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For Victorian Britons, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:05 | |
George Bradshaw was a household name. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
At a time when railways were new, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
Bradshaw's guide book inspired them to take to the tracks. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
I'm using a Bradshaw's Guide | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
to understand how trains transformed Britain - | 0:00:17 | 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 | |
I've embarked on a new railway adventure - | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
from Blackpool to Harwich. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:56 | |
From resort to port, from sea to shining sea | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
on a gentle slope from north western to eastern England. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
There will be some poetry as I traverse, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
and my Bradshaw's Guide will help me to glorify | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
Victorian civil engineering and science. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
But my journey will also reveal some spectacular infrastructure | 0:01:14 | 0:01:19 | |
being built now | 0:01:19 | 0:01:20 | |
and transformational discoveries being made | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
in Britain's present-day laboratories. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
My route will take me south-east across the country to East Anglia. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
It begins in Lancashire and heads across to | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
the mighty northern conurbations of the industrial age. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
In Manchester, I'll join the route of | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
the North Country Continental rail service | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
and descend through the Fens to arrive in Essex, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:57 | |
gateway to continental Europe. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
The first leg of my journey starts in Blackpool | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
and takes me to neighbouring Fleetwood. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
From there I'll head south-east, stopping off near Bolton, before | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
finishing in the manufacturing power house of Manchester. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
'On this trip...' Oh! | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
'..there's terror on the tracks.' | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
Only a skeleton staff today! | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
'I play a small part in a monumental project...' | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
Looks like you're a natural at this, Michael. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
Do they do it "weld done". | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
'..and pay tribute to the ultimate sacrifice | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
'that was made by thousands of rail workers.' | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
And so it is perhaps understandable that when the call came in 1914 | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
that railwaymen were so prominent and so numerous in stepping forward. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
My first stop will be Blackpool, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
which Bradshaw's tells me is, "A pretty bathing place, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
"situated on a range of cliffs, much frequented by visitors, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
"possessing an excellent library and sea-bathing at all times of tide." | 0:03:08 | 0:03:13 | |
Well, I don't know how many books | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
have been borrowed in the last 150 years, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
but vast amounts of rock and candyfloss and fish and chips | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
have been devoured - some of it unwisely - | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
before taking the scariest of rides at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:30 | |
FAIRGROUND ORGAN MUSIC | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
Like so many others, I'm here to experience the Pleasure Beach, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
a 42-acre cornucopia of edge-of-the-seat excitement | 0:03:42 | 0:03:47 | |
that has entertained thrill-seekers for over a century. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
Andy Highgate, Assistant Operations Director at the Pleasure Beach, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
has agreed to help me explore the delights on offer by train. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:03 | |
-Hello, Andy. -Hello. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
What a lovely station, a beautiful little train. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
-Would you like to take a ride? -I would love to. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
HORN SOUNDS | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
How long have you had a railway? | 0:04:13 | 0:04:14 | |
Well, the original Pleasure Beach Express was built in 1933. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:19 | |
Beginning to hear the screams of people on your rides. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
MICHAEL CHUCKLES | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
What makes it great is there's not that many railways | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
where you get to see so many roller-coasters, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:28 | |
ten roller-coasters on your route, and also dinosaurs as well, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
so that makes it a little bit unusual. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
The opening of a rail line to Blackpool in 1846 | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
gave manual workers in the Lancashire cotton mills | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
an opportunity to enjoy seaside leisure. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
By the turn of the century, around two million people visited annually | 0:04:44 | 0:04:49 | |
to experience the traditional British seaside pleasures | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
of piers, donkey rides and fortune tellers. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
How did Blackpool Pleasure Beach start? | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
There was a guy called William Bean, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:01 | |
and in 1896, he ran a small collection of rides on the beach. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
And he had visited America | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
and was inspired by a park called Coney Island near New York. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:13 | |
It was his vision to bring some of the rides and attractions | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
and that type of amusement park to the UK, | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
which is what he did over the next 30 years. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
The amusement park was officially named | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1905 | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
and grew quickly to include new rides | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
such as the water chute and a wooden roller-coaster. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
Here we are passing some absolutely enormous structures. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
Tell me about these. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
Well, this one is the Big One, which, at one point, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
was actually the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the world, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
and it's 235 feet tall. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
In 1928, William Bean's daughter, Lillian, married Leonard Thompson, | 0:05:55 | 0:06:00 | |
and when his father-in-law died in 1929, he took over the park. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
Today, it's still run by the Thompson family. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
What have been the other important firsts | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
during the history of Blackpool Pleasure Beach? | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
Well, we had the world's first ghost train. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
The ghost train was basically introduced | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
as what's called a pretzel ride - named after the layout of the track. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
Pretzels don't really mean anything to people in the UK. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
The suggestion of one of the ride operators | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
that had seen a play called The Ghost Train, | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
they changed the theme to a scary ride, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
and the ride was an instant success, and then copied all over the world. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
So every other ghost train that you see | 0:06:38 | 0:06:39 | |
has come from our original ghost train here. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
I am about to experience the most incorporeal thing on tracks, | 0:06:46 | 0:06:52 | |
the most ethereal of all railway journeys, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
the most phantasmagorical of all choo-choos. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
Shudder! | 0:07:01 | 0:07:02 | |
Only a skeleton staff today. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
Ooh, very nasty things! | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
GROWLING Argh! Didn't expect that one. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
Oh! | 0:07:33 | 0:07:34 | |
SIREN WAILS | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
An oncoming train! | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
Argh! | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
TRAIN HORN BLARES | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
Ah! | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
Definitely the most scared I ever want to be on a train. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
It was brilliant. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
From Blackpool, my journey takes me nine miles | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
up the coast to Fleetwood. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
The railway between the two towns closed in 1970, | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
but I can still make tracks | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
by boarding the much-loved Blackpool tramway. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
Blackpool had one of the world's first electric tramways from 1885, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:32 | |
and unlike any other city in mainland Britain, | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
it's kept its trams ever since. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
-Hello, Bill. -Good afternoon, Michael. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
You must be a happy man driving this wonderful historic car. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
It's an absolute thrill to be able to | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
drive something over 100 years old and making the passers-by smile. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
As a frequent visitor to Blackpool, at least in the old days, | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
what surprised me on this visit | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
is to see the absolutely modern, brand-new trams. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
How do you feel about them? | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
They're fast, clean, efficient, very well-run. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
-I still prefer the old ones, Michael. -I bet you do! | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
Fleetwood was the first planned town of the Victorian era. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
Its sheltered river mouth location | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
was ideal for a port and holiday resort. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
Work on the town and a rail link to Preston began simultaneously, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
and in 1840, the line opened. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
Fleetwood Harbour became the starting point | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
for journeys across the Irish Sea, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
and its port grew to be one of the country's largest. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
"Fleetwood, on the mouth of the River Wyre, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
"built on what was formerly a rabbit warren. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
"A modern town which had no existence before 1836. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
"Now a commodious harbour from which steamers go to Belfast." | 0:09:58 | 0:10:04 | |
"On my arrival, I'm greeted by a salty breeze." | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
HE SNIFSS | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
"Wonderful for clearing the sinuses!" | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
Today, the town's sea-faring legacy lives on in its most famous export - | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
Fisherman's Friend lozenges. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
I'm meeting Tony Lofthouse, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:25 | |
the great grandson of founder James Lofthouse. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
Tony, how does the story of Fisherman's Friend begin? | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
It started 1865 | 0:10:33 | 0:10:34 | |
when my great grandfather moved down from Lancaster to Fleetwood | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
and opened an apothecary shop, and he traded from there. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
And as the trawlers went further and further from Fleetwood, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
they went into colder and colder weather, | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
and the trawlermen got infections of the chest. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
So he created menthol and eucalyptus lozenges for them. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
No name on it at all, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:53 | |
but it was given the name by the people of Fleetwood. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
The trawlermen would come in and say, | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
"Could I have some of my friends, please?" | 0:10:57 | 0:10:59 | |
And the public would say, | 0:10:59 | 0:11:00 | |
"I want some of those lozenges the fishermen have." | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
-So, you're making it sound like a very local product... -Yes, it was. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
-..for trawlermen in Fleetwood. -Yes. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
My grandfather, father, uncle were | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
only interested in the chemist shop side of it, really. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
They weren't bothered about marketing at all. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
It was only when we opened the, what we call the summer shops, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
on the promenade in Fleetwood, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
we used to get the holiday workers coming from the cotton towns. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
They'd buy the product, go home and couldn't find it, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
so they'd write to us. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
And my wife collated the letters into towns | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
and then set off with a box full of loose packets | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
and picked a post office or another chemist shop | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
and said, "Look, if you will stock this product, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
"I will go home and write to these people | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
"to say they can get them from you," and that's how it started. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
It seems to me that, in the history of your company, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
-you owe quite a lot to your wife, Doreen. -Absolutely. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
She's always full of ideas and bringing something new in. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
And what position does Doreen occupy now? | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
She's chairman of the company - and quite rightly so! | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
The company has grown to employ 380 people in Fleetwood. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
96% of their lozenges go abroad, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
and they've won three Queen's Awards for export. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
-How many lozenges do you make? -We make about 23 million a day. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
MICHAEL LAUGHS | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
-Gosh, that's a lot of sore throats being dealt with. -Yes! | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
-Hello, Duncan. -Hello, Michael. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
Another member of the family shows me the factory floor | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
where the lozenges are made. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
Duncan, a beautiful, pristine environment. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
It's as though there's a mist in the air, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:37 | |
I feel my eyes watering slightly and the smell penetrating my nose. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:41 | |
Yes, I think that's probably the menthol | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
that's causing that sensation for you. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
A rather surprising sight to me, Duncan - | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
these lumps of brown product. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:49 | |
What's happening at this point? | 0:12:49 | 0:12:50 | |
Well, once the ingredients have been mixed together, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
the product then comes along this conveyer belt | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
and goes into a moulder. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:56 | |
The moulder makes the shape of the lozenge, | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
which are then transferred onto trays. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
The trays are then onto palettes | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
and they go into a drying oven for anything up to seven days. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
We have two identical lines to this, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
each producing five tonnes of product every day. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
How similar is this to the first product | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
that was produced by your ancestors? | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
It's very, very similar indeed. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
The only difference is now we do a moulding process, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
where, previously, the product was stamped out. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
That's the only difference. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:23 | |
I think your ancestors, though, would've been just amazed | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
by this degree of production and automation. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
I'm sure they would, yes. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
Hello. Have you worked for Fisherman's Friend long? | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Coming up to three years this year. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
Anyone in your family work for the company? | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
Yeah, my grandma. She's been here 23 years. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
Do you ever get used to the sensation | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
in your eyes and your nose? | 0:13:45 | 0:13:46 | |
You get used to it now, yeah. Now that I've been here for a while. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
-Very nice to talk to you. -Yeah, you too. -Bye-bye. -Bye. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
The smell of menthol and eucalyptus is pervasive. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
But the range of tastes around the world demands additional flavouring. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
-Which one is the original? -That is the original, there. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:06 | |
Quite a strong smell, but of course, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
nothing by comparison with the factory floor. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
-Quickly it begins to release eucalyptus... -Yes. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
..and menthol. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:23 | |
Mm. Very effective. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
I'm sure, if I were on a trawler, I would find that very efficacious. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:30 | |
-And what else should I try? -I'd like you to try this one. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
This is a rather unusual one. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
This is a salmiak variant | 0:14:34 | 0:14:35 | |
that sells particularly well in Scandinavia. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
It's liquorice! | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
I hate liquorice! | 0:14:50 | 0:14:51 | |
I think you must be in the minority | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
because it's one of our bestselling variants, actually. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
With head cleared, I seek out my bed for the night. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
Why have I chosen the North Euston Hotel | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
for the first night of my journey? | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
I'll give you one guess. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
It's in my Bradshaw's! | 0:15:13 | 0:15:14 | |
The hotel's grandeur illustrates railway history. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
When it opened in 1841, | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
there were trains from London, but not onwards to Scotland. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
Passengers would therefore overnight in Fleetwood | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
before taking the ferry to Ardrossan for the train to Glasgow. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:34 | |
In 1846, a direct line to Scotland opened, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
so the North Euston's heyday was brief. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
I'm ready to resume my journey east to Manchester. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
George Bradshaw often marvelled at | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
the triumphs of the civil engineers of his day | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
in both canals and railways. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
But they did leave some gaps, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
for example, between Victoria and Piccadilly stations in Manchester. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:27 | |
I want to see how modern-day engineers cope with those issues | 0:16:27 | 0:16:32 | |
and how they live up to the standards of their forebears. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
I'm travelling 40 miles south east to Lostock near Bolton, | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
where I will see a railway bridge taking shape. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
When complete, it will be part of an £85 million project | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
called the Ordsall Chord. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
300 metres of new track will allow trains to run | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
between Victoria and Piccadilly stations in Manchester. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
It's part of an investment of more than £1 billion | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
in the railways in the north of England. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
Project manager Jarrod Hulme shows me the bridge | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
that will form a vital part of the Ordsall Chord. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
For whatever reason, the Victorians did not link | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
Piccadilly and Victoria stations in Manchester. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
What advantages do you have over the Victorians? | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
I'd say the biggest key factor is the technology | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
that has come about over the last 20 years or so. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
We design everything within a 3-D world, and then we transmit | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
that onto the shop floor for the guys to actually use. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
They'll measure things with laser-guided technology, | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
rather than spirit levels and plumb bob that the Victorians used to use. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
-To extraordinary levels of accuracy. -Yes. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
You're looking at between one and two millimetres. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
-Have you developed any Victorian engineering heroes? -Yes, I have. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
I'd say Brunel's probably one of my favourite heroes. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
Some of the structures he's done, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:53 | |
in the timescale and the tools that they had, | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
I find absolutely unbelievable. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
The Ordsall Chord development | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
crosses the world's first modern railway line, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
built by George Stephenson between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:08 | |
Jarrod, it looks like Meccano on the mega-scale. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
Yeah, this is a full-scale trial erection | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
of one of the structures on Ordsall Chord called Trinity Way. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
Basically, what you're looking at here is how we make sure | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
that the actual items fit together before they get to site. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
The main span girders that you can see on the left and the right, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
they're fabricated in another area of the bay. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
Then they're brought to this particular area | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
where they're assimilated into the final span position. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
The centrepiece of the Ordsall Chord will be the network arch bridge, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:43 | |
which some have compared to a squashed tennis racket, | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
with a distinctive swoosh at one end. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
The ground-breaking design is destined to become | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
a Manchester landmark. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
How do you feel, being in your case, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
a very significant part of this extraordinary transformation | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
in the middle of Manchester? | 0:19:00 | 0:19:01 | |
I'm a local boy, so having the fact that you can actually see this | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
on a daily basis when you go into the city, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
it's going to be an iconic structure that everybody gets to see, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
so, yeah, really proud to be part of it. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
The Victorians would be amazed to see | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
the technology at Jarrod's disposal. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
But they'd be very familiar with the skills involved | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
in constructing the bridge. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:20 | |
Hello. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
-My name's Michael. -This is Steve. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
-How do you do, Steve? -Fantastic. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
-What's going on here, then? -OK, so this is the welding process. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
This is a main span girder for a River Irwell arch. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
Must be operating, obviously, at a very high temperature | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
cos, actually I can feel that there's heat | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
all the way through this vast piece of metal. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
Steve is using a process called submerged arc welding. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
This produces slag as a waste material. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
I may as well make myself useful. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
Steve, my mother taught me to vacuum clean. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
-Can I have a go at that? -Certainly. -Thank you very much. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
Let me have that dooberry as well. There we go. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
-Sucking up all the bits of flux here. -Perfect. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
Keep the place nice and tidy. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
And then the other thing you do is you chip these bits off... | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
Looks like you're a natural at this, Michael. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:18 | |
My mother taught me well. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
Do you think it's "weld done"? | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
When, in decades to come, I travel along the Ordsall Chord, | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
I shall think back to Steve and the vacuum cleaner. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
I'm re-joining the train at Lostock | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
and travelling 60 miles to Salford station, | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
close to where the bridge is to be assembled. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
The plan to build a new link across Manchester has been controversial | 0:20:43 | 0:20:48 | |
because it interferes with George Stephenson's bridge | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
across which Robert Stephenson's rocket locomotive has so often run. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:56 | |
And certainly we need to preserve our old heritage, | 0:20:56 | 0:21:00 | |
but what better tribute to those railway pioneers | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
than that today, nearly 200 years later, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
their technology of metal wheels on metal rails | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
is still being used, refined and developed? | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
When finished, the new bridge will be taken to Manchester | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
and assembled on-site. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:25 | |
I've come to meet Alan Parker, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
programme manager for Network Rail, at the construction zone, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
just south of Salford station | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
and to the west of Manchester's city centre. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
It's an amazing sight, isn't it? | 0:21:38 | 0:21:39 | |
Railway line, canal, river, several bridges - complicated! | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
Where are you going to put your new railway line? | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
Directly over where we're standing now. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
We've already done quite a lot of work to link Piccadilly with Victoria | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
in earlier stages of the job. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
This is the final link which takes two existing viaducts, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
which one comes from Victoria to Liverpool, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
the other one links Piccadilly through to Liverpool as well. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
This is a link which joins the two together, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
allowing the railway to run from Victoria to Piccadilly | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
for the first time. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:07 | |
When the Ordsall Chord is completed, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
there will be two new fast trains per hour | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
A new direct service will run | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
across Manchester city centre to the airport | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
and faster journey times to Hull, Newcastle and across the north | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
will be possible. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:25 | |
Where is the famous George Stephenson bridge? | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
Stephenson's bridge at the moment is hidden away, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
behind this bridge, behind a further bridge. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
And if you look closely underneath the bottom of the bridge, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
it's two stone arches with a central pier in the river. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
We're going to reveal the whole of Stephenson's bridge | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
for the first time since round about the 1830s, 1840s. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
So we're going to fully refurbish the external faces of the bridge | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
and bring it back to an original condition. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
A bit of a renaissance going on for the railways in the north? | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
I think so. It's a good time for the railway in Manchester. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
-Exciting? -Very exciting, yeah. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
Bradshaw's says that, "The Liverpool and Manchester line | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
"is pre-eminently entitled to rank as the pioneer | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
"of those stupendous undertakings | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
"which have given a new stimulus to | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
"the mechanical and architectural genius of the age." | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
Mechanical and architectural flair are key today. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
All my rail journeys using my Bradshaw's guide | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
are really about historic memories | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
but I'm now on my way to Manchester Piccadilly station | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
for a very special act of remembrance. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
Railways and their workers played a vital role | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
in the Great War of 1914 to 1918. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:50 | |
Over 19,000 railwaymen lost their lives. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
Manchester Piccadilly used to have a memorial honouring | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
87 fallen railwaymen of the London And North Western Railway. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:02 | |
It was dedicated in 1920 | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
but mislaid when the station was redeveloped in the 1960s. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:10 | |
Train managers for Virgin Trains Andy Partington and Wayne McDonald | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
decided to rectify the loss with a new monument, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
and after many hours of research, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
they've discovered the biographies of 75 of the 87 men listed. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:25 | |
What gave you the idea, not only of recreating the memorial, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
but actually investigating the people whose names were on it? | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
I think it's important that they're not just a name on a memorial. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
They were somebody's father, son, brother, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
and they were individuals. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
It's interesting, as railwaymen, to learn. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
Although the railway is different today than 100 years ago, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
it's more or less getting to know them personally, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
that's how we've felt as we've progressed through this project. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
How did you set about your researches? | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
Mostly through sites like the Commonwealth War Grave site, | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
family tree sites. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
And then, obviously, the release of the headstone registers | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
by the Commonwealth War Graves last year. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
Answered a lot of questions and let us narrow down | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
that that's definitely the person we are looking at. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
I'm deeply honoured to have been asked to give a speech | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
at the unveiling ceremony. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant and ladies and gentlemen. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:22 | |
The men who joined the railways during the 19th century | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
and in the first years of the 20th century | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
were typically brave and resourceful people | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
because the railways were dangerous. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
And they were also people | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
who were strongly dedicated to public service. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
And so it is perhaps understandable, that when the call came in 1914, | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
that railwaymen were so prominent and so numerous in stepping forward. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:50 | |
I want to say how very delighted I am that | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
the First World War memorial here at Manchester Piccadilly station | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
is now to be restored. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
TRUMPETER PLAYS LAST POST | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
-Who is in this photograph? -It's our grandad. Joseph Daly. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:34 | |
-A day you'll remember? -Absolutely, yes. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
-Fantastic. -It's very nice. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
The memorial includes the name of my late husband's uncle. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
A couple of years before my husband fell ill, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
he came in to Manchester to see if he could find the memorial | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
and he was really upset to find it had gone. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
So I'm here to represent my husband, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
and I'm so sad that he's not here today. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
George and Robert Stephenson left their mark on Manchester | 0:27:10 | 0:27:15 | |
when the world's first trains ran to and from the city | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
while Queen Victoria was still a child. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
Today, Manchester is being transformed by new lines, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
proving that this 19th-century technology | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
can still be exploited in the 21st. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
The railways attracted a particular sort of man - | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
tough, resourceful and duty-bound. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
And from amongst their ranks, | 0:27:41 | 0:27:42 | |
there stepped forward some of the most effective volunteers | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
for the First World War. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
Britain owes them a debt. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
'Next time, I discover Victorian grandeur deep underground...' | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
This is known as the cathedral, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
which has this vaulted cast-iron arch. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
This is a monumental piece of work. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
'..find my travels lit by starlight...' | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
Lift it, please! Let there be light. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Bravo. MICHAEL APPLAUDS | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
'..and take a miniature detour.' | 0:28:14 | 0:28:15 |