Browse content similar to Bletchley to Newport Pagnell. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
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 | 0:00:17 | |
Stop by stop, he told them where to go, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
what to see and where to stay. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
And now, 170 years later, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
I'm aboard for a series of rail adventures across the United Kingdom | 0:00:26 | 0:00:31 | |
to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I'm continuing my journey on the first Intercity line | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
built out of the nation's capital by Robert Stephenson | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
between London and Birmingham. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
I'm now in North Buckinghamshire, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
transformed since Bradshaw's day by the construction of Milton Keynes. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
But I should be focusing on towns | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
and villages mentioned in my 19th-century guide book. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
I began on the commuter lines of London. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
I'm heading north on the London Midland line | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
and on to the manufacturing heartlands | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
After making stops in the East Midlands, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
my journey will conclude in Yorkshire. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
Starting in Buckinghamshire, at Bletchley, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
I cross to Fenny Stratford on the branch line, | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
before heading north to the Victorian new town of Wolverton. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
This leg ends in Newport Pagnell. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Today, I meet one of the Second World War's most secret agents. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
It was all a bit, a bit crafty, really. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
So you took a message which had a meaning | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
and you put it into other words, | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
-but, of course, the meaning had to be exactly the same. -That's right. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
I'll be testing my knowledge of 18th-century hymns. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
-Do you recognise that one? -You're teasing me. What is it? | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:02:09 | 0:02:10 | |
And getting to grips with the ancient craft of vellum making. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
You do this all day? | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
This is my afternoon work. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:17 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
My first stop today is Bletchley station. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
Bradshaw's tells me of its pivotal position on the rail network. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
"From Bletchley, branch rails turn off left to Winslow, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:37 | |
"Oxford, and Banbury, and on the right to Bedford." | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
Before the Beeching axe fell in the 1960s, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
Bletchley formed a junction between the Varsity Line, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
which connected the intellectual powerhouses of Oxford and Cambridge, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
with the London to Birmingham route. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
And during World War Two and our struggle against Nazi Germany, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
the junction assumed a more enigmatic role. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
As Hitler's Luftwaffe bombed Britain, for a time, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:05 | |
a successful German invasion looked frighteningly possible. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
But Britain was able to fight back more effectively | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
thanks to top-secret work undertaken here. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
Nowadays, most of us have heard of Bletchley Park | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
and its secret code breakers, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
but I hadn't appreciated that it owed its location | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
to the busy railway junction nearby. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
The Secret Intelligence Service wanted easy access | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
for Britain's top brains and with Bletchley Park | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
halfway between Oxford and Cambridge, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
this stretch became known as the Varsity Line. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
But not everyone stationed here was a professor. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
I have a very special appointment with a Bletchley veteran - | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
90-year-old Betty Webb. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
Great pleasure to be able to join you for some tea. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
This is very nice, isn't it? | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
-Had you any idea of what you were coming for? -Absolutely no idea. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
Never heard of Bletchley | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
and certainly had not heard of the operation | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
I was about to be involved in, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
so it was all a complete shock. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
When I came here after signing the Official Secrets Act, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
I was interviewed by Major Testor and joined his group, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:15 | |
which had offices above the ballroom here. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
Although only 18, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
Betty was useful to Bletchley's intelligence unit | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
because she'd been brought up by a German nanny | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
and spoke the language fluently. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
But having signed the Official Secrets Act, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
any loose talk could have invoked terrible penalties. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
The most serious one for talking about secret matters | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
which we saw here would have been death. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
So, obviously, one had to immediately put one's mindset | 0:04:42 | 0:04:47 | |
into such a position that you wouldn't talk about anything, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
anything you heard, saw or read. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
And keeping stumm also meant that Betty was never able | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
to tell her parents where she was or what she was doing. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
They never knew, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:01 | |
because they both died before the veil of secrecy was lifted in 1975. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:07 | |
So you said nothing, not only during the war, but nothing until 1975? | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
That's right. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
And when 1975 came, we felt we didn't want to speak about anything. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
It was very strange, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
you'd been so used to keeping everything to yourself. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
But the sudden release was, well, a bit traumatic, really. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
-Are you allowed to tell me now what sort of work you were doing? -Yes, I am. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
What were you doing? | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
Well, to begin with, I was registering the messages | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
which had come in from our signal stations all over the world. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
They all had to be recorded very accurately. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
They were put onto little cards, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
in very strict order - date and so on, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
so that the code breakers could call on them | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
at any time that they needed them. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
-Did you need any mathematics in what you were doing? -No. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
What did you need? | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
Common sense, really. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:03 | |
Betty went on to handle decoded | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
and translated Japanese messages for Churchill. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
But they had to be disguised so that if the enemy picked them up, | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
they wouldn't realise that their codes had been broken. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
It was all a bit, a bit crafty, really. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
So you took a message which had a meaning | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
and you put it into other words, but, of course, | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
-the meaning had to be exactly the same. -That's right, absolutely. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
And that was your skill? | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
That proved to be my skill, yes. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
How do you feel about the importance of the work? | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
Well, now, in very recent years, I've realised just how important it was | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
and is to the nation as a whole, and to the world, in fact. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:46 | |
Because without it, we might not be here. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
Or we might be here in rather difficult circumstances. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
So I feel very proud of the fact | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
that I was part of this operation. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
I feel very honoured that Betty has been able to share | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
her secret wartime experiences with me. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
But it also makes me wonder whether in today's age of disclosure | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
we would have the same sense of discipline and control. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:18 | |
Would WE be able to keep a secret? | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
My journey is taking me onto the branch line from Bletchley, | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
as there's a village mentioned in my Bradshaw's | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
that merits a detour east. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
I've taken the Bedford branch to Fenny Stratford | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
in order to visit neighbouring Olney, which Bradshaw's tells me is, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
"A town of lace makers," | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
with the house in which the poet William Cowper lived until 1786. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
And there follows a bit of Cowper's verse - | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
"Yon cottager that weaves at her own door | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
"Pillow and bobbins all her little store | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
"Content though mean." | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
There's more than one reference to Cowper in Bradshaw's, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
suggesting that many years after the poet's death, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
his praises were still being sung. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
CHOIR: # Glorious things of thee are spoken... # | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
Cowper was one of England's most respected poets | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
In Olney, he found a soulmate in the parish priest, John Newton, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:31 | |
and they formed a working partnership writing hymns. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
St Peter And St Paul would have been Cowper's parish church | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
and I'm hoping that Choirmaster John Witchell can unravel | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
the mystery of the Olney Hymns. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
# ..Smile at all thy foes. # | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
-Hello, John. -Hello, nice to meet you. -Very good to see you. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:57 | |
Thank you very much, everybody. Was that an Olney hymn? | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
That was an Olney hymn. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
That, I think, was Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken, wasn't it? | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
It was indeed. It's one of the most well-known hymns, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
because it's sung so frequently. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
Do you regard this as a kind of high point of hymn writing? | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
I think so, and I think there was a certain feeling at Olney at the time, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:18 | |
with these two people, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:19 | |
they shared the same sort of approach to their spiritual life, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
and they spent a lot of time together. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
And out of that came the Olney Hymns | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
as a means of teaching the congregation, teaching the people. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:33 | |
In the 18th century, a new fervour coursed through the Anglican church. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:37 | |
Evangelicals were committed to converting those outside the faith | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
and a good hymn melody could sweep along the doubters. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
I think what they used to do was to think, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
"Well, what's the theme of the sermon this week? | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
"We'd better write a hymn about it," | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
and that's how they compiled the hymn book. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
And the fact that my Bradshaw's is referring to these hymns | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
almost a century after they've been written, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
does that mean they had a particular resonance for the Victorians, | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
-do you think? -I think so. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
I think the feeling, the mood of the words, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
the emphasis on grace and redemption and atonement of sins, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:15 | |
all those things that were prevalent at the time of Newton and Cowper | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
when they were at Olney, | 0:10:19 | 0:10:20 | |
that continued into the Victorian age as well. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
Any idea how many Olney hymns were written? | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
Well, we're talking about 280 odd hymns by Newton | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
and then Cowper, another 67. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
And are there any others that I might know? | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
I think you might know quite a few, actually, yes. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
Listen to this and see if you recognise it. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
# The Lord has promised good to me | 0:10:42 | 0:10:49 | |
# His word my hope secures | 0:10:49 | 0:10:55 | |
# He will my shield and portion be | 0:10:55 | 0:11:01 | |
# He will my shield and portion be | 0:11:01 | 0:11:07 | |
# As long as life endures | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
# As long as life endures | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
# As long, as long as life endures. # | 0:11:14 | 0:11:21 | |
-Do you recognise that one? -You are teasing me. What is it? | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:26 | 0:11:27 | |
I don't know that. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:28 | |
Well, it's commonly known as Amazing Grace. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
But that goes... | 0:11:32 | 0:11:34 | |
-HE SINGS: -# Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound... # | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
It does, and it just demonstrates how you can sing a tune | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
of the same metre to the hymn. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
So Amazing Grace is the one that you know, | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
-"Amazing Grace...", as you sang. But... -Well, sort of, I'd say. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
Sort of, well, I wasn't much better. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:53 | 0:11:54 | |
But Hephzibah, which is this tune, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
was the first tune that was sung in the Victorian ages, as far as I know. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
So when Bradshaw was around, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:03 | |
no doubt this was the tune that was being sung | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
and not the one that we sing. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
So were you singing one of the later verses? | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
Why didn't I hear the words I know? | 0:12:11 | 0:12:12 | |
Well, because we wanted to catch you out. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Well, you did. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:17 | |
# Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound | 0:12:17 | 0:12:26 | |
# That saved a wretch like me | 0:12:26 | 0:12:34 | |
# I once was lost but now am found | 0:12:34 | 0:12:43 | |
# Was blind, but now I see. # | 0:12:43 | 0:12:52 | |
Listening to the hymns makes me wonder | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
whether perhaps we've lost something that needs rediscovering. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
It makes me even more curious about Cowper and Newton's partnership. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
I've been invited by Cowper Museum Trustee Elizabeth Knight | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
to find out more. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:13 | |
-Hello, Elizabeth. -Hello, Michael. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
I've come to find out about William Cowper. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
Well, I can tell you a lot about him. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
First, I'm going to take you in through his back door. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
That's the way all his visitors had to go, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
because he wouldn't open his front door | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
because he had three pet hares who lived in the house. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
-Come with me. -Thank you. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
What is it about all the English gentlemen | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
encountered on this journey so far? | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
Eccentricity seems to be a theme! | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
So John Newton is curate. Was he living close by Cowper's house? | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
Yes, fairly close, within a stone's throw, almost - | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
the two gardens virtually adjoined. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
There was just an orchard in between that belonged to a Mrs Asperey. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
And she allowed the two gentlemen | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
to visit one another through her orchard, | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
but she charged them a guinea a year for the right of doing this. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:04 | |
Quite a stiff sum of money in those days. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
Yes, one pound and one shilling, wasn't it? | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
So what brought about the partnership | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
of the two men writing hymns? | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
I think through the pastoral work, Cowper helped Newton in the town. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:19 | |
The town was, of course, mostly poor lace makers. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
And we think he heard the lace makers reciting their tells, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:28 | |
which is a form of counting that helped them with their work, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
and he thought, "If they can learn by rote, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
"perhaps I could teach them the Bible that way." | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
And therefore, he used the hymn writing | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
either to illustrate a text, a biblical text, a biblical story, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:47 | |
or anything else that would...sort of, you know, make them learn | 0:14:47 | 0:14:53 | |
something about Christ and his life. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
In fact, in the 18th century, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
Olney had a large population of around 2,000 people, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
and most of them were desperately poor. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
In one of his letters, Cowper wrote, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
"I am an eyewitness of their poverty and do know that | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
"hundreds of this little town are upon the point of starving | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
"and that the most unremitting industry is but barely sufficient | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
"to keep them from it. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
"There are nearly 1,200 lace makers in this beggarly town." | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
Now, over 200 years later, starvation doesn't stalk Olney. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
But in those desperate days, the hymns of Cowper and Newton | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
brought the hope of salvation. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
After my enlightening visit to Olney, | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
I'm heading west from Fenny Stratford, | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
where I plan to rejoin the main line north. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
And after a day of spies and spires, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
I aspire to find a bed for the night. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
I'm alighting at Wolverton | 0:16:05 | 0:16:06 | |
and Bradshaw's has another recommendation for me, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
close by in Stony Stratford. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:11 | |
The high street in Stony Stratford is straight as an arrow, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
it's the old Roman road from north to south, Watling Street, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
and as such, it has a good collection of old coaching inns. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
In the early 1700s, these inns were a bit like our motels. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
The Bull and The Cock, both heard their share of travellers' tales, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
which grew ever taller as the guests moved between the two inns | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
and the drink flowed. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:39 | |
Hence the expression "cock and bull", | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
describing their increasingly exaggerated stories. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
The Bull back there looked pretty good, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
but Bradshaw's recommends The Cock. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
Sounds like the perfect place for me to stay the night. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
I'm up early to visit Wolverton, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
a town that owes its origins directly to the railway. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
Bradshaw's tells me that "Wolverton has an increasing population | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
"of 2,730, chiefly dependent | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
"on the London and North Western Railway Company, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
"who have a depot and extensive factories here." | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
And then, Bradshaw's becomes quite whimsical. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
"While Crewe is the nursery, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
"Wolverton is the hospital for locomotives." | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
Aw(!) | 0:17:36 | 0:17:37 | |
In the 1830s, the London to Birmingham railway | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
needed locomotives and somewhere to repair them. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
Wolverton became the Victorians' first purpose-built railway town. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:53 | |
I'm here to meet local historian Bill Griffiths | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
to find out more about this unique railway centre. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
Bill, this is a vast Victorian vista of industrialisation, isn't it? | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
How quickly was Wolverton developed? | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
Well, if you go back to the 1830s, this was all farmland, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
so we'd be standing on a greenfield site, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:16 | |
just like Milton Keynes was built on a greenfield site. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
All of a sudden, from 1837, 1838 onwards, | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
it became a small town and then grew very rapidly. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
Within a very short time, there were 1,000 people working here. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
Why was Wolverton chosen for the engineering works? | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
There was a huge engine shed here. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
I think it'd accommodate 36 locomotives. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
A lot of those were kept unseen. So these locomotives arrive from London, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
because the early locomotives | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
just couldn't do the 112 miles. They had to stop and be reserviced. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
At that time, there was a thinking | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
that all locomotives should be serviced after about 50 miles. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
And I think it was even contemplated | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
to have an Act of Parliament to make that happen. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
It must have been amazing in its day. Mind you, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
it's still doing important work by the look of it. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
What's going on here? | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
They are refurbishing one of the most modern trains, | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
one of the pride of the fleet, I suppose, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
one of the trains that runs to Heathrow. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
Well, it looks as if it's pretty well ready, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
but I'm quite interested in seeing | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
not just the works, but also the town. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:15 | |
-Shall we take a stroll? -Let's have a look. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
I'm beginning to spot that the houses and the streets | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
have been laid out and planned specifically for railway workers. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:33 | |
Is the town important in railway history? | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
Incredibly important. I think it's as important as the works. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
It was the first town in the world built for the railway. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
And it also was built on a grid system, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
very much like Milton Keynes is built on a grid system, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
and the layout was such that, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
in the rows of houses, you had the cottages in the middle | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
and then at the end, you had a slightly better-quality building | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
that was for the foreman. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:03 | |
That social structure was reflected in their daily life as well, | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
because at work, the foreman would wear bowler hats | 0:20:07 | 0:20:12 | |
and would wear a three-piece suit, | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
whereas the men would wear their appropriate clothing, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
depending really very much upon what they were doing. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
Do you think there was something particular about the nature of work | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
for the railways that made the company behave in this way | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
towards its workers? | 0:20:26 | 0:20:27 | |
Yes, I think there was. I think the railway was the new industry, | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
so it's very much perhaps like IT today, | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
or perhaps the Rolls-Royce that we know of. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
It was a company that wanted to encourage a skilled workforce, | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
a respectable workforce, a workforce that would be contributing | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
to the locomotive building of the time. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
A model town built by a model employer. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
A forward-thinking, yet paternalistic Victorian society | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
made all this happen. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
But sadly, over 150 years later, while the houses are still here, | 0:20:56 | 0:21:01 | |
the line linking Wolverton to Newport Pagnell has been axed. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
Now the line's become a cycle track, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
but it remains my best way to my next destination. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
Up until the 1960s, the engines that ran on the line | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
were affectionately known as Newport Nobby. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
The line was built to carry workers to the Wolverton railway works | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
and at peak times, the workmen's trains could have | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
as many as six coaches. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
But while the line has faded into history, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
the town is still the home of an ancient craft - vellum making. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:45 | |
And as a former Member of Parliament, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
I'm very familiar with the great acts of law, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
written so beautifully on this very specially crafted skin. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:54 | |
And I welcome the opportunity to see how it's made. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
Master Craftsman Paul Wright has been making vellum for five years. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:05 | |
The smell, first of all, the smell is overpowering. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
I'm almost gagging. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
And now, I find what - pits of animal remains? | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
I mean, the whole thing is smelling of farmyard and cow. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
What we do here is, we pretty much recreate what has been done | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
for 4,000 to 5,000 years. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
The reason it looks medieval - because it almost IS medieval. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
And...what's going on with it here? | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
In the vats that you see around you, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
there are certain chemicals and the chemicals will effectively, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
they will loosen the hair and they will start to decay the flesh, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
from the flesh side. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:43 | |
I can tell you that it smells rotten. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
'All the skins that Paul uses are a waste product from farming.' | 0:22:46 | 0:22:51 | |
What is vellum, what is parchment | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
and what skins can you make them out of? | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
A vellum is the whole skin, typically for us, of a goat or a calf. | 0:22:55 | 0:23:02 | |
A parchment typically is from a sheep, but we've split the skin. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
So the parchment is the finer material? | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
It is the finer material. If you imagine a book, the vellum would be | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
the bindings of the book and the parchment would be the pages. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
If you were very, very wealthy, even the pages would be of vellum | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
and they are absolutely stunning. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
A little tale for you - | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
so prized was the finest manuscript | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
that the master vellum makers would be kidnapped | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
and that's the last he'd see of his family. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
So determined were they...to have just... | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
that only his products went to them. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
I hope things are a bit less onerous now. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
Now, I'm not sure I really want to get TOO good at this, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
but I suppose I've got to start somewhere. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
Now, you want to sort of lean against this... | 0:23:54 | 0:23:56 | |
'The big knife is called a scudder. | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
'I've got to take all the hair off keeping this razor sharp blade | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
'as flat as possible, because the skin is the writing surface.' | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
This is like shaving with one of those open razors, isn't it? | 0:24:07 | 0:24:13 | |
I dare say somebody else would go a bit faster than I'm going. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Well, you should really do probably 15 whole vellums a day | 0:24:16 | 0:24:22 | |
to earn your bag of corn. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
I suggest, at this rate, you're going to go...somewhat hungry. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:24:28 | 0:24:29 | |
'Once the hair's been removed and there are no ugly marks left, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
'the skin's tied onto a frame to be worked more finely.' | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
This is Lee. Lee is a master vellum maker. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
What he's doing there is cleaning | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
the flesh from the back of the skin. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
'This looks more physical and more skilled, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
'so there's more room to make mistakes.' | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
-Hello, Lee. -Hello. -Hello. -Nice to meet you. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
-So you're a master vellum maker. -I am. -How many are you in Britain? | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
I'm the only one and I have one apprentice. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
MICHAEL GIGGLES | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
So have you any tips, Master Vellum Maker? | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
Keeping hands like this, and it's punching into the skin. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
So you...see this flesh here... | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
You punch...you want to get a roll started | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
and then, you get underneath the flesh. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
-It's a punching action. -And I can be fairly vigorous, can I? | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
-You can go as hard as you like. -Really? -Yes. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
I don't seem to be getting that much off compared to you. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
What am I doing wrong here? | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
-Oh, there's a bit. -There you go, yeah. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
You want to try to get a roll started, | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
-so you're digging into the flesh. -Yeah. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
You do this all day? | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
This is my afternoon work. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:43 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
After the process of shaving and scraping, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | |
there's still much work to be done, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
but I'm beginning to see how strong vellum is. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
Considering documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls, | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
or illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
I can understand why they have survived - | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
because vellum doesn't tear or rot. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
So when you shave and you scrape, and you shave and you scrape, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
this is what you end up with. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
It's absolutely marvellous, it is silky, silky smooth. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
What would that be used for, Paul? | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
This one here may well become an Act of Parliament. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
Ah, yes. Well, actually, your room here reminds me | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
of the room in Parliament where the Acts of Parliament are stored. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
Because all the old Acts of Parliament are vellum | 0:26:27 | 0:26:29 | |
and are wound up into a scroll, | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
and there are, I suppose, hundreds of thousands of them. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
Each one is identified by a little label. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
And I've seen them rolled out in front of me | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
and I've seen Henry VIII's signature. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
It lasts for so long. Long after everyone else is gone. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
This is the stuff. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
As a little memento of your day's visit here... | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
On your programme, you constantly have your book in your hand, | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
so we've created this little bookmark | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
with an image of a train on there | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
and it says - "Awarded to Mr Michael Portillo in recognition | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
"of his appointment as an honorary vellum and parchment maker." | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
What you have done today, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
less than half a dozen people have done in the world. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
That is most handsome, isn't it? Look at that - | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
a beautiful locomotive and a lovely piece of vellum. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
And absolutely the perfect gift for a man who lives by his Bradshaw's. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:20 | |
This section of my journey has focused on two generations | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
whose achievements should be recorded on vellum. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
The early Victorians who, with brains and brawn, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
built the railway works at Wolverton, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
and those who joined the Second World War | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
and, with intellect and discretion, broke Hitler's codes. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
The first generation bequeathed to us the benefits of industry | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
and the second secured our freedom so that we may enjoy them. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
On the next leg of my journey, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
I discover a tradition unaltered since Victorian times. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
It's like most things in life - you can learn it in two weeks, | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
but it takes you a lifetime to be any good at it. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
I hear about the man who changed education around the world. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
These were people capable of running the British Empire? | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
Very much so, and that was part of Arnold's great reform. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
And I see how a city rode out economic cycles. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
This is the forerunner of all modern bicycles | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
and known as the safety bicycle. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:24 | |
-For the good reason that everything that came before was not. -Exactly! | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 |