Swansea to Hereford Great British Railway Journeys


Swansea to Hereford

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For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new, Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them

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to take to the tracks.

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I'm using Bradshaw's guide to understand how trains

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transformed Britain -

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its landscape, its industries, society and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country 150 years later,

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it helps me to discover the Britain of today.

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Today, I am excited to be embarking on the Heart of Wales line.

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Completed only in 1868 to serve the needs of the agricultural,

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tin and anthracite industries,

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now it's used mainly by locals and tourists who gasp at its spectacular

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viaducts and tunnels on a line that is historic, scenic and epic.

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This week, I'm travelling across Britain

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from west Wales to East Anglia.

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My journey, which began in Pembroke Dock, continued to Swansea

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and now passes through the valleys and mountains of Wales,

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crossing into Herefordshire and moving south-east to Oxford

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to take in Bedford and to end in Cambridge.

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Today's leg begins in Swansea,

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moves north to marvel at the exotic in Llandeilo,

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finds a room with a view in Ludlow,

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heads south to Leominster, before arriving in Hereford.

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On this journey, I receive a lesson in Welsh pronunciation...

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Start from Pantyffynnon to Llandeilo,

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then there's Llandeilo to Llandovery, Llandovery to Llanwrtyd.

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You don't get confused with all your Llans do you?

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Well, I don't! HE CHUCKLES

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..step into my dancing shoes for a quadrille...

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And away they go!

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..and put my schoolboy scrumping skills to good use.

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Heavens. That is delicious!

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-Nice and fruity, isn't it?

-Oh!

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Be even better when it's alcoholic!

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HE LAUGHS Definitely.

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Part of your five a day, that.

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This part of the line had been built by 1857,

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and so my Bradshaw's lists the stations which are tongue twisters

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for the non-Welsh-speaker.

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Llanelly, Llandeilo, Llangadock, Llandovery.

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I'll be getting off at Llandeilo in order to visit Aberglasney,

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magnetised, as Victorians were, by its old-fashioned gardens.

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At the time of my guidebook, in order to reach the gardens

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visitors would pass through the picturesque medieval market town

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of Llandeilo on the River Towy.

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With the expansion of the British Empire, exotic plants

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such as rhododendrons and azaleas reached Britain.

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By the mid-19th century, botany had gripped the nation.

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With it came revived interest in formal garden design

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of earlier eras.

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So it's no surprise that Aberglasney's Elizabethan parterres

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were a source of inspiration to green-fingered Victorians.

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I'm meeting Roger Evans of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust.

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Roger, there's a delightful tranquillity here.

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A lady visiting about the time of my Bradshaw's Guide, Hermione Jennings,

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talked about it being a curiously old-fashioned place.

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What would she have meant by that?

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Well, the basic structure of the garden goes back to the early 1600s

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and has remained fundamentally unchanged since that time

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So these structures, what were their origins?

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When Bishop Rudd moved here as bishop of St David's in 1594,

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he brought with him the idea of cloisters

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from his previous posting at Gloucester Cathedral,

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and so he built these magnificent cloisters.

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And fortunately, these remain now the only cloistered gardens

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left in the UK.

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But not all of the gardens are frozen in time.

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In 2005, the Trust created something new - a Ninfarium.

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It took its inspiration from the Italian gardens of Ninfa,

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planted amongst medieval ruins.

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The Ninfarium occupies the mansion's ruinous central rooms and courtyard.

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It's subtropical in here!

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I sense how exciting the grand glass houses of the 18th

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and 19th centuries must have seemed to the Victorians.

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Amongst the tropical plants I am meeting volunteer gardener,

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Helen Scutt.

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The Victorians had a fondness for glasshouses?

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They did because I suppose it was a different environment for them,

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they could express their artistic urge.

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And of course, when all these plant explorers came back

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with these new exotic plants, things like pineapples,

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these strange, bizarre things -

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ginger and passion flowers -

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they had nowhere to grow them

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because, of course, it's rainy and wet in Britain.

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So they had to build these houses, if you like, to show them off in,

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so why not create something quite beautiful at the same time?

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Everyday Victorians were inspired by the grand glasshouses

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of Regent's Park and Kew Gardens.

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With innovations in manufacturing

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and the abolition of the window tax in 1851,

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they might hope to emulate them at a domestic scale.

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What do you think the Victorians

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would have made of a space like this?

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They would have loved it.

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They liked anything that was new and off-centre and exciting,

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and I think this is a very exciting space.

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They were building grottos and other sort of garden buildings,

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so to come into a ruined garden like this,

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I think they would have loved it.

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It's now time to resume my journey north-east,

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through mid Wales towards Ludlow.

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I am going back on the Heart of Wales line

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as it enters ever-more picturesque countryside.

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The best place to see its twists and turns

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is from the driver's point of view in the cab.

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I am keen to appreciate why this line, completed in 1868,

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is known as one of the most scenic in Britain.

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Long-serving driver Haydn Williams

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is happy for me to ride shotgun.

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A very picturesque line, Haydn.

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Do you think it is up there with the best in Britain?

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Oh, definitely.

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The best, probably.

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How long have you been driving it?

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Uh.. Since 1970, I started.

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And this is the line I started on.

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-Good heavens. That is a long time.

-That is a long time.

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There's some quite spectacular features, aren't there?

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You've got a couple of viaducts and a tunnel?

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Yes, we've got Cynghordy Viaduct,

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which is just the other side of Llandovery.

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Plus you've got Sugar Loaf Tunnel.

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It's 1,001 yards long.

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Much of the Heart of Wales line is single track

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and a Victorian signalling system that allows trains to pass safely

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is still in use today.

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Single track, how do you manage occupation of the track?

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With the token.

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This is what gives you permission to be on the track.

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This train doesn't go anywhere without this.

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When do we exchange that?

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We exchange it now in Llandovery, for the next section.

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Do you know how long that system has existed?

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Well, before I started!

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HE LAUGHS

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-Very ancient indeed!

-Oh! Well, yeah.

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Electronic token block signalling was in service by 1880.

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Only the driver in possession of a token

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could occupy a block of track at a given time.

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It proved fail-safe.

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2957 at Llandovery. I put Llandeilo-Llandovery token in.

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Can I have the Llandovery-Llanwrtyd token out, please?

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-You've asked permission to get the token.

-Yes.

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-And he's now going to release that?

-That's it. And we get the light.

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If you don't get the light, you can't get the token out.

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Should then get a series of lights. There we are.

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I've got Llandovery-Llanwrtyd token,

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the white set-for-departure light is lit and the TPWS is flashing.

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There's only one of these tokens, is there?

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There's more than one token but there's only token out at one time

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and this is the only one that can be released.

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You cannot release any more tokens out of the machine now

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-until we put this one back in.

-Aha.

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-So we can be clear that the track is ours?

-Yes.

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-So we have our new token.

-Yes, we do.

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How many places are there along the line

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where you have to exchange the token?

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The five sections are start from Pantyffynnon to Llandeilo,

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then there's Llandeilo to Llandovery,

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Llandovery to Llanwrtyd, Llanwrtyd to Llandrindod,

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and Llandrindod to Knighton.

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It's easy for you to say!

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Then the final one, Knighton to Craven Arms.

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Oh, that one I can manage!

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You don't get confused with all your Llans do you?

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Well, I don't!

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I am looking forward to the Cynghordy Viaduct.

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Will I get a good view of it?

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Yes, you will.

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It gives you quite a view of the valley either side as well,

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which is quite spectacular.

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Oh, I can see the arches now spreading out below.

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That is beautiful!

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That is superb.

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In 1860, the Central Wales Extension Railway

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commissioned the Cynghordy Viaduct.

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18 arches long, this magnificent structure of sandstone and brick

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stands at a dizzying height of 100 foot over the Bran Valley.

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-What's our next stop, Haydn?

-Llandrindod Well is our next stop.

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It's where we change tokens and I will change with the other driver.

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Ah, well. I have really enjoyed my ride had a fantastic view

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and I have enjoyed your passion for Heart of Wales Line.

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-Thank you.

-Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

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Today, the line carries around 200,000 people a year,

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but historically it carried freight - mainly iron and coal.

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Britain was building great iron ships

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and railways for world markets and the demand for coal,

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used in iron smelting and for steam power, was growing rapidly.

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By the 1870s, Welsh coal production had exceeded 18 million tonnes.

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As the train pulls into Llandrindod Wells, I'm in for a surprise.

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Well, hello!

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CROWD SHOUTS: Hello!

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What a wonderfully, beautifully dressed group of people you are!

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-Very nice to see you.

-How do you do?

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Why are you having a Victorian festival?

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Victorian town, spa town,

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and this is an annual festival which has been going for 33 years.

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We heard you were on the train, so we've all come to welcome you.

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-That's really sweet of you.

-We're thrilled to bits to see you.

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-Can I just hold that?

-You may hold the Bradshaw's! Oh!

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THE CROWD CHEERS

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May I say that I never seen a better dressed group of people

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on any railway station in Britain!

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-Have a wonderful festival!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

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Thank you very much.

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Once connected to the line in 1868,

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remote spa towns like Llandrindod Wells

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were transformed into holiday resorts.

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Tourists from South Wales, the Midlands and Northeast England

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flocked to the town's spas and pools to take the waters.

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I am now on my way to Craven Arms,

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where I shall take a mainline train and head south into Shropshire.

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My destination now is Ludlow.

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Bradshaw's tells me that of the old castle, the only remains are

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a chapel in the Norman style, a great hall

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and a keep 100ft high.

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I can think of no better way to end my day

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than with a delightful panorama.

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The arrival of the train in 1852 transformed Ludlow into

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something of a tourist magnet, with the castle as its main attraction.

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And before I turn in for the night, I am heading straight to the top.

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By the 15th century, Ludlow Castle was the seat of government

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for Wales and the border counties,

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and thanks to its pivotal role in the War of the Roses,

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a royal palace too.

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Ah, yes. What a view.

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Looking that way towards Wales.

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Here taking in the county of Shropshire.

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An excellent vista over the ruins of the castle.

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That, I believe, with the fine tower, is the church of St Laurence.

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And the River Teme just below me.

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As so often before, Bradshaw's has been a reliable guide.

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After a good night's sleep, I am continuing my journey south

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towards Hereford.

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My first stop today is Leominster.

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Bradshaw's tells me that it has,

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"..a considerable trade in wheat, wool, hops and cider.

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"Many of the buildings of timber and plaster are grotesquely ornamented."

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It recommends the Lion Hotel.

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Leominster was at a hub of Georgian coach routes.

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Hotels like the Lion, offering travellers entertainment,

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experienced a boom.

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I'm visiting the Lion Hotel's ballroom.

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For it was here in 1853 that a grand ball was held

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to celebrate the opening of the Ludlow to Hereford railway.

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James.

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-Morning, Michael.

-Very good to see you.

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Owner James Hinton has kindly offered to show me inside.

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It's superb!

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With its lovely pillars and its chandeliers.

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Tell me about the history of this ballroom.

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The hotel itself was a coaching inn and, obviously before the railways,

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coaching was the prominent means of getting people and parcels

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around the country.

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And this was the grand assembly room for the hotel.

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Built in 1840 in the fashionable neo-classical style,

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it was designed to host formal dances.

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But the Lion Hotel's lavish improvement came too late.

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Within a decade of reopening, it was bankrupt.

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What happened to the hotel?

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Well, unfortunately the railways are what happened to the hotel.

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You're serious? The impact of the railway was that immediate?

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Yes. You didn't need a horse and carriage to get to Hereford -

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you had the railways.

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Suddenly you could travel around the country within a day

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as opposed to three or four days.

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Within a week of the service being up and running,

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the hotel was available to let.

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I notice that the ballroom is in superb condition,

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so I'm assuming it's still used for functions?

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Oh, very much so. It still gets used for, would you believe,

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-Victorian dancing.

-Really?

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Yes!

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MICHAEL LAUGHS

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How elegant! How beautiful!

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Welcome, ladies.

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Evidently, you do perform Victorian dances here.

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Yes, we do. Yes.

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-Every week.

-Every week?

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Yes, we have a practice and run through mostly quadrilles.

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A Quadrille was a fashionable formation dance imported from Paris.

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Together with the waltz, polka and mazurka

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it became a favourite on the Victorian dance floor.

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As you may have feared, I'm going to give it a go.

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TRIO PLAYS A CLASSICAL PIECE

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For the aspiring middle class, strict protocols governed

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how to behave and dress, and they extended to the ballroom.

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Ladies danced by invitation

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and introductions could be made only by a husband or chaperone.

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The rule book is extensive.

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I'm clutching on to the rule that says,

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"What happens in the ballroom stays in the ballroom."

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Apart from a few bruised toes, my performance will be forgotten.

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Thank you.

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Dear lady.

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SHE CHUCKLES

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After my impromptu dance lesson, I'm in need of refreshment.

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Travelling south through the West Midlands,

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my final destination of this leg promises to be just the ticket.

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I am going now as far as Hereford.

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Bradshaw's tells me that, "The soil is a rich tract of meadow, orchard

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"and timber, and the internal trade is chiefly in agricultural products,

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"good cider and perry, which require a little brandy to qualify them."

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Well, I feel qualified by experience to sample them.

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Hereford boasts a long history of cider making,

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which moved forward with the Industrial Revolution

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from farmhouse cider mills to factory production.

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The coming of the railway in 1853 opened new markets

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and the cider factories helped the industry to survive

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the Great Agricultural Depression of the late 19th century.

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Today, there's a growing taste for specialist ciders,

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which keeps farmers like Dennis Gwatkin very busy.

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Hello, Dennis!

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Hello there! Hello.

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Vigorous action. I take it it's harvest time?

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Yes, it's this time of year again.

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These apples are much smaller than I imagined.

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Yeah, they're cider apples.

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They're unlike your eaters and cookers.

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They're like little bullets, really.

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They're bittersweet.

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Mmm. Not bad, though. Not bad at all.

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In 1877, 24,000 acres of Herefordshire

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were given over to orchards,

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more than any other county in Britain.

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Bradshaw's talks about needing a little brandy to qualify the cider.

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What does that mean?

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Some of the cider, especially the farm ciders years ago,

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was pretty rough stuff.

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The scrumpy, as you might say.

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And sometimes when it was drank in the pubs or cider houses of the day,

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they put a little bit of brandy with it to make it a bit more palatable.

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So how to make cider. First grow your apples,

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second get the apples off the tree.

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-Can I give you a hand with that?

-Yeah, by all means!

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Watch you head, watch you head.

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DENNIS LAUGHS

0:23:060:23:08

We're not going to get drunk tonight, are we!

0:23:090:23:11

THEY BOTH LAUGH

0:23:110:23:13

Shaking the tree to harvest the ripe fruit is a tried and tested method.

0:23:140:23:18

Finally, I have enough apples to make my first batch of cider.

0:23:210:23:24

This looks like a fine vintage piece of machinery you've got here.

0:23:300:23:34

Yeah, it's a Victorian cider mill and press, travelling mill and press.

0:23:340:23:37

ENGINE CRANKS UP

0:23:380:23:40

We're off!

0:23:400:23:41

And away they go!

0:23:450:23:48

The machinery may be outdated but the production method is sound.

0:23:480:23:53

The mill passes the apples between two stone rollers

0:23:530:23:56

to produce pulp for the press.

0:23:560:23:59

MACHINE CHUGS

0:23:590:24:01

I learnt my technique shovelling on a steam engine!

0:24:070:24:10

Similar thing, I guess.

0:24:100:24:12

My next task is to fill the press with layers of pulp

0:24:120:24:16

sandwiched between porous cheesecloths

0:24:160:24:18

to separate out the juice.

0:24:180:24:19

Getting near full, I would say, now. That's getting near enough.

0:24:210:24:23

Now we've got to fold the cloths over to form the cheese.

0:24:230:24:27

We take the press board off.

0:24:270:24:29

-Nice heavy board.

-Yup.

0:24:290:24:31

A couple of oak blocks.

0:24:310:24:33

Now the hard work begins.

0:24:330:24:35

And you'll begin to see the juice start to run.

0:24:380:24:40

Excellent. We have our first drops, I think.

0:24:400:24:42

It's coming.

0:24:420:24:44

TRICKLING

0:24:440:24:45

The juice is strained through the cloth into a barrel,

0:24:450:24:48

where it will ferment for two months.

0:24:480:24:51

MICHAEL STRAINS

0:24:540:24:55

We've got a good flow there.

0:24:570:24:58

Can you actually drink that stuff?

0:24:580:25:00

Oh, yeah. It's pure apple juice, that.

0:25:000:25:02

Now's the time to drink it

0:25:020:25:03

to know what sort of cider you're going to get.

0:25:030:25:05

MICHAEL GROANS

0:25:050:25:06

Straight off the press.

0:25:070:25:08

Heavens! That is delicious.

0:25:120:25:13

-Nice and fruity, isn't it?

-Oh! Mmm!

0:25:130:25:16

Be even better when it's alcoholic.

0:25:160:25:18

DENNIS LAUGHS Definitely!

0:25:180:25:19

Part of your five a day, that.

0:25:190:25:20

After today's physical exertion, I feel a refreshment is deserved.

0:25:220:25:27

I can't imagine a more charming hostelry

0:25:270:25:29

than Dennis' historic cider house.

0:25:290:25:31

Who came in here?

0:25:340:25:35

The farm workers, the locals.

0:25:350:25:37

And that thing which looks as if it belongs to a St Bernard,

0:25:370:25:40

what is that?

0:25:400:25:41

DENNIS CHUCKLES That is a costrel.

0:25:410:25:43

That is an old term for a vessel that would have been taken out

0:25:430:25:46

in the fields every day by the farm workers

0:25:460:25:49

and that was actually paid as part of their wages.

0:25:490:25:52

-Cider?

-Cider. Definitely, yeah.

0:25:520:25:54

The better the cider, the better the farm workers, the farm got,

0:25:540:25:57

so it was in their interest to make sure they made a good drop.

0:25:570:25:59

They were allowed two of those a day.

0:25:590:26:01

Cos all that stuff was banned in the middle Victorian period

0:26:010:26:05

by a thing called the Truck Act.

0:26:050:26:06

Yes, I think the politicians stepped in

0:26:060:26:09

and stopped a good thing, as usual!

0:26:090:26:10

The 1887 Truck Act was one of many attempts to stamp out

0:26:130:26:17

the practice of payment in kind and with it bonded labour.

0:26:170:26:21

The rapid changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution

0:26:210:26:25

prompted enlightened Victorians to enact a raft of laws

0:26:250:26:29

aimed at protecting both adults and children at work.

0:26:290:26:32

-What have we here?

-This is a pint of Yarlington Mill.

0:26:330:26:35

It is a nice medium-sweet, fresh sort of tasting cider, that one.

0:26:350:26:40

Oh. That is lovely. Mmm, I like that.

0:26:410:26:45

Would I know about it if I drank a pint or two?

0:26:450:26:47

Oh, most definitely.

0:26:470:26:48

This is about 7% in alcohol, so it's...

0:26:480:26:51

You're not serious?

0:26:510:26:52

Oh, most serious.

0:26:520:26:54

Oh, my goodness. Well, bottoms up!

0:26:540:26:56

And thank you very much for offering me this lovely pint.

0:26:570:27:00

Not a problem at all.

0:27:000:27:02

I think for your hard day's labour, this is payment in kind.

0:27:020:27:05

I thought that had been banned!

0:27:060:27:08

A perfect day is drawing to a close and there's just enough time

0:27:100:27:14

to finish my pint before heading to the station to continue my journey.

0:27:140:27:18

From this part of my journey,

0:27:250:27:27

I should like to forget my attempts to stumble around a ballroom.

0:27:270:27:31

And cider laced with brandy, as recommended by my Bradshaw's,

0:27:310:27:35

would certainly induce oblivion.

0:27:350:27:37

But I shall long remember the Heart of Wales railway,

0:27:370:27:41

a Victorian masterpiece, in itself a thing of beauty,

0:27:410:27:44

which has enabled generations to appreciate the splendours

0:27:440:27:48

of the Welsh hillsides passing their carriage window at a leisurely pace.

0:27:480:27:53

'Next time, my heart is in my mouth as I go down a mine...'

0:27:590:28:03

We're 300ft below the surface and it's a strange feeling, isn't it?

0:28:030:28:06

It is, yep.

0:28:060:28:08

'..I plough my way through Oxfordshire...'

0:28:080:28:10

-You happy there? Are you a relaxed man?

-Yeah.

0:28:100:28:12

-Good. I'm very relaxed about this.

-Keep... Don't put it quite so tight.

0:28:120:28:15

-That's it. Perfect.

-Very nice.

-Perfect!

0:28:150:28:18

'..and I glimpse some racy artwork at Blenheim Palace.'

0:28:180:28:21

Ooh la la! There's a lot of flesh on display.

0:28:210:28:24

They were perhaps a little too risque for the ladies to see.

0:28:240:28:28

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