0:00:05 > 0:00:10In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:10 > 0:00:17His name was George Bradshaw, and 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 > 0:00:30Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length and breadth
0:00:30 > 0:00:35of the country to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01My journey now takes me towards the coast of Kent.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05I think of this county as being England's orchard or garden.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10But as Bradshaw reminds us it's "bound to the east and southeast
0:01:10 > 0:01:13"by the German ocean and the straits of Dover."
0:01:13 > 0:01:18And that means it's also been our frontier against our continental enemies.
0:01:22 > 0:01:28As the county closest to the continent, Kent has always played a crucial role in our defence.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33Its railways provided arterial routes not only for the flows of commuters
0:01:33 > 0:01:40but also for the needs of war, and today I'm following my guidebook along those tracks.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42On this journey, I'll be finding out how a railway
0:01:42 > 0:01:47helped to save Canterbury's historic heart in World War Two...
0:01:47 > 0:01:54The cathedral had railway lines laid into the nave to deliver sandbags to protect it.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59..hearing how the Whitstable whelk industry has changed since Bradshaw's day.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01In the old days, that's not what happened.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03No, in the old days, it all used to go away in the shell.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07But when the rail stopped taking perishable goods,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10we had to find another way of dealing with them.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13..and exploring the history of a seaside swim.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Imagine you are staying in Margate, you would come out of your lodgings
0:02:16 > 0:02:18and you'd wait for a bathing machine to be ready.
0:02:18 > 0:02:24Which apparently always smelt like rotting carpet, that kind of horrible smell.
0:02:28 > 0:02:35So far, I've travelled over 60 miles from London through Kent to Tunbridge Wells.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39From there, I'll head east towards the coast before tracing
0:02:39 > 0:02:43the shoreline bordering the Channel on my way to Folkestone.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48Then I'll pass through Ashford en route to my final stop, Hastings.
0:02:49 > 0:02:57Today, I'll begin in Canterbury and travel on to Whitstable and skirt the sea to Margate.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59ANNOUNCER: We will shortly be arriving at Canterbury.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Canterbury has been a destination for devout pilgrims for millennia,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12and especially since Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral in the 12th century.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Once the railway was built, it became a magnet
0:03:16 > 0:03:20for Victorian tourists keen to understand their history.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Canterbury Cathedral from the train is so impressive.
0:03:23 > 0:03:29Even when you're prepared for it, you're not prepared for it, because it just rises so high,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33the tower is so magnificent and dominating of the whole town.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37Some of the great views of cathedrals are from railways.
0:03:37 > 0:03:38Time to get off.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Bradshaw's waxes lyrical about the cathedral's Norman architecture
0:03:45 > 0:03:51and the unusual double cross above its 574ft long nave.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Lovely morning, isn't it?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Discovering the city through my guide,
0:03:56 > 0:04:02I appreciate why Victorian tourists were inspired to take the train to Canterbury.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Let me read you this, from Bradshaw's.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08"The appearance of Canterbury is exquisitely beautiful.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11"And as we enter, symbols of its antiquity stare us in the face everywhere.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15"Narrow passages, crazy tenements with overhanging windows,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19"peaked gables and wooden balustrades just out on every side.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22"Here and there some formless sculpture of a fractured cherub
0:04:22 > 0:04:26"or grotesque image peer out from a creaking doorway."
0:04:26 > 0:04:27Isn't that wonderful writing?
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Has any modern guidebook ever said it better?
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Fortunately, Bradshaw couldn't foresee that within a century
0:04:37 > 0:04:43this magnificent city would come under devastating attack during World War Two.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Now here's something not in my Bradshaw's guide.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48I was tipped off to look for this.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Had Germany attacked in 1940, '41,
0:04:52 > 0:04:57then invading troops might well have passed along this road.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02And little rectangles have been cut in the railway bridge so that British forces defending
0:05:02 > 0:05:08might have hoped to keep them at bay by pointing their machine guns through those apertures.
0:05:11 > 0:05:17Canterbury sits on a strategic railway link between London and the port of Dover.
0:05:17 > 0:05:23During the war, it constituted a major supply route for troops and materiel
0:05:23 > 0:05:25and the city became a target.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26'Paul!'
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Michael, welcome to Canterbury.
0:05:28 > 0:05:29Good to see you.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Paul Bennett is an expert on Canterbury's history.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37This is my Bradshaw's guide, would it be a reliable guide to Canterbury today?
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Sadly not, no.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Parts of Canterbury, Bradshaw would recognise,
0:05:42 > 0:05:47but a significant part of it was lost during the Baedeker raid of June 1st, 1942.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49A German air raid?
0:05:49 > 0:05:55A German air raid on Canterbury, on historic towns, and we lost the very heart of the city.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01The Luftwaffe consulted a German tourist guidebook called Baedeker's
0:06:01 > 0:06:04to select historically important English cities for bombing.
0:06:04 > 0:06:11How sad that a book written in celebration of human achievement was so cynically misused.
0:06:11 > 0:06:17The phrase, the Baedeker raids, comes from Gustav Braun von Sturm,
0:06:17 > 0:06:23a German propagandist, who said, "We will bomb every building in Britain
0:06:23 > 0:06:26"that has three stars in the Baedeker guide."
0:06:26 > 0:06:31By April '42, they had bombed Exeter,
0:06:31 > 0:06:37then Bath, then Norwich, and then on June 1st, 1942,
0:06:37 > 0:06:43at 12.45am, 16 blood-red flares shone out
0:06:43 > 0:06:46over the skies of Canterbury
0:06:46 > 0:06:49and down rained 8,000 incendiaries
0:06:49 > 0:06:55and about 150 high explosives that devastated parts of the town.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Now, given both the strategic significance of Canterbury
0:06:58 > 0:07:04and the wonderful heritage, presumably the people of Canterbury were prepared for all this?
0:07:04 > 0:07:11They were very prepared. The population had been provided by then with lots of shelters.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Many of the principal buildings had been covered in sandbags.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19The cathedral actually had railway lines laid into the nave
0:07:19 > 0:07:23to deliver sandbags to protect it.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29During the raid itself, there were people chucking incendiaries
0:07:29 > 0:07:33off the cathedral roof, it was such a close-run thing.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36We could have lost Canterbury Cathedral in that raid
0:07:36 > 0:07:40if it hadn't been for the organisation of the city at that time.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47People used all kinds of wiles to defend the city.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50They created fake Canterburys by lighting up areas of the countryside
0:07:50 > 0:07:54while obscuring the real city in smoke.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00Despite this, they endured 35 raids which took their toll.
0:08:00 > 0:08:07We lost 880 buildings. 6,500 buildings were damaged.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10But fortunately, only 115 people were killed.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14That's a tribute, I suppose, to how far civil defence had advanced by then,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16the shelters were in place, and so on.
0:08:16 > 0:08:2210,000 shelter places were created in 1941,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and thank goodness for it.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31The shelters might be steel boxes built in people's homes or half-buried in the garden.
0:08:31 > 0:08:37Many residents also sought refuge in the railway tunnel, and overall, thousands of lives were saved.
0:08:37 > 0:08:43For some who experienced the bombings, like volunteer rescue operator, Anthony Swayne,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45the memories remain powerful.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48What do you remember of the air raids themselves?
0:08:50 > 0:08:55The screaming of the planes as they dived down.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01Then the explosions of bombs, then shouting in the street.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Do you remember looking at the devastation of the city after it had occurred?
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Oh, rather. It smouldered for about three weeks.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10It must have been very shocking.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15It was. We couldn't even breathe, the air was so hot.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18You imagine a whole city burning,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21the heat was...incredible.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24How would you describe the noises?
0:09:24 > 0:09:26Absolute hell on earth.
0:09:27 > 0:09:28It was.
0:09:28 > 0:09:34It was not only our guns shooting at the planes, it was the bombs that dropped.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39Screaming of people in the streets.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41It was just hell let loose.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46But through it, came people of strength, I must say that.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54I find it moving to hear at first hand what the people of Canterbury lived through
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and how their ingenuity helped to save the cathedral.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05And now as I reach the station, by chance another bit of history thunders past.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15It's brilliant just to see a steam engine race by you.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20I've been on several steam journeys recently, but I'm not normally in the position
0:10:20 > 0:10:25of watching an old locomotive race by with all the wind and the smoke and steam.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27Fabulous sight.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36It would have been a common experience for Victorian tourists following their Bradshaw's guides.
0:10:36 > 0:10:44But I'll have to settle for modern electric efficiency to get me to Whitstable, changing at Faversham.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Faversham, and my connection goes in three minutes.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53< Where are you going?
0:10:55 > 0:10:56Whitstable!
0:10:56 > 0:10:57Whitstable, platform four.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00What?!
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Looks like I'm not the only person going to Whitstable.
0:11:11 > 0:11:17Perched atop the Kent coast, Whitstable has since Roman times been famed for shellfish.
0:11:17 > 0:11:25In 1830, it gained one of the very first railways to convey coal between the coast and Canterbury.
0:11:25 > 0:11:31It also carried seafood, and inevitably, the Canterbury and Whitstable railway
0:11:31 > 0:11:34was nicknamed the Crab and Winkle Line.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40Two years later, it was joined to a new harbour serving the expanding shellfish trade.
0:11:42 > 0:11:43"Whitstable," says Bradshaw's,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48"is the harbour of Canterbury and is celebrated for its oyster fishery,
0:11:48 > 0:11:55"the produce of which, under the name of Natives, is highly esteemed in the London and other markets."
0:11:55 > 0:12:02I am here to find out more not about the oyster, beloved of metropolitan toffs, but the Whitstable whelk,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06traditionally the food of the British working classes.
0:12:08 > 0:12:15I'm meeting Derek West, a whelk fisherman, whose family has been fishing here for three generations.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Derek. Michael. Lovely to see you.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22In your memory, what was it like in its heyday, this harbour?
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Very, very busy in the war and just after the war.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30There was shipping here and we used to have all the old rail lines round the harbour here.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Very good, them days.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35The things that were caught here, the oysters, the whelks and so on,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37what happened to them? How were they sent on?
0:12:37 > 0:12:42We used to bag them up and take them up to the station and they used to go to London market.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Did they go fresh on the trains?
0:12:45 > 0:12:48No, they was all cooked, they was all put in bags,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52and took up to the station up at Whitstable on the trains.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57In Bradshaw's time, fresh and cooked whelks
0:12:57 > 0:13:02were sent by rail to the city and sold as a snack on London's streets.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06They cost around a penny for five, and cockneys loved them.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12Demand was high, so Derek's great-grandfather employed a different kind of whelk pot
0:13:12 > 0:13:13which improved the catch.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Derek's brought a half-size one for me to see.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19That was the old, original whelk pot.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21And this is a kind of iron or steel cage?
0:13:21 > 0:13:26That's right. We roped... We used to rope them up.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Your whelks are attracted into the pot.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35Bait goes in the pot there and the smell draws the whelks into the pots.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38And then what prevents them getting out?
0:13:38 > 0:13:45There's a net in there, a small net, what we call a crinnie that stops them from coming out.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Like a valve, they can get in but they can't get out.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Have you any idea, in the old days,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55your grandfather's day, maybe your youth, how many people were fishing whelk?
0:13:55 > 0:14:01There used to be about ten whelk boats on the harbour here.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03What is it now?
0:14:03 > 0:14:05There's only about two.
0:14:06 > 0:14:12In the late 20th century, as whelks' popularity declined, the industry waned.
0:14:12 > 0:14:19Derek's family is one of the few in Whitstable that still catch and prepare them for sale.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24These days, they're removed from the shell, cleaned and sorted by size.
0:14:24 > 0:14:25Hello, Jean.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Hello there. How do you do? I won't shake your hand.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32'Jean West is an expert picker.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36'She and her team can prepare 200 kilos of whelks per day.'
0:14:36 > 0:14:37You're Derek's bride, I believe.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40That's right, 57 years.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And you've done a few of those in your time, I dare say.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Yes, I've been doing this since 1963.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Good heavens! These are now put into packets and frozen, is that right?
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Yes, they are put into 2.5 kilo packets and they are frozen.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Then people come with the refrigerated lorries to collect them.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00We have them from Birmingham, Essex, London, all over.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03In the old days, that's not what happened.
0:15:03 > 0:15:10No, in the old days they all used to go in the shell by train up to Birmingham,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13and down to Hastings and places like that.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20When the rail stopped taking perishable goods, we had to find another way of dealing with it.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24'Since the late 1960s, lorries have replaced trains
0:15:24 > 0:15:28'as the main carrier of perishable goods like shellfish.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:30They are something that you either love or hate.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34The people that like them, really go for them.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37I don't like them very much.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39I've got friends that do.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42You don't like them very much and you spend your entire day with them!
0:15:42 > 0:15:44I see enough of them!
0:15:44 > 0:15:47How do you actually pick a whelk?
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Turn the shell...take it out.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Do you think I might have a go at that?
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Turn the shell...there we go.
0:15:57 > 0:15:58Well done.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Then you have to take the hat off...
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Oh, you have to take the hat off? And pop that in there.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09'With it out of its shell, I'd better try one of these once so popular whelks.'
0:16:09 > 0:16:12It's got a kind of a tough bit and a soft bit.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17- That's nice.- Is that good?
0:16:17 > 0:16:20They have a reputation of being very chewy, but that's quite nice.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22The smaller ones are nice.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41The coast here at Whitstable is given a beauty by the severity of the tide,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46the sea is far away, grey under a grey sky.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It's really kind of beautiful, little fishing boat silhouetted.
0:16:49 > 0:16:57In Bradshaw's day, this coast was heaving with boats catching not only whelks but oysters too.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02The Whitstable Oyster Company sent 60 million to London in one year alone.
0:17:02 > 0:17:08So appropriately, tonight I'm staying in a place strongly linked to fishing.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14This beautiful house, rebuilt in 1778, was apparently the home of Captain Jasper Rowden,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17who was a famous Whitstable oyster dredger.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22Bernard Wright owns and runs The Captain's House as a B&B.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25- Hello, lovely to see you. - Very nice to meet you.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Jasper Rowden, who was he?
0:17:28 > 0:17:34Jasper Rowden was the pre-eminent oyster dredger man of his generation.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38This house stood here on the beach before anything else was built around it.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41There were maybe one or two other houses scattered about the place.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44He would have lived here and would have been looking
0:17:44 > 0:17:47straight out to sea rather than onto this busy road that you see here.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54In Captain Rowden's day, oyster dredging was back-breaking work.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58The oysters were hauled up by hand into special boats called yawls,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02where they were separated from the rubble from the sea bed.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07So, staying in the Captain's House, I feel respect for him and his crews.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10He would have been a very well known character in the local area.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13We sort of feel him about, as if he's still here sometimes.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Which is a nice feeling, just to understand the history
0:18:16 > 0:18:19of the place, to do with the town being so famous for oysters.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Well, I'm here to spend the night.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Yes, come on in.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43A bright and breezy new day.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48And reluctantly I leave behind the pretty harbour and delicious seafood of Whitstable.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58I'm now heading around 15 miles along the Kent coast.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06The Victorians could be rather pompous.
0:19:06 > 0:19:07The line to Margate.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13"This has been called the pleasure line, and certainly the beauty of the country traversed by its trains
0:19:13 > 0:19:17"justly entitle it to that distinguishing appellation.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22"Its iron roads and branches intersect Kent in all directions affording the inhabitants
0:19:22 > 0:19:29"of the great metropolis facilities of visiting the numerous watering places on its coast."
0:19:29 > 0:19:34In modern parlance, that means this is the line
0:19:34 > 0:19:37to sun, sand, sea and fun.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48- So this used to be called the pleasure line?- It did, yes.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Do you still get a lot of weekenders, sunseekers, holidaymakers?
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Oh, yeah, thousands, especially in the summertime.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Whitstable, Margate, Broadstairs.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01So not so different from Victorian times?
0:20:01 > 0:20:09No, I don't think so. We get the whole spectrum from elderly people to young kids.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Young kids seem to love Margate.
0:20:11 > 0:20:17You've got the sea, the beach and the escapism, I should imagine, from living up in town.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21That's what I'm there for. I'll do a bit of escapism while I'm there.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30My guide comments on Margate's meteoric rise in popularity once the railways arrived.
0:20:30 > 0:20:36It says, "Steam has done wonders and Margate visitors have to be numbered by hundreds of thousands."
0:20:36 > 0:20:40With new journey times from London of just two hours,
0:20:40 > 0:20:45train-loads of daytrippers sped their way towards the seaside town.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51What a great, big, impressive station Margate is.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54I suppose that is telling us that, as Bradshaw says,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58hundreds of thousands of people would come to Margate for a day trip or a holiday.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02- Bye-bye, now.- You enjoy Margate.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05- I'll enjoy it, thank you. - Hope you find your escapism!
0:21:05 > 0:21:07- Safe trip, bye!- Ta-ra!
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Bradshaw goes on to say, "When London folks grew wiser and found
0:21:13 > 0:21:18"that short trips had a wonderful power in preventing doctor's bills, the place grew rapidly."
0:21:18 > 0:21:24In fact, salt water had long been considered a cure for diseases like rickets and TB.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28The world's first sea bathing hospital was built here.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32I'm meeting historian Allan Brodie at its grand entrance.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34This is really rather a lovely building.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36This is the Sea Bathing Hospital.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41The committee to establish it was founded in 1791.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46And the small building here opened in 1796.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52The magnificent thing we are looking at is a reconstruction of the mid 19th century.
0:21:52 > 0:21:53Who are these patients?
0:21:53 > 0:21:59They are children from poor backgrounds who this charitable committee have brought down,
0:21:59 > 0:22:04firstly on sailing boats, then steamers, to be treated here.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07They are suffering from the whole range of tuberculosis
0:22:07 > 0:22:11as well as diseases that are essentially poverty related.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15The upper classes also came to Margate to bathe
0:22:15 > 0:22:19and even to drink the curative sea water.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24But rather than visiting the hospital, they took a dip in the sea in a private contraption
0:22:24 > 0:22:28that it's claimed was developed here, the bathing machine.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33The bathing machine, when and where does that originate?
0:22:33 > 0:22:39The first bathing machines probably date from the very early 18th century and Margate has a special part
0:22:39 > 0:22:44in the story because it takes the simple bathing machine, essentially just a cart
0:22:44 > 0:22:50drawn into the sea by a horse, and puts a strange, concertina-shaped canvas cover at the back of it,
0:22:50 > 0:22:56so if you are a lady or gentleman who wanted to have a bit of privacy, you could come down the steps
0:22:56 > 0:23:01and have a little swim inside this, effectively a little private bath
0:23:01 > 0:23:03in the sea, under this strange canopy.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08Our ancestors didn't care to swim as we do today.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13They savoured a ritual which grew up around the bathing machine.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17You would come out of your lodgings, go to little bathing rooms on the High Street,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21sign your names on a blackboard, and wait for a bathing machine.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26You'd come down to the bathing machine, where you would be provided perhaps with some kind of costume,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31or you may have some costume of your own, and perhaps some towels to dry yourself with.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35You would change inside this bathing machine, which apparently always smelt
0:23:35 > 0:23:38like rotting carpet, that kind of horrible smell.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Poor horse dragged the machine into the sea and you went down the steps
0:23:42 > 0:23:47and bathed in under this canvas canopy in privacy.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51If you were more a bit more adventurous or felt you could swim, you could come out of the canopy.
0:23:52 > 0:23:58From the mid 19th century the railways transported a new wave of working class visitors
0:23:58 > 0:24:04to Margate, who entered the sea not to improve their health but for pleasure.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06The Victorian period is a transitional period
0:24:06 > 0:24:10between the Georgian period in the 18th century, where people
0:24:10 > 0:24:14drank sea water, and bathed, dipped in the water.
0:24:14 > 0:24:21By the Victorian period, you are beginning to get that system of bathing machines being transformed
0:24:21 > 0:24:26into the beginning of the swimming and the beach holiday culture
0:24:26 > 0:24:29that we would much more recognise today.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34By the end of the 19th century, so many people were catching
0:24:34 > 0:24:37the train to the beach that the cumbersome bathing machines
0:24:37 > 0:24:40made way for the more practical swimming costume.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43The railways made the British seaside holiday
0:24:43 > 0:24:48a part of national culture and it clings to its position to this day.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Before I leave town, I'll visit a place that Victorian tourists wouldn't have missed,
0:24:57 > 0:25:04the mysterious Shell Grotto, which was discovered shortly before my guide was written.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10Extraordinary, like entering a subterranean cathedral,
0:25:10 > 0:25:15everything's covered in mosaics, but mosaics made of seashells.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20The whole thing very elaborate, very intricate, incredible amount of work.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23And big!
0:25:24 > 0:25:29Over 4.5 million shells were used to create this underground masterpiece.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36This is the greatest room of all, and you must be Sarah?
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Hello! I am!
0:25:38 > 0:25:40'Sarah Vickery owns the grotto.'
0:25:40 > 0:25:44I saw a sign saying don't touch the shells because they are delicate.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Here and there obviously some have fallen away, but it's in pretty good condition.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54Considering it's been open to the public since 1837, so literally millions of people
0:25:54 > 0:25:59would have walked through here, so it's a miracle, the condition it's in.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04Believed to have been discovered by a group of school children playing hide and seek,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06the grotto quickly drew the crowds.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10- When it opened, it would have been- THE- thing to do.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Margate was an incredibly busy town, of course.
0:26:13 > 0:26:20So, I think...at one stage, they had a one-way system going in here, it was so busy.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24They would have had hundreds and hundreds of people through every day.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30'Grottos became fashionable in Britain in the 18th century.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33'Wealthy travellers returning from grand tours of Italy
0:26:33 > 0:26:36'recreated the idea in their landscaped gardens.
0:26:36 > 0:26:43'Some have suggested this grotto was built as a temple, others a secret meeting house.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46'In truth, nobody knows.'
0:26:47 > 0:26:50In a way, it's a fantastic story.
0:26:50 > 0:26:56This huge work of art exists... and we don't know who the artist is.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58No, exactly, it's anonymous.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06Following my Bradshaw's Guide around Britain, as so many 19th century tourists did,
0:27:06 > 0:27:13I'm continually surprised that so much that the Victorians saw, we can still see today.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18My guide may be over 150 years old,
0:27:18 > 0:27:23but much of it remains relevant for the 21st century traveller.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28For the railway tourist, Kent offers medieval heritage,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31fine seafood, and excellent sea bathing.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Whitstable has adjusted to the 21st century.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39Canterbury has been rebuilt after World War Two, and Margate maintains
0:27:39 > 0:27:45its position as a sea bathing centre on Kent's pleasure line.
0:27:47 > 0:27:53On my next journey, I'll be hearing how the railways helped Britain to win the First World War...
0:27:53 > 0:27:56It made it possible to supply the troops with the equipment
0:27:56 > 0:28:00they needed in a much greater quantity than they might otherwise have had.
0:28:00 > 0:28:01It was as simple as that.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05..imagining how to fill some famous boots...
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Ones actually worn by Wellington?
0:28:07 > 0:28:10Yes, the icon of our collection.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14..and venturing into the very first railway tunnel under the sea.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16It is absolutely unique.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18It's massive, yet it's invisible.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23And it is, honestly, one of the wonders of our modern day.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26- A renaissance in rail.- We hope so.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk