Portsmouth to Gomshall 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 these isles

to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

The advent of the railways in the 19th century

connected the interior of the British Isles to 6,000 miles of coastline,

carrying sailors to military ports and fish to British cities.

Using my Bradshaw's Guide,

I'm embarked on a new journey from sea to sea.

From the centuries old naval hub at Portsmouth

through the port of London,

to what was once the largest fishing port in the world - Grimsby.

'On today's journey, I'll be feeding the crew

'of Britain's newest warship...'

Lovely gooey beans.

-Tomato?

-Yes, please.

-Slippery little fellows.

Have a great commissioning day.

'..Discovering how the Victorians planned to repel

'a possible French invasion...'

Fire!

'..And learning that there's well established industry

'where one might least expect to find it.'

BELL CLANGS

Not a bad turn of speed considering she's 98 years old.

Using my Bradshaw's Guide,

I'll begin on the Hampshire coast in Portsmouth,

travel up through Surrey, on to London

and push north east to Cambridgeshire,

alighting finally in Grimsby on the Lincolnshire coast.

The first leg of my journey starts in Portsmouth,

takes me north to Godalming in Surrey,

on to Guildford and finally to the village of Gomshall.

My first stop, Portsmouth, is still a major dockyard and military base.

In Victorian times, the Royal Navy defended the realm

and its empire, so no wonder that Bradshaw's is patriotic in tone.

"Portsmouth is the principle rendezvous of the British Navy.

"The power of the English Navy consists in the vast

"collection of materials, the number of ships, the skill

"and experience of the officers and the excellence of the seamen".

In those days, Britannia really did rule the waves,

and the arrival of the railways in Portsmouth

enabled it to increase its military efficiency.

When trains first arrived here in 1847,

they terminated at Portsmouth Town Station.

Because the docks were so heavily fortified,

rail wasn't allowed direct access to the quayside.

It wasn't until 1876

that my first stop, Portsmouth Harbour Station, opened.

Portsmouth Harbour Station is exceptional

because it's cantilevered over the sea.

We used to use this station when I was a kid

going on holidays to the Isle of Wight, and it used to thrill me.

In those days, you could look between your feet

and you could see the foam billowing beneath you.

And when you can see the sea from your railway station,

then you know that your holiday has begun.

But rail links to Britain's ports are more than mere holiday gateways.

Trains have transported supplies and sailors to boats,

and raw materials to the shipyards that build them

since the Industrial Revolution.

But today, the ships look very different.

If George Bradshaw were alive today, he might be disappointed

at how few vessels the Royal Navy now has,

but he would surely be overawed by their fire power

and their technology, and this one here is brand new.

It's a Type 45 destroyer. It's called HMS Dragon,

and by an extraordinary bit of coincidence and luck

I am here on the day that it's being commissioned.

The fourth of six Type 45 Daring Class Destroyers,

HMS Dragon is 152 metres long,

displaces over 7,500 tonnes, can reach over 30 knots,

and has the Sea Viper missile system which packs a punch.

She's also an extraordinary and futuristic shape.

I've been invited aboard to help out on the vessel's commissioning day,

her official welcome into the Royal Navy.

Morning, gentlemen.

What a fantastic morning to commission a ship.

-Welcome to Dragon.

-Thank you.

No matter how new the ship,

centuries old traditions must be maintained.

-I just have my one action.

-One action. One job.

-Which follows the words, "Make it so".

-Make it so.

-Happy?

-Happy.

-Brilliant.

Make it so.

BELL RINGS

'At 0800 hours every day,

'all docked Royal Navy vessels inform their crew

'that the watch is changing with eight tolls of the ship's bell.'

Pipe the still.

'And then immediately salute Her Majesty the Queen

'by raising the White Ensign.

'Napoleon famously said that an army marches on its stomach,

'and my next duty should tell me whether the same is true

'of their navy colleagues.'

-Morning.

-Morning.

-What can I do for you, sir?

Two bacon, two sausage, please.

-We've got two sorts of eggs. Which would you like?

-Fried egg, please.

Beans. Lovely gooey beans.

-Tomato?

-Yes, please.

And sausages. How many today? Slippery little fellows.

-And some mushrooms. You like your mushrooms?

-Yes, I do.

-Have a great commissioning day.

-Thank you.

They tell me you're a butler in civvy street.

I was, sir, yes, in civvy street.

How long have you been in the Royal Navy?

-I've been in for five years, sir.

-What are your signature dishes?

We usually give the captain three options to choose from,

and generally it's the fillet steak he goes for.

-It's quite a long way from Hornblower, isn't it?

-It certainly is, sir.

How important is the food to the ship's morale?

Sometimes when we're at sea it's the only thing that changes,

and so it's the only thing that they look forward to,

and afterwards the only thing they seem to moan about.

I don't think they moan much about your food. That's my feeling.

'Kitchen duties dispensed,

'HMS Dragon's steak loving Commanding Officer Darren Houston

'has granted me a sneak preview of the bridge

'on his state-of-the-art ship.'

-Captain, good morning.

-Good morning, Michael. Welcome to HMS Dragon.

-You must be the proudest man in the Royal Navy today.

-Very much so.

The Royal Navy today has fewer ships than it used to have,

but the firepower of these things

has to be compared with battleships of the past

or indeed numbers of battleships of the past.

Well, interesting you pick up on that, because the size of this ship

is going back to the size of a cruiser, for example,

in World War II.

We may not have the large double barrelled guns on the front,

however the Sea Viper missile system is the latest technology.

Being that big you must be pretty visible to the enemy.

We've got a little cunning plan there. Because the angles

of the side of the ship are sloping, in actual fact

we look like a fishing vessel to an enemy radar -

or that's what we hope we do.

You've got the most beautiful red leather chair here.

-This is presumably where you sit?

-It is, this is the captain's chair.

I'm very, very lucky to have a Rolls Royce Ghost chair,

which was fitted recently and should make sitting on the bridge

extremely comfortable. I think it'll worry the officer's watch

slightly, because I'll spend an awful lot of time here.

And here is the beautiful ship's crest,

which we see on the commissioning day.

-We do, yes.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you very much indeed.

The Royal Navy may be shrinking, but the senior service is active

on the world's stage,

policing the Arabian Gulf, fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean

and protecting territories as far away as the Falkland Islands.

And as HMS Dragon is welcomed into active service,

I've no doubt she will prove a valuable asset.

May your joint endeavours to uphold the high traditions

of the Royal Navy in the service of Her Majesty the Queen

be crowned with success and happiness.

On right. Quick, march!

Having seen its nautical present, I want to find out about

Portsmouth's maritime and railway past

from local historian Nick Hewitt.

-Nick, great to see you.

-Good to meet you, Michael.

How far does the Royal Navy history go back in Portsmouth?

When did it establish its connections?

You have the Navy Royal in the Medieval period,

and basically this harbour has been the home of the Royal Navy

since then, right through to the hey day, you could argue,

which was the 18th century, and the great wars

with Revolutionary and then Napoleonic France.

It was the Royal Navy that saved our bacon in 1805.

Absolutely, countless times.

This was the ship that led the way - HMS Victory.

Celebrated as Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar.

Is it true that Victory is still a commissioned ship

in the Royal Navy?

She is indeed. She is the flagship of the flag office of Portsmouth.

She still flies the White Ensign and she's still part,

the heart, really, of the Royal Navy's presence here in Portsmouth.

1805 - Trafalgar. The only thing wrong with that date

-is it's pre-railways.

-It is indeed.

-Can you show me some railway history please?

-I think we certainly can.

Leaving Admiral Nelson's Victory behind, Nick promises to take me

even higher up the echelons of 19th-century society.

This really says railway shed,

but it doesn't look like a Royal Navy piece of equipment.

The clue's in the crown on the top of it.

South Railway Jetty was constructed for Queen Victoria in 1888,

and what this did was provide her with a private railway line

from the main line over at Portsmouth harbour

that would take her seamlessly right to the royal yacht.

And to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897,

and Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953,

thousands of ordinary day trippers also took trains

to Portsmouth to witness the fleet's royal reviews.

Paint me a picture of what Portsmouth was like

at the heyday of the Royal Navy and the heyday of the railways.

Railways are the lifeblood of the dockyard,

so the whole site is criss-crossed with railway tracks.

Everything that's required to sustain the fleet

has to arrive by railway, whether that's the men to crew the ships,

the ammunition, the food.

All the provisions, everything, all the output of Victorian Britain

at its heyday comes here, and then passes on to the ships

of the Royal Navy, and then out to the empire around the world.

Why does Portsmouth become so important to the Royal Navy?

The remarkable thing about Portsmouth is

it is a huge natural harbour.

To get a proper sense of its scale, Nick's arranged for us

to sail out into the harbour whose size impressed Bradshaw.

My Bradshaw's Guide says of Portsmouth,

"Situated on the western side of the island of Portsea

"at the mouth of the bay termed Portsmouth Harbour,

"Portsmouth Harbour ranks among first in Great Britain

"for its capaciousness, depth, and security."

Those are the qualities that make it so important.

You only have to look around you to see what you've got is

this immense body of calm water surrounded on three sides by land,

so you can't attack this by sea from

any other direction apart from that way

and that way is protected across the end by the Isle of Wight.

You've got a completely defensive location.

I'm seeing around us these enormous forts. Who built these things?

These were built in 1860.

They were commissioned by the Palmerston government.

They were commissioned because there was a fear at the time

about the growing strength of the French navy.

-Did they see action?

-Not at all. This was the great irony about them.

They took ten years to build.

By the time they were built, France had been broken

by the Franco-Prussian war,

and they became known as the Palmerston Follies.

That is the catch of politics.

If you spend the money, you're criticised for waste,

and if you fail to spend the money, the French invade

and you're criticised for that.

On my railway journeys, I've seen many feats of Victorian engineering,

and although dubbed follies, these four sea forts

are another extraordinary example.

The stone foundations were hewn in quarries, transported by rail,

delivered by barge and manoeuvred into place by divers.

And once above sea level,

a circular railway was laid to move the builders' steam-powered crane.

Palmerston also built another landmark.

Atop Portsdown Hill, Fort Nelson was designed to defend against

a land invasion that also never came.

It's now a military museum housing more than 350 cannon.

Good afternoon, Michael.

Via its labyrinthine tunnels,

curator of artillery Phil Magrath is taking me

to the area of the fort designed to defend its ditches

with a series of 32 pounder, cast iron smooth bore cannon,

and where members of the Portsdown Artillery Volunteers

-demonstrate their use.

-Clear!

What are they doing with the gun now?

They're going through a preparatory drill to get the gun ready

-to load and fire.

-Clear!

What kind of ammunition was fired from this?

It's essentially a tin case containing

around 200 mixed metal balls of various sizes.

That's horrible.

These are really heavy and nasty, aren't they?

-Was this gun ever fired in anger?

-As far as we know, no.

But we're going to hear it go 'pop'?

We'll hear it go 'pop' shortly(!)

Fire!

My goodness!

You wouldn't want to be a French invader with that going on.

Who could resist the opportunity

of firing an antique 32 pounder cannon?

I can't.

-When he gives the command, I go...

-You pull.

You don't pull, you bring your body.

Fire!

-Oops. That's not happened. It's got to be more then?

-Yes.

Fire!

Quite a responsibility, that.

Much as I would love to fire a few more rounds

at the imaginary French hoard,

it's time for me to leave Portsmouth

and start the next leg of my northbound journey,

across Hampshire and into Surrey.

As I travel up through Hampshire towards my next destination

of Godalming, my Bradshaw's remarks that the junction of the south coast

and the south western lines is at Portcreek,

between Havant and Cosham,

but it's necessary to go to Portsmouth

to change from one line to the other.

There were these two circuitous routes down to Portsmouth.

Naturally, the people of the city wanted a direct line,

and a direct line company was formed.

But when it started operations,

it had to run over the other company's railways.

When they first tried to operate a train, they found

that the South Coast Railway had put an engine in the way

and even dug up some of the tracks.

This was the so-called Battle of Havant,

and it illustrates how fierce competition was

at the height of Victorian railway mania.

Home to Charterhouse School,

Godalming, with its historic buildings

and attractive narrow streets, bears witness to a prosperity

built around the town's wool, leather and paper mills.

Bradshaw writes, "This town is situated on the banks of the Wey

"at a point where the river divides into several streams".

I'm meeting local historian Stephen Goddard

to discuss how Victorian Godalming harnessed its abundant water.

-Hello, Stephen.

-Hello, Michael.

We're meeting under this delightful lamp because

you're going to illuminate me about Godalming's place in history.

It was in 1881, with the increase in the price of gas to light the town,

that one Mr Pullman offered the service of his water mill

to provide electric power to light the town -

in fact the very first town in the country and indeed the world.

It was innovative mill owner RJ Pullman who spotted

that if hydropower could keep his leather mill running,

all he needed was a dynamo and it could also light

Godalming's four high street lamps.

Because private residences were also able to purchase electric power

from the entrepreneur,

the National Grid dates its founding to the evening

that hydroelectricity first lit up Godalming.

Diarist Samuel Pepys stayed here

and my Bradshaw's recommends The Kings Arms.

At the end of a long day's travel, I'm looking forward to lights out.

Refreshed and ready to continue,

the next leg of my journey is just one stop away.

Guildford next, and my Bradshaw's says,

"The situation of the town on the banks of the Wey

"and spreading over the steep hill

"as it rises from the side of the river is particularly picturesque."

I associate Guildford with bowler hats, and the 7.41 to Waterloo,

and harrumphing letters to the Daily Telegraph,

but there's more to Guildford than that.

There's industry too.

Once a Saxon village, Guildford boasts a Norman castle,

a much more modern cathedral, and an attractive,

centuries old cobbled high street.

The town once boasted brewers and iron works,

and I'm meeting Andy Boulton, who works for Dennis,

a vehicle manufacturer in Guildford since 1895.

He's picking me up in a very precious and very old company asset.

-Good morning.

-Morning.

-How are you?

-Very good indeed.

What a beautiful machine.

BELL CLANGS

Andy, what is this wonderful machine?

This is a 1914 Dennis fire appliance.

We've been building fire appliances in Guildford since 1908,

and this is one of the earliest survivors.

-Not a bad turn of speed considering she's 98 years old.

-Amazing.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Dennis factory,

then in the centre of town, produced cars.

Customers included a Brazilian viscount and a Russian duke.

But as automobiles were such a luxury, niche product,

in 1904 the firm decided to build commercial vehicles,

and, in 1908, fire engines.

The Dennis factory is now on the outskirts of Guildford,

and there are other relics of the company's past here too.

I can see, Andy, that you love your history,

and this vehicle's even older than the fire engine, isn't it?

Yeah, this is beautiful, this is a 1902 Dennis car.

What was the origin of vehicle manufacture here in Guildford?

It started really in 1895 when two brothers,

John Dennis and Raymond Dennis,

decided to set up a small bicycle shop on Guildford High Street.

One of them had a great idea of bolting a small petrol engine

onto the back end of one of their tricycles.

One day, I believe it was John was stopped on the street

by a police officer for doing what was described

as the ferocious speed, in the courts,

of 12mph, going up Guildford High Street,

which was quite a challenge at the time,

and that was publicised and sales boomed.

I always have to ask people whether their business

has ever had a railways connection. Has yours?

Yes, it has. During the heyday of Dennis,

when the factory was really the focal point of the town,

there was quite a substantial railhead

that delivered raw materials into the factory,

and I think probably more importantly

the finished goods leaving the factory off around the countryside.

The factory's railhead was at its busiest during the Second World War

when Dennis built 700 Churchill tanks, 4,500 army lorries,

and 3,000 carriers.

What is it the factory does today?

These days, we focus on just bus chassis, and we put the body on it

in one of our other factories around the rest of the UK.

Can Britain compete with imports?

The UK bus fleet is made up of about three quarters

British built buses. I think we should be proud of that.

-What about exports?

-About 30% of the vehicles around us here

are destined to be going overseas,

whether it be to Hong Kong, New Zealand or North America.

-And where's this one destined for?

-This one's destined for London.

Very good. We'll see it on the streets of London soon.

Thank you very much.

On my journeys, I've driven trains, cranes and automobiles,

but a vehicle without a body is a first.

And evidently takes some getting used to.

During my railway journeys,

I often visit factories that have become museums,

because Britain is not the manufacturing country it once was.

But here at Guildford, they've been producing vehicles

during three centuries, and they still are.

With the coming of the railways, Londoners built luxurious homes

here in Surrey to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.

'I'm on my way to Gomshall, a village six miles east

'of Guildford on the line towards Dorking.'

As industrialisation progressed,

many Victorians yearned for a simpler life,

and in particular in their homes.

In an age of mass production, they sought inspiration from the artisans

and wanted to have hand made goods.

I'm on my way to such a house.

Arts and crafts, a movement based on simple design and natural materials,

flourished in the late 19th century,

and I'm in Gomshall to visit Goddards,

a house whose Tudor pretensions, sweeping planes of roof tiles

and dalliances with form are typical of it.

Goddards was built by a philanthropic local businessman

as a rest home for women of poor means.

The architect was Sir Edwin Lutyens, famous for the Cenotaph,

the Viceroy's House in Delhi,

and countless other early to mid-20th century country houses

and war memorials.

It's now owned by The Landmark Trust,

and its historian, Caroline Stanford, is going to show me round.

-Caroline.

-Hello.

-Lovely to see you. Thank you.

Absolutely stunning.

Do I smell Victorian money here?

You do. Ironically, you smell Victorian shipping money,

not railway money.

This house was built by Frederick Mirrielees,

who made his money from the Castle Union shipping line,

so quite a different kind of transport in fact.

And he used an architect very well known to us?

He did. He used a young, relatively young still,

Edward Lutyens, who was 29 at the time.

And Lutyens followed the arts and crafts tradition, did he not?

Yes, indeed. I think all his work is infused with that fantastic

sense of materials and good workmanship

that so characterised the arts and crafts movement.

So, taking in this room, what should

I look for to understand the passion for arts and crafts?

You can see the timber framing, you can see the massive beams and braces

and trusses all pegged.

You see the little wooden pegs in the beams.

The brick vaulting over the fireplace, for example,

the little coves and vaults over the fireplace,

not exactly medieval at all really,

and it's clearly modern brickwork,

but nevertheless there's this lovely warm, reassuring use of materials.

The door furniture - the hinges, the latches, the locks on the doors

are all beautifully made, very honestly made out of forged iron.

So this is the drawing room.

What does this tell us

that the new men of wealth were looking for in their home?

I think they were looking for nostalgic comfort,

and you can imagine them hopping on the train at Charing Cross

at the end of a long week and coming down to these leafy lanes

looking forward to a good cigar by a comfortable fireside.

The gardens of the house are also in the arts and crafts style.

Lutyens collaborated on their construction with Gertrude Jekyll,

arguably the most influential gardener of the time.

The gardens are a wonderful example of the kind of harmony

between gardening and architecture that Lutyens and Jekyll

contrived between them.

You see how Jekyll has used the old materials again,

the lovely stone, the local Surrey stone slabs, the brick paths.

And the pond really is a classic Gertrude Jekyll feature.

She was very concerned with practicality.

The rain water drains off the roofs into the dipping pond

and then you can dip your watering can in easily and water your plants.

And here, a very lovely aspect.

Yes. We look out over a ha-ha into the ancient woodland,

and Sir Frederick Mirrielees could be lord of all he surveyed.

If, like me, Sir Frederick or the ladies of poor means

who stayed here had need of shelter from the rain,

they would surely have headed inside,

to the most surprising room in the house.

And here's the skittle alley.

-May I have a go?

-Of course.

The original bowls await you.

This house has bowled me over!

A beautiful Victorian house like Goddards

was the product of our national prosperity,

based on industry and empire.

Bradshaw's Britain had the wealth to defend its possessions

by creating the largest fleet the world had ever seen.

After centuries of service,

still today the Royal Navy stands ready to do its duty.

'On the next leg of my journey,

'I'll get close to some precious Victorian botany...'

So here you can see a lovely specimen of a maidenhair fern,

collected by Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of The Beagle.

It's quite moving to see this stuff.

'I'll play croquet...'

You can not be serious!

This is where I get a hammering.

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

But it's not only the first UK mosque,

it's the first mosque to be built in Northern Europe.

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