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 > 0:00:21Stop by stop, he told them where to travel,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25what to see and where to stay.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length
0:00:30 > 0:00:34and breadth of the country to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57My Bradshaw's guide has now steered me
0:00:57 > 0:01:02towards the stunning natural beauty of the Cumbrian coast.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04In these parts, the proximity of the sea,
0:01:04 > 0:01:09the rich mineral deposits and the network of railways has led
0:01:09 > 0:01:12to industrial development centred around the mines.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15On today's part of my journey,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19I'll be exploding the myths behind Cumbrian slate.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21KLAXON WAILS
0:01:23 > 0:01:25That was a much bigger bang than I'd expected.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Submerging myself in a top-secret world.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Not much room here, I can tell you.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34And discovering why Victorians loved the hanging town.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39- This is a short-drop rope. - Short-drop meaning, of course, that they would be strangled.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41- They danced on the end of the rope. - Indeed.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47I began my trip in Berwick-upon-Tweed and I'm
0:01:47 > 0:01:51travelling through the spectacular counties of Cumbria, Northumberland
0:01:51 > 0:01:56and Lancashire, finishing by sailing the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01Today's leg of the journey starts in Kirkby-in-Furness
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and then hugs the west coast, circumscribing Morecambe Bay,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07culminating in the city of Lancaster.
0:02:14 > 0:02:20My Bradshaw's says that people here are engaged in the slate, iron and copper mines.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23But I'm intrigued by this entry under Kirkby-in-Furness.
0:02:23 > 0:02:31It says, "This place has a population of 1,666 employed in the blue slate quarries."
0:02:31 > 0:02:35That sounds like quite a lot of people in Victorian times
0:02:35 > 0:02:38and I'm not sure I even know what blue slate is.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45I've arrived at Kirkby-in-Furness, perched on the West Cumbrian coast.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50This area is renowned for its famous blue slate, which has been
0:02:50 > 0:02:52coveted since Roman times.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56But it was during the 19th century that production ballooned.
0:02:56 > 0:03:02I've come to the Burlington quarry to find out more from Ian Kelly.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06You've brought us to a fantastic vantage point and I see slates all around us,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09but I'm in search of blue slate. Do you have blue slate?
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Lots of blue slate here, Michael, yeah. There's a few pieces there.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17And this entire mountain that we're looking at here, where the quarry is, is full of it.
0:03:17 > 0:03:18And what's blue slate used for?
0:03:18 > 0:03:22It's still used for roofing slate. We still make quite a lot of roofing slate.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24We also make architectural products,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28wall cladding, flooring, kitchen tops, anything you can
0:03:28 > 0:03:31basically think of in a building that we can make from slate.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35As towns and industries grew in Britain in the Victorian era,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37so the clamour for good quality
0:03:37 > 0:03:40building materials increased dramatically.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44The question was how to transport the vast volumes of slate out of
0:03:44 > 0:03:47the quarry directly to customers throughout Britain.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Historically, the Furness area had always been isolated,
0:03:52 > 0:03:57with the only road across the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59So the local landowners built a railway,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03including the spectacular, and still functioning, Arnside Viaduct,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07to allow for onward shipping, either by rail or sea.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13After two years of construction, the railway opened in 1846.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20They quarried the slate by hand. They made it into what we call clogs of slate,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24which is a piece of slate that they could manage, by hand and with pulleys.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26They would load it onto a railway bogie,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29which they would then either push by hand or pull with a pony
0:04:29 > 0:04:32through tunnels and out to the production area.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37From there, when it's been made into roofing slates, they'd use another rail mechanism,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42if you like, which was an incline, where loaded bogies would go down and empty bogies would come up.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47And this took the slate about a mile down into Kirby village, where the railway station is.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52Gravity-powered railways were amongst the earliest tracks in Britain,
0:04:52 > 0:04:57relying on the weight of the full wagons going downhill to pull the empty wagons up.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01These open-sided trucks, or bogies, as they were known,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04delivered the slate straight to the railway station.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07I'm keen to see more of this historic quarry,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09which remains fully operational.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28That is an impressive sight, I must say. This is huge, isn't it?
0:05:28 > 0:05:32You can see by the volume of rock that has been extracted over the years, there's a lot gone out.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Rumour has it that it's one of the deepest man-made holes in Europe.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39It looks like they've worked it down by layers over the years. Is that right?
0:05:39 > 0:05:44Yeah, they've worked one level of the quarry floor and, when that's finished, they go down.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47They put what we call a sink in, which is sinking into the floor,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49dropping down, take another level out.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51And, if you look to the east end,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54you can see the different levels of where they have gone down
0:05:54 > 0:05:56over the years into what's the bottom of the quarry now.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02In Bradshaw's day, the slate was wrested from the rockface using only
0:06:02 > 0:06:04hand tools and explosives.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10The Victorian miners worked hard to ensure that the blocks remained as intact as possible,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13in order to provide the best quality raw material.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Today, just 150 people work a total of seven quarries with
0:06:18 > 0:06:20a high degree of mechanisation.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24But Victorian quarrying techniques are still practised today
0:06:24 > 0:06:26and recognised to be highly effective.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32We try to be as gentle with the rock as we possibly can.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35We're using a technique over there called diamond-wire sawing.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38They did use wire saws in here a long time ago,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42but this is a more modern technique, used in the Italian marble quarries.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45It involves drilling holes into the rock to meet up,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47threading a diamond-encrusted wire around them
0:06:47 > 0:06:50and then spinning it and drawing it back like a cheese wire.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Ian's taken me to the very heart of the quarry to show me
0:06:58 > 0:07:01a rather more spectacular Victorian extraction technique
0:07:01 > 0:07:03that's still practised today.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10HOOTER BLARES
0:07:17 > 0:07:20That was a much bigger bang than I'd expected! You talked about a little bit of gunpowder.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22- That was quite a blast. - Yeah, it is quite loud.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26- So that's been a success, has it? That's just what you wanted.- Yep.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31In the 19th century, roof slates were made by dressing,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34or hand-working, large blocks of rock.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37And, unusually, this quarry's slates have traditionally had
0:07:37 > 0:07:42a curved end, earning Kirkby residents the nickname 'roundheads'.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45The current hand-dresser, John Earl, is going to let me
0:07:45 > 0:07:49have a stab at dressing a roof tile in the old-fashioned way.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53- So, a few pointers might be useful here, John!- OK.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00- Grip it like that with your hand and your thumb on there.- All right.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04- OK.- If you just start in there. - OK. Just take that edge off?- Yep.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Whoops!
0:08:06 > 0:08:07Woah!
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Keep your finger out the way!
0:08:09 > 0:08:11Oh!
0:08:11 > 0:08:15- You're all right.- I'm all right, am I?- Yeah.- Just keep going?
0:08:18 > 0:08:21That's not quite as beautiful as yours, is it, John?
0:08:21 > 0:08:25The hardest bit is getting a straight line. Once you get that, you're away.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29- That's it.- Ah, I'm getting the hang of it now. Yes.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Oh, I'm getting the hang of that now.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37Right, here goes.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39- There we go.- There we go!
0:08:42 > 0:08:45It's not quite like yours, is it, John? Oh, dear, oh, dear!
0:08:45 > 0:08:47- Thank you very much indeed. - All right.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Having got the chop from my tile-dressing job,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56I'm now following the route that the slate would've taken,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59south down the rails to the port of Barrow-in-Furness.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03I'm told that this line provides one of the most delightful
0:09:03 > 0:09:06railway journeys in England,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09sandwiched between the Irish Sea to the west and
0:09:09 > 0:09:12glimpses of the Lake District to the east.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24These mountains produce more than just blue slate.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29As my Bradshaw's puts it poetically, "Iron is now forged in this vicinity
0:09:29 > 0:09:35"where the stag, wolf and wild boar were formerly hunted."
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Local landowners and entrepreneurs put in this railway line to
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Barrow-in-Furness, and there, they constructed a dock
0:09:43 > 0:09:48and a steelworks, and they used that steel to build ships.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58During Queen Victoria's reign,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Britain became the most powerful trading nation in the world.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06At the heart of this was the successful development of steam technology.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09It powered not only the railway network,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12but also the ships that operated on the major trade routes to
0:10:12 > 0:10:15India, South Africa, the Orient and Australia.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19British shipyards came to dominate the world as they pioneered
0:10:19 > 0:10:22the use of iron and steel in shipbuilding.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26With iron ore in the Cumbrian hills, Barrow-in-Furness grew from a
0:10:26 > 0:10:31tiny hamlet to a major shipbuilding town, home to the largest steelworks
0:10:31 > 0:10:36in the world by 1876, earning it the moniker 'the Chicago of the North'.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39The dockyard is still going strong,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43famous for building a very special type of boat,
0:10:43 > 0:10:48first constructed here in the Victorian period - submarines.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52I've been granted very special access to the top-secret Devonshire dock.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53My guide is Brian Hurley.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55It is enormous, isn't it?
0:10:55 > 0:10:59- I mean, it's like the last scene of a James Bond movie, isn't it?- It is.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02It's a phenomenal building. It's 17 storeys tall.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06It's probably the biggest open space that we have in the country.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09At the moment, from what I can see, you've got two boats,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12as you call them, two submarines under construction.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14How are they getting on?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Well, behind you, you can see Audacious. This is boat four.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19She's in what we call open outfit.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23And on the south build line, we have Artful,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26which is now into closed outfit, where we're now finishing systems
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and getting ready to hand them across to the commissioning teams.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35Astonishingly, submarines have been built at Barrow since 1886,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39when the shipyard built its first submersibles for the Danish.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Earning a growing reputation for quality built boats, the shipyard
0:11:43 > 0:11:47claimed at the turn of the century to be the only one capable
0:11:47 > 0:11:52of designing, building, engining, and arming its own vessels.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55What is the challenge of making a submarine?
0:11:55 > 0:11:58The challenge of making a submarine, it's putting all the things
0:11:58 > 0:12:01that you wouldn't want to put together into one tin can.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05So, effectively, you've got a nuclear reactor, you've got a power station, you've got a hotel.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10You've got high-voltage systems, you've got high-pressure systems, all inside a confined space.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14That's the one thing you wouldn't want to do. You'd want as much space as possible.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Barrow won the contract for the Royal Navy's first five submarines.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Built and launched in utmost secrecy in 1901,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27the HMS Holland One could dive to a depth of only 100 feet
0:12:27 > 0:12:29and had to surface every day.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32But the Admiralty was sufficiently convinced to continue
0:12:32 > 0:12:35with submarine development.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40Six decades later, the shipyard constructed Dreadnought,
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Britain's first nuclear-powered submarine, launched in 1960 by the Queen.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48I name this ship Dreadnought.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51May God bless her and all who sail in her.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55CHEERING
0:12:55 > 0:12:57- Hip-hip-hip! - CROWD: Hooray
0:12:59 > 0:13:03Do you have a sense, working here, of the heritage of submarine building?
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Is it something you're aware of?
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Well, certainly, from my perspective, I'm fourth generation in shipbuilding.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14My father actually worked for me on Ambush as a paint supervisor.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Before that, his father was a rigging supervisor on one of the boats.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22And then, before that, his father was a machinist in the shipyards.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27So, yes, the heritage and the legacy rests quite heavy with me
0:13:27 > 0:13:33and I'm quite emotive about the whole build of submarines in Barrow.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38As I walk beside the leviathan that is HMS Audacious,
0:13:38 > 0:13:43it's riveting to recall that all this began with Victorian entrepreneurs.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Their construction of the Furness railway in the 1840s,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49to carry iron ore, slate and limestone,
0:13:49 > 0:13:55allowed for the immense expansion of the deepwater port at Barrow.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Being underneath the submarine now, you get another idea of how big it is.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Things have really come on over the years, haven't they?
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Yes, certainly. The Holland class submarine that we first built was just over 20 feet long.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09The Astute class submarine is just over 300 feet long.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15I've been given the rare privilege of going onboard the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Ambush
0:14:15 > 0:14:21as she lies in the water undergoing final tests before her sea trials.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Not much room here, I can tell you.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Fantastic, isn't it? You enter a different world.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32And, as you warned me, not much headroom here, is there?
0:14:32 > 0:14:36No, it's quite confined inside the submarine.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40- Where are we now?- We are in the control room of HMS Ambush.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43So all the information would be displayed here?
0:14:43 > 0:14:48The control room isn't the traditional control room you'd expect to see with the periscope.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51We have externally mounted masts and digital input, so what you see on
0:14:51 > 0:14:55the screens in front of you are the digital outputs from the masts.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59I'm rather amazed to discover that 21st-century submarines don't
0:14:59 > 0:15:02necessarily have traditional periscopes.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06The Astute class are the first British submarines to use
0:15:06 > 0:15:09high-spec video technology instead.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11And the commanding officer sits here?
0:15:11 > 0:15:17The commanding officer's chair has a perfect view of what's seen in the control room.
0:15:17 > 0:15:18Fantastic!
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Beautifully air-conditioned. Wires everywhere.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27So this is, what do you call it, the senior rates' mess?
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Senior rates' mess, yeah.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32So, the senior non-commissioned officers on the boat?
0:15:32 > 0:15:34- That's right, yeah. - How many are they?
0:15:34 > 0:15:36There's approximately 30 on the boat.
0:15:36 > 0:15:3930, wow! Not so big for 30, is it? What will they do in here?
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Well, they'll spend some of their recreational time.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44They do all their eating, drinking, within this facility.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47- Obviously in shifts. - In shifts, yeah.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51The guys work four on, four off, so they rotate through this facility.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53And how many months is the same crew at sea?
0:15:53 > 0:15:57The patrol could last three months and that's based, primarily,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59on the amount of food that the submarine can carry.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05Before I leave, I want to meet someone who's spent his whole working life
0:16:05 > 0:16:08as a welder on the submarines, Joe Murphy.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Very nice to see you. They told me to look you up.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12They told me you're a bit of a welder, is that right?
0:16:12 > 0:16:16I've been welding 40 years, but I've been teaching for another six.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21- Teaching others to weld? - It's nice to pass on your skill to somebody else, you know.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23- And how do you feel about this work you've done here?- Ah!
0:16:23 > 0:16:27The boats that we build are built to the highest specification in the world.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32There's nobody else builds them like we build them. So it's great.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35But I get a lot of satisfaction from what I do now.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37What we are trying to instil in the lads is pride.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40It's pride in the work. That's everything.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Neatness - when I look at welding and I see the neatness,
0:16:43 > 0:16:47I can see the concentration that these lads have put into that.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51And neatness equals pride. And that's what it's all about.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Pride in your work. Pride keeps our crews safe.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58That's what keeps the water out. This town depends on this shipyard.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Without this shipyard, that town'll fold behind it, you know.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Let's hope that never happens. Joe, a real privilege to meet you.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08- Thank you very much. - Thanks for talking to me. Bye. - Thank you, Michael. Bye, now.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13I was once the political boss of the Armed Forces
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and I've always found it humbling to meet the people whose energy
0:17:17 > 0:17:20and skill provide the nation with its submarines.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30For my overnight stop, I'm taking the west coast mainline
0:17:30 > 0:17:33and crossing the border into Lancashire, headed for Lancaster.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The city's port was one of the busiest in Britain
0:17:36 > 0:17:40during the 19th century and the railway station is inspired by
0:17:40 > 0:17:44the towering 13th-century fortress beneath which it nestles.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49My Bradshaw's refers to Lancaster castle station as being,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52"the Northern terminus of the Lancaster and Preston Railway.
0:17:52 > 0:17:58"The station is a very neat building, erected of fine white freestone."
0:17:58 > 0:18:03And I love the fact that it's been made to look like a castle.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09I'm staying overnight at a Bradshaw recommendation, the King's Arms.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12But he's not the only great Victorian
0:18:12 > 0:18:13who took a shine to the place.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Bradshaw says that Charles Dickens stayed here in 1857 and remarked
0:18:18 > 0:18:24that his orders were, "promptly executed, as all orders are in this excellent hotel."
0:18:24 > 0:18:27- Which floor is that?- Fourth floor, sir. Enjoy your stay, sir.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30- Thank you very much. Good night to you.- Thank you. Good night, sir.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Sleeping where Dickens once did was certainly novel.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42With the arrival of morning, I'm up early to head into town.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47My breakfast order was promptly executed and that's put me
0:18:47 > 0:18:49in a good mood for a new day.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53The late 19th century saw an increase in leisure time for all,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57with the five-and-a-half day week becoming standard.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Lancashire, as the gateway to the Lake District,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04experienced an upsurge in Victorian tourists, as train companies
0:19:04 > 0:19:07such as the Furness Railway widened their remit,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12from ferrying industrial traffic to embrace the carrying of fare-paying passengers.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16My next destination was a favourite location for Victorian visitors.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Although perhaps, as I'm led to believe,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21not for the most savoury of reasons.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27Lancaster Castle.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31My Bradshaw's says, "Standing on a hill west of the town,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35"it includes the shire court, county jail, four or five old towers,
0:19:35 > 0:19:40"of which the dungeon, 90 feet high, is the oldest."
0:19:40 > 0:19:43And, to my amazement, I see that even today,
0:19:43 > 0:19:49it has a notice describing it as Her Majesty's Prison Lancaster Castle.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51I've come to Hadrian's tower -
0:19:51 > 0:19:54one of a number of towers that defended the castle -
0:19:54 > 0:19:55to meet Steve Allen,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58my guide to this ancient bastion.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03- Hello, Michael. Welcome to Lancaster Castle.- It's a magnificent building.
0:20:03 > 0:20:04How old is Lancaster Castle?
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Well, there's been a fortification here since Roman times.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12But it was the Normans who rebuilt it and turned it into this stone fortress.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16They controlled Lancashire and what is now South Lakeland area from here.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18And how long has it been a prison?
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Well, it's been a prison, really, since Norman times.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23It's got a history stretching back nearly 900 years.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26In fact, the prison here is the oldest working prison
0:20:26 > 0:20:30in the country, or rather it was, until March of 2011 when it closed,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34although it still receives and dispatches prisoners to criminal court here.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40The court, housed within the castle, began dispensing justice in 1800 and
0:20:40 > 0:20:44is the oldest continuously working criminal court in the country.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48Visitors could be forgiven for thinking this more like
0:20:48 > 0:20:52a torture chamber, looking at the shackles hanging from the walls.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56These chains were often used for prisoners who were sentenced
0:20:56 > 0:20:58to transportation to Australia.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Shockingly, Lancaster Crown Court sent many hundreds of men,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04women and even children Down Under.
0:21:04 > 0:21:10Steven wants to show me another room in this labyrinthine fortification
0:21:10 > 0:21:13that has a macabre history.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19What took place there, he believes, is the real reason that Victorians flocked to the castle.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23- So here we are now, Michael, in the drop room.- Drop room?
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Yeah, it's a kind of en-suite execution facility,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30as part of the rebuild and extension of the castle here.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34And this is a short-drop rope, with a noose.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Short-drop, of course, meaning that they would be strangled.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41- That's right.- They danced on the end of the rope.- Indeed.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45Three, four, five, six minutes, and this would be in full view
0:21:45 > 0:21:50of thousands of people who'd come to the town to see the execution.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53In Victorian times, public hangings were very popular
0:21:53 > 0:21:57and people would come from miles around to watch.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02Special trains were laid on, as the poet AE Houseman recalled about his native Shropshire.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06"They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail:
0:22:06 > 0:22:08"The whistles blow forlorn,
0:22:08 > 0:22:10"And trains all night groan on the rail
0:22:10 > 0:22:12"To men who die at dawn."
0:22:12 > 0:22:14This window is also a door.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19It's a wooden door, disguised on the outside as a stone window.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22The door opens inward and the parties step out onto
0:22:22 > 0:22:26a temporary wooden platform that's been erected the night before.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Sort of kept here in a easy-to-assemble kit version for these special occasions.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35And outside, this vast crowd of people who've all packed in to every available bit of space.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40In fact, the vicar was able to charge people to stand, or perch, up there on the roof,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44so that they could get a good gallery view seat of the operation.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48And even today, you can see the holes in the wall of the castle there,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50where the superstructure was attached.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54And the noose would be put around the condemned man's neck
0:22:54 > 0:22:56and then a hood put over their head.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00The sheriff, or his deputy, would read a proclamation.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02The priests say a prayer
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and then the officials would withdraw,
0:23:05 > 0:23:10the executioner stepped down, pulled the lever, released the bolts,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12and, uh, we're in business.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Lancaster Court is said to have sentenced more people
0:23:16 > 0:23:19to swing from the rope than any place outside London,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22earning it the epithet 'the hanging town'.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27But as the century progressed, the authorities realised that the crowds
0:23:27 > 0:23:31were more entertained than deterred from committing hideous offences.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36So a parliamentary act of 1868 finally removed executions to
0:23:36 > 0:23:39within the prison walls.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46With all the dramatic landscapes that I'm travelling through,
0:23:46 > 0:23:51it's hardly surprisingly that I'm passing over some spectacular bridges.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Bradshaw's attention was caught particularly
0:23:54 > 0:23:56by the one I'm approaching now,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59just east of Lancaster, on my last leg of today's journey.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04My Bradshaw's says, "Further up the River Lune is the aqueduct bridge,
0:24:04 > 0:24:09"with five semicircular arches, each with a 70-foot span.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13"This magnificent undertaking conveys the Lancaster Canal
0:24:13 > 0:24:16"over the Lune and under one of the arches,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20"the north-western railway line passes up to Yorkshire."
0:24:20 > 0:24:24With a wonderful description like that, of railway and aqueduct,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26I just have to see it.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Before he turned his attention to the railways,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Bradshaw had made his mark in 1830 by publishing a guide
0:24:39 > 0:24:42to the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Throughout the 18th and 19th century,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48the canals were the lifeblood of the Industrial Revolution.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52At a time when the roads were poor and haphazard,
0:24:52 > 0:24:57a single barge could transport ten times the cargo of a horse and cart.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02Britain was the first country to acquire a nationwide canal network,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06over 4,000 miles of waterway at its height.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08And this led to some stunning engineering
0:25:08 > 0:25:11and architectural breakthroughs.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The Lune Aqueduct is just such an achievement.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26I'm taking a barge on the Lancaster Canal over the River Lune to
0:25:26 > 0:25:28meet canal expert Andrew Tegg.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35Setting foot on this aqueduct towering above the river, I'm very impressed.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37This is a fantastic achievement,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39quite early in the Industrial Revolution.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Very much so.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45I mean, this was conceived and constructed in the late 18th century.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48And it's a great example of the engineers' art and ability at that stage.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52It was mainly constructed using rudimentary machinery and manpower.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55And what was the purpose of the canal?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58The canal was constructed really to link the coalfields
0:25:58 > 0:26:01in the Wigan area with the South Lakeland area for limestone.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04So it was always known as the black and white canal.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Because I'm always banging on about railways,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09I'm in some danger of forgetting that, of course,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12before the railway revolution, there was a canal revolution.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14There was a canal mania.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19There was. In the late 18th century, you know, canal technology was the future.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22It was the High Speed Two of its generation.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25It really revolutionised transport.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28And canals like this were very much an example of that.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32They made the movement of goods very, very profitable and, therefore,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36investors were very keen to invest in such schemes.
0:26:36 > 0:26:42On its completion in 1797, the aqueduct was inscribed with a Latin motto which translates,
0:26:42 > 0:26:48"Old needs are served, far distant sites combined. Rivers by art to bring new wealth are joined."
0:26:48 > 0:26:53But the golden age of water transport came to an end in the mid-19th century,
0:26:53 > 0:26:58and it was none other than the more competitive railway network that drove it into disuse.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03But thanks to conservation and tourism over the last few decades,
0:27:03 > 0:27:08the British canal network is starting again to display scope and beauty.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10That is glorious!
0:27:10 > 0:27:14That is so elegant, isn't it? That is a thing of beauty.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17It absolutely excels my expectation when we were walking up there.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20It's... Well, I mean, it is so 18th century, isn't it?
0:27:20 > 0:27:23It's just...just magnificent.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35On this leg of the journey, I feel I've seen the span
0:27:35 > 0:27:39of the Industrial Revolution, from an 18th-century aqueduct
0:27:39 > 0:27:42to a 21st-century nuclear-powered submarine.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47The common thread is the vision of brilliant engineers,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50the sort of people that George Bradshaw admired,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53the sort that I revere.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58On the next step of my rail trip,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01I'll be visiting an island steeped in smuggling history.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04He stepped onto his ship and his trousers split,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07discharging the tea into the harbour water below him.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Discovering Britain's fear of enemy spies in the Second World War.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16The British Government told the Manx Government to tell all the
0:28:16 > 0:28:20boarding house keepers and hoteliers to move out at ten days' notice.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24And scaling the heights to view seven kingdoms.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29We're in the Guinness Book Of Records for having the oldest working tram in history.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:39 > 0:28:42E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk