Welshpool to Aberystwyth Great British Railway Journeys

In 1840, one man transformed travel in the British Isles.

His name was George Bradshaw,

and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.

Stop-by-stop, he told them where to travel,

what to see and where to stay.

Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length

and breadth of the isles to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

I'm now completing my journey from High Wycombe to Aberystwyth.

I've left behind me the smoke stacks of the West Midlands in the

19th century and I'm on the Cambrian railway, looking to discover what

was the impact of industrialisation on rural and coastal towns in Wales.

'This scenic line opened up mid Wales to 19th-century travellers,

'and my Bradshaw's Guide steered them

'towards all that the region had to offer.

'Today, I'll experience Victorian entertainment in one of Wales'

'best-loved resorts...'

Here are the waves hitting the shore and here is the bay of Aberystwyth.

Isn't that marvellous?

'..hear how the railways took Welsh textiles into even the most

'exclusive households.'

When Queen Victoria sat down,

there was a good piece of Newtown flannel between her and the throne.

HE LAUGHS

'And unleash the power of a 19th-century engineering marvel.'

Whoa!

-Listen to the sound of that water!

-It's got 125 feet of head behind it!

HE LAUGHS

This trip began in the Chilterns and has taken me

through the Victorians' beloved Shakespeare Country, and revealed

the rich industrial heritage of the 19th-century Midlands.

Now I'm heading for Wales, and my final stop on its west coast.

'On this last leg I'll begin in rural Welshpool,

'then stop off in Newtown,

'before exploring the beautiful county of Ceredigion.'

Judging from the many fields here studded with sheep and cows,

this area remains agricultural, as it was in the 19th century.

My first stop will be Welshpool.

Bradshaw's tells me that it's "a place of considerable trade,"

which I think must be a reference to a market economy.

'I'm on the Shrewsbury to Welshpool line.

'Opened in 1862, it gave the town a new lease of life.

'I'm meeting local historian Chris Martin to hear the tale.'

-Hello, Chris.

-Hello, Michael, welcome to Welshpool.

-Thank you.

Rather a momentous pedestrian bridge?

Yes, it was put in when the bypass was constructed in 1990.

You can see the old station is over here.

'Chris is leading me to an abandoned spot beside the tracks.

'Here, Victorian visitors could have witnessed livestock

'being herded onto trains,

'as a result of Welshpool's thriving cattle and livestock market.'

So, in the heyday of the railway, how did the market here function?

Well, the market dates from more-or-less immediately after

the railway was built.

There was a terminal here built as sidings into the market,

so you could get stock in and out of the market,

you could take it out to the Midlands, bring in from the Midlands.

'Welshpool's rail links improved further

'when the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway opened in 1903.

'One of a number of narrow-gauge routes built from the late 1890s

'to stimulate the flagging rural economy, it gave remote

'farming communities direct access to markets.'

What was that line like?

Well, the line sort of came in at the northeast end of the town,

at a station, Raven Square,

then came down through the built-up area of the town.

You could see engines weaving their way through the traffic.

Health and safety nightmare, I suspect.

'Thanks to improvements in the roads, the narrow-gauge line

'closed in the 1950s, and while a stretch outside the town

'reopened as a heritage line, the tracks in the centre were removed.

'The market in the open air lasted in Welshpool until 2009,

'when it moved to a modern under-cover site out of town, built at a cost of £13 million.'

-Hello, Frank, how very good to see you.

-Welcome to Welshpool.

-Thank you.

'Retired auctioneer Frank Knight is giving me a guided tour.'

I had no idea I'd be seeing anything quite as vast as this.

-It's sheep from one end to the other, isn't it?

-It is. It's quite a spectacle.

How long have you been with the market, Frank?

I left school in 1957 and joined the firm running the market then,

and I've been here ever since.

How does it rank now amongst national and international markets?

-It's the largest sheep market in Europe.

-Really?

We've always claimed that and nobody's ever disputed it.

'Nowadays the livestock come by road,

'and on market day, the building throngs with buyers and sellers,

'all anxious to seal a bargain.'

-Are you a sheep farmer?

-I AM a sheep farmer.

-Good to see you.

-Pleased to meet you.

How long have you been in the business?

Well, I'm 66 years of age now, and I've been in country life or farming life all my life, really.

Do you have any memory of the narrow-gauge, steam railway?

I just about remember it.

The engines then didn't make a big noise but you saw the steam, then knew the train was coming.

-It makes you nostalgic, doesn't it?

-It does, only trouble is you feel old

when you look back and see them things happening.

Not old, just lucky to remember those days?

Lucky to remember those days, that's the main thing, we're here to remember.

-Morning, you buying or selling?

-Selling.

-These are yours?

-Yes.

How often do you bring lamb in here?

Every week. Every Monday, there's a market.

You try to sell so you've got a continuous cash flow every week.

You bet, good luck.

'The seller's fate is in the hands of the auctioneer.'

-You're auctioning the sheep this morning?

-Yes.

-How many?

-Not so many today - only about 4,500, 5,000.

That sounds like quite a lot to me. How many on a really good day?

Up to 10,000...lambs, that's without ewes, there's 5,000-odd ewes here as well.

How do the bidders bid?

-Very sneakily - winking, twitching their nose.

-Really?

-You're serious, aren't you?

-I am.

You say what the next number is and they go...?

Yeah, you got it. You watch now when they go, you'll see.

We'll keep a watch out. Good luck with your auction.

58, 20, 80, 89.

Sold at £62.

Sold at £63.

'It strikes me that, while the setting may have changed,

'the back-and-forth of the auction would have been just the same

'in Bradshaw's day.

'The wool produced by Welsh sheep

'has long been a significant source of the country's wealth.'

'I'm now rejoining the Cambrian railway

'and heading for a place where it gave rise to a booming Victorian industry.'

Having now spent some time with woolly animals,

I'm attracted by this entry in my Bradshaw's for Newtown.

"A spacious flannel hall has been erected."

Now, any former politician knows how TO flannel,

but as for the material, my education looms ahead.

'Flannel is a soft fabric,

'which has been woven from Welsh wool for centuries.

'In the late 1700s, technological advances revolutionised it

'and dozens of factories sprang up in Newtown.

'But only in the railway age did this traditional product

'become a global brand.'

-Hello, David.

-Hello, Michael, welcome to Newtown.

-Very good to be here.

'Local historian David Pugh is sharing the story.'

What difference did the railways make to the flannel business here?

Well, that was the second phase of the flannel business.

In the mid-19th century, it declined and then...

the railway through to the rest of the country opened in 1860...

and also, thousands of miles away, something else happened, the American Civil War.

The Northern states blockaded the Southern ports,

cotton couldn't get out to Manchester, and the cotton industry collapsed

in Manchester, and the silver lining from that particular cloud fell

in Newtown, because if you can't have cotton, have soft Welsh flannel instead.

And the chap that saw the opportunity...

with the railway coming and the Civil War was a local draper,

and that's his monument over there, that building.

'The imposing Royal Welsh Warehouse was built by Newtown entrepreneur

'Pryce Pryce-Jones, whose big idea changed the way we shop forever.'

It's a palatial entrance, who was this Pryce-Jones?

He was a local man of humble origins.

He became an apprentice draper,

then started own business in the town centre.

Then, when the railway came, he had this idea, mail order.

Supposedly the first in the world. Certainly in Europe, Pryce-Jones

was the first to have a mail order store where people wrote in with their orders,

and the parcels were dispatched by rail just across the road.

'Pryce-Jones started out with small local orders for Newtown flannel,

'but as the railway network expanded, so did his business.

'By 1879, he was doing a roaring trade.'

He'd made enough money to leave his premises in the town centre,

which were much smaller, and build this vast Royal Welsh Warehouse...

and notice that it's not facing the town, it's facing the railway,

because it was the railway that it was...intended to impress...

travellers passing through the town, to see this great building.

If you go round the back, it's not nearly so ornate.

'Pryce-Jones soon became a national figure,

'elected as Conservative MP in 1885 and receiving a knighthood in 1887.

'He's even credited with the invention of the parcel post,

'having suggested to the Royal Mail that the system for letters

'be extended to packages.

'And the railways carried his flannel products right to

'the top of Victorian society.'

-That really is a most handsome window.

-It is.

To commemorate Queen Victoria's patronage of his business. She was

a regular customer, as he claimed were all the crowned heads of Europe.

What sort of products do you think she bought from him?

Well...

Welsh flannel hand-woven, very soft,

ideal for wearing next to the skin, so when Queen Victoria sat down

there was a good piece of Newtown flannel between her and the throne.

HE LAUGHS

'Today, mail order has been transformed once again

'by the advent of the internet.

'It's so interesting to learn that the story started here.

'Before I rest for the night I've got one more journey to make,

'and it's a feast for the eyes.

'I'm following a section of the Cambrian Line built in 1863,

'whose stunning route crosses the Cambrian mountains

'and the River Severn.

'This picturesque landscape must have delighted Victorian railway

'travellers, and I'm leaving the tracks to take a closer look.'

Machynlleth, and what a beautiful train journey that was,

along that broad river valley, all those beautiful greens.

And it's so nice to see on a rural train service like this,

the train was virtually full.

'Machynlleth is the gateway to the southern part

of Snowdonia National Park, and my Bradshaw's

enthuses about this region's "Cyclopean precipices...

"upheaved at our very path."

'It recommends exploring the pretty area around Dolgellau

'and who better to enjoy it with than local artist Keith Davies?'

You're a painter, aren't you?

What do you find compelling about this countryside?

Well, just everything.

The light's fantastic. but everything I want to paint is here...

the mountains, the forest, the beach, the sea.

If you can't get inspired here, you can't get inspired anywhere.

'Soon after my guidebook was published, a branch line was

'built which passed through Dolgellau en route to the coast.

'Closed in the 1960s, it's now a popular walk,

'and while the main attraction is the scenery,

'traces of the railway heritage can still be seen.'

This really is enchanting as the sun goes down.

It's absolutely amazing, an artist's dream.

And this, quite evidently, is the old railway station?

Yes, it is. We start with the booking office, the ticket office,

and on the end, the stationmaster's house.

'Today the old railway buildings form part of a small hotel.

'An ideal spot for my Bradshaw's and me to spend the night.'

To wake to such a morning in such a wonderful landscape,

it's a joy to be alive, a joy to travel.

'It's time for me to retrace my steps to Machynlleth...

'and embark on the final part of the Cambrian Line.'

This spectacular scenery is bringing me

towards my last destination on the regular railway, Aberystwyth,

of which Bradshaw says, "There's no station southward of Caernarvonshire

"from which the Welsh Alps may be so advantageously seen,."

It also bring me of course to the Irish Sea and a resort which,

in the late 19th century, was populated with Black Country workers

and their families, anxious to dip their coal-stained toes in the brine.

'When my guidebook was published, this line was not yet complete,

'stopping eight miles short of Aberystwyth.

'Despite that, my Bradshaw's has a detailed entry for the town.

'Its author clearly knew that this place would astonish railway tourists.'

Aberystwyth station is built on a scale that reminds us

that this was once a substantial resort.

I like to imagine, in Victorian times, the steam engines

smoking behind as thousands of excursionists disembark,

many of them about to see the sea for the first time.

'By the early 1900s,

'Aberystwyth was welcoming thousands of visitors every year,

'and the seafront was lined with Victorian buildings and a fine new pier.'

'I'm admiring it with local historian Michael Freeman.'

-Michael.

-Hello, Michael.

I must say, I'm bowled over by this view, it's absolutely superb.

I always enjoy looking at it, especially at sunset.

Was Aberystwyth already an important resort before the railways?

Yes, from the 1770s, the gentry came here in quite large numbers.

It was quite an exclusive resort because it was

so expensive to travel across the mountains of Wales.

And where were they staying in those pre-railway days?

There were a few hotels, or "inns" as they called them then...

so that's mostly where they would have stayed,

then they had an assembly room where they would have met to socialise

and dance and play cards.

'But this genteel resort was soon to change forever,

'with the arrival of the Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway line in 1864.

'At a stroke, a whole new section of society could afford to travel here.'

Where were they coming from?

Mostly the Midlands, Birmingham area, because all the trains could come here

quite easily then, there were far more train lines in Wales than earlier on.

'The early railway tourists came to exchange the smoke

'of Britain's industrial heartland for fresh air and sunshine.

'But by the end of the 19th century,

'more sophisticated entertainment was available.'

Ah, exposed to the elements.

'This funicular railway was opened in 1896,

'part of an ambitious programme to turn so-called Constitution Hill

'into a special tourist attraction.'

The view of Aberystwyth is absolutely superb.

It is magnificent from up here,

and many people would have climbed the hill just to see that.

'Supposedly the longest in Britain,

'the funicular led tourists to hilltop pleasure gardens,

'including a Victorian favourite attraction, the camera obscura.

'This optical device allowed tourists to see a moving

'image of the world outside from within the confines of a building.

'Modern visitors can experience a 1980s reproduction

'of the 19th-century original.'

So what am I seeing there?

This is a live image of what's going on outside.

It's projected from a mirror above us onto this table.

Here are the waves hitting the shore and here is the bay of Aberystwyth.

Isn't that marvellous?

'The principle is the same as a pinhole camera

'and dates back to antiquity.

'By Victorian times,

'improved lenses had seaside tourists marvelling at the perfect picture.'

In the late 19th century,

nobody would have seen a moving image before?

No, it must have been exciting for them, to see that,

but of course, the cinema took over and this went out of fashion...

at the beginning of the 20th century.

Well, I think this has given me

almost as clear an image of Victorian Britain as my Bradshaw's.

'The Victorians made the seaside break a British institution,

'and right through the 20th century, the people of the Midlands flocked

'to the so-called "Biarritz of Wales."

'Before my last train of the day,

'I'm catching up with Birmingham-born Pat Hovers,

'who first visited Aberystwyth over 50 years ago.'

What kind of a resort was it in the '60s?

It was very popular, because coming to the seaside

was an adventure in those days, and Midlanders very much came to

this part of Wales, to Aberystwyth, whereas

the Manchester people would go north to Blackpool. It was where the railway lines go.

So what did you do in Aberystwyth. Was it ice creams and candy floss?

Paddling.

You had to go in the sea if you came to the coast.

And, yes, ice creams on the prom. Just walking along the prom,

there was always something going on, Punch and Judy sometimes,

and the pier and the amusements.

Something must have appealed to you as you've now settled in the area?

Indeed I have, yes.

I can't think what it was. I could say,

"Rwy'n hapus iawn i fyw yn y diwylliant Cymreig,"

but my accent isn't very good.

-What would that mean?

-"I'm very happy to live in the Welsh culture."

I remember my children coming home and saying, "The Brummies are here."

What they actually said was,

"The otters and grotters are here." I said, "What do you mean?!"

"Oh, they come from Birmingham and they say, 'It's 'otter here than it is at home.'

I had to remind them they were born and bred in Birmingham,

so we would not laugh

at the otters and grotters, no, not at all.

'When my guidebook was published, tourists wanting to explore

'the area around Aberystwyth had to go by coach or on foot,

'but very soon, along came a much more satisfactory way to travel.'

You may think that there's nothing so beautiful as to see

the Welsh landscape slip by through the window of a train.

But what about this?

All-round visibility

in the first-class observation saloon

of the Vale Of Rheidol Railway,

which has been carrying tourists for 110 years.

'First opened in 1902 to serve local lead mines, this narrow-gauge line

'was soon popular with holidaymakers, and remains so today.

'From vintage 1920s and '30s carriages,

'tourists can admire stunning views on their way to a landmark

'favoured by Victorian visitors...'

My Bradshaw's says that Pontarfynach,

or "the devil's bridge" is no more than 12 miles away,

and although those words were written 40 years before this line was built,

it is indeed just short of 12 miles, following the course

of the River Rheidol.

I can hear the locomotive straining ahead as we climb 650 feet

through intense greenery of this gentle Mid-Wales country.

'I'm leaving the train at Devil's Bridge station,

'which takes its name from an 11th-century bridge over the River Mynach.

'Since surmounted by two newer bridges, this curiosity can be

'admired en route to the nearby Devil's Bridge Falls.

'Rendered in paint by Turner and in verse by Wordsworth,

'their natural beauty magnetised Victorian tourists.

'But I'm heading off the beaten track, in search of a man-made marvel.'

During the course of my travels,

I've admired many feats of Victorian engineering,

but now I've ventured some distance from the nearest railway station

to see one that, even by the standards of the age,

was vast and audacious.

'This epic site is the extraordinary Elan Valley reservoir system,

'whose series of dams holds back up to 100,000 megalitres of pure Welsh water.

'Begun in the 1890s, it's a fitting final stop on my long journey

'from the heart of England to Mid Wales.

'Because this water is destined for the taps of Birmingham.

'I'll hear the explanation from site manager Noel Hughes.'

-Hello.

-Hello, Michael, welcome to Elan Valley.

'As industrial Birmingham boomed and its population mushroomed,

'the inadequate water supply led to devastating epidemics of cholera

'and typhoid.

'So the City Corporation bought land in the Elan Valley, 70 miles away.

'Their bold vision was to carry water by pipeline to Birmingham.'

Give me an idea of the scale of this thing.

It was phenomenal.

It was one of the largest Victorian engineering complexes at the time.

Liverpool had certainly constructed a dam some ten years prior to that

to supply water to the city, but on this scale, it's phenomenal.

How did they transport the materials they needed?

Well, in this area you'd expect them to quarry

and use the local stone.

However, the local stone here is so hard, it's one of the hardest granites in Wales,

so they transported the stone from the South Wales valleys by railway.

There was about 33 miles of railway constructed in the Elan Valley

to assist with the building of the reservoirs themselves.

'The ambitious project needed dismaying tonnages of stone and unimaginable numbers of men.'

Over the 12 years that it took to construct the dams,

50,000 people went through the books.

-Goodness.

-At any one time, there was 5,000 people working.

They must have made a construction village, I suppose?

They did, what they called the navvy village which held

somewhere in the region of 2-2,500 people at any one time.

It was a wooden shanty town,

constructed just downstream of the first dam.

'With typical Victorian attention to detail,

'every aspect of the project was carefully conceived,

'and the result is a system of dams which are both functional and elegant.'

Here we are, Michael, Penygarreg Dam.

I mean, of course it's huge,

but I didn't expect it to be so beautiful with this lovely, cascading foam.

That's right, yes. It was designed that way to oxygenate the water as it cascades over.

It must cost a lot to maintain a Victorian structure?

Not at all. The construction itself is designed to be almost maintenance-free.

It's as good now as when first constructed.

They were fantastic people, those Victorians.

They knew what they were doing!

'By the time the project was complete,

'Victoria's reign had ended, and her son Edward VII opened the pipeline in 1904.

'Amazingly, the dam's inner workings have barely changed since then.'

-Helmet for you, Michael.

-Thank you.

-Would like to go first?

-Is it a long way?

-There's 174 steps to go down!

'Our destination is the valve chamber, right in the heart of the dam.'

What we have here is the original Victorian valves that were installed some 110 years ago.

'Normally, water flows over the top of the dam into the next reservoir,

'but the valves are used in times of drought to regulate the supply.

Eventually, it reaches the main reservoir, where it's filtered,

before being gently propelled by gravity along a closed aqueduct to the Midlands.

I tell you what we'll do, we'll do what the king did 110 years ago.

-Let's release the water to Birmingham.

-Let's give it a go.

-OK.

-HE GROANS

-There we go. And again.

Whoa, listen to the sound of that water!

Indeed, it's got 125 feet of head behind it!

HE LAUGHS

The water is roaring past us!

I think that should be enough to keep 'em going for tomorrow.

The whole chamber is soaking with the water!

Water, water everywhere. Enough for Birmingham to drink.

'Feeling the sheer power of the water brings home

'the admirable self-confidence of the engineers who built this dam.

'No challenge was too great for the visionaries of the railway age.'

Guided by my Bradshaw's, my travels through the West Midlands

reminded me that for the majority of Queen Victoria's subjects,

industrialisation brought squalor, disease

and dangerous working conditions.

But regular wages also produced higher living standards,

new engineering supplied clean water, and the railways opened up

the country and seaside to city dwellers who'd never before seen such beauty.

Victorian Britain offered for the first time to working people...

broad horizons.

'On my next journey,

'I'll travel sea-to-sea from the Solent to the Humber,

'starting at the centuries-old naval hub of Portsmouth.'

Fire! CANNON FIRES

'I'll visit a surprising 19th-century place of worship.'

It's not only the first UK mosque, it's the first in Northern Europe.

'Put in a shift at London's oldest fish market.'

Man wants his fish today, not the weekend.

'And marvel at Lincoln's most-impressive cathedral.'

Like fingers of honey-coloured stone. Absolutely breathtaking.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd