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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 how trains transformed Britain, | 0:00:15 | 0:00:21 | |
its landscape, its industry, 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 | |
My journey towards Edinburgh chugging along the route of the | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
Flying Scotsman has brought me to County Durham, | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
where I'll look at the rolling stock of today and reflect on a Victorian | 0:00:59 | 0:01:04 | |
author's view of Wonderland. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
I'll smoke out a fishy story in Northumberland, | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
before crossing the border into Scotland to enjoy nature conservancy. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
This trip has taken me up the East Coast Main Line from London's | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
King's Cross, through the counties of Hertfordshire, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
Bedfordshire and on via Cambridgeshire to the market town of Newark. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:35 | |
I visited the former port of Stockton, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
and I'm heading to the coastal towns of Alnmouth and Dunbar before | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
finishing at Edinburgh. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:43 | |
This leg starts in north-east England, calling at Darlington, | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
before moving on to the harbour town of Alnmouth. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
I'll end across the Scottish border in Dunbar. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:58 | |
On this journey I step through the looking glass... | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
Michael, are you all right? | 0:02:02 | 0:02:03 | |
..prove there's no smoke without fire when it comes to Northumbrian delicacies... | 0:02:06 | 0:02:11 | |
Right, quite enough of that, I think! | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
Bye-bye, kippers. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:16 | |
..and rock the boat over Scottish waters. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
My thoughts on the coracle? | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
Possibly the most impractical thing I've ever set eyes on. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:26 | |
My first stop will be Newton Aycliffe, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
a new town founded in 1947 but Bradshaw's remarks, | 0:02:38 | 0:02:44 | |
"Passing Aycliffe we reach Shildon, at which place the Stockton and | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
"Darlington Company have their locomotive works." | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
In railway terms, we are on ancient hallowed ground, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:57 | |
because the first trains ran between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:03 | |
On the 27th September of that year, the world's first steam train to run | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
on a public railway made its maiden journey. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:19 | |
George Stephenson himself drove Locomotion No 1 and people | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
travelled miles to witness the momentous occasion. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
Having witnessed the birth of public railways, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
this area now has a part in their future. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
Two centuries on, Hitachi chose to open a state-of-the-art train factory here. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:49 | |
Plant manager, Darren Cumner, is showing me around. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
Darren, this is absolutely spectacular. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
Obviously, completely brand-new and masses of exciting railway activity | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
going on. When did you join the project? | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
So, I joined May 2012. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
It was a green field at that stage. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
It really was a green field, just sort of cows in the field. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
We are here in one of the most modern railway facilities in the world, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
but we're also close to the origin of steam-powered railways. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
Do you have any sense of that railway history? | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
Yes, we're close to where the birthplace of the railways was. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
Our test track actually runs by the side of that. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
In Victorian times, the area was a hive of railway activity. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:34 | |
In their heyday, locomotive works in Shildon and Darlington employed | 0:04:34 | 0:04:39 | |
thousands of workers building locomotives, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
carriages and wagons for a burgeoning market. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
The last railway wagon works closed in 1983. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
By then, road haulage had overtaken rail freight, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
and the industry was in decline. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
Railway technology has advanced dramatically since the 19th century. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
These trains are shipped as shells from Japan and are fitted out by the | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
workforce in Newton Aycliffe. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
They then undergo rigorous testing, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
both on and off track before joining the fleet. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
So what are the types of train that you're making here? | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
So, on the left-hand side here is the 8200. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
This is for the Edinburgh to Glasgow improvement programme, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
so it's our commuter train. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
And on the right-hand side is Intercity Express programme | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
and these are high-speed trains which are going to run on the | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
There are presently 600 employees and the plan is for the workforce to | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
grow by another 300, mainly local people. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
I can count the number of people who are not from the north-east on one hand. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
We wanted an employee that could work as a team and we've been very, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
very fortunate that people have got a lot of transferable skills and | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
we're delighted with the workforce we have. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
-Nicky Bones is one such employee. -Nice to meet you. -Good to see you. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:08 | |
-What is this contraption here? -This is the traverser. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:10 | |
So we use this to transfer the train from one production line to another, | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
and when the car is finished, to deliver down the track to the test house. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
-Two doors down. -OK. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
-Shall I do that? -Yes. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:24 | |
To the left. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
I have sometimes driven a train before but never sideways. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
Once the train has been assembled, it will be able to carry over 600 | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
passengers, and travel up to 140mph. | 0:06:55 | 0:07:00 | |
But before being put to use, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
it needs to pass the all-important test drive. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
Michael Tait is at the controls. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
Very good to see you. And you're going to drive us what kind of distance? | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
About a kilometre or so down the test track. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
Well, an exciting moment for me to be in this brand-new train. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
-Shall we get in position and go? -Brilliant. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
Michael, we are inching our way out of the shed, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
will we get up any speed at all? | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
Yes, we'll take it around 16mph. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
And is that enough speed for you to test what you need to? | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
Yes, we can perform all our tests heading east and west up and down | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
the test track. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:40 | |
We are running along by the Network Rail track and we've | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
reached a speed limit of 15mph! | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
We can go for it. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:48 | |
This train will undergo testing over thousands of hours, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
before being released to the mainline. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
I'm leaving the test tracks to resume my journey on the public railway. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:09 | |
Next stop, Darlington. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:10 | |
-TANNOY: -Michael Portillo has joined us for the ride | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
He's still working his way through Bradshaw's Guide | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
We're going to be on the BBC | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
So I hope you're not somewhere you shouldn't be! | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
Graham Palmer is the rhyming conductor. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
-Hello! -Hello, Michael. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
-Nice to see you. -Thank you for the rhymes. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
You're responsible for poetry in all your announcements, are you? | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
Guilty as charged, yes! | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
-How long have you been doing that? -Back in December 2014, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
we were asked to deliver a season's greeting. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
Be an angel this Christmas and be pleasant and nice | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
To your fellow passengers and rail staff alike | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
So I made up a rhyme till the end of the year | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
The passengers loved it, they'd clap and they'd cheer | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
Then after that, they asked, we like it in rhyme | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
We'd like you to do it all of the time | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
But the best thing about working the train as I do | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
Is when a customer says, "Nice journey, thank you!" | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
So do you always speak in rhyme or do you actually speak in prose as well? | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Well, I do speak in prose as well. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
It would be so easy to say I'm a poet and I didn't know it. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
I say things in rhyme all the time, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
but I assure you, I do speak in prose as well, Michael! | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
-And the passengers do love it? -They do, they really enjoy it. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
One of our drivers said, "I bet you can't make a rhyme for each station." | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
I love a challenge so now I've got at least one rhyme for each station. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:36 | |
What was the most difficult station to make a rhyme out of? | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
Newton Aycliffe is difficult for a rhyme, actually. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
Your next station's Newton Aycliffe, that's your next call | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
So please take your luggage and children and all. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
I just throw a few things in. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
It doesn't actually need to rhyme with the actual station. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
Well, thank you, Graham. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:54 | |
-You've cheered my journey up and I'm sure you've cheered many travellers' journeys. -Thank you, Michael. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:59 | |
Enjoy the rest of your journey in our beautiful part of the world. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
-TANNOY: -Thank you for travelling Northern rail, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
have a safe onward journey and join us again. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
I need to alight at Darlington to reach my next destination, | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
Croft-on-Tees. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:18 | |
Located a few miles away, its bridge over the River Tees marks | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
the boundary between North Yorkshire and County Durham. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:27 | |
"Croft-on-Tees, with an old church," says Bradshaw's, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
"is a fashionable place, much frequented by invalids on account of its mineral waters." | 0:10:36 | 0:10:42 | |
Here, a young man spent his formative years. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
His bubbling imagination produced tales that were surreal, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
which for 150 years have entertained and terrified children in equal | 0:10:50 | 0:10:55 | |
measure. I should know, I was one of them. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
That young man was Charles Dodgson, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
who became better known under the pen name Lewis Carroll. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
Historian Chris Lloyd takes me through the looking glass. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
Chris, it is a stunning rectory. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
What's the connection with Lewis Carroll? | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
Well, he moved here in 1843 when his father became rector of Croft, | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
so this became their family home. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
He was 11 years old, a shy, stammering boy. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
Croft, at that time, was actually quite a prosperous place, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
partly because of the railway, because just a couple of years earlier, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
the first section of the East Coast Main Line had opened. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
And was the boy interested in the railway? | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
I think he was almost obsessed by it, actually. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
You are suddenly thrust amongst it, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:47 | |
this great powerful steam-snorting technology. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
He loved it. In fact, in the garden here, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
he had his own little toy railway that he set up. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
It was a wheelbarrow with a big barrow on it and a couple of trucks | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
behind it and him and his brothers and sisters used to play here. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
They had stations and refreshment rooms and they had timetables. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
They had a timetable, did they? | 0:12:06 | 0:12:07 | |
The timetable was very important in the whole proceedings. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
In fact, Bradshaw was very, very important in this whole thing, | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
because in 1855, he wrote a three-act mock operatic parody | 0:12:14 | 0:12:20 | |
of your book, of Bradshaw. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
-Really? -Yes. He called it, La Guida Di Bragia. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
And the book itself actually appeared in there as a book with | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
arms and legs trying to restore law and order to the mayhem. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
Where was this stuff coming from? He had such a vivid imagination. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
He had a vivid imagination but he was bringing in all the things that | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
were around him as well, to make it really realistic. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
Of course, in Bradshaw's day, everybody would be wandering around | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
looking at their old-fashioned pocket watches going, | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
"Oh, no, tyranny of time, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late," | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
which is what the White Rabbit of course does in Alice In Wonderland. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
St Peter's Church stands just across from the rectory garden and | 0:13:00 | 0:13:05 | |
Lewis Carroll knew it well. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
There are all sorts of strange stories in the stonework. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
Take this, for example, a 13th century carving, but have a look there. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
A wonderful cat face. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
Now, Michael, have a place at the altar and say your prayers. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
-Ooh! -The faces change. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
Imagine you're an 11-year-old boy so you're much smaller and go and | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
see what it's doing now. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
It's the most curious thing, as you said. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
You've just got a grin and not a cat at all. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
It is the Cheshire Cat. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:35 | |
Carroll was also inspired by a local Saxon legend. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
It was said that the region had once been in the grip of a fearsome | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
dragon who ruthlessly burnt its enemies. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
In Alice Through The Looking Glass, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
the Jabberwocky is a story of the dragon who does terrible things and | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
needs to be slayed. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:55 | |
Here it is, here is the stanza of Anglo-Saxon poetry, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
and because it's Through The Looking Glass, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
the first stanza was published back to front, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
so you need a looking glass to read it. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
And in the looking glass I read, "Twas brillig and the slithy toves, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
"Did gyre and gimble in the wabe, All mimsy were the borogoves, | 0:14:12 | 0:14:18 | |
"And the mome raths outgrabe." | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
-Complete nonsense! -Divine nonsense! | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
Outside, hidden away in the bushes, | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
there is yet another fount of inspiration for Lewis Carroll. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
-Well, well, well. -Yes, it's a well, Michael. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
A spa well, actually. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
Erm... In Lewis Carroll's day, gullible people from London would | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
come up on the mainline to the train, to the station near his house, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
to come and take these rather foul-scented sulphurous waters. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:54 | |
They believed that it had magical properties, and when they drank | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
them, they would do magical things to their bodies. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
And that, I think, is the real nub of Alice In Wonderland. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
Because Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
and there she finds a bottle with "Drink me" on it. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
And so she drinks the water just like they drank this water, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
and it does magical things to her body. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Michael, are you all right? | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
Ah! I'm late! | 0:15:25 | 0:15:26 | |
I'm late! I've got a train to catch, I'm late! I'm late! | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
Any refreshments? | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
Thank you, no. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:53 | |
Next stop, Alnmouth. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:02 | |
Bradshaw's tells me that the area has grown up under the protection of | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
the Dukes of Northumberland, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
whose noble baronial castle covers a height over the River Aln. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:13 | |
Below those lofty summits for hundreds of years before the invention of | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
tobacco, the ordinary folk were already smoking. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
Alnmouth is a coastal village whose maritime traffic declined with the | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
advent of the railways. But what the trains took away in sea trade, | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
they substituted with tourism. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
Located on the East Coast Main Line, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
Alnmouth became a popular Victorian seaside destination. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
Today, tourists also come for the magnificent Alnwick Castle. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
A little further north along the coast lies Craster, | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
a village renowned for a culinary delicacy on which I'm hooked - | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
smoked kipper. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:07 | |
Neil Robson is the fourth-generation of this smoking family firm. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
Have you any idea, Neil, how long people have been smoking fish? | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
Oh, well, these smoke houses were built in 1856. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
But I mean, the smoking of fish has gone on a lot longer than that. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
Vikings smoked fish, Lindisfarne Gospels mentioned the smoking of fish. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:34 | |
What made people first want to smoke fish? | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Well, originally it was preserve them. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
They would be heavily salted and they would have a lot more smoke on them. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
Not really to enhance the flavour like it is now. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
People like the smoke flavour. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:47 | |
And then why in Craster? | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
Craster was quite a big fishing port at one time. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
The herring that came past this part of the coastline were probably at | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
their best. That's how we got our reputation. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
There was a good oil content and they were a nice size. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
So as the herring came innocently around the coast, you nabbed them. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
We did indeed. They'd be brought to shore and we smoked them. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
We sent them down to London by train, actually. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
My grandfather used to have to go to the local station by about | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
seven o'clock in the morning to get them down to Billingsgate for the next day market. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
But there haven't been any herring landed in Craster for 30, 40 years. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
So where did this fellow come from? | 0:18:21 | 0:18:22 | |
That was actually, it started off in the North Sea. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
It was caught by a Scottish boat. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
But it was actually landed in Norway. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
You're a well travelled fish, aren't you? | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
A well travelled fish, yeah. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:34 | |
You've been in the industry a while. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
Do you remember supplying the railways? | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
I mean, my memory is that no self-respecting gentleman could board the | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
Flying Scotsman and not order kippers for breakfast. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
Well, we probably didn't supply the Flying Scotsman, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
but certainly kippers were always an integral part of the breakfast menu | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
in the old British railway days. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
I think they ought to bring them back. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
Kippers remain a British favourite, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
and the company supplies leading supermarkets across the country. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
As a continuing tradition, the smoking of herring requires new | 0:19:05 | 0:19:09 | |
generations of workers to be trained. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
And I get hauled in. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
This is the first stage of the process, Michael. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
We need to split the fish. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
So, we need to load the wheel... | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
-..just by pushing the fish gently into the grips there. -Right. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:26 | |
We'll miss every other one. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
-Aha. -Just because you're with your first time on the machine. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
OK, then. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
Apart from the use of machines to split the herring, | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
not much has changed in the curing process. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
The fish is placed in a solution of water and salt. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
Another 20 kilos of fish into the brine. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
And then just arrange them so they're flesh down, flatten them out. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
Fleshy side down. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:55 | |
That's so they're in contact with the brine. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
-There we are! -Thank you. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
And hung in smoke houses where a combination of white wood shavings | 0:20:05 | 0:20:10 | |
and oak sawdust is lit to smoulder for hours. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
Right, quite enough of that, I think. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
Bye-bye, kippers. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:21 | |
The kippers spend up to 16 hours in the smokehouse. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
Of course, I have a train to catch, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:32 | |
but fortunately there's a batch ready to eat. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
Handsome rack of kippers. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:38 | |
Smelling divine. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
I have appreciated this is a thoroughly manual process. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
What's your tip? How long will it be before I don't smell of kipper? | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
Oh, 48 hours, I would imagine. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
A kipper in a bun with a view of Dunstanburgh Castle, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
which was built in the 14th century. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:12 | |
They were already smoking herrings by then. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
But my guess is that when all the buildings of the 21st century are | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
remembered only in history books, they'll be smoking them still. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
My train tracks hug the Northumberland coast. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
I pursue my journey across the Scottish border. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
My next stop will be Dunbar. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
The guidebook tells me it's a seaport town situated at the mouth | 0:21:58 | 0:22:03 | |
of the Firth of Forth on a gentle eminence. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
The appearance of the country in every direction is striking and | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
picturesque. Long before my Bradshaw's, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
the mind of a young Dunbar boy had been shaped by the place's natural | 0:22:13 | 0:22:18 | |
beauty in a way that would transform a far-off land. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
Dunbar can thank its location for some of Scotland's sunniest weather, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
but it has also made it a repeated battleground. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
Its castle was once one of the most important fortresses in the country, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
but by the time of my Bradshaw's, it was already in ruins. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
Here lived John Muir, | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
a man of vision who went on to play a pivotal role in protecting the | 0:23:02 | 0:23:07 | |
natural wonders of the United States. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
Jo Moulin is a museum officer at John Muir's birthplace. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
So what impact did this beautiful, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
craggy environment have on the young Muir? | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
It certainly gave him his passion for wild places. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
Several books of his have been published and there was a wonderful | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
book called The Story Of My Boyhood And Youth, and the first chapter | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
of that really sets the scene for his childhood in Dunbar. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
And it goes along the lines of, "When I was a boy in Scotland, | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
"I was fond of everything that was wild, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
"and all my life I've been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
-"wild creatures." -Beautiful. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:48 | |
In 1849, John Muir's family moved to a farm in the United States. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:56 | |
It was only a matter of time before he would explore his new country's | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
vast wilderness. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:02 | |
He went on an incredible 1,000 mile walk from Indiana to the | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
Gulf of Mexico, and then from there ended up in California. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
And his arrival in California saw him in Yosemite Valley, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
and that was really where he was based for a lot of his life. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
He travelled to every major continent around the world, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
but he devoted a lot of his life and his studies to Yosemite Valley. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:24 | |
During his time in the Yosemite Valley, Muir became | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
concerned about the effect on the environment of felling the | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
magnificent giant redwood trees. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
He became an ardent defender of the forest. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
What did he do with this passion? | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
He wrote. He wrote a series of newspaper articles, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
and those writings rose awareness of the issues and resulted in a letter | 0:24:44 | 0:24:50 | |
from the President of the United States, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
from President Theodore Roosevelt, who said, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
"I'd like you to take me camping in Yosemite on my own, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
"with nobody else around us." | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
What an extraordinary thing. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
President of the United States asks a Scotsman from Dunbar to go camping | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
with him. What was the result of that? | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
The result was a bill that was passed in Congress that set in | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
motions the creation of the US National Park Service. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
His legacy lives on. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
A new generation of nature lovers is exploring the river in coracles, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
a traditional basket-like craft. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
These have been made locally for the John Muir awards. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
East Lothian junior rangers Rachel and Fraser have invited me to join them... | 0:25:32 | 0:25:37 | |
..provided I can get afloat, of course. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:25:55 | 0:25:56 | |
My thoughts on the coracle? | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
Possibly the most impractical thing I've ever set eyes on. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
Almost impossible to paddle. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
If you tilt your head, you're likely to capsize. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
Like a fairground ride, and therefore, lots of fun. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
Rachel, you're a junior ranger. What does that mean? | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
We help the ranger service do different things. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
So we do quite a lot of conservation stuff to do with the plants. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:35 | |
So we cut back different species of gorse at beaches to help different | 0:26:35 | 0:26:41 | |
plants regrow, and do quite a lot of hedge clearing as well. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
Ah! And do you enjoy it? | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
Yeah. I love going to the beaches here, they're so nice. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
Tell me honestly, do you think we're going to survive this horrible ride? | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
Maybe. Hopefully! | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
I'd say about 50-50. | 0:26:58 | 0:26:59 | |
Although the Industrial Revolution brought pollution to the countryside, | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
the railways enabled people to visit places of natural beauty. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
Whether in John Muir's native Scotland or in the United States, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
where he inspired the National Parks. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
Even the highly imaginative rail enthusiast, Lewis Carroll, could not | 0:27:26 | 0:27:31 | |
have conceived the sleek high-speed trains of today. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:35 | |
Though I think he would have shared my disappointment that in the | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
restaurant cars, they are unlikely to be serving Craster kippers. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
'Next time, I'll need plenty of brawn...' | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
Go! Oh! | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
-It's quite heavy, isn't it? -It's very heavy. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
'..a strong stomach...' | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
Here we have a book made from the skin of a murderer. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
My goodness. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:07 | |
'..and a musical ear.' | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
Here goes, everybody. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 |