0:00:04 > 0:00:07For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11At a time when railways were new,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them to take to the tracks.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide
0:00:17 > 0:00:21to understand how trains transformed Britain,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25its landscape, its industries, society and leisure time.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30As I crisscross the country 150 years later,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33it helps me to discover the Britain of today.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55This week, I make tracks across the North West, through areas which
0:00:55 > 0:01:00bore witness to Britain's rise as the world's leading marketplace.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03I explore the bright optimism,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07but also the dark underside of the Industrial Revolution.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17My trip started close to the Scottish border
0:01:17 > 0:01:21and took me to the heart of the beautiful Lake District,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25before heading further south through a classic northern mill town.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30From there, I'm travelling onwards to Merseyside's busy port
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and then I'll reach my final destination on the edge
0:01:33 > 0:01:35of the Peak District National Park.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38On today's leg, I venture to
0:01:38 > 0:01:43a Lancashire town built on coal and glass,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47head westwards to the docks that received the proceeds of empire
0:01:47 > 0:01:51and end up in an affluent town on the Cheshire Plain.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56At my first stop, I feel the heat of modern glass-making...
0:01:56 > 0:02:00I've just walked past a furnace and it's 1,600 degrees Celsius
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and I can tell you it burns as you're going by.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06..break into song with some not too drunken sailors...
0:02:06 > 0:02:12- ALL SING:- # Strike the bell, second mate, let us go below
0:02:12 > 0:02:15# Look away to windward, you can see it's going to blow... #
0:02:15 > 0:02:19..experience life in service to a Lady of the Manor...
0:02:19 > 0:02:22Will there be much more to be polished this afternoon, Mr Douglas?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Considerably more, Mr Portillo. Considerably more.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29..and discover a pioneering literary voice.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32She was the first female social novelist.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52I'm now more than halfway through my journey
0:02:52 > 0:02:57and enjoying my tour of manufacturing towns in North West England.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01My first stop today is St Helens, which Bradshaw's tells me
0:03:01 > 0:03:05"is celebrated for its manufacture of plate and crown glass,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08"got up to great perfection.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11"An hour or two spent in the inspection of these works
0:03:11 > 0:03:14"would amply repay the stranger."
0:03:14 > 0:03:17I'm hoping that an hour or two will provide me
0:03:17 > 0:03:20with a window on the Industrial Revolution.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27I am on the Wigan-to-Liverpool line travelling south.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Thank you. Bye.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40St Helens Station features 400 square metres of locally made glass.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49I'm headed to the World Of Glass,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53a museum built around the old factory buildings of Pilkington,
0:03:53 > 0:03:56the only glass manufacturer in St Helens
0:03:56 > 0:03:58surviving from the Victorian era.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Nowadays, the visitor enters the glass plant through
0:04:04 > 0:04:09this wonderful recreation of an old bottle kiln,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13a superb piece of industrial archaeology
0:04:13 > 0:04:16with, incidentally, an amazing echo.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28- Hello, Matt.- Good morning. Welcome. Welcome to the World Of Glass.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Matt Buckley is from Pilkington's architectural division.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36So, why was it in the first place
0:04:36 > 0:04:39that glass came to be made here, in St Helens?
0:04:39 > 0:04:41Well, exactly here we had everything
0:04:41 > 0:04:43we needed that all came together at the same time.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45You'd got the coal for the power,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48you'd got the sand, which we then turned into glass,
0:04:48 > 0:04:49and we have the canal here as well
0:04:49 > 0:04:52that gave us the chance to bring raw materials
0:04:52 > 0:04:54and take the glass before we also had the railways,
0:04:54 > 0:04:55so everything came together here.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59St Helens sits on the edge
0:04:59 > 0:05:02of the plentiful South Lancashire coalfields
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and excellent transport links were built to carry the coal to market.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11That soon paved way for other businesses -
0:05:11 > 0:05:15potteries, foundries and glassworks that made crown glass by hand.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Crown was one of the earliest types of mass-produced glass,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24so there was a blob of glass on a tube which was then spun
0:05:24 > 0:05:27to produce, with centrifugal force, a disc.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30And eventually that disc could be cut into small panes,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33but in the middle you were left with a bull's-eye or a bullion,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36and even today you'll see some people using that in their windows,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39but that was actually the poor bit of the glass that people threw away.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44A new technique for making much larger panes of glass
0:05:44 > 0:05:46was developed in the 1830s.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Large glass cylinders were sliced open on a table,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52heated and pressed flat with a roller.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It inspired an architectural revolution -
0:05:56 > 0:05:58the advent of grand glass roofs
0:05:58 > 0:06:02on railway stations, museums and public buildings.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07The most breathtaking example was the Crystal Palace,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12housing the Great Exhibition in London's Hyde Park in 1851.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18The building employed 300,000 sheets of glass of the largest
0:06:18 > 0:06:21size ever manufactured -
0:06:21 > 0:06:25a symbol of the United Kingdom's technical ascendancy.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35I have just walked past a furnace at 1,600 degrees Celsius
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and I can tell you it burns as you're going by.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44By 1860, three quarters of the country's window glass
0:06:44 > 0:06:48was produced in 24 furnaces, nine of them at St Helens.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50They operated around the clock.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52This is the furnace, here.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55The hot end, as it's called,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and this is where we take in the raw materials
0:06:57 > 0:07:00and within there we are actually melting the glass.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03So, Matt, we are facing here extraordinary heat.
0:07:03 > 0:07:04Which site is this?
0:07:04 > 0:07:06This is Watson Street site.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09This is the site where we made our first crown of glass,
0:07:09 > 0:07:1314th February 1827, on this site.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17- Now, what is glass and how do you make it?- This is what is in here.
0:07:17 > 0:07:18This is the batch.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22This is sand and soda ash and dolomite and, really,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26we heat that to 1,600 degrees C
0:07:26 > 0:07:29and then form it through the process eventually to produce
0:07:29 > 0:07:30the glass as you know it.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33And how are you actually producing that level of heat?
0:07:33 > 0:07:34OK, we have got...
0:07:34 > 0:07:38Effectively, we were burning gas to produce the heat.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40We are actually mixing the gas, the gas and the air,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44using a similar process than we saw right back from the 1870s.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48We fire gas from this side for 20 minutes, then from the other side,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51and we effectively recycle and re-use the heat.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54- I wouldn't like to see your gas bill. - It is very large, yes.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56£20 million a year.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05St Helens glass-makers were part of the plate-glass revolution
0:08:05 > 0:08:07of the mid-19th century
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and they still led in glass innovation 100 years later.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19This here is a float glass plant.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21It was the float glass process
0:08:21 > 0:08:24invented by Sir Alistair Pilkington in 1952.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27And here we actually melt the sand in exactly the same way,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30but we float it on a bed of molten tin
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and that is what makes it perfectly flat without imperfections.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37So, the type of glass you see in today's buildings,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40around the world, is float glass, using the Pilkington technology.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44And this stuff is just streaming along these machines all the time?
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Yes, the glass comes down in a ribbon and is chopped
0:08:46 > 0:08:51and then packed, and this line will run for anything up to 20 years.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55So, even in one week, we can produce 5,000 tonnes of glass -
0:08:55 > 0:08:57that is half a million square metres.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Actually, in a year, we can produce enough glass
0:08:59 > 0:09:02probably to go halfway around the world on this line.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04So, massive amounts of glass,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07almost unimaginable in terms of what architects can now do
0:09:07 > 0:09:10because of the developments in glass and glazing technology.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12I mean, just looking around, it seems to me that
0:09:12 > 0:09:15if there was a revolution in architecture thanks to glass
0:09:15 > 0:09:19in Bradshaw's time, we have had another one in the last few decades.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20Absolutely.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38I'm back on the tracks that were the artery of St Helens' economy,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42linking it to the prosperous docks of Liverpool, my next destination.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54By the 19th century, Liverpool had overtaken Bristol as Britain's
0:09:54 > 0:09:56second most important port after London,
0:09:56 > 0:10:01thanks to its proximity to the industrial powerhouse of Manchester.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06And its railway station was perhaps designed to emphasise
0:10:06 > 0:10:08this new-found status.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Liverpool Lime Street station is a perfect example
0:10:21 > 0:10:24of how glass transformed British cities.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28The northern canopy has a span of 200 feet
0:10:28 > 0:10:31and, when it was built, around the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33it was the broadest that had ever been built
0:10:33 > 0:10:37and Victorian travellers looked up at it in awe.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Modern-day Liverpool stands in stark contrast
0:10:48 > 0:10:50to the city of the mid-1800s.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55The port was a gritty and chaotic place, but its system
0:10:55 > 0:11:00of interconnected docks was the most sophisticated in the world.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03It played a vital role in the world's largest economy,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06receiving materials from the British colonies
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and shipping out British manufactured goods.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14The docks in Liverpool, says Bradshaw's,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16are the grand lions of the town,
0:11:16 > 0:11:23extending in one magnificent range of five miles along the river.
0:11:23 > 0:11:24Being a child of the 1960s,
0:11:24 > 0:11:31I remember that the Beatles exported the Liverpool beat to the globe
0:11:31 > 0:11:33but it turns out that, decades before that,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37a Mersey sound was flowing out to the world.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42SEA SHANTY
0:11:52 > 0:11:56The docks were swarming with tradesmen, stevedores and sailors
0:11:56 > 0:12:00from all over the world, who used song to set the rhythms
0:12:00 > 0:12:03for hauling ropes and heaving cargoes.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07They worked here at the Albert docks, where I am meeting a Liverpool girl,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Julia Batters, a sea shanty enthusiast.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14SEA SHANTY
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Julia, what are sea shanties? Where do they come from?
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Sea shanties are work songs.
0:12:38 > 0:12:44The were sung on British merchant ships to enhance
0:12:44 > 0:12:46the efficiency of the crew.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Those ships needed to travel fast,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52have smaller crews than were on the Royal Navy ships,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and so they were rhythmic tunes
0:12:55 > 0:12:59sung to keep people making a physical effort.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03British sea shanties have travelled around the world
0:13:03 > 0:13:05and back again several times.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10You can hear them translated into Norwegian, into Dutch,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12actually into Polish.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15Some of them were adapted to singing on the rivers and
0:13:15 > 0:13:18the Great Lakes in the States.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20It encapsulates so much of the history
0:13:20 > 0:13:24of what made the UK great and of English working people.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27And this is an important heritage to preserve.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29What are you doing to keep it up?
0:13:29 > 0:13:31We have started a club.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36Every month we sing sea shanties in the Baltic Fleet pub,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40which is one of the last Sailortown pubs left in Liverpool.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Liverpool is regarded internationally
0:13:43 > 0:13:45as the spiritual home of the sea shanty,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49so we are bringing the music back here where it should be sung.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52MAN SINGS STRIKE THE BELL
0:14:01 > 0:14:04A quick wetting of the whistle and I'm ready to join in.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10- ALL SINGING:- # Look out to windward you can see it's going to blow
0:14:10 > 0:14:14# Look at the glass you can see that it is fell
0:14:14 > 0:14:18# We wish that he would hurry up and strike, strike the bell... #
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Julia's husband is shantyman Derek Batters.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31# There is the larboard watch, they're longing for their bunks
0:14:31 > 0:14:35# They're looking out to windward they can see a great swell
0:14:35 > 0:14:37# They're wishing that the second mate
0:14:37 > 0:14:39# Would strike, strike the bell... #
0:14:39 > 0:14:44The shantyman had the important task of keeping up morale on deck
0:14:44 > 0:14:48and he would vary the song to match the task at hand.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51# Look at the glass you can see that it's fell
0:14:51 > 0:14:56# We wish that you would hurry up and strike, strike the bell... #
0:14:56 > 0:15:00There were short drag shanties for jobs needing quick bursts of energy
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and long drag shanties, which gave sailors a rest between hauls.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Derek is singing a pump shanty,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11used when pumping the bilges of the ship to prevent it from sinking.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16# And he's wishing that the second mate would strike, strike the bell
0:15:16 > 0:15:20# Strike the bell, second mate, let's go below... #
0:15:20 > 0:15:24But pump shanties also work rather well for swilling pints to -
0:15:24 > 0:15:26an excellent way to end my day.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28# See that it's fell
0:15:28 > 0:15:32# We wish that you would hurry up and strike, strike the bell
0:15:32 > 0:15:36# Strike the bell, second mate, let's go below
0:15:36 > 0:15:40# Look out to windward, you can see it going to blow
0:15:40 > 0:15:44# Look at the glass, you can see that it's fell
0:15:44 > 0:15:52# And I wish that you would hurry up and strike, strike the bell! #
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Bravo!
0:15:54 > 0:15:56CHEERING
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Today, I'm continuing my journey,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13travelling south-west on the Wirral line towards Chester.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Chester was a welcome break for Victorians
0:16:17 > 0:16:21from the grime and frantic pace of the industrial cities.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26But I'm not stopping. I'm changing to the mid-Cheshire line.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48I've travelled from salty Liverpool to leafy Cheshire.
0:16:48 > 0:16:49Bradshaw's tells me that,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52over a distance of two-and-three-quarter miles,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54almost from Ashley to Knutsford,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58stretches the fine park belonging to Lord Egerton.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02At one time, it was 250,000 acres.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05I shall get off the train at Knutsford. It seems to me that
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Tatton Hall could be a good place to explore Victorian life,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12both upstairs and downstairs.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21- Have a good day.- Thank you very much.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24A couple of miles from Knutsford station lies an imposing
0:17:24 > 0:17:26neoclassical country house.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31The Egertons were highly regarded members of the aristocracy.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36This was the part of society least touched by the upheavals
0:17:36 > 0:17:38of the 19th century.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44The aristocracy may have dabbled in industrial investments, or banking,
0:17:44 > 0:17:48but they exercised hereditary power in Westminster,
0:17:48 > 0:17:49the army and the Empire.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Their large country houses relied on highly skilled servants
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and Carolyn Latham, from the Cheshire East Council,
0:17:58 > 0:18:03knows all about life downstairs working for the Egertons.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Carolyn, an enormous establishment like Tatton Park,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08how many staff did it take to run?
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Over the years, somewhere between perhaps 40 and 20 was quite typical.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15How many best guest rooms are there in Tatton Park?
0:18:15 > 0:18:20This main block of the mansion has eight guest bedrooms,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22all with ensuite dressing rooms.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26The middle section of the mansion here is the family's more intimate,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29personal, smaller apartments,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33but about eight good guests could be situated within the household.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41An invitation to an Egerton house party was much sought-after.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45On these hectic occasions, the servants moved smartly up
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and downstairs to attend to the needs of master and mistress.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Well, the kitchens are very large,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00although notably lacking in modern conveniences and machinery.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Let's start with the people who were here.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05What were the butler's duties?
0:19:05 > 0:19:09So, the butler is...his main duties are around making sure that
0:19:09 > 0:19:11household's running smoothly,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13so he's looking after the male servants,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16the grooms, the footmen, he's making sure that all the male
0:19:16 > 0:19:19servants are all in the right places at the right time.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23That the dinner's served on time, the drinks are served on time.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25You know, he waits on as well.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27He's there when the master of the household is around -
0:19:27 > 0:19:29the butler wouldn't be far away from him.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Domestic service was Victorian Britain's
0:19:32 > 0:19:36largest source of employment for women.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39At Tatton Hall, the butler, the housekeeper and the chef
0:19:39 > 0:19:44were at the top of the pecking order, while a housemaid was at the bottom.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49What was life like for the most humble housemaid?
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Well, quite long and hard I would think.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53They were up early, they're the first up,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56maybe half five, six o'clock in the morning.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59They're getting the fireplaces ready for the other servants,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02the higher up servants as well as for the household.
0:20:02 > 0:20:08Serving breakfast trays, cleaning bedrooms, emptying bedpans.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11The housekeeper would have made sure their time was really full
0:20:11 > 0:20:13and accounted for.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15They would have their set break times,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17but also those lowest housemaids
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and scullery maids, you know, there was a hierarchy within even
0:20:20 > 0:20:23the servants eating, so they sat at the end.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26They didn't really get to have the conversations
0:20:26 > 0:20:30that the others were having, so their whole day was very structured
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and they'd have gone to bed really quite late as well.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40I'm travelling back in time, to the heyday of Tatton Hall,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44to put my skills to the test as an under-butler,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48eager to make a good impression on my rather stern superiors.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Will there be much more to be polished this afternoon, Mr Douglas?
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Considerably more, Mr Portillo. Considerably more.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01I think a little bit more elbow grease is required.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Ah, I can see you set very high standards, Mrs Cartwright,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- here at Tatton Park.- Indeed, we do.
0:21:07 > 0:21:14What we require, Mr Portillo, is 20% polish and 80% elbow grease.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18What time would her ladyship be requiring her tea, Mr Douglas?
0:21:18 > 0:21:20I think I'm correct in saying, Mrs Cartwright,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24- her ladyship requested tea at four? - Four o'clock, yes, on the dot.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27- Four o'clock, Mr Portillo. - On the dot, Mr Douglas.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30How's it going now?
0:21:30 > 0:21:33A vast improvement, yes.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Can you see your face in them?
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Unfortunately, I can, Mrs Cartwright.
0:22:04 > 0:22:05Tea, Lady Egerton.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17- Shall I pour, Lady Egerton? - No, I shall pour.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Yes, your ladyship.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Mr Portillo, a word, if I may.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Your shoes, your socks, your trousers.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Something amiss, Mr Douglas?
0:22:32 > 0:22:35One can only assume that your previous employer set
0:22:35 > 0:22:37a certain lower standard.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47It's just as well that I have other career options.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53In the mid-1800s, a factory job might have tempted a domestic servant
0:22:53 > 0:22:57tired of responding to the master's summoning bell.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01A job in the city offered privacy
0:23:01 > 0:23:03and freedom at the end of the working day...
0:23:04 > 0:23:07..but urban and factory life often shocked the new
0:23:07 > 0:23:10worker from the countryside
0:23:10 > 0:23:12and it appalled many in the middle classes, who read about it
0:23:12 > 0:23:17for the first time in the novels of a pioneering female author.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23I'm back in Knutsford to explore the life of Elizabeth Gaskell
0:23:23 > 0:23:28in conversation with Diana Stenson from the local heritage centre.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Diana, what is this rather extraordinary structure?
0:23:32 > 0:23:34This is the Gaskell Tower
0:23:34 > 0:23:37and it is the only commemoration that we have officially
0:23:37 > 0:23:40in the town to commemorate our most famous daughter.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43So, is she quite highly regarded in Knutsford?
0:23:43 > 0:23:44She was very highly regarded.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47She was liked very much as a child when she lived here
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and, of course, when she went on to have this successful career
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and all the things that she wrote,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54some of them had enormous social consequences.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58She was very highly regarded and the family were very regarded as well.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01And what do you think was Elizabeth Gaskell's legacy?
0:24:01 > 0:24:06That she was the first female social novelist of serious matters.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08A sort of female Dickens?
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Very much so, and they were good friends.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford was first published as a serial
0:24:16 > 0:24:20in Charles Dickens' journal, Household Words, in 1851.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24It's her most famous book, a collection of comic sketches
0:24:24 > 0:24:28which affectionately portray changing small-town customs.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Gaskell drew on her own experience of a happy
0:24:33 > 0:24:36childhood in Knutsford, where she was raised by her aunt.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Cranford is famously set in and about Knutsford.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Is that very clear in the novel?
0:24:47 > 0:24:50I think anybody that lived around here would have recognised
0:24:50 > 0:24:55Knutsford as this lovely little cosy country market town
0:24:55 > 0:24:58but quite a distance, as it would seem in those days, to the
0:24:58 > 0:25:02huge industrial belching chimneys that we had in Manchester.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05The railway comes to Knutsford in 1862,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07long after Cranford is published.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Do the railways get a look in in the Gaskell novels?
0:25:09 > 0:25:13They do. She wrote one particular short story called Lady Ludlow
0:25:13 > 0:25:17and it was heralding the arrival, or the building,
0:25:17 > 0:25:18of the railways in this area.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And the railway was all happening
0:25:20 > 0:25:24and, blow me, Lady Ludlow decided, virtually at the last minute
0:25:24 > 0:25:26when they're about to build a bend,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30"I'm not selling you the land after all." So, it all fell apart.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33And what was her attitude to the railways?
0:25:33 > 0:25:35She had a feeling of the mood of the railways
0:25:35 > 0:25:39because here we're sitting in an agricultural area, railway's coming,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41then the railways are arriving and it speeded everything up.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44People thought in a different way with the railway.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46And so we would have our seasons here,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49which was what dictated what went on on the farms,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51and then the railways were speeding up
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and it seemed to alter people's perception of time.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Young Elizabeth moved to Manchester when
0:25:58 > 0:26:02she married William Gaskell in 1832.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06The city opened her eyes to the plight of the urban working classes,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09inspiring her to write her first book - Mary Barton.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16She was the first person to write what you would call social novels.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21She touched on and exposed a great deal of the disgraceful things that
0:26:21 > 0:26:25were going on towards the workers in the Industrial Revolution.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27There were hundreds of workers coming in, nay, thousands,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30from agricultural land, from all over the North West,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32coming in to work in the East Midlands,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36having no idea that they'd be living in disgraceful cellars.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40They had no... There was no sort of sewage, there was nothing.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43It was dreadful and she exposed all that.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47She had a lot of trouble, socially, because she was ostracised over
0:26:47 > 0:26:52a lot of these things, but she stuck to it and we owe her a huge debt
0:26:52 > 0:26:54in telling us what was going on.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57People who only lived a mile or two away had no idea.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04Elizabeth Gaskell's books were a counterpoint to the optimism
0:27:04 > 0:27:08that the Victorian public had experienced at the Great Exhibition.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13She reminds us that Britain's prosperous position
0:27:13 > 0:27:16as the workshop of the world carried a human cost.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Her work is a valuable window on the grimmer
0:27:19 > 0:27:22realities of the Industrial Revolution.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31The thing that most determined Victorian architecture was glass
0:27:31 > 0:27:35from St Helens and no industry made greater use of it than
0:27:35 > 0:27:39the railways with their stunning stations.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Elizabeth Gaskell perceived that the trains were changing not only
0:27:43 > 0:27:48the rural landscape but also the country way of life.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Although, at Tatton Park, rigid social structures endured.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55As for my performance as an under-butler, I think I would have
0:27:55 > 0:28:00been given, in the words of the sea shanty, the heave-ho.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04'Next time, I'm blown away by beauty...'
0:28:05 > 0:28:09We just soared over the valley, absolutely beautiful.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12'..I work up a sweat, the Victorian way...'
0:28:14 > 0:28:18Stoking up the fire, giving the locomotive a bit of oomph.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Builds good biceps, that.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24'..and experience the ride of my life.'
0:28:24 > 0:28:27THEY SCREAM