Oxford to Luton Great British Railway Journeys

For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.

'At a time when railways were new,

'Bradshaw's guidebook 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 continuing a journey that began in the west of Wales

and will end in the east of England.

Victorian scientific advances drew on centuries of scholarship

in British universities.

Well educated gentleman, schooled in the Christian virtues,

tended to be charitable.

My journey today will take me from the cloisters of academia

to houses for the poor, from varsity to philanthropy.

I began in naval Pembroke, went underground in Swansea,

tasted the fruits of Herefordshire and ventured through the rolling

hills of the Cotswolds to discover a land transformed by railways.

From here I'll head into Bedfordshire,

before ending my journey in the scholarly city of Cambridge.

Today's leg takes me straight to the heart of academia in Oxford,

then east to Bicester

and onto the charitable town of Bedford, before ending in Luton.

'I discover a miniature edition from my favourite publisher...'

And this is actually the first edition of Bradshaw's.

Oh, that is exciting.

Very, very ephemeral little publication,

so it's incredibly rare.

'..marvel at the ambition of a new railway...'

You're going to raise this up, bring the rail across by this weekend?

-Yes.

-There's a man speaking with confidence.

'..and learn the power of a hat.'

It's amazing. In a moment, you've converted me

from an investment banker into a rake!

According to Bradshaw's, Oxford has an advantage over Cambridge

"being placed among more attractive scenery

"and combining a greater variety of splendid architecture."

As a Cambridge graduate, I say bunkum,

but my guidebook is on safer ground, saying that,

"The Bodleian Library was founded in 1602 by Sir T Bodley

"and contains nearly a quarter of one million of books,

"old, new and rare,"

which speaks volumes for such an ancient institution.

For a city whose university alumni include some of

the world's most innovative thinkers,

it's surprising to discover that the arrival of the railway in 1844

met with such great opposition.

College wardens feared that the bright lights of London would

lure its students away from their studies.

Yet, for Victorian students intrigued by science

and the classification of the natural world,

Britain's capital could not compete with the University's main

research library, The Bodleian.

Today, it holds over 11 million items

and is second in size only to the British Library.

It's here that Bodley's librarian Richard Ovenden is to give me

privileged access to its rare collection.

Welcome. Welcome to Duke Humphrey's Library.

What wonderful surroundings I find you in,

it's like a sort of temple of scholarship, isn't it?

-Absolutely, and it has been for 400 years.

-Yes, what a thought.

My Bradshaw's says that you have books old, rare and new.

-I certainly don't doubt that you have old.

-Yeah.

Anything you want to tell me about?

Well, I thought we might start with something rare.

One of Oxford's greatest sons was the poet Percy Shelley.

And, of course, he married another great writer - Mary Shelley.

And this is the manuscript, the earliest surviving

drafts of her great literary masterpiece, Frankenstein.

-Good heavens.

-So this was written in the summer of 1816

when she and Percy were staying in the villa of Lord Byron

on the banks of Lake Geneva.

And during a famous thunderstorm, they had a ghost story competition.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

And Mary Shelley invented the creature

that we know as Frankenstein.

It has the classic horror story beginning, doesn't it?

"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld my man

"completed with an anxiety that almost amounted to agony."

And she continues, "By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light,

"I saw the dull, yellow eye of the creature open.

"It breathed hard and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs."

Frankenstein's monster comes to life.

Yeah, and sparking almost two centuries of cultural life.

I mean, Frankenstein generated words which we use all the time

when we're discussing science or medical innovation,

and it all began when Mary had this fantastic moment of genius.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

certainly captured the early Victorians' imagination.

And by Bradshaw's day, the interplay of science

and the supernatural had become a national preoccupation...

alongside a new appetite for travel.

I thought it might be interesting just to see the growth

of the railway network in England at the time of Bradshaw.

So here we have Picot's map of England and Wales

with part of Scotland, published in 1840.

There's much about this map that we all recognise.

Here is what we now call the West Coast Main Line,

and I can tell you that Cambridge has its railway...

..but I'm not sure that Oxford does.

-No.

-Well, those are fantastic examples.

I thought I'd just pull one small thing which was

printed for a gentleman's jacket pocket like this.

This is actually the first edition of Bradshaw's.

Ah, that is exciting.

So, we can see the Northwest of England, we can see Lancashire

and this fantastic little railway map.

Very, very ephemeral little publication, so it's incredibly rare.

Now, the one thing that Bradshaw's didn't tell me about...

because you couldn't, was the future.

What is the future?

Well, the future is a mixture of the physical and the digital,

and I think we should go and look at that now.

Let us do that. Thank you so much.

In 1946, a new Bodleian Library opened,

designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott,

the architect behind London's Battersea Power Station

and the red telephone box.

Work is now under way to expand and update the facility

for 21st century needs, and Richard is taking me to see its progress.

We spent a year just moving all of those millions of books

and journals. And the last year we spent fitting out the interior.

And we're just at the final few weeks of that,

ready to open for the start of term.

And what's going to be new?

It's really going to be, you know, future-proofed

for very high bandwidth

to enable the highest levels of digital scholarship.

The new exhibition gallery is going to be open freely to the public.

You name it, it's going to be open to the world.

Anything more that I should see?

I think we should go up on the roof.

My word, Richard, that is a glorious sight.

Well, it's a pretty amazing vista.

You can see the University church from the 12th, 13th centuries.

The Radcliffe Camera, James Gibbs' fantastic building - 1749.

The unknown architect of the old Bodleian from the early 17th century.

And of course Wren's Sheldonian Theatre,

his first commission as an architect, finished in 1667.

This view will not have changed much since Bradshaw's day.

And I think if Bradshaw's were written today,

this balcony would be named as the vantage point.

The next leg of my journey leads me to Bicester, the hub of two

exciting rail projects, one of which will establish the first

new link between London and a major city in over 100 years.

With the line from Oxford to Bicester Town

currently out of service,

I've made my way here under my own steam.

When my Bradshaw's guide was published

they had just opened that vital link of track

that completed the varsity line connecting Oxford and Cambridge.

By the time I was at university, the quickest way between the two

cities was via London.

But where I'm standing now is new track that will enable you

to travel from Oxford to London Marylebone.

And it opens up the hope that, one day,

the boffins will again be able to travel

from university to university.

This ambitious project comes at the time of the greatest

investment in Britain's rail network since the Victorian era.

My first port of call is Bicester Town station, opened in 1850.

It enjoyed a connection with the two old university cities until 1967,

when the Oxford-to-Bletchley and Bedford-to-Cambridge services

were withdrawn.

Today, Chiltern Railways is resurrecting long lost rail links

and upgrading the track.

I'm meeting Graham Cross from the railway company.

Graham, standing here amongst the weeds at Bicester Town Station,

which is presently closed at the moment,

may seem to be a strange place to ask about it,

but what is the scale of this project?

So, this is a project that cost Chiltern Railways

about £130 million.

We're investing in new infrastructure

and new stations to greatly improve the train services in this area.

And here at Bicester Town, what is it you've been doing?

So, here at Bicester Town, what we're doing is

constructing a brand-new station.

It's being upgraded from a single track to dual track

and the speeds are increasing from 40mph to 100mph

with modern signalling.

An extraordinary number of changes.

There are other projects around it as well, aren't there?

That's right. From this station, around about 2018/19,

you'll be able to take a train through to Milton Keynes

when the second stage of the East West project is complete.

And that is part of a wider vision to continue then to extend that

railway through Bedford and on to Cambridge,

so reinstating the Oxford to Cambridge railway line.

That would be a fantastic achievement, wouldn't it?

It would be marvellous.

But the plans don't stop there.

A new stretch of track, three quarters of a mile long,

is being laid at Bicester

to connect the existing route between Oxford and Bicester Town

with the London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street line.

One of the things really that we're seeking to do here is to connect

the parts of southern England which aren't well connected

by rail at the moment.

Is that because there's been a change in the sort of journeys

that people want to make?

I think so, yeah. 20 years ago, people were just wanting to travel

to London, but as the economy has broadened and places like

Oxford and Bicester have grown in importance, there's ever more

demand now to travel between those places without going through London,

and that really is what this project does.

Work on the new connection to the main line is under way

just a mile from Bicester Town station.

And there I'm meeting senior construction manager

Merrick Murphy.

So, Merrick, I feel as though you've brought me

to the pivotal part of the project.

Well, what we're actually doing is creating

a tie-in point whereby you will be able to come from Marylebone

or London and then turn out to Oxford.

The line will be operational in summer 2015.

So, we're putting in new points here and then we connect down to

a line that's running absolutely at right angles to us at this point.

-Yes, indeed.

-What stage then are you at right now?

We are in the earthworks phase, whereby we're matching

the embankment sizes so that the rail can go down directly on top.

So how much material do you think this is taking?

Well, I would approximately think, at its current state,

75,000 tonnes of material.

My goodness.

And when are you actually going to connect that rail to here?

This weekend we're going to be bringing the earthworks through

and getting the rail over this side.

I find that unbelievable. You're going to raise this up,

bring the rail across by this weekend?

-Yes.

-There's a man speaking with confidence.

Oh, we'll manage that, no problem.

'This time-critical task is supervised by senior site engineer

'Barry Burrows.

'And I'm pleased to be given a small part in its execution.'

Thank you very much.

So, this instrument tells you what exactly?

This controls the level of the embankment.

So it's a GPS. I hope it's more accurate than the one in my car,

-is it?

-Yes, a lot more accurate.

And it is giving us the level up there

of how much materials to go on at this current point.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, at this point you need

456 mil to be added here.

-Yes.

-So, what tonnage do you still have to put on, do you think?

About 7,000-10,000.

7,000-10,000. Which is only about a tenth of what you've done.

Yeah, we've done about 75,000 so...

-So nearly there.

-Yeah.

-Congratulations.

-I think I can safely leave it to you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Barry.

-Cheers.

-Bye.

-Bye.

I'm impressed by the vision behind the Oxford to London mainline

project and I'm sure that if George Bradshaw were here today,

it would get his seal of approval too.

A new day, and I'm resuming my journey at Bletchley station,

heading northeast.

My first stop today will be Bedford.

Bradshaw's tells me that a Lord Mayor of London - William Harpur -

was born here.

"The founder of an extensive charity now possessing a revenue of £2,000

"per annum from land in Holborn and in his native town.

"Being open to all, the charity has the effect of drawing many

"families to the town where there are 70 or 80 almshouses."

Alms has its origin in a Greek word meaning 'pity'.

I prefer a word with a Latin derivation - benefaction,

implying someone trying to do good.

By the time of my guidebook,

Bedford had acquired sanitation and gas lighting

and had been transformed from a small, agricultural community

into an engineering hub.

But the focus of my visit today is philanthropy

and the generosity of a man named William Harpur.

I'm heading to St Paul's Church, where he was buried in 1574,

to meet local historian James Collett-White.

-James, hello.

-Hello, Michael.

-Welcome to St Paul's.

-Thank you very much.

Since I've been in Bedford,

lots of references to William Harpur, street names...

And to Dame Alice, his wife. I've seen a statue of him.

And this window is dedicated to them as well?

Yes, indeed.

This window was made in 1976, erected by the Harpur Trust.

Sir William Harpur was born in Bedford,

he went to a school in Bedford

and that was obviously a very important influence on his life.

Harpur went on to work as a master of the Merchant Taylors' Company

in London.

An investment in land in the capital made him rich and provided him

with enough money to transform his home town.

Tell me about his philanthropy towards Bedford.

In the 1550s, he bought the site of what was to be

the grammar school,

and this school was endowed by land from Holborn by the 1760s.

The land became part of the Harpur Trust,

and out of that was endowed, from the 1870s onwards,

four public schools and the primary schools of Bedford.

Until the late 19th century when the state school system

that we know today began to take shape, many working-class children

received no education at all beyond Sunday school.

Harpur's generosity spread opportunity.

He was also concerned to tackle poverty.

How did the almshouses come about?

Well, there was always almsgiving but in 1793 Act, there was

a provision to be made for building 20 almshouses

and then 46 houses for the industrious poor.

What happened, in fact, was that the 20 were built

and the 46 were, in fact, created as almshouses

because that was the need after the great fire of Bedford of 1802.

By the time the railway arrived in Bedford in 1846,

the Poor Law of 1834 had changed everything.

Parish assistance to the needy was limited to those

who entered the grim workhouses.

Some rich industrialists saw it as their Christian duty to support

worthy causes, many of which are still going strong today.

In today's Bedford, are there still people

benefiting from the Harpur Trust?

Indeed, in Harpur House, which was built from the sale

of the western part of the old almshouses.

I must go and see the people there.

Very good.

There are nearly 1,800 almshouse charities in the UK.

The Harpur Trust provides accommodation to 25 elderly people

in Harpur House.

Many of the residents are from Bedford and went to Harpur schools,

so they've known the Harpur name all their lives.

Good morning, everybody.

ALL: Good morning.

Lovely to see you. May I sit here?

-You may.

-Thank you very much indeed.

How long have you been here, sir?

-About ten weeks.

-So you're...

-I'm a new boy.

-You are a new boy.

-Yes.

-And how are you settling in?

Very well.

I came in on the Sunday, and by Monday,

I felt as though I'd been here for years.

I've really settled in, yes, and I'm happy I made the move.

May I join you for a minute?

-Are you from Bedford?

-Well, I was born in Harpur Street.

-You were born in Harpur Street?!

-Yeah, yeah.

So, at the beginning of your life,

you lived in a place named after Harpur.

-Yeah, I did.

-And here you are now living in a place

-named after Harpur.

-Exactly.

-That's extraordinary.

It is extraordinary, yeah.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Now, do we have two sisters here?

-Yes.

-These two.

We are a real big family.

Our mum and dad used to live in Dame Alice Street,

Dorothy's in-laws used to live in Dame Alice Street

and one of my brothers,

they lived in Dame Alice Street also.

Do you think, while we're here, ladies and gentlemen,

we should raise our tea cups

and drink a sip to Sir William Harpur and Dame Alice?

Dame Alice.

In the 16th century, it was possible to become fabulously

wealthy as it is today.

For those now who are rich and who are considering philanthropy,

think of the case of Sir William Harpur.

500 years after his birth,

he's still remembered for his charity

and praised by his beneficiaries.

Back at Bedford station, it's a short, 20-minute ride

to the final destination on this leg of my journey.

My next stop, Luton, was famous for hats in Bradshaw's time,

being, as my guidebook says, "A town of straw platters."

There were, in fact, many thousands in Bedfordshire.

So, I'll weave in a visit as I head onwards.

By the time of my guidebook, Luton had been transformed

from a country market town to a busy urban centre

thanks to a thriving straw hatting and plaiting industry.

Its good fortune arose out of an embargo on straw imports

from the Continent during the Napoleonic Wars

of the early 19th century and the unprecedented demand that

this placed on Bedfordshire's wheat and corn producers.

One company to reap the benefits was Walter Wright Hats.

Philip, hello.

Hello, and welcome to Walter Wright's.

Thank you very much indeed.

When you meet someone for the first time... For example, me.

..do you find that you're always sizing them up?

It's not just size, it's the proportion of hat

and it's the demeanour.

So, you have to find a hat that just reflects their look, their style,

their message and the environment where that hat's going to be worn.

No respectable Victorian man or woman would leave home

without a hat.

They were expected to know when, where, and how to wear it.

So, having sized me up and having studied my demeanour,

what do you think we should look at?

It's got to be classical but with an edge of fun.

Ooh.

This is a brushed fur felt.

So we have a severe bad look at a wedding.

However...

..Champagne Charlie would have always worn it on a slight angle

to soften the eyes.

It's amazing, in a moment you've converted me

from an investment banker into a rake!

Ooh, I quite fancy myself in that.

Copper.

Rake. THEY LAUGH

Do you know, I've learnt more about hats in the last minute

than in the rest of my life.

It's my passion.

Top hats were standard, year round attire

for the upper and middle class Victorian gent

until the late 19th century,

when the straw boater became de rigueur in summer.

Philip has offered to show me

what goes into creating this classic design.

Around the sort of late 1800s,

these blocks would have been made solely out of wood.

The process of wooden blocking meant that the dehydration process

was a lot slower.

They would've had to dry them in an oven.

By having the aluminium hot, it means the fibre dries on the block,

it's a lot quicker.

So by the 1910, 1920s, it meant my great-grandmother

could produce 1,000 dozen a week as opposed to a lot less using wood.

So, we've taken a natural straw and now we are going to heat gently.

-Ease the fibre.

-Oh! That's quite hot!

It's as warm as an iron.

MICHAEL PANTS

A good blocker. You can tell he knows what he's doing cos he can take

the Sunday roast out of the oven without using oven gloves.

What are you doing now?

I'm putting the string round edge of the block which stretches

the material and gives the machinists an edge to go by.

I'm just going to pop her up...

..into the other side of the mould.

And more heat applied there?

More heat applied. So she's now being fully baked top and under.

Now, your family has been in hats for a long time.

My great-grandfather...

he'd been making hats for 400 years, or his family, for 400 years.

It's in the blood, I guess.

That's nice and dry and holding its shape.

Yep. And so there is your boater.

-Hmm, not quite.

-You're right.

Next step, follow me.

Thank you.

-Michael, Janet. Janet, Michael. BOTH:

-Hello.

And you're going to take the hat to the next stage.

I'm going to cut this edge off so it comes down to this line

and I'm going to put a wire in it.

This is giving Janet a clear mark,

a clear edge to work to with her scissors.

It's a lovely, scrunchy noise it makes.

Right, now that is looking like a boater, I'll give you that.

'After the edge has been trimmed a reed is inserted

'to strengthen the brim...

'..and then sewn into place.'

Wow, done!

'The next stage is to stitch in the headband to keep the hat in place.'

Wow, Janet, that is extraordinary skill

and absolutely faultless.

Fantastic.

So now to Linda for the decoration.

-Hello, Linda.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-Very good to see you.

How does a chap choose his ribbon colour?

Choices from old school, colours, old regiment, old university,

old college, or...

Old party, how about that?

Well, there's a surprise!

An historic hat for an historic party,

the perfect way to end my day.

I think of my guidebook as a valuable historic volume

but it doesn't compare with George Bradshaw's earliest

railway publication which I encountered in Oxford University.

Even before Sir Thomas Bodley had bequeathed his library,

Sir William Harpur had left money for the relief of the poor

in Bedford, good works that continue to this day.

It will soon be possible again to travel by train

from Oxford to Bedford,

and on that great day, I'll throw my hat in the air.

Next time, I get to grips with a Victorian melodrama.

It's a story about a signalman who gets the opportunity

to either save his son or crash a train.

MICHAEL GASPS

I hear ghoulish hospital tales...

Something like an amputation

would have taken around about two to three minutes.

Have to work extremely fast.

..and learn about the student days of Charles Darwin.

These are the actual beetles that gave him so much pleasure

and so much obsession when he was an undergraduate.

This is absolutely stunning.