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In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
His name was George Bradshaw, | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
and his railway guides inspired the Victorians | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
to take to the tracks. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:16 | |
Stop by stop, he told them where to go, what to see, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:21 | |
and where to stay. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
And now, 170 years later, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
across the United Kingdom | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
All this week, I've been travelling away from the capital | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
and its urban bustle, | 0:00:54 | 0:00:55 | |
heading north on Robert Stephenson's London to Birmingham line. | 0:00:55 | 0:01:00 | |
I'll explore the Victorian manufacturing hub | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
of the East Midlands, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
before terminating my journey in the heart of Yorkshire. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
On this final leg, I travel from Nottingham, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
once the lace-making capital of the country, and then on to Mansfield. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
I visit Worksop, known as the Gateway to the Dukeries, | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
and on to Doncaster, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
before exploring the rich heritage of Leeds. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
I'm now concluding my journey towards Leeds. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
From the end of the 18th century, the North of England | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
became crowded with the chimneys of the so-called Dark Satanic Mills. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:36 | |
But this period also coincided with a revival in the arts, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
as people tried to recall, | 0:01:41 | 0:01:42 | |
amongst the grime of industrialisation, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
the natural beauties of their green and pleasant land. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
Today on my journey I see the grand designs of a Victorian duke. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:55 | |
This building is huge. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
When it was built, it was the largest in Europe, | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
with the exception of the manege next the Kremlin in Moscow. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
'I discover a treasure trove of locomotive history.' | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
This, I do not believe. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
Every square inch of wall is filled with railway memorabilia. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:17 | |
'And I break a leg on the stage in Leeds.' | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
Welcome to this Valhalla | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
of Victorian variety. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
Bravo! | 0:02:27 | 0:02:28 | |
Bradshaw's tells me that a notable native of Nottingham - | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
my next stop - was Henry Kirke White. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
"Born in 1785, a butcher's son. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
"He was chosen Professor Of Literature in the Literary Society | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
"by acclamation when only 15 years old." | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
I need to discover the rhyme and reason of that. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
Nottingham in the 1780s was a city greatly divided | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
between the very wealthy and the extremely poor. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
It was Kirke White's Nottingham working-class background | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
that marked him out. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
And as Bradshaw says so much about him, I want to know more. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
I'm meeting Lynda Pratt, from Nottingham University, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
at Bromley House Library, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:28 | |
where there's a large collection of his work. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
-Lynda, hello. -Michael, nice to meet you. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
Evidently, he was a child prodigy. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
"He was elected Professor Of Literature | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
"of the Literary Society by acclamation at the age of 15." | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
This is just extraordinary. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:44 | |
He does seem to have been immensely bright and ambitious. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
Yeah, he is a working-class boy. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:49 | |
He works his way up into the local textile industry, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
from there, into a trainee lawyer. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
The onset of deafness actually prevented him | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
pursuing a legal career. | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
Eventually sent to Cambridge, did extremely well, | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
won a university prize in his first year | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
and, unfortunately, he works himself to death. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
So, this was a very, very short life. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
He dies at the age of 21. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
The strain of continuous study proved fatal. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
Dying so young fuelled the Victorians' interest in him, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
and his posthumous work The Remains became a bestseller. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
It strikes a chord, because it tells a great story - | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
a story about an ambitious lad who dies young. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
He's evidently a favourite son of Nottingham. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
How did he and the city relate to each other? | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
Ambivalently. He celebrates a local beauty spot, Clifton Grove. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
The poem he writes about this beauty spot | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
is very critical of what he can see, | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
which is manufacturing industrialising Nottingham. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
So offended were certain members of the local population, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
that when one of his contemporaries | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
came to write a history of Nottingham in 1815, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
it was suggested that White should have been horsewhipped | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
through the streets for his portrayal of the city. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
Bradshaw's leads me to believe that White was more than a poet. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
Was White a social commentator? | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
Yes, there's evidence of this. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:09 | |
There's a letter he wrote | 0:05:09 | 0:05:10 | |
complaining about the conditions that young girls | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
who worked in the lace making industry. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
He sort of says if you keep young girls hard-working and poor, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
they have no money. So in order to go out and earn more | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
and improve their lot in life, they'll turn to prostitution. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
Social campaigning seems to have been in his mind very much. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
Today, he's an important reminder of the vitality | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
of English regional literary culture during the nineteenth century. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
Discovering the unexpected in Nottingham | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
could keep me occupied for many more hours, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
but the tracks are calling, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
and now I'm heading north to my next destination. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
"The picturesque tracts of woodland of Sherwood Forest," | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
says Bradshaw's, "still bring to mind the unsettled times | 0:06:03 | 0:06:08 | |
"when Hugh Little John and Friar Tuck | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
"hunted the king's venison without licence." | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
Yes, I'm on the Robin Hood line. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
Mansfield and the countryside around | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
may have once been home to landed gentry and outlaws. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
But by Bradshaw's day, numerous coalfields supplied industry, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
making use of a comprehensive rail network | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
that shifted workers and materials. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
In the 1960s, Dr Richard Beeching, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
chairman of British Railways, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
axed many lines to slash losses. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
I'm meeting Tony Egginton, the town's mayor, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
to find out what happened. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
So, for some time, this Robin Hood line was closed. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
Yes, for just over 30 years. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
Closed in '64, as a result of the Beeching Report, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
-and then reopened in '95. -So Mansfield had no railway station? | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
No station at all. We were cut off from the rail links. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
And who was it who arranged to have it reopened? | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
Well, it was A group of businesspeople called Mansfield 2010 | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
who worked together | 0:07:18 | 0:07:19 | |
with the county council and the district council at the time, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
lobbying central government | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
to try and turn over the Beeching recommendation. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
Lo and behold, they won the fight. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
It shows the resilience of the people of Mansfield | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
because, having lost their station, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
by the 1980s, they were also losing their industrial heritage. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
The coal mines were closing, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
the brewery and the shoe factories were in decline. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
Reopening their station was a massive achievement. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
What would you say to those people around the country | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
who have cherished lines that they'd like to reopen? | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
Just keep at it. You must work hard. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
You need everybody to get behind you | 0:07:54 | 0:07:55 | |
and, of course, common sense ultimately prevails. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
And you have brought back to life a wonderful Victorian station. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
Mansfield Station reopened in 1995 | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
and thanks to an investment of £36 million, | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
the whole Robin Hood line, from Worksop to Nottingham, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
was back in action by 1998, reversing the Beeching closure. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
Every year, over a million people use the line | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
and I'm going to take advantage of it | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
as I travel north again to its terminus. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
Bradshaw's tells me that Worksop is situated in the Dukery | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
which comprises four ducal seats. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
Welbeck Abbey belongs to the Duke of Portland | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
and, when I go there, Bradshaw's advises me to look out | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
for the riding house and stable, 130ft long. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
That's surely a misprint for yards | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
because these grand estates, with their vast buildings, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
were a feature of the Victorian landscape. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
Amongst the ducal properties in Sherwood Forest, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
Welbeck Abbey has one of the richest histories. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
Still privately owned | 0:09:04 | 0:09:05 | |
by the descendants of the Duke of Portland, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
the abbey is in a sculpted park. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
The most eccentric episode of its history | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
came in the mid-19th century, when it was owned by the fifth duke. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
I'm meeting curator Derek Adlam | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
to discover more about this fascinating Victorian aristocrat. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
Derek, this building is handsome and huge. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
I take it that this is the riding house and stables | 0:09:27 | 0:09:32 | |
-referred to in my Bradshaw's. -Absolutely right. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
When it was built, it was the largest in Europe, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
with the exception of the manege next to the Kremlin in Moscow. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
It looks as if it's a traditional tiled building, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
but those tiles conceal a glass and iron vault, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
like a London railway station. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
So, who was responsible for such magnificence on the estate? | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
Well, this is the work of the Fifth Duke of Portland | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
and he inherited the estate from his father in 1854, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:03 | |
came to live here round about 1860 | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
and began the work you see all around. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
There was nothing here when he started work. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
It must have taken a very long time. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
No, 20 years. In fact, even a little less. He died in 1879 | 0:10:13 | 0:10:18 | |
and work then came to a stop | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
because it was virtually complete. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
The family's vast wealth came from its agricultural assets, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
allowing the duke to think on a grand scale. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
To all the opulent furnishings, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
he added a subterranean tropical house | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
and 22 acres of kitchen garden, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
growing exotic fruit and vegetables to feed the estate. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
And what sort of a man was this fifth duke? | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
Well, apparently, he was a rather indolent, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
not very interesting or interested person. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
But he had no occupation. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:54 | |
It was as if a spring was released when his father died | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
and moved here, began work and he turned out to be | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
the most astonishing organiser. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
He was employing up to 1,000 people at a time. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:10 | |
-A sociable fellow? -No, absolutely not. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
When he grew older, he became quite a recluse, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
but a very unusual kind of recluse | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
in that he refused to see his social peers and equals, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
but got on very well with his workmen | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
and was out and about on the estate every day. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
I rather wish I had met him. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
I do too. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
In the 1850s, a duke was expected to have stables to match his status | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
and this duke was a keen horseman. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
No-one really knows why he was so reclusive, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
but the psoriasis from which he reputedly suffered | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
might have been a factor | 0:11:47 | 0:11:48 | |
and help to explain why there are no photos of him | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
and why he took to the depths to avoid being seen. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
Well, that is an unexpected sight. A tunnel. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
The 5th Duke was the great tunneller, the Burrowing Duke. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
On the estate, he built 2.5 miles | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
of these underground drives. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
This is one of the larger ones and it's wide enough | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
for two horse-drawn carriages to pass side-by-side. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
So, what use did he make of this extensive tunnel network? | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
Well, it meant that he could move around on the estate unseen. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:25 | |
He would go underground while all the life of the estate went on above him. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
But I think it's more likely that it's the other way round. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
Did he make use of railways? | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
Yes, some of the tunnels have railways. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
And did our reclusive duke have much use for public railways? | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
Yes, he would have made use of them to go to London, in particular. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
His carriage would go with him in it, with the curtains drawn, | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
to Worksop Station. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
His carriage would then be placed on a kind of flatbed truck, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
strapped into position, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:55 | |
and he would then go in his own carriage | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
down to London on the railway. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
But he was a great enthusiast for the railway | 0:13:00 | 0:13:03 | |
and at the time of his death | 0:13:03 | 0:13:04 | |
he was planning for a railway to come all the way onto the estate, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:08 | |
mainly for moving goods around. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
The more I hear of this duke, the more fascinating he becomes. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
Yes, absolutely right. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
For all his resourcefulness, the duke never married. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
When he died, his cherished estate passed to his cousin. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
And although the railway was never built, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
I think Bradshaw would have approved of him. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
As for me, after travelling a good few miles, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
I'm more than happy to break my journey here. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
I'm up early to catch the train north from Worksop | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
on a journey that should take me about an hour. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
Doncaster. Bradshaw's tells me that it was the Roman Danam | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
and the Saxon Donacastre, | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
in the West Riding of Yorkshire on the River Don | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
and the North Midland Railway. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
And indeed, the words Doncaster and railway | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
go together like love and marriage, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
because its people produced locomotives | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
that were as fast as they were elegant, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
classics of British design at its zenith. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
ANNOUNCER: 'We are now arriving into Doncaster. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
'Please change here for Leeds, York, Newcastle...' | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
Today, Doncaster is a city of regeneration, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
following the demise of its coal mining and heavy industries. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
But in the late 19th century, it was railway city, | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
employing thousands of people | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
building and making everything to do with trains. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
If all lines pointed to London, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
all things rail came out of "Donny", as the locals call it. | 0:14:55 | 0:15:00 | |
Doncaster's Nigel Gresley is known today | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
as one of the best locomotive designers of the 20th century. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
Following in the footsteps | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
of two of the most eminent railway engineers, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
Patrick Stirling and Henry Ivatt, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
famous for building locomotive race horses, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
Gresley pushed the boundaries further. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
Just alongside Gresley's old office, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
I'm meeting railway historian Graham Boyes. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
Which are the locomotives that we most remember him for? | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
Well, I think there are two - the Flying Scotsman and Mallard. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
Tell me about the Flying Scotsman | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
It was much bigger than anything that had been built here before. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
It was the first of these Pacific 462 locomotives. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
It was in a lovely apple-green colour, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
which was the Great Northern Railways' livery | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
for express locomotives. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:56 | |
He soon showed it could go faster than anything else | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
that had been on this line before, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:00 | |
certainly speeds of over 100mph. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
What's Mallard's place in history? | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
Well, Mallard, it's a classic. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
It's streamlined, of course, which helped it gain maximum speed | 0:16:08 | 0:16:13 | |
and, indeed, it holds the world speed record | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
at 126mph for a steam locomotive. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
Given the extraordinary series of chief engineers | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
that there were at Doncaster, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
the enduring fame of Sir Nigel Gresley, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
the fame of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
is it not strange that most people | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
might associate York more than Doncaster with the railways? | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
I don't think so, really. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
York has become associated with the locomotives | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
since the National Rail Museum opened, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
but Doncaster was always the more important place, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
throughout railway history, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
as one of THE locomotive design and building places in the world. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:54 | |
They don't design locomotives in Doncaster any more, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
but its signalling centre is one of the largest on the UK network | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
and it has one railway workshop | 0:17:01 | 0:17:03 | |
overhauling and repairing rolling stock. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
Graham wants to show me something of Doncaster's illustrious history | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
in what I can only describe as an Aladdin's cave of locomotives. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:15 | |
This, I do NOT believe! | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
Every square inch of wall is filled with... | 0:17:20 | 0:17:25 | |
railway memorabilia. Graham, this is absolutely astonishing. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:31 | |
What is the origin of all of this? | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
It was a collection of the Doncaster Grammar School Railway Society. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
Of the 600 boys in the school, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
about 100 were members of the society. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
Many of their fathers would work on the railways | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
and some of them themselves, like me, went on to work for the railways. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:49 | |
I came to the school in 1949, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
11 years old, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:52 | |
and that was the year in which the first of these objects arrived. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:58 | |
So, here we've got a locomotive plate. "Doncaster." | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
-That's the same class as Flying Scotsman. -Just amazing. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:06 | |
Then here we have two more locomotive nameplates | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
that arrived while I was at the school | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
and they're two of the three locomotives that were in | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
the Harrow and Wealdstone disaster of 1952. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
They were so badly damaged, they were scraped. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
That's really very moving, isn't it? When you think about the wreckage | 0:18:23 | 0:18:27 | |
-and the number of people who lost their lives that day... -Yes. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
..and here are plates of two of the locomotives | 0:18:30 | 0:18:34 | |
-from Britain's worst-ever peacetime disaster. -Yes. Indeed. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:39 | |
Doncaster's railway history had broader consequences. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
Rail workers also shaped our political development. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
At the end of the Victorian era, Thomas Steels and Jimmy Holmes | 0:18:47 | 0:18:52 | |
began to fight for workers' rights. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
I'm making my way to Sir Nigel Gresley Square | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
to meet a former political adversary, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
Labour MP Rosie Winterton. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:01 | |
So, why is it that the Labour Party particularly celebrates | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
the memory of two railwaymen from Doncaster? | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
Thomas Steels and Jimmy Holmes campaigned within parliament | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
to ensure that working people had proper representations | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
and their views and concerns were expressed there. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
Why did working men not feel | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
that the Conservatives, or the Liberals, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
could represent their interests perfectly well? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
Quite honestly because they didn't represent them | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
and the working people felt they wanted to see | 0:19:30 | 0:19:35 | |
people in parliament | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
who would take up their concerns. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
For example, around issues like health and safety. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:41 | |
They worked in dangerous industries | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
and wanted to have that representation there | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
so that people understood and laws could be passed to protect them. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
How does that lead to the Labour Party? | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
Well, by 1906, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
they had endorsed 50 candidates | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
in the general election. | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
29 of them were elected | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
and after the election | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
the Parliamentary Labour Party | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
was set up to ensure that | 0:20:07 | 0:20:08 | |
the Labour voice could be heard | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
and organised in Parliament. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
-Doncaster made history. -Exactly. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
After discovering such rich railway history in Doncaster, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
I'm excited to be heading to my last stop, Leeds. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
But maybe this isn't going to be my last stop. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
Are we on the wrong train? | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
-Where's this train for? -It's the Newcastle train. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
I think that's what you call human error. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
But after a quick change at York, I'm now back on track... | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
The next stop will be Leeds. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:57 | |
In the 17th and 18th centuries, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
Leeds became a major centre | 0:21:07 | 0:21:08 | |
for producing and trading wool. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
During the Industrial Revolution, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
engineering, iron foundries and printing became important | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
and Leeds fast developed into a rich city | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
with a large working population. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
It's evident from Bradshaw's | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
that mid-19th century Leeds | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
enjoyed every modern facility. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
Public baths, a society for the encouragement of the fine arts, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
a music hall, a mechanics' institute and a general infirmary. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:39 | |
As they say, the spice of life is variety. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
Travelling performers broadened their horizons | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
with the advent of the railways. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
Many great names passed through the City Varieties' dressing rooms | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
to make their debut | 0:21:58 | 0:21:59 | |
at Britain's oldest continuously working music hall. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
In its 148-year history, it's accumulated a wealth of tales. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
I'm meeting the music hall's Rachel Lythe, who knows its history. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
-Rachel. -Hi. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
Have I come to the mother's womb of music hall, | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
the temple of titillation, the Venus and Venice of variety? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
-Absolutely. -What is the difference between theatre and music hall? | 0:22:22 | 0:22:27 | |
The main difference, I think, is partly to do with the licensing. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
The theatres were licensed to do drama, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:32 | |
whereas the music halls were licensed to do | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
music, singing, dancing, drinking, eating, smoking. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
It was a noisy venue. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
My Bradshaw's, which is mid-1860s, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
says that Leeds had a music hall. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
-So, when did it all begin? -Well, actually much earlier. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
It dates back to the mid-1700s. There were music halls on every street corner. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
It all started off with singing rooms in pubs and inns and taverns. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
This building has links back to 1762. The Swan Inn next door, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
they then created a singing room in '66 | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
and then 1865, this glorious Varieties Music Hall was opened. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | |
It's absolutely glorious, but it looks very genteel to me. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Look at all these stalls. Did the hoi polloi sit in such stalls? | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
When we first opened, it would have looked completely different. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
None of these seats would have been there. Tables, chairs, benches. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
You would have had a bar in here as well, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
so you would have been able to easily eat and drink and socialise. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
But it would have been a very noisy, rowdy experience. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
What was going on on the stage in those days? | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
Everything from high-wire acts, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
to animal acts as well. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
-You would have had singing, dancing. -Any big names in the early days? | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
One of the ones that started us off was Lillie Langtry, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
the famous Jersey Belle. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:36 | |
She would have sung and performed on this stage. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
There's a lovely story about Lillie. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:40 | |
It's rumoured that Edward VII used to have an affection for her, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
so it's rumoured that | 0:23:44 | 0:23:45 | |
he used to come grouse-shooting to Yorkshire Moors | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
and then sneak in here when no-one was looking | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
and he'd sit in Box D over here and he'd close the curtains, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
so that he could watch her performance on stage. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
And then again, it's rumoured that the crest up here was donated to us | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
once he became king as a thank you for our discretion. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
That's marvellous. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:03 | |
We've also had the famous Harry Houdini. That was 1902. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
He was paid £130 to perform on this stage. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
It's about the equivalent to £7,500 today. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
I think you're holding out on me. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:13 | |
What was the naughtiest thing that happened on the stage? | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Actually, this was later years, more the '40s and '50s, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
we had the stripteases and the nude shows. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
But, interestingly, because of the licensing, they couldn't move, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
so they had to do still poses, so it was like a classical pose. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
Groups of boys used to come, get front-row seats | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
and they'd bring along their pea shooters. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
So they'd try and make the nudes move | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
and, again, sit in the boxes and a whole group would get together | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
and blow at once to try and make the feathers part to reveal more. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
By the 1950s, television and cinema | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
had taken their toll on the music hall | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
and audiences fell away. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
However, television was also the making of this theatre, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
thanks to the TV extravaganza The Good Old Days. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
Since 1988, Johnny Dennis has been the chairman | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
who introduces every show. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
-Johnny, when did The Good Old Days begin on television? -1953. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:10 | |
It was Barney Colehan's, who was a staff producer at the BBC, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
idea to run a pilot show from this theatre | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
and he got together a cast of artists | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
from the Players' Theatre in London. Leonard Sachs was the chairman | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
and it ran for 30 years and became the most popular programme | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
at that time on the BBC. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
What was the origin of | 0:25:29 | 0:25:30 | |
the very over-the-top alliterative introductions of the acts? | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
That was Leonard Sachs's idea. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
He was an actor, he loved to be grand, | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
he invented this very extravagant language, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
not strictly period of the musical chairman of the Victorian age, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
but he was world-famous for it. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
Give me some examples of your fine, flowing introductions. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
My lords, ladies and gentlemen, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
all the artists have been brought to you at e-nor-mous expense. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:58 | |
And then you say, "And welcome to this magnificent melange | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
"of musicality, magic and mirth." | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Let me see if I can try that. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
Welcome to this cavern of conviviality, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
-this Valhalla of variety... -Very good. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
..this emporium of entertainment. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
Very good. It could use a little improvement, actually. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
Imagine that you were a Victorian actor of the day. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
So, you have to gain their attention by making dramatic gestures like, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
"Welcome!" and use your hands like this, with the gavel in your hand, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
and then dominate the audience. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
Try that with the gavel. That's Leonard Sachs's gavel | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
Would you mind holding my Bradshaw? | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
I would be honoured to hold Mr Bradshaw. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
Welcome to this cavern of conviviality, | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
this emporium of entertainment, | 0:26:49 | 0:26:54 | |
to this Valhalla of Victorian variety. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:59 | |
Bravo. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
-It was the gavel that did it. -It's that gavel always that does it. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
So, the show that you perform today, | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
would it be recognisable to Mr George Bradshaw? | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
I would like to think so. I'm a great admirer of Mr Bradshaw | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
and I'm sure he would have been a great admirer of the music hall. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
The names of great locomotives are etched in British history. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:28 | |
Railwaymen switched the points on British politics, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
taking them in new directions. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
Famous names have graced the playbills in this music hall too. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:39 | |
As I complete my journey from London to Leeds, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
Bradshaw's has opened up England | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
with all its rich variety. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
Journey over... | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
the final curtain. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
On my next adventure, I learn to set table aboard an ocean liner... | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
Oh, you're faster than me! | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
I visit a suspected Solent smuggler's hideaway... | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Whoa! What a view! | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
And I discover the tactics employed | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
by the Victorian temperance movement... | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
All of a sudden, a group of uniformed invaders come along, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
shouting, "You're going to hell! You will not be saved | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
"if you carry on drinking this foul liquid." | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 |