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In 1840, one man transformed travel in the British Isles. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
His name was George Bradshaw | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
what to see and where to stay. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
Now, 170 years later, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
I'm making a series of journeys across the length and breadth of these Isles | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I'm now more than half way through my journey | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
from High Wycombe to Aberystwyth | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
and today, I go into the Black Country. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
Whether in the 19th century they called it black | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
because of the coal or because of the smog is debateable, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
but there's no doubt that it was a powerhouse of Britain. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
'On this leg, I learn how Victorian blacksmithing | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
'was not for the faint-hearted.' | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
It's very hard, physical work, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
there's no doubt about that. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
'I'll ride one of Britain's most modern trains.' | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
And there we go, a surge of power. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
'And traverse the remarkable Victoria Bridge.' | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
In its day, it was the longest clear span in the world | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
and it is, of course, majestic. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
TRAIN WHISTLES | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
So far, my journey has brought me | 0:01:46 | 0:01:48 | |
from the rural home counties | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
to Shakespeare Country | 0:01:50 | 0:01:51 | |
and on to Britain's second city. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
I'm now heading through the Black Country | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
before moving west into Wales, | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
toward my last stop at Aberystwyth. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
This leg begins in Dudley, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
moves south west to Stourbridge, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
then onto Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
and finishes at Bridgnorth, in Shropshire. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
My guidebook is dramatic about my first destination - Dudley. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
"Almost every town, village, house, man, woman, child, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
"every occupation and station, are more or less dependent | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
"and are at the mercy of lumps of coal and iron. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
"And the human race will mainly owe their moral regeneration | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
"to these two materials." | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
I think that a Quaker like George Bradshaw was uncertain | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
whether the factories and mills of the Industrial Revolution | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
were satanic or a gift from God. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
After the English Civil War, Dudley Castle was purposely damaged | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
to prevent the Royalists from using it as a fortification. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
Already known for its coalmines, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
by the 16th century, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
the market town was a renowned manufacturer of ironmongery. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
This is Dudley port, even though the nearest sea is 100 miles away. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
But the clue is in the canal, this place once teemed with vessels. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
And my Bradshaw's says, "The night view from Dudley Castle", | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
on the hill there, "of the coal and iron districts, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
"reminds the spectator of the smithy of Vulcan as described by Homer. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:30 | |
"The lurid flames that issue from the summits of the huge chimneys | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
"light up the horizon for miles around, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
"and impart to every object a gloomy aspect." | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
Well, Dudley looks very different today, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
but I'm here to discover that Victorian past. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
When the canals reached Dudley, | 0:03:47 | 0:03:48 | |
large iron works sprang up at such a rapid rate | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
that they were able to produce the iron chains, anvils and vices | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
that would tool Britain's Industrial Revolution. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
I'm at the Black Country Living Museum | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
to meet Director Of Collections, David Eveleigh. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
When does the Black Country become industrialised? | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
Well, it really stretches back to the Middle Ages. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
We know that coal had been mined | 0:04:11 | 0:04:12 | |
in parts of the Black Country since the 14th century | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
and, by the 16th century, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:16 | |
the area around Dudley was renowned for the manufacture of nails. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
And we know that Henry VIII's household ordered Dudley nails | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
for work on Hampton Court in the 1540s. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
What is the extent of the Black Country? | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
Well, that's a very difficult question to answer, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
simply and succinctly because no two people will agree. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
The simplest way to explain it today | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
is that it consists of the current four unitary authorities | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
of Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
-which contains West Bromwich. -It'd have been very different in Victorian times. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
What would the atmosphere have been like? | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
I think it's unlikely that we'd have seen such a clear blue sky, for a start. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
The Black Country was proverbially grimy and smoky and black | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
and whether it was the coal or the smoke, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:54 | |
it acquired its name though its griminess and smokiness. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
Everyone commented on this. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
What was the impact of that grime and smoke on people's health? | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
Living conditions were very tough. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
There was a lack of fresh water, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:06 | |
there were very poor drains, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
so the disposal of sewage was a problem | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
and a consequence of this, of course, is that it provided | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
a ripe environment for the spread of water-borne diseases, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
such as cholera and typhoid. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:17 | |
But, do you know, none of this, the smoke, the grime, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
the fame of the Black Country for its manufactured goods, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
the notoriety and, of course, the railways, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
none of this would have been possible | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
without one absolutely key and vital invention | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
-and, you know, I would like to show you that now. -I'm all eyes. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
What is it you're going to show me? | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
Well, it's actually this. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
This is a replica, the only full-size working replica anywhere | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
-of the world's first steam engine. -Located in this tall building? | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
Yes, it's a fairly large steam engine | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
so, effectively, you're looking at the steam engine here, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
bricks and mortar and the inside engine working this pump here. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
And this dates to what? | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
This dates to 1712, it was built here at Dudley. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
-Fully a century before it was applied to the railway? -Indeed. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
Well, it really is vast, it fills the entire room virtually | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
and this really is the origin of a technology that changed the world. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
Absolutely. And, really, it is difficult | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
to overestimate the significance, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
the vital impact of this invention on the Industrial Revolution | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
and, of course, particularly, on the development of the Black Country. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
Thomas Newcomen's steam engine | 0:06:32 | 0:06:33 | |
was not the almost universally applicable apparatus | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
that James Watt developed 50 years later. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
Newcomen's engine powered a simple lift pump | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
that removed excess water from deep coal mines, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
but it was whilst fixing a model of Newcomen's engine | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
that James Watt had his eureka moment. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:52 | |
Well, in all my travels | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
through the Industrial Revolution and by railway, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
-I feel today that I've come to the cradle of it all. -Absolutely. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
Known as the workshop of the world, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
the Black Country didn't just have deep coal mines. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
David's arranged for me to meet the museum's resident blacksmith, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
'who makes chains just as they were in Bradshaw's day.' | 0:07:10 | 0:07:15 | |
What sort of temperatures are you working at in there? | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
Um... The middle of the fire | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
gets to around about 2,000 degrees centigrade, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
the heat of the metal, somewhere up to about 1,300, so it's quite warm! | 0:07:22 | 0:07:26 | |
And Dudley's made some quite famous chain in its day, hasn't it? | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
Yes, we made the Titanic's anchor chain. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
So if you'd like to have a go at flattening the ends. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
Here we go, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:36 | |
just give it a good bash! | 0:07:36 | 0:07:38 | |
It's very hard, physical work, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
there's no doubt of that. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
It wasn't just men making chain either, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
women making chain, children even learning how to make chain. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
-Right. If I hold that... -Yes. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
-..and you give that a whack with a hammer... -Yes. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
Well, turn it over, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:01 | |
have another go on that side. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
Thank you. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:04 | |
How's that doing? | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
It's not too bad at all. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:08 | |
And that's it, one finished link. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
After all that hard work, I need a bite to eat | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
and I want to find out what life was like | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
for the people who lived and worked in Dudley | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
when it was still an industrial powerhouse. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
Hello there, are you from these parts? | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
Yes, I am a local girl... | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
Do you remember the chimneys and the smoke? | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
Oh, yes, I do, I do. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
My dad was a moulder and he worked at the Coneygre Foundry, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
which is a local foundry | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
and I remember, at school, the teacher said, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
"Is anyone's father a coal miner?" | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
So I put my hand up and she said, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:48 | |
"How do you know, which mine does he work in?" | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
I says, "I don't really know." | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
And she says, "Well, how do you know he's a coal miner?" | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
I says, "Well, he comes home black every night!" | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
And it was my job to wipe his back to get all the black sand off, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
so of course, to me, at the age of nine or ten, he was a coal miner | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
but he wasn't, I found out later he worked in the foundry. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
-Are you proud of the Black Country? -I am proud of the Black Country | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
and I'm proud, I'm proud of my parents, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
cos they came from a working background. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
-Have an old-fashioned chip. -Oh, thank you, you're so kind (!). | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
I'm leaving Dudley for another Black Country town, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
and to get there, I'll have to change twice. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
Firstly, at Smethwick Galton Bridge, | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
from where I'll make the bulk of my journey | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
before taking a brief but remarkable service. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
I love records | 0:09:50 | 0:09:51 | |
and I'm about to experience the shortest branch line in Britain. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:56 | |
Perhaps misunderstanding the theory of relativity, | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
they use very short trains | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
as though that might make the journey seem longer. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
TANNOY: We are now approaching Stourbridge Junction. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
Once a notorious Victorian accident black spot, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
the steep hill between the stations at Stourbridge Junction | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
and Stourbridge Town | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
is now provided by a people mover, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
a hybrid powered railcar which uses flywheel energy storage | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
to reduce consumption and emissions. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
'And I hear it's proving popular.' | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
-Do you enjoy driving this, do you? -Yes, I do. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
They tell me this has very good acceleration. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
It has reasonably fast acceleration. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
I wouldn't like to take it too fast | 0:10:41 | 0:10:43 | |
cos I'm limited to 20 miles an hour on this line. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
At the moment, we're running up at about ten | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
and it will pick up fairly quickly. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
And there we go, a surge of power, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
pretty good brakes as well, I believe. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
Yes, obviously, we have to, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:57 | |
because of the steepness and the gradient of the line. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
What kind of gradient is this? | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
It comes into a one in 67, we have a couple of curves | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
and then a straight and then two more curves into the town station. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
Well, the train has lots of passengers today, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
they obviously appreciate the little service into Stourbridge Town. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
Yes. In our first full year, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
we carried over 550,000 passengers, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
so we actually doubled the passenger loading | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
and each one of these vehicles in a week will | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
actually do just on about 1,000 miles. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
Absolutely amazing. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:28 | |
Well, the journey may be short, but it's certainly memorable. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
-Thank you very much indeed. -My pleasure. -Bye-bye. -Thank you. -Bye. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
So Stourbridge Town, my Bradshaw's tells me, | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
"A handsome town, noted for its glass manufacture." | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
Well, glass has been made since almost ancient history, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
but the Victorians had a voracious appetite for it. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
Boosted by an influx of Huguenot glassmakers | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
taking refuge from religious persecution in France, | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
the plentiful supplies of fireclay and sandstone | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
have made Stourbridge synonymous with glass since the 17th century. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
I'm meeting historian and author Paul Collins at a working museum | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
called The Red House Glass Cone, to find out more. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
This is one of the most extraordinary buildings | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
I've ever seen, what are its dimensions? | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
It's 100 feet high to the very top, right up there, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
and it's 60 feet in diameter at the base. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
It was completed in 1788 | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
and we're actually looking at two million bricks. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
Two million bricks! | 0:12:31 | 0:12:33 | |
Two million bricks, come on inside | 0:12:33 | 0:12:34 | |
-and you'll get a better idea of how it works. -Thank you. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
So here you are. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:39 | |
Oh, it's like a cathedral dome, isn't it? Magnificent. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
It is magnificent but it's a most magnificent chimney, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
cos that's effectively what it's doing. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:47 | |
I never saw a more beautiful chimney. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
It's one of the best, isn't it? | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
You have a series of 12 glasspots in here | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
which have got molten glass inside them at about 1,400 centigrade. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
The glass blower would have one of these blow pipes, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
the end of which would be heated, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
it would then be dipped into the glass bowl, | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
the glass would then come out and then he would blow it. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
It's quite a task, would you like to just try the weight of that? | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
Oh, that is surprisingly heavy, isn't it? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
-You're holding it in the obvious way. -Yes. -This is where you hold it, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
so if you try holding it with both hands there, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
-then, with molten glass on the end... -Yeah. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
Quite difficult, isn't it? | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
Yeah. You need have very good arm muscles to do that. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
Extremely good arm muscles | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
and then you're also creating something that's very delicate | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
and very beautiful as well using that. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
Did the railways make much of a difference? | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
In terms of the actual organisation of the industry, not a lot. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
What it did do was open up vastly larger markets for the glass. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:45 | |
You could get glass products to Liverpool, to Southampton, to London. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:50 | |
The 19th century was the "Golden Age of Stourbridge Glass". | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
Local glassmakers created myriad shapes, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
colours and decorative techniques | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
far outstripping any other country | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
for technical brilliance and aesthetic beauty. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
And some of the pioneers of the luxurious and coveted Cameo Glass | 0:14:05 | 0:14:10 | |
perfected their skills here too. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
The railway companies themselves also bought enormous numbers of glasses. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
They all had little monograms on them. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
When you had a glass of wine or glass of something | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
in the dining car on the train, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
it had the railway company's logo on it or initials on it, | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
that would have been made here as well. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
What of the industry now? | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
The industry as it was represented | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
by the products of this glass cone has effectively gone. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
It was priced out of the market by cheaper foreign imports. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
What has happened is that we've gone back | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
to a more artisan type of glass industry, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
a studio glass industry, if you like, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
and there's probably a lot more imagination and diversity | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
in the use of glass and experimentation with it as a material | 0:14:48 | 0:14:53 | |
than there ever was at any point in its history. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
-Which way are the artisans? -The artisans are through there. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
-Lovely to see you. -Nice to meet you too. -Thank you. Goodbye. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
-Sarah, hello! -Hello. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
I see you make these beautiful glass beads in many colours, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
is that exactly what you're doing now? | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
It is, yes. Every bead I make is different, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
because I don't have a plan of how it's going to turn out, | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
I just keep adding and building. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
Shall we make one that's really different, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
-like by me giving you a hand? -OK. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
-So what do I do? -Right, if you take a seat here. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
So you'll need one of these. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
-Ooh... -Twizzle that a bit so it doesn't fall off. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
-Yeah, I'm twizzling it. -OK. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
-Twizzling. -So when it's hot, you want to put it on like that | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
and then, turning the mandrel away. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
I'm turning the mandrel away... | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
Ooh, that's nice, that's very nice. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:40 | |
-So now I'm building up a little ring of glass. -Yeah. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
-That's really good. -Look at that! -That's brilliant. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
-You've got it. -You didn't know I had it in me, did you? -No. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
I'm really enjoying that. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
This is going to look like no other glass bead that was ever made. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
Let's have a look. Could you just hold...? | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
I told you I would make a bead like no other. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
SHE CHUCKLES | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
My Bradshaw's mentions just one hotel in Stourbridge - The Talbot. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
Luckily, it's still standing | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
and it's where I'll be spending the night. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
Rejuvenated and ready for the day ahead, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
I'm making my way to my next destination - Kidderminster. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
From about 1735, the town became known | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
for the manufacture of carpets, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
a diversification within the well-established local cloth industry. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
But I'm here for one reason, and one reason only. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
Kidderminster, says my Bradshaw's, | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
"Stands on both banks of the River Stour, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
"which divides it into two unequal parts. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
"A regular and compact town consisting mainly of two good streets." | 0:16:49 | 0:16:54 | |
My main interest is that it has a beautiful railway station | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
which is gateway to one of Britain's most renowned | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
standard gauge heritage steam powered railways. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
For 101 years, the Severn Valley Railway | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
ran between Hartlebury and Shrewsbury. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
But in 1963, it closed. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:15 | |
Seven years later, after an immense effort | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
from a group of dedicated volunteers, it re-opened. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
'David Williams was one of them.' | 0:17:23 | 0:17:24 | |
-David! -Hello, Michael. -Hello. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
-Welcome to the Severn Valley Railway, Michael. -Thank you. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
Well, congratulations to you on the Severn Valley Railway. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
How was it preserved and saved? | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
In the very first place, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
we had to raise £2,500 as a 10% deposit on the track | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
and that took raffle sales, jumble stalls, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
all sorts of things to raise the money. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
This was 1965-66 and people started to join | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
from Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
with a great enthusiasm for it. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
We realised that unless we were going | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
to actually buy the land, the track, | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
the infrastructure, the locomotives and the coaches, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
it would all disappear completely | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
and perhaps just be in static museums | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
and it seemed worthwhile to make a preserved railway | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
with steam trains still operating. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
And you were a group of young men at the time, weren't you? | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
We were indeed and very enthusiastic. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
This photograph I took in 1966. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
You look like The Beatles generation here, don't you? | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
I think we really were. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:24 | |
It's a great, great achievement. How do you stand now? | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
How many miles of track, how many locomotives, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
how many carriages? | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
We've got 16 miles of line | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
extending from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
we've got 28 steam locomotives, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
68 passenger coaches | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
and even goods wagons. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
A station like this makes my heart sing | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
and I have a feeling it's not the last time today | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
that my heart is going to sing. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
David, thank you so much. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
I know I am going to enjoy this very much. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:55 | |
-I'm sure you are, Michael. -Thank you. -Goodbye. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
The first thing that strikes me about the Severn Valley Railway | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
is the beauty of its rolling stock. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
Here are two sets, whole trains of wonderfully restored carriages. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:13 | |
This one on the left, incredibly, is made of teak, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
it used to run on the LNER between Kings Cross and Edinburgh | 0:19:16 | 0:19:21 | |
and since I used to ride that route myself in the 1950s, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
I may have travelled in these very carriages. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
HE BLOWS HIS WHISTLE | 0:19:29 | 0:19:30 | |
There's nothing like a departure by steam, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
the shuddering and the clanking and the hissing... It's real. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
The Severn Valley Railway may appear quaint, | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
but it's come a long way from the type of fundraising | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
that it undertook in the 1960s, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
recently raising £720,000 in just one month, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
from a share offer that it hopes will eventually net | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
three million pounds. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:03 | |
Fist stop, Bewdley. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
Having admired, and now ridden in the rolling stock, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
I'm meeting Richard Gunning at the railway's restoration shed. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
How long does it take you to restore a car? | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
Five to ten years depending on its condition. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
That is extraordinary, it can take so long, what patience! | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
-This is a break pigeon van, Michael. -Pigeon van? -Yes. -Why so? | 0:20:25 | 0:20:30 | |
Pigeon racing started as a short-distance hobby. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
When the railways arrived, that opened up a new opportunity | 0:20:33 | 0:20:38 | |
to take the pigeons further and have longer races. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
In 1886, King Leopold of Belgium | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
gifted a flock of racing pigeons to Queen Victoria, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
and her son, Edward, Prince of Wales, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
began flying them competitively. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
Long-distance pigeon racing quickly became a mass participation sport | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
reliant on the railway network | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
to transport the homing birds to race points, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
where they were released simultaneously from their baskets | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
by railway porters and guards. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
The North Eastern Railway was, we think, the first in 1905. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
But by 1930, the London, Midland and Scottish were running | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
17 pigeon van trains a day. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
That's extraordinary. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:27 | |
-And carrying seven million pigeons a year. -Oh, I can't believe it. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
It is unbelievable, isn't it? | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
-Hello! -Hello, Michael. -Hard at work? | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
-Oh, very much so. -What are you doing here? | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
Well, this is called a drop light, | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
it's familiar to most people of our generation. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:21:45 | 0:21:46 | |
It slides up and down in a door, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
-it's a piece of glass, a frame and a leather strap. -Yes. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
We're about to drop that in there, would you like to do that for me? | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
Oh! That would be a great honour indeed. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
-Oh, not as heavy as I thought. -Very, very light. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
Down it goes | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
and then, I can use the leather strap | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
just to put it in position. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
Isn't that a beautiful piece of work, congratulations! | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:17 | |
Bound now for Shropshire, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
I'm excited at the piece of railway history that I'm about to encounter. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
Sir John Fowler, joint engineer on the Forth Bridge | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
and the first part of the London Underground, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
also engineered the Severn Valley Railway | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
and he left a dramatic structure as his legacy. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
The highlight of this journey is the Victoria Bridge, | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
patriotically named after our Queen. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
In its day, it was the longest clear span in the world | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
and it is, of course, majestic. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
TRAIN WHISTLES | 0:23:03 | 0:23:05 | |
I shall ride this train to the end of the line at Bridgnorth, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
which Bradshaw's tells me, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
"Is a considerable town situated on both sides of the Severn. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
"The two parts being distinguished by the names upper and lower | 0:23:26 | 0:23:31 | |
"and connected by a noble bridge of six arches. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
"It has a considerable carrying trade on the river. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
"In other respects, it is of a miscellaneous character." | 0:23:38 | 0:23:43 | |
I look forward to visiting both the upper and the lower | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
and maybe to discovering what is meant | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
by "a miscellaneous character". | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
From the six-arched bridge, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:04 | |
I see what Bradshaw meant by miscellaneous, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
some houses are brick, some are half timbered, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
some buildings are of stone, others are whitewashed, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
one church has castellations, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
another is like a temple. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
Founded at the beginning of the 12th century, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
when its now ruined castle was completed, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
Bridgnorth is not only on a heritage line, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
it's also got England's oldest and steepest inland funicular railway. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:32 | |
With a vertical rise of 111 feet, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
the Cliff Railway links Bridgnorth's High and Low Towns | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
and is now powered by electricity instead of water ballast, | 0:24:39 | 0:24:43 | |
but functions as efficiently as it did in Bradshaw's day. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
'Jason Tipping is the Company Secretary.' | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
I'm really looking forward to this. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:53 | |
Beautiful old cars, have they recently been restored? | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
Yes, they have, we had them repainted this year | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
in the traditional Trafalgar blue and cream | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
and we also had the brick work re-pointed | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
and the top station re-boarded as well, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
wood from Belgium with hand cut nails. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
Fantastic job, how old is the railway? | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
It's 120 years, we've just had our 120th anniversary this year. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
The Cliff Railway was the brainchild of a Victorian town councillor | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
who, on a day in 1888, counted 3,000 people using the 200 steps | 0:25:25 | 0:25:31 | |
that linked the split-level town. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
And after Sir George Newnes, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
a proponent of funicular railways got involved, | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
the railway soon opened for business. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
In 2011, the Tipping family, bought it, ensuring its survival. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
And are you pleased you bought it? | 0:25:49 | 0:25:50 | |
We're pleased we bought it. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
And I think the wider public of Bridgnorth were pleased | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
that we saved the railway. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
It's just wonderful, wonderful to be part of this ongoing process | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
and we shall keep it in our family for many years to come. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
Making sure that the cars are empty, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
Jason has agreed for me to have a go at controlling the Cliff Railway. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
-It's all controlled from the top, as you might imagine. -Yes. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
Is it complicated? | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
No, what I tell everybody is once you've mastered the brake, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
everything else falls into place. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
HISSING | 0:26:20 | 0:26:21 | |
-That's the brake making the hissing noise. -Uh-huh. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
-And that you have to judge quite carefully, don't you? -Yes. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
OK, one notch at a time. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:30 | |
That's it. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:32 | |
-Oh, it goes off at quite a rate, doesn't it? -Uh-huh. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
-I keep going up here? -Yes. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
Tell me, tell me, what do I do?! | 0:26:39 | 0:26:40 | |
OK, you brake. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
Bring this handle back down to two and start using the brake | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
to get it down to 100. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:46 | |
-Oh, Lord, what's happened? -You've stalled it. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:26:54 | 0:26:55 | |
-What do I do now? -Would you like me to get you out of that, | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
-to bring the car...? -Yes, please, rescue the situation. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
Don't worry, you're not the first, you won't be the last. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
And there we go. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
-Ah, I've failed. -Oh, you'll be fine. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
Thousands of passengers have been carried safely, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
but not when I was driving. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:13 | |
-No, but you can always come back and have another go. -Thank you. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
SHE CHUCKLES | 0:27:16 | 0:27:17 | |
During the Industrial Revolution, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
smoke hung densely over the towns of the West Midlands. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
The forges, furnaces and glassworks made Victorians wonder | 0:27:30 | 0:27:35 | |
whether mechanisation had unleashed the fires of hell. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
Today, on the Severn Valley Railway, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
I saw coal burning again in the locomotives | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
sending plumes of smoke into the air | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
and we look back on a golden age of travel with misty eyes. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
On the next leg, I'll experience Victorian entertainment | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
in one of Wales's best-loved resorts. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
Here are the waves hitting the shore | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
and here is the Bay Of Aberystwyth. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
'Hear how the railways took Welsh textiles | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
'into even the most exclusive households.' | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
When Queen Victoria sat down, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
there was a good piece of Newtown flannel between her and the throne. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:28:16 | 0:28:17 | |
'And unleash the power of a 19th century engineering triumph.' | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
Whoa! | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
Listen to the sound of that water! | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
It's got 125 feet of head behind it! | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 |