Windermere to Carnforth Great British Railway Journeys


Windermere to Carnforth

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For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,

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Bradshaw's Guidebook inspired them to take to the tracks.

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

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Britain, its landscape, its industry,

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society and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country 150 years later, it helps me

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to discover the Britain of today.

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This week's journey takes me across the North West of England

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through an area of outstanding beauty.

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Where some saw the railway as an unwelcome addition to the landscape.

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I hope to explore how the Victorians tried to strike

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a balance between protecting the wilderness

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and making access to it more affordable for working people.

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Beginning near the Scottish border, my route takes me

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through the stunning lakes and valleys

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and majestic mountains of Cumbria,

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continue south through an industrious Lancashire mill town,

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and then on to Merseyside's docks, before reaching my final

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destination on the edge of the Peak District National Park.

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On today's leg, I journey to the heart of the Lake District,

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before turning east along the tracks to Kendal.

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Joining the mainline,

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I then head south for a dash of railway romance in Carnforth.

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'At my first stop, I revisit a literary hero familiar from my childhood...'

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He's a small rabbit, isn't he?

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He has to stretch up on his tippy-toes to post his letter.

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'..lend a hand making the archetypal fell walker's snack...'

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HE SNIFFS Wow!

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-Absolutely refreshing, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

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When you're making Kendal Mint Cake, it is very rarely you get a cold.

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'..visit the home of a man of extraordinary talents...'

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It is rather ironic that the greatest architecture

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critic of his age would end up living in a house to be

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looked out of, rather than looked towards.

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'..and finish off with a brief encounter on the platform.'

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It was an ideal location for people to meet by chance.

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I'm continuing my journey around Northern England

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and enjoying the Lake District.

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Bradshaw's says it is a region of "lofty mountains, naked hills,

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"bleak, barren moors and lofty fells

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"intersected with pastoral vales."

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And the pastoral vales inspired a magical world of little

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talking animals that have entertained children for more than 100 years.

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I'm entering the picturesque universe of Beatrix Potter.

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She first arrived here at Windermere in 1882 to spend her summer holidays.

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The start of a lifelong love affair with the Lake District.

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Windermere owes its very existence to an extension of the railway

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from Kendal in 1847.

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The station was built on farmland in a hamlet,

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which shrewdly called itself Windermere after the mere, or lake.

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It rapidly developed into a holiday hot spot,

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attracting 30,000 tourists the year that the railway opened.

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Across the lake from Windermere is Near Sawrey,

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a tiny village where many of Beatrix Potter's famous stories were hatched.

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Liz MacFarlane from the National Trust is giving me a tour.

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We are getting, really, a lovely view of the village.

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How did Beatrix Potter first encounter the Lake District?

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She first came here when she was 16.

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That was when she fell in love with it.

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What sort of a family did she grow up in?

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Beatrix had a very privileged upbringing.

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Her father became a barrister, but spent most of his time

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either at his club or indulging his hobby of photography.

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So, long holidays were the order of the day,

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and that was how she got to know this part of the world so well.

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Beatrix was educated at home by tutors and governesses,

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and her schoolroom was full of animals.

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Mice, rabbits, hedgehogs and bats.

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She was given the freedom to roam the great outdoors.

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Her studies of the natural world inspired her wonderful stories.

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When did she first have success as a writer?

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Well, really from the first commercial publication

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of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit in 1902.

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It became instantly a bestseller,

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and in the first couple of years, it sold over 50,000 copies.

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So she became well known very, very quickly as a storyteller.

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Beatrix's illustrations are full of imagery from the village,

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its narrow lanes and colourful cottage gardens.

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So here you can see the postbox where Peter Rabbit

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-posts his Valentine's card.

-Oh, yes, I remember that illustration.

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It is very sweet, because he is a small rabbit, isn't he?

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He has to stretch up on his tippy-toes to post his letter.

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Beatrix made her first home in the village in 1905,

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here at Hill Top Farm,

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a property she had bought with the intention of leaving a rather

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remarkable legacy.

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It's a lovely, homely room, isn't it, with the roaring log fire?

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That's right. And it is pretty much as Beatrix left it.

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This is the kitchen, so the cooking would be done on the range,

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and it was really the heart of the farmhouse.

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-And does it feature in the stories?

-It does indeed, yes.

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In fact, we've got a copy of Samuel Whiskers here.

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And this is really her homage to the house.

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So you can see here Anna Maria running along,

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-past the dresser that you can see just over there.

-That is fantastic.

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'The house and Beatrix's belongings are as she left them,

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'which makes it look as though she's just popped out for tea.

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'And you get the sense of a woman living here who had many interests.'

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So this desk has a rather scientific look to it, doesn't it?

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This is not what I associate with Beatrix Potter, but I assume this is her work, is it?

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It is, absolutely. And this work came before the little books.

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Beatrix was really interested in the natural world,

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from a scientific point of view.

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So, how would you say she felt about the Lake District?

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Beatrix was passionate about the Lake District,

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and this is an area she really wanted to look after.

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So what efforts did she actually make to preserve it?

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For instance, what was her attitude to railways?

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OK, so Beatrix wasn't very keen on the railways.

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And that was something that was instilled in her by

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Canon Rawnsley, who was one of the three founders of the National Trust.

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And Beatrix was one of its early supporters.

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And the land, after her initial purchases of Hill Top

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and Castle Farm, were bought with that in mind, that they

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would be given to the Trust to be preserved in perpetuity.

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And that is exactly what has happened. This house, these lands,

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these belong to the National Trust,

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and indeed these were part of the origin of the National Trust.

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That's right. Beatrix's bequest was the largest gift the Trust had ever

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received at that time.

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Beatrix Potter's intention was to protect

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the beauty of these 4,000 acres,

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but perhaps she also hoped to ensure that future generations of children

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might immerse themselves in nature and let their imaginations run wild.

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I'm on my way back to Windermere.

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Bradshaw's tells me that "the lake by road is almost 26 miles round.

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"The lake itself should be seen from the water to

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"take in all its beauties."

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To which I would add that the roads are narrow and you feel confined,

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while the water is broad and you feel free.

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So for me, it's the ferry.

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I can imagine Victorian tourists from industrial northern towns

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enjoying the lake, the steamboats and the busy hotels.

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The railway really did bring tremendous change to the area.

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That change was strongly opposed by Beatrix Potter

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and other conservationists, like William Wordsworth and Canon Rawnsley.

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It's perhaps thanks to their words of caution that the area still

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looks relatively unspoiled.

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Even if you ARE admiring it from a train.

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-So, where have you been today, Windermere?

-We've been to Windermere.

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We came up here on Saturday

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and we went to Hill Top to view Beatrix Potter's house.

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-And what did you think of that?

-Fabulous, it is brilliant, lovely. Really nice.

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-Did you know the works of Beatrix Potter?

-Yes, as a child.

-Were you brought up on them?

-Yeah.

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Moving along the Windermere line, we are approaching

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a town famous for its energy boosting confectionery.

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You know, when I last went to Kendal, I noticed how busy the local

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people were, because Bradshaw's says that "they are engaged in carpet

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"woollens, linseed, clog, comb, bobbin, fish-hook,

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"leather, rope, woollen cord, fruit trades and marble works."

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Such industrious people, some of them must have made a mint!

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SHE LAUGHS

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Kendal was nicknamed "The Auld Grey Town"

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because of its limestone architecture.

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The town looks rather sleepy today,

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but I'm on my way to what might be one of the most energising factory floors in the country.

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-Morning, Michael.

-Hello, Peter.

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Quiggins is the oldest surviving mint cake manufacturer in Kendal.

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Peter McCafferty is a director.

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Peter, is your company actually Victorian in its foundation?

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Er, yes, well, the company was established way back in 1840,

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but that wasn't in Kendal at the time, that was on the Isle of Man.

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What were you making there?

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I think...well, in those days, they started off making just sticks of rock.

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And as far as we're aware from historical records,

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I think it was the first company ever to put lettering inside a stick of rock.

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They had a visit from Prince Albert to the island,

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and so they put "Welcome, Prince Albert, to Mona" inside the stick of rock.

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Brilliant. And you came to Kendal when?

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Very, very early 1900s.

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So, what was the origin of the mint cake?

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Well, the origin of mint cake is still really, to be honest, a mystery.

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Folklore says that a batch of candy was being made,

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and then mint cake was actually made by accident,

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but there's no evidence, really, that that is the case.

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The mint cake mishap supposedly took place in 1869.

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By 1914, word of its invigorating properties had reached

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Sir Ernest Shackleton, who took it with him on his Antarctic expedition.

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And it's to be found in the pockets of adventurers to this day.

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Kendal Mint Cake actually went up on the very first time Everest was conquered

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with Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing,

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and ever since then, its been used by mountaineers,

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but more mainly today, really, by fell walkers.

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-And it does pack a lot of energy, does it?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

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If you're flagging on a walk, have a bit of mint cake

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and you'll run up the hill.

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-Can we see it being made?

-Yeah, let's do that.

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-Hello. I'm Michael.

-Steve.

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Good to see you. So, what's bubbling away in here?

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So we've got white sugar, water, glucose are the main ingredients.

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Just a pinch of salt.

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And then we bubble that to a very high temperature.

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We lift it off,

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and that's when we add the secret ingredient -

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our special blend of mint.

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So, I am here to help. What can I do next?

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Well, if you would like to add the fondant?

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-Fondant, this is, is it?

-It's fondant.

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-Comme ca?

-You do it very carefully so you don't splash yourself.

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Oh, yeah, yeah.

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-Just ease it in.

-Ease it in.

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-It can be...not quite that safe.

-OK.

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Stand back, Peter.

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OK, Michael, now we have the mint.

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And remember, this is the secret ingredient.

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This is what makes it taste good.

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Whoa!

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It's coming up into my eyes, that, er, oh, it's... Wow!

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-Absolutely refreshing, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

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When you make Kendal Mint Cake, it is very rare that you get a cold.

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Oh, it really has cleaned out everything.

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And does it make your eyes sting after all these years?

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-I'm afraid it does.

-Does it really?

-Yeah.

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-But it doesn't do you any harm?

-No.

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Just cleans you out.

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Essence of mint - nothing like it for clearing the sinuses

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and making you cry like a baby!

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It's time to dry my eyes and finish the job.

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Just trying to fill the moulds to the top,

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but without overflowing.

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I don't want to be too generous.

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I don't want to put the company out of business.

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-Well, thank you, Peter. I enjoyed that.

-OK. No, it's been a pleasure.

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And, erm...because you've shown such an interest in the business,

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in the history of the business, we've found this really old tin,

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stacked it out with mint cake for you,

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and that should empower you on your train journeys.

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Oh, fantastic. I feel steam in my boiler already.

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-Thank you.

-Thanks, Michael.

-Bye.

-Bye.

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I am walking in search of one of the best views across the entire Southern Lakes,

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heading up rather gentle hills a couple of miles west of Kendal.

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Since the earliest days of marketing mint cake, it's been associated

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with those walking up the fells and peaks to reach the summit,

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and so to end my day, I've come to the top of Scout Scar,

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and I'm going to reward myself for my exertions

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with a little bit of minty energy.

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On this glorious morning, I have ventured 20 miles west from Kendal to Coniston Water

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to visit the home of a giant amongst Victorian intellectuals.

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When John Ruskin settled here at Brantwood in 1872 at the age of 52,

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he had written extensively on art, architecture and social reform.

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His thinking influenced intellectuals such as Proust and Ghandi,

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and he still inspires those who discover him today.

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Hello, ladies. So, you've just been to see the house.

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What impression do you have now of Ruskin?

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Well, I was just absolutely bowled over by the fact

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that his interests were so varied.

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That it didn't matter whether it was geology, or botany, or painting.

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His pictures are extraordinary.

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That he designed the wallpaper.

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I mean, he just did everything! I mean, what a man.

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So, what did you know about him before?

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I knew he did philosophy and the way people should live

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and the general sort of...that sort of thing, but I...

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And he was an art critic, but I had no idea of all this other...

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What a person. We could do with him now, I reckon.

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One of Ruskin's most important works is the Stones Of Venice, in which he

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records the city's great Gothic architecture in painstaking detail.

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Ruskin celebrated the Gothic for what he saw as

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its reverence for nature and natural forms.

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Brantwood seems the perfect spot to study

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the relationship between man and his environment.

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And I'm meeting Howard Hull to find out more

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about the great man's attachment to the Lake District.

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Howard, I find Brantwood... not exactly beautiful.

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How did Ruskin come here?

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Ruskin didn't create Brantwood to start with,

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it was an 18th-century cottage that he purchased.

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He really intended quite a humble dwelling

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to escape from celebrity and fame in London.

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He made two additions of his own to the house immediately,

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the turret and the dining room, on a Venetian style.

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But it was when he got sick and his cousin moved in to

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look after him that the house began to expand.

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She got her hands on the chequebook and enlarged Brantwood around him.

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And so it grew like a giant crystal, really, around the house.

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It's rather ironic that the greatest architecture critic of his age would

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end up living in a building that really isn't great architecture.

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It's a house to be looked out of, rather than looked towards.

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Howard, the thing that strikes you at once about this room, then,

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is the Gothic window. And suddenly you're thinking,

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"Maybe I'm looking out of a palazzo in Venice."

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Yes, it's like a sort of open colonnade.

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To invite the warm airs of Venice

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rather than the chill winds of Cumbria.

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But it was symbolic for Ruskin,

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of his attachment to a city that he understood in fantastic depth.

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In fewer than a million words, what was Ruskin's contribution to Venice?

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You could almost rebuild Venice using Ruskin's studies.

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And indeed, a great deal of the conservation of Venice has

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relied upon information that Ruskin gathered about it.

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But the other thing that he did was to invite people to understand

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really how a city like Venice comes about.

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What the difference in society is

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that will produce either a Venice or a Bradford.

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Both wealthy countries will produce different things

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according to their political and economic systems.

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-So this makes Ruskin political and a social reformer?

-Yes.

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Ruskin could be credited with being one of the people who gave

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capitalism a conscience, really.

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Ruskin wanted us to see the consequences of our actions

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and to realise that no person

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and no system stands on its own without influence

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down the line on people and the environment in which they live.

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-This turret, then, was built by Ruskin?

-Yes, it was.

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It's a sort of carriage lantern on the corner of the building.

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And immediately raises the question about his relationship with

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the landscape. Obviously, he wanted to preserve it?

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Yes, he wanted to preserve it.

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He wanted, above all, people to appreciate it,

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understand it, and have a proper relationship with it.

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Was he, as it were, a poetic conservationist, or a practical one?

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Both.

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Ruskin was very interested in the idea of actually learning

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the practicalities of managing land and exploring the way,

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physically and practically, that we can improve the land

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and get both physical sustenance from it and spiritual sustenance.

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I'm travelling south, again on the Windermere line -

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one of the many which were so opposed by romantic conservationists.

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Ruskin objected that the train rushed its passengers through an area

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which could be appreciated properly only at a gentle pace.

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I'm continuing towards the West Coast Mainline, and to reach my next stop,

0:21:170:21:23

I must change trains at Oxenholme and then Lancaster.

0:21:230:21:26

'This train coming into Lancaster now.'

0:21:300:21:33

As I travel south from John Ruskin's beloved Lakes,

0:21:490:21:53

I'm moving from 19th-century Romanticism

0:21:530:21:56

to 20th century romance -

0:21:560:21:58

whistle-stop romance.

0:21:580:22:00

Next stop - Carnforth.

0:22:000:22:02

'We will shortly be arriving at Carnforth.'

0:22:100:22:12

Carnforth railway station provided the setting for Brief Encounter,

0:22:200:22:25

David Lean's famous film from 1945

0:22:250:22:28

starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

0:22:280:22:31

The refreshment room where the characters first meet was

0:22:340:22:37

restored in 2003, and is a thriving attraction these days,

0:22:370:22:42

thanks to the efforts of volunteers such as Alec Crouch.

0:22:420:22:46

-Hello, Alec!

-Hello, Michael.

0:22:460:22:48

-Good to see you.

-Good to see you too.

0:22:480:22:50

Here we are in the famous refreshment room at Carnforth station.

0:22:520:22:56

I just wonder, why do you think they set a romance in a railway station?

0:22:560:23:00

It was an ideal location for people to meet, like that, by chance.

0:23:000:23:06

Do you think there's something romantic about railways?

0:23:060:23:10

-I personally think there are, and I'm sure a lot of people do.

-Why?

0:23:100:23:14

There's something about journeys, travel, even going to work -

0:23:140:23:20

it was quite exciting. It was different.

0:23:200:23:24

In the film, we meet Laura,

0:23:240:23:26

who enters the refreshment room with a piece of grit in her eye.

0:23:260:23:30

Alec, a local doctor waiting for his train,

0:23:300:23:34

comes to her rescue with his handkerchief.

0:23:340:23:36

They share a brief moment of physical contact and contemplate adultery,

0:23:360:23:41

but back away from it and part for ever.

0:23:410:23:45

Why do you think they chose Carnforth station?

0:23:450:23:47

David Lean, as far as we're aware,

0:23:470:23:49

rather thought he would like Watford Junction.

0:23:490:23:52

The Ministry of War Transport said,

0:23:520:23:55

"No, you can't film in the London area,

0:23:550:23:59

"we're very much in danger of bombing still."

0:23:590:24:02

So he sent members of his production team out to various locations,

0:24:020:24:07

and they came up and discovered Carnforth,

0:24:070:24:09

which had everything that he wanted.

0:24:090:24:12

There's an awful moment at the end of the movie,

0:24:130:24:16

where Celia Johnson, Laura, rushes out to the edge of the platform,

0:24:160:24:20

possibly contemplating suicide. Tell me about that?

0:24:200:24:23

Yes, that's after she's said farewell to Alec.

0:24:230:24:27

And she then rushes out onto the mainline platform,

0:24:270:24:32

just as a night express is racing north.

0:24:320:24:36

And her face really does show that she's contemplating,

0:24:360:24:43

"What shall I do?"

0:24:430:24:44

You can read her mind at that point.

0:24:440:24:47

But then, she decides she's going to go home to her husband and children.

0:24:470:24:54

-She steps back.

-Yes.

0:24:550:24:58

The whole movie's about stepping back, isn't it?

0:24:580:25:00

About staying behind the yellow line?

0:25:000:25:02

In many ways, yes, yes, I suppose it...

0:25:020:25:05

That's a nice way of putting it. Yes.

0:25:050:25:07

-Are you tourists in Carnforth?

-We are.

-We are.

0:25:120:25:14

And have you come because of the movie?

0:25:140:25:17

-Yes.

-We have.

-Ah!

0:25:170:25:20

Do you think the film today means as much to people as it did then?

0:25:200:25:24

Would you say it was an old-fashioned film?

0:25:240:25:28

It captures a period of time that's gone.

0:25:280:25:30

Quintessentially English in the accents and the fact it's

0:25:300:25:33

set in a tearoom at all is relevant to it all.

0:25:330:25:36

The steam from urns and trains... Yeah, it is.

0:25:360:25:40

It draws people in because it seems to say something

0:25:400:25:43

about Englishness, I suppose.

0:25:430:25:45

Do you think if you remade Brief Encounter today with

0:25:450:25:47

electric trains or diesels, it would be the same?

0:25:470:25:50

No, I don't think so, because it's part of the period

0:25:500:25:52

and the romance of the period that it was set in at that time.

0:25:520:25:55

Also inspired by a sense of duty, really.

0:25:550:25:57

Each wanted to do something, but felt compelled to do something else.

0:25:570:26:00

I think that captures a moment -

0:26:000:26:02

maybe we've moved on from there, in many respects.

0:26:020:26:04

The refreshment room welcomes visitors from all over the world.

0:26:060:26:10

So has owner Andrew Coates managed to recreate the atmosphere of the film?

0:26:100:26:16

When I remember the tearoom,

0:26:160:26:18

apart from the fact that the tea was a bit cheaper in those days,

0:26:180:26:21

is that the service was a bit brusque and a bit unsympathetic.

0:26:210:26:25

Now, has that changed much?

0:26:250:26:27

Not at all!

0:26:270:26:29

No.

0:26:290:26:31

And what about romances in your refreshment room? Any of those?

0:26:310:26:36

Yes, yes.

0:26:360:26:37

They'll come up to me, and they're going to get engaged,

0:26:370:26:40

so they'll have a picture under the famous clock and then they'll

0:26:400:26:44

say to me, "Would you mind putting this engagement ring under the cup?"

0:26:440:26:49

So, it's like that.

0:26:490:26:52

And then it'll be a table service.

0:26:520:26:53

Because there wasn't table service in the film.

0:26:530:26:56

So you've got to charge them a bit more for that.

0:26:560:27:00

And then, when she comes to turn the cup over,

0:27:000:27:03

the engagement ring would be underneath.

0:27:030:27:05

Do you know, under your heart of stone,

0:27:050:27:08

I think there lurks something a little bit warmer.

0:27:080:27:11

I'd like to hope so, yeah.

0:27:110:27:13

The sense of duty and self-sacrifice

0:27:170:27:19

that was prevalent in wartime Britain may have faded.

0:27:190:27:23

But the romance of the railway lives on at Carnforth.

0:27:230:27:27

God-fearing Victorians like John Ruskin worried about the damage

0:27:290:27:33

that man was doing to creation,

0:27:330:27:35

particularly to the Garden of England.

0:27:350:27:39

And a child of the Victorian era,

0:27:390:27:43

Beatrix Potter, used her fortune to safeguard the Lake District.

0:27:430:27:47

The decades since have proved that our engagement with

0:27:470:27:51

the environment has been more than just a Brief Encounter.

0:27:510:27:55

'Next time, I dabble in 21st-century technology...'

0:27:580:28:02

Feels like some medical procedure, like having my blood pressure taken.

0:28:020:28:07

'..learn a thing or two about art...'

0:28:070:28:09

I'm sure you're almost about to say matchstick figures, aren't you, Michael?

0:28:090:28:12

Well, matchsticks they are not.

0:28:120:28:13

They're much more observed, much more acute.

0:28:130:28:15

'..and enjoy a good old Lancashire sing-song.'

0:28:150:28:19

# As they did when he measured me finger

0:28:190:28:22

# For t'little gowd ring last neet. #

0:28:220:28:27

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