0:00:05 > 0:00:10In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain.
0:00:10 > 0:00:11His name was George Bradshaw
0:00:11 > 0:00:17and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23Stop by stop, he told them where to go, what to see and where to stay.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29And now, 170 years later, I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures
0:00:29 > 0:00:34across the United Kingdom to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57My journey around northern England
0:00:57 > 0:01:01has taken me from the great mill towns of Lancashire
0:01:01 > 0:01:03to the grandiose scenery of the Yorkshire moors
0:01:03 > 0:01:09and the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, opened in 1867,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12closed to passengers in 1962,
0:01:12 > 0:01:18gloriously reopened in 1968, and running steam.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25'On this leg, I learn how Victorians marketed confectionery...'
0:01:25 > 0:01:29On Saturday last, you were eating Mackintosh's Toffee at our expense.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Next Saturday, pay us another visit and eat it at your own expense.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33That's brilliant. Brilliant.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36Which was a very unusual way of advertising.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38'I get a tailor-made fitting...'
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Most people have got one shoulder lower than the other, and you have.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Where I've been writing over the years, yeah.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46- All them cheques. - HE LAUGHS
0:01:46 > 0:01:49'And I help revive a cinematic railway legend.'
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Oakworth!
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Oakworth Station!
0:01:53 > 0:01:54CHEERING
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Oakworth!
0:02:01 > 0:02:05My journey began in Manchester, headed west to Port Sunlight,
0:02:05 > 0:02:07took the sea air in Southport,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10traversed Lancashire towards Bradford
0:02:10 > 0:02:14and now goes south to steely South Yorkshire, ending in Derbyshire,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18where the father of the railways, George Stephenson, lies buried.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Today's Yorkist chapter begins in Haworth,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26goes to the cinema in Oakworth,
0:02:26 > 0:02:27invests in Bradford,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30moves stickily south to Halifax,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33weaving its way finally to Huddersfield.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40This landscape looks benign in sun.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42But lashed by wind and rain,
0:02:42 > 0:02:47it made the setting for a dark tale of passion, Wuthering Heights.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49That and another love story, Jane Eyre,
0:02:49 > 0:02:51are amongst my favourite novels
0:02:51 > 0:02:55and they were written by sisters in a family of gifted siblings.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Yes, this is Bronte country.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I'm heading to Haworth, atop a hill in the Worth Valley
0:03:04 > 0:03:07where novels of passion and genius
0:03:07 > 0:03:10were created by three brilliant sisters.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12I want to know what inspired them
0:03:12 > 0:03:16and whether the railway played any role in their lives.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21I'm meeting Professor Ann Sumner of the Bronte Society
0:03:21 > 0:03:25at the parsonage provided for their father, the local curate.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32- Hello, Ann.- Hello, Michael. Welcome to Haworth. - Thank you very much indeed.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Who were this extraordinary family of Brontes?
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Well, the Bronte sisters wrote some of the greatest novels
0:03:38 > 0:03:43that we have in English literature of the 19th century.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Of course, Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre published in 1847,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50Emily wrote Wuthering Heights in the same year,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54and Anne, perhaps the least known of the three sisters,
0:03:54 > 0:03:59she brought out Agnes Grey and The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01What were their circumstances?
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Well, they were not a wealthy family.
0:04:04 > 0:04:11Very sadly, the mother died just 18 months after arriving here in 1821.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14And the sisters went out as governesses or as teachers,
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and when they came back to write their famous novels,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20they drew on that experience of life as well.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21Before there had been Jane Austen,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24but was it still quite rare to have a woman novelist?
0:04:24 > 0:04:25It was unusual.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29And pretty early on there was some rumour in London
0:04:29 > 0:04:33that actually this was only one man writing the novels.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35And so the two sisters, Charlotte and Anne,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38walked to Keighley - by this time the railways were at Keighley -
0:04:38 > 0:04:41five miles in a thunderstorm, and then they were whisked down overnight
0:04:41 > 0:04:44to London and, of course, revealed themselves to the publisher
0:04:44 > 0:04:48the next morning, who was somewhat surprised to find that they really were women.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Jane Eyre was an instant success.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Charlotte spent some of her new-found wealth buying shares
0:04:57 > 0:05:02in an industry which already played a part in the lives of the sisters.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07She and her siblings had inherited money from their Aunt Branwell,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10£1,400, which had been divided between them
0:05:10 > 0:05:12and they had invested in the railway.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16And they actually had good - initially - good income
0:05:16 > 0:05:20from the railways, and now she writes to her publisher George Smith.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23She writes, "The little railway property I possessed,
0:05:23 > 0:05:28"scarcely any portion of it can with security be calculated on."
0:05:28 > 0:05:31This was a real boom and bust set of stocks, wasn't it?
0:05:31 > 0:05:34This was like the dot-com bubble of the early 21st century.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37The railways were tremendously exciting.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39They were transforming the Brontes' lives.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Charlotte herself travelled for the first time in 1839.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44She went on holiday to Bridlington.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Her sisters used the train, and indeed when Anne died,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50it was very sad because Anne wanted to get to Scarborough,
0:05:50 > 0:05:55she'd been there as a governess and she wanted to see the sea again, she thought that would make her well.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59And sadly, just after she arrived in Scarborough, she did actually die.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02So the trains were really important to the sisters.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05And, in fact, Branwell, their brother, was very interested
0:06:05 > 0:06:09in the railways, and he actually worked for the railways as well.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Branwell Bronte was the fourth child
0:06:13 > 0:06:16and the only boy of the six Bronte siblings.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19Partial to a drink and rumoured to take opium,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23he was an aspiring portrait painter and poet
0:06:23 > 0:06:27whose short but colourful life ended when he died of bronchitis
0:06:27 > 0:06:28aged just 31.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34So how was it that Branwell became a railwayman?
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Well, his portraiture business was failing, so Branwell took
0:06:38 > 0:06:44his own initiative and applied for a role as a clerk at Sowerby Bridge.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Here we actually have a notebook given to him,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51so that he could keep a very close eye on what kind of goods trains
0:06:51 > 0:06:55came through, and note the details down.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Most of it is around doodles, very good caricatures here of the men
0:06:58 > 0:07:01he's working with, and a lovely caricature of himself, actually,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04with his glasses on - he was very short-sighted with this pointy nose.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07And then this list of his favourite poets
0:07:07 > 0:07:10and there's some lovely drafts of poems in this book as well.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13With his eye on the artistic,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Branwell's railway career hit the buffers
0:07:15 > 0:07:19when his station's accounts failed to tally and he was sacked.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25So these are by Branwell, are they?
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Yes, they are. Branwell actually set up practice
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and worked for over a year in Bradford,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34but wasn't financially successful.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37This has been a real eye-opener for me. I had no idea
0:07:37 > 0:07:40there was a railwayman Bronte, the forgotten sibling,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43and a man of some talent.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54GUARD WHISTLES
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Resuming my steam journey, I'm heading north towards Oakworth.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19There's another literary connection with this railway.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24A lady who was a child at the time of my Bradshaw's guide, E Nesbit.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26And she wrote a book, which became a film
0:08:26 > 0:08:29with which the British people are still in love.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Yes, it's The Railway Children.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Shot on location at Oakworth in 1970,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40the film, directed by Lionel Jeffries,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45tells Nesbit's Edwardian story of the adventures of three siblings.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Roberta, Peter and Phyllis move to live next to a Yorkshire railway
0:08:49 > 0:08:52after their father is falsely accused of spying for the Russians
0:08:52 > 0:08:54and imprisoned.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Former Members of Parliament Ann Cryer and her late husband Bob,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01who were Keighley and Worth Valley committee members,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03played a pivotal role
0:09:03 > 0:09:07in securing this line's starring role in the production.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09- Nice to see you. - Good to see you.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Now, what was your involvement and the involvement of your husband Bob?
0:09:14 > 0:09:18On a particular day, the end of '69, I took a phone-call
0:09:18 > 0:09:21on behalf of the railway, and this voice said,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25"My name is Bob Lynn and I'm a friend of Lionel Jeffries
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"and we want to make a film on your railway."
0:09:28 > 0:09:30That was the beginning of it.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33It was just so exciting. It was absolutely wonderful.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Bob had to organise the engines,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39which way they were going to go, where they were going to be
0:09:39 > 0:09:43and sometimes very early in the morning an engine would have to
0:09:43 > 0:09:45go down to Shipley triangle to turn round,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47so it was going in the other direction.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50He was responsible for all that.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52Did you actually get sucked into the making of the film?
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Yes, we did. My son and daughter, John and Jane, and myself -
0:09:56 > 0:10:00we became extras, and Lionel Jeffries was kind enough
0:10:00 > 0:10:04to give them a close shot in the film, and that was how kind he was,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07not to mention the fact that Lionel Jeffries also chose
0:10:07 > 0:10:11to keep the name Oakworth. Whereas in the book it's Meadow Vale.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14And it's been an absolute godsend to this railway,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16the fact that Oakworth was used.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22Today is Oakworth's annual Railway Children celebration,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24when locals and members of the railway
0:10:24 > 0:10:27re-enact scenes from the film.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31- Hello.- Hello.- May I congratulate you on your costumes?
0:10:31 > 0:10:34- You look absolutely wonderful. - Thanks.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36What are you playing today? What parts?
0:10:36 > 0:10:40- Roberta.- Phyllis.- And Peter. - And which scenes are you playing?
0:10:40 > 0:10:43We're doing the petticoat scene where we stop the train.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45We come out of the station and jump off the platform,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48run down the side of the grass and stop at the end
0:10:48 > 0:10:51and wait for the train to come, and wave the petticoats and shout stop.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- And hopefully with train will stop. - Are you involved in that?- Yes.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56- You haven't got a petticoat!- No.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58- We'll lend you one. - SHE LAUGHS
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Have fun! Bye-bye.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04- Hello.- Hello there.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Are you taking part in the recreation today?
0:11:06 > 0:11:08- I'm playing Mr Perks.- Perks!
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Hmm, I was rather hoping to play a part myself.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14- Is there a part that I can do? - Well, you could take my role for the next train, if you like.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18That would be fantastic, but I don't exactly look the part, do I?
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Oh, that's all right. I can kit you out.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24- How's that looking?- That looks all right on you. You can use my blazer.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27- That's really kind of you. - It's all right, no problem.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Thank you very much.
0:11:29 > 0:11:30What do I have to do?
0:11:30 > 0:11:34When the train arrives, you shout "Oakworth, Oakworth Station,"
0:11:34 > 0:11:36and this tells the passengers as the train arrives where they are.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Well, thank you. I must go and practise my line.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43TRAIN WHISTLES
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Oakworth! Oakworth Station!
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Oakworth! Oakworth Station!
0:11:54 > 0:11:55CHEERING
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Oakworth! Oakworth Station!
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Oakworth!
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Still awaiting my first call from a casting agent,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14I'm taking the steam service to Keighley,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18then changing onto a Northern Rail service heading southeast.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24My next stop will be Bradford.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Bradshaw's tells me that it's the great seat of the worsted trade,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32finely placed among the Yorkshire Hills, where three valleys meet.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36I'm going there to find out how we became a nation of homeowners.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Because the names of Yorkshire towns - Bradford, Bingley, Halifax -
0:12:40 > 0:12:43make me think of building societies.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Bradford is yet another northern town
0:12:50 > 0:12:55transformed by the steam-powered mills of the Industrial Revolution.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00Wealth poured in, but whilst the council built an opulent town hall,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03many of Bradford's workers lived in abject squalor.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Some put their faith in self-improvement,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11in particular by saving with the building society.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Liz McIvor is curator of social history
0:13:16 > 0:13:21at Bradford Museum in Eccleshill, northeast of the city centre.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24What were housing conditions like in a place like Bradford
0:13:24 > 0:13:26in the early part of the 19th century?
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Basically, very old buildings that were tenemented
0:13:28 > 0:13:32to take a whole family in one room. Very, very poor access to facilities.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34What did they do for sanitation?
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Well, mostly a couple of streets might have a middenhead,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39which was literally a hole in the ground
0:13:39 > 0:13:41emptied by night soil men regularly,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44but the problem with that is that the private landlords were supposed to
0:13:44 > 0:13:48arrange that, and a lot of them were very unscrupulous and didn't,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52so you would have build-up, and basically the pits would become too full
0:13:52 > 0:13:54so cellar dwellings at the bottom of the tenement buildings
0:13:54 > 0:13:55would fill with sewage.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00And what opportunity did working men and women's have to save,
0:14:00 > 0:14:01to buy a place of their own?
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Well, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
0:14:04 > 0:14:07not very much, but some of the better-off workers who might earn
0:14:07 > 0:14:09that little bit might have just a little bit of cash
0:14:09 > 0:14:10to put aside in savings.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13So what was the principle of these building societies?
0:14:13 > 0:14:15Well, the basic idea of a building society
0:14:15 > 0:14:17that makes it different from the bank
0:14:17 > 0:14:20is that all the people that invest in the building society
0:14:20 > 0:14:23are basically like the shareholders, they all get some profit,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25they all get a return on their investments.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Whereas a bank is a private limited company
0:14:27 > 0:14:30where the shareholders make all the profits.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35The first building society, formed in Birmingham in 1775,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37was a terminating society,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40which closed when all its members had been housed
0:14:40 > 0:14:43in the property for which they'd jointly paid.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46The 1836 Building Societies Act
0:14:46 > 0:14:50made it easier to form the permanent building societies
0:14:50 > 0:14:51that we know today.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54And by 1860 there were almost 3,000.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00These back-to-back houses were some of the first
0:15:00 > 0:15:04to be built by a building society in Bradford.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07So welcome to number 25 Gaythorne Row.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11So obviously this is a huge improvement
0:15:11 > 0:15:13on insanitary and crowded conditions.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Still quite tight, I must say.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18What sort of a family would live here?
0:15:18 > 0:15:21People would quite happily have lived here with maybe six children,
0:15:21 > 0:15:22and yes, it is very cramped,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25it's one room at the bottom, one room at the top,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29but you have your own outside toilet, that's a massive improvement.
0:15:29 > 0:15:30And where's the bathroom?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32There isn't a bathroom unfortunately.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35There's a tin bath on the wall on a hook, which you would bring in
0:15:35 > 0:15:37in front of the fire and have your weekly bath.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40So what stratum of society would be living in a house like this?
0:15:40 > 0:15:43It would be a skilled worker or an artisan worker.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45I'm going to show you an object.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49This is a penny saving bank, and it looks like a book,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51but it's actually got a hole in the back
0:15:51 > 0:15:53for a penny or small coins to go into,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and then the idea was once you filled it up
0:15:55 > 0:15:57you could take it to your building society officer,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02he has the key, he unlocks it to put it into your savings account.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05The building society movement really allowed for the first time
0:16:05 > 0:16:09working people to think about saving and think about improving your life.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19'It's been a long day.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22'Hoping for the luxury of an inside bathroom,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25'I'm heading back to the city centre.'
0:16:25 > 0:16:29As so often, Bradshaw's provides the clue for my overnight stay.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Bradford, it says, is where three rail branch lines meet -
0:16:33 > 0:16:37The Lancashire and Yorkshire, Great Northern, and the Midland mainline.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40The Midland built a flagship hotel here,
0:16:40 > 0:16:45and this opulently-tiled corridor led directly from the platform
0:16:45 > 0:16:46to the elegance within.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53'Opened in 1890, the hotel was designed with Renaissance grandeur.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57'Today's general manager is Gary Peacock.'
0:16:57 > 0:17:01It is a magnificent hotel. It must have superb history?
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Absolutely. It was a significant part of the Victorian heritage of the city.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08And I suppose in the 19th century great people were staying here?
0:17:08 > 0:17:10The politicians, the celebrities, the actors,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13the actresses of the day from all over the world.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Are there any stories around the hotel that I should know?
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Probably the most significant is the death, right here at the foot of the main staircase,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24of Sir Henry Irving, the famous Victorian actor.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Felt a bit ill on stage,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29came back from the Theatre Royal having played Beckett,
0:17:29 > 0:17:30was put into a chair,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33and unfortunately he died at the foot of the main staircase.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36And prophetically the last words he ever uttered on stage were,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40"Into Thy hands, O Lord - into Thy hands!"
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Thankful for an uneventful night, I'm heading to Bradford Interchange
0:17:54 > 0:17:56from where I'm travelling southwest.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Bradshaw's tells me that four centuries ago my next stop, Halifax,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11had but 13 houses. But the spirit of commercial enterprise
0:18:11 > 0:18:16has recently manifested itself by the rapid growth of the town.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20One enterprise filled the streets of the town
0:18:20 > 0:18:22with the sweet smell of success.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28The Piece Hall in Halifax is the sole survivor
0:18:28 > 0:18:33of the great 18th century cloth markets of northern England.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36During the 19th century, textiles were industrialised,
0:18:36 > 0:18:41forcing domestic cloth-workers to find jobs elsewhere.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45The enterprising John Mackintosh turned to toffee.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Alex Hutchinson is the Mackintosh company archivist.
0:18:49 > 0:18:50- Hello, Alex.- Hello.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54You have a lovely railway station. Why are we meeting just here?
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Although this building says Halifax Flour Society,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00right here is where the Mackintosh family of Halifax made their toffee.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03How did it all start?
0:19:03 > 0:19:07Violet Taylor, who later became Violet Mackintosh, who was born in 1866,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11got an apprenticeship in a confectioner's shop where she learned to make a new type of toffee.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15She invented it. Up until that point, all English toffee was brittle, hard butterscotch.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18Tough stuff. And there was runny American caramel, and she worked out
0:19:18 > 0:19:21how to blend the two and make a chewy toffee.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23And she married a nice chap called John Mackintosh
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and she and her husband, instead of having a honeymoon,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29bought a little pastry cook shop where she sold it, and suddenly it
0:19:29 > 0:19:32really took off, and then within a couple of years they had to
0:19:32 > 0:19:36open a factory and were selling it nationwide and then internationally.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38It was such an accessible purchase for working people.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40It was bringing confectionery to every man.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The fact that the factory is next to the railway
0:19:43 > 0:19:45leads me to hope that there's a railway connection.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Mackintosh's needed to be near the railway so their ingredients could come in by train
0:19:49 > 0:19:51and they could send their finished goods out the same way.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Methodist teetotallers,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59the Mackintosh family legacy is certainly something to chew over.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Bring home Quality Street, and you'll be a prince in her eyes.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Their most famous boxed confectionery assortment,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12currently exported to 70 countries,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16was created and first manufactured in this factory.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22Their product was affordable for the working man,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25but it was still a luxury product and they knew that it wasn't an essential
0:20:25 > 0:20:30so to entice their new consumers, for the first week, they gave their product away for free.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32And then the following week they put in this ad.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35"On Saturday last, you were eating Mackintosh's Toffee at our expense.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38"Next Saturday pay us another visit and eat it at your own expense."
0:20:38 > 0:20:40That's brilliant. Brilliant.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Which was a very unusual way of advertising.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44What else did they do to market the product?
0:20:44 > 0:20:46We have an advertisement here,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and Mackintosh's are telling boys and girls everywhere on their holidays
0:20:50 > 0:20:52to write the words Mackintosh's Toffee in the sand.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55If they're seen by someone from Mackintosh's factory they'll be given a prize.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58There must have been thousands of children up and down the nation
0:20:58 > 0:21:00writing Mackintosh's Toffee everywhere you go.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Absolutely brilliant. What kind of people were they, the Mackintoshes?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07John, I think, was what we would call now a little bit of a workaholic.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10- He really, really lived for the business.- And she?
0:21:10 > 0:21:13She loved wearing ermine. And looking glamorous.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Once she'd invented this new type of toffee,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17she was more than happy for John to take all of the credit,
0:21:17 > 0:21:22call himself the Toffee King and she took a back seat and enjoyed life.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26The company, acquired by Nestle in 1988,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30produces billions of toffees every year at its Halifax factory.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36There is absolutely an unmistakable smell of toffee, isn't there?
0:21:38 > 0:21:40And this here is our toffee machine.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44It's making toffee to exactly the same recipe
0:21:44 > 0:21:46that Violet would have been using.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52That is a toffeeholic's dream, isn't it?
0:21:57 > 0:22:01I'm tempted to linger and gorge myself on toffee,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05but I must continue my journey south to this leg's final destination.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Huddersfield is my next stop. Bradshaw's tells me
0:22:13 > 0:22:17it's the seat of the woollen trade in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20"Woollens, fancy Valencias, shawls are the staple articles
0:22:20 > 0:22:25"of manufacture besides corduroy," which I am wearing at the moment.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27Huddersfield had a reputation for quality.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29I wonder whether it has it still.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34As the town industrialised, the merchants who traded in it
0:22:34 > 0:22:37and the Ramsden family, who owned most of it,
0:22:37 > 0:22:38decided that Huddersfield
0:22:38 > 0:22:43should retain the long-established reputation for upmarket cloth.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49The neoclassical railway station, completed in 1850,
0:22:49 > 0:22:54was clearly the result of burning civic pride.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58I've never been to Huddersfield before, and I am overwhelmed.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02This square is beautiful, and above all the railway station
0:23:02 > 0:23:05is one of the best I've seen in Britain.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07I believe someone once described it
0:23:07 > 0:23:10as a stately home with trains passing through it.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14And sadly, with his back to this architectural gem,
0:23:14 > 0:23:20my childhood hero Prime Minister and Huddersfield boy Harold Wilson.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Wilson famously described 1960s Britain
0:23:26 > 0:23:30as being forged in "the white heat of technology."
0:23:30 > 0:23:33He could have been speaking of his home town a century before,
0:23:33 > 0:23:38for in Victorian Huddersfield, new designs of looms and processes
0:23:38 > 0:23:41produced the very finest cloth.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Established in 1883, Taylor & Lodge makes luxury fabric
0:23:47 > 0:23:51for suits that can cost up to £25,000.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56For more than a century, generations of skilled craftsmen
0:23:56 > 0:23:59have toiled on the original looms
0:23:59 > 0:24:02still operated by pattern weavers like Brendan Crowther.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06- Hello.- Hello. Hiya.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09What sort of cloth is this?
0:24:09 > 0:24:12This here, this is a two and two twirl, this. It's a worsted.
0:24:12 > 0:24:18A worsted. And I suppose you've got warp and weft. How does all that work?
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Well, this is your warp. These go through here.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24And your weft is sent across by the shuttles.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Now that is a good old-fashioned methodology, isn't it?
0:24:27 > 0:24:29May we actually see the thing in action?
0:24:29 > 0:24:30Yeah, I don't see why not.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36And now we see the pattern building up.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42That is mesmerising.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44You know, Brendan, I often see machines
0:24:44 > 0:24:46and I have no idea what is going on.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49But this one, I suppose because it's quite an old technology,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53it's perfectly clear how that is working.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Real Victorian engineering.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04With 83 tailors in Huddersfield in Bradshaw's day,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08it would be remiss not to meet one while I'm here.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11I'm visiting Jon Fairweather at Carl Stuart.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15Very good to see you.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17I've often had suits made,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21and tailors tend to be very polite, almost flattering.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23If you assess me as a customer, what are you really thinking?
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Firstly, you've got to make the customer relax
0:25:26 > 0:25:30because you don't want to be stood shoulders out, stomach in.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33Most people have got one shoulder lower than the other, and you have.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35- This one, right?- Correct.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38That's where I've been writing over the years, here.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40All them cheques! HE LAUGHS
0:25:40 > 0:25:43We can make you look normal.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48OK, so you've measured me up, let's say, I've chosen my cloth.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50- Right.- What do you do next?
0:25:50 > 0:25:53We put all the figurations down on the cutting sheet,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56and then it's all adjusted from the block patterns.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58You're doing that just by eye now?
0:25:58 > 0:26:02- Yeah.- So how many years has it taken you to learn those tricks?
0:26:02 > 0:26:04I've been doing it 50 years.
0:26:04 > 0:26:05It used to be a seven-year apprenticeship
0:26:05 > 0:26:07to be a tailor and cutter when I started.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11And it's only five years for brain surgeon, so...
0:26:11 > 0:26:12We should be on a level.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15So anything very different about what you're doing here
0:26:15 > 0:26:18and what your Victorian predecessors would've done?
0:26:18 > 0:26:23In the bespoke trade, doing this, it would be exactly the same.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25So we've now made our adjustments here. What do you do next?
0:26:25 > 0:26:30Right. When the whole suit's chalked in, then you start cutting.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34- You can have a go, if you want. - Oh, thank you.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37You start at that end and go around, if you wish.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39This says Made in Huddersfield.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42And is that still an important cache?
0:26:42 > 0:26:44Oh, yeah. Made in England definitely.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Made in Huddersfield is cream on the top.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50- Where does that go then? - That's the front.
0:26:54 > 0:26:55That's your button.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57That's your lapel.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00- Now where does this bit go? - That's the other side.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04You cut everything on the double. Two fronts, two backs, two sleeves.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08- How do I look?- Amazing!
0:27:08 > 0:27:09JON LAUGHS
0:27:19 > 0:27:20I've been thinking,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24how many more great novels the Bronte sisters might have written
0:27:24 > 0:27:29had they not died aged 29, 30 and 38.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Tuberculosis stalked 19th century Britain
0:27:32 > 0:27:38and cholera killed many in their prime, including George Bradshaw.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Fortunately, later in Queen Victoria's reign,
0:27:41 > 0:27:46engineers and reformers made progress with sanitation and public health.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'On the next leg of my journey,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59'I'm given a Victorian music lesson...'
0:27:59 > 0:28:03HE PLAYS INSTRUMENT WITH DIFFICULTY
0:28:03 > 0:28:06- CHEERING - Wow!
0:28:06 > 0:28:09'I learn of a watery tragedy in the Peak District...'
0:28:09 > 0:28:14The final death toll was about 81, of whom half were children.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17'And I make a splash in Derbyshire.'
0:28:17 > 0:28:18Whoa!
0:28:18 > 0:28:22I never produced as big an impact as that!