Harbouring History Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury


Harbouring History

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Britain is a country that owes a great deal to its rail empire.

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For 100 years, the railways dominated the development of this country,

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the network that supported a global superpower.

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But today, our island is home to 10,000 miles of disused lines...

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..a silent network of embankments, platforms and viaducts.

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For me, and many others,

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they've become a perfect platform for exploring the country on foot.

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Welcome to a sublimely sunny south coast of England!

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Now, Weymouth is arguably England's original seaside resort.

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It's where King George III used to take his summer breaks,

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sparking a national obsession with the seaside holiday that's continued for over 200 years.

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60 years after George III came here, so did the railway.

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A line was created from Weymouth to a unique feature on the British coastline.

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Today, I am hoping to find out why a tiny outcrop like the Isle of Portland

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ever deserved its own railway,

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and why Weymouth is more than just tourists.

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Since 1857, people had been able

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to reach Weymouth by train from London...

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..but my route today first took shape in 1865,

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when an extension line was built south from the town

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across the causeway to Portland.

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In 1902, the route was extended again,

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by a quite separate rail company,

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around the eastern cliffs of Portland to the village of Easton.

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But as with so many branch lines,

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the whole route fell victim to Dr Beeching's axe,

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and Portland once more became a railway-free zone.

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This is where the track running out of Weymouth Station used to be...

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this car park!

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The route will get more interesting, I promise!

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But before I really get underway,

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let's take an aerial look at the route I'll be taking.

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From Weymouth Station, my walk heads south,

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taking me through my first truly urban section of railway walk.

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The Weymouth & Portland Railway cuts a clear path on an embankment

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as it passes through backstreets and terraced housing

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on its way to meet Portland Harbour.

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Then there's a good 2.5 miles of coastal views

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as the railway path hugs the harbour.

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I'll take a direct route along the end of Chesil Beach,

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the famous shingle bank that permanently connects

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the Isle of Portland with the mainland.

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This is where the Easton & Church Hope Railway once took over,

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building a line around the eastern fringes of Portland,

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through what would become Portland's naval base.

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The old track made use of the flat coastal plateau

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that overlooks the sea and Dorset's Jurassic coastline.

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I'll follow the railway almost to its conclusion...

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..before stepping off down to Portland's one and only beach at Church Ope Cove.

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'Back in the centre of Weymouth though,

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'the solitude of a Portland cove seems a lot more than seven miles away!

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'But it's only a matter of yards before you reach what is now the Rodwell Trail,

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'a favourite rat-run for Weymouth walkers and cyclists,

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'but, of course, once the track bed of the Portland Branch line.'

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So, no sooner am I on the Rodwell Trail trail,

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I'm at my first station! As you can see, that was Westham Halt,

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and Weymouth Station is just a few hundred yards that way.

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But it is just the beginning!

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'The trail sticks strictly to the path of the old railway line.

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'It really is an ideal way to get across town and escape the cars,

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'except where a dismantled bridge forces you back amongst the traffic.'

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Before I get any further, I want to meet up with the man who recommended this railway walk to me.

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In fact, if you give him half a chance, he'd recommend a railway walk in every corner of the country!

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'Jeff Vinter is a south coast man himself,

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'but, more importantly, he's a leading light of a nationwide group called Railway Ramblers.

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'No prizes for guessing what their main interest is!

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'But he has suggested we meet by a rather curious railway landmark.'

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During the Second World War,

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there was a great big naval base down at Portland,

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a natural target for the German aircraft.

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This is one of the gun emplacements put in to protect the whole area.

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It was very much, during the black days of the Blitz, very much on the front line here.

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When you look at the map, Jeff, of this route, it's like a spider's web of railways.

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Especially when you get up on to the top of Portland.

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The line that we are standing on here, and, indeed,

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all the lines on Portland were motivated by the local industry.

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That means Portland stone.

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The passengers were very much an afterthought.

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The important thing was to get the Portland stone out.

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The most awkward thing is that when you get to the Fortuneswell,

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there's been a bit of redevelopment of the railways,

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so you need to then step off on to some of the old tramways.

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When you get up there, there are some wonderful views.

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It leads you on to the Portland Plateau,

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which is just riddled with old tramways, all to do with the stonework.

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They are all over the place.

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-So, a bit of hard work and a good view!

-You're telling, me! Yes!

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And you would come to Weymouth as a family, wouldn't you?

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Oh, yes. When I was little, all of our holidays were taken by train.

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I can remember many of the lines here when they were still going.

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You remember Beeching well!

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I remember Beeching very well. I couldn't believe that so many lines were being closed.

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The closures shut down a lot of places that we could go to.

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In later years, my interest in these old railways has led me to discover all sorts of interesting places,

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well off the beaten track, that I might never have otherwise have found.

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Jeff, all of this is good news for me, so I'm going to get on my way.

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-I hope you enjoy your walk!

-I will! I'll be thinking of you.

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'So, it's already clear that Weymouth isn't just a celebrated seaside resort,

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'there's a military and an industrial background.

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'And, as usual, the railway was there to play a part in both.

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'The embankment that provides so many views across the city

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'soon gives way to a cutting and a tunnel

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'just in time for the next halt on the line at Rodwell.'

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This station is beautifully secluded.

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You wouldn't know that the suburbs of Weymouth were all around you.

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But one thing is for certain, this station was definitely for passengers only.

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No freight access around here.

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'The long platforms, however,

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'are testament to the amount of passengers that would have piled on and off here every day,

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'all heading to factories around Weymouth and Portland.

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'And, in its day, Rodwell was considered one of the prettiest stations in the country.

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'The stations come thick and fast in this section of my walk.

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'When the line first opened, it ran without stopping right to the northern tip of Portland.

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'But as industry and workforces grew, more and more passenger stops were added.'

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This station was actually the last to open on the line in 1932,

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which has only 33 years before the whole line closed for good.

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Here is a clue in the undergrowth. Look, if you have a rummage,

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that was the platform.

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'Sandsfoot was a very simple structure...

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'a single platform made entirely of wood.

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'Its job was to serve the dense estates that grew up in this southern section of Weymouth.

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'And at this point, there can't be many casual walkers

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'who don't take a very short diversion.

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'This is where the old railway line catches up with the coastline,

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'which means visitors like me get their first sweeping view right across Portland Harbour.'

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That is a tidy little view!

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'With protection from the mainland, Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland,

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'this harbour is a vast natural bay and an ideal anchorage point.

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'No surprise then that Henry VIII chose to build two of his famous coastal defences here,

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'one across the bay at Portland and one right here - Sandsfoot Castle.

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'But since then, in fact, whilst the railway was being built,

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'the Victorians were busy taking things one stage further.

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'A series of stone breakwaters now protects the bay,

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'creating one of the world's largest man-made harbours.

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'And this seems an appropriate place to meet a man with a real depth of knowledge about Portland Harbour.'

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'David Carter is a lifelong diver who's explored sites and wrecks in the local waters.'

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Am I right in saying, David,

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that we're lucky to be walking on this trail?

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-They nearly turned it into a road?

-That's right.

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It was due to the pressure of the West Weymouth Conservation Society

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that it was turned into a cycle walkway.

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So it's preserved it as a nice green lung going through the town,

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with outstanding views right down at the end here.

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Now, Julia, we are going to take a detour off from the trail

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up on to the embankment so we get a better view of the harbour.

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And this is what it's all about!

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To see this magnificent harbour on a perfectly still day!

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Right, where shall I look first?

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Start to the right and pan across Chesil Beach.

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Then the remnants of the Navy buildings, the old accommodation blocks.

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Which are not that attractive, to be honest.

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Not attractive, but they're being converted into executive flats.

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Des-res!

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You should try and imagine what this was like in 1944,

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when preparations for the invasion of France in the Second World War...

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This was just full of servicemen ready to go.

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Americans and Canadians, and there was a host of boats and an enormous number of these floating harbours,

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which are the two we see over there, the Phoenix casings,

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which are part of temporary harbours,

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which were to be towed across to support the troops once they got there.

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'But there's one harbour landmark that is particularly close to David's heart.

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'But, in truth, it isn't actually a landmark at all.

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'Beneath the waves that crash into the harbour's breakwater lies the wreck of HMS Hood,

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'a battleship that was deliberately sunk in 1914 to blockade the harbour's south entrance.

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'This is where the Hood still rests to this day,

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'protecting Weymouth and Portland from U-boats and torpedo attacks from the Channel.

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'For David and his fellow divers, it's arguably the harbour's leading attraction.'

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Well, in those days, you could go and it was the complete battleship.

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You just swam down the outside and you could go and look through the portholes to look inside.

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Fascinating!

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But, sadly now, time has taken its toll and it has started to collapse.

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It's now considered too dangerous to be able to dive on.

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The dreaded Health and Safety!

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But there are still lots of other nice dive sites here.

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There are submarines, old East Indiamen, 18th-century barges.

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So we don't do good tropical fish in this country when it comes to diving,

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-but we do good wrecks, don't we?

-We do good wrecks, indeed!

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If you pass on by, finally, you get round to Sandsfoot Castle again,

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-which is where we started our walk.

-Yeah.

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-Very nice, too. What a good good little arc that is!

-Beautiful!

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'When you think about places of key naval significance on the south coast,

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'it always seems to be Portsmouth and Plymouth that spring to mind,

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'but Portland has been of strategic and technological significance for centuries.

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'The presence of the anti-aircraft gun at the beginning of my walk

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'suddenly now seems particularly appropriate.'

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This is actually the home of the torpedo.

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This is where Robert Whitehead made his factory in 1891.

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He was the inventor of the torpedo.

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'A century ago, this modern housing estate was one of the key industrial sites along the railway line

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'and one which had an impact around the world.

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'Lancastrian engineer Robert Whitehead was the pioneer of explosives

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'that could be detonated both remotely and underwater.

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'His factory took over eight acres and had its own pier

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'stretching out into the harbour, where testing took place.'

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-OK, we need to go just round to the left here to see the very last...

-To see the bollard!

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No, not the bollard, but the last remaining piece of the torpedo factory. This is the stone.

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So, Mr Whitehead was responsible for the deadly torpedo.

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Whilst it was a very great engineering achievement,

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nevertheless, it left a very sad sort of legacy,

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of millions of tons of shipping that was sunk by torpedoes

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and a terrible loss of life.

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It is such a historic part of the town.

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This actually is called Whitehead Drive,

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so his name is recorded for posterity.

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'Whitehead's torpedo factory lies at the end of the Rodwell Trail,

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'right on the southern tip of the Dorset mainland.

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'From here I step onto that section of the walk

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'that will always be the highlight for aspiring geography teachers.'

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The railway ran along a narrow spit of land,

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slowly formed as more and more silt, mud and shingle were deposited here by the currents,

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eventually connecting the Isle of Portland with the mainland.

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In the background is Chesil Beach,

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stretching out with its salty lagoon, known as the Fleet.

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This was where Barnes Wallis' revolutionary bouncing bomb was tested during World War II.

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A strange contrast to the Fleet's protected status now as a unique habitat for wading birds.

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But at the Portland end of the beach

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is one of the most vibrant spots anywhere on the south coast.

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40 years after the railway tracks were ripped up,

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this area is now filled with the National Sailing Academy,

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host of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

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It's soon to be adjoined by a brand spanking new marina,

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and is overlooked by the redeveloped naval apartments.

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Now, as Jeff predicted, the walk become slightly more complicated here...not too tricky, though.

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The old railway track follows the east coast of Portland.

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We can't go that way because it is private land at the old Royal Naval base.

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So, what we're going to do is follow this old tramway track

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and go up Merchant's Incline and make our way on to Portland proper that way.

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And there is a hill to climb! Whoo!

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'The climb up the tramway feels like the start of a new chapter.

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'The urban backstreets are gone, so, too, the vast history of the harbour.

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'Now it's all about this unusual tied island.'

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Local author Thomas Hardy once described Portland as the Gibraltar of Wessex.

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And on a hot day like today, well, I'll leave it to you to decide!

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In preparing for this walk,

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there was one person that everybody said I should talk to.

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He's a true son of Portland and a leading local historian.

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So he should definitely know a thing or two!

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-Hello, Stuart!

-Hello!

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-Nice to see you.

-Good to see you.

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I like that, a steep walk! It's good, isn't it?

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-Steep, isn't it?

-A bit of exercise, that's good!

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Because, you know, these railway walks are quite flat! Funny that!

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Not this one!

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Of course, from here we have a fantastic view of the route that I've followed.

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Yes, from here you can see the route of the 1865 railway from Weymouth,

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going along the back of Chesil Beach there,

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which originally terminated at Victoria Square.

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But the line we are on here pre-dates that by some margin.

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It was in 1826 that a group of merchants got together

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and decided to build a tramway to take the stone

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from the quarries on the top of the island,

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down to this area here, which is now Portland Harbour.

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Stone was very, very important to Portland, it was a massive industry.

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Stone was a major industry of Portland, and for the country.

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Portland stone is probably the most famous in the world.

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But the stone had to be got away from the islands.

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How did they manage that, from an engineering point of view?

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Well, the stone was brought to this point by horses.

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It was never a steam railway, it was always horse-drawn.

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Right down at the bottom, the empty trucks were hooked up.

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Then, of course, you had the system of the weighted trucks pulling the empty ones back up.

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We are talking about large slabs of stone, aren't we?

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Up to 10 tonnes, on these very crude, simple stone trucks.

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Imagine that hurtling down on a chain system.

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-It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

-No! The noise alone!

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-Shall we continue up the hill, Stuart? You can show more.

-Right.

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-Have we got another steep bit to go?

-There is a bit up there.

-Yes!

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It's a compact little town.

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Yes, I was born and brought up here, in this area.

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We haven't lived here all our lives, but nearly.

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It's a superb ready-made adventure playground for youngsters to grow up in.

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I can remember these very, very steep slopes.

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It is horrendous to think of it now,

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but we used to slide on cardboard down from the top, and end up in a blackberry bush!

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It was great fun. But to explore all the Victorian fortresses

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and the gun emplacements and things like this.

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-Yeah, as you say, a real playground!

-Yeah.

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'As we round the headland above the village of Fortuneswell,

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'it becomes clear just what a network of tramways

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'there were around the upper slopes of Portland.

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'But to get to quarries at the very top of the island, a second incline system had to be built.

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'This one that had to pass under existing roads and other tramways.

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'From my point of view, at least, it seems steeper than the first.

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'It's certainly been left surprisingly untouched,

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'with sections of the old stone track bed clearly visible in places.'

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Cannot help thinking about those horses.

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Well, fortunately, they didn't have to haul down or up this particular route

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because gravity did the work here. This was the incline operated by gravity.

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We made it to the top all right!

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We are now on the track bed of the old tramway

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which led from the top of that incline,

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or to the top of that incline, where the stone from this old quarry, here, would have been taken.

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As you can see, the landscape has been totally transformed by nature.

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It's reclaimed ground again.

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-The landscape is still evolving and changing, as you will see around the next corner.

-Ah.

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-This is what it's all about today, Stuart. Money.

-Very much so.

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Yes. This is an active quarry.

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This shows the scale of the industry which has been Portland's bread and butter for countless centuries.

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Going right back to Roman times.

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Of course, Portland stone has been used for very many famous buildings.

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St Paul's Cathedral, obviously, comes to mind.

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-Buckingham Palace...

-Buckingham Palace.

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The whole of Regent Street. Bank of England. You name it.

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It is the ideal building stone for the capital

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and anywhere that wants a prestigious sort of facade to their building.

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'The stone in this quarry, however, is destined for somewhere far more local.

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'It's being used to build the stone jetties of the new Olympic marina.

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'150 years ago, stone was used to build the breakwaters that kept foreign enemies at bay.

0:22:070:22:13

'Today, it will be catering for the foremost foreign sport stars.

0:22:130:22:18

'But of course, the Victorians were obsessed with national security.

0:22:210:22:25

'And the summit of Portland itself is given over to defence.

0:22:270:22:30

'The High Angle Battery is where shells would have been lobbed up and over

0:22:300:22:35

'onto the deck of any vessel that threatened the fleet moored inside the harbour.

0:22:350:22:39

'The crowning feature, though, is the great Verne Citadel,

0:22:410:22:47

'a structure so secure it now serves as a prison.'

0:22:470:22:51

It was built as a massive fortress.

0:22:530:22:56

It could have held up to 2,000 men in time of war.

0:22:560:22:59

They took the whole of the hilltop here and reshaped it.

0:22:590:23:03

A lot of what you can see, what you can't see, in fact, is underground, and underneath these embankments

0:23:030:23:09

are huge earth mouldings, which have reshaped this hilltop.

0:23:090:23:12

Who would have done the work, who would have carried it out?

0:23:120:23:15

It was essentially by convict labour.

0:23:150:23:18

The prisoners were brought here to dig the stone for the breakwater.

0:23:180:23:23

So, convicts did a lot of the hard work?

0:23:240:23:27

-Yes.

-And convicts, now, are within these walls.

0:23:270:23:29

That's an ironic thing, yes.

0:23:290:23:31

It wasn't built... The convicts were building it as a military fortress.

0:23:310:23:35

It's certainly keeping them in now!

0:23:350:23:37

They were on their way to Australia. But now, yes, it's keeping them in. Very effectively, too.

0:23:370:23:41

So, with all this quarrying, the guns, the citadel,

0:23:410:23:44

we've forgotten about the railway!

0:23:440:23:46

Well, let's head to the east cliffs. There's a lovely vantage point there

0:23:460:23:50

where you can see where the railway is.

0:23:500:23:52

'From the air, the scale of the Victorian citadel becomes clear.

0:23:520:23:56

'You can also see how it sits a good 400ft above the path of the old railway.

0:23:560:24:01

'The Easton & Church Hope wound its way around the northern tip of the island,

0:24:040:24:09

'eventually emerging for a straight run down the east side of Portland.'

0:24:090:24:14

A cracking view of the Jurassic coastline as well.

0:24:180:24:21

A magnificent panorama of Weymouth Bay,

0:24:210:24:25

and their view of the site of the 2012 Olympics sailing events.

0:24:250:24:30

Not many tourists know about this area.

0:24:300:24:33

It is a superb vantage point, as I say.

0:24:330:24:36

'So, it's time to rejoin the railway line.

0:24:370:24:40

'A walk which involves some rapid descent,

0:24:420:24:45

'and takes you past a local feature known as Nicodemus Knob,

0:24:450:24:49

'an artificial limestone stack that quarry workers left behind,

0:24:490:24:53

'proving just how much of Portland has been dug up and moved elsewhere.'

0:24:530:24:59

Finally, back on the railway track.

0:25:240:25:26

We can really see from here how Portland's cliffs have been

0:25:260:25:29

shoved back over the centuries by all the quarrying.

0:25:290:25:33

'For a walk that has been so utterly carved out by man,

0:25:340:25:37

'the east coast of Portland is a surprisingly beautiful place.

0:25:370:25:41

'You can only imagine the industry that must have been here when Christopher Wren

0:25:440:25:49

'came to choose the finest stone for St Paul's Cathedral.'

0:25:490:25:52

This used to be one of the most beautiful and dramatic parts of the railway.

0:25:590:26:03

There was a bridge that ran over the top.

0:26:030:26:06

About 40 years ago, a Portland stone company came along,

0:26:060:26:10

bought up this stretch of land and, essentially, filled it in

0:26:100:26:13

so they could get their lorries up and down.

0:26:130:26:15

All in the name of industry.

0:26:150:26:18

This is where I'm going to part company with the railway track and head this way, round to the cove.

0:26:180:26:23

'For a railway that was such a challenge to build and maintain,

0:26:260:26:30

'it seems sad that it lasted such a short period of time.

0:26:300:26:33

'Fully opened in 1902, the Portland section of my railway

0:26:330:26:37

'ceased carrying passengers just 50 years later,

0:26:370:26:40

'and was completely closed in 1965.

0:26:400:26:43

'So, while the Easton & Church Hope curved inland to its terminus at Easton,

0:26:470:26:52

'I thought I'd pay a visit to the Church Ope bit.

0:26:520:26:55

'A secluded bay, and one of the few places on Portland

0:26:550:26:59

'that has remained untouched by the continuous production of stone.'

0:26:590:27:03

Believe it or not, this is the only place on Portland

0:27:090:27:12

where walkers can actually get right down to the shoreline.

0:27:120:27:15

Gaggles of visitors used to flock here in their bathers

0:27:150:27:18

to take advantage of the island's one and only beach.

0:27:180:27:21

As you can see, it's hardly enormous,

0:27:210:27:24

but there are signs of life.

0:27:240:27:26

'These photos really show the cove put to good use.

0:27:300:27:34

'The folk of 1920s and '30s Britain seemed unfazed

0:27:340:27:38

'that they were just yards from quarries, naval ships and torpedoes.

0:27:380:27:42

'There was even a paddle-steamer that would haul itself onto the rocks and shingle,

0:27:430:27:49

'far enough for visitors to walk a short plank onto the beach.'

0:27:490:27:52

So, my walk has ended as it began,

0:27:580:28:00

at a spot favoured by holidaymakers.

0:28:000:28:02

Along the way all the flavours have been very different.

0:28:020:28:05

There's been military, industry, Portland stone.

0:28:050:28:08

All served by that railway line that was.

0:28:080:28:10

But with the Olympics on the way, and all the shiny new stuff that that entails,

0:28:100:28:14

you can imagine that the golden age of British tourism will return here very soon.

0:28:140:28:19

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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