0:00:05 > 0:00:10'In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:10 > 0:00:17'His name was George Bradshaw, and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21'Stop by stop, he told them where to travel,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24'what to see, and where to stay.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28'Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length
0:00:28 > 0:00:35'and breadth of the country to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.'
0:00:57 > 0:01:02My railway journey will now plunge me deep into the heart of Kent,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05picking my destinations from Bradshaw's guide
0:01:05 > 0:01:08just as Victorian tourists would've done.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13Although one of the home counties, Bradshaw's notes that Kent is still very rural.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16It strikes me that the same is true today.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25'Kent's beautiful countryside was brought within easy reach of the capital when the railways arrived.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29'The county became attractive to tourists and commuters alike.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33'Rural businesses boomed, and I'll be visiting some of those
0:01:33 > 0:01:36'that have survived since Bradshaw's time.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41'On my route today, I'll be hopping with excitement, Victorian style...'
0:01:41 > 0:01:42I just yank this, do I?
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Give it a good pull.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50'..discovering the secrets of paper from a leading expert.'
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Would you like to know where this paper was made?
0:01:54 > 0:01:56- Don't tell me you can tell that. - I can.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01'..and learning how the trains transported a very English game all over the country.'
0:02:01 > 0:02:04If you look at a map of expansion of the rail network
0:02:04 > 0:02:09around England and Scotland, cricket follows those lines.
0:02:17 > 0:02:24'So far, I've travelled 30 miles from London to Chatham, and now I'm continuing through Kent.
0:02:24 > 0:02:31'I'll follow the tracks as they snake across the county before heading east via Canterbury.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34'Then I'll explore the seaside towns perched along our frontier
0:02:34 > 0:02:39'with Europe on the way to my final stop, Hastings.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'Starting in Aylesford today, I'll pass through Maidstone,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47'before ending at the historic spa town of Tunbridge Wells.'
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Bradshaw's refers to the journey from Chatham to Aylesford.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01He says, "We get glimpses of woody country, the land is
0:03:01 > 0:03:03"studded with substantial homesteads
0:03:03 > 0:03:06"and wealthy looking farms, rising in the midst
0:03:06 > 0:03:07"of cornfields or orchards
0:03:07 > 0:03:11"or surrounded by the British vineyards, the Kentish hop grounds."
0:03:11 > 0:03:17In the Victorian era, when there were no grapes in Kent, that was George Bradshaw's idea of a joke.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Hops were an essential ingredient in beer, and Kent was a key supplier.
0:03:23 > 0:03:31My guide says, "The ancient Aylesford has a population of 1,487 employed in the hop gardens.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36"The hop was first cultivated in Kent about the middle of the 15th century."
0:03:36 > 0:03:43By 1878, around 47,000 acres of hops were under cultivation in Kent.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48Castle Farm, owned by William Alexander's family, stills grows hops today.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50- Hello, William.- Hello, Michael.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52- How are you?- Very well, thank you.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57'Even hop growing was transformed by the arrival of the railways.'
0:03:57 > 0:04:00There was a period where
0:04:00 > 0:04:05the consumption of beer increased, not least because of railway construction.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10The large teams of navvies were given up to
0:04:10 > 0:04:18ten pints a day as part of wages, and so the hop industry grew on the back of this raised consumption of beer.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Judging by my Bradshaw's guide, in the middle of the 19th century,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26there would've been extensive hop growing in Kent, much more than today.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29How was that crop got in? It must have been very demanding.
0:04:29 > 0:04:35Yes, to bring in the crop, you needed to do it in September, over quite a short period.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37You needed a lot of labour.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41This was drawn in from East London,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45often coming down on the trains when they were available,
0:04:45 > 0:04:51big groups would arrive on particular dates, often three generations in
0:04:51 > 0:04:57a family, spending two, three weeks picking hops.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05From 1865, dedicated trains known as hopping specials
0:05:05 > 0:05:09left London Bridge each summer, packed with families bound for Kent.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13For unemployed Londoners, it was a chance to earn some cash
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and to escape the smoke of the city.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Up to 80,000 people came each year, and they needed places to stay.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27These are the only two remaining examples of hopper huts
0:05:27 > 0:05:30that families used to live in.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34- You're not serious? People lived in these tiny huts? - I know, haven't times changed?
0:05:34 > 0:05:37They would have bunk beds built onto the walls and they made them
0:05:37 > 0:05:42quite homely by putting paint or wallpaper stuck to the corrugated iron.
0:05:42 > 0:05:49There was quite a community, with a whole row of these in the fields, and a central cooking area.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Every day they were given a bundle of sticks for the fires
0:05:52 > 0:05:57from the farm called faggots, which were made up in the previous winter.
0:05:57 > 0:06:04- I have to imagine five or six people stayed in here, and this was their holiday?- Absolutely.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06They made it a holiday time.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08There was a great atmosphere.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14A few weeks in the fresh air was seen as a benefit to the children.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19But it was hard work, and picking began at daybreak.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23William's taking me into the fields to see what's involved.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28I can safely say I've never been in a hop garden before,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30and this is what they mean by one, is it?
0:06:30 > 0:06:36Yes, they grow 16 foot high up these strings, from ground level,
0:06:36 > 0:06:40which they shoot from in April, they grow rapidly.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45When they get to top, they branch out and you get all these lovely hops developing.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47Paint for me a Victorian scene.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50What would the picking have been like in Victorian times?
0:06:50 > 0:06:55We've got all this family labour which has arrived.
0:06:55 > 0:07:02They come out on a misty morning, they would spread up a long row like this in groups
0:07:02 > 0:07:05of family. The farm staff would come out with
0:07:05 > 0:07:13long hooks, or pullers, and pull the vines down, giving vines to each family to pick.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15They would pick them into baskets.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17Can we have a go at doing this?
0:07:17 > 0:07:18Yes.
0:07:18 > 0:07:26We don't have a traditional puller, so I thought you could act as one and bring this one down for us.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29If you move over there, I'll cut this one off.
0:07:30 > 0:07:36- Right. - If you get her on to the end of that one, Michael, I'll hold your book.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40That's Bradshaw, you hold him with great respect. I just yank this, do I?
0:07:40 > 0:07:41Give it a good pull.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44LAUGHTER
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Very good.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Is that how it always goes?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51You need to practise, I think.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Would you like to try another one?
0:07:53 > 0:07:56No. One is enough for today, I think.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Pick the hop vine up
0:07:58 > 0:08:03and lay it near a basket, and then rapidly pick off the hops.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06You have to go at quite a speed if you want to get paid.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09If you want to earn money, you've got to get moving.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11How were they paid?
0:08:11 > 0:08:19Payment was based on the amount picked every day and in order to keep your whole, large gang of pickers
0:08:19 > 0:08:25here on the farm, and not to lose them before the crop was fully home and dry,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27they were paid with tokens.
0:08:27 > 0:08:35I have a hop token, which was only recognised locally in the pubs and the grocers of the village.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38At the end of the season, the farmer would exchange it back for good
0:08:38 > 0:08:43pounds, shillings and pence, as they left on the train back to East London.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47- That device prevented them hopping off...- Exactly!
0:08:47 > 0:08:49..before the end of the season.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53I'd better give you that token back, I don't feel I've quite earned it.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00These days, the brewers import a lot of their hops, and William no longer supplies them.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The process of picking has been mechanised.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08What we're seeing here is how it is harvested today.
0:09:08 > 0:09:14They're cut at the bottom and held in the front of the trailer.
0:09:14 > 0:09:19Then the man at the back is cutting them off at the wirework level,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22rather than pulling them down to the ground by hand.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27Having brought one down on my own head, I can see the advantages of this method.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Do you have any people coming in to do the picking?
0:09:29 > 0:09:36We have a different use for hops, we're cutting them for decoration.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39We're not actually picking them off. We're drying them on the vine.
0:09:39 > 0:09:45That means we don't need vast numbers of people to do it. We do still,
0:09:45 > 0:09:51even now, have seasonal labour, and have a couple with us at the moment from New Zealand.
0:09:51 > 0:09:52They didn't come on the train!
0:09:52 > 0:09:54They didn't come on the train, no.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02'Victorian workers might have been rewarded with beer,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05'but my clumsy efforts don't earn me a pint.
0:10:07 > 0:10:14'Soberly, I now leave Aylesford and continue the next leg of my journey, three miles down the track.'
0:10:17 > 0:10:18Maidstone is my next stop.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Bradshaw says that it's the capital of Kent.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25In a tract of land of great fertility among the hop grounds.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32It says that besides hops, paper is a staple production, especially at the Turkey and Pole mills.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35I'm on my way to the Turkey Mill.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40'There's a reason why Bradshaw's singles out the Turkey Mill.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44'It was established by James Whatman, an 18th-century businessman who
0:10:44 > 0:10:50'invented a revolutionary technique for making paper that's employed to this day.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54'I'm meeting forensic paper historian, Peter Bower, to find out more.'
0:10:54 > 0:10:55Peter.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Hello, Michael.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02So this is Turkey Mill, and I gather it is quite a shrine because this is
0:11:02 > 0:11:05where James Whatman lived and manufactured.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06He's quite a name in paper, isn't he?
0:11:06 > 0:11:09He is one of the great paper makers.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14Might sound odd to talk about a great paper maker, but he really did know what he was doing.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18He developed better and better papers.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23His paper was forged by the Austrians, French, Germans,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25because of his fame.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29He was also very, very financially successful.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34At the time, Whatman's Turkey Mill was the largest paper mill in Britain,
0:11:34 > 0:11:41and one of 14 in Maidstone, where the industry was centred.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Why was paper made in Maidstone at all?
0:11:44 > 0:11:48I think, initially, because there were a lot of streams like the Len, which this mill is on,
0:11:48 > 0:11:54There was good, consistent supplies of water, both for power and for making the paper with.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57And you need good, clean water to make paper.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05'The clean water helped Whatman to make high quality, pure white paper.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10'By the 1750s, he'd developed a new way to make paper which transformed the industry.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14'Peter's brought me two samples so I can see the difference.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15'First, the old paper.'
0:12:15 > 0:12:21I'm seeing a lot of parallel lines, and I'm seeing a watermark in the centre, too.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25The lines are the traces of the wire that the paper was made on.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28- And now what's this other sheet? - This was also made here.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31And as you can see, it's completely different.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Yeah, it's much, much smoother, isn't it?
0:12:34 > 0:12:35It allows you to smooth it much more.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40This is a wove paper. It's actually made on a woven wire mesh so you
0:12:40 > 0:12:43don't get the texture of the lines, and it was very deliberate.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47A lot of people in the 18th century really wanted paper like this.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50And by the 19th century, this was the norm.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53'The new smooth paper took print much better.
0:12:53 > 0:13:00'With the advent of the railways, business soared in response to demand from all over the country.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03'Whatman's paper was used by Queen Victoria.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08'British Acts of Parliament, and even Soviet five-year plans were printed on it..
0:13:08 > 0:13:12One of the reasons why this mill was so successful, and why Bradshaw
0:13:12 > 0:13:19mentions it, because it was famous, is because this mill provided paper for some of the greatest artists
0:13:19 > 0:13:23- Britain's ever seen.- Like who? - Turner, Constable, William Blake.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27All sorts of people used the paper over and over and over again.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29- Pretty demanding clients.- Yes.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33Turner's amusing, because he quite often bought seconds.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36- He saved his money! - What a cheapskate!
0:13:36 > 0:13:41'Peter's a forensic paper analyst who gives vital evidence in fraud cases,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44'so I'm intrigued to know what he can tell me about my guidebook.'
0:13:44 > 0:13:48Now, I know you've been looking at my Bradshaw's before.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49What sort of paper is this?
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Well, this is quite intriguing.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Three are three different papers in this book.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00You've got the end paper, which is slightly heavier, a different tone as well.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04They're both wove, these are both machine-made papers.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07But there's another paper in here, which is the maps,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12which is much smoother, again wove, of quite light weight,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14again, a different tone.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20And would you like to know where this paper was made?
0:14:21 > 0:14:23- Don't tell me you can tell that? - I can.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Where was it made, then?
0:14:25 > 0:14:28It was made by a company called James Cropper, who still exist.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32The mill is still there and very, very successful.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37And we know this because William Blacklock, who was Bradshaw's partner,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41was a one-third owner of James Cropper, the paper mill.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45You are the real Professor Higgins of paper, aren't you?
0:14:45 > 0:14:47You can find the origins of anything!
0:14:47 > 0:14:53'Today, Whatman paper is still made in a factory a few miles from the original Turkey Mill,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56'and I'm curious to see it.'
0:14:56 > 0:14:58- Paul.- Michael, hello.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00How very good to see you.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Paul Highstead works at Springfield Mill, and will show me how the paper's made.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10- What have we got in there? - Essentially, this is the same as it has always been made,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15where we're taking dilute fibres that have been treated and we're draining them through a screen.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19What you're seeing there is just fibre and water.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24Now, James Whatman wasn't using glass fibre. I guess he wasn't using cotton.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27He was using a form of cotton.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29He was using rags, which is second-hand cotton.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34So it would have been boiled and prepared, until you end up with a solution like this.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Still using developments of Whatman's techniques,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40the factory makes specialised paper for use in scientific analysis.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45As in Bradshaw's day, the firm focuses on products of high quality.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50It's beautiful stuff, actually. Where are these particular rolls destined for?
0:15:50 > 0:15:54This particular product is made from glass microfibre.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57And this will be destined for environmental monitoring applications.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01So you have to be able to guarantee the purity of the product before it leaves the factory?
0:16:01 > 0:16:06Yeah, both physically and chemically, we have to guarantee the quality.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13I leave the mill knowing more about my guidebook than ever before.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17And, as usual, it suggests where I should seek my bed for the night.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25Since Bradshaw mentions hops several times,
0:16:25 > 0:16:33and since there can be nothing more typical of Kent than oast house, I've picked one to stay in.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39This one has been turned into a bed and breakfast by owner Katherine Morgan.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42- Katherine. - Good evening. Nice to meet you.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47- Lovely to meet you, and what a beautiful oast. It's magnificent. - Well, thank you very much.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52I'm really looking forward to staying here. You know, all the time I've seen oast houses,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56maybe when going by on the train, I've never really understood what they're for.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01- How does it all work?- Well, they were used for drying hops.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04They would have a fire in this bottom room, your bedroom.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09And where the ceiling is there were slats, and the hops would be put on the slats.
0:17:09 > 0:17:16The fire would dry them, and the hot air from this fire would go out through the cowl at the top.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19It would turn round in the wind so there was no backdraft.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25And now, so often, the oast houses have been turned to living accommodation?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29- Yes, but it's extremely difficult to get permission to do it!- Is it?- Yes.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Anyway, you've done it. Would you mind showing me inside?
0:17:32 > 0:17:36- Not at all. - It looks absolutely wonderful. Your garden is delightful.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40The Kent you see through train windows is distinguished by oast houses,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44so I can think of nowhere better to stay.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Having slept soundly in my oast,
0:18:04 > 0:18:11or roundly in my oast, another dry morning smiles upon Maidstone.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15And it's a very good day to visit picturesque Tunbridge Wells.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30For the final leg of my route today, I'm travelling 20 miles down the
0:18:30 > 0:18:35line to a place that my guidebook extols.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Bradshaw is almost breathlessly enthusiastic about Tunbridge Wells.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47"The town is, with the exception of Bath, the most ancient of the inland watering places.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52"Nature has eminently favoured it by the salubrity of its air, the potency of its mineral springs
0:18:52 > 0:18:57"and the adjacent appendages for romantic and agreeable scenery."
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Do you know, I never thought I would be so excited about going to Tunbridge Wells?
0:19:08 > 0:19:10Like so many spa towns,
0:19:10 > 0:19:17Tunbridge Wells was the preserve of the rich until 1845, when a new railway line
0:19:17 > 0:19:21enabled bourgeois Victorians to travel quickly and cheaply to Kent.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29The great thing about most of our old railway stations is
0:19:29 > 0:19:33that they pop out in the middle of town, like here in Tunbridge Wells.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36You can see how that gave rise to a lifestyle of commuting,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40but equally, it was very convenient for the Victorian tourist.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Just a short walk away, my guidebook recommends some highlights for visitors.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Bradshaw comments that, "The town has been much modernised of late years,
0:19:53 > 0:19:58"the parade alone evincing any symptoms of antiquity."
0:19:58 > 0:20:04And he refers to this street, with a row of trees on one side and a colonade with shops on the other.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07And it is a breathtaking street.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11It's changed very little since Bradshaw's time, except in name.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Because now it's known as the Pantiles.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22The Pantiles, or parade as it was known then, was an elegant 17th century shopping arcade
0:20:22 > 0:20:24where visitors could stroll and be seen.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Today, many of the buildings have been beautifully restored.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33- Hello there.- How are you? - I'm very well. How are you?
0:20:33 > 0:20:37This was known as the Parade, and now it's called the Pantiles. Does anybody know why?
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Yes, it was the slabs.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42There are 15 down there, 15 pantiles.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47- There are 15 of them still down there left.- From when would that be? - 1600s, 1650?
0:20:47 > 0:20:51I've been here 45 years, so it's definitely right.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53- 45 years in Tunbridge Wells?- Yes.
0:20:53 > 0:20:59- Were you by any chance a commuter? - I was, unfortunately. This is your train journey thing!
0:20:59 > 0:21:01No, I did it for 16 years.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04- 16 years on the train? - And I loved it.- You did?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- I did it for 10. - And we had great fun.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09It's better now, the trains are much better.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14- Tunbridge Wells is famous for commuters. - Yeah. It's about 45 minutes.
0:21:14 > 0:21:20There was a buffet car, so you could have toast and tea in the morning and a drink on the way home.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23When they stopped that I packed up going to London.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26- You used to play cards, didn't you? - Play cards, yeah.- You had a group?
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Six of us met and played cards in the evening.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33- That's where you made your real money!- Nothing to do with work!
0:21:33 > 0:21:38- Well, you look like Contented of Tunbridge Wells!- We love it. - It's a lovely place.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43- Lovely to talk to you. Thank you very much.- Nice to meet you. You'll be a bit fishy now!
0:21:46 > 0:21:53Tunbridge Wells became popular with commuters back in Bradshaw's time and the town began to expand.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55My guide says,
0:21:55 > 0:22:01"The houses are chiefly detached villas with lawns in front and large gardens in the rear."
0:22:02 > 0:22:07Many of the grandest streets were laid out in the 19th Century.
0:22:09 > 0:22:15This gorgeous crescent was by a architect with the wonderful Victorian name of Decimus Burton.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18And he worked on the London parks and Kew Gardens.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And these houses were originally built as shops.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24But by the late 19th century they were for the middle classes,
0:22:24 > 0:22:29people commuting to the city, where, presumably, they made enough money to be able to afford them.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38- Hello.- Hello.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40You're very lucky if you live here.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45- Yes, we are, actually. - You do live here? - Yes, we live in this house here.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47- Beautiful. - And we're near everything, you know.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Trains, shops, the lot.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Well, yes, but just such an exceptional crescent.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54Great view as well.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58- Presumably they're very strict with what you can do to these houses.- Very.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00They're beautifully preserved, aren't they, I must say.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Yes, and English Heritage make sure that you don't do anything awful.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Are you a commuter? Any member of your family a commuter?
0:23:08 > 0:23:10My husband was, my husband was.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13- Was he taking the train from Tunbridge Wells?- Yeah.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18I must say, a train every quarter of an hour is a godsend.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20It's like a village rather than a town.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22I think it's really beautiful.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25- It's got that flavour of Bath about it, hasn't it?- It has, yes.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Bradshaw's praise of the town's pleasing architecture
0:23:35 > 0:23:39is followed by a less obvious comment that I must pursue.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Writing of Tunbridge Wells, Bradshaw's says,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49"A new cricket ground has been made where many great matches are held."
0:23:49 > 0:23:54That was written in the 1860s and I last followed cricket in the 1960s.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58But the ground to which Bradshaw refers is the Higher Ground.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00This is it.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04In the 19th century, cricket was central to the life of Tunbridge Wells.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10I'm meeting cricket historian Glenys Williams to find out why.
0:24:10 > 0:24:11- Hello Glenys.- Hello!
0:24:11 > 0:24:14- Good match so far?- Yeah, looks good.
0:24:14 > 0:24:20- Tunbridge Wells is really a kind of centre for cricket, isn't it, historically speaking?- Very much so.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Kent was cradle of the game.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27It was Kent and Hampshire, Sussex, where the game originated, we believe,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30way back in the 12th, 13th century.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35And because of all the willow being grown here, it was the perfect place for cricket bat making.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40And so, certainly from the 17th, 18th century onwards,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42we see the growth of the game here.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46And also we get the development of the various cricket bat making firms
0:24:46 > 0:24:48and ball making firms in this area as well.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54Cricket balls have been made locally since the 1760s.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57They were hand-stitched by workers at home.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Then, in the 1840s, Duke's opened a factory alongside the railway tracks.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Trains began carrying cricket balls and bats to the rest of the country,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09and they also helped to transform the game.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The all-England 11 that travelled in 1849 travelled by stagecoach.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19By 1852, they were using the rail network.
0:25:19 > 0:25:25And if you look at map of the expansion of the rail network around England and Scotland,
0:25:25 > 0:25:27cricket follows those lines.
0:25:27 > 0:25:33The all-England 11s were particularly popular in some of the industrial cities of up North.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Sheffield, Manchester.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39They played as far south as St Ives and they went as far north as Scotland.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42So trains enabled players to get to more distant places.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45- Do the railways also popularise the sport?- Yes, they do.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51With the rise of the mass media in the 1840s to 1860s, newspapers are travelling on trains,
0:25:51 > 0:25:56match reports are being sent via the telegraph, which also goes via the rail network.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59And people sitting in their homes, reading these newspapers,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02were able to read about the exploits of players such as WG Grace.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08And so when they heard that he was coming to play, there was, for the first time, a sense of anticipation.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17By the mid 1800s, tens of thousand of Victorians would travel across the country to watch a fixture.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24Cricket's increasing popularity with the masses would forever change the way it was played.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29I think of cricket in its heyday as being
0:26:29 > 0:26:33a game for aristocrats and the gifted amateur.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37What we see in 1860s are two different games, if you like.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41You have the professionals who are earning their living by playing games
0:26:41 > 0:26:44around the country in front of big crowds, popularising the game.
0:26:44 > 0:26:50At the same time, you have the aristocracy who have almost withdrawn back to their own county estates.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55Once the game retreated, if you like, into the county scene,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57it was much more refined.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02And I think if you really wanted to get a feel of one of those matches
0:27:02 > 0:27:08from the 1860s, you'd really have to go to India today,
0:27:08 > 0:27:14to see these massive grounds where people just crowd in and are all so completely passionate about the game.
0:27:14 > 0:27:21The more I follow my Bradshaw's along the tracks, the more I understand
0:27:21 > 0:27:26how the railways changed the country.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29They laid the foundations of Britain's Industrial Revolution,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34and also of a quintessentially English identity.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Nothing conjures up old England more than the thwack
0:27:37 > 0:27:41of willow on leather and long shadows across a cricket ground.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Except, perhaps, a pint of warm beer. And Kent,
0:27:45 > 0:27:52aided by its railways, helped to create both those vital elements in our national nostalgia.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01On my next journey, I'll be finding out how a railway
0:28:01 > 0:28:05helped to save Canterbury's historic heart in World War Two...
0:28:05 > 0:28:13The cathedral actually had railway lines laid into the knave to deliver sandbags to protect it.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17..hearing how the Whitstable whelk industry has changed since Bradshaw's day...
0:28:17 > 0:28:19In the old days, that's not what happened?
0:28:19 > 0:28:22They used to go away in the shell.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28But when the rail stopped taking perishable goods, we had to find another way of dealing with it.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32..and exploring the history of a seaside swim.
0:28:32 > 0:28:33Imagine you're staying in Margate.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37You come out of your lodgings and wait for a bathing machine to be ready,
0:28:37 > 0:28:43which apparently always smelt like rotting carpet, that kind of horrible sort of smell.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:54 > 0:28:57E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk