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In 1840, one man
transformed travel in Britain.

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His name was George Bradshaw, and
his railway guides inspired the
Victorians to take to the tracks.

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Stop by stop,
he told them where to travel,
what to see and where to stay.

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Now, 170 years later, I'm making
four long journeys across the length

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and breadth of the country to see
what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.

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Until the 1840s, travelling by rail
in Britain was really complicated.

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There were already
20,000 miles of track

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and more railway companies
than we have today.

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The only way you could find out
the timetable was by
going to your local station.

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Then, in 1841, along came George
Bradshaw, a map engraver from
Manchester, who put the timetables

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together and produced the first
handbook of Britain's railways.

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I want to find out the extent
to which the industries and the
places and the types of people

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that Bradshaw wrote about
still exist and whether
a Victorian handbook

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can help us to understand the way
that the railways made us the people
that we are today.

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First up, I'll be learning the lingo
in Liverpool...

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You have the Beatles - Paul
McCartney, very soft, sort of, "How
you doing, Michael? How's things?"

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And then you've got Lennon, with his
nasal sort of twang, the adenoids.

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..then visiting the birthplace
of the first steam locomotive,
George Stephenson's Rocket...

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It was an absolutely astonishing
event in railway and, indeed,
world history.

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..and having a go
at folding an Eccles cake.

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Surgeon's hands!

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Aaah!

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That's one of mine.
You may have guessed.

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All this week, I'll be
travelling west to east,

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starting from Liverpool,
along the oldest

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passenger railway
in the world,

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on the line that was
built to take cotton

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from Liverpool's docks
to Manchester's mills.

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After stopping at Skipton,

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I'll carry on across Yorkshire

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and eventually end up at the
east-coast resort of Scarborough.

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Today, I'll be covering
the first 30 miles

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via Rainhill to Eccles.

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And my first stop is
Lime Street station, in Liverpool.

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I'm now in the tunnel

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that runs from Edge Hill
into Liverpool Lime Street.

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It's a mile and a quarter long.

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It goes all the way under the city,
and Bradshaw was
incredibly impressed.

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And he said when people see this,
they'll want to pay just tribute
to the engineering skill

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of those people who delivered
the railway to the very heart
of the city of Liverpool.

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Bradshaw marvelled at
the new railway line.
But he was even more impressed

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by Lime Street, one of the first
stations ever built.

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Morning.

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Bradshaw talks about Lime Street
as having an Italian design,
with many columns, and I suppose

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he must be referring to this part
of the station, which is now rather
run-down and tucked in a corner.

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Because when you come to Lime
Street, what you're really impressed
by is this enormous

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Victorian canopy
of glass and iron. Magnificent.

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Liverpool has always been
a vibrant city.

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In Bradshaw's day, it was a great
port, second only to London.

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Today, its rich Victorian heritage
sits alongside

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a shiny new Liverpool that's
sprung up in the last few years.

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I love the way this brand-new glass
building reflects the old Liverpool,

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the Liver Building, one of the
most famous buildings on Merseyside.

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Throughout its history,
the docks, more than anything else,
have shaped Liverpool's character.

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Bradshaw's guide was struck by
the huge numbers of people
moving through the city.

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"Liverpool, as might be expected,
is also a great emigrant port.
As many as 206,000 people,

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"for whose use half a million tons
of shipping were required in 1851."

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In the 19th century,
millions of immigrants

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passed through Liverpool, leaving
a mark on the city that's instantly
recognisable - the Liverpool accent.

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I must admit, as a Southerner,
I've sometimes struggled
to understand it,

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so I've come for a lesson in Scouse
with local author Peter Grant.

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How very nice. Hiya, la'.

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What did you say? Hiya, la'.

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La' - lad.
Ah. That's a good start, isn't it?

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That's a very good start. Where does
this Liverpool accent come from?

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It comes from this almost allegorical
big melting pot, a big pan of accents

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thrown in - Scottish, Irish, Welsh,
Lancashire, Cheshire.

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Put a spoon in it,
stir it all up and you've got

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little sparkles here and there, our
little idiosyncratic little accent.

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I'm following a nineteenth-century
guide.

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Would there have been
a Scouse accent in those days?

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They would have spoken it, but it
wouldn't have been recognised till
about 1890. Is it a single accent?

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You can actually
discover different types of Scouse
accent - the north and the south.

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In Maghull, you can hear
a certain type of accent that is
different from the one in Allerton,

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and this is reflected especially in
people like some of the comedians.

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You know, Stan Boardman,
"the Germans".

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He's from the north side. You have
the Beatles - Paul McCartney,

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very soft, sort of, "How you doing,
Michael? How's things?"

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And then you've got Lennon, with his
nasal sort of twang, the adenoids.

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George talking out of the side
of his mouth, "Scrotty,"

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and Ringo's "Thomas the Tank Engine".

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So all four,
all from different parts of the city.

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You're a sort of Professor Higgins
of Scouse. I like that. I like that.

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I think I'll bring out
My "Faaa-ir" Lady, the sequel.

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So, why don't you test me out
on some Scouse words or phrases,
and I'll see if I can follow you.

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That fella over there,
he's brickin' it.

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That fella over there's brickin' it.

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That's great. That sounded like
George, yeah. Erm...

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That means, "That man
over there is scared".

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Scared, yeah, petrified.
And it could have other connotations,

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but, you know.
'Ey, la', you're doin' me 'ead in.

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'Ey, la', you're doin' me 'ead in.

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Er, that means, "Hey, boy..."
PETER LAUGHS

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"..you're driving me crazy".

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That's good.
It's like an American pop song, that.

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Have you heard the phrase
"getting off a' Edge Hill"?
Getting off the train at Edge Hill?

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Yeah. In Liverpool, if you're getting
off at Edge Hill, it's the last
stop before Lime Street,

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but Scousers tend to use it
as a sort of analogy to the...
let's say the sexual act

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and that you went out with a girl,
or a girl went out with a bloke,
and you nearly got there, you know?

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In the art of copping off,
which is short for "copulation".
So, "Did you cop off last night?"

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This is going out at 6:30!
THEY LAUGH

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'But it seems Scouse
isn't only an accent in Liverpool.

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'It's also a dish.'

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Thank you very much. If you like it
that much, we do it in a tin
as well.

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OK, great. Thank you.

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I feel really ignorant asking this,
but what is scouse?

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It's very much a peasant,
working-class-type dish.
It comes from Norway.

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We adopted this Norwegian dish, which
was a lovely big stew with beef,
meat, fat, you name it.

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Throw all the vegetables in,
stir it round. Very nutritious.

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And it stopped you getting scurvy.

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What do you say for "bon appetit"
in Liverpool?

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Er, "'ave a good scran, la'".

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'Ave a good scran, la'.

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What do you think?
I think it's very good.

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The beef has been shredded so that
it just gives it a kind of real...

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kind of lovely stringy texture,
doesn't it? Yeah.

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Yeah. But you can't beat a good,
solid bowl of scouse.

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And as I say,
it's got everything in it.

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So, it's a very, very good
metaphor for the accent.

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Yes. Absolutely.

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So, Liverpool's signature dish
comes from Norway.

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It seems everything in Liverpool
originates somewhere else.

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Hello, guys. Nice to see you all.

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Are you all from Liverpool? Yeah.

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Do you like the city? Love the city.

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What do you love about it?
The way it's so diverse. Yes.

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I like that. Everyone who's
born in Liverpool is either

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of Irish, Scottish or Welsh descent,
and they say that it's a combination.

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Like, our nan's Irish. It's lovely
to see you so enthusiastic about
your city. Thank you so much.

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All right. Thank you. Bye, now!

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What do you think of the city?
The city's great.

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Great? You like the city? Oh, yeah.

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Is it getting better? Yeah, yeah.

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Lots of money coming in.

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Can't beat it.

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There was a lot of money coming in
in Bradshaw's time too.

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Liverpool grew into the most
important port for the cotton trade,

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with two million bales
passing through the docks every year

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Across the Mersey, on the Wirral,
there's another place Bradshaw

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talks about that I'm keen to see...

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..Birkenhead Park.

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Bradshaw's a little bit iffy about
Birkenhead Park.

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He says it's not one of the largest.

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But then he goes on and says
but as a model,

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it's "owned to be
one of the finest in England".

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And it did turn out to be a model,
because it was designed by

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Sir Joseph Paxton
and then an American,
called FL Olmsted, came over.

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And he was inspired by this
and designed Central Park
in New York City.

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And with these beautiful lakes
and with these rocks piled high
and the trees raised up,

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it does have the feel of
Central Park.

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And so you like to think of all
those people leaving Liverpool,

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Birkenhead, going across to New York
City and finding something very
familiar at the other side.

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Morning. Morning. How are you?

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In the 1850s, up to a thousand ships
a year were leaving Liverpool

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for America, many carrying Irish
refugees fleeing the potato famine.

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The trains brought people from
all over Britain to Liverpool
to board the emigrant ships.

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In the late nineteenth century, one
of the largest groups of refugees

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passing through Liverpool were Jews,
like Mervyn Kingston's grandfather.

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How lovely to see you. Good morning.
And you. Michael. How nice
to see you, Michael.

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Great to see you.

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When did your family
come to the United Kingdom?

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In the 1890s.

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They came sent from Riga, in Latvia.

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Now, why were they leaving Latvia?

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Probably because of the pogroms.

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They were chased
all the time in Latvia and Lithuania,
which was then part of Russia.

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They were being persecuted? Yes.

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As anti-Jewish riots
took hold across Russia,

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over two million Jews
fled Eastern Europe for America.

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Between the 1880s and 1920s, many
of them travelled by boat to Hull,

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then caught the train to Liverpool
on their way to New York.

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They came to Liverpool,
the whole family.

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There were five of them,
five children.

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And when they got to Liverpool,
they settled in town,

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in what was called Little Moreton
Street. It's been demolished since.

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And my grandfather
got a job with Cunard.

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As they passed through Liverpool,

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many decided to stay, forming
one tenth of the city's population.

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These days, the Jewish community has
shrunk to less than one per cent.

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00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,520
What would you say
the Jewish community's influence
on Liverpool has been?

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00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:29,640
We've had seven Jewish lord mayors,
many councillors.

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00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:32,480
I was a Conservative councillor once.

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00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:38,200
And we believe we give back
as much as we take, if not more.

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A great tradition of philanthropy.
We do our best.

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Mervyn, thank you so much.
That's been really interesting.

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Thank you for sharing those
memories. Very nice seeing you.

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Very nice to meet you. Bye-bye.
Take care. Goodbye, now. Bye-bye.

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I'm now leaving Liverpool
to continue my journey east
to Manchester.

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My train will take me to Rainhill,
along what is perhaps

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the most historic stretch of railway
in the world.

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Not surprisingly, the Bradshaw
guides were really keen on
railway history.

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"The Liverpool and Manchester line
was really the first on which was
attempted the practical application

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00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:31,360
"of locomotive power for the transit
of goods and passengers.

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"And it is therefore prominently
entitled to rank as the pioneer of
those stupendous undertakings

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"which have not only given a new
stimulus to the mechanical
and architectural genius of the age,

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"but have enabled
this country to take the lead
of all others in these respects."

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00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:54,360
The Victorians were immensely proud
of their railways and immensely
proud of their country.

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They had good reason to be.

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Before the railway,
it took some 36 hours
to cover the 30 miles by canal.

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This line cut journey times down to
just two hours,

201
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a revolution for inter-city travel.

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As the line was being built,
a highly innovative competition
that would change the world

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took place
about nine miles outside Liverpool.

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This is Rainhill, and I've come
to this little place because
railway history was made here.

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Christian Wolmar is an expert
on the Rainhill Trials, the
world's first steam-locomotive race.

206
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Are you Christian? How do you do?
Hi. How lovely to see you.

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00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:40,520
Thank you very much.
Why were there Rainhill Trials?

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00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:44,200
Well, essentially, it was a very
clever public-relations exercise,

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because they were building the
Liverpool and Manchester railway,

210
00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,320
they had just about decided that
they wanted locomotives,

211
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rather than horses
or stationary engines,

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so they decided to have a big launch

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00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:04,720
of a PR exercise, announcing
several months in advance that
there were going to be these trials

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for a locomotive in October of 1829.

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Set the scene for me. Were there
bands? Were there balloons?

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And was there hullabaloo?

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00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:16,320
Oh, it was an absolutely huge event.

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00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,280
There were people from Europe,
from the United States.

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00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:22,800
There was maybe 10,000,15,000...

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00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:29,040
onlookers, but also all these foreign
visitors who had come to see,

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00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:33,360
you know, was this the invention
that, er,

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00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:37,920
was going to change
the face of the world?

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00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:39,960
And they were proved right.

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00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,400
It was an absolutely astonishing...

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00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:46,680
event in railway
and, indeed, world history.

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00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,680
George Stephenson, chief engineer
for the Liverpool to Manchester
line,

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00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:55,760
entered his steam locomotive,
the Rocket.

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00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:02,280
It won hands down, achieving
a top speed of 29 miles per hour.

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00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:06,200
The Rocket became the prototype
for all future locomotives.

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00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:10,600
It was a one-iron-horse race, because
the others blew up one by one.

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00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:14,920
He got the £500 prize,
probably worth around £20,000

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00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:20,560
these days, and, crucially, the
contract to build more locomotives
for the Liverpool to Manchester line.

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You paint a really vivid scene.

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00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,160
I wish I'd been there!

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00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:27,640
Christian, my train is here.

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00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:29,560
I'd better scoot.
All right. Thank you so much.

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00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:31,320
Cheers. Bye-bye.

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00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:36,480
Phew! Just made it.

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00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:48,320
Well, the party atmosphere of
the opening of the Manchester
to Liverpool railway line

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00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:53,560
was pretty much spoilt when,
at the opening ceremony,
there was what Bradshaw called...

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00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:58,160
"a lamentable accident to the
Right Honourable William Huskisson".

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00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,920
Huskisson was
President of the Board of Trade.
He was a member of the Cabinet.

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00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:04,040
And at the opening ceremony,
he was hit

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00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:08,280
by Stephenson's Rocket
and he was injured.

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00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:09,960
They loaded him onto the train.

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00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,920
They took him to Eccles,
where I'm headed now.

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00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:18,240
But he died, and so a cabinet
minister became the first...

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00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:21,440
railway fatality
anywhere in the world.

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00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:29,320
My last stop is Eccles,
towards the other end of
the Liverpool to Manchester line.

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00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:36,120
This stretch of railway
is full of engineering firsts,

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00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:40,600
like the Sankey Viaduct,
built by one George Stephenson.

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00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,680
Well, I'm looking forward to Eccles,
because Bradshaw says...

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00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,400
"this little village
is prettily situated

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00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:01,720
"on the northern banks of
the Irwell

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00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:05,320
"and environed by some of the most
picturesque rambles".

256
00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:06,800
It sounds charming.

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00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,320
Which way for
the picturesque rambles?

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00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:20,000
Whoops! The 21st century
caught up with Eccles.

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00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,320
Up to the 1860s, Eccles was
barely more than a few cottages.

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00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,080
But when the world's first passenger
railway was routed through it,

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00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:31,320
the village's fate was sealed.

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00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:36,320
It was soon swallowed up
into the suburbs of Manchester.

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00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,240
There are still some patches of
greenery left,

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00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,800
like the vast estate
of Worsley Hall.

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00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,720
The hall dates back to the
16th century, but was re-modelled

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00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,880
in Victorian times
and eventually turned into a pub.

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00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:56,640
My Bradshaw's guide says it
belonged to "the celebrated
Duke of Bridgewater".

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00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:02,320
So, the notice in the pub tells me
that the old hall burnt down

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00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:06,160
and its historic owner
had a great interest in engineering.

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00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:10,200
So, tomorrow, I shall explore
what was for Bradshaw

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00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,720
a passion almost as great as
railways, that is to say canals.

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00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:25,800
Bradshaw started his life
mapping Britain's canals,

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before he moved on to railways, and
so Worsley was of great interest to
him as the birthplace of the canal.

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00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,360
Bradshaw's guide is interested in
all great feats of construction.

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00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:45,640
It says of this spot, "The late
Earl of Ellesmere inherited
the vast estates of the celebrated

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00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:52,360
"Duke of Bridgewater, for
whom Brindley, the engineer, first
made the subterranean canals here.

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00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:57,440
"They supply the coal mines below,
at a depth of 180 feet,

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00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:00,800
"and wind in and out
for about 18 miles."

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00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:08,880
That prodigious feat of engineering
must have inspired the railway
builders of later years, and,

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00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:13,680
ironically, the railways were then
to put the canals out of business.

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00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,360
These underground waterways
were part of

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00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:22,600
the Bridgewater canal system,
arguably the first in Britain.

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00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,960
They were built to carry coal
directly from the Duke's mines

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00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,280
at Worsley without
going to the expense of

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00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:29,800
bringing it to the surface.

286
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,680
This pool is browny-orange,

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00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:39,960
telling us that this water
still comes up from the mine.

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00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:46,440
You can't see much now, but
from 1761, barges laden with coal

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00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:47,800
would have emerged from there

290
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:52,840
and this pool would have been a hive
of early industrial activity.

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00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:08,000
Clearly, what was the village
of Eccles has changed a lot
since Bradshaw's guide.

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00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:13,960
But the guide also notes that Eccles
is celebrated for its cakes,
and that hasn't changed at all.

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00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:21,400
Ian Edmondson is the production
director of Lancashire Eccles Cakes.

294
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,120
How long has your family been
involved in making Eccles cakes?

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00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:28,920
I suppose it started in the 1920s,
when my grandad went round the local

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00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:33,400
bakers' shops buying cakes
and then he'd put them
on his horse-drawn cart

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00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,160
and he'd sell them
at the local shops on the corners
of the streets of Manchester.

298
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,400
And then the family decided it
would be better if they actually
made the cakes,

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00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,760
so they set a bakery up making the
cakes. Can we see how they're made?

300
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,440
Of course, yes.
First, I'll show you the ingredients.

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00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:50,760
As you see here, this is the
most important ingredient
in an Eccles cake -

302
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:52,760
a really, really
good-quality currant.

303
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:58,040
These are Vostizza and they're
from a place in Aeghion, in Greece.

304
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:01,480
You'll see it says
"Protected designation of origin."

305
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:06,840
Now, this is just like Champagne,
where they don't allow another grape
to come out of that area.

306
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:08,400
Yes. This is the same with here.

307
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,320
A guarantee of quality. Yes, it is.

308
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,080
And then we've got sugar...

309
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,960
Yeah, just simple ingredients.
That's all that's in the product.

310
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,160
It's sugar,
more currants, brown sugar...

311
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,080
Brown sugar. ..a bit of salt...

312
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,120
Salt. ..and lots of butter.

313
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,360
Wow! It's a whole different world,
isn't it?

314
00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:31,360
I know, it's absolutely fantastic,
isn't it?

315
00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:35,920
What would it have been like here,
I don't know, 50, 60 years ago?

316
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,600
The way they'd have made the cakes
60-odd years ago would have been

317
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:42,720
on a big, round table, a big pile of
currants in the middle.

318
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:44,240
Everyone gets a little bit of
pastry,

319
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:46,800
puts it in and then starts
folding it into a little dolly bag

320
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,040
and then knocking it in rings
and then putting them on trays.

321
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,320
So, quite inefficient,
compared to how we make them now.

322
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,720
Yeah, because now, it's all
coming down the process line.

323
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:59,680
Hi! Hi. That looks
quite complicated.

324
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:01,800
No, it's easy, really.

325
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,240
Just put all
the four corners to the middle...

326
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:05,520
Yeah. ..and then the sides.

327
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,640
OK. If you'd like to have a go,
put these gloves on. Yeah, sure.

328
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:18,960
I wish you luck, anyway. Yeah!
Surgeon's hands! So, four corners...

329
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:26,000
Aaah! ..into the middle. Yeah.
And then fold the side bits in as...

330
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,840
Oh, Lord. Oh, that's a bit of
a mess, isn't it? Yeah.

331
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:31,360
And once they come off the line
there,

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00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:37,640
they get baked in these ovens,
taken out and taken into the packing
room for cooling, then packing.

333
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,720
This is really where you get
the strong smell of the
Eccles cake, isn't it?

334
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:47,160
Yeah, you get that fantastic smell.
It's all the flavours coming
together of the ingredients.

335
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,120
How many Eccles cakes
are you producing?

336
00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:52,520
We're producing about
150,000 Eccles cakes a day.

337
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:57,000
In fact, it's probably in the
top six most popular cakes.

338
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,520
That's about, er,
40 million a year, or something.

339
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,280
Yes! I'll take your word for that.

340
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,960
Would you like to try a real
Lancashire Eccles cake? I thought
you'd never ask. Yes, please.

341
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,360
Lovely aroma.

342
00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:14,360
Beautifully folded, by the way.

343
00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:16,520
Is it one of yours?

344
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:18,000
No!

345
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,960
Mmm, it's...

346
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,160
It's wonderful.

347
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,160
It's wicked. It's, erm...

348
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,840
Look at the lovely row
of currants inside.

349
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,240
Can you taste the butter
and the sugar?

350
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,720
Are you kidding? Of course I can!
Absolutely buttery and sugary.

351
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,240
I'm really pleased to have looked
into this very historic cake.

352
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,000
Centuries of history in this cake.

353
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,760
Yeah, and the fantastic thing about
it is that it's the only Eccles cake

354
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,040
you'll get in a supermarket that's
made within five miles of Eccles.

355
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,160
The genuine article. Of course, yes.

356
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,000
The delicious pastries became so
popular, they were transported to

357
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,920
markets up and down the country by
train and sold on station platforms.

358
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,360
They were even exported
to America and the West Indies

359
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:10,520
and were laced with brandy
to help them last the journey.

360
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:15,880
But that method of preservation
got the cakes into trouble.

361
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,560
The apparently innocuous Eccles cake
has been

362
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:29,240
associated with merrymaking,
so much so that at one time,
Cromwell banned the Eccles cake.

363
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:34,360
And it got into trouble again in
the 19th century, because they
used to put brandy in the cakes,

364
00:26:34,360 --> 00:26:36,800
and it's thought that
one railway driver

365
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:40,800
got so drunk on eating Eccles cakes
that he fell off his footplate.

366
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,120
And thereafter, the sale of liquor
and the sale of Eccles cakes

367
00:26:45,120 --> 00:26:49,520
was banned at all the stations
around Eccles.

368
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:58,880
It wasn't only goods like the
Eccles cake that the railways
transported around the world.

369
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,920
Before Britain had railways,
the average Briton was born, lived

370
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,560
and died within a 15-mile radius
of the same spot.

371
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:15,840
The railways changed people's lives,
and George Bradshaw
saw it happening.

372
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:21,440
In a single lifetime, he saw how the
railways changed industrialisation,

373
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,800
and how they changed
people's lives,

374
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:28,720
and how they brought about the
exponential growth of cities
like Manchester and Liverpool.

375
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:35,200
And Bradshaw
was proud of the technology
and proud that it was British.

376
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:44,280
Tomorrow,
I'll be discovering how Manchester
came to be known as Cottonopolis.

377
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:49,000
By the end of the century, the
Indians were getting Indian designs

378
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:54,040
sent back from Manchester to India
that maybe came from cotton
that they'd grown originally.

379
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:58,120
It was crazy. I'll be finding out
about Bradshaw the man

380
00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,560
and how he helped to unify time...

381
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:06,240
Each provincial city, like
Birmingham, Manchester and so on,
had their own time.

382
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:10,680
And of course, this was liable
to create great confusion
with railway timetables.

383
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:14,920
..and how the railways brought
fish and chips to British plates.

384
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,200
Oh, thank you very much! Lovely.

385
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,840
It was the onset of the railways
that allowed all this population,

386
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,880
this inland population, to, for the
first time, experience sea fish.

387
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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,480
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk