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For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
At a time when railways were new, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them to take to the tracks. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide to understand | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
how trains transformed Britain, | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
its landscape, its industries, society, and leisure time. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:26 | |
As I crisscross the country 150 years later, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
it helps me to discover the Britain of today. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
I'm continuing my trip along the tracks of the Flying Scotsman. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
Today, I hope to have a singsong amongst holy innocents as my journey | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
stretches into industrial Nottinghamshire, to discover how | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
a novelist writing in Yorkshire prompted a Victorian concern | 0:01:06 | 0:01:11 | |
for animals, and to meet my match as I strike into County Durham. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:16 | |
My journey is taking me up the East Coast Main Line from | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
London King's Cross through Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
and on via Nottinghamshire to where a steam locomotive | 0:01:32 | 0:01:37 | |
first hauled wagons in County Durham. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
I'll progress along the North Sea coast, crossing the Scottish border, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
to finish in the capital, Edinburgh. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
Today I start at Newark-on-Trent, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
a town dubbed the Key of the North. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
I'll continue on to Retford before stopping off in Thirsk and finishing | 0:01:54 | 0:01:59 | |
in Stockton-on-Tees, the cradle of the modern railway. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
'On this journey, I rally a crowd of choristers...' | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
Has your chanting ever been atrocious? | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
No. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:14 | |
'..become friends with a prickly chap...' | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
Hello, Charles. Charles is certainly not lacking in energy or strength, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
-is he? -He is quite a character. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
'..and get fired up with a Victorian chemist.' | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
Let there be light. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:29 | |
My first stop today will be Newark. Bradshaw's says, "the parish church | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
"of St Mary is one of the finest in the kingdom. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
"A grammar school founded in Henry VIII's reign with a song school | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
"attached is near the church." | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
Children singing - a choir of new archangels, perhaps. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:59 | |
Beside the River Trent, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
Newark's old castle provided the focus for a town | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
where roads and railway lines converge. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
Its church steeple has long towered over the hustle and bustle | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
of this market town. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
The Bradshaw traveller would already have recognised it as a hub. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
I'm meeting Andrew Fern, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
clerk at the charity that founded the choir school. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
Andrew, Bradshaw's mentions the very distinguished | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
St Mary Magdalene Church, and mentions too that the grammar school | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
from Henry VIII's time had a song school attached. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
For what purpose was there a song school? | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
The song school was to enable the young men to learn to sing | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
and to further their religious education at the same time. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
How was such a school funded? | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
Thomas Magnus was a loyal courtier of Henry VIII, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
and because he was faithful to his king he was rewarded | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
with emoluments and decided to endow the schools here | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
with some of that wealth. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
Thomas Magnus was Henry VIII's chaplain. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
At a time when religion and power went hand in hand, | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
Magnus left his mark on Newark. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
He bequeathed land that generated revenue for the trust to fund | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
the grammar school and the song school. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:37 | |
I think of funded choirs attached to Oxford and Cambridge colleges, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
to cathedrals, and so on, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
but it's quite unusual, isn't it, for a parish church? | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
It's very unusual. We're enormously lucky. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
We're just one of the few parish churches in the whole country | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
to have an endowed choir. And it gives a great opportunity | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
to youngsters of all backgrounds, and sometimes different talents, | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
to come together and make music. It's fantastic. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
Today's choir echoes the voices of generations of children | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
who attended the school over the past five centuries. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:31 | |
The choirmaster is Stephen Bullamore. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
Choir, what a splendid sound. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
Thank you very much. You must be Stephen. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
-Yes, thank you very much. -It's great to see you. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
What a range of ages. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
And what does it feel like to sing with this choir? | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
Well, it feels quite cool because it feels like it's a chance to be you, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:52 | |
and it feels like you can express yourself. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
That's very nice indeed. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
So, has this choir pretty much been singing since 1530? | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
Not necessarily each individual member, but as a body | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
we've been going for a very long time, yes. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
I've been digging into the archives and we have a list of music which | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
was sung in the 19th century, kept by one of my predecessors. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
And he also comments on quite how well the singing was or was not, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:20 | |
so we have a rather nice comment: "All the music went well tonight." | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
That's good. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:24 | |
"Chanting in the morning simply atrocious. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
"As bad in the evening, and the anthem murdered entirely." | 0:06:29 | 0:06:33 | |
Now, let's check with the choir. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
Has your chanting ever been atrocious? | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
-ALL: -No. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:41 | |
And have you ever murdered an anthem? | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
-ALL: -No! | 0:06:44 | 0:06:45 | |
Before leaving Newark, I'm going to visit a special display | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
celebrating a time when train travel was still an adventure. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
The London North Eastern Railway ran to some beautiful places - | 0:06:59 | 0:07:04 | |
York, Scarborough, Berwick-upon-Tweed - | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
but how were those attractions to be illustrated? | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
Posters were the answer, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
and writer Edward Yardley has a passion for them. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Edward, I'm Michael. How lovely to see you. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:21 | |
-Lovely to see you. -What a great collection of railway posters. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
-Yes. -When does the railway poster start life? | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
The poster starts in the Victorian period, Michael, but it starts as | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
a rather muddled set of images with some overstated letterpress. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
It really gets going in the Edwardian period, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
and by 1923, we were in the heyday of the poster period. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:43 | |
Illustrated by artists, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
these posters transformed platforms into open-air galleries, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
and Frank Henry Mason was one of the masters. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
Born in 1875, he'd been a marine life painter when the LNER | 0:07:53 | 0:07:59 | |
lured him into the advertising world. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
He demonstrated his talent for everything from the Flying Scotsman | 0:08:02 | 0:08:07 | |
to the most intricate industrial scenes, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
and the east coast seaside destinations. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
Well, that speaks for itself. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
I mean, that is the classic, isn't it? | 0:08:18 | 0:08:19 | |
Inviting us to the broad, open beach. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
Yes, this is what we think of as a typical railway poster, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
designed to entice the holiday public to the resort. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
It's Scarborough in this one. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
And it's alluring after all this time. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
-Yes. -But, now, this is quite different. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:33 | |
This is NOT buckets and spades at all. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
No, but this was the advertising manager coming up with | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
a different slant on enticing the public to the Great Britain | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
in terms of its industry as well as coastal resorts merely being | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
for the holiday-maker. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:49 | |
A tribute to what's actually going on in Britain. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
-Absolutely. -And then up the east coast we go. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
Berwick-upon-Tweed, the famous bridge. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
And at last we arrive in Scotland, and that's a beautiful piece too. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
Indeed, and this is a series of six, Michael, | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
showing the different types of fishing boats that in those days | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
were very much at work in the harbours up and down the east coast. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
These posters... | 0:09:10 | 0:09:11 | |
-Yeah. -..remain very popular and you're obviously extraordinarily | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
keen about them. Why are we so attracted still to | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
the work of Frank Mason and others all these years later? | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
Well, I think you can sum it up in the word "nostalgia". | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
These are images of a bygone age. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
Yes. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
I'm leaving Newark to press northward. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
My next stop will be Retford in Nottinghamshire. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
According to Bradshaw's, the inhabitants manufacture hats, | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
sail cloth, and paper, in considerable quantities. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
The Chesterfield Canal from the Trent has been of great advantage | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
to the town. In Victorian times they discovered a new industrial plant, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:04 | |
proving that the manufacture of the town was highly flexible. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
Retford has kept the traces of its industrial splendour, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
with fine Victorian frontages adorning the town square. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
The Northern Rubber Factory was founded here during that boom era, | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
and has been on this site since 1871. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
Its product was destined to become indispensable. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
Mike Heslop has worked here for nearly 40 years, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
and knows about the history of rubber at the time of my Bradshaw's. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
In the Victorian times, the only rubber that was available | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
was natural rubber, which was taken from trees, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
and that was sourced from Brazil | 0:11:03 | 0:11:04 | |
because that was the only place that they grew, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
and it was illegal to actually export seeds or plants from Brazil. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
But in the 1870s, a chap called Henry Wickham | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
smuggled 70,000 seeds from Brazil to Kew Gardens, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
where they were propagated and the resulting plants were | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
distributed throughout the Empire. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
So to Ceylon, Malaya, at the time, India, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
all of which had the correct climate to grow rubber plants. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
When those rubber trees had grown in those colonial regions, their gum | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
was a cheap commodity readily available to imperial Britain. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
Back in America, in 1839, Charles Goodyear had discovered that | 0:11:41 | 0:11:45 | |
by heating rubber with sulphur, one was able to harden | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
the amorphous mass into a material which would hold its shape. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
This process would be called vulcanisation. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
Alfred Pegler saw the potential, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
and founded the factory as a family business. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
His great-grandson would go on to look after the company, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
and put his name down in railway history. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
Alan Pegler is well known for his activities in the rail industry. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:15 | |
In the early '60s, he purchased the Flying Scotsman and he then spent | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
a large amount of his fortune restoring the train. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
We owe to him the fact that it has now been restored | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
-and is available for us to ride. -Yeah, absolutely, yes. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
Inside the factory's Victorian walls, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
the activity is resolutely modern. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
The old vulcanisation technique has evolved to produce army tank wheels, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:44 | |
while synthetic rubber is used by 21st-century aerospace. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
Manufacturing manager, Tom Wagstaff, takes me behind the scenes. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
So, Michael, this is a fire test and what we're going to do is we've got | 0:12:54 | 0:12:59 | |
a silicone rubber seal in the test rig. This particular seal, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
a safety-critical engine component for an aircraft. The point | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
of the fire test is we are going to hit it | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
with 1,100 degrees C of flame. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
We're going to do that for five minutes to make sure that | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
the seal stays intact, and it will be safe on the aircraft. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
So that looks pretty metallic, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
but actually it is... | 0:13:19 | 0:13:20 | |
-Silicone rubber. -Silicone rubber. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
Whoa! | 0:13:28 | 0:13:29 | |
Excuse me. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:31 | |
Silicone rubber is the perfect material for this aircraft seal, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
because it can survive very high temperatures, as in this fire test, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:42 | |
and extremes of cold, down to -60 Celsius. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
I can feel the heat radiating from here. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
A pretty powerful flame. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:51 | |
It really is an aggressive flame, for the worst type of fire. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:55 | |
I'm just going to have a look at what's happened to the seal. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
And the answer is nothing. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
With contracts with NASA and the British Ministry of Defence, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
the company is accustomed to manufacturing critical | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
pieces of equipment, such as this in-flight refuelling hose. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
Imagine a fighter plane coming in at 300, 400mph, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
to the back of a tanker plane. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
It's got to be able to connect onto this. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
It's got to be strong enough to be able to take that force | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
without breaking loose from the aircraft. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:31 | |
And how on Earth does this thing find its way towards the fuel tank? | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
So, it's a good question. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
These can be up to 120 feet long, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
and today the pilot will fly in, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:42 | |
home in to the back of the tanker, and try and hook the end of it. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
I couldn't do it. I'm sure you could, Michael! | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
But what we're actually doing as well - | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
a really interesting piece of technology - is for drones, so UAVs. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
We're actually running data fibres within it, so an unmanned aircraft | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
can clip onto the back, get fuel on board, download mission parameters, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:05 | |
uncouple, and it allows those to stay in the sky 24 hours a day. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
And so, really, you're working on an intelligent hose. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
Oh, absolutely, yeah. This is the cutting edge of technology | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
-across the world. -Can you imagine what a gardener could do with that? | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
-Thirsk, please. Senior. -£27.05, then, please. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
To make my journey from Retford to Thirsk, I've had to change trains | 0:16:00 | 0:16:05 | |
in York, but who needs an excuse to come to this magnificent station? | 0:16:05 | 0:16:10 | |
When it was built in 1877, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
York was the largest station in Britain, and many perceived it as | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
a monument to extravagance. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
The whole station was constructed on a curve, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
making it all the more striking. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
My next station will be Thirsk. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
Bradshaw's says, "that it cannot lay claim to any feature | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
"worthy of attention." Oh, dear. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
I'm sure the people of Thirsk would not agree. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
"A few miles on is Byland Abbey, a fine ruin, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
"in going to which Laurence Sterne's house may be observed." | 0:16:47 | 0:16:52 | |
Sterne, although a man of the cloth, wrote satire and comedy, | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
and so his surname was not particularly appropriate. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
Despite Bradshaw's giving Thirsk the brush-off, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
it's actually a charming town, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
with a picturesque town clock and a cobbled market square. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
Just outside, in a pastoral haven, a man penned a series of books | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
that shook the literary world. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
Patrick Wildgust is curator of the Laurence Sterne Trust. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:34 | |
Well, Patrick, Bradshaw's recommended that I come to see | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
Laurence Sterne's house, and I must say, it is highly attractive. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
But let's begin with - who was Laurence Sterne? | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
Laurence Sterne was a clergyman, and he was the clergyman of two villages | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
to the south of here, but he had ambition. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
He said, "I write not to be fed, but to be famous." | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
And he produced a book called | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
one of the most extraordinary books that's in the English canon. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
-And why is it extraordinary? -Because it's funny. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
It's a genuinely funny book, but it's also very clever. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
It begins with a rather strange way of referring to the hero's | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
conception, which is dictated by the winding of the clock, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
and as a result of this, it was scandalous. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
That, presumably, is the book. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
Well, this is the first volume. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
This is a first edition, a copy of the first volume, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
which was published in 1759, and here is the title page. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
Shandy's a North Yorkshire dialect word, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
meaning a bit strange or a bit odd. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
And then, beneath that, we have two lines in Greek, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
so that's appealing to the intellectual, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
and it means something along the lines of, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
"It's not what things are that men fear, it's his opinions of them." | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
How was it received at the time? | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
It was a huge success, but it was also quite controversial, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
because the book, although funny and bawdy, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
when it was discovered it was written by a clergyman, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
that altered its reception to some degree. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
How was he regarded in Victorian times? | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
In Victorian times, they chopped off the first five chapters | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
in some editions, to make sure that this didn't offend. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
If a vicar in a parish today brought out a slim volume of erotic verse, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
how would it go down with the parish? | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
-It had that sort of effect? -Yeah, certainly. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:06 | |
Sterne both provoked and influenced his readers. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
One of his best-known characters, Uncle Toby, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
made an impact on Victorian society. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
This painting here shows two characters from | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy - | 0:19:19 | 0:19:20 | |
Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
Uncle Toby is a kind and genial man. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
In volume two of Tristram Shandy, if I can show you here, on page 79, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:30 | |
there's an account as to why we should look at this man because | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
Tristram thinks that he owes 50% of his understanding of philanthropy | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
because of this action, "where my Uncle Toby had scarce a heart | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
"to retaliate upon a fly which had buzzed about his nose | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
"and tormented him cruelly all dinner time. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
"Get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
"This world surely is big enough to hold both thee and me." | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
And this must have been very unfashionable at the time. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
-People didn't care about animals. -It's an unusual perspective. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
Tristram is affected by this, and so they were in Victorian times | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
as well, because the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle decided that | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
there should be a society organised for the young child | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
to try to encourage the idea of not killing sparrows and birds. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
The editor used the pen name Uncle Toby to promote | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
the Dickey Bird Society. Within ten years, 100,000 people had pledged | 0:20:17 | 0:20:22 | |
fealty to feathered friends, and parades were held in Newcastle | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
in celebration. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:28 | |
Dear Uncle Toby, we owe you such a lot. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
Indeed. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:32 | |
Uncle Toby and the Victorians sowed the seeds for the nation of | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
animal lovers that the British have become. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
On the outskirts of Thirsk, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
Krista Langley has a wildlife centre funded entirely by donations. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
Since its opening in 2008, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
the centre has taken care of over 5,000 animals. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
Wow, cages all around. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
So, which animals are in residence at the moment? | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
We've got a little owl. We get quite a few in. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
-Ooh! -Looking very bright. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:08 | |
Hello, little owl. What a lovely bird. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
They're full of character, little owls. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
Looking me directly in the eye. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:16 | |
This little owl was brought to the centre after being found concussed | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
on the roadside. It couldn't feed itself, but is recovering, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
and will soon resume its life in the wild. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
Cygnets, rabbits and other animals have found shelter and care, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:37 | |
including this hedgehog, Charles. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
At only 142 grams, he's in need of a feed. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
Nice soft blanket for him. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
Hello, Charles. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
Come on, Charles. Come on, Charles. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
Charles is certainly not lacking in energy or strength, is he? | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
He's quite a character. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:00 | |
Charles. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
That's better. Here we go. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
You're doing really well, because he's quite difficult. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
He's always had a habit of pulling on the teat. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
Yeah, he does pull a lot. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:11 | |
Although he's started to eat solids, he still enjoys his milk. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
How's that, Charles? Is that nice? | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
My next stop will be Stockton. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
Bradshaw's tells me it's a market town in the county of Durham, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
employed in the coal and shipping trade, situated on the River Tees, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:36 | |
and celebrated for the manufacture of rope. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
The first bar of the railway line to Darlington was laid here in 1825. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:45 | |
It's also the birthplace of the man who gave us heat and light | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
at our fingertips. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:51 | |
Stockton has a special place in the heart of all train lovers. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
Here ran the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
Today, the town proudly commemorates the famed Locomotion No 1 | 0:23:06 | 0:23:11 | |
with a modern sculpture that moves on the hour. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
The 19th-century town residents were true pioneers, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
and when it came to inventions, the railways were about to be matched. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:23 | |
This enormous work of art celebrates the achievement of a | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
Stockton-on-Tees chemist. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
Just a little invention, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
but one that simplified our lives, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
and helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
To find out about that discovery, I need to step back in time to 1895, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:48 | |
in the Victorian street of the Preston Park Museum, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
just in time for my appointment with the local chemist. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
John Walker was a 45-year-old pharmacist | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
when he invented the striking match. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
His shop stocked products ranging from cosmetics to leeches. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
Historical interpreter John Sadler has stepped into Walker's shoes. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
Mr John Walker. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:14 | |
-Good afternoon. -Inventor of the striking match, I believe. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
Well, I must confess that I was not intending to create the match. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:23 | |
I was inspired by The Reverend Alexander Forsyth, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
and he had invented a new firing mechanism called the percussion cap, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:32 | |
which was an improvement on the flint mechanism, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
and all one has to do now is literally pull the trigger. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
So that's at half cock, go to full cock... | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
I feel a bit like Dick Turpin. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:43 | |
Ha! Take that, you blaggard. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
So, why was it that that led you to the match? | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
I was working with a particular compound, which was sulphur-based, | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
and I had coated the solution onto a stick and then, purely by mischance, | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
I struck it against the fireplace, and it ignited. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
John Walker promptly sold his matches, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
and their success spread like wildfire. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
Scientist Dr Joe McGuinness and artist Sarah Pickering | 0:25:10 | 0:25:15 | |
are keeping Walker's flame burning. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
Sarah, hello, I'm Michael. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
-Hi, Michael. -Now, you have done an art piece, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
an artwork around the invention of the match. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
That's correct. It's a 38-metre photograph, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
a massive enlargement of a John Walker replica match. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
The commission that I had was to celebrate something | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
about the Stockton area. John Walker's invention in 1827 | 0:25:36 | 0:25:40 | |
seemed really perfect subject matter for me. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
And how did you, as it were, generate a Walker match? | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
Well, I came to the museum here and did some research. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
They provided me with an original recipe, and this is where | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
Dr Joe McGuinness came in and helped me out. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
-Joe. -Michael. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
Very good to see you. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:57 | |
So, a difficult task to remake a Walker match? | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
Not really. The compounds involved are relatively common. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
You need an oxidising agent, which is potassium chlorate. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
You can think of that as a bit like concentrated oxygen. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
-OK. -We need a fuel, which is antimony sulphide, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
which is not the nicest compound, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
but, you know, don't drink it, you'll be OK. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
And then we need some plant gum. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
That's just gum arabic and that is required to get the match head | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
to stick together and adhere. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
-How do we do it, then? -The first thing to do is to put a pair | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
of safety glasses and a lab coat on. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
I've got a face shield, if you prefer, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
and a pair of gloves will be advisable too. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
This is clearly going to be more dangerous than I thought. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
The mixture obviously is shock sensitive, so you can't do it in | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
a mortar and pestle and grind them all up together, | 0:26:52 | 0:26:55 | |
because it might go bang. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:56 | |
Despite hiring people to help him make matches, | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
John Walker never allowed anyone to do the last part of the process. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
Some suspect that it had a special ingredient that he kept secret. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:10 | |
That's fine. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:11 | |
One thing is certain - its result was akin to a miracle. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
Let there be light. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:19 | |
The steam engine is the icon of the 19th century, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
but other inventions of the period also loom large in our history. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
Vulcanised rubber, and the striking match, invented here on the banks of | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
the Tees, bringing illumination to our homes and fire to our hearts. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:46 | |
But humanity is not just about technology. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
Laurence Sterne's character, Uncle Toby, suggested that a concern | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
for animal life was also a badge of a civilised society. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:58 | |
'Next time, I step through the looking glass...' | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
Michael, are you all right? | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
I've gone mad. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
'..prove there's no smoke without fire | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
'when it comes to Northumbrian delicacies...' | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
Right, quite enough of that, I think. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
Bye-bye, kippers. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
'..and rock the boat on Scottish waters.' | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
My thoughts on the coracle - | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
possibly the most impractical thing I've ever set eyes on. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
Whoa! | 0:28:27 | 0:28:29 |