Liverpool to Dolgarrog Great British Railway Journeys

For Edwardian Britons, a Bradshaw's was an indispensable guide

to a railway network at its peak.

I'm using an early 20th century edition

to navigate a vibrant and optimistic Britain

at the height of its power and influence in the world.

But a nation wrestling with political, social and industrial

unrest at home.

The part of my journey across northern England

concludes in Liverpool, where I'll admire the architecture.

The Victorians had drawn inspiration for their buildings

from the Middle-Ages,

reviving a Gothic style in impressive structures

such as St Pancras Station in London.

Would the Edwardians follow in their paths?

I'll then move on to Wales,

and ask how the principality felt about its identity,

absorbed in a United Kingdom at the time when Ireland

was moving, it seemed, towards home rule.

My journey started in East Yorkshire,

and carried on to the historic city of York.

From there, I went inland across the industrial heartlands of West

and South Yorkshire.

I'm now on my way to Liverpool, from where I'll head to Wales,

tucking its northern coast to finish in Caernarfon.

I start this leg of my journey in the city of Liverpool.

I'll then visit the suburban town of Maghull,

before crossing the Welsh border to reach Abergele,

and I'll finish in the Welsh mountains in Dolgarrog.

Today, I take a rail trip down my own memory lane.

I had this of very one when I was a child.

This was my starter set.

Hear of an Edwardian aristocrat

whose roses by any other name would smell as sweet.

They turned out to be named after people that the Countess knew.

And I learn to catch the next wave in Snowdonia.

Another wave coming!

My Bradshaw's reveals that, at the beginning of the 20th century,

you could sail from Liverpool to New York and Canada,

South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,

China and Japan.

The city had been getting richer from shipping for many decades.

In the Georgian period,

its picturesque hills rising above the Mersey estuary

had sprouted long, elegant terraces of merchant houses.

In the Edwardian era it was still constructing,

adding to its stock of striking commercial and public buildings.

Liverpool's port was founded by King John in 1207.

By the time that it celebrated its 700th anniversary,

the Edwardian city was at the centre of seven miles of docks

extending along the River Mersey.

Over the last 100 years,

the city has been renowned for its vibrancy.

During a couple of phases of my life,

I felt the magnetism of Liverpool.

My first employer was a shipping company,

located in one of these

magnificent early 20th century office buildings.

And then, much later, when I had ministerial responsibility

for urban regeneration,

I met the wonderful Dean of the Anglican Cathedral,

who used the prestige of the Church to build housing and a hospital

to help to revitalise the city.

And, whenever I return here,

I'm reminded of moments in my life that are important to me.

It's a real pleasure to return to Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral.

It's the largest cathedral in the United Kingdom,

but it was still a building site at the time of my Bradshaw's.

Canon Val Jackson is archivist here.

Val, am I right in saying that, at the end of the 19th century,

Liverpool has an Anglican bishop, but not a Cathedral worth the name?

Not a cathedral worth the name, no.

There was St Peter's Pro-Cathedral, which was very small and very dark.

There wasn't enough space to hold a big civic service.

So, Bishop Chavasse and his committee

wanted somewhere that was worthy of the second city of the Empire.

In charge of the diocese at the time,

Bishop Chavasse made plans for a new place of worship at the top

of St James's mount, visible from everywhere,

and launched an open competition,

calling for a 20th century design of cathedral.

The competition was won by a 22-year-old,

who had never designed a church or a cathedral,

called Giles Gilbert Scott.

Was Giles Gilbert Scott a devout Anglican?

No, he was from a family of Roman Catholics,

which was a very brave decision to appoint him,

because Liverpool at the time was at the height of sectarian difficulties.

People weren't allowed to marry in mixed marriages,

schools didn't have mixed relationships,

Bishop Chavasse had the vision to try and join the two groups

of Christians together in the city.

Giles Gilbert Scott came from a family of architects.

His grandfather, George Gilbert Scott,

designed St Pancras Railway Station in London.

But, because of the young man's lack of experience,

a mentor was appointed,

a seasoned church architect, George Frederick Bodley.

The partnership was unhappy.

Gilbert Scott was considering resignation

when Bodley died in 1907,

giving him a free rein.

He started to apply his vision to the Lady Chapel,

which was then under construction.

Welcome to the Lady Chapel of the cathedral,

which is quite different from the main space.

Here we have one of the original drawings signed by Scott and Bodley,

and this, of course,

was designed when he was still under Bodley's mentorship.

And this is what should have been the original design

with four lights in the windows,

but as you can see now, there are just two lights in each window.

So he's made them longer and more elegant.

And put in more plain glass to let more light through.

Liverpool was a very industrial city at the time,

so there was a lot of smoke and pollution.

Did he make many other changes?

Yes, having won the competition with this design,

for two towers for the cathedral,

when he had a free rein, he realised he was better having a central tower

and making the whole cathedral a great space.

Maybe it's just that I'm used to it, but actually what we have today,

it seems to me, is vastly superior to that.

Absolutely. This was his finest achievement.

After changing the face of Liverpool,

Gilbert Scott went on to design the red telephone box,

which remains iconic today.

Liverpool's Catholic community built its own cathedral.

Despite its futuristic look,

it was completed 11 years before its Anglican equivalent.

I'm now travelling on Merseyrail's Ormskirk line out to Maghull,

to the suburbs of Liverpool,

to see how Edwardians spent their time at home

when they had a moment for pleasure and play.

Maghull has a particular significance

in the history of model railways, and in my life.

-Les!

-Good morning, Michael, welcome to Maghull!

Thank you.

I've arranged to meet modern railway enthusiast Les French

to track this story.

It starts with a man whose name I knew from a very early age.

Les, the blue plaque says it,

Frank Hornby, Toy Manufacturer.

But what was the background of this man?

Frank came from quite humble beginnings,

and he was a clerk in his father's business, but he had an idea,

in his own words, on a train journey.

On Christmas Eve he saw a train,

and realised that, with very simple parts, he could reproduce that train

as a toy for his children.

He said that was when the idea of Meccano was born.

Meccano, I'd always thought this was an Italian name,

How did it become Meccano?

It was initially known as "mechanics made easy",

which in itself was quite a mouthful,

but he had an idea that if you came up with a name

that was pronounceable in any language,

it would help export sales.

So, he took "make" and "know".

Make something, know how it was made,

and "make" and "know" became Meccano.

The tools were extraordinarily simple, weren't they?

Very. Pre-drilled strips, axles, pulleys,

maybe a wee bit of string to make a crane.

But it was not a cheap toy.

In 1901, it cost seven shillings and sixpence,

which was half a week's wages for your average man.

-And the business was quite successful?

-Quite exceptionally so.

The largest toy company the world has ever known.

At some point, the brand name Hornby gets attached to model railways.

When did that happen?

Around about 1920, when he developed the 0-gauge railways,

which were originally clockwork, made of tin plate.

After that, they made them electric

and the rest, as they say, is history.

Within a decade, Hornby's model trains outsold Meccano.

Today, vintage Meccano and Hornby toys are highly prized.

The Frank Hornby Heritage Centre in Maghull holds a fine collection.

Les, this is amazing.

What an extraordinary display of vintage toys, Meccano.

It's our way of commemorating our most famous resident.

The prime part of our collection is actually this,

which is the very first set that Frank Hornby made.

And, in fact, it's "Mechanics Made Easy", before it became Meccano,

around about 1901, 1902.

And this is kind of, I think,

the very heights that the model train reached, I mean,

this is just a superb piece of engineering.

And, at the other end of the scale,

this was a cheapie, because I had this very one when I was a child.

This was my starter set.

So, you know, a few straights, a few curves,

a very basic little locomotive and its tender, and...

..later I got this one, slightly more sophisticated,

a tank engine with three wagons in the dark red.

You know, I could not have described them to you, but seeing them,

I know exactly that those were the ones that I had when I was a kid.

Of course you kept them boxed, in immaculate condition, didn't you?

I wish I had!

Les, this is really superb, I mean, this is a dream.

Look at the quality of this rolling stock,

look at how beautiful it all is.

I could spend all day here.

I mean, Frank Hornby gave so much to generations of children.

Back in Liverpool,

I seek an evening drink at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms.

Hello, good evening.

-Hello, there.

-Can I have a half, please?

-Yeah, course.

You've got a lovely looking pub here.

-Why, thank you.

-It dates back to when?

1898, it was built.

Most of it is Grade II and Grade I listed.

The gents' toilets, in particular, are the only functioning

Grade I listed toilets in the country that we know of.

Wonderful! Well, what a great place to end the day, thank you so much.

-No worries, thank you.

-Good health.

Completed shortly before Edward VII became king,

the pub took its design cues

from the saloons of the grand ocean liners that sailed from Liverpool.

The gents' really are magnificent.

There are antique tiles, and on the floors and on the walls,

there are mosaics.

Here are windows devoted to Baden Powell,

and to Field Marshal Lord Roberts,

both Edwardian heroes, and veterans of the Boer War.

And here are rooms devoted to Brahms and Liszt,

who were not Edwardians, but in Cockney slang,

their names imply inebriation.

It's a new morning on the tracks.

This time, I'm crossing the Mersey on my way to Chester.

I have a connection at this Grade II listed station

to reach my next destination,

Abergele & Pensarn in Wales.

Queen Victoria's oldest son, Bertie,

was Prince of Wales for very nearly 60 years,

until her death, and his accession to the throne as Edward VII

in 1901.

Wales has lost much of the railway network that it had

at the time of my Bradshaw's.

Lines that served coal-rich valleys in the south

had been torn up.

And here, in the north on this line, we've lost Sandycroft,

Queen's Ferry, Connah's Quay,

Bagillt, Holywell, Mostyn,

Talacre and Foryd.

But, even 100 years ago,

they were passed unnoticed by the Irish Mail

and the Irish Night Express

as they swept by.

Abergele & Pensarn is on the North Wales coastline...

Thank you, bye-bye.

..which links London with Dublin, via Holyhead.

At the time of my Bradshaw's,

Edwardian travellers would have encountered a rising tide

of Welsh nationalism.

and they would have marvelled at the sight of Gwrych Castle.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Mark Baker is founder of its preservation trust.

Mark, it's a most romantic ruin.

How old is the castle?

Most of what you see is dating to around about 1810, so it's Georgian.

However, there are parts which date to around about 1485,

so very late medieval.

Which family was the house associated with?

It was the Lloyds of Gwrych,

and they were descended from the noble tribes of Wales,

and they trace their ancestry right back to the fall of Rome

when tribes moved down from the north of England

and settled in this area.

In the period that I'm following at the moment,

the Edwardian period, who would've been here?

Winifred Bamford Hesketh.

She was the sole heiress of the estate,

and she married the 12th Earl of Dundonald.

What sort of a woman was Winifred?

Strong, very determined, and incredibly passionate about Wales.

So, from here, she's tried to get the Welsh agenda

at the top of the list at Number Ten.

The Countess and her husband were in an arranged marriage.

And, although she bore him five children,

he lived in his native Scotland,

while she stayed at Gwrych Castle.

She saw herself as the last of the Lloyds of Gwrych.

How did the castle come to be a ruin?

The castle was bought in the late 1980s by an American,

who was an absentee owner,

New Age travellers moved in, and asset strippers,

and they systematically dismantled the interior of the castle,

and sold it.

So, the main building is literally just a ruin.

And you are trying to do something about it?

20 years ago, when I was 12,

I was passing the castle every day to and from school,

and I would see the buildings slowly becoming more and more deteriorated

and derelict.

So I decided to set up the castle trust, and since then,

I've been campaigning for the restoration.

A 12-year-old set up a castle trust?

I know it's, well... At the time, it was quite natural for me,

but when one looks back, it is rather odd.

So, you know, it's my life.

It's absolutely extraordinary.

Congratulations. What is it you had to do here?

So, the gardens were completely derelict.

This was a forest.

We carried out a systematic archaeological excavation

and we found some of the plant tags,

and they turned out to be named after people that the Countess knew.

So there was a set of roses.

One was her hairdresser, one was her costumier,

and she had them planted along the walls.

They were climbing roses, so we've had them put back here.

And what hope for the buildings?

Well, we're in the process of negotiating a sale to the trust

from the current owners.

So our plan will be to restore it back to its former glory.

That's fantastic. I'm lost in admiration.

The trust has already obtained a lease,

enabling Mark and a team of volunteers to begin restoration

of the gardeners' tower.

Welcome to the countess' writing room.

So, this was one of her private spaces at the castle,

and she would sit in here, write her letters, her diaries,

and, on that fire, is where her husband, after her death,

burned all of her private papers.

Why on earth would he do that?

He was very angry.

And felt that she had disinherited him from what he was owed.

She had left the castle to the royal family on her death.

She knew that he would try to destroy the vision of the Lloyds,

which was the castle, and that's what he set out to do.

Why are you so devoted to the castle, and also the countess,

the last of the Lloyds?

With the castle, it's somewhere that I see,

really regenerating, not only the buildings, but the local area.

And I think the Countess was such an enigma.

She's not been celebrated,

and that's part of the legacy of her husband,

trying to erase her from history.

My journey continues west,

along the coast before a change of trains at Llandudno Junction.

I then divert south, towards the Snowdonia National Park.

I'll leave this train at Dolgarrog.

At the time of my Bradshaw's,

it was not yet important enough to have a railway station.

But, a new industrial process electrified the place

and set it on its metal.

-Hello.

-Hello. How are you?

-Very well, thank you.

-Good, good.

-It's one of the loveliest lines.

-Yeah.

-Do you enjoy it?

It gets really busy in the summer. Foreigners.

Foreigners includes the English, we don't know how to pronounce them!

-Dolgarrog, right?

-Yes, this will be your stop now.

-All right.

-Bye-bye then.

-Lovely, thanks very much.

Situated in the Conwy Valley,

Dolgarrog takes its name from a mythical Welsh creature, Y Garrog.

At the time of my Bradshaw's,

a new industrial process kept the town busy.

Aluminium smelting.

The works that were here have now closed.

Thank you very much.

Hywel Thomas is among the last generation to have worked there.

-Hywel, hello.

-Hello Michael.

Good to see you.

-Thank you for choosing such a cosy pub. Cheers.

-Cheers.

Aluminium. Why was it so important to us?

Well, aluminium was regarded as this new wonder metal.

It's an extremely light metal,

and it can be made to be quite strong

by adding other elements to it.

Does it occur naturally?

It's the most abundant element on the earth's crust,

but it doesn't occur in its natural metallic form.

So it's in clay.

It's in the slate waste in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The metal must be recovered from its ore by heating and melting,

or smelting.

Aluminium was expensive to process,

but the development of a new cheaper method

allowed for larger scale production,

requiring lots of electricity.

It's about 18,000 kilowatt hours per tonne of aluminium produced.

-That sounds like a lot.

-It is a lot.

Why did they choose the hills of North Wales for the factory?

Dolgarrog is on very high ground,

and an average rainfall of three metres per annum.

There was abundance of water, basically,

and hydroelectric power was the perfect means

to reduce alumina to aluminium.

In the early 1900s,

a lightweight metal like aluminium

was ideal to feed growing industries, especially aviation.

It also served to create lighter and more efficient household items,

such as saucepans and frying pans,

previously made from copper and cast iron.

The factory expanded rapidly,

and would go on to play a vital role in aircraft production

during the Second World War.

At its height, 800 people worked at the works.

Whole families worked there.

Was it a tough place, the factory? Dirty, noisy, hot?

It was heavy industry. There was no respite at night,

and there were complaints after the company closed

that people couldn't get to sleep because it was too quiet.

And it closed in...?

2007, precisely 100 years from when it opened in 1907.

It was a sad time.

The water that was so useful to the aluminium smelting works

has now been harnessed in a very different way.

It's being used to create the longest man-made surfable waves

in the world.

What a bizarre sight!

A surfer racing towards me in a place where there used to be

an aluminium factory!

What a fantastic example of regeneration

in a derelict industrial area.

You may say that a surf beach looks out of place in the Welsh hills,

but so did an aluminium factory.

The best way to understand the thrill of the waves

is to take to the water.

Hello!

My instructor today is Welsh national surfing champion,

Jo Dennison.

So how do we begin?

I'll start by just telling you how we get waves here.

So we've got a big wave foil.

It's shaped like a snowplough,

so the snowplough gets pulled through the water

and we get waves either side of the pier.

And what do I need to know?

OK, so lying on the board.

You want your toes just on the tail here.

OK, perfect. Just look forward.

Always looking where you want to go.

Arch your back a little bit, so you can see the wave coming.

Look over your shoulder. Then you're going to start to paddle.

As it gets closer, you're going to go faster.

And then you should catch the wave,

-hands under the armpits and lean back.

-Right.

-Good.

Wow!

Another wave coming!

Ooh!

Cracking wave!

-That was a good one!

-Nice one!

That was great, Jo, thank you!

What a thrill, eh?

Thank you very much.

In the years that I've known Liverpool,

I've seen it transformed by regeneration,

and by striking new buildings.

Giles Gilbert Scott invented a new architecture for the Edwardian age,

breaking from the Victorian Gothic style of his famous grandfather.

He was a prodigy,

taking on the enormous task of Liverpool Cathedral,

aged just 22,

and wrestling with it for the rest of his days.

Mark Baker was just 12 when he set up a trust to save Gwrych Castle,

and I have a feeling that that too will be a life's work.

Next time, I follow in the footsteps of Edwardian climbers.

-We made it!

-Good stuff.

-A great view.

-Yeah, stunning.

Meet a descendant of a great British Prime Minister.

How would you assess Lord George's role in winning World War I?

Victory was his goal, not glory.

And, after the Flying Scotsman, watch out for a flying Englishman.

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, so close to the ground!