Egham to Henley-on-Thames Great British Railway Journeys


Egham to Henley-on-Thames

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For Victorian Britons,

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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

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to understand how trains

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transformed Britain.

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Its landscape, its industry,

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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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I'm concluding my journey around Southern England.

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Today, sticking close to the River Thames,

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I'll find out how the aquatic rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge

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was institutionalised

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and how women who were satisfied with neither one of them,

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by degrees gained their own university.

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But I'm looking forward to beginning with all the fun of the fair.

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Following my Bradshaw's guidebook,

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I travelled through the county of Kent,

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took a route south of London,

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through the picturesque towns of Surrey,

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and visited racetracks and royal residencies.

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The final leg of my journey will take me along the river

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to Henley-on-Thames.

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Today, I take a ride in Egham, push the boundaries in Staines,

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drink in the industrial past of Slough

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and cross the finishing line in the home of rowing.

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I attempt to pull my weight on the River Thames...

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Push and relax. Hands away.

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Sorry, I've lost it completely.

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..discover the radical implications

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of one of the country's first universities for women...

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I think it really was the starting point.

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By having an education, by having a choice, they demanded other choices.

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And let off some steam at a vintage funfair.

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MICHAEL LAUGHS Oh, it's horrible!

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Oh! Enough! Enough!

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Stop!

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Under each place name,

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my Bradshaw's tends to give the date of the annual fair.

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Originally, these were important gatherings for farmers

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to trade with each other.

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But over time, they became associated with amusements.

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And those amusements were, of course,

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transformed by the coming of steam.

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I'm travelling on the South Western line

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that links London Waterloo to Reading.

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And my first stop is Egham.

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On the outskirts, I find a vintage travelling steam fair -

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custodian of rare and beautiful Victorian machines.

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I step back in time to Bradshaw's day and put my mettle to the test.

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Oh!

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'It looks as if my Herculean strength hasn't quite hit the mark.'

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BELL DINGS

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Well done to you, that's how it's done.

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Steam engines had been developed for use in factories and railways.

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And in time, Victorian entrepreneurs

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harnessed the new technology for entertainment.

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I'm meeting Joby Carter

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whose father started the steam fair in the 1970s,

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collecting and restoring these superb Victorian fairground rides.

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Joby, this is a very fine kind of antique ride.

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-When does that date from?

-Circa 1895.

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-That's amazing. And powered?

-By steam.

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Before steam power, how would the rides be driven?

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Predominately, rides were hand powered.

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So, you had a hand crank in the middle of rides

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and they had animals.

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They may have had an animal in the centre pulling the ride round.

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The dawn of the steam engine transformed the fairground industry

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beyond all recognition.

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One - because they could transport the rides with heavy locomotives

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and they could power the ride with centre engines,

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like the one in the galloper

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and the one on the steam yachts we have here.

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Now, your steam yachts really are a very elegant piece of work.

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Tell me about them.

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Well, the steam yacht originally was designed

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by William Cartwright in 1888.

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And along came Frederick Savage,

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who was a farm machinery manufacturer,

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got into the fairground game and pilfered the idea, if you will,

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changed a few things to get round the copyright.

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And it was Savage's that built the most steam yachts.

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Ours was built in 1921 and it was the original white-knuckle ride.

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It was a real, real thrill ride.

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And how rare is it to have this kind of example of a steam yacht?

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It's incredibly rare and, without any shadow of a doubt,

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it's the finest example left in the world.

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With these daring new rides, came the great showman.

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Tasked with luring thrill-seeking Victorians onto the amusements.

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Roll up, roll up, roll up for the steam yachts!

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You'll be mesmerised, you'll be hypnotised!

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You'll be swung from side to side!

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Are you brave enough to come on the steam yachts today?

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You'll be scared out of your wits!

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Having talked the talk,

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it's now time for me to experience this white-knuckle ride.

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So, the seats are marked yellow for cowards

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and then brave and then very brave.

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And no self-respecting Briton could sit anywhere

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except the very brave seat.

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Come on then.

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Oh, my goodness.

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Oh, no. Oh, no.

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HE LAUGHS

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Oh, this is horrible. No, no.

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Oh, the swing is appalling and in a Victorian device,

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you're only held in by your own arms.

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Oh, oh, oh!

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I'm going vertical! I can't believe...

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Oh, enough!

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Enough! Stop!

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Oh, thank goodness we're slowing down.

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Those Victorians really knew how to scare you.

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Glad to be back on solid ground, I remain in Egham

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and I'm heading up the hill as I hope to learn a thing or two.

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Fortunately for us, some Victorians who made a tremendous fortune

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were interested in philanthropy and their own posterity.

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And so it is that there is a corner of Surrey that is forever Holloway.

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Royal Holloway is a spectacular university campus

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now part of the University of London.

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Its grand and traditional appearance perhaps belies

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its radical pioneering origins.

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Founded in 1886 by Thomas Holloway, a wealthy philanthropist.

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It was one of Britain's first colleges for women.

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The current principal is Professor Paul Layzell.

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Paul, in order to found this extraordinary institution,

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Thomas Holloway must have had a lot of money. Where did he make it?

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Well, Thomas and Jane Holloway were very wealthy.

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They produced pills and potions

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that they claimed cured a variety of ailments.

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But his secret to success was he was a brilliant marketeer,

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he understood the power of advertising

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and that's what sold the pills.

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Do we think the pills were efficacious?

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I'm told that they did you no harm.

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I think they were a mild laxative.

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What turned his mind towards philanthropy?

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Well, the Holloways had no children and it was his wife, Jane,

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who thought about creating a college for the education of women.

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How undersupplied were women at that time with higher education?

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There weren't many opportunities.

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There was Bedford College which was founded in 1849 in Central London.

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And you certainly couldn't get a degree until about 1900,

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when both Bedford College and Royal Holloway College

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joined the University of London.

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Thomas and Jane had been a devoted couple

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and following her death in 1875,

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he resolved to build the college for women in her memory.

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Holloway employed the architect William Crossland

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to design this building.

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It's based on the Chateau de Chambord

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in the Loire Valley.

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There it's white limestone, here it's red Victorian brick.

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I notice that there's a statue of Queen Victoria

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in your first court and you're known as Royal Holloway.

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So did the Queen attach herself to the college?

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Yes, the Queen was invited to come for the opening in 1886,

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she liked it so much she granted the use of the royal title,

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which is quite unusual in higher education institutions.

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In the late 19th century,

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higher education for women was controversial.

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Many saw it as fraught with danger.

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Care was taken to guard against ill health,

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brought on by "strong brainwork."

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There was a strict timetable and rules to keep women respectable.

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The first year's intake was just 28 students,

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but numbers grew rapidly.

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Facilities included a beautiful gilded chapel.

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As well as an art gallery, filled with works

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from the leading painters of the day.

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I'm meeting its curator, Laura McCulloch.

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So, how did it come about

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that a university college had an art collection?

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It was all down to Thomas Holloway, the founder.

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And I think the idea was that he needed something

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to lure people to the college.

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So he thought having an art gallery

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would mean they'd come and then, of course,

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once they're here, they couldn't help but see

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how amazing the college was.

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So I'm sure it was advertising.

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But he was a 19th-century man so, of course,

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he would have understood the idea of art for education as well.

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So, I think it's a kind of dual purpose.

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This painting here with its range of female beauties,

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what's that about?

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Well, what you have are women

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who have not had enough money for a dowry

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and they're being sold off at auction,

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a marriage auction in ancient Babylon.

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Really, I think the artist is trying to get his viewers

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to compare ancient Babylon to Victorian Britain, saying,

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"Have we really moved that far away?"

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And I think the implied answer is,

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"No, we are still not giving our women any choice.

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"They must marry if they want to support themselves."

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So, what role do you think Royal Holloway College plays

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in changing the world that's been parodied in that painting?

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I think it was one of the first stepping stones

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for women to get freedom.

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One of our students, Emily Wilding Davison, was a suffragette.

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It allowed women to congregate together,

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to talk about their status,

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and I think it really was the starting point,

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by having an education, by having a choice,

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they demanded other choices.

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And there's a painting that gladdens my heart -

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a painting of a railway station.

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It is. That's Paddington station.

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And it was painted by William Powell Frith,

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who really made his name with very large crowd scenes,

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very complex scenes with lots of little narratives

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but showing all the classes mixing together in these crowds.

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And, really, it's a celebration

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of the technology of Victorian Britain.

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Over half the painting is dedicated

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to the architecture of Paddington station.

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Which, of course, you couldn't have without Victorian technology.

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And then, the bottom half with the crowd scene -

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now that's a celebration of Victorian society itself.

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And it's quite a useful document, isn't it,

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to tell us about what railway travel looked like

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-at the end of the 19th century?

-Absolutely.

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Royal Holloway is today recognised as one of the leading

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research universities in the country.

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It has around 8,500 students.

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And since 1945, has generously admitted men.

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Thomas Holloway might today be considered a bit of a quack

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and might be remembered as rather a rogue.

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But his fortune built a college

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that changed women's place in society

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and an art collection that provides a social commentary

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on late 19th-century Britain.

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And that has earned him a position of honour in British history.

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From Egham, I'm travelling just one station along the main line

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for my overnight stop.

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I'm going to spend my evening in Staines,

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drawn by this reference in Bradshaw's

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to the city boundary stone on which is inscribed,

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"'God preserve the city of London AD 1280.'

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"It marks the limit of the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction

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"over the River Thames.

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"When the civic authorities make their tour of inspection,

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"they disembark here and wine is placed for them on the stone."

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And that seems like a ritual that's worth re-enacting.

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To pay off debts incurred fighting the Third Crusade, in 1197,

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King Richard I sold the rights and revenues of the Lower Thames

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to the Corporation of the City of London.

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Staines stood at the title limit of the river

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so it was an obvious place to mark the boundary.

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Between the 12th and the 19th century,

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the City of London could charge tolls

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and levy taxes on fishing

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along great stretches of the River Thames.

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And they would visit each of their boundary stones

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on three-day tours of inspection.

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When the authorities lost that right in 1857,

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they return from their last inspection symbolically by train

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back to the City of London to drown their sorrows.

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'It's the start of my second day.

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I'm rejoining the railway at Staines and heading to Slough.

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But I need to change at Windsor and Eton Riverside.

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Windsor and Eton have two stations.

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One by the riverside, one called Central.

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You can walk between the two.

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But the existence of two stations which are not joined together

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is testimony to the railway mania of the Victorian age

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when lines were constructed higgledy-piggledy.

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In the shadow of the 11th-century Windsor Castle

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and a stone's throw from Eton College, established in 1440,

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I'm taking the riverside path

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for my seven-minute walk between the stations

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as I leave the South Western network

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to join the trains of the Great Western.

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It's still early, misty morning.

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Luckily, I slept well last night.

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There are some people who believe

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that they rely for a good nocturnal rest

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on a product made at my next stop, Slough.

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Slough is known as home

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to one of the largest industrial trading estates in Europe.

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Just 20 miles west of London,

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the town was bisected by the old Great West Road

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and the Great Western Railway -

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factors which attracted businesses from the mid-19th century.

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In 1840, Slough was the closest station to Windsor Castle

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and so was built bigger and grander than others along the line.

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I'm to visit another local landmark built with trains in mind -

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the original British Horlicks factory

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which still produces the drink today.

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To find out about its history,

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I'm meeting the company's archivist, Jill Moretto.

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Jill, how does this product start life?

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In the early 1870s, James and William Horlick

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emigrated to Chicago in the United States

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and went into business together.

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James had done his apprenticeship in a chemist in London

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working with infant foods

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and the two brothers decided that this would be the product

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that they would make themselves and market.

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So, what was the market opportunity for this new infant food?

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In the Victorian times,

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milk could sometimes take a long time to get

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from the farms into the city, then out to the people who needed it.

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By the time it got there,

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it could cause illnesses or it might even cause death.

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So by putting the milk in the product itself,

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then you just needed to add water.

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It was a sterile... It was much safer for the child.

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This is a Horlicks feeder.

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This is the predecessor to a baby bottle.

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So, before plastics. So, it was stoppered at the one end.

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You'd put your powder in, your water and mix it all up.

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Then, the baby would have the teat on the end.

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In 1883, the Horlick brothers had obtained a United States patent

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for their dehydrated milk product

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and were exporting it to their homeland as a baby food

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and later an energy drink.

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Demand was such that they started production in the United Kingdom.

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Buying land from Eton College in 1906,

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to build a factory alongside the railway line.

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This is a card sleeve, probably 1920s.

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You can see on the front we have,

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"For infants, invalids, the aged and travellers."

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"Infants, invalids, the aged..." I understand that. "Travellers"?

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It was used by explorers, so, Roald Amundsen

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and Admiral Byrd took it on their polar expeditions

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to sustain themselves.

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It could replace a meal.

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During one of their expeditions in the 1930s,

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they named a major mountain range after their sponsor

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and to this day they are the Horlick Mountains in Antarctica.

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So, I think of this product being advertised

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as being very good for sleep.

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So how did it change?

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As milk became more available, it got pasteurisation,

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the need to have this infant food for children wasn't as big.

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They changed their marketing to keep their product going,

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so they marketed it as a sleep aid.

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-And this is the drink itself.

-Yes.

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I think I may be a novice to this.

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So, it's warm.

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Ooh, very wheaty, isn't it?

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-Yes. And quite thick.

-And quite thick.

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And...

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Now revived, I'm off to see how modern production is managed

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in a facility that's over 100 years old.

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The site director of the factory is Steve Smith.

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Steve, a powerful, almost heady smell

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which is very distinctive of the product.

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What makes it smell like that?

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So, you're right at the front end of the process,

0:19:560:19:58

Michael, here at Slough.

0:19:580:20:00

And that's where we mash the product together

0:20:000:20:02

with the malted barley and the wheat flour.

0:20:020:20:05

And that, with hot water, that provides us with that smell.

0:20:050:20:08

But I'm quite pleased that you've got, excuse me,

0:20:080:20:12

what appear like some quite antique pieces of machinery here.

0:20:120:20:15

This is one of our evaporators.

0:20:150:20:17

This equipment itself is 1929.

0:20:170:20:19

That said, if we remove the stuff, the equipment,

0:20:190:20:22

we actually change the flavour of the product

0:20:220:20:24

and therefore lose some of its traditional flavour.

0:20:240:20:27

This factory produces up to 14,000 tonnes a year

0:20:270:20:31

for domestic consumption

0:20:310:20:33

and to supply growing markets in Malaysia and Africa.

0:20:330:20:37

And where else is the product popular today?

0:20:370:20:40

So, in India.

0:20:400:20:42

38 million households drink the product

0:20:420:20:45

where, I guess, 190 cups of Horlicks every second are consumed every day.

0:20:450:20:50

And why is that such a strong market, do you think?

0:20:500:20:53

I think it's about helping support the malnutrition agenda.

0:20:530:20:56

So, really, the way the product's being used in India today

0:20:560:20:59

is not dissimilar for the way it was used

0:20:590:21:01

in the United Kingdom a century and a half ago?

0:21:010:21:03

Absolutely right.

0:21:030:21:04

I'm heading back to Slough station for the last leg of my journey

0:21:100:21:13

which takes me along the mainline westwards to Twyford station.

0:21:130:21:17

This will be my interchange for the branch line

0:21:210:21:24

to my final destination of Henley-on-Thames.

0:21:240:21:27

-Hello, are you the station master of this...

-Hello. Yeah.

0:21:290:21:31

-..of this lovely station?

-Yes. Welcome to Twyford.

0:21:310:21:34

Thank you very much indeed.

0:21:340:21:36

So, you're changing over now,

0:21:360:21:37

you're going back to being called the Great Western Railway?

0:21:370:21:40

We are, yes, yes.

0:21:400:21:41

-How does that feel to you?

-It's quite...

0:21:410:21:43

It's good, it's good. I remember the Great Western, yeah.

0:21:430:21:46

What are your memories of it?

0:21:460:21:47

Oh, well, I started on the railway in '62

0:21:470:21:50

and it was still very much Great Western in name

0:21:500:21:52

although it was British Rail then, of course,

0:21:520:21:54

but all the staff were Great Western staff.

0:21:540:21:57

-So you've been on the railway since 1962?

-Yes.

0:21:570:22:00

And how much longer would you have to go, do you think,

0:22:000:22:03

working on the railways?

0:22:030:22:04

-I retire at the end of this month.

-No.

-Yes.

0:22:040:22:08

My goodness, you'll miss the railway.

0:22:080:22:09

Yes, after 53 years,

0:22:090:22:11

but we've all got to go sometime.

0:22:110:22:13

I'm now on the little shuttle train to Henley.

0:22:230:22:26

Bradshaw's tells me that it's

0:22:260:22:28

"delightfully situated on a sloping bank of the Thames

0:22:280:22:31

"over which there's a handsome bridge of five arches

0:22:310:22:34

"connecting the counties of Oxford and Berkshire."

0:22:340:22:38

The straight stretch of the river in the early 19th century

0:22:380:22:42

attracted the eligible blades of Oxford and Cambridge

0:22:420:22:46

to compete in boats, with no messing.

0:22:460:22:49

40 miles from Central London

0:22:520:22:54

and beyond the last of the capital's suburbs,

0:22:540:22:57

the River Thames winds through more rural surroundings

0:22:570:23:00

to reach Henley-on-Thames.

0:23:000:23:02

Located in Oxfordshire,

0:23:060:23:07

it's a pretty and affluent market town.

0:23:070:23:11

The river has always been key to its fortunes.

0:23:150:23:18

I'm going to the River and Rowing Museum to lap up

0:23:210:23:25

some of its watery history with curator, Eloise Chapman.

0:23:250:23:29

-Hello, Eloise.

-Hello, Michael.

0:23:310:23:33

This is a beautiful but, I must say, very heavy looking boat.

0:23:330:23:36

What's the history of this?

0:23:360:23:38

So, this was the boat that won

0:23:380:23:40

the first ever Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, won by Oxford in 1829.

0:23:400:23:44

And that race was actually rode at Henley-on-Thames

0:23:440:23:46

rather than in London.

0:23:460:23:47

It was started by two students,

0:23:470:23:50

one went to Cambridge, one went to Oxford.

0:23:500:23:52

And they met one summer holiday and waged a bet against each other

0:23:520:23:55

as to who could win a race on the Thames.

0:23:550:23:57

Why did they choose Henley?

0:23:570:23:59

They chose Henley because we have a very straight stretch of river here.

0:23:590:24:02

There's a lot of boat builders in the area. A lot of people came to

0:24:020:24:05

the area just to have fun on the river at the weekends.

0:24:050:24:07

So, it seemed like the ideal place, I imagine, for them.

0:24:070:24:10

And then at some point,

0:24:100:24:11

the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race moves away to London.

0:24:110:24:13

There was only one race held in Henley-on-Thames.

0:24:130:24:16

And they went to London after that.

0:24:160:24:17

I think because it had proved such a popular race

0:24:170:24:19

and they wanted to be somewhere where, you know,

0:24:190:24:21

there was a bigger arena for the competition.

0:24:210:24:24

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race has become a sporting highlight

0:24:240:24:28

since that first occurrence in 1829.

0:24:280:24:31

And as of 2015, Cambridge has won 81 races and Oxford 79.

0:24:310:24:38

The town lost the varsity race

0:24:380:24:40

but invented its own prestigious rowing event - the Henley Regatta.

0:24:400:24:45

The regatta got going in 1839.

0:24:450:24:47

And to begin with, it was really a social event,

0:24:470:24:49

a way of bringing people to the town

0:24:490:24:51

and making some money for the town as well.

0:24:510:24:53

And then about 20 years later,

0:24:530:24:54

with the coming of the railway, it became a much bigger social event

0:24:540:24:57

because people could come in from London and all the surrounding area.

0:24:570:25:00

Crews race a course of just over a mile.

0:25:000:25:05

And since 1851, when Prince Albert became patron,

0:25:050:25:09

it's been known as the Henley Royal Regatta.

0:25:090:25:12

They must've needed a lot of muscle

0:25:120:25:15

and expended a lot of sweat rowing that boat.

0:25:150:25:17

Oh, yeah, I mean, a huge amount. And they're not easy boats to row.

0:25:170:25:21

And to find out what it takes to be an oarsman,

0:25:240:25:27

I'm heading to the Henley Rowing Club to try my hand.

0:25:270:25:32

Under the tuition of rowing coach Stan Admiraal.

0:25:320:25:35

-Stan.

-Hello there, Michael.

0:25:400:25:43

-Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

0:25:430:25:45

-Reporting for my training.

-Perfect.

0:25:450:25:47

Let me just introduce you to the basics of rowing

0:25:470:25:50

and let me teach you in a quick and brief way how we do that.

0:25:500:25:54

-Just enough that I don't drown.

-Yeah. Perfect, no problem.

0:25:540:25:57

So, we grab the handle

0:25:590:26:00

and we just push on our legs and we stretch out.

0:26:000:26:05

It's what I call position one.

0:26:060:26:08

Then move the hands away first, all the way.

0:26:080:26:11

Good. Position two.

0:26:110:26:13

Then we reach forwards, but we keep the knees flat.

0:26:130:26:16

Call that position three.

0:26:160:26:18

Perfect. And then slide forwards.

0:26:180:26:21

We're going to take on the next stroke

0:26:220:26:24

so I'm going to push on my legs again.

0:26:240:26:26

Going to open up. Perfect.

0:26:260:26:28

'It's one thing to learn the technique on a rowing machine.

0:26:360:26:40

'Time to put it to the test on the river.'

0:26:400:26:43

Where shall I sit?

0:26:430:26:44

-You can have a seat here in the middle of the boat.

-Ah-ha.

0:26:440:26:46

-And you're going behind?

-Then I'll sit behind.

0:26:460:26:49

'I'm enlisting in a rowing eight for my first rowing experience.'

0:26:490:26:53

So, if we all sit backwards and backstrokes -

0:26:540:26:57

so that's position number one.

0:26:570:26:59

Go. Push on the legs.

0:26:590:27:01

Hands away.

0:27:010:27:03

Push on the legs. Hands away.

0:27:030:27:06

Good. Push. Legs.

0:27:060:27:08

Michael, try to push on your legs.

0:27:080:27:10

Sorry, I've lost it completely.

0:27:100:27:12

I've got to get the rhythm back.

0:27:130:27:15

Arms straight. Push on the legs. Up.

0:27:150:27:17

Better.

0:27:170:27:18

So, Michael, keep thinking about those legs.

0:27:180:27:21

Really push your seat backwards and keep your arms straight.

0:27:210:27:24

Going straight.

0:27:240:27:26

'I don't think my old university will be head-hunting me.'

0:27:280:27:33

Whoa.

0:27:330:27:34

'But it's been an oar-some experience.'

0:27:340:27:38

Keep it loose. Push on the legs.

0:27:380:27:41

In, out.

0:27:410:27:43

Since I embarked on my rail journey in Kent,

0:27:470:27:50

I've dynamited a quarry,

0:27:500:27:52

been flung about in a steam-powered fairground ride,

0:27:520:27:56

fought a duel, driven a Bentley and rode on the River Thames.

0:27:560:28:00

Along the way, I discovered that the pace of change

0:28:000:28:04

in Victorian social attitudes

0:28:040:28:06

matched the progress in science and industry.

0:28:060:28:09

In our own digital age too, we fundamentally changed our views

0:28:090:28:15

on the equality between the genders, races and sexualities.

0:28:150:28:20

The continuing development of our outlooks

0:28:200:28:23

is as unstoppable as our technological inventiveness.

0:28:230:28:27

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