Egham to Henley-on-Thames 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 concluding my journey around Southern England.

Today, sticking close to the River Thames,

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

was institutionalised

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

by degrees gained their own university.

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

Following my Bradshaw's guidebook,

I travelled through the county of Kent,

took a route south of London,

through the picturesque towns of Surrey,

and visited racetracks and royal residencies.

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

to Henley-on-Thames.

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

drink in the industrial past of Slough

and cross the finishing line in the home of rowing.

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

Push and relax. Hands away.

Sorry, I've lost it completely.

..discover the radical implications

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

I think it really was the starting point.

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

And let off some steam at a vintage funfair.

MICHAEL LAUGHS Oh, it's horrible!

Oh! Enough! Enough!

Stop!

Under each place name,

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

Originally, these were important gatherings for farmers

to trade with each other.

But over time, they became associated with amusements.

And those amusements were, of course,

transformed by the coming of steam.

I'm travelling on the South Western line

that links London Waterloo to Reading.

And my first stop is Egham.

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

custodian of rare and beautiful Victorian machines.

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

Oh!

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

BELL DINGS

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

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

And in time, Victorian entrepreneurs

harnessed the new technology for entertainment.

I'm meeting Joby Carter

whose father started the steam fair in the 1970s,

collecting and restoring these superb Victorian fairground rides.

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

-When does that date from?

-Circa 1895.

-That's amazing. And powered?

-By steam.

Before steam power, how would the rides be driven?

Predominately, rides were hand powered.

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

and they had animals.

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

The dawn of the steam engine transformed the fairground industry

beyond all recognition.

One - because they could transport the rides with heavy locomotives

and they could power the ride with centre engines,

like the one in the galloper

and the one on the steam yachts we have here.

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

Tell me about them.

Well, the steam yacht originally was designed

by William Cartwright in 1888.

And along came Frederick Savage,

who was a farm machinery manufacturer,

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

changed a few things to get round the copyright.

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

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

It was a real, real thrill ride.

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

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

it's the finest example left in the world.

With these daring new rides, came the great showman.

Tasked with luring thrill-seeking Victorians onto the amusements.

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

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

You'll be swung from side to side!

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

You'll be scared out of your wits!

Having talked the talk,

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

So, the seats are marked yellow for cowards

and then brave and then very brave.

And no self-respecting Briton could sit anywhere

except the very brave seat.

Come on then.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

HE LAUGHS

Oh, this is horrible. No, no.

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

you're only held in by your own arms.

Oh, oh, oh!

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

Oh, enough!

Enough! Stop!

Oh, thank goodness we're slowing down.

Those Victorians really knew how to scare you.

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

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

Fortunately for us, some Victorians who made a tremendous fortune

were interested in philanthropy and their own posterity.

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

Royal Holloway is a spectacular university campus

now part of the University of London.

Its grand and traditional appearance perhaps belies

its radical pioneering origins.

Founded in 1886 by Thomas Holloway, a wealthy philanthropist.

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

The current principal is Professor Paul Layzell.

Paul, in order to found this extraordinary institution,

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

Well, Thomas and Jane Holloway were very wealthy.

They produced pills and potions

that they claimed cured a variety of ailments.

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

he understood the power of advertising

and that's what sold the pills.

Do we think the pills were efficacious?

I'm told that they did you no harm.

I think they were a mild laxative.

What turned his mind towards philanthropy?

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

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

How undersupplied were women at that time with higher education?

There weren't many opportunities.

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

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

when both Bedford College and Royal Holloway College

joined the University of London.

Thomas and Jane had been a devoted couple

and following her death in 1875,

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

Holloway employed the architect William Crossland

to design this building.

It's based on the Chateau de Chambord

in the Loire Valley.

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

I notice that there's a statue of Queen Victoria

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

So did the Queen attach herself to the college?

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

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

which is quite unusual in higher education institutions.

In the late 19th century,

higher education for women was controversial.

Many saw it as fraught with danger.

Care was taken to guard against ill health,

brought on by "strong brainwork."

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

The first year's intake was just 28 students,

but numbers grew rapidly.

Facilities included a beautiful gilded chapel.

As well as an art gallery, filled with works

from the leading painters of the day.

I'm meeting its curator, Laura McCulloch.

So, how did it come about

that a university college had an art collection?

It was all down to Thomas Holloway, the founder.

And I think the idea was that he needed something

to lure people to the college.

So he thought having an art gallery

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

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

how amazing the college was.

So I'm sure it was advertising.

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

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

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

This painting here with its range of female beauties,

what's that about?

Well, what you have are women

who have not had enough money for a dowry

and they're being sold off at auction,

a marriage auction in ancient Babylon.

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

to compare ancient Babylon to Victorian Britain, saying,

"Have we really moved that far away?"

And I think the implied answer is,

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

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

So, what role do you think Royal Holloway College plays

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

I think it was one of the first stepping stones

for women to get freedom.

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

It allowed women to congregate together,

to talk about their status,

and I think it really was the starting point,

by having an education, by having a choice,

they demanded other choices.

And there's a painting that gladdens my heart -

a painting of a railway station.

It is. That's Paddington station.

And it was painted by William Powell Frith,

who really made his name with very large crowd scenes,

very complex scenes with lots of little narratives

but showing all the classes mixing together in these crowds.

And, really, it's a celebration

of the technology of Victorian Britain.

Over half the painting is dedicated

to the architecture of Paddington station.

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

And then, the bottom half with the crowd scene -

now that's a celebration of Victorian society itself.

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

to tell us about what railway travel looked like

-at the end of the 19th century?

-Absolutely.

Royal Holloway is today recognised as one of the leading

research universities in the country.

It has around 8,500 students.

And since 1945, has generously admitted men.

Thomas Holloway might today be considered a bit of a quack

and might be remembered as rather a rogue.

But his fortune built a college

that changed women's place in society

and an art collection that provides a social commentary

on late 19th-century Britain.

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

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

for my overnight stop.

I'm going to spend my evening in Staines,

drawn by this reference in Bradshaw's

to the city boundary stone on which is inscribed,

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

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

"over the River Thames.

"When the civic authorities make their tour of inspection,

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

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

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

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

to the Corporation of the City of London.

Staines stood at the title limit of the river

so it was an obvious place to mark the boundary.

Between the 12th and the 19th century,

the City of London could charge tolls

and levy taxes on fishing

along great stretches of the River Thames.

And they would visit each of their boundary stones

on three-day tours of inspection.

When the authorities lost that right in 1857,

they return from their last inspection symbolically by train

back to the City of London to drown their sorrows.

'It's the start of my second day.

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

But I need to change at Windsor and Eton Riverside.

Windsor and Eton have two stations.

One by the riverside, one called Central.

You can walk between the two.

But the existence of two stations which are not joined together

is testimony to the railway mania of the Victorian age

when lines were constructed higgledy-piggledy.

In the shadow of the 11th-century Windsor Castle

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

I'm taking the riverside path

for my seven-minute walk between the stations

as I leave the South Western network

to join the trains of the Great Western.

It's still early, misty morning.

Luckily, I slept well last night.

There are some people who believe

that they rely for a good nocturnal rest

on a product made at my next stop, Slough.

Slough is known as home

to one of the largest industrial trading estates in Europe.

Just 20 miles west of London,

the town was bisected by the old Great West Road

and the Great Western Railway -

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

In 1840, Slough was the closest station to Windsor Castle

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

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

the original British Horlicks factory

which still produces the drink today.

To find out about its history,

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

Jill, how does this product start life?

In the early 1870s, James and William Horlick

emigrated to Chicago in the United States

and went into business together.

James had done his apprenticeship in a chemist in London

working with infant foods

and the two brothers decided that this would be the product

that they would make themselves and market.

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

In the Victorian times,

milk could sometimes take a long time to get

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

By the time it got there,

it could cause illnesses or it might even cause death.

So by putting the milk in the product itself,

then you just needed to add water.

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

This is a Horlicks feeder.

This is the predecessor to a baby bottle.

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

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

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

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

for their dehydrated milk product

and were exporting it to their homeland as a baby food

and later an energy drink.

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

Buying land from Eton College in 1906,

to build a factory alongside the railway line.

This is a card sleeve, probably 1920s.

You can see on the front we have,

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

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

It was used by explorers, so, Roald Amundsen

and Admiral Byrd took it on their polar expeditions

to sustain themselves.

It could replace a meal.

During one of their expeditions in the 1930s,

they named a major mountain range after their sponsor

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

So, I think of this product being advertised

as being very good for sleep.

So how did it change?

As milk became more available, it got pasteurisation,

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

They changed their marketing to keep their product going,

so they marketed it as a sleep aid.

-And this is the drink itself.

-Yes.

I think I may be a novice to this.

So, it's warm.

Ooh, very wheaty, isn't it?

-Yes. And quite thick.

-And quite thick.

And...

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

in a facility that's over 100 years old.

The site director of the factory is Steve Smith.

Steve, a powerful, almost heady smell

which is very distinctive of the product.

What makes it smell like that?

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

Michael, here at Slough.

And that's where we mash the product together

with the malted barley and the wheat flour.

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

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

what appear like some quite antique pieces of machinery here.

This is one of our evaporators.

This equipment itself is 1929.

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

we actually change the flavour of the product

and therefore lose some of its traditional flavour.

This factory produces up to 14,000 tonnes a year

for domestic consumption

and to supply growing markets in Malaysia and Africa.

And where else is the product popular today?

So, in India.

38 million households drink the product

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

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

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

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

is not dissimilar for the way it was used

in the United Kingdom a century and a half ago?

Absolutely right.

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

which takes me along the mainline westwards to Twyford station.

This will be my interchange for the branch line

to my final destination of Henley-on-Thames.

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

-Hello. Yeah.

-..of this lovely station?

-Yes. Welcome to Twyford.

Thank you very much indeed.

So, you're changing over now,

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

We are, yes, yes.

-How does that feel to you?

-It's quite...

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

What are your memories of it?

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

and it was still very much Great Western in name

although it was British Rail then, of course,

but all the staff were Great Western staff.

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

-Yes.

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

working on the railways?

-I retire at the end of this month.

-No.

-Yes.

My goodness, you'll miss the railway.

Yes, after 53 years,

but we've all got to go sometime.

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

Bradshaw's tells me that it's

"delightfully situated on a sloping bank of the Thames

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

"connecting the counties of Oxford and Berkshire."

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

attracted the eligible blades of Oxford and Cambridge

to compete in boats, with no messing.

40 miles from Central London

and beyond the last of the capital's suburbs,

the River Thames winds through more rural surroundings

to reach Henley-on-Thames.

Located in Oxfordshire,

it's a pretty and affluent market town.

The river has always been key to its fortunes.

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

some of its watery history with curator, Eloise Chapman.

-Hello, Eloise.

-Hello, Michael.

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

What's the history of this?

So, this was the boat that won

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

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

rather than in London.

It was started by two students,

one went to Cambridge, one went to Oxford.

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

as to who could win a race on the Thames.

Why did they choose Henley?

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

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

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

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

And then at some point,

the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race moves away to London.

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

And they went to London after that.

I think because it had proved such a popular race

and they wanted to be somewhere where, you know,

there was a bigger arena for the competition.

The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race has become a sporting highlight

since that first occurrence in 1829.

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

The town lost the varsity race

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

The regatta got going in 1839.

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

a way of bringing people to the town

and making some money for the town as well.

And then about 20 years later,

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

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

Crews race a course of just over a mile.

And since 1851, when Prince Albert became patron,

it's been known as the Henley Royal Regatta.

They must've needed a lot of muscle

and expended a lot of sweat rowing that boat.

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

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

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

Under the tuition of rowing coach Stan Admiraal.

-Stan.

-Hello there, Michael.

-Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

-Reporting for my training.

-Perfect.

Let me just introduce you to the basics of rowing

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

-Just enough that I don't drown.

-Yeah. Perfect, no problem.

So, we grab the handle

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

It's what I call position one.

Then move the hands away first, all the way.

Good. Position two.

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

Call that position three.

Perfect. And then slide forwards.

We're going to take on the next stroke

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

Going to open up. Perfect.

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

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

Where shall I sit?

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

-Ah-ha.

-And you're going behind?

-Then I'll sit behind.

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

So, if we all sit backwards and backstrokes -

so that's position number one.

Go. Push on the legs.

Hands away.

Push on the legs. Hands away.

Good. Push. Legs.

Michael, try to push on your legs.

Sorry, I've lost it completely.

I've got to get the rhythm back.

Arms straight. Push on the legs. Up.

Better.

So, Michael, keep thinking about those legs.

Really push your seat backwards and keep your arms straight.

Going straight.

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

Whoa.

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

Keep it loose. Push on the legs.

In, out.

Since I embarked on my rail journey in Kent,

I've dynamited a quarry,

been flung about in a steam-powered fairground ride,

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

Along the way, I discovered that the pace of change

in Victorian social attitudes

matched the progress in science and industry.

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

on the equality between the genders, races and sexualities.

The continuing development of our outlooks

is as unstoppable as our technological inventiveness.