:00:10. > :00:16.It's 171 miles from source to sea - from the Staffordshire moorlands to
:00:16. > :00:19.the Humber Estuary. As it meanders its way through the lowlands of the
:00:19. > :00:27.East Midlands, it's a border and a boundary - dividing north from
:00:27. > :00:31.south, county from county. For thousands of years, it has shaped
:00:31. > :00:41.the people and the places of this region. Discover the River Trent
:00:41. > :00:43.
:00:43. > :00:48.and you discover a remarkable chapter in our Great British Story.
:00:48. > :00:54.I have lived much of my life at sea. I have written books about nautical
:00:54. > :00:58.history and offshore navigation. But hey, this is Britain, the
:00:58. > :01:04.tentacles of the sea penetrate right to the heart of our nation.
:01:04. > :01:12.Today, I am tackling the navigable river Trent, and I am finding
:01:12. > :01:16.living history all around me. had seen so many things disappear
:01:16. > :01:22.in his lifetime, he knew this was going to go. Although it is a
:01:22. > :01:32.lovely river, it has done a lot of damage. Seeing as we do not have a
:01:32. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :01:49.museum to put the boat in, we are For miles and miles, the Trent is
:01:49. > :01:51.truly wild - a boundary to boats with waters too shallow. But from
:01:51. > :01:54.the village of Shardlow in Derbyshire until it reaches the
:01:54. > :02:02.Humber and spills into the North Sea, vessels can set sail and have
:02:02. > :02:04.done so for centuries. My journey is just shy of 100 miles along a
:02:04. > :02:12.watery highway that's formed and fashioned the villages and towns
:02:12. > :02:22.along its course. During my journey I'll be catching a lift on variety
:02:22. > :02:28.of vessels. I start on foot, walking through Shardlow, once an
:02:28. > :02:38.important inland port. Here, canal and river run side by side, and the
:02:38. > :02:40.
:02:40. > :02:47.start of the navigable Trent begins, and I catch my first lift. Are you
:02:47. > :02:53.Barry Argent? Yes. I am very pleased to meet you. The word is
:02:53. > :02:57.that your dad operated a boat like this on the canal. Oh, yes. Look,
:02:57. > :03:05.the navigable River Trent is just around the corner, so, any chance
:03:05. > :03:09.of having a ride down there? Yes, of course you can. Barry Argent has
:03:09. > :03:11.got boating in his blood. His mother was born on a boat. His
:03:11. > :03:16.parents discovered romance on this river and met and married while
:03:16. > :03:21.working the Trent. As a boat builder, Barry still has a strong
:03:21. > :03:31.connection to the waterway. I'm joining him on his boat Perch -
:03:31. > :03:33.
:03:33. > :03:40.like the fish - for my first leg, and a trip down memory lane. Here
:03:40. > :03:45.we are, this is for Trent, this is where the navigable bit starts.
:03:45. > :03:50.That's the Derwent, that's the Trent. That comes from Derbyshire,
:03:50. > :03:55.that comes from Staffordshire. is like summer holidays today, but
:03:55. > :03:59.I bet it was not always like this. Just banging up and down here all
:03:59. > :04:03.the time, carrying cargo, it must have been a tough life. When my mum
:04:03. > :04:11.and dad worked together, it was hard work, very hard work. They
:04:11. > :04:16.used to work 18 hours a day, that was typical. They might tie up
:04:16. > :04:20.Sunday dinner, have a bit of a treat. They would do 18 hours a day,
:04:20. > :04:27.six days a week, you know what I mean? They started the engine at 5
:04:27. > :04:30.o'clock in the morning, and it would be stopped by 10 o'clock at
:04:30. > :04:34.night. That was it. It was moving. While there were moving, they were
:04:34. > :04:42.making money. If they were stood still, they were not making
:04:42. > :04:47.anything. We're just about to go under the M1. It is like a spectral,
:04:47. > :04:52.horrible thing. Here we are in this natural, nice mode of transport,
:04:52. > :04:56.and up there, there are trucks thundering by. What did it do to
:04:57. > :05:01.the community, all of these nice people living together? Well, that
:05:01. > :05:07.was basically when it packed up, that was it. All the general
:05:07. > :05:17.purpose cargo, it stopped, it went on to the road. You cannot stop
:05:17. > :05:18.
:05:18. > :05:21.time, can you? No. It is not always a good thing. No. Barry's father
:05:21. > :05:27.was an amateur movie maker and his cine footage gives us an insight
:05:27. > :05:31.into what life was like on this working river. I will tell you
:05:31. > :05:38.something, your dad, from where I am the king, he is a remarkable
:05:38. > :05:44.character. Not only was he a skipper at the age of 16, and a
:05:44. > :05:49.remarkable man of the water, but he is also a film-maker. How come he
:05:49. > :05:52.was able to do this? I do not really know. I think he had seen so
:05:52. > :05:56.many things disappear in his lifetime, and he knew this was
:05:56. > :06:06.probably going to go, and so he thought, well, I might as well get
:06:06. > :06:10.
:06:10. > :06:13.it on film. It is just something to remember. I am dead chuffed that
:06:13. > :06:19.you have brought me back to this remarkable cinema. I will be able
:06:19. > :06:23.to tell my grandchildren about it. I have got to show off, because the
:06:23. > :06:27.lads are down at the lock, so I have got to go and hop on another
:06:27. > :06:31.ride. It has been an absolute privilege, mate. As we travel
:06:31. > :06:34.downstream, we reach Beeston, Nottinghamshire. It's here the
:06:35. > :06:40.river became tricky to navigate. Big boats would run aground and
:06:40. > :06:45.during hot, dry summers, the river became impassable. The Nottingham-
:06:45. > :06:50.Beeston cut was once part of a much longer canal. Even today, it still
:06:50. > :06:54.provides a vital link for boaters on The Trent. I'm catching my next
:06:54. > :07:04.lift with Bob Appleby. Bob possibly knows this stretch better than any
:07:04. > :07:05.
:07:05. > :07:10.other. He has lived "on the cut" for the last quarter of a century.
:07:10. > :07:19.So, we are really getting into the city here, Bob. Yes, we're getting
:07:20. > :07:24.very close into the city. Welcome to Nottingham! Let's do a fast
:07:24. > :07:28.rewind to 1818. That was the year Mary sherry published a horror
:07:28. > :07:32.story about Frankenstein. But the real horror story was going on
:07:32. > :07:36.right here. They used to ship barrels of gunpowder up to
:07:36. > :07:40.Derbyshire to blow the lead out of the mines. One of the kegs started
:07:40. > :07:44.to leak onto the deck of abode. The boys thought they would have a bit
:07:44. > :07:51.of fun and drop a hot: to wit to see what happened. They found out
:07:51. > :07:56.real quick and they got a lot more than they bargained for. -- a hot
:07:56. > :07:58.coal. Instead of the small spark he had expected, the whole lot went up,
:07:58. > :08:03.killing eight men and two boys,and demolishing dozens of properties
:08:03. > :08:09.between here and the market place. Accidents and deaths were not
:08:09. > :08:11.uncommon on this waterway, but this was one of the worst. Travelling
:08:11. > :08:21.through Nottingham you can still see the British Waterways building,
:08:21. > :08:23.
:08:23. > :08:26.formerly a warehouse - and a fine building it is, too. Could you to
:08:26. > :08:30.getting my head about this business of the waterway. It seems to me,
:08:30. > :08:35.what we have got is essentially a navigable river, which has done a
:08:35. > :08:38.great job, allowing commerce since the Bronze Age. But as boats got
:08:38. > :08:42.bigger and cities started to develop, you have got a situation
:08:42. > :08:46.whereby you have got to get the boats into the city, and the canal
:08:46. > :08:49.like this does both jobs, really. As we head out of the city we, re-
:08:49. > :08:52.join the river and it's here I'm visiting some super-sized derelict
:08:52. > :09:02.structures. Chris Matthews is a local historian who is an expert on
:09:02. > :09:02.
:09:02. > :09:09.this part of the Trent. On a scale of 1 to 10, for spookiness, this
:09:09. > :09:13.place scores pretty high in my book. Whatever was it for? It is hard to
:09:13. > :09:16.find out exactly what it was for. But I was searching the archives
:09:16. > :09:21.and I found a booklet that was printed by the Corporation of
:09:21. > :09:25.Nottingham, which today we call the city council. It was designed to
:09:25. > :09:30.show off what the city had to offer in terms of industry and transport.
:09:30. > :09:37.There are pictures of the council house, pictures of the war memorial,
:09:37. > :09:41.which had just been built. And in the middle of this booklet is a
:09:41. > :09:45.picture of the depot. The City was saying, this is what we have got to
:09:45. > :09:50.offer in terms of transport and distribution. You have got to
:09:50. > :09:54.remember, around that time, in the 1930s, Nottingham's lace trade was
:09:54. > :09:59.a little bit in decline. It knew that in order to continue
:09:59. > :10:03.successfully, it had to diversify its economy, with things like
:10:03. > :10:09.pharmaceuticals and tobacco. What were they actually bringing up the
:10:09. > :10:15.river? Looking at the finance records, we know it was things like
:10:16. > :10:24.rain, food products, lots of timber, lots of metal. -- grain. And we
:10:24. > :10:30.know there were some big clients involved, including Shell Oil, and,
:10:30. > :10:35.in 1939, Cadbury limited of Bournville, it says in the records,
:10:35. > :10:42.was using the top three floors of a second warehouse, that one over
:10:42. > :10:48.there, for the storage of cocoa which is coming down the River
:10:48. > :10:53.Trent on its way to Cadbury. If you fancy time-travelling along the
:10:53. > :10:56.Trent, Chris organises riverside heritage walks around Nottingham.
:10:56. > :11:02.His Internet search words are... Christopher Paul Matthews -
:11:02. > :11:06.Nottingham. In 1936, nearly a quarter of a million tonnes of
:11:06. > :11:10.cargo were carried up the Trent and into Nottingham. Quite an
:11:10. > :11:18.achievement for a landlocked city. But ultimately, poor maintenance of
:11:18. > :11:20.the river and the creation of the motorways led to the depot's demise.
:11:21. > :11:30.After the Nottinghamshire village of Gunthorpe, I reach the outskirts
:11:31. > :11:33.
:11:33. > :11:37.of Newark. It is here that I'm meeting a man with a mission. I am
:11:38. > :11:41.dropping downstream on a relic of the river. This old boat spent her
:11:41. > :11:45.working life pulling other boats about. But it is another boat and
:11:45. > :11:52.interested in, a bigger one, and I suspect that's the man behind this
:11:52. > :11:55.curious project. Had a good trip? Delightful. By his own confession,
:11:55. > :12:00.Les Reid has given his life to boats. As a retired marine mechanic,
:12:00. > :12:08.he's sailed the seven seas. But he stays closer to home these days -
:12:08. > :12:14.and it's a project at the bottom of his garden which now keeps him busy.
:12:14. > :12:24.It is a fantastic space when you're in here. You forget how big the
:12:24. > :12:24.
:12:25. > :12:29.hull of a ship is. What exactly are you doing in here? The idea is that
:12:29. > :12:34.since we do not have anybody on the Trent recording history for
:12:34. > :12:37.posterity, and because it is being done everywhere else, on at every
:12:37. > :12:42.big river navigation in the country, there are loads of museums, but
:12:43. > :12:48.nothing about the Trent. My 50 years of being seduced by this
:12:48. > :12:51.river, and falling in love with it as a young boy, being taken on the
:12:51. > :12:57.boats by a lot of the old boatman, who were such amazing blokes, has
:12:57. > :13:02.led me to be here today, left with the job of recording the history
:13:02. > :13:09.for posterity. And since we do not have a museum to put the boat in,
:13:09. > :13:14.we are putting the museum in the boat. What is tremendous, Les, I
:13:14. > :13:18.think, is your vision to bring this down to the centre of Newark, where
:13:18. > :13:28.everybody can come to see what's going on. Everybody can share in
:13:28. > :13:38.the vision that you have had. People love a boat. They do. Newark
:13:38. > :13:38.
:13:38. > :13:41.has got a living history, and we want to keep it alive. Les Reid is
:13:41. > :13:46.the driving force behind this project, and I know that he will
:13:46. > :13:48.make a good job of it. Les's enthusiasm is infectious. If you
:13:48. > :13:52.fancy helping out or want to discover more, the Newark Heritage
:13:52. > :14:02.Barge has a website. As for me, I'm moving on and I'm getting a lift
:14:02. > :14:05.into Newark. Hundreds of families relied on this river for work.
:14:05. > :14:10.Wages were paid, men were hired and fired and boats were built in the
:14:10. > :14:20.town. And there's one man who shaped this river more than any
:14:20. > :14:23.
:14:23. > :14:29.other. William Jessop was an English engineer, arguably as
:14:29. > :14:32.successful as Brunel, but he was not such a self-publicist. He had
:14:32. > :14:36.completed the Caledonian Canal in Scotland amongst other great
:14:36. > :14:39.achievements, before he was appointed to be the chief engineer
:14:39. > :14:48.of the River Trent. He was the first person to complete a detailed
:14:48. > :14:51.survey of the river. His goal, get bigger and bigger boats up the
:14:51. > :14:58.Trent. A family firm of solicitors in Newark was in charge of all the
:14:58. > :15:02.legal documents and still holds a copy of his historic survey. The
:15:02. > :15:06.amazing document shows how painstaking he was. He identified
:15:06. > :15:09.67 possible trouble spots on the river. He did not want to solve the
:15:09. > :15:14.problem with locks, because of the expense, so he ordered a huge
:15:14. > :15:21.dredging problem, -- programme, which almost did the trick. But in
:15:21. > :15:25.some places, locks it had to be. Locks have not changed much since
:15:25. > :15:35.just a's time, and there are a variety on our rivers and canals,
:15:35. > :15:40.
:15:40. > :15:43.but they all do the same job. But they all do the same job. They make
:15:43. > :15:51.rivers easier to navigate and allow man-made canals to take a direct
:15:51. > :15:54.route across land that's not level. This model will show everybody how
:15:55. > :16:01.they work. Right, the boat will be travelling down the river, it will
:16:01. > :16:05.come into the loch, the lock gates will be closed. The water level
:16:05. > :16:09.will then go down when these are opened up. It is just a flat in the
:16:09. > :16:17.bottom of the gate. So, the water is coming out into the river down
:16:17. > :16:21.below. A lock has got three parts, it has got a watertight chamber,
:16:21. > :16:26.gates at each end and a means of transferring water from one level
:16:26. > :16:35.to another, with the gates shut. Yes, it is very simple, basic, but
:16:35. > :16:38.it does the trick. Fantastic. So, the water levels inside and outside
:16:39. > :16:43.of the lock are now the same. So, the gates open easily because there
:16:43. > :16:48.is no pressure keeping them shut. It is a fingertip job. The boat can
:16:48. > :16:50.go off down the river, on its merry way. If you want to see some
:16:50. > :16:53.impressive lock systems for yourself, Foxton near Market
:16:53. > :17:03.Harbough boasts 10 in a row, and Fradley Junction near Burton-on-
:17:03. > :17:09.Trent has six. Right along the Trent Valley, the landscape is
:17:09. > :17:11.scarred by quarrying. And the reason why, river gravel. This is a
:17:11. > :17:14.precious commodity which is dug, traded and transported across the
:17:15. > :17:23.UK and The Branford's claim to be the oldest barge operators not just
:17:23. > :17:31.on this river, but in the whole of Britain. I'm joining the father and
:17:31. > :17:36.son team at Besthorpe, where they're loading up. The reason why
:17:36. > :17:40.there is so much gravel around here is the huge flood plain of the
:17:40. > :17:44.Trent. Back in the Ice Age, this meandering river was a whole lot
:17:44. > :17:48.bigger than it is now, and torrents of meltwater came rushing down from
:17:48. > :17:53.the Peak District and from the Pennines, bringing with them huge
:17:53. > :18:00.deposits. Men made a good living shifting it from where it ended up
:18:00. > :18:05.to where it had to go. John, you have loaded coal for the steel
:18:05. > :18:09.works, fine sand for the glassworks, and now it is sharp sand for the
:18:09. > :18:15.building trade. This has been going on for 50 years, you must know the
:18:15. > :18:20.Trent better than anybody alive. Yes, well I do. I have been in it
:18:20. > :18:30.all my life. I knew that I was coming on to the boats from when I
:18:30. > :18:32.
:18:32. > :18:35.was this high. I was captain of my own boat at 15. I paid �450 for my
:18:35. > :18:41.first barge. My sweetheart, she was supposed to be getting married with
:18:41. > :18:48.me, she fell out with me because of that. I am now 67, and I have been
:18:49. > :18:53.on here quite a while, and seeing a lot of changes. We are now coming
:18:53. > :19:00.to the place where I came with my first load when I was 12. There
:19:00. > :19:06.would have been 15 or 20 barges waiting in those days. In those
:19:06. > :19:10.days, there was a lot more moved by water than what there is now.
:19:10. > :19:14.have been working this river, you and your grandparents, for five
:19:14. > :19:19.generations, and your dad was telling me that you were a captain
:19:19. > :19:24.when he one 19 of 300 tons - that must be the youngest captain in the
:19:24. > :19:28.Western world these days. I think I was one of the youngest persons in
:19:28. > :19:32.the country to get a captain's licence, through grandfather rights,
:19:32. > :19:36.so I believe. I remember that, essentially that means that you
:19:36. > :19:40.have been doing it, your parents have been doing it, you know how to
:19:40. > :19:44.do it. Who is going to teach you how to do this job? That's
:19:44. > :19:50.basically it, isn't it? That's basically it, yes. I was taught
:19:50. > :19:53.through my father. About you have got a deck chair out the back. You
:19:53. > :19:59.will probably sit back with your shades on and have a little beach
:19:59. > :20:09.party. You have found by secret! I do actually do that, but don't tell
:20:09. > :20:12.
:20:12. > :20:17.my dad. In a way, you're boating royalty, you come from a long
:20:17. > :20:22.dynasty of boaters. Your son is working with you now on the barge.
:20:22. > :20:26.What about your grandchildren? How do you see the future? There's a
:20:26. > :20:31.lot more work coming onto the water, but there is no body lobbying for
:20:31. > :20:36.us in government. John, I have got a meeting in Gainsborough. It is
:20:36. > :20:41.all very well, but are we don't have enough water to float us up
:20:41. > :20:46.there? Definitely, you're in safe hands, we will make it. I will put
:20:47. > :20:49.the engine on, we will make it, I'm sure. Heading north on John's barge
:20:50. > :20:52.we cruise past the start of England's oldest canal still in use
:20:53. > :20:58.and originally built by the Romans. The Fossdyke is a waterway joining
:20:58. > :21:01.Lincoln and the River Witham with the Trent. You can see its
:21:01. > :21:10.beginnings with huge locks keeping out the turbulent waters of this
:21:10. > :21:14.tidal river. A stone's throw away stand the ruins of a castle. It was
:21:14. > :21:20.never really a castle, more a fortified manor house. It floods
:21:20. > :21:23.almost every high water these days. In those days, the manor had a
:21:23. > :21:27.right to levy a towel on every vessel which came past. That is
:21:27. > :21:31.probably why it was built there, a commercial decision. I expected was
:21:31. > :21:36.a good idea at the time, but in the end, it spelt the doom of the whole
:21:36. > :21:41.place. If you walk, cycle, or boat the Trent, you can see notched
:21:41. > :21:47.marks on bridges, walls and even on the side of houses. Engraved are
:21:47. > :21:52.historic high-water levels - the most prominent year is 1947. Back
:21:52. > :21:54.then, the country was still shocked by the aftermath of war.
:21:54. > :21:57.Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, like the rest of the country, were
:21:57. > :22:07.gripped by an iron winter with the biggest snowfall anyone could
:22:07. > :22:18.
:22:18. > :22:26.remember. Then, in early March, the great thaw began. The water-filled
:22:26. > :22:30.the reverse. The Trent reached its high-water mark and kept on coming
:22:30. > :22:36.at a terrifying rate of 1ft per hour. The low-lying town of
:22:36. > :22:40.Gainsborough was entirely at its mercy. I am here to meeting the
:22:40. > :22:47.people who remember that fateful day. You're 91, so you must have
:22:47. > :22:53.been mid-20s when this happened? What are your memories of it?
:22:53. > :22:59.remember that in the morning, I looked out of the bedroom window,
:22:59. > :23:04.and the water was coming across from the River Trent, running down
:23:04. > :23:11.the hill like a river, down the street. It kept coming down, and
:23:11. > :23:17.then by teatime, we had 4ft 6 of water in the house. We put the
:23:17. > :23:25.furniture upstairs, but we stayed upstairs. We managed, we had quite
:23:25. > :23:30.enough food, as it happened, to carry on. But the house was no good
:23:30. > :23:34.any more. It was damp and all that. There were people who lost
:23:34. > :23:38.everything? Yes. They lost everything. The compensation they
:23:39. > :23:43.got, it was a pittance. How much of the town was really affected by
:23:43. > :23:48.this? Well, most of it. In those days, there were no houses, very
:23:48. > :23:53.few, up the hill. Today, it is like another town in Gainsborough. We
:23:53. > :23:57.have got a lot of people living up the hill. In those days, there were
:23:57. > :24:02.loads and loads of little yards and squares, and those properties did
:24:02. > :24:08.not come down until the 1960s. They were very old properties, and they
:24:08. > :24:12.all got flooded. The alleyways, or running down to the river. So it
:24:12. > :24:17.did affect, I would say, about half the town. It makes you think that
:24:17. > :24:23.towns like Gainsborough and Newark and some of the others have been
:24:23. > :24:28.entirely at the mercy of this river. That's right. Although it is a
:24:29. > :24:31.lovely river, it has done a lot of damage as well, it has. Since the
:24:32. > :24:36.inundation of 1947, this town has got its flood defences and they've
:24:36. > :24:44.been tried and tested. From here, the Trent is wide and brown, coiled
:24:44. > :24:50.with currents and intimidating for the pleasure boater. Keadby road
:24:50. > :24:52.and rail bridge is a Lincolnshire landmark. When it opened in 1916, a
:24:52. > :24:57.200ftswinging section was raised and lowered, allowing sailing
:24:57. > :25:03.barges to pass without lowering their mast. Problems with machinery
:25:03. > :25:06.led to the arm being permanently fixed during the '50s. All along
:25:06. > :25:10.the Trent, there are heritage groups enjoying this river's local
:25:10. > :25:13.history. But the people of the village of Burton-upon-Stather, the
:25:13. > :25:23.last on the banks of the Trent before we reach its river mouth,
:25:23. > :25:25.
:25:25. > :25:31.are arguably the most enthusiastic - and dare I say eccentric! This
:25:31. > :25:33.village is home to their World War II tank run, which was used mostly
:25:33. > :25:39.for testing amphibious craft, many of them prototypes, all of them
:25:39. > :25:44.secret. They reckon they chose this part of the Trent because the banks
:25:44. > :25:47.are muddy, and there is a swirling tide ill-effect, and it was very
:25:47. > :25:51.similar to the rivers on the continent, such as the river Rhine,
:25:51. > :25:54.where our tanks were going to have to fight their way ashore. As you
:25:54. > :25:59.can see, we have got a military escort to take us through the rough
:25:59. > :26:03.stuff, down to the real location. I have just spent a week on the river,
:26:03. > :26:07.and it is so good to get ashore, and see all of these guys dressed
:26:07. > :26:12.up, and these wonderful vehicles. But it is all about this bit of
:26:12. > :26:18.concrete! This is the 10th round, as it is affectionately known
:26:18. > :26:21.locally. It was built in 1944 by the 79th Armoured Division,
:26:21. > :26:27.essentially for testing amphibious tanks and other vehicles in
:26:27. > :26:32.preparation for crossing the River Rhine. So, it really did make that
:26:32. > :26:37.river? It did. It is a big, wide river, with muddy banks. They would
:26:37. > :26:41.go down, then turn around and come back, try to climb out of the Trent.
:26:41. > :26:44.They would fire a rocket and a chain over to the other side to try
:26:44. > :26:51.to pull themselves across. A lot of these things did not work, but some
:26:51. > :26:55.did. I can see some photos out of the corner of my eye. Yes, we have
:26:56. > :27:00.managed to find some contemporary photographs from the 1940s. What I
:27:00. > :27:05.really wanted to show you is, we have managed to pull up some
:27:05. > :27:09.archive film footage. It is amazing, to think that's happening right
:27:09. > :27:15.here where we are standing. Absolutely, here's one coming up
:27:15. > :27:18.the ramp where we are stood now. This was secret film from the time.
:27:18. > :27:23.Am I right in thinking that one of these tanks actually came back
:27:23. > :27:28.here? As part of our research, we found a guy from Wolverhampton who
:27:28. > :27:33.had restored a Valentine tank, and not only that, he told us that it
:27:34. > :27:38.was actually based here. So, the next thing we did was to get it
:27:38. > :27:43.here, and we have what we called a tank day last year. Here it is
:27:43. > :27:48.actually coming down on to the ramp, and there it is, actually stood
:27:48. > :27:52.here as it would have done in 1944. What a wonderful noise it must have
:27:52. > :27:58.made. That is the icing on the cake for me. It is really great, I am so
:27:59. > :28:03.glad we came ashore here. Thank you very much. So, from tanks on the
:28:04. > :28:08.tidal Trent to the men who still make money from working this river.
:28:08. > :28:12.The Trent is an understated waterway. It's not got the glamour
:28:12. > :28:15.of the Thames or the dimensions of the Severn, but it is darn right
:28:15. > :28:25.impressive. And all along its course, you'll find living history
:28:25. > :28:27.
:28:27. > :28:32.to explore for yourself. Well, I have reached the end of my journey.
:28:32. > :28:38.This is where the Trent pours out into the Humber, and it is a