Chichester to Cowes Great British Railway Journeys

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

to the 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.

My train travels have brought me from the far-flung coasts of Norfolk

to England's southern shores.

On this part of my journey,

I'll glimpse a place where Queen Victoria died,

and so where the Edwardian era began,

and I'll follow the king's passions for motor cars and yachts...

..oh, and actresses.

I'm following a route that has taken me

from Cromer to Cambridge's venerable university

and onwards to the delights of Edwardian London.

I've journeyed south to Sussex and I'll wend my way

along the south coast, alighting at the Isle of Wight,

Bournemouth and Poole.

The fourth leg of my journey begins at Chichester,

in West Sussex, and continues to Portsmouth.

Then I'll cross the Solent to find out about the royals

on the Isle of Wight.

Along my way I encounter an Edwardian duo

who made motoring history...

Excuse me, I'm off for a little R&R.

..learn the secrets of the royal nursery...

Albert Edward would fly into rages and got very, sort of, frustrated.

..and for one night only, I tread the boards.

You are real thespians!

APPLAUSE

The Sketch newspaper March 11, 1903.

"A great honour has fallen to the automobile club

"of Great Britain and Ireland.

"Nothing less than the patronage of his most gracious

"Majesty King Edward VII, himself a keen automobilist."

And here is a fine photograph of the honourable CS Rolls

on his 80 horsepower racing car.

To find out what happened to Mr Rolls, I'll alight at Chichester

and head to Goodwood, a name steeped in petrol vapours.

-TANNOY:

-Mind the gap between the train and the platform.

Chichester's 1950s Festival of Britain-style

railway station contrasts with the much older

Georgian architecture of the West Sussex county town.

I've arranged to meet Andrew Ball of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

-Andrew, hello.

-Michael, hi.

I mean, this car is aesthetic perfection.

It is so indescribably beautiful.

-What is it?

-Michael, this is a 1908 Rolls-Royce 40/50 horsepower,

known popularly as a Silver Ghost.

This is a one-off and this is The Silver Dawn.

The turn of the 20th century heralded the motoring age.

A self-made businessman named Henry Royce

began to build his first motor car in 1903.

And in that same year, an Eton-educated aristocrat

called Charles Rolls broke the land speed record.

So what brought Rolls and Royce together?

So, the two gentlemen met -

they were introduced by mutual acquaintance in 1904 on 4th May

at Midland Hotel in Manchester.

Rolls was looking for the best engineer in the world

to build a car, a British car, that he could sell

from CS Rolls, his dealership in Fulham in London.

He was very keen to sell a British car

but it had to be a brilliant British car, an exquisite British car.

And in Royce, he found the engineer he was looking for.

-Right, may we sit in the back?

-Please.

Andrew, the sheer luxury of this.

It's like being in a horse-drawn carriage.

And I think early cars were known as horseless carriages,

-weren't they?

-That's correct.

Of course at the time, Rolls-Royce would build you your rolling

chassis, which would then be taken to a coach builder for you

to have your own bodywork built just for you to your own commission.

Cue the owner, Georgina Wood,

managing director of a company that restores vintage Rolls-Royces.

-Georgina, hello. I'm Michael.

-Lovely to meet you.

-What a beautiful purring noise that makes.

-Thank you, she's superb.

Ah, gorgeous. I'll sit well back.

King Edward VII was a keen motorist.

He owned several cars,

including two Mercedes and a Daimler,

all in his signature claret colour.

Motoring was an expensive luxury and car ownership grew slowly.

The poor old British motor industry was held back for years,

wasn't it, by that absurd legislation that you had to

carry a flag with a man walking in front of the car.

It's a miracle that this sort of thing

was produced after that period.

That's true and actually, it was Charles Rolls

and a group of motoring pioneers who fought that legislation.

In 2003, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars moved its manufacturing base

from Crewe, setting up near one of motor racing's most famous

circuits at Goodwood.

It had moved close to the home of Sir Henry Royce,

who lived just a few miles away until his death in 1933.

A magnificent, magnificent sight.

I wasn't sure that in your factory I would see mass production

but we are standing above a production line.

We are, Michael, but we definitely aren't a mass-producer.

We're very much a rare drop in the automotive ocean.

This is our assembly line for Ghost, Wraith and Dawn.

Here we have today 1,700 skilled men and women

and every car that we build here at the home of Rolls-Royce is bespoke.

Crafting each car can take 400 hours of skilled labour.

The bodywork is meticulously painted and joined to the chassis.

Wood trim is painstakingly prepared to ensure that the grain

is perfectly symmetrical.

And to create the luxurious leather interiors,

up to nine hides are used, stitched by artisans under the watchful eye

of manager Brian Staite.

I must say, Brian, if I were blindfolded

I would know I was in the leather shop. Such a gorgeous smell.

Where does it all come from?

All of our leather comes from our supplier based in Germany.

You've got an amazing range of colours.

-You actually make use of all these colours, do you?

-We do, yes.

I don't want to insult any of your customers,

but I find some of these quite hard to imagine. These are outlandish.

I thought I had bright tastes, but this is extraordinary.

I think when we look at individual colours like this,

we have to think about the context with which that customer's

going to be using their vehicle.

You know, they may be by the sea, by the beach.

A single machinist stitches together the interior for each car.

And every completed vehicle receives a test drive

before it leaves Goodwood.

ENGINE REVS

King Edward VII was very keen on making alliances,

but during his reign one of the most important unions

was made without royal intervention, between Rolls and Royce.

Now, excuse me, I'm off for a little R&R.

My journey takes me further west,

tracing a route around beautiful Chichester Harbour,

past Hayling Island and towards Portsmouth.

I have here the programme for the opening night

of the King's Theatre, Albert Road, Southsea in Portsmouth,

September 30th 1907.

"HB Irving and his own company will appear for six nights."

Portsmouth has been a naval dockyard since 1194.

-TANNOY:

-The train now approaching platform one...

The former suburb of Southsea became a popular seaside resort

in its own right in the 19th century,

and by the 20th, required entertainment possibilities

of its own.

The King's Theatre was designed by renowned architect Frank Matcham.

The Kings Theatre has a wonderful facade and now for the interior...

The foyer is delicious.

It's 1907 and the important thing when you come to the theatre is to

leave behind the grime of your home, leave your troubles outside,

to come to somewhere majestic.

And there is the crown of the king

and the roof is held aloft by angels,

because I've now entered a world of illusions, of magic.

I'm going to meet archivist Peter Rann.

-Peter, hello.

-Hello there. Nice to meet you.

Wow! A vast auditorium.

And every detail of this theatre is superb.

And this is the work of Frank Matcham, is it? Who was he?

Frank Matcham was a theatre designer.

He was responsible for changing and building up to 150 theatres

throughout the country during his lifetime.

-Which were his others that I might know?

-The London Palladium,

-The Buxton Opera house.

-Superb.

The Grand at Blackpool.

It sounds then as though this was a period of great theatre building.

Yes, it was because the period was changing

from the Victorian to the Edwardian times

when people wanted to have fun.

Therefore, they wanted to go out and enjoy themselves.

Though he never qualified, Frank Matcham was the most prolific

and successful British theatre architect of his day,

known for his opulent interiors.

Tell me about the features that Matcham put into his theatre here.

Well, some of the innovations that he put in -

his idea was that he got a maximum number of people

into the theatre with excellent sightlines

and good safety, because there were a lot of theatres burning down

and having accidents in those days.

So the safety curtain was one of the things

that he made sure was installed.

He put the cantilevered balconies in.

As you'll notice, there aren't so many holes and posts.

People can get a much better view without pillars in the way.

Was he really a kind of standard and trend setter, would you say?

I would say he was a great trendsetter, yes.

He had a vision of elegance about him,

a magic that made things really, really work.

Playing now is a community theatre production

of Lads In The Village, a farce about the First World War,

which was first performed here in 1917.

And I'm being offered the chance to find out what it's like

to tread the boards.

Let's hope I don't get stage fright.

'Ere, what did you get it for, 'Erb?

-Oh, I got it for being a bad lad, Mum.

-That's my boy.

That's my boy!

Ladies and gentlemen, on this au...spicious occasion

I thought there could be no better commemoration

than to have 'Erb's photo took.

-And I shall take the honour of standing by myself.

-Oh, yes!

Oh, Mr Mayor, I am his mother.

You must have me in the photo.

I've been living in this village...

-ALL:

-Oh, do shut up!

Quiet! Still, please.

Here, we've forgotten Sally.

-ALL:

-Sally?

Oh, what a privilege.

You are real thespians.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Solent, this narrow straight, is today one of the busiest

sailing areas in the world.

The fastest way to the Isle of Wight and with no bovver is by hover.

This service has been running since 1965.

It's carried 29 million people in that time.

It is the longest running hovercraft service in the world.

It is now the only commercial hovercraft service in Europe

and it will get me there in 10 minutes.

We have liftoff. The hovercraft is now riding

on its own cushion of air.

And we do a 180 degree spin...

..head out over the beach,

scattering pebbles in every direction,

and arrive on the sea.

Travelling by hovercraft is called flying,

and you can certainly feel the surge as you get airborne.

It's 3.4 miles from Portsmouth to Ryde.

Up onto dry land again. It has taken 10 minutes.

This is my destination.

I've got a ticket to Ryde.

The largest town on the Isle of Wight,

Ryde is known as the gateway to the island

and carries a charming aura of past times

on its salty air.

I'll be spending the night at the Royal Esplanade Hotel,

described by Bradshaw's as "high-class".

This morning, I feel the call of the sea.

I'm taking a constitutional on Ryde Pier.

Ryde is really one of my favourite piers.

Not only can you promenade, you can drive along it

and of course you can take the train.

Oh, and did I mention it's very long?

You feel like you could walk halfway to Portsmouth.

And for those like me who don't fancy the walk back to shore,

the rail station on the pier beckons.

I used to take summer holidays on the Isle of Wight every year

with my family and we would travel on this rail service,

which in those days was steam.

But now the service is provided by trains

taken from London Underground.

The London Underground carriages used on the Island Line,

which runs from the pier to Shanklin, date back to 1938.

They're the oldest passenger rolling stock

on the national rail network to operate a timetabled service.

At Smallbrook Junction, passengers connect

to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, a five mile heritage line.

The Isle of Wight Steam Railway has a first-class compartment

and it is springily and luxuriously upholstered.

And I like this touch.

This is known as an antimacassar and it's here to prevent the oil

the gentleman used in their hair from staining the seat.

And it's very elegantly embroidered "SR", Southern Railway.

The end of the line is at Wootton.

Goodbye!

I've alighted here on my way to Osborne House,

where the future King Edward VII spent much of his childhood.

I've come to meet curator Michael Hunter.

Well, Michael, on a day like today with the blue sky,

the colour of the architecture, the architecture itself,

the intensity of the sunlight, we could be in Italy, couldn't we?

Who created this magnificent palace?

Well, it was really created by Prince Albert,

Queen Victoria's husband, in the 1840s.

He and Queen Victoria came here very soon into their marriage

and they were looking for a private family home,

somewhere that they could call their own.

And the spectacular setting of Osborne here,

the privacy of the estate, the view down to the beach

and the view across to Portsmouth reminded him of the Bay of Naples.

Prince Albert designed the Italianate house as a place

to enjoy a relaxing family life away from the formality of court.

And so it would have been here that Edward VII,

Bertie as he was known in those days,

-spent important periods of his childhood.

-He did.

Obviously, Osborne was one of Queen Victoria's favourite places

to be and so she, Prince Albert and their nine children

would come here to Osborne, principally in the summer months

and was out walking, riding, swimming on the beach,

enjoying the fresh air here.

So there were happy family times here at Osborne.

Now open to the public, the house is enjoyed by over

a quarter of a million visitors each year.

Many of them make their way through the grand corridor linking

the main wings, conceived by Prince Albert

as a sculpture gallery.

Michael is taking me up to the nursery quarters,

dedicated to the children, their nannies and tutors.

What a thoroughly evocative room this is -

cots, cradles, chamber pots.

What do you think the scene was like when the family was here?

Well, I think these rooms up here

were the busiest in the house, really,

the most important part of Osborne, I suppose.

Now, this room emphasises play but Bertie, the Prince of Wales,

had to be educated. How did that go?

Well, yes, there was a great plan, really, wasn't there,

to educate him.

He had to become the perfect constitutional monarch

and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had very unrealistic,

I suppose in many ways, expectations for him.

And so he was exposed to a very rigorous educational programme.

Albert Edward was by no means an intellectual and

it's well documented that he found it very difficult to concentrate

on his lessons and would fly into rages

and got very, sort of, frustrated.

Even playtime had an educational element for the nine little

princes and princesses.

Though they had the kind of Wendy house

that other children could only dream of.

The Swiss cottage turns out to be quite a major structure.

What was it that the royal children could do in it and around it?

Well, it's a glorified playhouse.

And here the royal princesses would learn how to cook and housekeep in

the kitchens on the ground floor,

and upstairs they would often entertain

their parents to afternoon tea, serving them the cakes and biscuits

that they had previously cooked themselves downstairs.

And in the surrounding gardens, each child had a plot of ground

in which they would grow fruit, flowers and vegetables.

So Queen Victoria died at Osborne House in 1901.

Does the new King Edward VII come here quite soon after that?

He was obviously here for when his mother passed away.

But he came back a number of times soon after her death.

He came down here to the Swiss cottage

with one of his courtiers Sir Lionel Cust

and Sir Lionel mentions in his memoirs

that the king was incredibly moved,

he was really sort of fighting back the tears.

So I think that gives an indication of how important Osborne was

to the king, particularly this area here

which he and his siblings remembered

throughout their lives as they were adults with great affection.

Queen Victoria's coffin was mounted on a horse-drawn gun carriage

to make the journey to East Cowes, where it was placed on board

the Royal Yacht Alberta.

Today, Cowes is a yachting centre,

well-known for its annual summer regatta,

the largest of many such events that take place here

throughout the summer.

Look at that big class two over there.

Bradshaw's comments that the annual Cowes Week Regatta,

a seven day festival of sailing in the presence of royalty,

attracts a great crowd of fashionable visitors.

Nowadays, it's still the largest event of its kind

anywhere in the world.

Kate Johnson is on the executive team.

I imagine organising Cowes Week is a bit of a nightmare, isn't it?

Well, I wouldn't say it's a nightmare but it's a bit of a feat,

a feat of organisation - a very enjoyable one.

We have between 800 and 1,000 boats racing.

That gives us about 8,000 crew members

and normally around 100,000 spectators

who come to watch the week.

-Crews coming from how many countries?

-From about 15.

Most of our entries are UK.

The second highest after that is Netherlands.

We have quite a lot of boats from the Netherlands,

but they come from as far afield as the US, Australia, Hong Kong,

all over the place. So it does have a real international flavour.

These waters are quite crowded.

There are ferry boats and all sorts of things all over the place.

-Is that a complication?

-It makes it fun and quite a challenge.

And in a way, that's sort of what makes the Solent so special.

It's a very protected stretch of water because of the Isle of Wight,

with fantastic tidal conditions and a lot of shopping.

I mean, we're on a major shipping channel.

So there's quite a lot for the boats to think about when they're racing.

The Royal Yacht Squadron is an exclusive private sailing club

with long-standing royal connections.

I'm meeting Commodore David Hughes.

-David, a brilliant setting.

-It's wonderful, isn't it?

But what was the origin of the Royal Yacht Squadron?

There was a group of gentlemen who met in a tavern in London

in 1815 on 1st June

and they decided to form a thing called the Yacht Club.

And then later when William IV was on the throne,

he decreed it should be called the Royal Yacht Squadron.

-Now, Bertie, who became King Edward VII...

-Yes?

-..was he interested in yachting from an early age?

-Yes, he was,

right from the very beginning. And he built a succession of yachts.

The most famous of them all, of course, was the Britannia,

which was built in 1893 and she was a real trendsetter,

different to anything else

and she was a really, really successful yacht.

Cowes Week began in 1826 as a single race for seven yachts.

And the social side of Cowes was important to King Edward VII.

It was. You might say that his period as King Edward VII

was the pinnacle of Cowes Week as a social scene,

and people came in their droves to spectate

and do celebrity spotting.

With the death of Queen Victoria began the Edwardian era -

looser and loucher.

A spate of theatre building brought troupes of dancers

and thespians to every major town.

Our racy king gave his royal seal of approval to motoring

and showed the cut of his jib at Cowes.

His visits to the Isle of Wight brought back happy memories

of childhood family holidays.

Whenever I'm there, for me, it's the same.

Next time...

At alert.

..I promise to do my best with the Scouts...

Once a Scout, always a Scout.

..find war horses in the Hampshire wilderness...

Do you like to be brushed? Look at that.

A beautiful sheen to this coat.

..and experience the charms of a British institution

born in the Edwardian era.

-Do you always dress to match your beach hut?

-Yes.