The Lake District The Hairy Bikers' Pubs That Built Britain

Pubs have been at the heart of Britain for hundreds of years.

Cheers, mucka!

-In city taverns...

-and village inns.

Landlords have pulled pints for locals, travellers and well,

the odd king or two.

Myself included. Try and have a drink now.

But with 30 pubs closing every week, our historic taverns need defending.

Left, left.

We're heading out to discover amazing stories linked to the nation's watering holes.

-Not far to go.

-How far?

-Couple of miles.

-What?!

From the Wars of the Roses...

..to shipbuilding on the Clyde.

-We've ditched our bikes so we can sample an ale or two.

-Get in!

This is very good.

So join us for... BOTH: The Hairy Bikers' Pubs That Built Britain.

Today we're in the Lake District, the place where I was born and bred.

But it's not all about you, mucka, oh, no, we're hitting the early

tourist trail, in search of poets and adventurers.

And the fantastic pubs that fed and watered them. Brilliant!

David Myers, the Lake District,

885 square miles of the most spectacular scenery.

I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vale and hills.

Yes. The scenery that fired the imagination of the great

poets Wordsworth and Coleridge.

When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of dancing daffodils.

And there they would be, returning from a day

swooning on the fells, down to the local boozer.

Come on, mate, let's go.

We're starting our own Grand Lakes Tour in the late 1700s,

a time of big change in Britain, thanks to the Industrial Revolution.

City life was grim, packed full of people and poverty,

but for those rich enough to escape, a tour of Europe was all the rage.

The rage that is until unrest, revolution

and war had folks turning closer to home for their hols.

The Lakes were a perfect substitute.

A sort of mini Alps without the hassle of leaving your home

shores and the market town of Keswick was the holiday hot spot.

Keswick was a magnet for tourists 200 years ago and it hasn't changed.

No, no.

I'll tell you something else that hasn't changed, Dave,

is the tourists' love of fine food and a good hostelry.

It gets you in the holiday mood, you know.

The Royal Oak here was one of the oldest inns in town.

Since you're a tourist, I think I should take you in for a bit of a tipple.

-Go on, you've twisted my arm.

-Ey!

The Royal Oak has been around since the 1700s.

It started life as a locals' local

until the tourists descended around 1750.

We're meeting Jeff Cowton, curator with the Wordsworth Trust to find out more.

-Hello, Jeff.

-Good to see you.

-Hi, Jeff, I'm Si. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

So, Jeff, tell us about this place

and how it became an 18th-century tourist destination.

Well, it was a remarkable transformation.

If we were living in 1700,

the Lakes would have been a place perhaps to avoid.

No reason to come here at all.

By 1800, it had transformed into one of the most popular,

fashionable places to visit.

It was a change in people's taste, people had been to the Alps

and Italy, they'd seen the beauty of mountains.

So the improvement in the fashionability meant that

the inns themselves had to raise their game.

Armed with their guidebooks, the well-heeled descended on pubs like

The Royal Oak, travelling from inn to inn as they took in the sights.

It was like a bit of a posh pub crawl, eh, Si?

Jeff, do you have any of those books that would enlighten us

about the times and places here?

The first famous one, if you like, was by Thomas Gray,

who was the well-known poet.

You can see here that he came to Grasmere and says,

"Not a single red tile,

"no flaring gentlemen's house or garden wall breaks in

"upon the repose of this little unsuspected paradise."

So you move from 1700 where it was a desolate waste area to a paradise.

And singing the praises of this undiscovered paradise

were two of our greatest poets.

Wordsworth was born and brought up in the Lake District but he

took great pleasure in introducing Coleridge, who was from Devon.

They came on a walking tour in 1799.

The lads spent three weeks in the fells, hiking from inn to inn.

Later Wordsworth even wrote and published a guide book,

making the Lakes more popular than ever.

Do you think that Wordsworth and Coleridge would have come here,

to this very pub?

-Well, we know that they did.

-They did?!

-They did.

We know that there are a couple of mentions around about 1800.

-But it's nice to think, isn't it?

-It is.

-It is wonderful to think.

You might get some creative writing in the graffiti in the loos,

-you know, with those two.

-Aye, you might.

That's the thing about pubs, isn't it? It's like the living history.

It still here. It's still in the walls. It still...

All of those meetings.

But hey, Dave, man.

I reckon I could teach those Romantic poets a thing or two.

I met my wife in Keswick.

I met her on holiday and we decided to get together.

In Keswick in the Derwentwater caravan park.

-Oh.

-How romantic was that?

Oh, you old caravan park Casanova.

-Well, thank you so much, Jeff.

-Thank you, great talking with you.

-Oh, it was wonderful.

-Oh, absolutely.

-And showing us those books.

-What a lovely way to start, isn't it?

-It is, it is. I think we can have a drink now.

-Do you?

-I'll move the books while you do.

-Yes.

-Good idea. Certainly.

-That's a good idea, Jeff.

-Can we get you one in, Jeff?

I would love one.

So, 18th-century Keswick was heaving with well-heeled tourists

and inns competing for their custom.

And to show us just how well The Royal Oak Tree

did their discerning guests,

we're meeting Sue Mackay, a curator of Keswick Museum.

-Sue!

-Ah, hello.

-Hello, very nice to meet you.

-Hello. Hi. Nice to meet you.

-I'm

-Si. Nice to meet you.

-Hello.

I gather you've got some fascinating evidence as to what the

landlord used to provide for the customers in the very early days.

We have. We found this fantastic bill here from 1796.

From The Royal Oak in Keswick.

-Here.

-Right here.

And it lists all of the services that were available

to the tourists of the time.

Oh, what a fascinating look into history. Wow.

Really nice. Unfortunately, it doesn't say much about food.

It says eating,

but it does list all of the drinks that were available.

-Very important, as I'm sure you'll agree.

-Yeah, yeah.

I'm just having a closer look at that. That's an interesting one,

servants eating and ale.

So, that would be for very posh people travelling with servants

and all that sort, I presume.

Yes, people who came on a grand tour of the Lake District

were the better-off people.

And also seven pence you see on wine and negus.

Have you ever tried negus?

I've read about it in an old book.

I don't know what it is, though.

-It's a type of mulled wine.

-Right.

An early mulled wine and it was invented apparently

by Colonel Francis Negus

and would have suited the early tourists very well.

A very warming drink to come back to after you've been

stuck in your carriage down Borrowdale in a ditch for...

Down Borrowdale, yes.

Do you have a few pints then, or...?

-Well, we can make it in whatever quantities you like.

-Well, I...

-Shall we have a go?

-Yeah, could we? That'll be fabulous.

-Oh, yes, yeah.

If you want to give this a go you need half a pint of port,

a pint of hot water, nutmeg, lemon and sugar.

I never thought I'd be rubbing a sugar cube and a lemon together.

-You'll never get a tune out of that.

-I'll not...

THEY LAUGH

And lemon juice going in there.

Next, some nutmeg.

We had lots of nutmeg here, didn't we?

Because the spice ports - Maryport, Whitehaven,

-we had the lot. And rum and ginger.

-Yes.

-Grasmere gingerbread.

-Yes, beautiful.

-All from round here.

Cumberland sausages are peppery, aren't they? Because we had pepper.

-You see? You didn't want for anything, like, did you?

-Na. No.

You didn't. Other than the odd road.

And then finally, watering it down, I'm afraid.

-What a shame.

-I know.

Cor, This would bring you back to life after a day on the fells.

It would. It would. Warming, soothing.

That's exactly the idea, I think.

-And cheers, everybody.

-Cheers, Sue, Cheers.

Oh, it's lovely, isn't it?

-Mm, warming.

-Mm.

-Very nice.

-Bittersweet.

-You know what?

It's like liquid Cumberland sauce.

It is, isn't it?

-It's great, that.

-Aye.

-Mm.

Tell you what, it's not so grim up North, is it?

It definitely is not.

Well, Kingy, do you feel suitably fortified to face the fells,

to brace the Lakes and go for a bit of a ramble?

-I do. Should we?

-We shall.

Sue?

I might just stay at the bar, I think.

That's a wise choice, you know.

But I'm looking forward to this beautiful countryside.

-It's been an absolute pleasure to meet you, thank you, Sue.

-And you.

Thanks, Sue. Bye-bye.

'Well, that's warmed the cockles, Si,'

and it's reminded me of a great piece of pub trivia.

Did you know that the drink port is named after the Portuguese

city of Oporto, from where that particular beverage is shipped?

I did. Cos we filmed there, you great plum.

-Ah, but did you know that at formal dinner parties...

-Yeah.

..that the port is always passed left to left, port to port?

Oh.

And if you're after more fascinating facts,

look no further than the nation's pub signs.

Behind every sign there's a story.

And here are some Cumbrian classics.

The Woolpack Inn in Eskdale,

sits on a drovers' route that once carried wool from hill to mill.

Some of that wool was used to fill the

Speaker's Woolsack in the House Of Lords.

Get stuffed.

The Mortal Man at Troutbeck seemingly marks the final

resting spot of a drunken giant who popped his clogs on top of the fell

and rolled right down to the pub.

Do you think he made last orders?

A legend says the landlady of The Drunken Duck

mistakenly plucked her ducks thinking they'd died.

Turned out they had a sneaky beak-full of the broken beer barrel

and they were half cut.

Once revived, she knitted them jackets

till their feathers grew back.

Oh, that's just quackers.

Back on our grand tour,

we're leaving the comforts of Keswick behind.

To find out what those 18th-century tourists

got up to in the great outdoors.

Right, mate.

-Time for a bit of sightseeing.

-Oh, yes. But let's do it Georgian style.

-Yes.

-Cos tourists then, they came here for the beauty.

And of course the Romantic poets came for the adventure.

What are you up for?

Well, it's beauty for a beauty.

SIMON GIGGLES

And we're off to find it in the remote western valley of Wasdale.

While Si's looking for thrills up a hill,

I'm staying at ground level to meet Professor Sally Bushell,

who's going to put me in the picture

on some of the more genteel Georgian pursuits.

-Hello, Sally. I'm Dave.

-Oh, hi, Dave. Great to meet you.

Oh, look at this. Wast Water.

It has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

But why have you brought me here on such a Balticly cold day?

I'm sorry about that, but what we're going to do today is to try

and think about the landscape not just through 21st-century eyes...

-Yes.

-But going back in time,

thinking about it through the 18th century.

It all starts, really, with what we would call the Picturesque movement.

-And Picturesque tourism.

-Right.

And actually in the late 18th century,

that's the start of modern tourism as we would understand it today.

Picturesque tourists were into bagging as many beauty spots

as they could and even made their own snapshots.

So, would a tourist kind of ship up to one of these beautiful places

and do a drawing or a painting?

You know, much as a tourist would today take loads and loads

of snapshots to show their friends?

They would. And what happens in the 18th century,

-once the picturesque becomes really popular...

-Yes.

And people go in their carriages, pop out, see the view,

paint the view, off they go to the next spot.

-And I suppose stop at the odd inn along the way.

-I'm sure.

Which would be great for business round here.

Cos there wasn't much else.

I suppose the thing is, you can wax lyrical as much as you like,

but unless you could produce a picture...

Well, you'd be all mouth and no britches, wouldn't you?

Crikey, I've landed myself in it now.

Let's hope my old art-school training kicks in.

Now, in the 18th century,

all you would have with you in your back pocket is a Claude glass.

-Right.

-Claude glass would be a small, round, pocket mirror, really.

-Yes.

-With a tinted face and convex.

-Right.

And what it would do, it would reflect the landscape,

-but also reduce it, miniaturise it.

-Oh!

So, it's actually a really useful piece of kit.

Unfortunately, we don't have a real Claude glass today that we can use,

but we've got the next best thing.

A 21st-century equivalent.

And you use it to get your view of the scene.

-Right.

-Are you good to go?

-I think so.

It's hard this.

Do you know? It's hard drawing something

when I think I should be looking at it.

-Thing is, Sally.

-Mm.

-When I was at art school...

-Mm.

..I spent more time cooking curry than I did doing drawing, really.

-Oh, I don't know.

-Oh, quietly impressed, I must say.

-Nice.

-I'm feeling quite Romantic.

Glad to hear it.

To see the world in a grain of sand And heaven in the wild flower,

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity within the hour.

William Blake?

Lines from Auguries Of Innocence. Am I getting there?

-Getting there.

-Smashing.

HE WHISTLES

Oh, this landscape really is magnificent.

And I know it really well.

You know, I live just down the road.

Doing this today has made me look at things a little bit more intently.

And, you know, maybe I'm not taking it for granted as much.

And I've got a picture to take home at the end of the day.

Do you want to have a look?

Well, mate, that's lovely.

But while you're getting all arty,

I've gone all rugged with Professor Simon Bainbridge.

It turns out the poet Coleridge was quite the adventurer.

It's remarkable, you can kind of see why Coleridge

and the Romantics came here.

-Because it's awe-inspiring, isn't it?

-Well, absolutely.

I mean, Wordsworth and Coleridge came here in 1799

and then Coleridge came here again in 1802.

They were quite unusual in doing that, really.

The Picturesque tour which was earlier

-was more interested in sort of genteeler pursuits.

-Sure.

In less rugged, less wild landscapes.

But Coleridge, particularly, was a very adventurous walker

and when he came here in 1802, he made the first known

ascent of Scafell by someone who wasn't from the local district.

For nine days,

Coleridge explored some of the lakes most dramatic landscapes.

Armed with just a cravat, a spare shirt and a couple of quills.

Radge as a maggot, as they say around these parts.

So, Coleridge is very aware that it's a potentially fatal place

-that he's exploring.

-But that all...

That's the romance of it, though, isn't it?

And that's the kind of edginess of Coleridge's work sometimes.

That's very much part of the attraction

and the excitement for him.

He really embraces risk and risk gives him a thrill.

Did he get into any scrapes, then?

Well, he does.

I mean, most famously, on a rock climb called Broad Stand,

-which is on Scafell.

-Yeah.

Coleridge, the daft beggar, got himself stuck up on a crag.

An ordeal he later wrote about.

He talked about the effect this was having on his... On his body.

He says, "The stretching of the muscle of my hands and arms

"and the jolt of the fall of my feet put my whole limbs in a tremble.

"The ledge at the bottom was so exceedingly narrow that

"if I dropped down upon it, I must of necessity

"have fallen backwards and of course killed myself."

Luckily, Coleridge spotted a gap in the rock and made his escape.

That little slit in the rock now is known as Fat Man's Agony.

Because it's so narrow and such a squeeze.

So, we get a sense of Coleridge's physique, then?

Yeah, well, he's fit and active enough to get through that, yes.

-Well, that... That...

-Without getting stuck.

I think I need the helicopter. THEY LAUGH

Later, the great poet wrote to a friend using the word

mountaineering" for the first time in recorded history.

Who'd have thunk it?

A poet inventing an extreme sport.

-Yeah.

-You know, while we've been doing this,

I've had a little go at writing some mock Coleridge.

It's a little poem, just a few lines.

-Will you bear to listen to this?

-I absolutely, definitely could.

-Do you want to hear my little poem?

-I do.

"Most awesome powers of nature..."

I'm doing my poetry-reading voice here, Si.

"Trembling beneath your lofty crags,

"I stand and mark the route that bold Coleridge trod,

"Followed o'er two centuries by brave hikers,

"Like Si King, one of The Hairy Bikers."

Oh-ho. That's sheer flipping genius.

Thank you very much.

I tell you what though, do you think Coleridge liked a pint?

Oh, he certainly did. We know from his notebooks that most evenings

he would have a pint of ale.

Where's the nearest one?

Just down in the valley.

The Wasdale Head Inn.

-Very famous.

-12 miles.

Well, we better get walking then, hadn't we? Yeah, yeah.

-12 miles that way.

-Yeah, OK.

That's the great thing about the Lakes.

You can find inspiration everywhere.

At the top of a fell,

or at the bottom of a good old pint glass of Cumbrian ale.

Perfect time to meet a local who loves his local.

The Old Dungeon Ghyll sits at the head

of the gorgeous valley of Langdale, deep in the heart of the lakes.

Like Coleridge, rock climber Bill Birkett

loves his mountains as much as he loves his local.

And his local's loved by climbers from far and wide.

Well, this is the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel at the head of Langdale.

And there's like 130 years of climbing history from this pub

and now it's extremely popular with modern climbers.

It's a great meeting place, really.

You know, one of my passions, apart from climbing,

has always been photography.

But these are some of my photographs here.

This is Dave Birkett on the first ascent of a route

called Nowt But A Fleein' Thing.

First time anybody's ever been on that piece of rock before.

For climbers, it's important to come in off the hill.

You're dripping wet, you're covered in mud.

And you don't want to feel like you're ruining carpets,

but in this place you just walk in, there's always a fire roaring.

And it's always welcoming, you know.

It feels more like going home than going to a pub.

It's that kind of place.

But 150 years ago the only drink you'd get your mitts on here

was a pint of milk.

This is, you know, where the cows came in

and they milked the cows and all the rest of it.

And it's not really changed, you know,

this pub has not been modernised and beatified,

it's just as it always has been.

150 years ago, here you are, this is it,

and I hope it never does change.

It's so... You know, it's great.

DOG BARKS

Hey, come on.

Well, Dave, it's almost last orders.

Yeah, and we finish our tour in Wasdale Head

at one very pioneering pub.

Coleridge might have introduced the Georgians to rugged rambling

but the Victorians were even more extreme adventures.

Here we are, mate. There's a pub for you, the Wasdale Head Inn.

Oh! And on the doorstep, England's highest peak, Scafell Pike.

And England's deepest lake, Wastwater.

I'll you what, man, I bet you there's been some tall

and adventurous tales told in there.

-Can't wait.

-It's going to be brill.

The Wasdale Head Inn is another pub that started life as a farm until

its enterprising owner, Will Ritson, turned it into a pub in the 1850s.

Oh, wow.

Climber and local historian David Powell-Thompson,

and possibly our long-lost hairy brother, is going to tell us

about this pub's links to an intrepid pastime.

The pub and the area is absolutely entrenched in British rock climbing,

-isn't it?

-It is.

-I mean, this is it, this is the...

-This is the home of British rock climbing.

-Wow.

It is, it all started here

and it all started here with these gentlemen.

From the 1880s,

the inn was packed with pioneering climbers like

Walter Parry Haskett Smith and Owen Glynne Jones,

seen here doing some pretty daring stuff up on the nearby crags.

-That's the first real rock climb that was recorded.

-Is that...?

-Yes!

-That's Napes Needle. I've been up that twice in my life.

-Have you?

-Yeah.

When these chaps weren't scaling cliff faces,

the were back at the pub scaling the walls.

The doorway is still there,

it's all part of some accommodation nowadays,

but they used to practise by trying to climb over the doorway.

Look at that! He's climbing up the side of the building.

Do you think that must have been half-cut?

And of course, this gives you some idea of the number of people

who actually stayed here and went rock climbing.

They didn't have a drying room -

this is just the porch as you come in through the front door.

-It hasn't changed much.

-The hobnails in the boots.

-Yeah.

-You've got to bet that stunk.

-Especially when they're drying out.

Yeah.

In 1907, the pub hosted the first meeting of the famous

Fell And Rock Climbing Club.

And its members are still supping ales

and swapping tales in the pub today.

The wonderful thing as well is the role that the pub,

or the inn, would have in those days.

You need somewhere to sleep, somewhere for refreshment.

But I know when you've been on a hike,

there's nothing quite like coming into a warm, cosy environment.

You can drink beer, you feel you've earned it.

And the food as well, eat the food cos again you feel you've earned it.

It's part and parcel the same thrill.

And then the other element that you've not alluded to

is the welcome you get.

-Because Will Ritson was quite a character.

-Right.

He was a wrestler,

he was a huntsman, he was a farmer

and he was a teller of stories.

Oh, now Dave's got us a bit intrigued.

We've collared general manager Georgina to tell us more.

-Hello, Georgie.

-Hello, nice to see you.

We know your pub is really famous for its location

and its climbing but it's famous for another thing, isn't it?

It is. The original landlord, Will Ritson, who was the self-proclaimed

King of Wasdale, was famous for his legendary tall tales.

-Was he?

-He was.

-Go on, tell us one.

Probably one of the most famous ones was his father used to grow

turnips that were apparently big enough that once the Dalesfolk

had quarried into them for their Sunday dinner,

they were then used as sheds to keep

the Herdwick sheep in from the fells.

-He clearly had a fertile imagination, then.

-He did.

So, what's this poster all about here?

Basically, Ritson's legend lives on.

-Annually, a world's biggest liar competition is held.

-Right.

How about we challenge you two to a world's biggest liar competition,

and then we can get the locals to vote for the winner?

No, I couldn't do that, Georgie, because my mother brought me up

never to lie.

-I'm sure you can try.

-I might be lying, though.

-I'll take you on, Myers.

-I'll take YOU on.

-Yeah, yeah, well.

-Right.

Let's see who can do the best pork pie.

First up, yours truly, and I'm feeling pretty confident.

Remember, lads, keep it short, keep it sweet. Eye contact.

I think I'll tell them about the time I fixed my dad's dentures

with a fragment from a satellite.

Anyway, I went out to the sands and I came back with a piece

of the Sputnik which I gave to my father

and he made a new set of false teeth because he was determined,

from that day on, his false teeth would never shatter.

The only thing is, when he was cremated,

they couldn't burn his teeth

because those teeth had survived re-entry to the earth's atmosphere.

The crematorium wasn't going to destroy them

and I've still got those teeth to this day.

-That's remarkable!

-It's perfectly true.

Flipping heck. Right.

Now go on, it's your turn.

Well, I'm going take you back to 1802, you see.

Well, as for my lie, I think you'll find a dinosaur fossil

helped thrashed Napoleon, you know.

William Wordsworth and Coleridge

were instrumental in defeating Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars

due to this piece of fossil found in the foothills here.

-What was the fossil? Was it a bomb?

-No, it wasn't.

It was the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Like that would scare Napoleon.

Well, yeah, but what happened was, you see,

they have this huge ceremony and then what happened is

the energy from that ceremony defeated Napoleon.

-Oh, and there was me thinking it was the Duke of Wellington.

-Yeah.

No, well, you see, it wasn't.

OK, ladies and gentlemen, you've all heard the lies.

-We're now going to take a vote.

-Uh-oh.

So, for those of you that would like to vote for Dave Myers,

please raise your hands.

OK.

And for those of you that would like to vote for Si King,

please raise your hands.

It's a local fix. That's all I'm saying.

You West Coasters stick together, don't you?

Thank you so much, we've had a wonderful day.

And thank you for introducing us to the world of lakes,

mountains, lying and good beer. Cheers!

Good health, thanks very much. Lovely to see you all. Cheers.

From summit to snug,

fellside to fireside.

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-Mm.

-Warming.

-Mmm.

It's been a pleasure showing you around my home patch, Kingy.

I'm feeling quite romantic.

I'll tell you what, mate, all this flipping walking and fibbing,

it's thirsty work, isn't it?

Oh, aye, we've earned this.

Here, Si, I've got a pub quiz question for you.

Go on, mate, go on.

Which body of water in Britain contains more than

the contents of all the lakes in England and Wales combined?

Ooh...

Erm... Go on, put us out my misery.

-Loch Ness in Scotland.

-Oh!

It contains a whopping 7.4 cubic kilometres of water.

-You know why that is, don't you?

-Go on.

Because it rains a lot.

-Hey!

-Aye.

-Cheers!

-Cheers.