 > 0:14:19"The tunnel from Wapping to Rotherhithe was commenced in 1805 and opened in 1843
0:14:19 > 0:14:22"by the projector and engineer, Sir IK Brunel."
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Then he gives all its dimensions and he says, "It's a double archway,
0:14:25 > 0:14:32"brilliantly lighted, with gas, and open each day and night with a toll of one penny for each passenger."
0:14:32 > 0:14:35This tunnel wasn't built for a railway.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38It was built for pedestrians, and I'm going to take a walk through it.
0:14:41 > 0:14:47From 1am, the line is closed, and I'm assured it will be safe to walk along it.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51I'm meeting Robert Hulse from the Brunel Museum,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53a keen admirer of this tunnel.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56- Hello.- Here we are in the middle of the night.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00We hope all the trains have stopped when we go into the tunnel.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02It's quite a special tunnel, isn't it?
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Yes, it is. It's the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09and it's the first project that Isambard Kingdom Brunel worked on.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13So in a way, it's also the origins of underground railways?
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Yes, this is an international landmark site as it's the birthplace
0:15:17 > 0:15:20of the Tube, not just for London, but for everywhere.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29This 365-metre tunnel was originally built as a fast way to transport cargo across the river.
0:15:29 > 0:15:36It was engineered by Marc Brunel, and the work was supervised by his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42For the first time, they would bore beneath water at enormous risk and in appalling conditions.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Was machinery used to build this in any way?
0:15:47 > 0:15:50No, it's dug by hand.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55It's dug by men working in cages with short-handle spades,
0:15:55 > 0:15:56showered with Thames water.
0:15:56 > 0:16:03In 1825, when the Thames was the biggest open sewer in the world,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07it just doesn't bear thinking about what was showering down
0:16:07 > 0:16:10on these poor unfortunates as they toiled under the river.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17It took thousands of men, working by oil lamp, to construct the tunnel.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Officially, six people were killed building it,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24but that doesn't include others who died from cholera and TB.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27- It was a lethal enterprise. - It began just here.
0:16:27 > 0:16:35Now, imagine this as a cage, 36 tiny cages, a row of 12 along the top.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38- Each one of those has a man in it? - Each one of those has a man in it.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42- And the method of building it? Obviously it had to be original? - That's right.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45This is Marc Brunel's patented method,
0:16:45 > 0:16:49and modern tunnelling-machines are based on this principle.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Men dug out the earth four inches at a time,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57then the exposed flanks were quickly lined with bricks.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01But after 18 years, there was no money to build cargo ramps,
0:17:01 > 0:17:06so the tunnel was opened to pedestrians instead, at the cost of one penny.
0:17:06 > 0:17:13In the first 15 weeks, there were a million visitors, but that's only a million pennies.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17The tunnel was conceived as a cargo tunnel that would have got
0:17:17 > 0:17:21tolls form the shipping agencies, so they have pennies.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27They were a huge success as a visitor attraction, but they have no revenue.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32So they built the world's first underwater shopping arcade,
0:17:32 > 0:17:37to try and make some money. Each of these little archways was a shop.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42There's just room for you and a barrow and table of souvenirs.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45They sold items like this.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49They sold Thames Tunnel gin flasks, Thames Tunnel pin cushions,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Thames Tunnel snuff boxes, Thames Tunnel coffee cups.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58If they'd had baseball caps, they'd have sold those.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03People came here in their millions, but not everyone had the courage to walk under the river.
0:18:03 > 0:18:11And some people walked under the river very briskly, and broke into a run at this point, which is halfway.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Where most people's resolve failed them.
0:18:14 > 0:18:15I have some sympathy with that.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Sadly, what opened as a shining avenue of light
0:18:18 > 0:18:24under the River Thames to Wapping became by degrees a little less shiny
0:18:24 > 0:18:28- and a little less respectable.- Oh. It became a bit seedy, did it?
0:18:28 > 0:18:33It did. It became a haunt of thieves, cut-purses and what the books
0:18:33 > 0:18:39demurely describe as, "Women, no better than they should be."
0:18:39 > 0:18:46In fact, there were all kinds of transactions conducted under the River Thames in these dark spaces.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And so at that point it was ready to became a railway tunnel?
0:18:49 > 0:18:56Yes, in 1865, they sold the tunnel to the railway.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00The tunnel became part of the growing rail system
0:19:00 > 0:19:05and is now the centrepiece of London's newest train service.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10- I still don't like touching that electric rail, even if it is off. - Healthy respect!
0:19:18 > 0:19:22The next day, I'm heading to St Pancras station to pick up
0:19:22 > 0:19:26a very fast train that will carry me to the heart of Kent.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31If Bradshaw were still publishing, he would be lyrical about this service.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34This is a very exciting thing for me, first time I get to ride
0:19:34 > 0:19:39on a high speed train on a domestic British service.
0:19:39 > 0:19:45I bear the scars of this line, as when I was a Minister of Transport in the 1980s, we were planning it,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47and the people of Kent were up in arms
0:19:47 > 0:19:50that they'd have noisy, high-speed trains passing near their villages.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55What they couldn't imagine then is that many of them would get travel times to London
0:19:55 > 0:19:58that would be a fraction of what they'd experienced before,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02and at speeds that would have exhilarated George Bradshaw.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Oh, and by the way, I get to ride in the cab, too!
0:20:08 > 0:20:15Driver Darren Stevens is going to demonstrate how modern track allows high speed travel.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Darren, this is very exciting, isn't it?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Already you can feel the thing really thrusting forward.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23You will do when we go into the first tunnel.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26I'm looking at a very steep gradient ahead of us,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29these trains can really cope with steep gradients, can't they?
0:20:29 > 0:20:34They can, yeah - the route's like a roller coaster. As you'll see.
0:20:34 > 0:20:41This dedicated fast line was built for Eurostar trains to cut the journey time to the Channel Tunnel.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46It opened in 2007 and permits speeds up to 186 miles per hour.
0:20:47 > 0:20:53From 2009, it's also carried high speed domestic services to Kent.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56This has made a big difference to journey times, hasn't it? Yeah.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59We've had nothing but positive feedback from passengers.
0:20:59 > 0:21:06I think it's made a big difference to the journey times, it's sliced off somewhere up to an hour.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09I spoke to one lady, she was saving over two hours a day.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14This new service, transforming commuting,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18is reminiscent of the impact that railways had in Bradshaw's day.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Look at your speedometer climb now, it's going crazy, isn't it?
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Shooting up to 160, is it going to get to 160?
0:21:25 > 0:21:28The acceleration is very good, we're up to 200 now, maximum line speed.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32We're allowed to go to 200. Even here in the tunnel?
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Yes. We do get up to 225 in the tunnels.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44Wow, this is awesome. This is the newest tunnel under the Thames.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49Mr Brunel would be impressed and Mr Bradshaw would be exhilarated.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52This is my stop, Chatham.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I've really enjoyed the ride. Thank you so much.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56- Thanks for being here.- Safe journey.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01In the 19th century, Chatham had one of the greatest shipyards
0:22:01 > 0:22:07in the country which not surprisingly, features strongly in my guidebook.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"The dockyard, to be seen by application at the gate,
0:22:09 > 0:22:15"was commenced by Queen Elizabeth, following the wise policy of her father, and is about a mile long."
0:22:15 > 0:22:21And I'm going to see what I think is a really vital part of British naval history.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29My Bradshaw's goes on to describe the vast array of facilities at the dockyard.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33"It contains six building slips, wet and dry docks,
0:22:33 > 0:22:40"rope house, 1,140ft long, oar and block machinery by Brunel."
0:22:40 > 0:22:44The list goes on. At the time of writing, England was still
0:22:44 > 0:22:49on the defensive against France in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54With fear of European invasion ever in the air, and the arrival of new technology,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59the dockyard was rapidly expanded, from 80 acres to over 600.
0:23:01 > 0:23:09Well, I've come down now to the dockyard and I am just very impressed by the scale, it is huge.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13It reeks of history. Some beautiful historic buildings.
0:23:14 > 0:23:20Such an extensive dockyard in Bradshaw's day required its own network of tracks.
0:23:20 > 0:23:21Hello, Richard.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26'Richard Holdsworth is the museum and heritage director at Chatham.'
0:23:26 > 0:23:30I assume that the place was so big it needed a railway?
0:23:30 > 0:23:36It had a huge transport system, the railway arrived in the dockyard in 1879 and for the next 20 years
0:23:36 > 0:23:40the dockyard was building standard gauge railway lines across its entire length
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and that process went on until the 20th century.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46You could bring trains off the national system
0:23:46 > 0:23:50- right into the yard?- Right into the yard. They were carrying
0:23:50 > 0:23:54the sorts of material needed to build ships, specialist tools, equipment,
0:23:54 > 0:23:55guns, things like that.
0:23:57 > 0:24:03The railways were crucial to keeping Britain at the forefront of naval engineering.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09In the late 1800s, trains hauled in the materials required for shipbuilding
0:24:09 > 0:24:14and the technology of steam was used to modernise the vessels.
0:24:14 > 0:24:21The Victorians had created a vast global empire and Chatham supplied the latest warships to defend it.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25HMS Gannet strikes me as a pretty unusual ship, because it's both sail and steam.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28That's right, she's transitional period.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33Really, the heyday of the dockyard of the navy in Victorian times
0:24:33 > 0:24:37when Britain's navy is projecting power across the world.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42These are the sorts of ships designed to patrol the widest flung parts of Empire.
0:24:42 > 0:24:49From about 1892 to 1905, 250,000 tonnes of warship entered the Medway from the slips behind me
0:24:49 > 0:24:54and they were the cream of the Royal Navy, the envy of the world.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Chatham was at the core of ship construction and ship repair.
0:25:00 > 0:25:06The vast new docks and the new technologies became a tourist attraction in themselves.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Visitors came to marvel as up to 2,500 craftsmen
0:25:10 > 0:25:15readied the ships for sea and produced essential naval equipment like ropes.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19It strikes me as ironic that one of things which survived was the ropery
0:25:19 > 0:25:24as when you move form sail to steam, you'd need fewer ropes?
0:25:24 > 0:25:30That's true and from 1866 onwards, the navy cut down the rope it used,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34but in the heyday, it had four roperies of its own and bought a huge amount in commercially.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38When built, the ropery was the longest brick building in Europe.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42It's still used for the same purpose as in Bradshaw's time.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Nothing prepares you for that, does it? It's endless.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48It's one of the seven wonders of the world.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51This is the oldest rope manufacturer in Britain.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54The building is so long because the strands of rope had to be
0:25:54 > 0:25:57laid out to their full length before being twisted.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04The length of the room is just so you can make these enormous stretches of rope.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08The length of the room is designed so the navy could make rope in 120 fathoms
0:26:08 > 0:26:12and that works out today as 220 metres.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16That is the international length of a standard coil of rope.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Today the ropery makes natural fibre ropes for theatres and zoos
0:26:21 > 0:26:25as well as boats, pleasure cruisers and the Ministry of Defence.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30This scene, I could have seen at any time in the last 200 years?
0:26:30 > 0:26:38It's a process going on today as it has for a couple of hundred years, and it's a commercial venture.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Following my Bradshaw's around Britain, it's useful to remember
0:26:46 > 0:26:51that the Victorians enjoyed one of the longest periods of peace in British history.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54Yet the danger posed by France at the beginning of the 19th century
0:26:54 > 0:26:59made them guard fiercely both homeland and Empire.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04It can sometimes be difficult to grasp the mentality of Bradshaw's era.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09They believed in Empire, an idea that's passed from fashion, and just as well.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12But when I was in Brunel's Thames Tunnel,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17I was struck that we're still using and adapting Victorian engineering.
0:27:17 > 0:27:24The reason is that the same qualities that inspired the Victorians to global supremacy
0:27:24 > 0:27:29were the ones that led them, those remarkable ancestors, to build to last.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40On my next journey, I'll be hopping with excitement, Victorian style.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43- I just yank this? - Give it a good pull.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Discovering the secrets of paper from one of the country's leading experts.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Would you like to know where this paper was made?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55- Don't tell me you can tell that. - I can.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00And learning how the trains transported a very English game all over the country.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05If you look at the map of expansion of the rail network around England and Scotland,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08cricket follows those lines.
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