Newcastle to Lindisfarne Great British Railway Journeys

-MICHAEL PORTILLO:

-'For Victorian Britons,

'George Bradshaw was a household name.

'At a time when railways were new,

'Bradshaw's guide book inspired them

'to take to the tracks.'

I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide to understand how trains transformed

Britain - its landscape, its industry, society and leisure time.

As I crisscross the country 150 years later,

it helps me to discover the Britain of today.

I'm now completing my journey from the East Midlands

to England's North East.

Those fathers of the railway, George and Robert Stephenson,

were Tynesiders, and many of their early locomotives, including Rocket,

were built in their Newcastle works.

Today, I'll look at engineering

not so much on the Tyne as over the Tyne,

and see the works that grace the banks of the river now.

'Following my Bradshaw's Guide,

'my journey this week has taken me up the spine of England,

'from the East Midlands to the rugged Pennine hills,

'and across the West Yorkshire Riding.

'Heading up the coast,

'I visited the conurbations neighbouring the North Sea.

'I'll end my journey on the island of Lindisfarne.

'On today's leg, I explore one of England's most beautiful

'and rugged counties - Northumberland.

'Beginning in Newcastle, I'll travel up the coast to Alnmouth,

'before taking a boat to the Farne Islands.

'My final stop will be Lindisfarne.

'I discover the earliest-surviving water-powered swing bridge....'

Yeah. We have no brakes, so it's a guessing game.

'..I'm humbled by the courage of a Victorian heroine...'

-All of this in the tumultuous sea and wind and rain?

-Absolutely.

'..and learn about the science of lime burning.'

-MAN:

-The temperatures are anything between 1,200 and 1,500 degrees centigrade at this level.

Bradshaw says that, "Newcastle has rapidly increased in its dimensions

"since the commencement of the present century.

"Its situation, on the navigable river

"and in the greatest coal district in the world, are the chief causes."

I want to see how Victorian engineers applied their expertise

not only on the banks of the Tyne, but to the torrent itself.

'Newcastle's history stretches back almost 2,000 years, during which

'time it's been controlled by the Romans, Saxons and Danes.

'Its pride and prize is the River Tyne.

'In the 19th century,

'its shipbuilding yards were some of the busiest in the world.'

-Hello.

-Sir. I'm a great, great fan.

-Thank you.

-Brilliant.

-Just keep it up.

-Thank you.

'In the mid-19th century,

'Newcastle engineer Sir William Armstrong harnessed the power

'of water to develop the first hydraulic crane

'and hydroelectric light.

'A visionary inventor, scientist and businessman,

'he employed over 25,000 people at his Elswick works

'on the north bank of the Tyne.'

'I'm meeting biographer and historian Henrietta Heald,

'who's written about Armstrong's life.'

My guidebook has an interesting description of the Tyne

in the mid-19th century.

"The coal, being brought to the waterside by railway,

"is shot through staves into the holds of vessels

"or carried down-river in barges and shovelled on board."

Apparently, then, the process of getting coal onto the ships

was cumbersome and I believe William Armstrong did something to solve it.

Yes, he certainly did. He invented the hydraulic crane,

which completely revolutionised the loading and unloading of ships.

-Hydraulic implies water.

-Yes.

He was fascinated, all the way through his life,

with the use of water as the motive power.

And so, once he found a way

of getting water to the Newcastle quayside,

he then persuaded the city fathers to let him

experiment with the crane.

And he'd already worked out the technology for it,

which was really concentrating the water into a single column.

So, if he could get a good head of water coming through a pipe,

it would give him the means of then using the weight of the water

to lift very heavy weights.

'Some of Armstrong's experiments were carried out

'at his country home at Cragside.

'He used the water from his lakes to drive his household machinery

'hydraulically, including the kitchen's roasting spit.'

How significant was the invention of the hydraulic crane?

Well, I mean, it was revolutionary.

And not just in Britain, but it was actually all over the world,

when you think of the processes that it could make more efficient.

'Armstrong's hydraulic crane was then rapidly adopted

'by railways and ports across the world.

'The decks of London's Tower Bridge

'were raised by development of his hydraulic technology.

'But perhaps he's most famous locally for the Swing Bridge,

'which he invented and subsidised.'

He wanted to have a shipyard at his works at Elswick,

which are 12 miles from the sea.

And he had to go beyond Newcastle, upriver from Newcastle.

And the bridge that was here at the time

was an 18th-century stone arch bridge,

and there's no way you can get a ship through that.

So, he persuaded Newcastle to demolish that bridge

and replace it with a swing bridge, which would just swing open,

and a ship could go either side.

'The Elswick works began production in 1847,

'and business developed swiftly.

'The works made everything, from hydraulic machinery,

'ammunition for field guns and warships,

'and later the ships themselves.

'When Armstrong died on 27 December 1900 at the age of 90,

'the Times wrote in his obituary,

'"With his death, Newcastle loses her greatest citizen."

'I'd like to pay tribute to this visionary

'Victorian engineer by visiting his swing bridge.'

-Steve.

-Hello.

-Michael.

-Hello there.

-Very good to see you.

A wonderful array of old machinery.

Is the thing much as it was in William Armstrong's time?

It certainly is.

Everything's original, down to the pipework,

the engine, the gearbox, the whole lot.

Wow. It was originally steam-powered.

-I imagine it isn't today.

-Electric.

-Electric?

-Yeah.

We've moved from steam in 1956, I believe, to the electric motor,

which is obviously more efficient.

I don't quite understand.

How do you convert the weight of water

into a bridge that swings around a circle?

Well, we'll have a water accumulator,

-which funnily enough you're actually standing on the lid of.

-Oh, right.

So, we pump a large weight to the top of a ram -

it's about 65 tonnes, actually.

This weight's held with a valve at the bottom,

and as soon as you open that valve, you have 65 tonnes of hydraulic

water pressure acting through the pipework onto this engine.

-Any chance we could have a go with it?

-Certainly. Why not?

Ha. Well, Steve, even though this is

one of the lower bridges on the Tyne,

-you have a wonderful view from here, don't you?

-Yes.

-Commanding.

It's quite nice. You can see the Tyne Bridge, etc. It's pretty good.

And you make the bridge work with these really quite small levers?

Yes. These three levers here, and that one there,

and that's all we'll have up here to work this bridge.

I'll now lift the bridge ends up.

And you can feel when they're there...

..just by the handle. They're there.

Blocks clear. If you would like to move that one to there,

that'll pull our blocks out.

You can sense what's happening...

WATER FLOWS

-..as the system fills.

-Gurgling sound.

Excellent. Now, let's spin her round.

So, we'll check the coast is clear, which it is.

And we shall go for a swing.

WARNING ALARM

-The bridge has begun to move.

-We're OK.

-Quite fast. I'm quite surprised.

Yeah. We're OK.

We have no brakes, so it's a guessing game.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

This is amazing, isn't it?

To be spun around in the middle of the Tyne,

getting all these tremendous views.

-I'm just a little nervous as to how we're going to dock.

-So am I.

The bridge appears to be slowing a bit,

so I would put a bit more gas on.

-You're bringing it right back to its resting position.

-That's correct.

And you've got to get it just spot on.

-This is quite a difficult bit of parking, isn't it?

-It can be.

And I believe we may have missed.

HE LAUGHS

I overshot six inches. Eight inches.

So, we will have to go in reverse a very small amount.

And off.

And we'll be home there.

Steelwork matches, kerbstones match.

-And that's it.

-Beautiful job!

'I have great admiration for the simplicity

'and beauty of Victorian engineering,

'and I believe that we should celebrate this colossus of a man.

'At the time of my guidebook, the signs of Newcastle's great

'industrial and engineering heyday were everywhere.

'The river would have been crowded with ships

'carrying coal and supplies up and down the Tyne.

'150 years later, Newcastle's famous bridges still span the river,

'but the coal and shipbuilding industries are gone.

'In their place, Newcastle and Gateshead have reinvented Tyneside,

'with the help of striking modern structures.

'On the Gateshead quayside, in what was formerly a flour mill,

'is the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

'Director Godfrey Worsdale knows about its transformation.'

Godfrey, a superb view over some of the old buildings of Newcastle,

and some of the very strikingly new ones of Gateshead.

And, of course, the river with now its magnificent bridges.

What was the scene here at the time of my Bradshaw's Guide?

This was the old Gateshead ironworks, where the

materials were created to construct

Robert Stephenson's High Level Bridge, which is the third along.

And, yeah, really a place where a lot of the Industrial Revolution

was pushed along.

I was rather staggered to discover that this building

is actually not a great deal older than I am.

Mm-hm, correct.

The flour mill was constructed either side of the Second World War,

and is one of a number of flour mills that Rank Hovis

built around the British coast.

How did anyone have the idea of making an arts centre

out of this vast space?

Well, I think Gateshead Council need to be recognised

as one of the most visionary

in terms of its culture-led regeneration program.

So, we have the Angel of the North.

We have the Sage Gateshead concert hall.

The idea to exploit this massive piece of architecture

for a creative purpose was one that Gateshead invested real belief in,

and I think that's been repaid.

Today the Baltic is preparing to show an international

installation by the French artist Daniel Buren,

who's created a striking effect by mixing films

of different colour with daylight.

Do you have in your mind a sense of continuing to trade here?

Absolutely.

The way in which the mill used to bring grain from all over the world,

now we bring art, we bring culture,

and we show the people of this part of the UK -

and, actually, across the whole of the UK -

terrific examples of the best art in the world.

'Throughout the four floors of the flour mill,

'artworks playfully colour the Baltic.

'Its large spaces remind us of its history

'and make ideal galleries.'

What strikes me - what might have struck George Bradshaw, perhaps -

is that on Tyneside, where the artisans replaced the artists,

it is still on the industrial scale.

That's absolutely right, and I think this building enables us,

as it enabled industry before,

to do things in an impressive

and ambitious way.

Tyneside's ambition is evident in its Millennium Bridge,

known affectionately as the Blinking Eye.

I've headed back to Newcastle's Central Station,

and the East Coast Main Line, heading north to Alnmouth.

Thanks very much.

-TANNOY:

-Ladies and gentlemen, in a few moments

we'll be arriving at Alnmouth.

Alnmouth, next stop.

'Situated on the estuary of the River Aln,

'and close to the sea,

'it's been an important settlement since Saxon times.

'But it's also a peaceful setting to enjoy the evening

'after a day of appreciating the Tyne old and new.'

'I'm up early, and I'm reminded that until the arrival of the railway,

'travel by boat would have been the fastest way

'of getting around the country.

'But in 1898, the North Sunderland Railway Line was built to connect

'the East Coast Main Line with Seahouses,

'a village further up the coast.

'The four-mile line, used to transport the fishermen's catch,

'closed in 1951.

'Seahouses today retains the character of a fishing village,

'but most of its boats now ferry tourists to the Farne Islands.'

My travels have brought me close to Bamburgh Castle,

which Bradshaw's tells me is

"a Saxon fortress, recently restored,

"serving now as a beacon for seamen.

"Not far off are the Farne Islands,

"where that courageous heroine Grace Darling

"saved the crew of the steamer Forfarshire.

"She and her father had charge of the Longstone light."

So, I'm going to exchange my train for a boat

and go in search of that Darling of the Victorian press.

This is a fine crossing.

There's rain in the air.

A cloudy sky creates a slate-grey sea.

Bamburgh Castle looming over the strait,

and the Longstone Lighthouse looks like a mighty lonely place.

-George, hello.

-Hello there.

What should I expect of the Farne Islands? What are they like?

At this time of year, it's very busy with birdlife.

There's over 120,000 pairs of birds

nest on these islands at this time of year.

-How extraordinary.

-Yeah. Half of them being the puffin.

I love puffins.

Yeah, well, should see a lot this morning as we go along.

And there's also guillemots, razorbills,

kittiwakes and shags as well.

So, we'll see lots of birdlife.

This is a glorious sight.

A metropolis of wild birds sitting there on their crags and rocks.

A Hong Kong of guillemots, and razorbills,

and cormorants, and puffins.

'The setting for an exceptional colony of birdlife,

'these windswept islands have also been a danger to shipping.

'Rocks along the coast have claimed hundreds of ships and lives.'

-Thank you, George.

-OK, sir.

-Wonderful trip. Thank you.

'I'm meeting Caroline Aldridge,

'who knows about the islands' most-famous wreck

'and its connection to Grace Darling.'

After the most glorious boat trip,

I've arrived here in this lonely spot, the Longstone Lighthouse.

I'm just trying to imagine, who was this Grace Darling?

She was a lighthouse keeper's daughter,

and she was living here at Longstone,

and in 1838, a terrible storm blew up,

and a ship called the SS Forfarshire was swept onto the rocks over there,

and at that time there was only Grace and her mother

and father in the lighthouse.

And so, Grace and her father took the coble, the boat,

out to rescue the survivors from Big Harcar rock over there.

'The Forfarshire was a paddle steamer

'built in Dundee in 1834

'to carry passengers and cargo between Hull and Dundee.

'She weighed 450 tonnes, and was built to sail under steam or canvas.

'On 7 September 1838, with some 60 people aboard,

'her engines failed.

'Battling near gale-force north-easterly winds,

'the ship hit the rocks and broke in two.'

A few survivors, nine people in total,

managed to scramble onto Great Harcar rock.

Another nine people managed to scramble into a lifeboat,

and they were then picked up and taken to North Shields,

and the Darling family rescued the survivors who were on Great Harcar.

'The rescue was risky, but with lives at stake

'and no-one but Grace to help him,

'William set out to do his duty.'

Normally it was a boat that would be rowed by at least three men,

and William had to go out

with his sort of 5'2", 22-year-old daughter

into this storm to try and carry out this rescue.

And so, they approached the rock with people clinging onto it.

What do they do then?

William scrambled onto the rock to assist the survivors,

whilst Grace held the coble steady,

which meant she had to row it back and forth by herself,

making sure she didn't hit the rock, but equally

that she wasn't swept out,

literally leaving her father and the survivors on the rock.

-And all of this in the tumultuous sea and wind and rain.

-Absolutely.

William said it was one of the worst moments of his life,

leaving his daughter literally in this boat

and not knowing what on earth was going to happen.

'Grace managed to hold the boat in position,

'and she and her father saved nine lives.'

What was the reaction of Victorian society

when they heard about this rescue?

The story spread. It was picked up by the national papers,

and Grace really became a massive heroine

because it was something that a young woman

was not expected to be able to do.

The name probably helped as well. I mean, Grace Darling.

How wonderful a name for a heroine can you get?

Um, and so it just became more and more massive.

Within about seven weeks of the rescue,

Grace was receiving invitations to appear in an exhibition,

probably at a theatre or something.

'Queen Victoria sent Grace £50 to reward her bravery,

'and her name became known throughout the world

'because of the daring rescue.'

-Did she live long after the incident?

-No.

Tragically, she didn't.

She carried out the rescue when she was 22 years old,

and only lived another four years, dying just before her 27th birthday.

'Our heroine was a victim of consumption.'

Possibly, in a way, because she died so young,

that also, sort of, kept her memory as this amazing heroine.

It seems to me that even if there has been some mythology,

even if there has been some exaggeration around her deed,

it was an act of extraordinary bravery which, luckily,

is remembered in my Bradshaw's Guide.

'Today, the wreck of the Forfarshire is still visited by divers.

'As for the lighthouse, more than 170 years later,

'it's still saving lives.

'Though, with automation, it's no longer manned.

'Whilst the North Sea coastline holds its dangers for shipping,

'it's also one of Britain's most beautiful.

'In the sixth century,

'the kings of Northumbria chose Bamburgh as their royal capital.

'And in 1894, Sir William Armstrong

'bought Bamburgh Castle for £60,000 to create a convalescent home.

'I won't linger at Bamburgh on this occasion.

'I'll push on to the final stop of my journey.

'To travel to Lindisfarne, I must first consult the tide tables.'

Today you can reach Holy Island across a causeway,

'but only at low tide.

In days of yore, the monks used to cross the sands

when the water allowed on what's known as the Pilgrim's Way.

And today, the faithful occasionally retrace

their wet footprints in the sand.

'It was at Lindisfarne that St Aidan chose to build

'a monastery in 635 AD.

'From there, he helped to spread Christianity

'through northern England.

'It was the seat of 16 bishops until 875,

'when it was overrun by Vikings.

'The present ruins date from around 1150, and are magnificent.'

-I see you're visiting Holy Island.

-Indeed.

I wondered whether you'd had a feeling of holiness here today.

-Absolutely.

-Very restful.

-It's very restful, isn't it?

-Very peaceful.

It's a tranquil environment,

and it's lovely to be here on a beautiful day.

The view from here is pretty spectacular, isn't it?

-SHE SIGHS

-It's so beautiful.

It's a beautiful area, isn't it?

This morning at nine o'clock it wouldn't have given you that view,

because it was throwing it down with rain,

but at this stage of the day, it's absolutely magnificent.

Why do you think the place is spiritual?

From my point of view, because I'm not religious,

it's just a sense of well-being. It's tranquillity. It's isolation.

It's the beauty of the countryside. It's a fantastic building.

It just has so many wonderful properties.

-It's difficult to express it.

-I think I agree with my husband.

-That's a good thing to do.

-Indeed.

-That's a first.

He has to drive me home.

'Peace and tranquillity now reign,

'but the island has a busy industrial past.

'I'm meeting Nick Lewis from the National Trust.'

What did the Victorians make of Lindisfarne?

Generally, they weren't too fond of it.

Some saw its potential as a place

for soothing waters and things like that,

but certainly some people saw its potential

from an industrial point of view.

There are vast lime quarries on the north shore of the island,

and they were exploited as part of a lime industry

which developed in the second half of the 19th century.

-Lindisfarne as an industrial site. That is a new thought to me.

-Yeah.

Well, I suppose everyone associates it with the spiritual side,

and peace, I suppose.

So, industry is kind of the opposite to that,

but it absolutely would have been an industrial site

for most of the second half of the 19th century.

'Monks began lime burning on Lindisfarne,

'using the product for building and to nourish the soil.

'Very much later, the Victorians built six open-top lime kilns

'close to the Tudor castle and the water.

'Ships would unload coal and limestone,

'and depart with burned lime.'

Well, it seems to me even the lime kilns have an ecclesiastical feel,

with their pointed arches.

Yeah. They do bear a resemblance to a church or a cathedral.

And the architecture is so spectacular and so strong.

-It's one of the reasons it survived so well.

-And what was the process?

Well, basically, they were bringing in vast quantities of coal

and limestone into these kilns via railways.

In fact, one ran on this very route we're taking.

And they'd be burning it, the limestone,

at hugely high temperatures to extract that finished substance.

And, of course, it would then be taken away on these same railway

lines to the jetty, where it could be exported for profit.

Ah. As far as the Victorians were concerned,

nowhere was too holy for profit.

Well, I think this is a first for me.

I don't think I've ever stood in a lime kiln before.

What was this like when it was in use?

I should think it would be unpleasant for us to stand here.

The temperatures were anything between 1,200 and 1,500 degrees centigrade at this level.

But that was a required temperature to produce the lime that they were after.

And so, on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne,

there was this burning cauldron of Hell.

The English adopted Christianity early,

and some of their holiest shrines were in the north-east.

During the course of my travels with the Quaker George Bradshaw,

I've seen some of the country's finest ecclesiastical buildings.

Right into the Victorian period,

entrepreneurs and reformers were motivated by religion,

but the age of science brought its doubts and challenges to orthodoxy.

In the railway age,

it was more difficult to maintain the pure faith that once motivated

the Anglo-Saxon monks here at Lindisfarne.

'Next time, I'll visit the dockyard

'that built Queen Victoria's royal yacht,

'discover a 19th-century rural railway

'being given a new lease of life...'

It is the most beautiful summer's day,

and this lovely restored track

threads its way along the scenic valley of the Gwili River,

and I'm on my own private train.

What bliss!

'..and learn how to pose for a photograph, Victorian style.'

Try not to smile, because in Victorian times,

if you're smiling, you seemed a bit of a buffoon.

THEY LAUGH

I wish someone had told me that long ago.