0:00:05 > 0:00:09In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11His name was George Bradshaw
0:00:11 > 0:00:17and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Stop by stop, he told them where to travel,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23what to see and where to stay.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys
0:00:28 > 0:00:31across the length and breadth of the country
0:00:31 > 0:00:34to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00I've embarked on a new journey across Northern England
0:01:00 > 0:01:03and my Bradshaw's guide has brought me to the borderlands,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05where for hundreds of years,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08conflict between the English and the Scots
0:01:08 > 0:01:10shaped the identities of both peoples.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12In the 19th century,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16railway engineers played their part in bridging the gulf.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20'On the first part of my new journey,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24'I'll be seeing how the railway joined those two restless kingdoms.'
0:01:24 > 0:01:28This really is the most beautiful bridge.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32'Discovering an exceptional art class that illustrates a bygone way of life.'
0:01:32 > 0:01:35It's something which nobody else would have thought of recording,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39has ever recorded, nor will record now because it's all vanished.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42'And hearing just how perilous work was
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'on the industrial railways of the North East.'
0:01:45 > 0:01:49So, if it's your job to get that rope off and you happen to trip,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51- what's the consequence? - You're dead.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Starting in the borderlands, this journey takes me south,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00through some of Northern England's most dramatic scenery,
0:02:00 > 0:02:01to cross the Pennines
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and finish up on the beautiful and unique Isle of Man.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10Today's stretch begins in Berwick-upon-Tweed,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and then I'll travel through the Northumbrian countryside to Morpeth
0:02:13 > 0:02:17and the Victorian heartlands of the industrial North East.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24My first stop will be Berwick-upon-Tweed.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27My Bradshaw's guide says, "Before the Act of Union,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29"it was an important frontier town,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31"it is still a garrison town,
0:02:31 > 0:02:36"having a military governor, barracks and fortified walls.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40"Berwick is a stronghold that straddled the fault line
0:02:40 > 0:02:43"between warring peoples."
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Just two-and-a-half miles south of the Scottish border,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Berwick-upon-Tweed is the northernmost town in England.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Astonishingly, it's changed hands between the English and the Scots
0:02:58 > 0:03:00at least 13 times in its history.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04But the coming of the railway in the 19th century
0:03:04 > 0:03:09helped to smooth across the fault line of a fractious divide
0:03:09 > 0:03:13to link two often antagonistic peoples.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Seems quite peaceful, no sign of war today.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23I'm heading off to Berwick's Tudor ramparts,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27built in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31With many Catholic enemies in Northern England,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33who wanted to see her replaced by Mary Queen of Scots,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36the Queen needed to control Berwick
0:03:36 > 0:03:38and to contain Scotland,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40hence these colossal defences.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Local historian Derek Sharman
0:03:43 > 0:03:47is my guide to one of the most complete, fortified towns in Europe.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51- Derek.- Good morning.- Hello!
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Welcome to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58Now, it's been the scene of conflict between the English and the Scots
0:03:58 > 0:04:00for an awfully long time, hasn't it?
0:04:00 > 0:04:03My Bradshaw's says that Edward I barbarously exposed the limbs
0:04:03 > 0:04:05of William Wallace here.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07- It's been going on a long time. - It has, indeed.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09In the 13th century,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Berwick was the biggest, richest seaport in Scotland,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15so when Edward I captured the place, Wallace wanted it back.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17The next year, he recaptured Berwick
0:04:17 > 0:04:20and began 300 years of warfare between the two countries.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23This conflict continued for centuries,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Berwick was the key to Scotland - its food supply, its population,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30all its economy - so holding Berwick was holding the keys to Scotland.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32One of the things that surprised me
0:04:32 > 0:04:35was that Bradshaw's Guide - talking about the 1860s -
0:04:35 > 0:04:38says that it's STILL a garrison town, can that possibly be true?
0:04:38 > 0:04:39Oh, yes, yes.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Berwick has the first infantry barracks in the country,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44built at the beginning of the 18th century
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and right through until 1964, this was still a garrison town.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50As an important military town,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53soldiers had been stationed in Berwick for centuries,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55billeted in people's homes.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59But the burden of this standing army weighed heavily on the town
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and as a result of complaints,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04the government built the barracks in 1719.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07It was the model for subsequent barracks across Britain
0:05:07 > 0:05:09and indeed the Empire.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12And my Bradshaw's of the 1860s
0:05:12 > 0:05:16records that the town still had its own military governor.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21What part did the railways play in the history of Berwick?
0:05:21 > 0:05:23It finally cemented the two countries together.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27It also made a great improvement to the town's economy.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30By then, we'd settled into a normal, everyday market town
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and the railway brought great wealth to the town.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35So you think that the building of the railway
0:05:35 > 0:05:37has a symbolic or cultural effect, do you?
0:05:37 > 0:05:38It does.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40The town had been a ping-pong ball for centuries
0:05:40 > 0:05:43and now it was just the centre of two great nations.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48A railway line from Edinburgh to Berwick
0:05:48 > 0:05:51was built by Scottish engineers in 1846.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53The line from London reached Tweedmouth,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57on the opposite bank of the River Tweed, a year later.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01But finally, to unite England and Scotland
0:06:01 > 0:06:05required a monumental piece of Victorian engineering
0:06:05 > 0:06:07by Robert Stephenson.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09The Royal Border Bridge.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34This really is the most beautiful bridge.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38My Bradshaw's says it's Stephenson's Royal Border Bridge
0:06:38 > 0:06:40or viaduct for the railway -
0:06:40 > 0:06:45216 foot long, on 28 brick arches.
0:06:45 > 0:06:46It is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
0:06:46 > 0:06:49What was the history of the building of this bridge?
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Well, it's the last link in what is now the East Coast Main Line
0:06:52 > 0:06:55and it was finished in 1850,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57opened officially by Queen Victoria.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59She only spent 12 minutes here,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02she opened Newcastle Central Station the same day
0:07:02 > 0:07:04and the festivities there were so great
0:07:04 > 0:07:07that she only had 12 minutes left when she got to Berwick.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Nonetheless, she opened the bridge and from this time, it was genuinely a united kingdom.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14The building of this majestic structure,
0:07:14 > 0:07:1738m above the River Tweed,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20was the catalyst for stronger political and cultural ties,
0:07:20 > 0:07:25with a line directly linking London to Edinburgh for the first time.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31Escaping from the past was evidently a conscious feature of the project.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Derek, what's amazing to me here,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36is I can see castle wall on either side of the railway,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39so the railway was just punched straight through the old walls?
0:07:39 > 0:07:40Yes, indeed.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44The Victorians wanted progress, of course, not historic buildings -
0:07:44 > 0:07:47they had plenty of castles and this was just one more - so it went.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50There's a wall that runs down to the river side - the White Wall -
0:07:50 > 0:07:52built by Edward I in 1296,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55when the English captured the place and began centuries of warfare.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00The castle had featured in war between the English and the Scots over centuries
0:08:00 > 0:08:04and its fortifications had been repaired and improved
0:08:04 > 0:08:06after each devastating battle.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09But the advent of the railway finally demolished it,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13symbolically sweeping away centuries of conflict.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Very typical of the Victorians
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and you find it all the time in Bradshaw's,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20this absolute confidence in progress
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and therefore, perhaps, a little bit of disrespect for history.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Berwick's very singular history has left its mark
0:08:33 > 0:08:36not just on the landscape, but also on its inhabitants.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38So often under siege in their history,
0:08:38 > 0:08:43Berwickers have developed a strong and distinctive identity.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46- Hello. - Hello, are you from Berwick?- I am.
0:08:46 > 0:08:47I'm very interested to know,
0:08:47 > 0:08:51would you regard yourself as English, Scottish or Berwicker?
0:08:51 > 0:08:52Berwicker.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57Tell me, do you regard yourself as English, Scottish or Berwickers?
0:08:57 > 0:08:59- Bewickers.- Berwickers? Now, why would that be?
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Because we're neither one nor the other!
0:09:03 > 0:09:06- Hello, how nice to see you. - Hi.- Are you from Berwick?
0:09:06 > 0:09:07Yeah, I've lived here all my life.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Do you regard yourself as English, Scottish or Berwicker?
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Em...English, but I regard myself as Berwicker if people ask.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Do you think people who live here have to be pretty tough?
0:09:21 > 0:09:24You do take quite a bit of beating because you go up to Scotland
0:09:24 > 0:09:25and you get called a Geordie,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27you go further down south in England,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29you get called a Scot, but you're not.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31You're on the English border,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33but that's how it is and how it's always been.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Berwick is clearly shaped by its tumultuous past.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40As I leave on the railway that tied together these old warring foes -
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Scotland and England -
0:09:42 > 0:09:45there's one more exhilarating sight.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Now, I'm really looking forward to this
0:09:49 > 0:09:53because as soon as the train leaves Berwick-upon-Tweed station,
0:09:53 > 0:09:59it's going to pass over Stephenson's magnificent Royal Border Bridge.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15What a sensational view!
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Just...beautiful.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33I'm now heading due south on Stephenson's East Coast Main Line
0:10:33 > 0:10:36through the stunning Northumbrian countryside.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41My next stop is Alnmouth,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44and I'm disembarking there for Alnwick,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47another garrison town, another wonderful castle,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50as recommended by my Bradshaw's Guide.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Alnwick Castle is the second largest in England,
0:10:57 > 0:10:58and in Bradshaw's day,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00the Dowager Duchess was distinguished
0:11:00 > 0:11:04by being Queen Victoria's former governess.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07The town was nicknamed the Windsor of the North,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11because of the sheer deluge of royalty arriving by train.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15The Duke of Northumberland was built a suitably grand
0:11:15 > 0:11:18twin-barrelled 32,000 square foot railway station.
0:11:18 > 0:11:24Sadly, Alnwick closed in the 1960s but, wonderfully for me,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28a second-hand bookshop saves some of the rooms of the old station,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30and so, to my delight,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I can step back in time with co-owner Mary Manley.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40- Michael, please come in. - Thank you very much, it's lovely!
0:11:40 > 0:11:43- Oh, thank you.- I love the... I love the open fire here.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Oh, that is one of the most popular parts of the shop.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48It's real, and it's coal.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54It was remarked in the paper at the time that the station was,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56"A model of completeness,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59"and none superior in regard to construction or furnishing
0:11:59 > 0:12:02"is to be met with on the north-eastern section."
0:12:02 > 0:12:05The fine features of this Victorian railway station
0:12:05 > 0:12:08have been affectionately restored,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12to the joy of both book lovers and railway enthusiasts.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16I can't help noticing that you've got a very beautiful train as well.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20- What's the story of that? - When we put up these book columns,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22I needed a way of connecting them,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25otherwise they looked like they were free-standing and rather lonely,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29so I thought having a model train might be an effective idea,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32and people love it - not just children, but grown-ups.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Oh, no, no, I'm a grown-up, and I love it too!
0:12:34 > 0:12:39It's just so completely in character with what the building used to be.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47As well as bringing love and light back to Alnwick Station,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Mary's added her own touches to honour the railway staff.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Now, all these...names on the wall, what does that represent?
0:12:58 > 0:13:04All the names of people we could find who worked in Alnwick Station
0:13:04 > 0:13:07from 1850 till its closure in 1968.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10It's a family, it's like coalminers, really, the railwaymen.
0:13:10 > 0:13:16We were very aware of the...voices that go unheard in the station.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18It's their voices.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22So you've established a bookshop, but you're very aware that it's a bookshop in a station.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25We're very aware of the station
0:13:25 > 0:13:29and wanted to restore everything we could to keep it alive as that.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34And, in fact, our bookshop has the same resonance, I think,
0:13:34 > 0:13:39as a railway station - all classes, all ages, stories, hellos and goodbyes.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46In the railway books section,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48a magnet for rail enthusiasts from all over the world,
0:13:48 > 0:13:53Mary's husband, Stuart, has something of interest.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57- Hello, Stuart.- Hello! - What are you reading there?
0:13:57 > 0:14:00Well, we have here a very early railway book
0:14:00 > 0:14:05of the Newcastle to Carlisle line built in 1836.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10It has wonderful pictures in it of the line just after it was built.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12These are stunning, aren't they?
0:14:12 > 0:14:15The quality of the engravings is terrific.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19- Is the book dated? - The book is dated and, er...1836.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24Immediately the line has been built, they bring out this beautiful book
0:14:24 > 0:14:26showing, from the earliest days,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29they understood the railways were a thing of beauty to be celebrated.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31I think that's self-evident.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34It's not just the viaducts, which are beautiful,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36but they put the scenery around them
0:14:36 > 0:14:40to really show, "This is part of the countryside now, and isn't it great?"
0:14:40 > 0:14:42From one early railway book to another,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46do you have many of Bradshaw's Handbooks?
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Curiously enough, you're entirely to blame for this,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53there's hardly a Bradshaw's Handbook to be had anywhere in the country.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56We've sold out, and so has virtually everyone else.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58It's amazing.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03I think George Bradshaw would have been humbled and rather amused
0:15:03 > 0:15:08to know that, over 170 years since its first publication,
0:15:08 > 0:15:11his railway guides are flying off the shelf once more.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16After a glorious day, I'm heading off to find my bed for the night,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19courtesy, of course, of good old George.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24For my hotel tonight, Bradshaw's mentions the White Swan,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27and after all these decades, it's still here.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Wealthy Victorian and early 20th-century travellers
0:15:33 > 0:15:36demanded luxury and opulence on a grand scale,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38and not just on the railways.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41One of the most ostentatious examples of this
0:15:41 > 0:15:44was the Titanic sister ship, the Olympic.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46It was unsurpassed in grandeur,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50having the first swimming pool on a transatlantic liner,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and a staircase that was said to be "something beyond beautiful".
0:15:55 > 0:15:59Unusually, after she was withdrawn from service in 1935,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04her fittings and fixtures weren't scrapped, but sold at auction.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07The first class lounge was bought for the White Swan Hotel
0:16:07 > 0:16:10for its patrons' indulgence.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16What a wonderfully elegant dining room.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22Tonight, I can swap the pleasures of railway travel, standard class,
0:16:22 > 0:16:27for the luxury of transatlantic cruising first-class.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42A new day and I'm up early,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46leaving behind the disputed territories of the border
0:16:46 > 0:16:50to travel south to the industrial heartlands of North-Eastern England.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53The progress of the Industrial Revolution
0:16:53 > 0:16:57from the end of the 18th century saw large-scale use of coal,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01as steam engines supplanted waterwheels.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04In the Victorian era, steam-powered ships and railways
0:17:04 > 0:17:10spread across the world and the demand for coal was at its zenith.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14My Bradshaw's says, "within a circle of eight or ten miles,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17"more than 50 important collieries are open,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21"employing between 10,000-15,000 hands.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25"The great northern field covers about 500 square miles
0:17:25 > 0:17:31"of Northumberland and Durham, and may be 1,800 feet deep."
0:17:31 > 0:17:37The railways helped convert hamlets into villages, pit villages.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42This economic growth, based on coal,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45converted parts of Northumberland from agriculture
0:17:45 > 0:17:50to create one of the first 19th-century industrial landscapes.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54'The service now arriving at Watford. Watford will be the next stop.'
0:17:54 > 0:17:57I've left the train at Morpeth to make a short excursion
0:17:57 > 0:18:01to the centre of the Northumberland collieries, the town of Ashington.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08By the late 1840s, as a result of the coalmining industry,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Ashington had developed from a rural backwater to a population of over 25,000.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17The railways also grew exponentially,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21carrying the coal to the expanding docks of Newcastle, Sunderland and Jarrow
0:18:21 > 0:18:23on the Northumberland and Durham coasts.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28In these former pit villages,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33you can taste the history of the coal industry.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35These were very tightly knit communities.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Miners and their families living cheek by jowl with other miners and their families.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45I'm interested to discover what these pitmen did in their spare time
0:18:45 > 0:18:49to escape their often dangerous and grimy working lives at the coal face.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54So I've come to the Woodhorn Colliery Museum
0:18:54 > 0:18:57to meet author William Feaver.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59- Bill, hello.- Hello.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Here we are at Woodhorn colliery, which is now a museum,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07but describe it to me in its heyday of production.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10Well, trains and convoys of coal wagons going up and down,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13backwards and forwards, endlessly.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17It was like a great traffic junction and this was the middle of the coal yard.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Pithead above us, where everything went down, everything came up.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23And remember, coal ran the country.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28Without coal, there wouldn't have been any trains, and nothing else, no power, in effect.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31So this was an industrial hub.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34How would you describe the life of the miners in those days?
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Life as a pitman was hard at the best of times.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Apart from anything else,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42you spent most of your working life in the dark.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Dangerous life, I mean, death was a possibility.
0:19:45 > 0:19:491% fatalities a year was considered rather a good statistic.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Think of that, with that number of people working.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53It was not just a hard life,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56but a life in which there was no alternative.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Ashington was a one-industry place, and because of that,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03both a great pride in the industry because it was a skilled industry,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and a sense of, I think,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09being captive, limited by this hard drudgery.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13And the miners came together with this sense of camaraderie,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17this idea that they had to put their leisure time to good use,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21and an idea that they wanted to make something better of their lives.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26There was a huge appetite for self-improvement. This is from the late 19th century onwards.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28In the Workers' Educational Association,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32which was a further education system, it set up classes wherever needed,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34and here, the classes were particularly active.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40There was one particular class which really has now gone down in history.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The Ashington group, or Pitmen Painters, as they're affectionately known,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49are special because they offer us a unique view of miners' lives.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52The pitmen first came together in 1934
0:20:52 > 0:20:56to study something different, art appreciation.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Robert Lyon, a lecturer from Durham University,
0:21:00 > 0:21:05became their tutor and the results of those classes now hang in the Woodhorn Museum.
0:21:15 > 0:21:16Gosh.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20How powerful, how, er...
0:21:21 > 0:21:25How extraordinary, how very, very moving. Very sensitive, aren't they?
0:21:25 > 0:21:29So... So real. And these were done by pitmen?
0:21:29 > 0:21:30These were done by pitmen,
0:21:30 > 0:21:37and they were done starting in 1934, going right through until the 1980s.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42Initially, the men painted subjects which reflected their pastimes,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45growing food on their allotments, racing whippets and pigeons,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47but it became clear that the greatest art
0:21:47 > 0:21:51would spring from their daily working lives,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55and increasingly, they painted how it was to work in the mines.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58In those days, you hardly took photographs underground.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02If you did, they were big plate cameras, and black and white.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04This is underground in colour.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07It wasn't black and white down there,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09it was brown and russet and shadowy and subtle.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Because they worked there all their daily lives,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17they could do images which were completely unknown to people outside.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21And so this is what it was like in the '30s,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25when the second stage of jobs for someone going down the pit
0:22:25 > 0:22:29at the age of about 13 would be to look after pit ponies.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Jimmy Floyd shows a rather illicit thing going on,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35which is feeding the pony in his break.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38It's something which nobody else would have thought of recording,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41nobody else has ever recorded, nobody ever will record now
0:22:41 > 0:22:43because it's all vanished.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46The paintings that survived were collected together by the miners
0:22:46 > 0:22:50and stored in a small hut for over 30 years.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55The pictures, hung together, are exactly as I think the group is.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Not individuals, it's a group that echoes and re-echoes,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02talks among itself, backchats, laughs, shares the memories.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07The amazing thing is that nowhere in the world is there anything like this.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10There has never been a working men's movement
0:23:10 > 0:23:15that's kept its best pictures, kept them together,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19and had such an extraordinary, touching, and now historic subject.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22The coal industry has virtually gone, these pictures are here.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Sadly, the Ashington pitmen painters are all dead now.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30I'm moved by these paintings, an unsentimental depiction
0:23:30 > 0:23:34of their lives, hewing the stubborn coal from the earth.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38The very coal that powered the mills and the locomotives.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45To reach the last stop on this leg,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49I must return to the main line that runs south from Edinburgh,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52to leave behind Northumberland and enter Tyne & Wear.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58A quick change at Newcastle affords me a real treat.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05Now, this is one of my favourite views from a train in Britain.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Down the River Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Isn't that fabulous?
0:24:19 > 0:24:23I often mention how the railways spurred the development of coal,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26but of course, the converse was just as true.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31Many of the important breakthroughs in rail technology
0:24:31 > 0:24:35were made by mining engineers, and the pits were using trucks
0:24:35 > 0:24:41on tracks long before the invention of the moving steam engine or locomotive.
0:24:42 > 0:24:49As early as 1620, mines were using rails and trucks within the pits to move coal.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52As the Industrial Revolution burgeoned,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56the Victorians increasingly demanded steam power for industry and railways,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00requiring huge quantities of coal to be moved from pithead to dock.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07One of the earliest innovations for this work was the rope-hauled railway.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10I've come to the Bowes Railway Museum near Gateshead,
0:25:10 > 0:25:16with engineer John Young, to see the only surviving example in the world.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21John, if I understand it, you've brought me to this spectacular place because this is one
0:25:21 > 0:25:24of George Stephenson's early railway miracles, isn't it?
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Yes, we're on the site of Springwell colliery.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30This is the top of the hill where the full wagons going down
0:25:30 > 0:25:33would pull empty wagons up, powered by gravity.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38So, if I understand this correctly, this is operating by gravity and by balance.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41You've got six full wagons going down
0:25:41 > 0:25:44and they're pulling up six empty wagons to the summit?
0:25:44 > 0:25:51Yes, a very unique system, couldn't be bettered from 1826 to when it shut in '74.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Designed by George Stephenson when he was a colliery engineer,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59the rope haulage covered nine miles from pithead to port.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Gravity alone allowed the full wagons to move downhill
0:26:02 > 0:26:06and, as they descended, to pull the empty ones up.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Where coal-laden trucks had to travel uphill,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12a stationary steam-powered winch was used.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16This system was said to be so efficient that the first load of coal through in the morning
0:26:16 > 0:26:20would be enough to pay the wages of every man
0:26:20 > 0:26:22working on the railway that day.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25This must have been a dangerous place to work?
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Very. I mean, the death list for this site is in its hundreds.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Banksmen would have to run in front of full wagons to take the ropes off,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36and other men to run alongside to put brakes on.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39So if it's your job to run down in front of six fully-loaded
0:26:39 > 0:26:43wagons of coal as they're gaining speed to get that rope off,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47- and you happen to trip, what was the consequence?- You're dead.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Although the Bowes system closed in 1974,
0:26:53 > 0:26:58the technology was in operation much as Stevenson had designed it for just shy of 150 years.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04So they're now running down just on gravity, are they?
0:27:04 > 0:27:09It's gravity pulling them out. What I'm having to do now is control the rope speed.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11As you see, the rope's jumping up and down.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14If you just let it pay out under its own weight,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17the wagons would just go out of control and fly off down the yard.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19OK!
0:27:21 > 0:27:27Without the ingenuity of engineers working on mining and shipping coal,
0:27:27 > 0:27:32it's doubtful whether the key developments of the locomotive and the railway
0:27:32 > 0:27:36could have evolved with the extraordinary speed that they did.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39The railway was an awesome technology,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41powerful enough to rub out borders
0:27:41 > 0:27:45and link previously hostile cultures,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47but as it stimulated the Industrial Revolution,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50it created new communities based on coal,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55and they had their own distinct and celebrated cultures.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01'On the next step of my journey,
0:28:01 > 0:28:04'I'll be getting down and dirty in a Roman barracks.'
0:28:04 > 0:28:07Well, I am your slave, back to work.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Back to work - quite right as well!
0:28:09 > 0:28:13'Discovering a small invention that made a big difference to the travelling public.'
0:28:13 > 0:28:17- Let me do the dog ticket first, that's easy enough.- That's it.
0:28:17 > 0:28:18One dog ticket.
0:28:18 > 0:28:24'And drinking in spectacular engineering triumphs in the Cumbrian countryside.'
0:28:24 > 0:28:27- Thank you for going so slowly over the viaduct.- You're welcome.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28- Isn't it beautiful?- Oh, it is, aye.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:36 > 0:28:40E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk