0:00:04 > 0:00:08For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14At a time when railways were new, Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
0:00:14 > 0:00:16to take to the tracks.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide
0:00:18 > 0:00:21to understand how trains transformed Britain -
0:00:21 > 0:00:27its landscape, its industries, society and leisure time.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30As I crisscross the country 150 years later,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34it helps me to discover the Britain of today.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01My journey has brought me to England's North East.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05The great rivers Tees and Tyne, and plentiful supply of coal
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and iron made the North East a leader in the world's first
0:01:09 > 0:01:11industrial revolution.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Centuries before that, the region had lead in piety,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17rather than productivity,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21in a world of monasteries rather than manufactories.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Following my guidebook, all this week my journey has taken me
0:01:30 > 0:01:32up the backbone of England.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36From Derbyshire and the industrial East Midlands, I headed
0:01:36 > 0:01:40north in to the rugged Pennine hills, before travelling east
0:01:40 > 0:01:42to historic Yorkshire.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Now I'm heading up the coast
0:01:44 > 0:01:47to the industrial conurbations of the north.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50My journey will end on the holy island of Lindisfarne.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54On today's leg, I start in the industrial powerhouse
0:01:54 > 0:01:56of Middleborough,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00before heading to the spiritual home of the railway.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Continuing north, up the coast, I'll then travel inland to Hexham -
0:02:04 > 0:02:07where the North and South Tyne rivers meet.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13I'll feel the heat of a Victorian furnace.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Look at that - a nice little flambe for us.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18'Learn how investigative journalism was born...'
0:02:18 > 0:02:20He built the devil up and just like
0:02:20 > 0:02:24any good newspaperman, he took great delight in knocking the devil down.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28..and hear how a remarkable Bible survived for centuries.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32- It's quite a large book to lose, actually.- It certainly is.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41My first stop will be Middlesbrough.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Bradshaw's tells me "it contains excellent docks,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48"a town which was founded only in 1831."
0:02:48 > 0:02:52The impact of the port, of coal, of iron,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56and of railways converted it into rapidly into a major conurbation.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04- You're getting off at Middlesbrough? - I am, yes.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Do you know the town well?
0:03:07 > 0:03:11Very well, actually, yes. I run a manufacturing factory there.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15- Oh, what are you manufacturing these days?- Hydraulic engineering systems.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18- So manufacturing goes on on Teesside?- It does.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21It had a fairly depressed time a few years ago,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24but it's picking up. It's picking up.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28The area has got a lot of heritage of knowledge in the marine sector,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32so there's an awful lot of good engineers we use in the factory.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35- That's very good. So traditions continue.- They certainly do.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42- OVER TANNOY:- 'We will shortly be arriving at Middlesbrough,
0:03:42 > 0:03:43'where this train terminates.'
0:03:54 > 0:03:58My visit to Middlesbrough gets off to the best possible start
0:03:58 > 0:04:03with a very beautiful station. The ticket office is a Gothic fantasy
0:04:03 > 0:04:04with its hammer beams
0:04:04 > 0:04:06built in the style of a baronial hall.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16Middlesbrough was a hamlet on the Tees until the 1830s.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22That changed when Quaker Joseph Pease
0:04:22 > 0:04:26extended the Stockton and Darlington railway to the town
0:04:26 > 0:04:29to exploit the greatest coal district in the world.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33His railways served the North East collieries
0:04:33 > 0:04:35and linked them to the port.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40I'm meeting Middlesbrough historian, Tosh Warwick, to find out more.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Tosh, this is an extraordinary landscape
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and vista of Middlesbrough past and present.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50We're here at Middlesbrough Dock. This was the hub of
0:04:50 > 0:04:52Middlesbrough's industrial activity
0:04:52 > 0:04:54and this is where the early coal town developed
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and then expanded with the iron and steel industries later on.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Take me through what I'm looking at here.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01We're looking at Terminus,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04the new structure there which was a recent installation.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Behind me, we also have the landmark Tees transporter bridge.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09The tower - what did that used to contain?
0:05:09 > 0:05:11The clock tower was actually an operating mechanism
0:05:11 > 0:05:15with hydraulic gates for the actual Middlesbrough dock.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18The iron works proprietors did not want their workers clock-watching,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22so it has only has three faces and not facing the River Tees.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26I'm very struck that Bradshaw's tells me the town was only
0:05:26 > 0:05:29founded in 1831, so the rate of growth was phenomenal.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It was unheard of. Middlesbrough was the Victorian boom town.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35From a population of just 25 in 1801,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39we reached a population of 7,000 by 1851,
0:05:39 > 0:05:42and exceeding 100,000 by the turn of the century.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The dock today is placid and deserted,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47but what was it like in its heyday?
0:05:47 > 0:05:49We would have been surrounded by cranes, there would have been coal,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52iron and steel being shipped around the world.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54It would have been a hub of activity.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It was so much so, that Middlesbrough was hailed as the Ironopolis.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01German iron expert Henry Bolckow
0:06:01 > 0:06:05masterminded its rapid growth to 140 foundries.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10He exploited the huge deposits of iron stone from the Cleveland Hills
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and transported it to the town.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15The railways played an absolutely major role.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Every single iron works, every single major infrastructure
0:06:19 > 0:06:21in Middlesbrough was underpinned by the railways.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24I, personally, as somebody from Middlesbrough, am very proud
0:06:24 > 0:06:28to go off to Sydney and climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, built by Dorman Long,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32and on the steelwork there it has 'Dorman Long, Middlesbrough.'
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Vestiges of the city's proud ironworking past remain.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41I'm visiting William Lane Ltd,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44one of the last cast iron foundries in the city.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48Here they produce everything by hand
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and some of their biggest customers are Britain's heritage railways.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58They've made replacement parts for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway
0:06:58 > 0:07:00and for the iconic Flying Scotsman.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06I'm meeting Stuart Duffy, who is going to show me how to cast iron.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10- Are you new to the business? - I am not, no.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12I've been part of the fixings since 1977,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14so I've been here quite some time.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17- You must have been very young then. - I started when I was 15.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19- An apprentice?- As an apprentice.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24'We're going to make a part for a steam engine - a carrot valve.
0:07:24 > 0:07:25'Like a tap,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28'it's used to inject water into the engine's boiler.'
0:07:30 > 0:07:33- Now tell me this - if I did this with ordinary sand...- Yes?
0:07:33 > 0:07:37- ..the sand would be all...just be crumbly.- It would be crumbly.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Yeah, so what have you done to this sand?
0:07:39 > 0:07:43This is a fine silica sand. We've added sodium silicate to it,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47we've mixed it, and you get something that you can work with.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Now, this is a rammer, and you need to fill this twice.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55- Compacting the sand down, really. - Mm-hmm.- So, up and down. Very good.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00Ah, it's very satisfying work.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03You could be our oldest apprentice.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05THEY CHUCKLE
0:08:05 > 0:08:07I'm thinking of all my old enemies as I do this.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11It may look like I'm making a pie,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15but in fact, it's the mould for the hot molten metal.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Well, look at that.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20So you are putting carbon dioxide in there, and what's that doing?
0:08:20 > 0:08:23It's having a chemical reaction with the sodium silicate.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27- And that will make... - That will harden it.
0:08:27 > 0:08:28Harden it.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Well, that has really hardened up.
0:08:33 > 0:08:34Hopefully...
0:08:34 > 0:08:37What a beautiful mould.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39'To stop the sand from collapsing,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42'I need to coat the inside with a special oily seal.'
0:08:43 > 0:08:47- Good.- And there we go. That is burning on now.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50There are a lot of similarities to cooking here, aren't there?
0:08:50 > 0:08:52Look at that, a nice little flambe for us.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Then there is a process that's best left to the experts.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04That metal looks very hot and I have a train to catch.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Will I ever see the product of what I've been doing today?
0:09:06 > 0:09:09If it was that urgent, Michael, we'd probably knock it out
0:09:09 > 0:09:12- within the hour.- Would you? - And then you would catch your train.
0:09:12 > 0:09:13But my train is going quicker than that,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16- can you show me what I've done? - I'll show you what you've done.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Ah!
0:09:19 > 0:09:21Oh, isn't that delightful?
0:09:21 > 0:09:24That, ladies and gentlemen, is Portillo's carrot valve.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Or at least one that was made earlier.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Indeed my train does await and I must press on.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40I've joined the train at Middlesbrough and I'm heading west.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50My next stop is Darlington, which Bradshaw's tells me
0:09:50 > 0:09:53"is a market town in Durham on the River Skerne,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56"over which over which there is a handsome bridge.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00"With a population engaged in the cotton flax and worsted mills,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03"foundries and glass works."
0:10:03 > 0:10:04With the coming of the railways,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Darlington found itself well connected to two capitals -
0:10:07 > 0:10:09London and Edinburgh.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13A significant advantage at the dawning of the Victorian
0:10:13 > 0:10:14age of information.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Before the 19th century,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23most people in Britain lived a rural village life.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Quite suddenly, they could travel long distances fast,
0:10:26 > 0:10:31send letters overnight, or commit urgent messages to the telegraph.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35And one of the biggest beneficiaries of new technologies like these
0:10:35 > 0:10:37was the newspaper industry.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43I'm meeting Chris Lloyd, the deputy editor of the Northern Echo,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45founded in 1870.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50I'm thinking that Darlington was not a bad place to found
0:10:50 > 0:10:53a newspaper because you could sell it in Edinburgh and London.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57That's right. It was at the hub of the railway network.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Darlington is the birthplace of the railways, the Stockton
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and Darlington railway of 1825, from which a network of railways
0:11:03 > 0:11:06sprung out. So you could buy the newspaper at ten o'clock in the
0:11:06 > 0:11:09morning in London and in Edinburgh, which the
0:11:09 > 0:11:13paper in those days boasted that it was the first truly national
0:11:13 > 0:11:16newspaper because all the London printed newspapers had to come up
0:11:16 > 0:11:18past Darlington to reach Scotland.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Perhaps the paper's greatest success was achieved
0:11:22 > 0:11:25under its second editor, William Stead,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29who started at the Northern Echo in 1871.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32He was just 22 years old. He'd been writing various highfalutin articles
0:11:32 > 0:11:35from where he worked on the quayside in Newcastle,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38sending them off to newspapers across the north of England,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42trying to get them published. He got a couple published here and the
0:11:42 > 0:11:46proprietor liked him so much that he went up and offered him the job.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50And Stead had never been to Darlington before in his life.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52He had never even been in a newspaper office in his life
0:11:52 > 0:11:56and he only knew one person down here in distant Darlington
0:11:56 > 0:11:59who was a congregational minister, just like his father.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01So he wrote to him. I've got the letter here.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06And it's April 1871. We can tell that his mind made is up.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09He asks, "Where should I lodge? What sort of house should I be in?"
0:12:09 > 0:12:12But really, his mind is made up because he says in the letter,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16"What a glorious opportunity of attacking the devil, the job is."
0:12:16 > 0:12:21For Stead, any establishment figure, any outrage, was a devil.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24And he built the devil up, and just like any good newspaperman,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27he took great delight in knocking the devil down.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32I'm keen to find out about Stead's work as an investigative journalist.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36This is the Northern Echo's library here, all our picture files
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and all our bound files of archives.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44This one is from 1873, and this is him at his pomp, really.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49He is creating an absolute sensation here in March 1873.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52This is about a mass murderess, Mary Anne Cotton,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54who lived just down the road from here.
0:12:54 > 0:13:00She'd murdered about 21 of her friends, lovers, husbands,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03anybody who she could kill and get her hands
0:13:03 > 0:13:05on their life assurance policies.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Stead was instrumental in convincing the police
0:13:09 > 0:13:14to investigate the deaths, for which Mary Cotton was eventually hanged.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19He was best known for his crusade against child prostitution.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23He campaigns vigorously to get the age of consent raised
0:13:23 > 0:13:26to protect young children who are being put to work in the brothels,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30and it is a hugely successful campaign with hundreds of thousands
0:13:30 > 0:13:34of people turning out to support him, to demand the government
0:13:34 > 0:13:36to do something to stop this abuse of children.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41Stead became so zealous in his determination to get
0:13:41 > 0:13:46to the truth that he resorted to some very unorthodox methods.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51During the campaign, he has bought a 13-year-old girl
0:13:51 > 0:13:53from her mother for £5.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57He puts her to work in a brothel in Regents Street...
0:13:57 > 0:14:00- He puts her to work?- He puts her to work in a brothel in Regents Street
0:14:00 > 0:14:05and he writes a story about him being the girl's first customer.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Then he had taken this young girl to Paris where he had either
0:14:10 > 0:14:14held her hostage or kept her safe, depending on your point of view,
0:14:14 > 0:14:19whilst this maelstrom of outrage burst out in London.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Stead was sentenced to three months in prison
0:14:23 > 0:14:26but remained proud of the consequences of his campaign.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Due to doing this, it created such a sensation,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35the whole of London was inflamed and the government rushed through
0:14:35 > 0:14:39the first child protection act in the world.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Just a minute, let me go and have a look.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44'Chris has one final file to show me.'
0:14:46 > 0:14:50This is where we keep our pre-computer packets of people -
0:14:50 > 0:14:52national celebrities and otherwise.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Dead people are up the top, but you are still alive!
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Portillo, Michael - what a cornucopia of embarrassment it is.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07- Ugh, looking a bit stern. - What a young person you are.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11My life flashes before me, and I see my obituary photograph.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16That's enough talk of death.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18I feel full of beans to see
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Darlington in such a summery and festive mood.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:15:33 > 0:15:37My overnight stop is near Sunderland, so I'm catching
0:15:37 > 0:15:40a Northern Rail train to Newcastle and changing there.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03At the time of my Bradshaw's, Roker was becoming a tourist destination.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09And the genteel Victorian holiday-maker
0:16:09 > 0:16:11wasn't in the habit of packing light.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17It wasn't unusual to take a servant, courier bags, waist bags,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19handbags, holdalls...
0:16:19 > 0:16:21even a travelling bath.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26I'm meeting local archivist Norman Kirkland to fathom out
0:16:26 > 0:16:30why the Victorians went all hot for the cold North Sea.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33- Michael, pleased to meet you. - Good evening.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37I'm slightly confused - Bradshaw's tells me about the development
0:16:37 > 0:16:39of a new commercial dock.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42On the other hand, I'm seeing a Victorian resort.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43So which one was it?
0:16:43 > 0:16:47In 1835 and '36, Roker was industrial.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49It was the docks and nothing else.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51After the dock, we got a resort.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The North Dock was built by the great Victorian engineer
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05The dock company accepted his plan for a deep harbour
0:17:05 > 0:17:09at an estimated cost of £30,000.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12It opened on the 1st November, 1837,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and the excavated spoil was used to build
0:17:15 > 0:17:19the Victorian resort of Roker-on-Sea.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24That slope was built by the Victorians, was it?
0:17:24 > 0:17:27That's right. That slope was put in by the landowner, Edward Williamson,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29and we've now got wonderful access to the beach.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32When the tourists got here, what was there for them to do?
0:17:32 > 0:17:36The major thing were the beach huts. They are basically huts on wheels,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39sheds on wheels, and the ladies would be brought down to the waterfront,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41they'd go down the steps, and straight into the water.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Nobody would see them. Half an hour in the water, back into the huts,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46and they'd be taken by horse and cart back to the hotel.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49- What else?- Well, the main thing here was the spa.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51They call it a spa but it was actually sea water.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53They would pump sea water up to the hotel
0:17:53 > 0:17:56using big steam-driven pumps and the gentlemen would spend,
0:17:56 > 0:17:57for one and sixpence,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00you could spend all day in these wonderful sea water pumps.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06Norman's making it sound almost good enough to try, but for me,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09the warmth of my bed for the night is more tempting.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23Today, I'm leaving Roker and travelling to Jarrow on Tyneside.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26I've headed back to Sunderland Station,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30but unlike Victorian travellers, I can make use of Tyneside's Metro.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36With 60 stations, it's one of the UK's most extensive
0:18:36 > 0:18:38urban railway networks.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Bradshaw's promises me that in the vicinity of Jarrow I'll find
0:18:42 > 0:18:44"the remains of the monastery
0:18:44 > 0:18:46"of which the Venerable Bede was a monk."
0:18:47 > 0:18:51"He was venerated for his studious habits, which made him
0:18:51 > 0:18:53"the Father of English History."
0:19:12 > 0:19:16In the 19th century, Jarrow was rapidly growing into
0:19:16 > 0:19:20one of the country's largest ship-building centres.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24But back in the 7th century, Jarrow's focus was its monastery.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29Founded in AD 681, it's where Bede wrote his famous book,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33The Ecclesiastical History Of The English People.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37'I'm meeting Bede expert Matt Storey.'
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Do we know much about who this Bede was?
0:19:41 > 0:19:45We don't know very much about Bede himself.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47All we know is from a short autobiographical statement
0:19:47 > 0:19:50at the end of his Ecclesiastical History,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54which says he entered the monastery at the age of seven to be educated
0:19:54 > 0:19:59and put under the charge of the Abbot Benedict, and then of Ceolfrith.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02He's our earliest written contemporary source
0:20:02 > 0:20:05for the Roman's even and the coming of the Angles,
0:20:05 > 0:20:10the Saxons and the Jutes, and for early Anglo-Saxon England.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Was England the name used for the country then?
0:20:13 > 0:20:18No, it wasn't. England didn't come for another three centuries or so.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Bede was writing about the English people,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26a term we think that he coined to describe
0:20:26 > 0:20:30a number of different cultures living in Britain at the time.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Researching and writing these books
0:20:33 > 0:20:35would have been hugely time-consuming.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40The scribing and illustration used natural dyes on calf skin.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43How did he collect sources for this history?
0:20:43 > 0:20:47We know he had access to a vast library because Bede
0:20:47 > 0:20:51is a very good historian. He cites the work that he has access to.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56He also had correspondence with other monks in other monasteries
0:20:56 > 0:21:00which he used as the basis for his work.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Bede rarely left the monastery, but his pious studies
0:21:03 > 0:21:08and reflective mind opened a window on heaven and earth.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Bede was writing about the fact that the earth was a sphere at a time
0:21:12 > 0:21:16when commonly people thought that the world was flat.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20He was writing about the fact that it was the moon that
0:21:20 > 0:21:22controlled the earth and the tides,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26when again, this was known but it wasn't common belief.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30The Victorian Church recognised Bede's greatness
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and Jarrow became a destination for pilgrims.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37On the 1,200th anniversary of Bede's death in 1935,
0:21:37 > 0:21:4150,000 Catholics came to pay homage to the saint
0:21:41 > 0:21:46in ceremonies led by the archbishops of Westminster and Liverpool.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50In the monastery's museum,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53there's a Bible that still attracts the devout.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59It's called the Codex Amiatinus,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03and three copies were commissioned by this monastery's Abbot Ceolfrith.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12This is the earliest surviving copy of the complete Bible in Latin.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Ceolfrith, towards the end of his life, set out to give this
0:22:16 > 0:22:19copy of the Bible to the Pope.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Unfortunately, along the way,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Ceolfrith died in Langres, in Burgundy.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29And at that point, we seem to lose the history
0:22:29 > 0:22:32of this remarkable Bible.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34It's quite a large book to lose, actually.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Certainly is.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39'Fortunately, that Bible resurfaced.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42'It's now in a library in Florence.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45'I'm privileged to have a glimpse of this reproduction.'
0:22:50 > 0:22:54After changing from the Tyneside Metro to the railway at Newcastle,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57I'm heading for the final stop on today's journey.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09- OVER TANNOY:- 'We are now approaching Hexham.'
0:23:14 > 0:23:18Hexham is a picturesque Roman market town.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company brought the 63-mile-long
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Tyne Valley line to Hexham in 1838.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37I've come to visit a famous ginger beer emporium.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40And I've been brought to this unlikely little alley.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43I must say, in all my railway journeys,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46this must be the narrowest business I've ever visited.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51More than 100 years ago, the business began by chance.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56When Thomas Fentiman made a loan, he was given, as security,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59a prized recipe for ginger beer.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02I'm meeting Eldon Robson, Fentiman's great-grandson
0:24:02 > 0:24:04and the present-day owner.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I must say - I'm slightly amazed you can be in the ginger beer business
0:24:08 > 0:24:10in such tiny premises.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13- I came through such tiny crevice to get here.- Yeah.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Well, this is the office. Hexham, Northumberland.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19What we produce here is the other flavours
0:24:19 > 0:24:20which are highly concentrated.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23We do everything under complete sort of secrecy.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Then we send the concentrated flavour down to the brewers and they brew
0:24:26 > 0:24:29the full liquid for us, label and bottle them, and then ship them off.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Why do you think Victorians would have enjoyed ginger beer?
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Well, ginger beer goes back a long time.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38The ginger spice was either brought in
0:24:38 > 0:24:40from the Caribbean or China.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Many, many years ago when ginger beer was first made,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44it went through a fermentation process,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47which ours does now, the same process, and this process was like
0:24:47 > 0:24:49a purification of water in those days.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52I suppose, to a certain degree, there's a big belief in the fact
0:24:52 > 0:24:54that these drinks had health-giving properties.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58By the 1840s, sales of ginger beer were rocketing
0:24:58 > 0:25:01thanks to the growing temperance movement.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Ginger beer was seen as a good alternative to the 'demon drink'.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Portable ginger fountains, often very beautifully made,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12started springing up in the streets.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14And in the north of England,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17there were more than 1,000 ginger beer trade names.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Big business indeed.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23In those days, it would take about a week to make the product.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Once you'd taken the top off...the stopper off the stone jar,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28you had about three days to drink it,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30otherwise the second fermentation would start.
0:25:30 > 0:25:31But these days, we carbonate
0:25:31 > 0:25:34and we pasteurise the product, so we now give it a good shelf life
0:25:34 > 0:25:37of 18 months, so the product will last. And unlike the old stone jars
0:25:37 > 0:25:40that used to blow up on hot summer days, that doesn't happen any more.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48Today, Eldon's team works with other flavours besides ginger.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Our starting point is elderflowers, which are collected locally.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57- Ah-ha.- Here we go.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01Yeah, they are fragrant indeed. Very much so.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03HE COUGHS
0:26:03 > 0:26:05A bit...a bit pungent as well.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09This is a very traditional process which would have been done
0:26:09 > 0:26:12in the Victorian days by taking these flowers,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16mixing them with some sugar and lemon juice and water,
0:26:16 > 0:26:18and then just letting them infuse.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20- There you go. All the way in? - All the way in. Yep.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Then give them a stir around.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27'You need only about 20 flower heads to make one gallon of cordial.'
0:26:27 > 0:26:30'And once again, I'm the willing guinea pig.'
0:26:32 > 0:26:33Bubbles bursting on the tongue.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Very strong flavour of elderflower.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37I think you're most of the way there.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40- A million Victorian housewives can't be wrong.- Indeed.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Let's see what the discerning palates
0:26:43 > 0:26:47of the Hexham Bowls Club make of it.
0:26:47 > 0:26:48Have a little sample of that.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56- It's pleasant.- Yeah? What is it?
0:26:56 > 0:26:58What do you think it is?
0:26:58 > 0:26:59Juniper berry?
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Juniper berry, that's an interesting guess.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05- Or pineapple.- No. It's elderflower.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09- Elderflower?- Elderflower. Ever drunk elderflower before?- Not knowingly!
0:27:09 > 0:27:12- LAUGHING:- Not knowingly.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14And I was hoping to bowl them over.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Time to head back to Newcastle's Central Station
0:27:19 > 0:27:21to continue my journey.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27William Stead's mass circulation Northern Echo
0:27:27 > 0:27:31shocked, swung elections, and got laws changed.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35Within hours, his lurid prose was causing sensations
0:27:35 > 0:27:38in Edinburgh and London.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41By contrast, the monks of St Paul's
0:27:41 > 0:27:46toiled for years to produce a single copy of a Latin Bible,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50but whereas Stead's newspapers were tomorrow's chip paper,
0:27:50 > 0:27:56the Bibles handed down from Bede's world are still influential today.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Next time, I explore the earliest surviving
0:28:08 > 0:28:10water-powered swing bridge.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13We have no brakes, so it's a guessing game!
0:28:13 > 0:28:16I am humbled by the courage of a Victorian heroine.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20- All of this in the tumultuous sea and wind and rain.- Absolutely.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24And I learn about the science of lime burning.
0:28:24 > 0:28:25The temperatures are anything between
0:28:25 > 0:28:271,200 and 1,500 degrees centigrade at this level.