Ilford to Rochester Great British Railway Journeys

In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.

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 go, what to see and where to stay.

And now, 170 years later, I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures,

across the United Kingdom, to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

I'm now halfway through a journey that began in Norwich

and will end in Chichester.

Today, I'll be running along the Essex bank of the Thames

before crossing the river into the so-called Garden of England, Kent.

My journey began in a cathedral city in Norfolk.

I travelled south, through East Anglia, to Ipswich and Chelmsford.

Now I'll cross the Thames at Tilbury and continue through Kent to Dover.

After heading inland to Tonbridge, I'll return to the coast

at Brighton before ending my journey in another cathedral city,

this time in West Sussex.

On this leg, I'll start in Ilford

in Essex before travelling to Tilbury on the Thames.

After crossing by ferry to Gravesend, I'll continue into Kent

and end in historic Rochester.

Today, I'll try my hand at lowering a massive container

onto a freight train.

That bell means Michael Portillo is at the controls, stand aside.

I'll discover the work of a renowned Victorian philanthropist.

Each of the images has a before and after photograph.

And I'll ask myself, "Who the Dickens are these characters?"

No doubt about who you are

cos you've got the iron around your leg

and you've got the rag around your head.

You're the convict, Magwitch, from Great Expectations, aren't you?

My first stop will be Ilford.

Bradshaw's tells me about Sir Charles Montague,

a 17th-century Member of Parliament,

who's buried in St Margaret's Church.

But had the book been published any later, it would

surely have mentioned another eminent citizen,

Dr Thomas John Barnardo.

By the late 19th century,

the Industrial Revolution had made Britain wealthy.

But there was a gulf between rich and poor,

which troubled the conscience of some Victorians.

A significant number of those who'd made fortunes

became philanthropists.

One of the most celebrated left his mark here in Barkingside just

outside Ilford and I'm meeting Diana Tickell from Barnardo's

amongst this unusual group of cottages.

Welcome to Barnardo's Barkingside.

Thank you very much indeed. So, who was Dr Barnardo?

Well, Thomas Barnardo came over from Dublin in 1866.

He was actually a very Christian man, was on a missionary expedition

to plan to go to the Far East, but in fact when he arrived in London

he visited the East End and was so appalled by the conditions

that he found, particularly for the children,

that it changed his whole life course and

he decided to stay and create what is now Barnardo's the organisation.

The London that Thomas Barnardo encountered in 1866,

particularly in the East End, presented harrowing sights.

Overcrowded slums, unemployment, and disease were rife.

Gangs of destitute children roamed the streets, scrabbling to survive.

What's Barnardo's attitude to the poor?

Well, he's a very philanthropic man and believes that the

children that he finds really should have a better chance.

He believes that they are not waifs

and strays that should just be left to die.

He wants to transform their lives and give them a future.

In 1867, just a year after arriving in London, Thomas Barnardo

set up a ragged school in the East End,

where destitute boys could get a basic education.

And what's the connection between Barnardo

and this rather idyllic housing development?

Well, this lovely site here is the actual homes for girls.

Victorian morals decreed that it wasn't "proper" for Barnardo,

as a bachelor, to open a home for girls.

But in 1876, three years after he married, he converted a lodge,

received as a wedding present, into this charming group of 12 cottages.

His aim was to provide "family homes" for penniless girls,

who were particularly vulnerable on the streets of the East End.

I mean, it seems beautiful even now.

It must have been revolutionary in its day.

Well, absolutely. To create an environment like this so far

away from the Victorian East End slums was really quite different.

How did he get the money that he required?

Well, he wasn't a rich man so he had to set about fund raising.

He made everybody understand that they were

responsible, as well, for the plight of children in Victorian Britain.

And he was very successful.

By 1905, Barnardo's charity was looking

after 8,500 children in 96 homes.

He raised the money using some rather modern marketing techniques.

So, Michael, what we have here is one of the first

volumes ever of the register for boys from Dr Barnardo's homes.

Just after my Bradshaw's.

Yes, so, right on time.

So, here we have some lovely images of some of the children.

Each of the images has a before and after photograph where you

record how the boy arrived and how they developed once

they had grown and been supported by Barnardo.

We have a story of the child and the reason for their admission.

We also often have the child's own statement,

which is quite unique for the time.

What were these photos for?

Well, these photographs originated for fundraising purposes.

He absolutely took the photos for the records but also

so that he could fundraise and in particular was able to show

Victorian Britain the difference that he could make.

Barnardo understood the power of these pictures.

Using them to advertise and

to raise funds put him ahead of his time.

Over the decades, some people who were children in Barnardo's homes

said that they weren't very well treated.

What led to that, do you think?

Well, I think often in those days children were seen and not heard.

I think we now know that some children didn't have the best of

upbringings and we regret that when that's happened but actually what's

happened today is off the back of some of those stories, that

children's lives are now supported in a much more different way

and children's voices are really, really heard

and I think the majority of children had

a very good upbringing and have gone on to have very successful lives.

Barnardo's devotion to the wellbeing of children can be

seen in this unusual church at Barkingside.

This is the first church ever built for children

and we think it's the only one in the country still.

For example, we have the low level bell pulls here for children!

BELLS RING

I am a child at heart!

Absolutely.

Religion was very important to Dr Barnardo.

The organisation, clearly, has Christian roots and today we embrace

those roots and they are enhanced by those of many other faiths.

When did Dr Barnardo die?

Well, Dr Barnardo died in 1905.

He had become a very popular man,

particularly amongst the people of the East End,

for all the effort he had made for the children, in particular,

and when he had his funeral procession,

which went from Stepney to Liverpool Street,

the streets were thronged with people wanting to well wish him on his way.

His coffin then went from Liverpool Street

to Barkingside station on the railway.

So, like Queen Victoria, just before him, his last journey was by train.

Absolutely!

This site is still part of the Barnardo's estate

and his organisation has survived to become one of the biggest

children's charities in the country.

I'm continuing my journey from nearby Upminster station.

I'll now be travelling on the London, Tilbury and Southend line.

It wasn't built by Brunel or by George Stephenson

or by Robert Stephenson, but by Thomas Brassey,

the least well remembered of Britain's railway engineers.

But by 1847 he was responsible for one in three miles

of the British railway system and by the time of his death

in 1870, for one mile in 20 of the world's railways!

My next stop will be Tilbury.

Bradshaw's reminds us that it was there,

when Britain was threatened by the Spanish Armada, that Queen Elizabeth

"by a spirited harangue inspired her army with dauntless courage."

That's when she said, "I know I have the body of a weak

"and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king,

"and a king of England, too!"

Even in Bradshaw's time, a sturdy fort discouraged potential invaders

from venturing further up the River Thames towards the capital.

In 1854, the railway arrived with enormous consequences for the town.

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway opened

a station at Tilbury Riverside,

to profit from the passenger steamer services

across the Thames from Kent and beyond.

Today, the station is closed,

but Jonathan Catton has kindly agreed to explain how it

transformed Tilbury into one of the country's most important ports.

Hello, Jonathan.

Hello, Michael. Welcome to Riverside station.

This would be the one mentioned in Bradshaw's, I suppose,

cos it says, "Steamers ply between the station and the pier

"at Gravesend, at the departure and arrival of every train."

So, that was happening from here?

Well, we're standing on top of it,

but it was superseded in the 1930s with the new railway terminus.

And lots of railway heritage.

We've got the booking office here, evidently.

Over four million tickets sold in 1947.

How on earth could it have been so many?

Well, because there were so many stevedores and dockers

and, of course, all the people arriving on boats

were all coming in and out, so it was very vibrant.

With the Empire at its peak and manufacturing booming,

by the 1880s the London docks were becoming increasingly overcrowded,

so Tilbury provided an alternative.

Now, Bradshaw's mentions the fort, all right,

but it doesn't really mention the port.

How was it that the port came to exist?

It was only in 1882 that the East and West India Dock Company

decided to build a new downstream dock.

And they were looking and, obviously,

saw that there was already a fantastic railway line here

and so, on the back of that, the docks were built here in 1886.

So, the railways made it all happen.

Yeah, the railways were the catalyst for the whole development.

And how's the port doing now?

Oh, doing very well and a very vast, diverse set of services

which we ought to go and have a look at.

Today Tilbury Docks

is the United Kingdom's third-largest container port.

About 3,000 cargo ships a year use the port,

handling over 12.5 million tonnes of cargo.

It's an amazingly busy port today.

What were they doing here in Victorian times?

Well, when the dock first opened, of course, it was a bit sluggish,

but there were general cargos coming in.

For instance, strangely, sausage skins was one,

but jute and timber products were also coming in.

One of the oddities was the arrival of zoos.

Whole zoos were being packed up and -

well, London Zoo, indeed - and being brought here.

So, there were strange pictures I've seen

of elephants coming off on cranes

and also quite wild animals like leopards and lions.

How is it that Tilbury has done so well?

Well, it has maintained the railway and the road link

and therefore it is pretty efficient.

And by comparison with the port of London?

Doesn't exist...does it?

With all these containers, are they using trains today?

Absolutely, you can see all around us,

there's something like 50 miles of rail within the docks

originally and freight liner services are still taking

out 80% of containers around Great Britain

and it's absolutely amazing!

Well, that I have to look at.

These immensely powerful cranes whisk the containers along as

though they were weightless.

Looks like there's nothing to it. I'll give it a try!

-Hello, Ron!

-Hello, Michael! Come on up, sir.

We're going to pick that container up there

and we're going to put it in what we call a pocket wagon.

-Oh, yes, look at that lovely hole waiting for our container!

-OK.

That bell means Michael Portillo is at the controls, stand aside.

That's it, forwards, down you go.

Right, one notch and it is beginning to lower.

That's about right.

Now we're well over the target.

We're going to drop it into that hole.

-Job done.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-No problem.

-One container down.

I think I'll leave the rest to Ron!

-Are you driving the train?

-I am indeed.

-Where's it headed for?

This one's going out to Leeds.

-Oh, well, a tip for you, I loaded that first wagon there.

-Oh, OK.

So careful on the bends!

-OK, I'll keep my eye on that one then.

-Thank you.

It's time for me to continue my journey.

I'm heading now to Kent, so I need to cross the Thames.

Bradshaw's tells me that, "Steamers ply between this station and the

"pier at Gravesend at the departure and arrival of every train".

Sadly, there are no more trains, but the ferry still runs.

The ferry is still used by dock workers

and provides the most easterly crossing of the River Thames.

Gravesend, says my guide, is,

"A capital starting point for a series of excursions throughout

"the finest parts of Kent.

"None should neglect Cobham, where, in the old

"wood and hall, a day's enjoyment can be most fully insured."

Well, it should therefore be good enough

for what remains of the evening.

Cobham Hall was the seat of an old Kentish aristocratic family,

The Darnleys.

Bradshaw's mentions a family mausoleum, grandly situated

on William's Hill in the grounds of the estate.

David Standen is going to show me around.

Bradshaw's says that this was "a spacious mausoleum

"erected in 1783 by Lord Darnley,

"but never was consecrated."

What's the story there?

There are a number of stories as to why it wasn't consecrated,

ranging from the Bishop running into a storm crossing the Channel

the day before he was due to consecrate it,

but the most likely reason,

the reason that it is sitting here empty today,

is probably a dispute, an argument between the Earl and the archbishop

about funding, particularly the amount of money

that the Darnley family put into the church.

The Third Earl of Darnley ordered the mausoleum to be built

after his family ran out of burial space in Westminster Abbey.

Completed in 1786, the design was inspired by the classical

architecture that the Earl had admired

on his Grand Tour of Italy as a young man.

It must have been considered extraordinary, architecturally speaking.

Bradshaw's devotes a lot of space to it.

He tells me that it's built of Portland stone,

in an octagonal form, and that it cost £9,000!

It was an incredible piece of architecture of the time.

Well, we're very lucky then that it's survived to the present day.

Quite a miracle that it's survived to the current day.

It has gone through some very turbulent times,

particularly in the '70s and '80s.

The crypt itself was filled with car tyres on Bonfire Night,

petrol poured on it and set light to,

which caused the collapse of the roof that's above us now.

And so how is it that it's been restored to its present very good condition?

The catalyst was the impact of the high-speed rail link on the edge of the historic park.

The rail company agreed to put forward £750,000 in compensation

and that acted as a seed funding for the restoration of the park.

There's no limit to what the railways can achieve!

Absolutely.

It's the end of the day and I'm fortunate to be staying the night at Cobham Hall.

Today, I'm back in Gravesend, pursuing a recommendation

from my trusty Bradshaw's.

The guidebook tells me that, "The terraced gardens

"on each side of the entrance to Gravesend pier

"are really very creditably and tastefully laid out."

Unfortunately, they haven't survived,

but thanks to a military hero

who lived in Gravesend, there's another delightful open space.

-How are you?

-Very well indeed, thank you.

-Good. Can I join you for a moment?

-You can.

-Who's this?

-Lily.

-Hello, Lily.

Lily, do you walk sometimes in the Gordon Gardens?

Oh, yes. Every morning, we're down here.

-I wanted to ask you whether you knew who General Gordon was.

-Yes.

He was the chap that led the British Army at Khartoum.

The natives took a little bit of a dislike to him

and pulled him out and - bomp - that was it.

General Gordon was one of Queen Victoria's favourite army officers.

Born in Woolwich, the son of an artillery officer,

he distinguished himself in the Crimea

and in 1860 was posted to China to fight in the so-called Opium Wars.

Upon his return to Britain, he had become a popular figure,

and was posted here to Gravesend.

I'm meeting Tony Larkin in the gardens named after Gordon

to find out more.

Now, Gordon of Khartoum, I think of. He died in the Sudan.

What's he got to do with Gravesend?

He was in Gravesend for six years.

It was the longest posting he ever had in one place.

-What was he doing here?

-Redevelopment of the forts.

They were falling to pieces.

-Was he already quite well known?

-Probably not in Gravesend,

but around the nation as Chinese Gordon, yes.

Why was he called Chinese Gordon?

Because of the squashing of the Taiping rebellion.

In May 1862, Gordon's corps of engineers had been assigned

to strengthen the defence of Shanghai.

This free port, so valuable to British trade,

was threatened by an uprising, the Taiping Rebellion,

which had raged for 12 years.

During 18 months, troops under Gordon's command

helped to suppress the insurrection,

and to keep the port open.

This man was so used to warfare, to action and then he's sent to,

forgive me, Gravesend. Doesn't he get a bit bored here?

Yes, cos at the end of the day, when you've been

in action for something like seven years from one place to another,

fighting and fighting and fighting,

and suddenly come to a place like Gravesend...

-Did he warm to Gravesend eventually?

-Oh, yes.

I think he really genuinely loved the place.

Probably not the town itself, but its people.

And it seems that the feeling was mutual.

Tony has led me to an impressive statue

commemorating General Gordon.

Why were the people of Gravesend so keen to remember Gordon?

-What had he done for them?

-It's the good works, really.

Gordon spent six years here

looking after the poor and needy of the parish, really.

General Gordon became the chairman of the local ragged school,

where he insisted on a far-sighted new code of practice.

He made laws that any child that came to this school,

whatever their religion or creed, they were fed with food.

Because there were still these demarcation lines about faiths.

But Gordon said, you will feed any child or any person

that comes to this place and you will give them soup and bread

and that became known as the Gordon law.

It's been estimated that he gave away 90% of his army pay of £3,000 a year

to the poor of Gravesend,

and kept up his generosity in the years after he left.

In 1884, Gordon was sent to the Sudan

to help the Egyptians deal with a rebellion.

He died at the siege of Khartoum.

-What led to Gordon's death?

-Well, basically, he was trapped.

On a personal level, he could have got out, I believe,

but he would not betray his people.

He was their father, their guv'nor. He was their boss,

and basically, he decided he would stay with them

because it would look morally bad for him to run away.

Gordon was a national hero,

and news of his death led to an outpouring of grief...

..nowhere more than at Gravesend.

From here I'm embarking on a railway journey across Kent,

and it sounds as if I'm in for a treat.

My guidebook enthuses about Kent. "From the diversity

"of its surface, the noble rivers by which it is watered, the richness

"and variety of its inland scenery,

"and the more sublime beauties of its sea coast,

"this county ranks among the most interesting portions of our island."

According to Bradshaw's,

this is not so much the Garden of England as the Garden of Eden!

I'll be getting out at Rochester, which, Bradshaw's reminds me, was

"a British town before the Roman invasion.

"An amphitheatre of hills encircles the beautiful landscape.

"The Medway serpentines round the castle and cathedral,

"to render a complete picturesque panorama".

I have great expectations.

'I'm told there's a tale or two of this city.'

You can barely turn or twist

without spotting a reference to a truly great author.

This bleak place, overgrown with nettles...

Charles Dickens.

..and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish,

and also Georgina, wife of the above, were dead and buried.

-Well read!

-Thank you!

You must be very keen Dickensians to get dressed up like this.

There's no doubt who you are.

You've got the iron around your leg and the rag around your head.

-And I've got my pork pie.

-You've got a pork pie so you're the convict,

Magwitch, from Great Expectations, aren't you?

Why is Dickens so great, in your view?

I think it was just the characters he had.

Such marvellous characters.

This is why I like doing Magwitch, but also you have Fagin

and Miss Havisham. Just so many characters.

He was an artist!

He painted these stories so well for us

and gave us such great descriptive language

and you're drawn into it straightaway.

Charles Dickens grew up near Rochester,

falling in love with the house at Gads Hill Place

when he was a boy.

He never forgot it and came back to live there in his mid-forties.

With his photographic memory,

he could pepper his works with descriptions of people and places,

drawn from the Rochester of his childhood.

Steve Martin is giving me a tour of this Dickensian city.

Does Rochester make its way into the novels?

All the way through his major works,

he uses the buildings that he knew from his youth.

Behind us you've got the lovely clock,

which, when he was a small boy, he was frightened of.

In later life he wrote that why on earth was he frightened of such a thing as that?

Another major feature of the High Street here is Rochester Cathedral

and the castle.

And the town of Rochester in Edwin Drood was called Cloisterham.

And the centre of the story is based on Rochester Cathedral.

How did he feel about railways?

Wherever he went, he went by railway,

even when he was in America.

But that all changed

when he was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash.

The Folkestone to London boat train

derailed on a viaduct in Staplehurst in Kent in June 1865.

Dickens was in a first-class compartment

and narrowly escaped with his life.

Charles Dickens was seen to wander around the scene

giving people brandy and water from his top hat.

So did he not use the railways again?

Reluctantly, he did use the railways

but it did change his opinions of it and he was very reluctant to use them.

Tucked away off the High Street is another gem

of Rochester's Dickensian heritage

which was moved here from its original site in Gads Hill.

And this, of course, is Charles Dickens' writing chalet.

Christmas Eve in 1864, Charles Fector,

the actor friend of Charles Dickens,

said he had a Christmas present waiting for him at Higham station

but he'd have to collect it because it was heavy.

When they eventually went down there, there were 56 packing cases

containing 94 pieces.

The early flat pack and it was the Swiss chalet.

The story goes he used all his guests and his staff

to go down and collect it

and spent the Christmas festivities trying to put it together.

What use did Charles Dickens make of his Swiss chalet?

He furnished the upper floor as a study

and did some of his most famous and most serious work in there.

What do you think was Dickens' contribution to Victorian society?

Charles Dickens was one of the most...or the best social reformers of his time.

He was asked to stand for Parliament a couple of times

but he turned it down, saying to the effect of he could do more by writing one book

than he could for a lifetime in Parliament.

Charles Dickens was laid to rest in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey after his death in June 1870.

His wish to be buried in a simple grave at Rochester Cathedral was ignored.

General Gordon of Khartoum fought a battle against poverty in Gravesend.

Dr Barnardo, with evangelical zeal,

created a national institution for the relief of destitute children.

Charles Dickens was perhaps the greatest Victorian social reformer of all.

His novels revealed the horrors of the slums and the workhouses

and he spread the word on speaking tours,

making use of the new railways.

'Next time, I'll deliver beer with old-fashioned directness...'

Anyone in need of a drink?

'..learn about some old balls...'

That is the oldest cricket ball known to exist anywhere in the world.

It was used in a match at Lords in 1820.

'..and ruffle some feathers in Dorking.'

I quite like a wash and blow-dry myself, so we're birds of a feather.