0:00:04 > 0:00:09For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw was a household name.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11At a time when railways were new,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them to take to the tracks.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21I'm using a Bradshaw's guide to understand how trains transformed Britain.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Its landscape, its industry, society and leisure time.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30As I crisscross the country 150 years later,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33it helps me to discover the Britain of today.
0:00:53 > 0:01:00My rail journey from north-western to eastern England has brought me to Lincolnshire,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05where I'll encounter yet another example of 19th-century industrial ingenuity,
0:01:05 > 0:01:11and consider the contribution to English literature made by Britain's
0:01:11 > 0:01:14longest-serving Poet Laureate.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16In Ely in Cambridgeshire,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20I'll be reminded that some of the era's loftiest achievements were
0:01:20 > 0:01:23inspired by Victorian godliness.
0:01:28 > 0:01:34My route is taking me on a diagonal across England towards East Anglia.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37From Blackpool, I took in the mighty northern conurbations,
0:01:37 > 0:01:39developed in the industrial age.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Leaving Manchester, I cross the Peak District using the route of the
0:01:43 > 0:01:46North Country Continental Rail Service.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48I'll soon traverse the Fens,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52finally to arrive in Essex, gateway to Continental Europe.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59This part of my journey starts in Gainsborough and heads to Lincoln.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03From there, I'll travel south-east to March in Cambridgeshire
0:02:03 > 0:02:06before finishing in the Fenland city of Ely.
0:02:08 > 0:02:14'On this leg, I have my reaction times challenged by a mechanical marvel...'
0:02:14 > 0:02:16This would drive you mad if you did this all day.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19'..get carried away by the cadences of conflict...'
0:02:19 > 0:02:24"Half a league, half a league, half a league onward into the valley of death rode the 600."
0:02:24 > 0:02:29'And I see how today's railway is regenerating its past.'
0:02:29 > 0:02:33We recycled around 46,000 tonnes of steel last year,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35which is actually the equivalent of six Eiffel Towers.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49My first stop of the day will be Gainsborough.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55This is how Bradshaw's presents it - "agreeably situated on the eastern bank of the River Trent.
0:02:56 > 0:03:02"An elegant stone bridge of three elliptical archers forms a great ornament to the town."
0:03:04 > 0:03:06That's Gainsborough in a nutshell.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09But should you judge a town by its packaging?
0:03:09 > 0:03:11In the case of Gainsborough, perhaps you should.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17- TANNOY:- Next stop is Gainsborough Lea Road.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Situated on the River Trent, Gainsborough is Britain's most inland port.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30Here a pioneering company invented a process which at the time constituted a breakthrough.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34And has since become an indispensable part of our daily lives.
0:03:36 > 0:03:37Wrapping and packaging.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41The company was founded by William Rose.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46I'm meeting sales director Andrew Mann.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51An impressive sight.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54- Thank you.- Andrew, I can't imagine a world without packaging.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56What was it like?
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Well, it didn't exist, it was all completely manual.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05It was literally take the sweets out the jar and place it into a bag, and that was it.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10And who was William Rose, who made a difference to that situation?
0:04:10 > 0:04:14He was working in a tobacco shop.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18It was his job to measure out, weigh and pack the tobacco.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23So that was his inspiration to develop an automated machine.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25What, he became fed up with having to do it?
0:04:25 > 0:04:27He became fed up with having to do it, absolutely.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Did he realise fairly soon that this could be applied to other products?
0:04:30 > 0:04:35He did. He very soon got into packaging things like chocolate bars,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38soap tablets, anything similar.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39Any consumer goods.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44William Rose's invention changed the retail world forever.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48A chance visit by an American businessmen, Richard Harvey Wright,
0:04:48 > 0:04:54to London tobacconist in 1892 gave Rose the chance to sell his machines
0:04:54 > 0:04:56to the United States.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59His business rapidly grew to employ more than 50.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Did Rose's stick to doing just packaging machinery?
0:05:04 > 0:05:06No. In fact, in wartimes,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09they were there much involved in the military and RAF,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12making turrets for Lancaster bombers, for example.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14That's quite a leap from packaging machinery.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18It is. It is, but they were well ahead of the game in their engineering
0:05:18 > 0:05:20skills in Gainsborough.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23And they turned to William Rose for his expertise.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Today the company no longer wraps products,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31but it continues to make and service the machines that do.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34You've got a busy shop here.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36We have, yeah. This is the machine shop,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38where we produce all the components.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Those components get designed in the design office.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42They produce the drawings.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45And in here, we manufacture the components from the raw metal.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49- And all of that then goes into your machines?- Some of the best packaging machines in the world.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56Some even say that Rose's branded packaging may be how Cadbury's famous chocolates got their name.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01A lovely-looking vintage machine. Looks a bit like a 1950s jukebox.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05It is a bit. It was built in the 1950s by Rose in Gainsborough,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08and it was designed for wrapping sweets.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09Don't tell me it's still in service.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Still in operation today in a factory in Leeds.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Well, it looks like a bit of a challenge, but might I give it a go?
0:06:15 > 0:06:17Just press the start button.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19MECHANISM RATTLES
0:06:19 > 0:06:21The machine is moving really fast.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25Much faster than I can do, sliding them in.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30The people who operated this machine didn't miss a one.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37This would drive you mad if you did this all day.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41- Definitely getting better.- Yeah, you're getting the hang of it.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Ah! Enough of that, end of scene, it's a wrap.
0:06:46 > 0:06:47Brilliant!
0:06:52 > 0:06:56From Gainsborough, I'm rejoining the Sheffield to Lincoln line,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59and travelling 19 miles south-east to the county town.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13I'm on my way to Lincoln,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18which Bradshaw's tells me is a cathedral town and capital of Lincolnshire.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22The Roman Lindum, from which the present name is derived.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Thinking about science and engineering,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29it's clear to me that the Victorians applied their reason,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31but they weren't immune to rhyme.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36They lived their lives in prose, but they were moved by verse.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41I'm on the trail of a melancholy poet who brought Queen Victoria
0:07:41 > 0:07:44great comfort during her long years of widowhood.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52- TANNOY:- We will shortly be arriving at Lincoln Station.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Lincoln's fortunes have ebbed and flowed.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05During the 13th century, it was the third-largest city in England.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10But by the beginning of the 18th, it was described as a one-street town.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15"I cannot rest from travel.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18"I would drink life to the lees."
0:08:18 > 0:08:22I can empathise with those words from the pen of Lincolnshire's most
0:08:22 > 0:08:24famous native, born in 1809.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36When I was last here, I missed this fine statue of a Lincolnshire man.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Alfred Lord Tennyson, a great Victorian.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43He is honoured now by standing in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral in
0:08:43 > 0:08:48perpetuity, although he entered the valley of death back in 1892.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Today the city is home to the Tennyson Research Centre.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Grace Timmins is the collections officer.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Welcome to the Tennyson Research Centre.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04And all this is to do with Tennyson?
0:09:04 > 0:09:05- It is.- This is really quite a collection.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09It is. It's the most significant collection of Tennyson-related papers in the world.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10Where was he from?
0:09:10 > 0:09:13He was born in Somersby, which is a hamlet in the Wolds.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16He was one of 11 children born in 13 years.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Do we know a lot about Alfred's childhood?
0:09:18 > 0:09:22Yes. He did have formal education between the ages of seven and 11.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25But it didn't suit him at all, he didn't like it,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27and his father took him out of school to home-educate him.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32So these books over here are the books that really furnished his mind
0:09:32 > 0:09:34and his imagination.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39Over here, there's a book that his father set him as homework.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42It's Virgil's Aeneid,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and you can see all the work that has gone into translating it.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51But what you can also see at the front is Tennyson's own doodles.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53And this is a picture of his beloved homeland.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56There's little bits of music coming out of it there.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00And there's also, he's done here the address that many of us I think have
0:10:00 > 0:10:05put into books, "Alfred Tennyson, Somersby in Lincolnshire, in England,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09"in Europe, in the world, in the air, in space."
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Isn't that extraordinary? Did he achieve early fame with his poems?
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Some of the poems that he wrote at this period,
0:10:14 > 0:10:15such as The Lady of Shalott,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18remain some of his most popular and most well-known today.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24In 1827, Tennyson had entered Trinity College, Cambridge,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26and became friends with fellow student Arthur Hallam,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29who became engaged to his sister.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34In 1833, Hallam died of a stroke at the age of only 22.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39His big breakthrough was with In Memoriam AHH, to give it its full title,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43which is a collection of poems dealing with the grief that he felt
0:10:43 > 0:10:45at the death of his best friend.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47It took him about 14 years to write.
0:10:47 > 0:10:48And this is in his own hand.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51This is a gem, and you can actually see where he's altered things.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56Absolutely. It's a marvellous object of Victorian culture.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58And with this comes fame and success.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03Absolutely. It becomes the favourite poem of a whole range of people.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Prince Albert loves it.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09We do actually have a letter from Prince Albert here,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13where he is asking Tennyson to put his name in the front of a later volume.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17"Will you forgive me if I intrude upon your leisure with a request
0:11:17 > 0:11:19"which I have thought for some little time of making?
0:11:19 > 0:11:23"That you'd be good enough to write your name in the accompanying volume of your poems."
0:11:23 > 0:11:25A royal autograph hunter.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Absolutely, it's funny!
0:11:27 > 0:11:31In 1850, Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34and wrote In Memoriam, recalling Hallam,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39but from which Queen Victoria would draw comfort after the death of Prince Albert.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43After what the Times reported as a "hideous blunder" during the Crimean War,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Tennyson wrote the Charge of the Light Brigade.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49What does he do while he's Poet Laureate?
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Well, the third thing that he does is write The Charge of the Light Brigade.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57What we've got here is evidence of how difficult he found it
0:11:57 > 0:11:59to get to a final version.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05He has crossed out the "half a league, half a league, half a league onward" verse,
0:12:05 > 0:12:07and put it up to the top.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09He moves it back down again here.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11Isn't that remarkable?
0:12:11 > 0:12:13And then he moves it back up there.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15MICHAEL LAUGHS
0:12:15 > 0:12:16This is absolutely fascinating.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18This is very typical of Tennyson, isn't it?
0:12:18 > 0:12:20This sense of rhythm.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25"Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, into the valley of death rode the 600."
0:12:25 > 0:12:28- I mean, obviously you can feel the horses galloping towards the guns. - Yes.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32'Tennyson's life spanned every decade of the 19th century,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35'and he bore witness to the birth of the railway.'
0:12:36 > 0:12:37Did he write about trains?
0:12:37 > 0:12:41He uses the train as a metaphor for progress in his poem Locksley Hall,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43but he gets it slightly wrong.
0:12:43 > 0:12:44Let me read it to you.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47"Forward, forward, let us range,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52"let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change."
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Now, he realised he'd got this wrong, that trains don't run in grooves.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02And his son explained it as being the result of his seeing the train,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07the very first train that went from Liverpool to Manchester in 1830.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11And because of the increasing twilight,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and because of the crowds of people, and because of his own short-sightedness,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18he couldn't see exactly how the train was working.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21And he thought it ran in grooves.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24It strikes me that Tennyson has passed out of fashion a bit.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26What was his popularity like during his lifetime?
0:13:26 > 0:13:28He was incredibly popular in his lifetime.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31He was as popular as Charles Dickens.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40My route now takes me up a street voted Britain's Best Place in 2011.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42It's aptly named Steep Hill.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49I'm skirting the walls of the Norman castle on my way to a refreshing ale
0:13:49 > 0:13:50in the Victoria pub.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56The pub hosts a group of enthusiasts,
0:13:56 > 0:13:58who are keeping Tennyson's legacy alive in Lincoln.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Good evening. Do I have the pleasure of joining a group of Lincoln poets?
0:14:06 > 0:14:08- Yes.- Yes.- And what you call yourself?
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Lincoln Creative Writers.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Very good. And you meet here in the pub.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14And what do you do apart from drink pints?
0:14:14 > 0:14:17We have a workshop, we do a bit of writing together.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Have you been inspired by Lincolnshire in the way I think Tennyson was?
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Yeah, definitely. I think, obviously living here and writing contemporary
0:14:24 > 0:14:27stuff, you can't help but be influenced by where you live, so...
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Would you mind giving me a sample, please?
0:14:29 > 0:14:30It's called Peregrines Nest.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34"I live in a city where peregrines nest on angels' wings,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38"where the exhaled breath of a thousand travellers up its hill hangs in the air with its history,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40"seeping into every cobble,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"flowing into glasses in bars held up by our veteran souls,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48"where men tell tales of older times, of forgotten times,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50"where our city continues to grow,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53"fields of rye and rape make way for houses,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56"where new stories are born and raised and schooled,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59"because this is a city that for a thousand years has never slept,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01"although at times is sleepy,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05"a city that bends a king's knee, a city that changed the world.
0:15:05 > 0:15:06"This is my city.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08"This is our city.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11"This is a city where peregrines nest on angels' wings."
0:15:13 > 0:15:14I found that very beautiful.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18I particularly sympathise with the exhaled breath of the people struggling
0:15:18 > 0:15:21their way up the hill, which is something that I did this afternoon!
0:15:37 > 0:15:41I'm rejoining the root of the North Country Continental Rail service and
0:15:41 > 0:15:45travelling 60 miles south-east into Cambridgeshire.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02My first stop on this new day will be March.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Bradshaw's tells me it's a village in the parish of Dodington.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10"Numerous Roman coins and other antiquities have been discovered."
0:16:10 > 0:16:15But my currency is different - industrial archaeology.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27Set amongst Fenland, March boasts the 11th-century St Wendreda's Church,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31about which John Betjeman enthused that it was worth cycling 40 miles
0:16:31 > 0:16:33in a headwind to see.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36In the 1920s and '30s,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39the London and North Eastern Railway built the Whitemoor freight
0:16:39 > 0:16:41marshalling yards.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45They became the largest in Britain, and second largest in Europe.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48I'm meeting Joanna Clarke from Network Rail.
0:16:50 > 0:16:51Well, Joanna, an impressive sight.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53Tell me about it in its heyday.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Back in the 1920s,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00London and North Eastern Railways created a huge marshalling yard.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03This is where all the trains would have been marshalled,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07a strategic point for the whole of the supply chain out to Anglia and
0:17:07 > 0:17:12the rest of the country. It would have had around 3,000 wagons here.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Around 25% of the inhabitants from March and the local area would have
0:17:17 > 0:17:19been employed here.
0:17:19 > 0:17:20So it was huge.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Nowadays with motorways and lorries and so on,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25it's quite hard to understand how strategically important the railways were.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29But I suppose every sort of good and freight went from here.
0:17:29 > 0:17:30It did indeed, yes.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32We would have seen coal, steel,
0:17:32 > 0:17:38all types of materials being taken by rail from March.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42During the war, of course, strategically it was very important,
0:17:42 > 0:17:48and they actually built a decoy site to the south of this site so that
0:17:48 > 0:17:52the German bombers were diverted, so that this place stayed intact
0:17:52 > 0:17:55because of its strategic importance.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'As increasingly freight switched to the road network in the 1960s,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01'the yards fell into decline.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03'And closed in the 1990s.'
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Part of the old site did get sold off,
0:18:06 > 0:18:11so this is only a small part of what would have been here back in the '20s in the heyday.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15'In 2004, a renaissance began at Whitemoor,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20'as Network Rail reopened part of the old yards as a distribution centre
0:18:20 > 0:18:23'from which to transport maintenance materials across the network.'
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Today, in terms of everything that the railway needs,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29this is the core of its supply chain.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Whitemoor here is the biggest of three of our depots.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36From here, we will ship everything that we need for the railway, and
0:18:36 > 0:18:41that could be sleepers, concrete sleepers, timber sleepers, rail.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Any material that we need to upgrade the railway.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50'Seven years later, the once-abandoned Whitemoor yards expanded again.'
0:18:51 > 0:18:52The other part of the site,
0:18:52 > 0:18:54which is the really interesting and exciting part,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57is the major recycling that we do here.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02Since 2011, this has been the National Track Materials Recycling Centre.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06So all of the materials that come back from work sites come back to
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Whitemoor to be sorted, graded and recycled.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12- Well, that's what we need to look at.- Absolutely.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15'Each year, over 500 miles of used rail,
0:19:15 > 0:19:20'800 switches and crossings and 50,000 tonnes of contaminated ballast
0:19:20 > 0:19:21'are processed at Whitemoor.'
0:19:23 > 0:19:24A remarkable view from here.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26It is, it's fantastic.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29What actually is this tower about?
0:19:29 > 0:19:32So, this is a ballast washer.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36'Ballast is the stone and gravel bed on which the track sits.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40'It helps to drain water and hinder weeds, but becomes soiled.'
0:19:40 > 0:19:43We bring in our hazardous ballast,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46the ballast that is covered in contaminants, oil,
0:19:46 > 0:19:47all of the nasty stuff.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49It comes up on the conveyor belt.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51This acts as a washing machine for the ballast.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56It comes out that side into different-sized aggregate,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59which we can then sell into the construction industry.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01You've got a tremendous site here.
0:20:01 > 0:20:02What else are you able to recycle?
0:20:02 > 0:20:04We recycle all of our sleepers.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07So timber sleepers, we will grade them.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10If we can use them back in the rail network, we will.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13- What about the rails?- Where possible, if we can re-use the rail,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16we'll re-use it again in the rail network.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22Otherwise, it gets chopped up and it gets sent to the furnace as scrap.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26We recycled around 46,000 tonnes of steel last year,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29which is actually the equivalent of six Eiffel Towers.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31May we see your ballast washing machine in action?
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Yes, follow me!
0:20:33 > 0:20:36'The controls to turn the washer on are below the ballast tower.'
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Here we are. And if you want to just press the start button on the screen.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Press the green start button.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52Vast quantities of contaminated ballast are cleaned every year with this machine.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55It would otherwise be sent to landfill,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57so thousands of lorry journeys are saved.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03And here we are at the end of the process now, with lovely. clean ballast.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- I must say, you scrub it up really nicely.- Thank you!
0:21:11 > 0:21:15The final leg of my journey takes me 13 miles south-east,
0:21:15 > 0:21:16into the heart of the Fens.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24I'm on my way to Ely.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27My guidebook tells me that, "the principal object of interest is its
0:21:27 > 0:21:31"venerable cathedral, founded in 1070.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37"510ft-long, and the Norman nave 270ft-high.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42"Bishop Allcock's perpendicular Chapel, Northwold's tomb, the Lady Chapel,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46"Lantern Tower and Scott's screen should be noticed. "
0:21:55 > 0:22:00Ely is built on a 23-square-mile clay island,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02the highest land in the Fens.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05The Fens were drained in the 17th century,
0:22:05 > 0:22:10but the city had already been named after the area's most popular catch - eels.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Ely grew up around the magnificent 11th-century cathedral.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The enormous structure known as the ship of the Fens towers above the
0:22:18 > 0:22:23city, its marshy surrounds and the river, the Great Ouse.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Will Schenk is a guide at the cathedral.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29- Good to see you, how do you do? - Welcome to Ely.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31A fantastic prospect.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Bradshaw's tells me that the foundation of the cathedral is 1070 AD.
0:22:35 > 0:22:36When would you date it to?
0:22:36 > 0:22:38I date it much further back.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40It does go back a lot further.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43The original foundation is from the seventh century, to 673,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45but he's probably referring to the Norman structure,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47which is maybe 20 years after the Conquest.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50So about 1085, 1087.
0:22:50 > 0:22:51What happened to it after that?
0:22:51 > 0:22:53Well, during the Vikings, it would have been destroyed.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57It would have been refounded in the tenth century.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01And when you have the Normans coming in 1066, about 20 years later,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04they pulled down whatever Anglo-Saxon church would have existed and they
0:23:04 > 0:23:05rebuilt this great Norman church.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10What we look at now, is that substantially a Norman cathedral?
0:23:10 > 0:23:13The nave, the two transepts, the entire west end, this extraordinary tower.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15So yes, the bulk of the cathedral is still Norman,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17which takes people by surprise.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Bradshaw's lists a whole number of things that I need to see in the cathedral.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23- Yes.- I was intrigued by Scott's screen.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Can that be a reference to George Gilbert Scott?
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Almost definitely. George Gilbert Scott was the architect in charge of
0:23:29 > 0:23:31essentially the Victorian restoration.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37'In 1322, the central cathedral tower had collapsed and been rebuilt by medieval craftsmen.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41'By Victorian times, further work was needed.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45'George Gilbert Scott was chosen to oversee the process.'
0:23:45 > 0:23:48He was first employed by the Dean, George Peacock,
0:23:48 > 0:23:49in 1847 to move the choir,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53and subsequently went on to restore the entire octagon tower.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56So he constructed a new choir space for the chapter.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00And the screen is part of that, very integral to that space.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Scott was born in 1811,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07and became one of Britain's most prolific architects,
0:24:07 > 0:24:09designing or restoring over 800 buildings.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13Fascinated by medieval structures,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16he was known for his work in the Gothic Revival style,
0:24:16 > 0:24:19and designed the Albert Memorial in London.
0:24:21 > 0:24:22What astonishes me, Will,
0:24:22 > 0:24:28is that such a perfect and massive building was constructed in the 11th and 12th centuries.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Yes, and you have to imagine it also looked quite different.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34It was painted, plastered and painted, even gilded.
0:24:34 > 0:24:35So as you would have come in from the west,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38- it would have been as if you are seeing an image of paradise.- Wow.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Now, the floor that we've been walking over,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46that's George Gilbert Scott as well.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50And if you look up, you have this marvellous ceiling from the 1850s.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And then above us, a most unusual and remarkable thing.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55That's the octagon lantern.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58That is what is unique, extraordinary, the masterpiece, really, of Ely.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02It is dating to the mid-14th century and is a wooden construction built
0:25:02 > 0:25:03out over this space.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06And that also has some Victorian influence?
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Oh, it has a great deal of Victorian paintwork.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12So Scott, one of the responsibilities he had was to restore the octagon.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Originally, the actual lantern would have been much plainer.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18So now you're looking at something that is really a work of the high Victorian style.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20- And the screen?- Oh, yes.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21The screen is just here behind you.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23He's working in the Gothic style,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25but he's not imitating any known actual screen.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27It is a work of genius,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30because you see through it all the way to the reredos at the very back,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32which was the focal point that he created.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Was George Gilbert Scott, who designed so many churches, actually religious?
0:25:35 > 0:25:36Very much so.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Church of England, his father was a rector.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40So were many of his brothers.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42They'd studied for divine orders at Cambridge.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45In fact, he was the black sheep of the family. He went into architecture.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48So George Gilbert Scott is mostly associated with religious architecture,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51but in point of fact, he also designed St Pancras Station,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53which might interest you, the Midland Hotel.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56And there is something here that I think I'd like to show you that relates
0:25:56 > 0:25:57to your interest in railways.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59- I'm in suspense.- Thank you.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Now, this is a memorial to two individuals who died in a tragic railway accident in 1845.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13They were first the driver, Pickering, and there was the stoker Edger.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16What's particularly tragic is that their names are misrepresented.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19It was not William Pickering, it was Thomas Pickering.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22And it was not Richard Edger, it was Richard Hedger.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26They died in a tragic accident on the Thetford to Norwich line.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29The engine exploded, it came off the line.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31The driver and the stoker were
0:26:31 > 0:26:33crushed to death underneath the engine.
0:26:33 > 0:26:34- Ghastly.- Yes.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38They had this poem, The Spiritual Railway.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41"The line to heaven by Christ was made.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43"With heavenly truths, the rails are laid.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48"From Earth to heaven, the line extends to life eternal,
0:26:48 > 0:26:49"where it ends."
0:26:49 > 0:26:50Gosh, a bit dated, isn't it?
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Well, not really. At the time, it would have been very contemporary.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56The railways would just have arrived in Ely in 1845.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58So something like this would have seemed very modern.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Nothing more modern than the railways.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14A statue of Alfred Lord Tennyson stands in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17And here at Ely Cathedral,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19the work and influence of
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Sir George Gilbert Scott are writ large.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Each was the son of a rector,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28at a time when God loomed large in the affairs of men.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34The railway age was also an era of assertive Christianity,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38when poets permitted themselves to see life as a train journey,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42away from sin and towards heaven.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43All aboard!
0:27:48 > 0:27:53'Next time, I uncover an industrial pioneer in Suffolk...'
0:27:53 > 0:27:55I've never been in a building like this.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58It is absolutely extraordinary.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01'..discover that train companies didn't always win their battles...'
0:28:01 > 0:28:06The plans of the Great Eastern were so huge that the town council objected to the
0:28:06 > 0:28:09idea of having half their town demolished.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12'..and witness a railway renaissance.'
0:28:12 > 0:28:16The Middy closed before I was born, and yet the Middy rides again!