0:00:04 > 0:00:09For Edwardian Britons, a Bradshaw's was an indispensable guide
0:00:09 > 0:00:11to a railway network at its peak.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17I'm using an early 20th century edition to navigate a vibrant
0:00:17 > 0:00:19and optimistic Britain...
0:00:19 > 0:00:22..at the height of its power and influence in the world.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27But a nation wrestling with political,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30social and industrial unrest at home.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00My rail journey that began in North Norfolk continues south
0:01:00 > 0:01:02and has now cleared London.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06On this leg, I'll discover that Hiawatha came to Croydon,
0:01:06 > 0:01:10that Bloomsbury descended on Charleston,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13while a Hummingbird landed in Shoreham,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16and how Cambridge will be joined to Brighton.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23I'm following a route that has taken me
0:01:23 > 0:01:27from a Norfolk holiday resort to Cambridge's venerable university
0:01:27 > 0:01:31and onward to the delights of Edwardian London.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Having continued south and reached the coast,
0:01:34 > 0:01:39I'll wend my way westwards via the Isle of Wight
0:01:39 > 0:01:42towards my final station, Poole, for Brownsea Island.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47The third leg of my journey begins
0:01:47 > 0:01:50with a musical interlude in Croydon,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53then moves to a hi-tech rail hub at Three Bridges.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56I'll pursue the avant-garde in Lewes,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59and take flight at Shoreham-by-Sea.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05Along the way, I'll dress up to spruce up some rolling stock...
0:02:05 > 0:02:08- We're going to clean this Class 700, are we?- We are indeed.- Very good.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11- What are your tips? - Try and stay dry.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14..encounter a progressive group whose private lives
0:02:14 > 0:02:16would have scandalised Edwardians...
0:02:16 > 0:02:18They were living in still very restrictive times, and they couldn't
0:02:18 > 0:02:22be publicly open about their sexuality or their relationships.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25..and go up-diddly-up in my flying machine.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28We are away.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46If I were to ask you, "Who was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor?",
0:02:46 > 0:02:49you'd probably say a poet, but that I'd got my tongue twisted
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and produced the names in the wrong order.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55But no, here is a cutting from the Globe newspaper
0:02:55 > 0:02:57of September, 1912, telling me that,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01"Large crowds assembled in Croydon yesterday
0:03:01 > 0:03:04"to witness the funeral of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06"the well-known composer."
0:03:25 > 0:03:28To find out about this now little-known figure,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31I've come to the church where that service was held.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35I'm meeting conductor Jonathan Butcher...
0:03:35 > 0:03:39- Welcome to St Michael And All Angels West Croydon.- Thank you very much.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43..singer Paul Sheehan and pianist Michael Papadopoulos.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46# Onaway
0:03:46 > 0:03:52# Awake beloved
0:03:53 > 0:03:57# Blood of my beating heart
0:03:57 > 0:04:01# Behold me
0:04:01 > 0:04:03# Oh awake
0:04:03 > 0:04:09# Awake beloved
0:04:09 > 0:04:13# Onaway
0:04:13 > 0:04:18# Awake
0:04:18 > 0:04:24# Beloved. #
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Thank you, Paul. I think you probably awoke your beloved there.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Yes! No-one can sleep through that.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35THEY LAUGH
0:04:35 > 0:04:36And Michael, thank you so much.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39One can imagine that this was being performed in the drawing rooms
0:04:39 > 0:04:42- of Edwardian Britain. - Oh, absolutely, yes.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45This particular song, very, very popular in its time.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48It's a song of love and a song of longing.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51The singer, his beloved, Onaway, is asleep,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and he sings to wake her because he is bereft without her,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58and to pre-empt Barry Manilow, he can't smile without her.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59THEY LAUGH
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Coleridge-Taylor may have been virtually forgotten today,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06but at the turn of the 20th century he was a celebrity
0:05:06 > 0:05:09in Britain and America.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Always elegantly dressed, Coleridge-Taylor wasn't afraid
0:05:13 > 0:05:16to stand out from the crowd in Edwardian Croydon,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18despite suffering racist abuse.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24The Globe newspaper tells me that in this magnificent church,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28there was a crowded funeral for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Who was this man? Where had he come from?
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a mixed-race composer
0:05:34 > 0:05:37whose father came from Sierra Leone
0:05:37 > 0:05:39- and whose mother was English.- Mm-hm.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42And he was born out of wedlock,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44and he went to a school just down the road here.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48He showed musical promise from a very early age,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and he got a place at the Royal College of Music.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55His peers at the college included the future famous composers
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04And Coleridge-Taylor himself was soon celebrated.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06What was he famous for in Britain?
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Well, he was really famous in Britain for writing
0:06:08 > 0:06:11his secular oratorio Hiawatha's Wedding Feast.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15It really only contains about four or five melodies.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Four or five absolutely cracking melodies.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24MUSIC: Hiawatha's Wedding Feast by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
0:06:30 > 0:06:34It was based on the poem The Song of Hiawatha
0:06:34 > 0:06:37by the American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
0:06:37 > 0:06:39who was inspired by Native American stories.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45This was at a time when choral societies,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48which were numerous in England,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50this was a really popular pastime,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55their mainstay works were Messiah, Elijah, that sort of piece.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58And so something that had a narrative
0:06:58 > 0:07:02and was a secular work, like Hiawatha's Wedding Feast,
0:07:02 > 0:07:04they just lapped up,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06and suddenly they were being performed all over the country.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09How well-known was he in his day, do you think?
0:07:09 > 0:07:13He was absolutely a celebrity. He was instantly recognisable.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Was there interest in his music in the United States?
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Very much so.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21When he went to America, it was, I imagine,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24something like Michael Jackson arriving off a boat.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27There were crowds to greet him.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Coleridge-Taylor's remarkable life was cut short
0:07:30 > 0:07:33when he died at just 37 years of age.
0:07:33 > 0:07:34Surely this forgotten, black,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38British composer deserves to be rescued from obscurity.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49In the early 20th century,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Britain's rail network reached its zenith of some 20,000 miles.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Since then, it's shrunk to half that size,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01but in some parts of the country, a railway renaissance is afoot.
0:08:11 > 0:08:12For some years now,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16trains like this have run a service called Thameslink,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20which connects towns to the north of London, like Bedford and Luton,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23with Gatwick Airport and Brighton to the south, running through
0:08:23 > 0:08:27the City of London, making use of an old Victorian tunnel.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Now there are plans to vastly increase the service,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34bringing in cities like Cambridge and Peterborough.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36I'm on my way to Three Bridges,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39which scores a number of mentions in my Bradshaw's Guide,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43to see how the enormous new fleet will be kept ready for service.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Once a small hamlet, Three Bridges grew
0:08:59 > 0:09:02with the arrival of the railway in the 1840s,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06and has now merged into the town of Crawley.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08To get the inside track on its new train depot,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12I've come to meet engineering director Gerry McFadden.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16- Gerry, hello. I'm Michael. - Hello, Michael.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18So, you've got behind you here this vast range
0:09:18 > 0:09:23of brand-new train facilities, and this is part of a new Thameslink.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24What's the big picture?
0:09:24 > 0:09:28The demand on this railway has doubled over ten years.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30So, we're creating a tunnel under London.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33We've designed trains that can operate through that tunnel
0:09:33 > 0:09:35astonishingly quickly,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38and the trains hold enormous numbers of people.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Each train holds the equivalent of 21 London buses.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47The rebooted Thameslink service will expand capacity
0:09:47 > 0:09:50for north-south travel across the capital,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53just as Crossrail will for east-west routes.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58You've got to pass trains through that tunnel in central London
0:09:58 > 0:10:01- at rates that are like a metro. - Yes, we do.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And that's where the train design has effectively delivered
0:10:05 > 0:10:08both a metro train, an underground train,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10as it goes through London, automatically operating,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13automatically stopping, automatically opening
0:10:13 > 0:10:15all of its doors, as well as a suburban train
0:10:15 > 0:10:20linking up Cambridge to Brighton, linking up Luton to Kent.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23So, providing fantastic new journey opportunities
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and cutting down some journey times extraordinarily.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34The roll-out of the fleet of new Class 700 trains has started.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39Three Bridges is one of two new depots which will keep
0:10:39 > 0:10:42the hi-tech rolling stock working efficiently.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Ian McLeod is responsible for train maintenance.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52- Hello, Ian.- Hello.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Ian, when you've got your full complement of trains,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59how many are you required to supply to the system each day?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02So, we are required to supply 109 out of 115 trains,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05leaving six spare for maintenance each day.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Tell me about the passenger features of the train.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09- Well, let's go and have a look.- Good.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13- These trains are really doing a number of different jobs, aren't they?- Of course, yeah.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Because they're like Tube trains in the centre of town, but they're also sort of
0:11:16 > 0:11:18quite long-distance travel for some people.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I notice that it's two-by-two seating, so you've got a much
0:11:21 > 0:11:24- wider passageway between the seats than on many trains.- Absolutely.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26And of course, we're getting used to this nowadays,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29but a long tube with no interruptions at all.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Yes. From 2018 onwards, 24 trains an hour through the centre of London.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36We need to get a huge number of people on and off the train,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38and being able to pass through in the gangway
0:11:38 > 0:11:42and between seats is very important for the train operator.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45What passengers won't see are the workings tucked beneath
0:11:45 > 0:11:47these state-of-the-art trains,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51which are accessed via an inspection pit 12 carriages long.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Trains today are much more reliable than they used to be.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00That's true, yeah. If some equipment fails on the train,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03other systems are there to take over to allow the train to continue
0:12:03 > 0:12:06in operation until the end of the day, where it can be repaired.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08So, what work needs to be done under the train?
0:12:08 > 0:12:10For example, what are these guys up to?
0:12:10 > 0:12:14They're doing a general inspection, looking for any damage that might have occurred, stones,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16or things that might have hit the train
0:12:16 > 0:12:18from the underside during operation.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Working on the trains is specialised stuff.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25But there is a job that can be tackled even by somebody
0:12:25 > 0:12:28with my woeful lack of technical skill.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32- You look the same species as me. What's your name?- My name's Vince.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35- And we're going to clean this Class 700, are we?- We are indeed.
0:12:35 > 0:12:36Very good. What are your tips?
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Try and stay dry.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Try and stay dry.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Attack it with vigour.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54You've done this before.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Argh! Take that, you Class 700!
0:13:04 > 0:13:05Vince, don't tell me
0:13:05 > 0:13:09- you do the whole of the side of the train this way as well.- We do, yeah.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12- What?- We do, yeah. - That must take you forever.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Yeah, well... Not really.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17About six hours.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18Six hours?!
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Six hours both sides.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Well, don't they have, like, a...
0:13:22 > 0:13:25- Like, a carwash?- We do, yeah.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Unfortunately, some of the brake dust doesn't come off
0:13:28 > 0:13:31with the carriage wash, so we have to hand brush like this.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33- So, it still needs the human touch?- Yeah.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36The human touch is needed every 56 days, in general.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Sometimes more often.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47- Vince.- Yes?
0:13:47 > 0:13:51- As clean as a train whistle. - Very nice.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53- Good job, Michael.- Good job, Vince.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01I feel I've certainly earned my bed for the night.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05This manor, now a hotel, once belonged to the family
0:14:05 > 0:14:09of the Duke of Norfolk, then to Queen Elizabeth I,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13and to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I wonder whether they'll have me.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38A new day, and I've crossed the breathtaking
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Ouse Valley Viaduct to continue my journey south.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I'm following in the footsteps of early 20th century Londoners
0:14:45 > 0:14:49who sought to swap the city smoke for the Sussex countryside.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53At the time of my Bradshaw's Guide,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57the Bloomsbury group of artists and intellectuals
0:14:57 > 0:14:58was becoming known.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02Their lives were high drama, and part of it was played out
0:15:02 > 0:15:06at Charleston in East Sussex, to which I'm now headed.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09I hope to discover how the band that included
0:15:09 > 0:15:14Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Lytton Strachey
0:15:14 > 0:15:17scandalised, entertained, influenced,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and above all fascinated the outside world.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41I've left the train at Lewes,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45tucked among the undulating chalk hills of the South Downs.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50It's known for its ruined Norman castle
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and its Georgian brewery.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58But I'm making a beeline to nearby Charleston House
0:15:58 > 0:16:01to meet curator Darren Clarke.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05- Darren, hello.- Hello, Michael. Welcome to Charleston.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07Well, thank you. And it is the most beautiful house.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11I'm absolutely stunned by it. Who was it who lived here?
0:16:11 > 0:16:14So, this was the home of the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16And what had brought them to Charleston?
0:16:16 > 0:16:18They came in 1916, so the height of the First World War.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Conscription had been introduced at the beginning of the year,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24and Duncan Grant and his lover David Garnett were both conscientious objectors.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27So, they needed to find work on a farm or go to prison.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29So, one day, in September, Vanessa Bell came down
0:16:29 > 0:16:31and found them a local farmer that would employ them,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33and a house that they could all live in,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and they moved here in October of that year.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37And they had been, before the First World War,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40part of the Bloomsbury Group in London. What was that?
0:16:40 > 0:16:42So, this was a group of young people all coming of age
0:16:42 > 0:16:43just as the 19th century was ending,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45just as the Victorian age was ending.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47And they were looking forward to new ways of living
0:16:47 > 0:16:50- and new ways of thinking. - What was new about it?
0:16:50 > 0:16:52They were looking at new ways...
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Pretty much new ways of perception, new ways of seeing things,
0:16:54 > 0:16:56new ways of representing things.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Virginia Woolf was looking at that stream-of-consciousness,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01of really getting inside the character's head.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, the artists,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07were looking at how you look at things and how you represent things.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10And Clive Bell talking about how you appreciate art, and how appreciation
0:17:10 > 0:17:13of art crosses different cultures and different classes.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18As well as breaking new ground artistically,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22this avant-garde set rejected Edwardian morals.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Some of them were homosexual, bisexual, they were promiscuous.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29- Was this also a new way of living? - I think it was.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31It was all about honesty.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Honesty within your relationships, honestly with your feelings.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36So, even though they were living in still very restrictive times
0:17:36 > 0:17:38and they couldn't be publicly open about their sexuality
0:17:38 > 0:17:41or their relationships, within their friendships,
0:17:41 > 0:17:42they believed in honesty.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45- Were there jealousies? - Lots of jealousies.
0:17:45 > 0:17:46When they arrived here,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49you had Duncan Grant being in a three-way relationship with
0:17:49 > 0:17:51David Garnett and Vanessa Bell,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54almost torn in two by the pressures of that relationship.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Over the years, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell
0:17:59 > 0:18:04painted every nook and cranny of the interior of Charleston House.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Though now a museum open to the public, it's filled with
0:18:08 > 0:18:12personal possessions, as though the group of friends still lived there.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Darren, I'm mesmerised by the whole house.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19It is so homely, so beautifully preserved.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22I noticed every surface seems to have been
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- decorated by the inhabitants. - They were very industrious.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28So, it's 60 years of creativity here, from 1916,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32when they moved in, until Duncan Grant died in 1978.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34And it covers the walls, the fireplaces, the tables.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37They would design their own textiles, ceramics.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40And it's very much of that idea that art
0:18:40 > 0:18:41doesn't stop at the picture frame,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44that it spreads across your whole life, your whole room,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46what you eat your dinner off, what you have on your curtains,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50what you have on your bed is all to be beautiful and lively and lovely.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56And the creativity continued in the garden,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59where the original design has been brought back to life,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01tended by Fiona Dennis.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07- Fiona, how lovely to see you. - Lovely to see you.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11- And what a beautiful garden. - Thank you.- This is really lovely.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Is this Vanessa Bell's and Duncan Grant's garden, in essence?
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Yes. In essence, it absolutely is.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20The actual layout was designed by Roger Fry, the art historian,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24but it was Vanessa and Duncan who really selected the plants.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26The garden is abundant.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29I think this is a style that many people like to emulate today.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32- Yes.- Was it rather revolutionary in their time?- I think it was.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34Remember, they were following on from the Victorians,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36so they were very anti-formal.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38So, the front of the garden was originally
0:19:38 > 0:19:40quite Victorian and evergreen.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42They wanted things to be really colourful,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45and they were looking for plants to paint, because they didn't tend
0:19:45 > 0:19:48to go out of the garden much, they tended to paint in the garden.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51They were painters, not gardeners, and I think that's really important.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10My journey continues towards the west,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13stopping briefly at Brighton to change trains.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18I have time to admire the cast-iron and glass station roof
0:20:18 > 0:20:21that follows the curve of the platform.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27My destination is seven miles down the track.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44I have here the original programme for an air show
0:20:44 > 0:20:49at the Brighton Shoreham Aerodrome in December, 1913.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53I'm promised upside-down flying and looping-the-loop
0:20:53 > 0:20:55by Mr BC Hucks,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59who is prepared to fly in almost any weather.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01When you think that the Wright brothers
0:21:01 > 0:21:04had flown for the first time just about ten years before,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09and here is Mr Hucks performing aerobatics, you have to say,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12"Those magnificent men in their flying machines."
0:21:12 > 0:21:15I will go to Shoreham to the scene of that heroism.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32Today, Shoreham-by-Sea is part of the continuous ribbon
0:21:32 > 0:21:35of urban development that stretches along the coast
0:21:35 > 0:21:37from Brighton to Worthing.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43There's been a port here since the days of the Norman conquest,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and in the 1840s, the railway arrived.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50But just after the turn of the 20th century,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52a new form of transport was making its mark.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57I'm exploring Shoreham's historic airfield
0:21:57 > 0:22:00with airport historian Tim Hogben.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05- Hello, Tim.- Oh, Michael. Welcome to Shoreham Airport.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Tim, what then is Shoreham's place in British aviation history?
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Oh, goodness.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15We are one of the original flying grounds.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18We are the oldest licensed airport in the country.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And as far as I know, we are the only one of the original
0:22:20 > 0:22:24client groups that is still used day-to-day for aviation.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29- How did it all start? - It started in 1909.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32There was a local solicitor, George Wingfield,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36and he basically saw an opening in the market.
0:22:36 > 0:22:37And he found this piece of land
0:22:37 > 0:22:43which was low-lying, rough pasture land, liable to flood.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46But, I guess at the time it was cheap,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48and that suited him admirably.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54It was just six years since the first-ever sustained, powered
0:22:54 > 0:22:58and controlled flight by the Wright brothers,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02who'd then flown their plane in Europe, winning over many doubters.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Who were the customers in those days?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Well, Shoreham's first tenant, customer if you like,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15was a London-based artist, Harold Hume Piffard.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17He arrived in the early months of 1910,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20put up a shed in the southeastern corner of the field,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and in there he erected his flying machine.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28An old boy of Lancing College, the public school adjoining
0:23:28 > 0:23:33the field, Piffard was the first to fly from here in 1910,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36In his Hummingbird plane.
0:23:36 > 0:23:43Soon he was joined at Shoreham by an assortment of flying enthusiasts.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Then, in the 1930s, the town councils of Brighton, Hove
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and Worthing clubbed together to build
0:23:49 > 0:23:53a striking Art Deco terminal building, still in use today.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56And could you fly to the world from Shoreham in those days?
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Well, not quite.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03We were still low-lying grass, and after a few days' rain,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07the whole site would simply turn into something like porridge.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09So you could turn up for your flight to be told,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12"Sorry, delayed a week while the ground dries out."
0:24:12 > 0:24:14- So, not a huge success. - Not really.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19Though unsuitable for large-scale passenger flights,
0:24:19 > 0:24:21this is still a busy airfield today,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24used by private pilots, the police,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27coastguard and businesses, and home to a flying school.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34I've been promised a private flight,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37but the weather has turned pretty grim,
0:24:37 > 0:24:43and even with modern navigation aids, my trip is uncertain.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47But finally there's a gap in the blanket of cloud, so pilot
0:24:47 > 0:24:52James Piper and I slip into the cockpit of a twin-engined aircraft.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00I'm just going to get the weather for the airfield before we depart.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04I can save you the trouble, James. It's filthy. JAMES LAUGHS
0:25:04 > 0:25:06- We'll be all right, though, will we? - Oh, absolutely.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Normally, if you learn to fly, you'd learn in good weather,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11but, however, as you advance through your flight training,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13you'd go up in weather very similar to this.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15INDISTINCT
0:25:15 > 0:25:17All right, so we are cleared to taxi.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19We're going to head out towards the start of the runway.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21So we're going to take off.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23We'll try and maintain visual flight. However,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26if we do enter any cloud then we will have to adopt instrument
0:25:26 > 0:25:29flight rules and then go through any necessary procedures as a result.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33- You need a hand any time, just let me know.- No problem.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The wind sock is puffing out there,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39telling us that we've got quite a strong headwind as we take off.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41That's it.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47So James has now lined up the DA42 Twin Star at the end of runway 20.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54A surge of power as we zoom on.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Flawed takeoff, but we are away.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Now at 400 feet.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The view back there over the aerodrome.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18The runway points directly towards the English Channel,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and within moments we are approaching the beach.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Coming back now over the English coast.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47There on my left now is Lancing College's enormous chapel.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Runway is in sight.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55We can see the white lines on the runway ahead.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58And down we go.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02And we are down.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04Thank you so much.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Some creative Edwardians, such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27have now been largely forgotten,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31but those in the Bloomsbury Group continue to fascinate us,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35as much for their way of life as for their work.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Their bohemianism presented an avant-garde affront to
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Edwardian conventions.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45But a trip to Shoreham Airport would have given a better
0:27:45 > 0:27:46indication of the future,
0:27:46 > 0:27:52because the aeroplane would play a major role in mechanised warfare,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55in which the Edwardian style of life would perish.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05Next time, I encounter an Edwardian duo who made motoring history...
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Excuse me, I'm off for a little R&R.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13..learn the secrets of the royal nursery...
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Albert Edwin would fly into rages and got very sort of frustrated.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21..and for one night only, I tread the boards.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25You are real thespians! LAUGHTER